 - The Code Pink organization has placed ads on the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, including one that asks readers to “join us in cleansing our country.”
- An Al-Qaeda bodyguard killed by a U.S. drone attack in North Waziristan is the son of a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in Jordan.
- The new Secretary-General of the Islamic Society of North America has a history of involvement with other Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations.
- Seven senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan have been charged with corruption over their management of Islamic charities.
 HERE'S a provocative thought: if it weren't for the 2004 tsunami, Western aid workers in Banda Aceh city would not be the target of politically motivated drive-by shootings, and women in West Aceh regency would be free to wear trousers. As of Friday, any Muslim woman in the regency will be forced to change into a government-supplied long skirt if she dares step outside in tight pants. And after she takes the trousers off - and dons a jilbab, or Muslim head scarf - they will be publicly shredded. The new laws will add to recently enacted provincial legislation prescribing stoning as punishment for adultery or homosexual relations. The laws have attracted scorn and support in equal measure in Indonesia, but even they are mere pointers to a climate of uncertainty far outweighing simple questions of how Aceh has gone about rebuilding since December 26, 2004, when 170,000 of the 230,000 lives lost in the tsunami were from Aceh. Major agencies including AusAid and the International Organisation for Migration, were humiliated when it was discovered that reconstruction projects they managed had used asbestos-laden building materials. In Banda Aceh, emergency barracks built to house the homeless are still inhabited - not by refugees, but by hopefuls from the sticks who want to try their luck at work in the capital. For government and aid agency workers, these grifters have stories of sorrow and official bungling keeping them from homes they claim are rightfully theirs. A good number of people, especially Indonesians and particularly Acehnese with strong business connections, profited handsomely from the aid contract money. Much of this profit was through legitimate dealings. But plenty of it was not. Critics of this have sometimes had a hard time accepting that while capitalism and democracy - the latter having only had its birth in Indonesia with the fall of Suharto in 1998 - go hand-in-hand, they often do so in opaque ways, and it was never going to be a simple matter of overlaying foreign business practices on an Indonesian system. Tensions over the expectations for aid money and the reality were inevitable. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in one of the early astute appointments of his presidency, directed former mining tzar Kuntoro Mangkusubroto to oversee a new cabinet-level body, the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency. The aim was not only to reduce corruption in the rebuilding effort but also to streamline the inefficient relationships between Indonesian government agencies. Dr Yudhoyono and his then-deputy, businessman Jusuf Kalla, also saw a grand political opportunity. They intervened in the civil war that had blighted Aceh for three decades. Dr Yudhoyono and Mr Kalla put themselves in serious consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize after an agreement to end the conflict was signed in Helsinki in 2005, leading to a self-governance deal for Aceh enjoyed by no other Indonesian province. This peace, and the political arrangements that flowed from it, would not have been possible without the tsunami. Indeed, the man elected governor in historic 2006 elections, former rebel fighter Irwandi Yusuf, was a political prisoner who escaped when the tsunami destroyed cell walls in the central Banda Aceh jail where he was held. The future leader's epic flight set him on a course that is only now being fully played out. The no-trousers edict is one of its manifestations. Sharia has become a watchword for Acehnese identity, even if, as Singapore-based analyst Farish A. Noor warns, its gradual imposition from within is in many ways a result of Jakarta's "complex and at times clumsy attempt to domesticate the forces of Acehnese resistance by playing the religious card". The shooting attacks on foreign aid workers are another manifestation of the contradictory tsunami recovery experience. Erhard Bauer, 50, the chief of the German Red Cross in Indonesia, was hit three times in the stomach and arm by two motorcycle-riding gunmen as he was being driven to the airport in early November. He survived after being flown to Singapore. Soon afterwards, the home of the European Union chief in Aceh, John Penny, was shot up while he and his wife were inside. And just a month ago gunmen opened fire on the home of two Americans who lecture in English literature at Banda Aceh's Syiah Kuala University. Mr Irwandi is furious, demanding privately that the Indonesian military, or TNI, pull its head in even as he knows full well he cannot accuse its leaders publicly. There is no direct proof that TNI elements are paying former Acehnese rebels - many now unemployed, and looking for new direction in their lives - to mount the attacks on foreign aid workers. There is no proof at all; but in the view of those from the well-informed Banda Aceh intelligentsia down to taxi drivers, there is little doubt that this is the TNI taking revenge on the former rebel party's almost clean sweep of power in the provincial elections, and showing its determination to steal things back. "The police believe it's the military, based on ballistics tests from the bullets used," political analyst Fajran Zein, from private policy think tank the Aceh Institute, told The Australian. "The assumption is it's intended to accelerate the departure of foreigners from Aceh." Indonesia's police and military have long been at each others' throats, of course, especially since the former were hived off from the military establishment in the immediate post-Suharto reforms. "All three attacks against foreigners are linked," spokesman Farid Ahmad Saleh said after the third shooting. "They were conducted by trained professionals . . . they want to terrorise foreigners working to heal Aceh." The rebuilding might be almost over, but by any political and civic measure, the building of Aceh has barely begun. The Australian
 by Dr. Irfan Al-Alawi
International Director, Center for Islamic Pluralism, UK Within its borders, extraordinary sophistication in technology and medicine, financed by energy wealth, are found alongside such retrograde practices as a ban on women driving. (That prohibition will, we are told, be lifted within the 15 square-mile precincts of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology [KAUST], (pictured) the preeminent current reform project.) Forbidding women drivers, aside from its primitive nature, conflicts with realities on the ground: 80,000 Saudi women own motor vehicles but cannot operate them. Two recent media interviews with mayors from the cities of Mecca and Jeddah emphasise how a corrupt and chaotic approach to supposed modernisation discredits the future benefits Saudi subjects trust King Abdullah to deliver for them. First, the kingdom continues with an ambitious and confused campaign for the transformation of Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, into a megalopolis. The stated object of this effort is to improve services for the annual hajj pilgrimage to the city – one of five duties incumbent on all Muslims if they possess the means and physical capacity to perform it. Hajj began November 25 with the participation of more than 1.5 million Saudi and foreign pilgrims, and continued for five days. At the commencement of the hajj, the Al-Jazeera English service produced a cheerful feature in which Osama Al-Bar, the mayor of Mecca, anticipated spending $125 million over the next ten years on 40 urban improvement projects. These include expansion of the Grand Mosque in Mecca as well as new roads and “megaprojects” involving housing and other infrastructure. Unfortunately, a grandiose “Manhattanisation of Mecca” would devastate the architectural heritage of the sacred city. Mayor Al-Bar was asked, “There’re some criticisms with all of this development that Mecca is losing some of its history, that maybe everything is becoming too modern. Do you think that criticism is fair?” The mayor answered with unexpected candor. Yes, he admitted, the area of the Grand Mosque happens to occupy “the area of Mecca in older days – for centuries,” meaning, the part of the city that a municipal officer in any other country, presumably charged with preservation of cultural legacy, would first seek to protect. But in the outlook of Mecca’s mayor, a new system of transport for hajj pilgrims comes before the spiritual character of the city the hajjis have come to visit. Al-Bar declared baldly, “You have to balance how you can accommodate more people, more hajjis coming to Mecca to do the fifth pillar of Islam. With these very narrow roads and very historical areas, you cannot.” Such is the cultural posture of Wahhabism, the official sect in Saudi Arabia: the cultural birthright of Islamic Arabia is secondary to accommodation of ever-expanding crowds. The hajj will take place in an environment from which its traditions will be absent. But this year’s hajj also exposed the inconsistency between the Saudi obsession with extravagant expansion as proof of progress and the bad conditions suffered in their daily lives by Saudi subjects. The first day of the pilgrimage, exceptionally heavy rains fell on Jeddah, the city north of Mecca where most hajjis come from abroad by air. Thirteen people were drowned by floods in Jeddah, main roads were obstructed, and bridges collapsed. In Mecca itself, power failed in some districts. Adel Faqih, the mayor of Jeddah, interviewed by the English-language daily Saudi Gazette on November 29, disclosed that his administration, serving the main gateway to the kingdom for business and other travelers as well as hajj pilgrims, was utterly unprepared for the natural disaster. Saudi Gazette reporter Abdulaziz Ghazzawi hammered the mayor of Jeddah, who blamed the deadly floods on the limited capacity of the drainage system. The questioning went like this: Saudi Gazette reporter: “The situation is terrible in flood-hit districts, the Haramain Highway, and the road to Misk Lake where the sewage tankers dump their cargo. How are you going to deal with this?” Mayor of Jeddah: “The Jeddah Mayoralty has completed an emergency plan with a package of temporary solutions…” Saudi Gazette reporter: “Excuse me. Did you say temporary while the city is drowning?” Jeddah mayor Faqih then sputtered through more excuses, declaring the situation was under examination, and that neighbourhoods where floodwater had not been pumped out “are unplanned and most of the buildings there violate basic construction engineering.” In plain words, the mayor blamed the failure of the city administration to anticipate disasters on residents living without proper regulation, when the anomalous situation of the people would better be laid at the door of corrupt municipal officials.
Mayor Faqih had to contend with further, shocking facts from reporter Ghazzawi, who warned that the polluted Misk Lake was close to overflowing its sand barriers. The mayor replied blandly that such an outcome was impossible. But the reporter kept up a rapid fire of challenges, noting that a flooded highway underpass had apparently been erected without adequate provision for drainage, and that “The government has pumped billions of riyals into the infrastructure of this city, but it is still shaky. Where did the money go? Where are the projects?” the reporter insisted. Jeddah’s mayor was reduced to blaming his own administration’s failings, which resulted in loss of life as well as serious disruption of the city, on his predecessors. These two interviews, appearing almost simultaneously, with two Saudi mayors, illuminate the crisis of the kingdom. The mayor of Mecca is prepared to devastate the historic quarters of the holy city in the name of improved transport; the mayor of Jeddah blames the devastation of his city by flood on uncontrolled, unrealized promises of development. Both offer the people of their country fantasies of rapid transformation that contain within them more problems and worse consequences. Until the people of the kingdom attain the full right to assess, approve, and disapprove policies governing development, spiritual values as well as human lives will be vulnerable to corruption and whim. Hudson New York 
 AFGHAN legislators have complained that President Hamid Karzai's proposed cabinet is inexperienced and beholden to warlords - opposition that threatens to slow the reform Western allies say is essential to beating the Taliban. The US embassy made only neutral comments after the nomination list was presented to parliament over the weekend, but gave no assessment of the nominees. Britain issued a more positive assessment. Mr Karzai's list was seen as a test of his commitment to cleaning up corruption in his government, anger over which fuels the Taliban insurgency. The Afghan leader has come under mounting criticism over his stewardship since the fraud-marred August election and the decision by US President Barack Obama to send 30,000 more troops to try to break the Taliban momentum. Mr Karzai kept US favourites in several posts critical to the war and reconstruction - including the ministries of defence, interior and finance - and jettisoned the heads of two ministries embroiled in corruption probes. "If this cabinet gets a confidence vote from the parliament of Afghanistan, it would not be able to put medicine on the injuries of the Afghan people," Gul Pacha Mujedi, a parliamentarian from Paktia province, said yesterday. Khaled Pashtun, a legislator from Kandahar, added: "My fear and that of many MPs is that they maybe are the puppets of those warlords, so that despite that they are considered civilised people and more educated people, they cannot implement their own ideas and initiatives." A presidential spokesman said Mr Karzai made his decision in consultation with international officials and Afghan political figures but was beholden to neither. "He has listened to the international community and various political parties, but the final decision was made by the President," spokesman Waheed Omar said, adding that Mr Karzai was confident the new team would implement reforms to root out corruption.It is not clear when parliament will vote on the nominees, and the dismay expressed by legislators indicates long and heated argument before approval. That would keep political tensions high and frustrate international allies impatient for reform. "We look forward to the lower house of parliament carrying out their duty to vet and approve candidates who will contribute to Afghanistan's progress towards institutional reform, security, and prosperity," said US embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden. Britain's mission in Kabul "is upbeat about the cabinet nominations and thinks that this is a government that we will be able to do business with", embassy spokesman Paul Norris said. The Australian
 Islamist elements in Pakistan’s military unhappy with President Asif Zardari are reported to be plotting to remove their country’s civilian government and replace it with a military dictatorship. Two days after General David Petraeus, chief of US Central Command, dismissed fears of an imminent military coup, Pakistan’s defense minister, Ahmed Mukhtar, was prevented Thursday evening by border officials from leaving the country to visit China.
According to one report, there are 248 such names on the border authorities’ list, including other high-ranking government members, of Pakistanis now denied exit rights. The ostensible reason for Mukhtar’s detainment was that he, and other ministers of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), is facing corruption charges and a possible jail term. Last Wednesday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court struck down the amnesty, called the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which protected them and 8,000 other bureaucrats from prosecution, reviving old charges.
The Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the 2007 NRO amnesty that paved the way for Zardari’s murdered wife and then PPP leader, Benazir Bhutto, to return to Pakistan. With the Supreme Court’s ruling, several ministers are now expected to resign, endangering the survival of the Zardari civilian government. Opposition parties are also calling for Zardari himself to step down, but he has presidential immunity from prosecution. The Supreme Court’s NRO ruling, though, is expected to leave Pakistan’s president open to legal proceedings regarding his eligibility as a candidate in last year’s election. Columnist and former Pakistani activist Tarek Fatah writes that “religious right–wing backers of the Taliban and al Qaeda” in Pakistan’s military-industrial complex are behind this destruction of the Zardari government by legal means. “Working from within the government, military intelligence was able to coax a junior minister to release a list of supposedly corrupt politicians and public officials in the country,” wrote Fatah. “Leading them was Mr. Zardari himself – notwithstanding the fact that before he was elected president, he had been imprisoned for more than a decade by the military without a single conviction.” Zardari came to office a year ago last August, taking over from disgraced military ruler Pervez Musharraf who resigned under threat of impeachment. Musharraf had come to power after staging the last military coup against a civilian president in 1999. Pakistan has been ruled by military leaders for about half of its 62 year history, so military takeovers are almost a part of the political fabric. Army rule usually lasts about a decade before a civilian government is re-established which lasts an almost equal length of time. The current military threat to civilian rule is somewhat unusual, as Zardari has been in office only a year and four months. A main reason for the military coups, though, is that the civilian politicians’ corruption and incompetence eventually become too ruinous for the country. More at FPM
 PAKISTAN'S Supreme Court has thrown the government into further turmoil by overruling an amnesty protecting President Asif Ali Zardari, ministers and 8000 bureaucrats from prosecution. The decision effectively revives thousands of criminal and corruption charges against public officials quashed under the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance, including a money-laundering case pending against Mr Zardari in Swiss courts. While Mr Zardari enjoys presidential immunity from prosecution, the judgment leaves at least 30 politicians, including close ally and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar and thousands of bureaucrats vulnerable to jail terms. However, the Supreme Court's late-night ruling is expected to pave the way for a legal challenge to Mr Zardari's eligibility to contest last year's presidential elections and his constitutional immunity. That view was backed by former chief justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqqi, who said the constitution did not protect a president from cases brought in foreign countries. Pressure on the unpopular President is now mounting, with opposition parties calling for him to step down within minutes of the verdict. Mr Zardari's chief spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said yesterday: "There is no question of the President resigning". The party was prepared to "face any fallout" from the verdict, he added. A 17-member bench of the Supreme Court found the controversial NRO introduced by former president Pervez Musharraf in 2007 was unconstitutional. "(The) promulgation of the NRO seems to be against the national interest . . . thus it violates various provisions of the constitution," Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said. The petition to overrule the NRO has thrown up hugely damaging evidence against the President, including claims he amassed assets worth $US1.5 billion during his slain wife Benazir Bhutto's time as prime minister. Documents provided by the National Accountability Bureau to the Supreme Court alleged Mr Zardari was facing charges of amassing assets beyond his means, including six cases of kickbacks and misuse of power, when General Musharraf introduced the NRO in October 2007. A bureau official said about $US60m received in alleged illegal commissions had been deposited in Swiss bank accounts held by Mr Zardari and Bhutto. The court has ordered the government to ask the Swiss courts immediately to revive their action against Mr Zardari and reinstate the Pakistan government as a damaged party in the case. But the judgment was scathing of the bureau's officials, accusing them of a lack of impartiality and calling for their replacement. It ordered a special cell of the Supreme Court to monitor all resumed corruption and criminal cases. Mr Zardari earned himself the unflattering moniker "Mr 10 Per Cent" during his wife's time in power, because of his rumoured demands for kickbacks, and spent 11 years in jail while facing trial on corruption and murder charges. He was released on bail in 2004. The NRO amnesty, which covered 3478 cases ranging from murder, embezzlement and write-offs of bank loans worth millions of dollars, was part of a deal brokered by the US and Britain that allowed Bhutto to return from exile and seal a power-sharing deal with the military ruler. She was assassinated two months later, leaving Mr Zardari to lead her Pakistan People's Party to victory in national polls in February last year. Meanwhile, the government is also under pressure from the US to expand its campaign to target Afghan Taliban leaders believed to be harbouring within its territory. The New York Times reported yesterday that Pakistani military and intelligence services appeared to be retaliating with a harassment campaign against US diplomats, refusing to extend or approve visas for more than 100 officials. One diplomat said the harassment campaign had led to the forced suspension of several US aid programs. The Australian
Afghanistan has come under increasing international pressure to tackle government corruption, seen as a major stumbling block to the country's development.
 By ZAHID HUSSAIN ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari holds $1.5 billion in assets across the world, Pakistan's main anticorruption body alleged in a report delivered Tuesday to the country's Supreme Court. The court is considering the constitutionality of an amnesty protecting the embattled leader and thousands of other officials from corruption charges.
The National Accountability Bureau, a politically independent government investigative body, gave the court a list of allegations involving Mr. Zardari, following a request by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Mr. Zardari's spokesman denied the allegations and said the asset list was inaccurate and fabricated to victimize Mr. Zardari. "Reports of $1.5 billion of national and foreign assets allegedly belonging to President Zardari are no more than a regurgitation of decade-old unproven politically motivated allegations," said Farhatullah Babar, the chief spokesman for the president. The court will also consider whether a presidential immunity provided by the constitution applies to cases of alleged corruption that took place before Mr. Zardari took office last year. The hearings could open the way for challenges to the legality of Mr. Zardari's presidency, constitutional law experts said.
That would add further tension in Pakistan at a time when the U.S. ally has been hit by a series of militant attacks across country. On Tuesday, suspected Islamist militants launched a gun, rocket and suicide attack on an intelligence office in the central Pakistan city of Multan, killing 12 people. The raid came a day after twin bombings at a market in the eastern city of Lahore killed 49. Tuesday's attack ripped the facades off several buildings in a part of the town largely reserved for government and security agencies. Also damaged was a building housing an office of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. The National Accountability Bureau alleged that Mr. Zardari accumulated wealth "beyond his means." The bureau said Mr. Zardari owned properties and bank accounts in the U.S., U.K., Spain and several other countries. This wealth was largely accumulated while his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was serving as prime minister in the 1990s, investigators said. They alleged the money had come from kickbacks and commissions on government deals. Mr. Zardari spent a total of 11 years in jail in Pakistan while facing trial for corruption and murder charges. He was released on bail in 2004 and allowed to leave the country. Six cases against him remained open, relating to alleged corruption. Those charges were dropped under an amnesty enforced in October 2007. The amnesty, which was brokered by the U.S. and U.K., was introduced through a decree by former President Pervez Musharraf under a deal that paved the way for Ms. Bhutto to return home from self-imposed exile. Ms. Bhutto was assassinated two months later, leaving Mr. Zardari to lead her party to victory in general elections in February 2008 and then become president after Gen. Musharraf resigned in August 2008. A 17-member bench of the Supreme Court on Monday began hearing appeals by two political opponents of Mr. Zardari against the amnesty, which expired on Nov. 28 when an effort to renew it failed in Parliament. The anticorruption body's report said Mr. Zardari had bought properties in the U.S., Britain, Spain, France and other countries through offshore companies he owned and through frontmen, according to Retired Lt. Gen. Shahid Aziz, a former chief of the National Accountability Bureau who resigned in July 2007 to protest the termination of investigations into Mr. Zardari's activities. In the largest single payment, investigators said they had discovered a company dealing in gold in the Middle East deposited at least $10 million into an account controlled by Mr. Zardari after the Bhutto government gave the dealer a monopoly on gold imports. The money was then deposited into several bank accounts of companies owned by Mr. Zardari, investigators said. Charges in the case were dropped with the amnesty in 2007, and the gold dealer denied wrongdoing. WSJ
 New claims of corruption will hang over Hamid Karzai today as he tries to use his inauguration to persuade Western allies that he is capable of changing his ways and arresting Afghanistan’s downward spiral. Every word from the Afghan leader, when he speaks to about 300 foreign dignitaries at his inauguration ceremony in Kabul, will be scrutinised in London and Washington for evidence that he is serious about tackling abuses of power and that he can turn the tide in the war against the Taleban. Hopes of an end to corruption were put into doubt last night when the Minister of Mines was forced to deny that he had accepted a $30 million bribe from a Chinese company two years ago in exchange for awarding a $2.9 billion contract for a copper mine in Logar province. Mohammed Ibrahim Adel denied the allegations, about Afghanistan’s biggest foreign investment project, in The Washington Post, which quoted US sources. It is not clear whether he will be in Mr Karzai’s next Government. Thousands of soldiers and police sealed off the city and today has been declared a public holiday. Main roads in Kabul have been closed and the airport will be shut to civilian traffic. The preparations have added to the sense that this will be more than a routine swearing-in ceremony. Mr Karzai was declared the winner from elections in August only after weeks of dispute. He failed to reach the 50 per cent needed to win after a third of his votes were rejected as fraudulent and won only after Dr Abdullah Abdullah stood down. Journalists are barred from the ceremony amid suspicions that the President does not want the public to know which figures have been invited. One person that none of the foreign dignitaries will want to be seen with is Ahmed Wali Karzai, the President’s brother, who has become a symbol of everything that is wrong with the administration. He is one of the most powerful people in the country despite being only a member of the Kandahar provincial council. He has been linked to Afghanistan’s drugs industry. More at Times Online
 KABUL – Most Afghans see not Taliban militants but poverty, unemployment and government corruption as the main causes of war in their country, according to a report by a leading aid group released on Wednesday. After three decades of war, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. It is also one of the most corrupt. Unemployment stands at 40 percent and more than half the country live below the poverty line. On top of that, violence is at its highest levels since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001. The report, based on a survey of more than 700 ordinary Afghans by British charity Oxfam and several local aid groups, found that 70 percent of people questioned viewed poverty and unemployment as the main drivers of the conflict. Nearly half of those surveyed said corruption and the ineffectiveness of their government were the main reasons for the continued fighting, while 36 percent said the Taliban insurgency was to blame. The 704 respondents from around the country were allowed to give multiple answers on reasons for the conflict. "The people of Afghanistan have suffered 30 years of unrelenting horror. Afghan society has been devastated," said Grace Ommer, Oxfam Country Director for Afghanistan. "Repairing this damage can't be done overnight. It will take a long time for the economic, social and psychological scars to heal ... Afghanistan needs more than military solutions," she said in statement. There are some 110,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, 68,000 of them American, trying to quell a strengthening Taliban insurgency that has spread to previously peaceful areas. U.S. President Barack Obama is in the final stages of deciding whether to send up to 40,000 more U.S. troops. But ordinary Afghans are frustrated at the slow pace of development, endemic corruption and the inability of Afghan and international security forces to stop the violence. Despite the billions of dollars in aid poured into the country, most Afghans have seen few changes to their lives. Afghanistan relies on aid for around 90 percent of its spending. "Many individuals felt that though much had been promised to the Afghan people, little had actually been delivered -- creating frustration and disillusionment and ultimately undermining stability," Oxfam said in its report. "Individuals called for better measures to ensure that economic development and aid reach those who need it the most," it said. After the Taliban, the reason most people gave for the continued fighting in their country was foreign interference, 25 percent of respondents saying other countries were to blame. Yahoo News
 Making his first public appearance Tuesday since being declared the winner in a disputed election, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai vowed to stamp out corruption and work with the Taliban in his third term in office. "Afghanistan is accused with mass corruption. I will try to clean it up," Karzai said. After three decades of war, Afghanistan faces challenges, he said. "It is stepping forward towards a more institutional legal order while still struggling against terrorism and the menaces that affect us all. We are aware of difficulties of our governance and the environment in which we live. We'll keep trying to do our best to address the questions ... facing Afghanistan," he said. In addressing the nation's insecurity, Karzai said he would engage the Taliban. "The call for peace, the call for security of Afghanistan is one of the main desires of the Afghan people," Karzai said. "I would also call to the Taliban to ... join the government ... with respect to the Afghan constitution." Read more here,,,, Source: CNN
 A human rights group says a Syrian court has sentenced a blogger to three years in prison for "spreading false news that weakens the nation's morals." The National Organization for Human Rights said Monday that Karim Antoine Arbaji, a 31-year-old who writes frequently about corruption in the country, was sentenced a day earlier. NOHR said Arbaji has been repeatedly summoned by the agency over his writings, and was detained in 2007. NOHR did not specify what prompted his conviction. The group called on Syria to free its political prisoners. Since coming to power in 2000, President Bashar Assad has freed political prisoners and passed laws aimed at liberalizing the state-controlled economy. But he has also clamped down on political activists. Source: JPost
 By Ghassan Rubeiz Arabs face stubborn obstacles to social change. They recognize their problems but do not settle on alternatives; and they are worried about replacing their autocratic political regimes. Change, they fear, may lead to even worse circumstances. Responding to the challenge, Arab scholars have collaborated over the past seven years in examining the causes of societal underachievement. They have studied a range of issues: governance, the economy, gender, poverty, education, environment, health, and conflict. Their conclusions, published starting in 2002 in successive UN Human Development Reports, under the auspices of the United Nations Development Program, have been seminal but also short on effective action for reform. The UNDP reports have forecast continued deterioration in the wellbeing of the Arab community. The major findings of the 2009 report were released on July 21. The document revolves around the concept of personal insecurity. Its underlying thesis is that citizens facing intense personal stress can not change their circumstances for the better. The findings of the 2009 report spell danger and call for intervention. Arab regimes are in constant search for legitimacy and do not receive much support from their peoples in this regard. Arab countries score low on political freedoms and high on corruption. Regimes threaten the security of their citizens. The legal environment for non-governmental organizations is too restrictive. In six countries political parties are utterly forbidden. Emergency law is declared to justify police-state activities. Elections are predictable and manipulated. Rulers stay in office for long periods. Read more here ... Source: Al Arabiya
 By Erik Larson Aug 8, 2009, Sibel Edmonds gave a sworn deposition in which she testified to her knowledge of treasonous crimes and corruption involving current and former members of Congress and State and Defense Dept. officials. Given the nature of the deposition, the lines of questioning focused on Turkish espionage and services obtained through bribery and blackmail by Turkish officials and proxies. However, Edmonds has previously disclosed that the corruption involving U.S. officials also includes money laundering, trafficking in drugs, arms and nuclear secrets, U.S. support for Bin Laden/Al Qaeda, and obstruction of FBI investigations related to 9/11, before and after the attacks; she said these things came up “briefly” during the deposition. Edmonds learned of these things from wiretaps she listened to while working as a translator for the FBI in 2001-2002. Video coverage from VelvetRevolution.us and BradBlog.comEdmonds' Aug 8 testimony was subpoenaed by David Krikorian (Democratic 2010 Congressional candidate- OH) to support his defense against a lawsuit brought by Jean Schmidt, R-OH. Krikorian had circulated a flier in his 2008 campaign in which he alleged that Schmidt had accepted “blood money” from Turkish interests in exchange for opposing a Congressional resolution acknowledging the Turkish genocide of Armenians in World War I. The deposition took place in Washington, DC at the headquarters of the National Whistleblower Center. Read more ...Source: Now PublicSibel Edmonds
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 But a vote to renew the governing bodies of the secular movement was delayed again and re-scheduled to take place today. More than 2000 delegates at the congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem unanimously raised hands in favour of Mr Abbas, who took over as party chief after the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat. The convention, which started on Tuesday and had been due to last three days, was extended after bitter arguments between the old guard and young delegates seeking a stronger role and broad reform. Saturday's discussions centred on ways to clean up the corruption-plagued party and offer an alternative to their bitter rivals in the Islamist Hamas movement. Debate focused on how to restore Abbas's authority in Gaza after Hamas seized control of the enclave in June 2007, routing Fatah forces and limiting Mr Abbas's power to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority, exercised undivided power among Palestinians before it lost heavily to Hamas in a 2006 parliamentary election. In a new sign of the continued rivalry between the factions, Fatah accused Hamas on Friday of briefly detaining a number of its senior leaders in Gaza. Infighting and corruption allegations have further weakened Fatah, which was founded by Arafat in the late 1950s.
Source: The Australian
 The show was less than impressive. Despite efforts by the Ansar Hezbollah (Militants of the Party of God) and security services to manufacture a large crowd, the massive Maydan Vali-Asr (Hidden Imam Square) was unfilled. The official news agency put the number at "several hundred thousands" while eyewitnesses reported tens of thousands. Even then, scuffles broke out on the fringes of the crowd as groups of dissidents tried to force their way in with cries of Marg bar diktator! (death to the dictator). That slogan may be on its way to replacing the normal greeting of salaam (peace) in parts of urban Iran. No one knows exactly how much electoral fraud took place. The entire process was tightly controlled by the Ministry of Interior under Sadeq Mahsouli, a general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and a senior aide to Ahmadinejad. There was no independent election commission, no secret balloting, no observers to supervise the counting of the votes, and no mechanism for verification. It is impossible to know how many people voted and for whom. Ahmadinejad was credited with more votes than anyone in Iran's history. If the results are to be believed, he won in all 30 provinces, and among all social and age categories. His three rivals, all dignitaries of the regime, were humiliated by losing even in their own home towns. This was an unprecedented result even for the Islamic Republic, where elections have always been carefully scripted charades. Many in Tehran, including leading clerics, see the exercise as a putsch by the military-security organs that back Ahmadinejad. Several events make these allegations appear credible. The state-owned Fars News Agency declared Ahmadinejad to have won with a two-thirds majority even before the first official results had been tabulated by the Interior Ministry. Ahmadinejad's main rival, former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, retaliated by declaring himself the winner. That triggered a number of street demonstrations, followed with statements by prominent political and religious figures endorsing Mousavi's claim. Then something unprecedented happened. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all issues of national life, published a long statement hailing Ahmadinejad's "historic victory" as "a great celebration". This was the first time since 1989, when he became Supreme Leader, that Khamenei commented on the results of a presidential election without waiting for the publication of official results. Some analysts in Tehran tell me the military-security elite, now controlling the machinery of the Iranian state, persuaded Khamenei to make the move. A detailed study of Khamenei's text reveals a number of anomalies. It is longer than his usual statements and full of expressions that he has never used before. The praise he showers on Ahmadinejad is simply too much. The question arises: did someone use the Supreme Leader as a rubber stamp for a text written by Ahmadinejad himself? With Khamenei's intervention, Ahmadinejad's three defeated rivals are unlikely to contest the results of the election beyond lodging formal protests to the Council of the Guardians, a 12-mullah body that has the legal duty of endorsing the final results. Buoyed by his victory, Ahmadinejad has already served notice that he intends to pursue his radical policies with even greater vigour. At yesterday's rally, he promised to pass a law enabling him to bring "the godfathers of corruption" to justice. His entourage insists that former presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammed Khatami, and former parliament speaker Nateq Nouri may be among the first to fall in a massive purge of the ruling elite. It is too early to guess whether these dignitaries would march to the metaphorical gallows without a fight. Even if they fight, they are unlikely to win. Nevertheless, Rafsanjani, Khatami and other targeted mullahs could influence others who wish to prevent a complete seizure of power by Ahmadinejad's military-security clique, which is determined to replace the Shia clergy as the nation's ruling elite. Nor is it at all certain that Khamenei would stand by and watch his power eroded by a rising elite. Ahmadinejad also plans to seize the assets of hundreds of mullahs and their business associates for redistribution among the poor. In his speech at his victory rally he promised to "dismantle the network of corruption," and vowed never to negotiate about Iran's nuclear program with any foreign power: "That file is shut, forever," he said. Ahmadinejad's victory has several immediate consequences. First, it should kill the illusion that the Khomeinist regime is capable of evolution towards moderation. Ahmadinejad sees Iran as a vehicle for a messianic global revolution. Second, the election eliminates the elements within the regime - men such as Mousavi and Mahdi Karrubi (another of the three unsuccessful candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad) - who have pursued the idea of keeping the theocracy intact while giving it a veneer of democratic practice. According to a statement published yesterday by Mostafa Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister who was among 132 anti-Ahmadinejad activists arrested over the weekend, the regime's "loyal opposition" would now have to reconsider its loyalty. With Iranian Gorbachev wannabes such as Khatami and Mousavi discredited, advocates of regime change such as former interior minister Abdullah Nouri and former Tehran University chancellor Muhammad Sheybani look set to attract a good segment of the opposition within the establishment. Ahmadinejad's victory has the merit of clarifying the situation within the Islamic Republic. The choice is now between a repressive regime based on a bizarre and obscurantist ideology and the prospect of real change and democratisation. There is no halfway house. The same clarity may apply to Tehran's foreign policy. Believing that he has already defeated the US, Ahmadinejad will be in no mood for compromise. Moments after his victory he described the US as a "crippled creature" and invited President Barack Obama to a debate at the UN General Assembly, ostensibly to examine "the injustice done by world arrogance to Muslim nations". Iran's neighbours are unlikely to welcome Ahmadinejad's re-election. He has reactivated pro-Iranian groups in a number of Arab countries, notably Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. He is determined to expand Tehran's influence in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially as the US retreats. He has also made it clear that he intends to help the Lebanese Hezbollah strengthen its position as a state within the state and a vanguard in the struggle against Israel. Even Latin America is likely to receive Ahmadinejad's attention. The first foreign leader to phone to congratulate the re-elected Iranian leader was Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, whose "brotherly message" received headline treatment from the state-controlled media in Tehran. Later this year, Ahmadinejad plans to attend the summit of the non-aligned movements in Cairo to claim its leadership, according to Iran's official news agency, with a message of "unity against the American Great Satan" and its allies in the region. Buoyed by his dubious victory, Ahmadinejad appears itching for a fight on two fronts. He thinks he can have his way at home and abroad. As usual in history, hubris may turn out to be his undoing. Amir Taheri's new book, The Persian Night: Iran Under the Khomeinist Revolution is published by Encounter Books. Source: The Australian
 SYDNEY, Australia
A Jewish Australian lawmaker slammed a United Nations agency that administers aid for Palestinian refugees as "notoriously corrupt."
Michael Danby, a longstanding pro-Israel Labor legislator, in a blistering speech Wednesday in federal parliament in Canberra, said Australia's $30 million in funding for Palestinians since 2007, largely through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was being "diverted to arms purchases, terrorist operations and anti-Israel incitement, as well as into the pockets of the Palestinian Authority leadership."
"It is a betrayal of that generosity [by Australians] for this money to be wasted, stolen or misspent on rockets, guns, terrorism or incitement to hatred," Danby said.
Stressing that he was not opposed to humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians, "who have suffered over the past decade from the chronic corruption and mismanagement of the P.A.," Danby said UNRWA had "been maintained by the anti-Israel majority at the U.N. for purely political reasons."
"Most Western donor countries have been reluctant, for obvious political reasons, to call the P.A. or the U.N. to account for the theft and waste of their taxpayers' money in the morass of corruption and political extremism that is Palestinian politics," Danby said.
"The British government, however, has recently indicated that it is unwilling to tolerate this any longer. Other governments should take a similar stand." Source: JTA H/T: Gig
By Asaf Romirowsky An Islamic group came to Temple University last spring with an offer to provide $1.5 million for an endowed chair in Islamic studies to honor religion professor Mahmoud Ayoub. After months of talks, the deal never got off the ground, once trustees and others raised concerns about the contributor, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a nonprofit research group that had been under scrutiny as part of a government probe into the funding of suspected terrorists. Some would like to consider money given by Saudis and other Arab nations to American universities as generous gifts to those U.S. universities who have educated their elites. A closer look reveals a different picture that includes incitement, anti-Semitism and a skewed view of Islam. Read more ...Source: Jewish Exponent H/T: FrontPage Magazine
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