In The News

A Sinister Past Comes to Light at an Iraqi Post

Jim Dwyer April 6, 2003
Photos found in a military headquarters tell of Saddam’s regime of torture.

And Now, the Battle for the Mother of all Contracts

James Buchan April 6, 2003
The US has already offered contracts to American companies to rebuild Iraq even before the war has been won. And despite calls for more international involvement, it seems that the US ultimately intends to employ only American companies – the House of Representatives has already voted not to let any money for reconstruction go to companies from the countries that opposed the war. Yet, Iraq...

Street Gaps

Amira Howeidy April 4, 2003
As the war in Iraq proceeds, demonstrators, political dissenters, and even frozen political parties wage their own war of dissidence within Egypt. Among their grievances are the US invasion of Iraq, Israeli aggression towards the Palestinians, and, according to some analysts, government corruption. Yet also within this battle both sides struggle over the right to demonstrate. The Egyptian...

Evidence of Chemical Arms Found

Jonathan S. Landay April 2, 2003
A coalition of Kurdish troops and US Special Forces attacked Ansar al-Islam, a terrorist group in northern Iraq with links to Al Qaeda. Chemical weapons recipes and other documents indicating the presence of chemical and biological weapons were found in one base. Al Qaeda operatives, fleeing Afghanistan, were said to have taken refuge with Ansar. Substantiating such information is critical to...

U.S. Risks a Wave of Extremism

Husain Haqqani April 1, 2003
Most Arabs are skeptical of U.S. President Bush’s cry to bring democracy to Iraq. Arabs still remember France and Britain’s failed promises of liberation at the fall of the Ottoman Empire. They also fear that Bush is a fundamentalist Christian who will oppress Arab and Islamic identity as the US rebuilds Iraq. If, in the ensuing months, evidence confirms such fears, Islamic fundamentalism will...

The Arabs Are Watching a Different War on TV

Mamoun Fandy March 31, 2003
Arab television coverage of the war on Iraq is not unlike many US stations: talk shows, press briefings, and video footage. The messages differ, however. On Arab TV, Americans are portrayed as aggressive and barbaric, while Arabs are heroic. Networks like Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV did not exist at the time of the 1991 Gulf War, whose coverage was dominated by the likes of CNN and the BBC....

A day at ‘Hyde Park’

Amira Howeidy March 28, 2003
Public demonstrations have been banned in Egypt since the establishment of the "emergency law" in 1967, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of thousands of citizens from protesting the US-led war on Iraq. Angry students, journalists, lawyers, and religious leaders filled Tahrir Square last week in what has been called the biggest demonstration since the student campaign for democracy in...