Top Five Myths Guiding American Foreign Policy in the Broader Middle East & North Africa Region

January 2010

Despite occasional calibrations reflecting changes in administration, America’s policy towards the Broader Middle East and North Africa region remains highly influenced by a set of misperceptions and ideological stances more related to America’s internal politics than regional realities. This situation has constantly undermined America’s efforts and, occasionally, desire at playing a positive role in the region, and served to transform her into a convenient scapegoat upon which ruling regimes heap blame for all regional woes.

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Aref Dying?

Sources are reporting that Aref Dalilah’s health is failing quickly and that he is liable to collapse at any given moment. Prison doctors have reportedly recommended that he be subjected to a variety of tests and scans,but, so far, prison authorities have not responded to their demands. Judging from the recalcitrance and indifference of the international community with regard to cases of unlawful imprisonment, torture and crackdowns that are currently taking place in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in the region,Aref Dalilah might as well die of some brain clot or heart attack, or even under torture, and no one will do anything about it, beyond issuing some worn out and meaningless condemnation. Continue reading →

The Mill of Blackmail!

ME Transparent site is emerging as a source of some hardcore intelligence information with regard to the current situation in Syria. I am not sure who the sources are, but they seem pretty informed and pretty close to the regime. Transparent’s latestreportson Syria inform us that: one, the empty building near the national TV station that reportedly “came under attack” by a terrorist Islamist cell a few weeks ago, was actually a secret prison, known among the Syrian intelligence officers as the Tahouneh or the Mill, but it quite possible that the people who got killed were no attackers, but inmates, and that the attack was staged. Continue reading →

A Tale of Mayhem Foretold II!

Dr. Radwan Ziadeh, my dear colleague and good friend and one of the main figures behind the Damascus Declaration and the more recent Damascus-Beirut Declaration has recently been slapped with atravel ban on account of his continuous involvement in civil society activities around the region and the world. Continue reading →