London: First Impressions

When we decided that Lebanon was not the right destination for a family vacation this summer, we had to decide quickly on an alternative. We settled on London. Despite a lifetime of travel and innumerable transits through the city, I had never visited London. Each of us had a reason why they wanted to go to London. My parents first met there; so in a sense, I owe my existence to London. My wife, as a teenager, attended summer camps there and had not been back since. My daughter wanted to see the Monty Python show Spamalot and my son, a Chelsea fan, was promised a visit to Stamford Bridge stadium by friends of ours who are Chelsea fanatics. But the most compelling reason is the need, felt by myself and my wife, to leave the United States at least every twelve months. The source of this feeling is complex but it boils down to the need to periodically clear one's head from the fortress America mentality that seems to permeate many aspects of life in the United States since 9/11. I suspect that most Arab-Americans know exactly what I mean.

From a tourist's point of view, London did not disappoint. What's not to like: a lively city choke full of history, people from everywhere, big pompous old buildings, castles galore and ridiculously attired guards performing anachronistic rituals. We stayed in the Kensington area, a couple of underground stops from the Marble Arch, my parents' rendezvous spot several decades ago. We roamed the city by foot and the Underground and occasionally by bus. Despite its size, London feels cozy with few steel-and-glass skyscrapers and numerous pedestrian friendly and lively neighborhoods. Given the sizes of the crowds we saw everywhere, the Glasgow incident and the rigged London cars did not seem to have dented the city's tourist appeal. In a week's time we crammed as many of London's attractions as we could.

Clearly a week spent gawking at tourist attractions hardly qualifies me as a London or a UK expert. Nonetheless, a few things I saw made me stop and think a little beyond what was in the tourist brochure.

Windsor castle was one such place. I was astounded by the accumulated wealth contained within the walls of the castle, from the paintings to the arms lining the walls and the loot of war including Napoleon's Egyptian-made burnos. But more astounding was the fact that the castle and its contents were the property of the Royal family. I inquired with a friend in London about who pays for the upkeep of the castle. That set off my friend, a British republican, on a tirade about how the Royals live off the sweat of the people.

The British Museum was another place that both impressed me but also troubled me. Much of the content of the Museum was "taken" -to put it politely- from lands without the consent of the people of those lands. My daughter, a thoughtful fourteen year-old, had a similar reaction. She kept on whispering to me "it is not fair!" as we passed statues, parts of temple walls and other massive artifacts from Egypt, Greece and ancient Iraq among other places. When you see the size of some the artifacts and realize that they were dismantled and transported without modern machinery, you cannot but be amazed at the gall of those British colonialists from days past.

One final observation is the shocking contrast I observed between the glitzy center of London and some of the decrepit and neglected residential areas on the outskirts of London that I glimpsed on train rides in and out of the city. On our final day in London, the cab driver taking us to Victoria station to catch a train to Gatwick expressed frustration at the economic situation in the country. He was a Moroccan immigrant in the UK for ten years, but was making plans to resettle in Australia. He says that London has become too expensive for the average wage earner.

Clearly a week is not enough to understand this sprawling metropolis. We enjoyed our time in London and vowed to come back for more. My only regret is not being able to visit with my friend SB.

Gemayel Defeat: Beginning of the End of Lebanese Sectarian Politics?

I never was a fan of Hizbullah’s overall strategy for Lebanon or of FPM’s leader with his Napoleonic complex. However, I think that the defeat of Amin Gemayel to a relatively unknown FPM candidate Camille Khoury signals a seismic shift in Lebanese politics. Just think of the setting: an aggrieved father, the scion of one of the most powerful political dynasties in Lebanon, Amin Gemayel, running for the parliamentary seat of his assassinated son in the Maronite heartland of the Metn. In the hereditary politics of the Middle East, the results should have been a forgone conclusion. What went wrong is succinctly summarized in the words of one of the Metn voters. Referring to the Lebanese Forces, he said that they took us for granted.

As my previous postings show, I was in favor of the broad outlines of Lebanon’s Cedar revolution. I was however disturbed by the hijacking of these ideals by the unholy alliance that came together to form the March 14 group. On local politics, they advocated the status quo; that is preserving the power and economic privilege of the well-heeled and the well-connected and did nothing to curb the influence of traditional feudal families. Most destructive, however, has been their single-minded, obsessive and very public anti-Syrian stance. That is not to say that the Syrian regime in not culpable for some if not many of what they are accused of, but having your whole political platform be consumed by a vendetta against Syria does nothing for the problems your constituents are facing.

As the gap between rich and poor grew in the post civil war years, the Lebanese middle class was eviscerated. The previously privileged Maronite middle class perhaps lost most of all. I was shocked in recent years, on seeing how decrepit some of the inner neighborhoods of the Northern Christian suburbs of Beirut have become. In fact they came to resemble some of the areas of the Dahiyeh. Is it any wonder, that the underprivileged among the Christians came to identify more with the populist politics of FPM and Hizbullah than with the tired rhetoric of the Lebanese Forces. It is very telling that the voters of the Metn were willing to break with a party that had been seen as the traditional defenders of the sect.

Whether the net outcome of this election will be positive or not is impossible for me to say. However, the fact that voters broke with their sectarian impulse to vote for Gemayel just because he was a Gemayel, is an important and positive development.

Mobile Phones: More than Just Catchy Ringtones

This is an interesting article from the Economist about the impact of mobile phones on relief during natural and man-made disasters. Another example of the unpreditable transforming power of certain technologies. In fact in Lebanon, ignoring for now the extortionist prices charged by the telecom companies, mobile phones played a crucial role during last summer's war in helping civilians connect with dispersed relatives and friends.


Flood, famine and mobile phones
July 26th 2007, From The Economist print edition

Technology is transforming humanitarian relief—and shifting the balance of power between donors and recipients

“MY NAME is Mohammed Sokor, writing to you from Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab. Dear Sir, there is an alarming issue here. People are given too few kilograms of food. You must help.”
A crumpled note, delivered to a passing rock star-turned-philanthropist? No, Mr Sokor is a much sharper communicator than that. He texted this appeal from his own mobile phone to the mobiles of two United Nations officials, in London and Nairobi. He got the numbers by surfing at an internet café at the north Kenyan camp.

As Mr Sokor's bemused London recipient points out, two worlds were colliding. The age-old scourge of famine in the Horn of Africa had found a 21st-century response; and a familiar flow of authority, from rich donor to grateful recipient, had been reversed. It was also a sign that technology need not create a “digital divide”: it can work wonders in some of the world's remotest, most wretched places.
“Technology completely alters the way humanitarian work is done,” says Caroline Hurford of the World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations body that is the single largest distributor of food aid. Once upon a time, when disaster struck, big agencies would roll up with grain, blankets and medicine and start handing them out. Victims would struggle to the relief camps, if they could. For aid workers (let alone recipients) there was no easy way to talk to head office.
Now, when an emergency occurs, the first people on the ground are often computer geeks, setting up telephone networks so other aid agencies can do their stuff. Donors keep track of supplies on spreadsheets and send each other SMS messages: this road has been attacked by bandits, that village cut off by floods. Transport agencies announce helicopter flights by e-mail. Aid providers can find out where exactly on an incoming ship their medical supplies are, saving hours hanging round the docks. Aid donors find it easier to locate the victims of disaster; and victims queue as eagerly for mobile-phone access as they do for food.
As a result, the organisation of aid is changing. On the ground, all big relief operations have communications centres where aid workers go to send e-mails, read the latest security updates and study satellite maps of the affected area. The UN's humanitarian-affairs office runs a portal called ReliefWeb, containing every map and document that might help aid donors; it got 3m hits a day after the Asian tsunami.
And aid agencies are reorganising themselves around the technology. Two UN agencies are in charge of ensuring communications work in disaster zones: UNICEF (the children's fund) does basic data transmission; the WFP does communications in insecure areas. Télécoms sans Frontières (TSF), a French voluntary agency (total staff: a dozen), goes in with the UN team that does the first needs-assessment in the hours after disaster strikes.
Even in the short life of TSF (which grew out of the Kosovo conflict in 1999) the technological landscape has been transformed. Satellite phones—often the only ones working right after a disaster—used to be clunky contraptions that could only transmit speech. In the past five years, transmission speeds have more than doubled, so that electronic data can flow easily. The traffic grows heavier all the time, in part because the ultimate backers of the aid agencies—be they governments or individuals—want efficiency and accountability, and think they can get both.
Disaster relief is basically a giant logistical operation. Today's emergency responders can no more dispense with mobile phones or electronically transmitted spreadsheets than a global courier company can. But unlike most couriers, aid donors operate amid chaos, with rapidly changing constraints (surges of people, outbreaks of disease, attacks by warlords). Mobile phones increase the flow of information, and the speed at which it can be processed, in a world where information used to be confused or absent. The chaos remains, but coping with it gets easier.
Better communications also favour information-sharing and co-ordination between agencies. In recent years, the problems of co-ordination have grown with the size and complexity of operations. The Asian tsunami hit 14 countries in Asia and Africa. At one point, 400 organisations were working in Aceh alone—“possibly 200 too many”, remarked Jan Egeland, then the UN's emergency-relief co-ordinator. Things like e-mail service and satellite links help to herd the cats. Donors drop into telecoms centres to send e-mails, but also to swap stories and gossip. This creates a new version of the office water-cooler. Toby Porter, emergencies director of Save the Children, adds that mobile phones can facilitate relations between aid agencies and local governments; this, in turn, makes it easier for charities to gain access to remote war zones.
The benefits of technology are not quite a one-way street. Equipment is expensive. It creates co-ordination problems of its own (because of different technical standards); to address them, a score of big NGOs set up a consortium called NetHope, which spreads the cost of satellite communications and internet links. And as Hugo Slim of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue points out, technology increases the flow of information not just to workers in the field, but to offices in New York or London; this may tempt bosses to micro-manage from afar—which can be disastrous.
Oisin Walton of Télécoms sans Frontières has a different worry: e-mail may supplant aid workers' conflict-avoidance skills; they may come to rely too much on e-mailed security warnings, and not enough on their instincts. And the Red Cross's Florian Westphal fears satellite or mobile phones will make warlords even more suspicious of aid workers; it is now harder to eavesdrop than it was when aid workers used open radio frequencies.
On balance, of course, technology is more of a boon than a problem, though the gains are uneven. Small NGOs will benefit most, since big NGOs and UN bodies already have decent information systems. Some sorts of technology have developed more than others: one big growth area is surveillance, broadly defined to include software that tracks supplies.
The benefits of easier surveillance are manifold. Take two cases: since the tsunami, Sri Lanka's largest telephone company has started an early-warning system which would send SMS messages to every mobile phone in an area at risk of flooding. And Amnesty International, the human-rights agency, is paying satellite-imaging firms to take aerial shots of Darfur and of parts of Zimbabwe. Amnesty used pictures of burned villages in the Sudanese region to prove that massacres had occurred, despite government denials. Images of Zimbabwe provided evidence for a lawsuit against President Robert Mugabe.
Surveillance technology also blurs the distinction between emergency and routine operations. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation draws vast detailed maps showing who is vulnerable to food shortages (“poverty mapping”). This same information can be used to map the areas affected in a more acute way by drought or famine. Similarly, the software that aid agencies use to track emergency medical supplies can help public-health officials gather routine information.
Télécoms sans Frontières took the data transmitter and laptops it had used to track food aid during a famine in Niger in 2005 and adapted them to store facts about disease prevalence afterwards. Vodafone (a telecoms firm) and the UN Foundation (an American charity) run programmes in Kenya and Zambia that put information about disease and medicine on data banks for use by health ministries. In short, public-health information improves disaster response, and disaster response boosts public health. Surveillance technology is especially useful for spotting early-warning signals (by tracking the paths of locusts or hurricanes); so it helps more with “predictable” disasters than it does in cases (like earthquakes or tsunamis) where warning times are brief or non-existent.
Those ingenious victims
While the joys of gadgetry may seem obvious to aid workers, how much has it really done to help victims? The full answer to that question has yet to emerge, and it is aid recipients who will give it. The Tsunami Evaluation Coalition, a group of agencies bent on learning from past mistakes, notes that “local people themselves provided almost all immediate life-saving action and the early-emergency support, as is commonly the case in disasters.”
As the example of Mr Sokor shows, people affected by catastrophe are not necessarily helpless or hapless. Their ingenuity is likely to change disaster response by rich-world donors in unexpected ways.
Already, mobile telephony is transforming the landscape. The World Bank says the number of mobile-phone subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa increased sevenfold between 2000 and 2006. India nearly doubled its mobile-phone subscriptions last year to 150m and the government expects 500m (mobile and land lines) by 2010. Natural and man-made disasters do not only strike rural areas; nearly a billion city dwellers (who use mobiles more) are vulnerable to disaster.
In several recent disaster zones, victims surprised their benefactors by asking not for food or medicine but money. Save the Children, at least, has responded: it has been handing out cash in addition to food in the Horn of Africa and South Asia, and it says UN agencies should do the same.
Aid agencies are also using technology to meet the victims' other key demand: contact with relatives. People in safe places who are worried about missing cousins, and victims who are in desperate need of support from the extended family, can make use of websites whose purpose is to reunite friends and relatives. A Red Cross website (familylinks.icrc.org) has details of 125,000 families.
More broadly, technology increases the role of extended families, migrants and diasporas in dealing with disaster. To take a small example, members of Zimbabwe's diaspora living in Britain can go to a website called mukuru.com, order and pay for goods such as petrol online—and have them delivered to family members back home. The operation depends not only on the internet but also on mobile phones, because when an order is made the recipient gets a code texted to his mobile, which he must show to the petrol station when he collects the goods. Other websites enable members of the diaspora to provide loved ones with a range of goods and services from food to mobile-phone credits.
As yet, such operations have made only a small dent in Zimbabwe's unfolding crisis. Mukuru, run from a flat in Clapham in south London, has about 10,000 clients. A drop in the ocean: the WFP reckons it will have to feed as many as 4m Zimbabweans by next April.
But the websites are expanding fast; mukuru plans to open in half a dozen African countries this year. And the possibilities for using mobile telecoms to help relatives are enormous. Family remittances are already a bigger source of transfers to poor countries than government aid. Mobile telephony and mobile-phone banking are spreading. As these trends converge, diasporas will move even closer to centre stage in the delivery of succour to the needy.
In any case, technology's effect on humanitarian relief is only starting to be felt. “In the humanitarian operation of the future,” says Save the Children's Mr Porter, “beneficiaries of emergency aid will use technology to tell us what they need—cash, food, or education—find out from us what to expect, and track its arrival, just as we can track an order from Amazon.com now.”
And it may all happen sooner than aid agencies expect. As Mr Sokor's case shows, victims' thinking often moves faster than their benefactors' does. Following his appeal, the WFP did boost rations in the Dagahaley refugee camp, albeit citing other reasons. That blunt text message may be a harbinger of things to come.

The Ordinary People of Nahr El Bared

Please listen carefully to what the people in this New York Times video have to say.It is sad and heart wrenching and if it doesn't bring a tear to your eyes then your heart is made of stone.

This is not about Fateh el Islam or Hamas or Fatah or the twisted Machiavellian politics of Lebanon and our forlorn region as a whole. It is not about delusional, destructive ideologies that leave nothing but ruin in their wake. It is not about Syrian complicity, Saudi duplicity or American stupidity.

It is about ordinary people, trying to live dignified lives under impossible circumstances. Although the cirumstances are particularly tragic for these second and third generation refugees, it is unfortunately not unique in our region. Ordinary civilians seem to be a dispensable commodity to be used -abused- both by sworn enemies and by those who have sworn to protect them.

Syria: What Would I Change if I Could

The current topic of blogger discussion on Creative Syria is:

Explain how you would implement this process of change, how you would minimize the risks involved, how long it should take to achieve desired results, and how you would deal with resistance to change.

Here are my thoughts.

(Photo: AK, Lillies in our Garden)

From the Prince of Physicians to the Doctors of Destruction

The news that at least six of the eight persons arrested for the failed London and Glasgow attempts were physicians has angered and disgusted me. In all fairness, some of those arrested may be innocent acquaintances of the perpetrators. The two physicians who drove the Jeep Cherokee into the terminal at Glasgow, on the other hand, are clearly guilty.

As a physician, especially as a Middle Eastern, Muslim physician, I consider this incident a personal affront. Ours is the heritage of Ibn Sina, the prince of physicians, the author of al-Qanun fi al-tibb (The Canon of Medicine) and kitab el-shifa (The Book of Healing) and one of the greatest physicians and thinkers of all time. We are first and foremost healers. This is an immutable tenet of our profession; no sense of persecution, no bogus fatwa, no warped understanding of the meaning of jihad can ever justify healers becoming killers.

What were they thinking? How could intelligent, educated men buy into this al-Qaeda ideology of purposeless violent jihad. And purposeless it is despite claims that they are defending their faith. What have they done for their coreligionists except for spreading hatred, fear and death. What have they done for the poor and destitute, for the sick and the infirm among their own people? All they seem to be good at is figuring out new ways of causing wanton destruction. further dragging the reputation of Islam through the mud. The use of physicians as a conduit for their terror represents a new low.

I don't claim to be particularly learned in my religion, but this much I know, theirs is not a true jihad. On the other hand, Ibn Sina's vast contributions in medicine, philosophy, theology, physics and mathematics, the striving for knowledge which benefits Muslims as well as all of humanity, that is what true jihad is all about.

Lattakia: Ramitha, Laodicea, ألاذقية

The Syrian blogosphere is replete with Damascenes, Halabis, Homsis and even an irrepressible Tartousi extolling the virtues of their respective towns; but what about the third major city, the principal seaport? What about Lattakia? I know there are some Ladkani bloggers out there but where is their civic pride? Here is my, long distance, attempt to rectify matters with the hope that current Ladkanis will add a more up to date view of the city.

Lattakia is the city of my birth but to me it is but fragments of memory like an old grainy film with long stretches completely faded. Despite that, Lattakia has always maintained a powerful pull on my consciousness. Certainly, the early imprinted memories of childhood, sanitized as they are by time and distance, play a powerful role in this attraction. But it has more to with the fact that in my many adoptive homelands, I have either felt or was made to feel not quite fully at home: I looked different, did not speak the language, spoke with an accent, was not a citizen or was not native born. No one can dispute my "belonging" in Lattakia. It is where I was born, delivered by my own father in my grandfather's old house. To any doubter I can walk up to that old house and show them the room where my mother suffered through twenty four hours of labor before I had the decency to come into this world. The house, thankfully, has recently been designated a historical landmark, not because I was born there it goes without saying, but for its period architecture. This means that we no longer have to pushback relatives lobbying to raze it to the ground to replace it with a apartment block devoid of character or history.

I always remember Lattakia as being a pleasant, laid back and quiet place especially when we would come back to visit from the chaos that is Beirut. Lattakia's history, at least for the past millennium, has been equally quiet and nondescript although its more ancient history is more illustrious. It started out as the Canaanite port of Ramitha, part of the kingdom of Ugarit (photo of Ugaritic prince, left), the famous city about 10 Km up the coast in Ras Shamra. As Ugarit declined Ramitha gained prominence because of its deep natural harbor. It was renamed Laodicea, shortly after Alexander the Great's conquest, in honor of the mother of Seleucus I Nicator, a Macedonian officer of Alexander's army and the founder of the Seleucid empire. Laodicea thrived under the Romans and was famous for its wine produced from grapes grown on the slopes east of the city. Herod built an aqueduct and Septimus Severus built colonnaded streets. Its influence declined after the Byzantine period as it was ruled a sucession of empires, a history shared by most of the Levantine coast: Persian, Arab, Crusader, Seljuks, Mamluks and Ottomans. Lattakia was also unfortunately repeatedly devastated by numerous earthquakes in the 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 18th and 19th Centuries which explains why so few ancient structures have survived -another reason that my grandfather's house should not be destroyed.

Lattakia's population in most references is listed at about 550,000 although the official Lattakia website lists the population at 900,000. It is famous for its beaches, where I and my brothers had our first taste of the sea. An even more picturesque stretch of the coast is Ras Basit, north of Lattakia where the mountains abutt the seashore. Lattakia was also once famous for its scented tobacco, which is now apparently grown in Cyprus. The city is also within short driving distance from several important medieval castles dotting the Syrian coast and the mountains just to the East. Slunfeh is where the people of Lattakia move in the hot summer months. I still remember the drive up to Slunfeh, the lush green field, Salahedin's castle in the distance and the invigorating cool morning air of the mountains.

A short drive up the coast, is its sister city in antiquity, Ugarit. Discovered by accident by a farmer in 1928, excavations at Ugarit have since shown it to be an important metropolis and a cradle of urban culture. Ugarit also developed its own 30 letter alphabet and there is some dispute as to whether Ugaritian or Phoenician alphabets came first (surely no such controversy exists in the minds of die hard Libano-Pheonicians).

Despite the multiple earthquakes that repeatedly destroyed the city, some remnants of its ancient past can still be seen. Perhaps the most famous is the four sided arch built by Septemus Severus (photo top right). Here and there are also remnants of the colonnaded streets, one such column, al-Amoud, stood at the end of the road where we lived. There are also buildings of more recent vintage with ottoman style buildings and a 17th century khan that has been turned into a museum. As with in many Levantine towns, excavations for new buildings continue to reveal, layers of the city's past.

Of course the attraction of the city for me is more personal and sentimental. It is the memory of the kindness of my grandmother and the comfort of the embrace of the extended family. It is where we came back periodically to shed the sense of being strangers; it was and is home.

Majhool's Excellent Reform Agenda

A certain Majhool left this comment on my last two posts. I swear Majhool was reading my mind. Now this is one agenda I could stand firmly behind.

Hesitant to support or go against the Syrian Regime, I tried to list major deliverables that I (merely a Syrian citizen) would like for the Syrian government to achieve to get my support:

1) The Palestinian Cause:
a. Support (politically and economically) consolidated, legitimate, accountable, and moderate leadership capable of negotiating a peace deal with Israel.
b. Take conservative approach towards Islamists groups by
i. Engaging these groups into the decision making process/
ii. Opposing their unilateral arm actions against Israel or other Palestinian groups.
2) Lebanon:
a. Support a consolidated pro-Syrian, accountable, & strong government in Lebanon
i. Improve relations with Sunni and Maronite communities
ii. Support the independence of the Lebanese government
iii. Replace the corrupt pro-Syria base of support in Lebanon by more accountable and legitimate (representative) base.
iv. Eliminate all Syrian financial corruption in Lebanon
v. Work with the Lebanese government to gradually and systematically eliminate all armed militias including Hizbollah
vi. Support replacing the confessional system with accountable representative system that will strengthen the Lebanese state
3) Israel
a. Negotiate a comprehensive peace deal with Israel good enough that will help Syria’s alignment with the Arab block.
b. The return of the Golan Heights
4) Syria
a. Improve the legitimacy of the Syrian Government
i. Create a new more representative parliamentary law
ii. Come up with a more legitimate platform to replace the “national progressive front”
b. Improve the accountability of the Syrian Government
i. Eliminate emergency laws
ii. Enforce the rule of law and curb corruption
iii. Improve freedom of press.
c. Reconcile with segments of the society associated with the Muslim Brotherhood especially those who did no participate in acts of violence. Ease travel restrictions and put an end to acts of retribution towards their families.
d. Curb extremism by allowing civil community-run and driven secular institutions to operate freely. ( Tala2e3 and Shabibeh are not working)

How far do you guys think the Syrian government is from delivering the above?

It is so far it is not even funny ya Majhool!!!!

Lee Kaplan Sues a Fellow Blogger

I am reposting this from Yaman's amateur Ramblings:

Kaplan vs Salahi

As a student at UC Berkeley, the center for the Free Speech Movement, I never thought I’d find myself at the receiving end of a politically-motivated libel lawsuit. I am the creator of a blog called “Lee Kaplan Watch” which focuses on analyzing the integrity of Kaplan’s published articles. When he discovered the website, Kaplan began a campaign of intimidation, including e-mail threats of legal action and various online smears alleging that I was a Nazi, a Ba`athist, and a member of al-Qaeda. He threatened to harass me and members of my family, and even went so far as to contact the Dean of Student Life at the university. After asking me to stop writing about his work several times, he finally filed a lawsuit against me in small claims court for “tortious business interference,” libel, and slander.
Lee Kaplan, for those who are unaware, is a journalist for David Horowitz’ right-wing, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab publication, FrontPageMag.com. He is also associated with a number of regressive organizations like the Bruin Alumni Association, the United American Committee, StopTheISM, Dafka, and the Northeastern Intelligence Network. Kaplan chooses easy and weak targets and he chooses them well, focusing on students who mobilize on campuses throughout the country in opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. He is more relevant in the San Francisco area, where his extreme and annoying behavior has often come under scrutiny. He has widespread financial and organizational backing at his disposal, a privilege that others and myself, as college students, are sorely lacking.So it goes that Kaplan cleverly decided to sue me in small claims court, where standards for evidence are virtually non-existent, procedures occur at the discretion of the judge, and no record of court proceedings are kept. These low standards allowed Kaplan to present misleading and false material as “evidence” that I had defamed him and cost him a job offer writing for SportsBlogger.com, a website which does not even exist and has not for at least the past 2 years. Even more troubling, I had never written the very things he claimed were defamatory. One of the statements was taken from a spoof of my blog on a third-party website that I have no control over. The other simply does not exist. In addition to the lack of evidence, nearly arbitrary procedures meant that three witnesses, including a computer expert who could attest to the fact that my website did not contain those statements, were not able to testify during the 25 minute hearing, and my lawyer was asked not to present legal arguments in my defense.
Despite all of these problems with the evidence, the judge, for reasons I will never know, bought one of Kaplan’s many claims and ordered me to pay him $7,500. I will never know which ones or why because judges in small claims court do not release written opinions explaining their rulings. Furthermore, as far as I know, the decision is not appealable to a higher court. That means I have no recourse against a judgment given without justification despite the fact that it punishes me for exercising my first amendment rights to political speech.
Dave Johnson at SeeingTheForest was right to call this “a freedom of speech and right-to-blog issue.” Ann Althouse, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin, commented on the lawsuit saying that “thinking small [as in, small claims court] looks like an effective way to squelch speech.” But she poses the more serious question regarding the fact that this suit was brought before a court that doesn’t write opinions: “if the court’s opinion doesn’t explain what you did wrong, how can you keep writing? You have to worry about the next small claims lawsuit.”
What does this mean? It means that this lawsuit is not only about me, and is not only about Lee Kaplan. It is about the real danger that underhanded legal tactics like these pose to all bloggers and those without the resources to protect themselves from abusive litigation that is aimed at silencing them. For now, it looks like small claims court is a convenient and reliable route for anybody who can dish out $75, the cost of filing a claim, to harass and intimidate those they disagree with. Real evidence and a credible story might not even be necessary to make a hefty return on that small investment. At least, that is what I have learned with this experience.
In the meantime I continue to investigate my legal options to see if there is any way to salvage my free speech rights. To that end I have established a fund to collect donations that will go either towards paying legal expenses in case of an appeal or paying off the lawsuit if there are no other options. But I will also continue to blog about this and other contentious issues, despite the enormous pressure that this abusive lawsuit has put my family, friends, and myself under.
For those who might be fearful to speak up due to cases like this, you have every right to be weary. Indeed, this case is very ominous in its implications. But the worst thing we could possibly do is shy away from continuing to publicly take firm, principled, and dedicated political stands. We should remain courageous enough to embrace and confront contentious political issues, especially those regarding the cause of the Palestinian people in particular and American involvement in the Middle East in general, despite what we have faced and, no doubt, what will continue to come our way.
I have written extensively about my reaction to the ruling and my thoughts on Kaplan’s claims on the blog here and here for those who would like more information about the case. You may also browse the court’s record of documents and filings by clicking here. If you would like further comment from me regarding this case, please feel free to contact me at ysalahi@gmail.com.
I would also like to make a small request that those who are in the least bit outraged by this story please do what they can to publicize it by e-mailing it to friends and listservs, writing about it on blogs, or sharing it on websites like Facebook and MySpace. People need to know about this new method of shutting down dissent so that steps can be taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Missing in Action: The Syrian Opposition

In his June 4th Syria Comment post Joshua Landis says that with the results of the presidential plebiscite,Bashar has now consolidated his power and established his legitimacy among the Syrian elite. There is more than a little bit of "I told you so" glee in the tone of his post as he appears to figuratively thumb his nose at his many detractors. Landis, to his many critics, was a Syrian regime apologist, a characterization that I found too simple-minded. While I found some of his analysis to be unpalatable relative to my political convictions it did not necessarily mean that he was wrong. I am afraid that this applies to the June 4th post. Although I did not particularly like the conclusions he arrived at, I believe that he was largely correct in his assessment of Bashar's current position and here is why:

• Bashar has weathered American political pressure which seems to have suddenly eased (but what did he give in return?)
• Internal Syrian opposition has been silenced -imprisoned- with little real protest from the international community.
• He continues to to exert influence in Lebanon through his Hizbullah ally (and perhaps through other means) despite the forced withdrawal of the Syrian army.
• He has played the two sides of the Sunni-Shia divide. He is simultaneously the spearhead of Iranian influence in the Arab world through Hizbullah all the while convincing the Saudis and Gulf Arabs, that, for a price, Syria could act as the gate at which Iranian-Shia influence can be contained.
• He has burnished his Arab nationalist credentials with his support of Hamas and Hizbullah in their fight against Israel.
• The American economic boycott has not worked. Instead excess oil revenue cash from the Gulf has made its way to Syria keeping the Damascene merchant class happy.
• The Syrian external opposition, riding the wave of international indignation after the Hariri assassination have become much less vocal and visible. Early on, we heard repeatedly of imminent changes in Syria but nothing has materialized. It is telling that one of the most vocal critics of Bashar, at least on this side of the Atlantic, Ammar Abdulhamid has left the NSF and opposition politics to concentrate on his work with the Tharwa project.

Could it be that Bashar, this soft spoken, but rather dull-appearing man, is as wily and shrewd a politician as his father or is it just dumb luck? Whichever it is, I have to agree with Landis that Bashar el Assad has come for now come out on top. Now fortunes may turn quickly with events seeming to unfold unpredictably and at a dizzying pace in the current Middle East. The Hariri tribunal stills castes a long shadow on the Syrian regime and the recent thuggish behavior of Hamas militants towards fellow Palestinians may make them a liability rather an asset to the regime.

So how did he pull it off? Externally, the Syrian regime has continued a long tradition of playing the role of the indispensable spoiler that no one likes but whose cooperation everyone seeks. Perhaps more important for the survival of the regime is that the Syrian people though ready for change and reform was not ready for a radical and potentially violent change.The mantra of "security and stability” (al-amn wal-istiqrar) was not just an empty slogan hammered into the heads of the citizenry on every state-controlled media outlet, it was a mantra that most citizens believed in. How could they feel otherwise with the surrounding states seemingly coming apart at the seams and a million Iraqi refugees streaming into the country? The choices were stark: peace versus chaos. So while the expatriate opposition community railed loudly -and rightfully- about the misdeeds of the regime, the average Syrian citizen could not afford to be as sanguine.

It is a depressing prospect that Syria might be in for another generation of an Assad-ruled mukhabartocracy. Early on, supporters of Bashar claimed that he meant what he said about reform but that he was hamstrung by the power yielded by his father's old guard. If his supporters are right and Landis is right about his consolidation of power then are we in for a pleasant surprise in the coming months? He would do well by first releasing the human rights activists from prison. Although I am an eternal optimist, I will not be holding my breath waiting for a hereditary Baathist to change his colors.

Black Wednesday: An Orgy of Violence

Less than three hundred yards from Madinat al-Malahi, across the street from the corniche where MP Eido, his son and eight other people were murdered in a car bomb today, is my brother's apartment. Fortunately, aside from shattered kitchen windows, he and his family are unharmed.

There is nothing like a personal connection to bring such an event into sharp focus in your mind's eye, to make you feel its impact. I will not pretend to understand the reasons behind this act or try to assign blame; there are plenty of pundits who have ready answers and theories.

What sickens, angers and depresses me even more than the immediate impact of this event is the wider context. The whole region seems to be unraveling in a crescendo of violence. Where shall I begin? On this very same day in Iraq, al-Qaida types, trying to inflame sectarian passions even more, saw fit to destroy the minarets of a Samarra Shia mosque that they had previously attacked. In Gaza, thirty Palestinians died at the hands of other Palestinians as Fatah and Hamas go at each other without mercy and without regard for lives of the civilians that they claim to represent and protect from Israel. In Nahr el-Bared, Fateh el-Islam, ensconced among innocent Palestinian civilians, vows to fight to the last man even it means destruction of the whole camp.

What is wrong with us? by us, I mean us Arabs, collectively. Why is it that violence seems to be the only alternative that we can come up with for conflict resolution. It would be half as bad if the violence was directed, purposeful rather than vindictive, senseless, and ultimately self destructive. Is is false pride and a distorted sense of honor that drives this behavior? Is it unthinking fanaticism? Is it all the other -isms (sectarianism, Arabism, nationalism) pushed to the extreme that have us mired in our self-made quicksand? Why haven't we learned to turn our swords into ploughshares? Are Western critics of Arab society right in their glib assessment that we don't do much that is right, that our warts by far outweigh our beauty spots?

All these are rhetorical questions; most don't have simple answers. All the contentions, however, contain a least a grain -some, a truckload- of truth. In this discourse, I am not discounting Western malfeasance, past and present, in molding our region. However, one has to draw the line somewhere and start taking responsibility for ones own failures. Neither colonialism, nor imperialism, nor, for that matter, Zionism, made Fatah and Hamas start behaving like thugs toward each other in an all out grab for power and influence.

If my approach seems on-sided, it is because I am responding with anger at today's events. I fully realize that there are many nuanced expalantions for the different conflicts. However, there are also disturbing similarities of purpose and methods across the region especially among fanatic fundamentalists that promises further senseless conflict.

Nahr El Bared: Helping the Innocent

This is a brief post to recognize the work of the five organizers of the Nahr el Bared Relief Campaign including one of the Syrian blogosphere's own (Razan). What they have done and continue to do is exemplary; it is human compassion that is not sullied by the narrow-minded, paranoid sectarian calculations that seems to color most discourse and action in Lebanon.

I salute them all and hope that real and lasting peace returns to Lebanon soon.

Blessed Unrest: A Call to Global Activism

I picked up Paul Hawken's book, Blessed Unrest, because I was intrigued by the summary on the book jacket. It is ostensibly about environmentalism but it is really much more than that.

Hawken makes the argument that protection of the environment is inseparable from other social movements: "From the beginning, an environmental movement had to be an environmental justice movement and an environmental justice movement was de facto a social justice movement." He argues that "concerns about worker health, living wages, equity, education, and basic human rights are inseparable from concerns about water, climate, soil, and biodiversity". That all these human concerns are intricately linked is glaringly obvious but one that few have articulated as eloquently as Hawken. The poor, the disenfranchised and the oppressed are the ones that bare the brunt of environmental destruction be it at the hands of repressive, unrepresentative governments or unchecked corporate authority unleashed by the push towards globalization. Despite all the bad news though, Hawken is hopeful. He describes the emergence of a "movement", an amorphous collection really, of thousands of local grassroots organizations each fighting for change and winning. These groups are diverse bringing together environmentalists, and social activists of all stripes from groups fighting poverty, to groups working for the rights of indigenous people.

Paul Hawken is no tree-hugging ecofanatic. He is a reasoned, sensible individual who believes that humans and nature are inseparable and that what is good for one is good for the other. That this is so is not only a practical imperative but also a universal moral imperative. He argues his case passionately and with a great deal of erudition making numerous historical and literary references.

Anyone reading my post may be wondering by now how I will weave this into the theme of my blog. It is simple really; many of us seek change in Syria, not change for the sake of change but for the betterment and advancement of our nation, society and people. As many of us obsess about the need to change the political leadership, we forget that that there are many societal and environmental issues that need attention away from politics. The relationship between the environment and societal issues is all the more relevant in a developing country such as Syria and this inextricable relationship is present in both in rural as well as urban areas.

The Imperial Seat of Power: The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

The Bush administration's hubris does not cease to amaze. Just in case anyone still has any illusions about who will be calling the shots in Iraq for decades to come, just look at the plans for the future U.S. embassy in Baghdad due to open in September. It is a 104 acre complex or about the size 80 football fields. It will cost $592 million, with a staff of 1,000 people (4,000 with contractors and local employees) and operating costs totaling $1.2 billion a year. The complex "will include two office buildings, one of them designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment plants. The ambassador's private residence will be 16,000 square feet in size.

Syria: Referendum by the Numbers

From SANA (via PhilipI):

Syria has 11,967,611 eligible voters of whom, according to the minister of interior:

• 95.86% participated in the referendum (11,472,157).
• 97.62 % said YES to Bashar's "reelection".
• 0.171% said NO to Bashar.
• 2.2% made invalid entries.

Very impressive were it not so absurd. They could have at least doctored the numbers to make them look a little more realistic. Do the self-congratulating Baathists really think anyone buys this?

Palestinian Camps in Lebanon: Time for a Change

When it comes to laying blame for the current violence in Lebanon, people on the two sides of the Hariri-Bashar divide seem to have lost all semblance of objectivity. Everyone is dead certain they know the motivations of these thugs. It is a pity to see what now passes for objective journalism at Naharnet as it is starting to look more like the trash that is dished out by the bucket on Champress. I will not pretend to know if Fatah el-Islam is creating trouble on behest of the Syrian regime or not. The timing is certainly suspicious. However, there is enough convoluted politics in Lebanon that I can’t rule anything out. All I know is that if Fatah el-Islam is getting its ass kicked, then good riddance. I am very concerned, however, that in the process, many innocent Palestinian civilians are unnecessarily getting hurt.

One thing that I am certain about it that it is time for Lebanon to change the way it deals with Palestinian refugee camps and their inhabitants. I blame both Palestinian and Arab leaders for the way the plight of three generations of Palestinian refugees was politicized. Everyone wanted them to remain refugees because, the logic went, if they settled (tawteen) in the land of their refuge, they would lose their right and their will to return to Palestine. So instead they languished in misery for 60 years. In Lebanon, their plight was complicated even further by fears that their presence was going to affect the sectarian mix. So the Lebanese state gave them few rights and restricted their ability to work. Most, consequently, remained stuck in abject poverty with no legal documents to allow them to go anywhere and not way to improve their lot. It is no wonder that the refugee camps, rife with despair, became breeding ground for extremism. Add to that the fact that the Lebanese authorities have no jurisdiction within the camps and you a have a recipe for repeated disasters. The refugee camps became "free zones" where the various regional mukhabarats, common criminals, and Bin Laden wannabes came to exploit the anger and despair to their benefit.

It is high time that the Lebanese authorities reestablish control of all refugee camps on their territories. It is also high time for the Lebanese to give Palestinian refugees some basic rights and an opportunity to live with dignity. Some Lebanese would bristle at this latter suggestion. They are the ones who would rather the Palestinian refugees remain invisible or just disappear. Frankly such reactions make me angry. The fact is the change I am suggesting would make Lebanon safer and more stable in addition to benefiting the Palestinian refugees. I am not talking about settling them in Lebanon just providing them with a modicum of respect and a way to earn a living.

We Arabs readily express our outrage at the way Israel treats the Palestinians but conveniently overlook how we have treated our fellow Arabs. It is shameful that Palestinian refugees get more rights as refugees in non-Arab countries than they do in the countries of their brethren.

Arabic: Tenth Most Common Internet Language

In 2006, Arabic surpassed Russian as the 10th most common language among internet users. The remaining nine in descending order are: English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Portugese, Korean, and Italian. There are 29 million Arabic internet users (total Arab population of about 250 million) compared to 327 million English. The fraction of users compared to the total population is low, to be sure, but there were less than 3 million Arabic internet users in 2000!

A good sign? I hope so.

(Source: Tom O'Neill, National Geographic Magazine)

Ignored: A Third Challenger to Bashar

Mu'min Koufatia, a Syrian citizen living in Yemen, presented his application to the Syrian embassy in Sanaa asking to be placed on the presidential ballot as a third candidate for the presidency. Just as Abdallah Khalil, the lawyer, Koufatia is arguing that article 84 of the Syrian constitution stipulates that the president ought to be chosen through elections and not a referendum. Predictably, the embassy refused to accept his application.

Here is the link to the Syrian constitution. Scroll down to article 84, I am not sure it says what these aspiring candidates say it does. At any rate, the articles of the constitution makes for an interesting read. You realize how few of its articles are abided by.

مذكرتي التي قوبلت بالرفض من السفارة لتَرشحي للرئاسة

بعد ان قدمت باالامس اوراق اعتمادي وثبوتياتي عبر النت ووكلالات الانباء لترّشحي كمنافس ثالث لمنصب الرئاسه وبشكل جدّي قاطع لارجعة عنه توجهت اليوم الى السفاره السوريه في صنعاء مصطحبا اوراقي وما يلزم من الاوراق اللازمه لهذا الترشيح وبشكل رسمي وبرنامج عملي ومصحوبا بالمذكره المزيله بتوقيعي والتي رفضت السفاره كعادتها من استلامها او الاطلاع عليها او مناقشتها أو العمل لتوجيهي للجهه المختصه بهذا الخصوص والتي تعاملت معها وكأنها قنبلة موقوته حان وقت تفجيرها فابتعدت عنها ولم ترضى حتى النظر اليها ونفت في الوقت ذاته تدخلها بهذه الامورمع علمي اليقيني بأن عمل السفارات هو شامل وهو يعني مصالح الدوله الواسعه؛ وخاصة فيما يتعلّق بالامور الكبيره التي تهم بناء الوطن وتقدمه ورفعته وحريته وكرامته

ونظرا لان هذه الجهه الرسميه الاقرب اليّ مكانا رفضت تسلم المذكره ونظرا لقرب موعد الانتخابات الرئاسيه التي ستجري في 27 من الجهر الجاري مايو والتي يريدها منافسي بشار الاسد استفتاءا مخالفا للدستور في مادته 84 الذي ينص على الانتخاب وليس الاستفتاء، وباالنظر الى هذه الاعاقه المتعمّده، فانني أكشف عما جاء في محتوى المذكره عسى من يعنيه الامر من ما يسمّى مجلس النواب وغيره أن يسارع الى استدراك الامر قبل فوات الاوان،وتفقد جماهيري الواسعه الامل من تمكيني من هذا الحق وبالتالي حينها سأدعوها الانضمام الى كل القوى المقاطعه وسأعلن حينها أنّ الذي كان تم تدبيره بليل لتزوير ارادة الناخبين،وسأعلن عن خطأي لاقدامي على هذه الخطوه، وستكون اصوات شعبنا السوري المقاطعه كتعبير للتأييد لنا وللحريه ولعملية التغيير ان لم يتم تزوير اعداد الناخبين كاالعاده وتضخيمهم أو بعث من في القبور في التصويت

وقد جاء في المذكره مايلي: سعادة السفير السوري في صنعاء عبد الغفور صابوني

حياكم الله

وبعد:

يسعدني أنا المواطن مؤمن بن محمد نديم كويفاتيه سوري الجنسيه ومن ابوين سوريين أبّاً عن جد ومن مواليد حلب لعام 1962 ميلادي ان اتقدم اليكم بطلبي هذا للترشيح لمنصب رئيس الجمهوريه وبشكل رسمي لتقديمه للجهات المعنيه وبحسب القانون 83 من الدستور لكي يكون اسمي من ضمن المرشحين لهذا المنصب مع علمي المسبق انه ليس هناك من مرشح سوى الرئيس بشار الاسد والمحامي عبدالله الخليل

وطبقا لقوانين المساواة والعداله التي تنادي بها الشرائع السماويه والارضيه وتكافؤ الفرص في القانون الذي لاينص على ان يكون حصر الترشيح بشخص واحد، وطبقا لنص الميثاق العربي لحقوق الانسان الذي يعلوا ايضا على كل القوانين المحليه والذي صادق عليه مجلس الشعب السوري بالقانون رقم 50 في كانون الاول لعام 2006 الذي ينص على ان لكل مواطن له الحق ان يشارك في الشؤون العامه اما مباشرة او عن طريق ممثلين يختارهم بحريه، وأن ينتخب أو يُنتخب في انتخابات نزيهه تجري دوريا بالاقتراع العام وعلى قدم المساواة بين الناخبين وبالتصويت السري الذي يضمن التعبير الحر عن ارادة الناخبين والى اخر ماجاء في القانون المرفق مع طلب الترشيح

وجدت أنه من حقي التقدم للمنافسه مع المذكورين المرشحين اعلاه وخاصة وأنني أملك الأهليه المناسبه لشغر هذا المنصب حيث أنني أحمل الشهاده الجامعيه وكنت استاذا في المعهد العالي للمعلمين وثانويات اليمن لمدة عشرة اعوام والمتخصص في الدراسات الاسلاميه والتاريخيه اضافة الى خبرتي الاداريه والتربويه ولمدة خمسة عشر عاما ومرفق مع طلبي هذا الثبوتيات المطلوبه التي تؤكد صحة كلامي ومما تجعلني مؤهلا للتقدم لهذا المنصب ومرفق مع طلبي هذا ايضا برنامجي الانتخابي

وأخيرا: اتمنى عليكم قبول طلبي هذا والاهتمام به ورفعه الى من يهمه الامر

واعطائي الجواب بأسرع وقت لان موعد الانتخاب يقترب لاكون مستعدا له بما يلزم

وتقبلوا مني التحيه والسلام 1652007

المرشح لمنصب الرئيس للجمهوريه: مؤمن محمد نديم كويفاتيه



مؤمن كويفاتية مرشح ثالث لرئاسة الجمهورية في سورية

اضيف منافس ثالث الى الترشيح لرئاسة الجمهورية في سورية، بتقدم السيد مؤمن كويفاتية الى السفير السوري في صنعاء بطلب ترشّحه وذكر فيه: "اتقدم اليكم بطلبي للترشيح لمنصب رئيس الجمهورية وبشكل رسمي لتقديمه الى الجهات المعنية كي يكون اسمي من ضمن المرشحين لهذا المنصب مع علمي المسبق أنه ليس هناك من مرشح سوى الرئيس بشار السد والمحامي عبد الله خليل". وأضاف: " وطبقاً للمساواة والعدالة التي تنادي بها الشرائع السماوية والأرضية وتكافؤ الفرص وجدت من حقي التقدم للمنافسة مع المذكورين، خاصة وأني أملك الأهلية المناسبة لشغر هذا المنصب". وعدد السيد كويفاتية مؤهلاته العلمية والإدارية والتربوية، وأرفق طلبه بالثبوتيات المطلوبة وبرنامجه الإنتخابي .

ويرى المحرر القانوني للمرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان أن هذا المنافس الثاني للرئيس بشار الاسد في الترشيح لمنصب الرئاسة يضاعف الإشكالات القانونية والسياسية للنظام الحاكم في دمشق، ويجعل من استفتاء الرئاسة الراهن ظاهرة جديدة في الساحة السياسية السورية، وقد تترتب عليه مضاغفات من المبكر التنبؤ بعواقبها "


لندن 15/05/2007 المرصد السوري

A Challenger to Bashar's Presidency?

Within days of the Syrian national referendum on the presidency of Bashar al-Asad, a lawyer by the name of Abdallah al-Khalil announced that he has submitted an application to minister of justice to register as a candidate for the presidential elections! I don't know if this guy is for real but if he is, I admire his guts. He is challenging Bashar on constitutional grounds arguing that the Syrian constitution stipulates that the president is chosen through an electoral process rather than through a referendum. There appears to be in fact, conflicting articles in the constitution. Mr. al-Khalil presented his request about a month ago but says that he was surprised when the authorities declared Bashar al-Asad the sole candidate. The report below, from Mideast Transparent predicts that this situation may cause problems for the Syrian political leadership. Somehow, I doubt it; haven't they been ignoring the constitution for the past 44 years?

حادثة لاسابقة لها محام سوري يرشح نفسه لرئاسة الجمهورية

في خطوة لا سابقة لها رشح المحامي عبدالله الخليل نفسه لانتخابات رئاسة الجمهورية في سورية متبعاً الاجراءات الرسمية بتقديم طلبه الى القيادة القطرية لحزب البعث الحاكم للموافقة على الطلب واحالته الى مجلس الشعب، وذلك استنادا ً الى نص المادة 83 من دستور الجمهورية العربية السورية , والمادة 84 منه ايضا ،ً والفقرات 2 و3 و4 من المادة 25 من الدستور , التي تناولت ترشيح وانتخاب رئيس الجمهورية . ومن المتوقع أن يحدث ذلك اشكالات دستورية لآن المادة 48 نصت عن اجراء استفتاء لرئاسة الجمهورية. والمادة 25 نصت على الانتخاب استناداً الى العهد الدولي للحقوق المدنية والسياسية التي تناولت المساواة في ادارة الشؤون العامة والانتخابات النزيهة. والى المادة 33 من الميثاق العربي لحقوق الانسان التي صادقت على جميعها الجمهورية العربية السورية .

وقال المحامي الخليل: انني سبق ان طالبت بأن يكون التنافس على منصب رئيس الجمهورية عن طريق الانتخاب وليس الإستفتاء , وذلك بتاريخ 23 / 3 / 2006 وجددت هذا الطلب بتاريخ 15/3/ 2007 وقمت بتسليم هذا الطلب الى السيد وزير العدل واستنادا ً الى ذلك انتظرت الاعلان لقبول طلبات الترشح سواء عن طريق القيادة القطرية او لجنة خاصة. الا انني فوجئت بترشيح رئيس الجمهورية الدكتور بشار الاسد كمرشح وحيد وعدم الاعلان-عن طلبي-". وأضاف: " اتقدم بطلبي هذا المتضمن الترشح لإشغال منصب رئاسة الجمهورية العربية السورية للفترة القادمة راجيا ً احالة الطلب الى مجلس الشعب السوري ليصار الى اصدار مايلزم من قوانين وتعليمات تتعلق بانتخاب رئاسة الجمهورية , وارفق طيا ً بيان قيد نفوس متضمنا ً اتمامي للعمر المطلوب وبيان يتضمن تمتعي بالحقوق المدنية والسياسية (غير محكوم) , متمنيا ً اتخاذ القرار لما فيه فائدة لتقدم وتطور سورية . وتطور سورية" .الرقة 12/5/2006"

ويرى المحرر القانوني لـ "المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان" أن هذه السابقة ستحدث ارتباكاً للقيادة السياسية في سورية، وقد يترتب عليها اجراءات تجاه السيد الخليل يصعب التنبؤ بها الآن، كما ستخلق اشكالية قانونية فيما لو احيل الأمر الى لجنة قضائية مختصة، هي في العادة من اختصاص المحاكم الستورية في العالم.

المرصد السوري

Michel Kilo is Sentenced for Three Years

In yet another absurd ruling, Michel Kilo is sentenced to three years in prison for "weakening nationalist sentiments"!!!! I never realized Syrian nationalist sentiments were so fragile.

الحكم على ميشيل كيلو ومحمود عيسى بالسجن لمدة ثلاث سنوات بتهمة إضعاف الشعور القومي


قال صلاح الدين لقواده لا تظنوا أني ملكت الأرض بسيوفكم بل بقلم وعدل الفاضل

بتاريخ اليوم 13/5/2007 عقدت محكمة الجنايات الثانية بدمشق برئاسة القاضي أحمد زاهر البكري جلسة محاكمة المعارضين السوريين الكاتب ميشيل كيلو والأستاذ محمود عيسى موجودا وكل من الأستاذين سليمان الشمر وخليل حسين غيابيا والذين كانوا قد أحيلوا إلى القضاء بموجب المادة 285 من قانون العقوبات بالنسبة للسيد كيلو والمادتين 285 – 278 بالنسبة للآخرين , وتم الحكم على الجميع وفق:
الحكم على ميشيل كيلو بالسجن لمدة ثلاث سنوات بتهمة إضعاف الشعور القومي وفق المادة 285

الحكم على محمود عيسى بالسجن ثلاث سنوات بتهمة إضعاف الشعور القومي وفق المادة 285 وعدم مسؤوليته تجاه المادة 278

الحكم الغيابي على سليمان الشمر وخليل حسين بالسجن لمدة عشر سنوات حيث " السجن لخمس سنوات بتهمة إضعاف الشعور القومي وفق المادة 285وخمس سنوات أخرى بتهمة التحريض لدى دولة اجنبية بالعدوان على سورية رفق المادة 278"

وذلك بحضور عدد من المهتمين بالشأن العام و ممثلي بعض السفارات الغربية بدمشق.

إن المنظمة الوطنية لحقوق الإنسان في سورية ترى أن هذه المحاكمة ذات أغراض سياسية و تنوه إلى أن ما نسب إلى السيد كيلو ورفاقه لا يقوم على أساس قانوني لعدم تحقق شروط تطبيق المواد القانونية على أفعال المتهمين سيما وأن أفعال المادتين 285 – 278 غير محققة ,فالحرب المتمثلة بالاشتباكات المسلحة أو التهديد بنشوبها والمتمثل بإعلان حالة التعبئة لا وجود لهما . فضلا عن أن الإعلان لا ينال من أي شعور قومي كونه مجرد رؤية مثقفين لتصحيح العلاقة بين لبنان وسورية وهذا ما كفله الدستور السوري "المادة 38 منه لكل مواطن الحق بالتعبير عن رأيه بحرية " إضافة إلى المواثيق الدولية التي وقعت عليها سورية كالإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسان والعهد الملحق به والخاص بالحقوق السياسية والحريات العامة ..

إن المنظمة ترى أن مقارعة الرأي تكون بالرأي الآخر لا بالأحكام بالسجن والاعتقال , وتطالب المنظمة بالإفراج الفوري عن السيدين كيلو وعيسى ووقف كافة الملاحقات الأمنية والقضائية بحق الآخرين والإفراج عن باقي معتقلي الرأي والمعتقلين السياسيين وناشطي حقوق الإنسان على طريق إغلاق ملفات الاعتقال السياسي على خلفية الرأي .

المنظمة الوطنية لحقوق الإنسان في سورية دمشق في 13-5-2007

المنظمة الوطنية لحقوق الإنسان في سورية – دمشق- فاكس 00963115327066 – هاتف 096393348666
www.nohr-s.org

Al-Labwani Sentenced to 12 Years!

Below are several reports on the sentencing of Kamal al-Labwani. Apparently Dr. al-Labwani's sentence was not newsworthy enough to make it into Champress or Syria News. There was, however, room for tidbits about Asma al-Asad, the Syrian first lady, declaring that it is her mission to create a positive image of Syria. The incongruity between the party line and reality is mind-numbing. Of course, few people buy into this charade. Yet when will the Syrian people reach their limit? What is it going to take to light a fire under our collective Syrian asses? Until that happens, the Labawnis, Kilos and others, courageous individuals willing to speak truth to power will remain easy targets to a paranoid, tyranical regime.

Human Rights Watch:

Syria: Peaceful Activist Gets 12 Years With Hard Labor
Labwani’s Sentence Discredits Syrian Claims of Political Reform
(New York, May 11, 2007)
– Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should immediately exonerate prominent human rights activist Dr. Kamal al-Labwani, who was sentenced today to 12 years in prison including hard labor on politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said.
A Damascus criminal court convicted Labwani of “communicating with a foreign country and inciting it to initiate aggression against Syria.” Labwani had visited the United States and Europe in the fall of 2005 where he had met with government officials, journalists and human rights organizations.
Labwani’s sentence was handed down two weeks after another prominent Syrian human rights activists, Anwar al-Bunni, was sentenced to five years in prison on politically motivated charges.
“The Syrian government has accelerated its crackdown on free speech and peaceful activism,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Peaceful activists like Labwani are paying a heavy price for expressing their views.”
Syrian security forces arrested Labwani, a physician and founder of the Democratic Liberal Gathering, on November 8, 2005 upon his return from a two-month trip to Europe and the United States. During his trip, he appeared on the pan-Arab Al-Mustaqilla and Al-Hurra television networks where he called on the Syrian government to respect fundamental freedoms and human rights.
The Democratic Liberal Gathering is a group of Syrian intellectuals and activists who advocate for peaceful change in Syria based on democratic reforms, liberalism, secularism and respect for human rights.
From the onset, Labwani’s trial was marred by the interference of the state security agencies. The prosecution added the charge of “communicating with a foreign country and inciting it to initiate aggression against Syria” after the head of National Security sent a letter on November 17, 2005 to the Minister of Justice asking him to add this accusation to the lesser charges that the General Prosecutor’s office had initially filed against Labwani. In his defense pleadings, Labwani’s attorney referred to the letter and argued that the new charge would not have been included if National Security had not intervened because the investigation had not revealed any evidence that Labwani had called on any country to initiate aggression against Syria.
On April 28, following al-Bunni’s conviction, Labwani and other imprisoned political and human rights activists smuggled out a joint letter which said that detainees in Syria “should feel that they are not alone… and that there is hope for a peaceful resolution of the crisis of freedoms and human rights in Syria.”
“Syrian officials repeatedly claim that their country wants to play a constructive role in the region,” Whitson said. “But this is hard to believe as they continue to imprison peaceful dissidents at home.”
Background
Syria has a long record of prosecuting political activists who peacefully express their opinions. In 2002, the State Security Court sentenced Labwani to three years in prison on charges of “inciting rebellion, spreading false information and weakening national unity” after he had participated in political reform discussions. Labwani was released after serving his sentence in full.
Article 38 of Syria’s Constitution guarantees the right of every citizen to “freely and openly express his views in words, in writing, and through all other means of expression” and to “participate in supervision and constructive criticism in a manner that safeguards the soundness of the domestic and nationalist structure and strengthens the socialist system.” As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Syria has an international obligation to uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.
For more information on Dr. Kamal al-Labwani’s case, please see the following Human Rights Watch documents:

Other links discussing Dr. al-Labwani's sentencing:

• Amnesty International press release
• Mideast Transparent (Arabic)
• Syrian Human Rights Committee

Syria: Compulsory Military Service & The Brain Drain

In another brilliant move guaranteed to maintain the exodus of young and capable Syrians, president Bashar announced the establishment of new regulations regarding compulsory military service. It is basically yet another reshuffling of the amounts, in hard currency, that the government wants to extort from Syrian immigrants for the right to return to their homeland if they have not completed their military service. A new twist added to this new edict is that children of immigrants born abroad and who wmay have never set foot in Syria, will also owe the government money to get excused from the military service. One other change of significance -especially for me- is that the age at which you are excused from military service has dropped from 52 to 42.

The overwhelmingly negative response to the new edict in the comments section of the Syria News report is telling. Clearly, the two year compulsory service is a great burden on young people trying to complete their education or start a career. Most commentators feel that the law is discriminatory against young Syrians living within the country. Many are asking that the choice of paying off one's military service be extended to citizens living in Syria. Others have have pointed out, rightly, that extending this privilege (if you can call it that) to those living in Syria will help families with financial means leaving the poor with the burden to serve in the military. No matter where one stands on the issue of military service, the undeniable fact is that it has and continues to cause a massive brain drain that Syria can ill afford. Lebanon recently did away with their compulsory service precisely because of that reason.

The two year compulsory service should be abolished altogether as an unnecessary burden on the citizens. What should replace it, if anything at all, is a much shorter, much more flexible service that will not interfere with the future educational or work prospects of young people. Financial payoffs that favor the well-off, immigrant or otherwise, should be abolished. If exceptions are to be made, the equivalent time could be paid off in the form of civil/community service that benefits Syria directly.

From a personal point of view, with the change in the age limit, the new law gets me off the hook. However, the whole military service issue has been a sore point with me for the duration of my adult life as someone who left Syria before reaching adulthood. For some of my adult life paying off my military service was not an option. When that option became available, I could never get myself to pay the thousands of dollars required. It was not that I couldn't afford it but I could never stomach the idea that this money will end up in the pockets of a corrupt government. So at every important juncture of my life as I contemplated my future prospects, going back to Syria was never a feasible option. This is a conundrum that hundreds of thousands of Syrians have faced and continue to face. It should not be so.

A Letter from Adra Prison

(reposted from Fares)

From the Prisoners of Conscience in Damascus Central Prison Al Adra
April 29th, 2007

We are prisoners of conscience and opinion in Damascus Central Prison, lawyer Anwar Al Bunni, writer Michel Kilo, Dr. Kamal Labwani, activists Mahmoud Issa, and Faek Al Mir, and Professor Aref Dalila who could not be reached as he spends his sixth year in solitary confinement. After the sentencing of lawyer Anwar Al Bunni on 24 April 2007, we would like to say thank you and greet our families, friends, and all the people, groups, committees, organizations, associations, parties and political assemblies of Arabs, Kurds and Assyrians in Syria and the Arab world. We thank and greet the official representatives, countries, media and websites that support us by protesting our trials and arrests, and denying the accusations against our colleague Anwar Al Bunni.

We would like to send our heartfelt greetings and thanks to all of you and hope that your noble and brave attitude will not stop only with denying these accusations and supporting our cause. Our case as prisoners of conscience is part of the continuing crisis of basic freedoms and human rights in Syria that began with the Emergency Law 44 years ago. This crisis reached its height in the 1980s and again today by an increase in tyranny, arrests and the suppression of fundamental freedoms.

Tens of thousands of Syrians have paid a horrible price, some with their lives, others with the loss of years and youth from inhumane prison conditions and cruel torture. Still more have suffered by being forced to escape the tyranny or enter into voluntary exile, another difficult experience. Other Syrians stayed, throwing salt on their wounds and binding their tongues to save themselves pain. Those that couldn’t live with their tongues tied faced a future in prison, homeless and alone. For the few people that climbed to the top of the tyranny and darkened Syrian society, they have contributed to the corruption, theft and poverty that have strangled the necks of the people.

The denial of fundamental human rights in Syria is the main case that we work for and your support for prisoners of conscience is part of this fight. Fighting for the release of these prisoners is a duty, not only to decrease their suffering and their families’ pain, but also to encourage others by knowing they are not alone. We must give society hope, making sure its doors and streets are not closed. With the power of hope it is possible to fight the crisis of freedom and human rights in Syria in a peaceful way.

Terrorism is the enemy of mankind and civilization itself. It flourishes in societies that lack freedom and close doors to peaceful expression, leaving violence as a way of expressing oneself. Inside these societies suffering from poverty, where they find no well being on earth they will turn to the heavens and the answers that it may provide them. The lack of basic freedoms and human rights coupled with poverty are two faces of the same coin in the Third World. Syria is at the forefront of totalitarian countries, ruled from an isolated point of view with its citizens either idle passengers or doomed to be labeled traitors.

The lack of freedom, means of expression, political participation and accountability leads to the growth of corruption, despotism, looting of public funds, rampant poverty and the collapse of moral values. The real fight against terrorism must not only be about combating extremist ideas. These ideas have existed throughout history, though they will always remain on the periphery, isolated and shunned, unless they find fertile soil to take root and grow. If they are allowed to develop in the soil of society, they will spread like toxic plants, poisoning communities and innocent people.

Addressing the root causes of terrorism requires opening up pathways to free expression and the peaceful exchange of ideas. By giving people unfettered freedom we can blunt the sword of injustice, oppression and domination to grant full political participation, a hand in future decision-making, accountability, the preservation of equality and a life of dignity. This would make the world a safer place and improve international security.

Syrians have paid a high price for their rights and freedom and we hope to be the last group forced to pay this price to help the great Syrian people. To do this we need more than your solidarity and denunciations. We need constant and tireless efforts to compel Syrian authorities to respect human rights, international law and the treaties and agreements it has signed which demand freedom of expression and opinion. The release of political prisoners is a necessary first step, including the abolition of the State Emergency Law and other such laws like Decree 49 signed in 1980 or the Hasakah Accountability Decree of 1962. Syria must abolish the State Security Court, compensate those that have suffered, create an independent judiciary, end torture and hold perpetrators responsible. They must stop political arrests and ensure the freedom of the press, allowing political participation and the formation of parties, organizations and civil society.

They must stop the looting of public funds and policies of impoverishment and domination. However, these steps are just the beginning necessary to put Syria on the path to security and move towards development, progress and the protection of national unity that now suffers from division and tension. These rifts and divisions are now impossible to conceal, despite the dancing and celebrations and empty rhetoric about a healthy society that in reality is sick and suffering. As prisoners of conscience and opinion we are apprehensive about the future of our homeland, our children and our very decision to shape Syria’s future. However, we will not be deterred by threats, intimidation, and the repression of long years of imprisonment that we face to save our country and ourselves

Adra Prison. 28-4-2007

Below is the Arabic text from ME Transparent:

من معتقلي الرأي في سجن دمشق المركزي

إننا معتقلو الرأي والضمير في سجن دمشق المركزي /عدرا/، المحامي أنور البني والكاتب ميشيل كيلو والدكتور كمال اللبواني والناشطين محمود عيسى وفائق المير والبروفسور عارف دليلة الذي لم نتمكن من الاتصال به والذي يمضي سنته السادسة في زنزانة منفردة، وبعد الحكم الذي صدر على المحامي أنور البني بتاريخ 24-4-2007، فإننا نود أن نتوجه بالشكر والتحية لعائلاتنا وأهلنا وأصدقائنا وجميع الأشخاص والمجموعات والهيئات والمنظمات والجمعيات والأحزاب والتجمعات السياسية في سوريا من عرب وأكراد وآثوريين وفي البلاد العربية في مختلف أنحاء العالم والممثلين الرسميين والاعتباريين والدول ووسائل الإعلام ومواقع الانترنت وكل الذين تضاموا معنا واحتجوا على اعتقالنا ومحاكمتنا ونددوا واستنكروا الحكم الصادر بحق زميلنا المحامي أنور البني الناشط في مجال حقوق الانسان.

نتوجه بالشكر والتحية لكل فرد منكم من كل قلوبنا ونتمنى أن لا يقف هذا الموقف النبيل والشجاع عند حدود اللحظة والمناسبة والتضامن والاستنكار فقط.

إن قضيتنا كمعتقلي رأي وضمير في سوريا هي جزء واستمرار لأزمة الحريات العامة وحقوق الانسان في سوريا بدأت مع إعلان فرض حالة الطوارئ منذ أربع وأربعين عاما قاسية وشهدت ذروة حادة في الثمانينيات وهاهي تشهد ذروة حادة أخرى بزيادة وتصاعد القمع والاعتقال ومصادرة الحريات .

لقد دفع عشرات الألوف من السوريين ثمنا غاليا طوال تلك الفترة فمنهم من قضى نحبه ودفع كل حياته ومنهم من دفع سنوات طويلة من زهرة عمره وريعان شبابه في ظروف لا إنسانية في السجون والمعتقلات وعانى التعذيب الوحشي ومنهم من هرب من البطش والقمع إلى الغربة مختارا النفي الطوعي وتجربة قسرية ومعاناة بشكل مختلف وبقية السوريين فرض عليهم الانكفاء إلى ذواتهم ووضع الملح على الجرح والمعاناة والعض على الألسنة هربا من البطش. ومن لم يستطع احتمال زمن القهر الطويل فانفلت عقال لسانه أو عقله كان مصيره السجن أو التنكيل أو التشريد، والقلة القليلة تسلقت قمة القهر والقمع والتسلط التي خيمت على المجتمع السوري فعاثت فسادا ونهبا وإفقارا وتسلطا على رقاب البلاد والعباد.

هذه هي القضية الأساسية التي ينبغي دائم العمل من أجلها. وتضامنكم مع المعتقلين هو جزء من هذا الفعل والعمل لإطلاق سراحهم هو خطوة واجبة ليس فقط من أجل تخفيف معاناة المعتقل وعائلته بل هو ضروري لتشجيع الآخرين وإحساسهم بأنهم ليسوا وحدهم في هذه المعركة ولأجل إعطاء أمل للمجتمع بأن الأبواب ليست مغلقة نهائيا والطريق ليست مسدودة نهائيا وأن هناك قوة أمل حقيقي أن تصل أزمة الحريات وحقوق الانسان في سوريا إلى حل سلمي آمن.

إن الإرهاب عدو البشرية والإنسانية والحضارة الأول، يلقى الدعم والأرض الخصبة في التجمعات التي تعاني أزمة حريات وتغلق أبواب وطرق التعبير السلمي مما يفتح الأبواب لطريق التعبير العنفية والتجمعات التي تعاني من فقر شديد حيث لا يجد الانسان ما يملكه أبدا في الأرض فيسعى تحت تأثير الأفكار المتطرفة الخاطئة إلى ملكيته في السماء وما يوعدون.

إن انعدام الحريات العامة وانتهاك حقوق الإنسان والفقر الشديد وجهان لعملة واحدة في بلدان العالم الثالث وسوريا في مقدمة هذه الدول خاصة وأنها من الدول الشمولية التي تحكمها وجهة النظر الواحدة والرأي الواحد والآخرون مارقون وخونة.

فغياب الحريات ووسائل التعبير والمشاركة السياسية والرتابة والمحاسبة يؤدي على نمو الفساد والإفساد والتسلط والإفقار ونهب الأموال العامة ويستشري الفقر وتنهار القيم الأخلاقية والإنسانية.

إن محاربة الإرهاب الحقيقية لا يجب أن يكون هدفها فقط محاربة الأفكار المتطرفة فهذه على أهميتها فإنها موجودة عبر التاريخ ولكنها معزولة ومنبوذة وليست ذات تأثير إذا لم تجد التربة الخصبة لزراعة أفكارها بل يجب أن يتوجه إلى تجفيف هذه التربة التي تتلقى هذه البذور لتحويلها إلى نباتات سامة تجتاح مساحات أوسع فأوسع من المجتمعات وتنقلب على أفكار إجرامية تطال الأبرياء والمجتمع ككل.

إن معالجة أسباب الإرهاب يتطلب فتح أبواب وطرق التعبير السلمية وتبادل الآراء وإعطاء الشعوب حريتها المسلوبة منها ورفع سيف الظلم والقهر والتسلط عنها ومنحها حق المشاركة السياسية الكاملة برسم مستقبلها وصنع القرار وصنع القرار والقرابة والمحاسبة وحفظ حقها بالمساواة والعيش الكريم. وهذه مسؤولية دولية عامة لأن الأمن أصبح في العالم أمنا واحدا.

إن الشعب السوري دفع أثمان غالية للحصول على حقوقه وحرياته ونأمل أن نكون نحن آخر دفعة من هذا الثمن الغالي والكبير الذي يستحق الشعب السوري بعده أن يسترد حقوقه وحريته.

إننا نحتاج إلى أكثر من تضامنكم واستنكاركم. إننا نحتاج إلى عملكم المستمر والدؤوب لإلزام السلطات السورية باحترام حقوق الانسان والقوانين والاتفاقيات الدولية التي التزمت بها وتطبيقها فعلا وإطلاق حرية التعبير والرأي والعمل السياسي ولعل إطلاق سراح المعتقلين السياسيين هو الخطوة الأولى الضرورية لذلك.

بالإضافة إلى إلغاء حالة الطوارئ والقوانين الاستثنائية وعلى رأسها المرسوم 49 لعام 1980 ومرسوم الإحصاء الاستثنائي في محافظة الحسكة عام 1962 والمحاكم الاستثنائية وفي مقدمتها محكمة أمن الدولة والمحاكم الميدانية وإلغاء أحكامها والتعويض على المتضررين منه وإعطاء القضاء استقلاله الكامل ووقف ومنع التعذيب ومحاسبة مرتكبيه وإلغاء الاعتقال السياسي وإطلاق حرية الصحافة والإعلام والسماح بالمشاركة السياسية وتشكيل الأحزاب والمنظمات وجمعيات المجتمع المدني خارج الوصاية الرسمية ووقف نهب المال العام وسياسة الإفقار والتسلط والهيمنة.

إن هذه الخطوات تشكل فقط البداية الضرورية لوضع سوريا على سكة الأمان وبالاتجاه الصحيح للتطور والتقدم وتحمي الوحدة الوطنية التي تعاني من الشروخ والانقسامات والأزمات والاحتقانات التي تعصف بها ولم يعد ممكنا إخفائها بالأهازيج والمهرجانات والدبكات والتصاريح الجوفاء الفارغة حول صحة المجتمع الذي يعاني أمراض عدة شديدة .

إننا كمعتقلي رأي وضمير خائفون على مستقبل الوطن الذي نتمسك به وعلى مستقبل أطفالنا ومن حقنا المشاركة بصنع هذا المستقبل ولولا إبداء رأينا ولن نأل جهدا من أجل تحقيق مستقبل أفضل لهذا الوطن ولن يرهقنا التهديد والوعيد والقمع والقهر لا سنوات السجن الطويلة عن الاستمرار بما آمنا به وندرنا نفسنا له.

سجن عدرا 28-4-2007