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up against the Shia
Suddenly, just about everyone (at least among the Sunni
elements in the Middle East) is lining up to support Yemen and Saudi Arabia in their war with the Houthi rebels – even al-Qaeda.
"We have a war of rhetoric and a lot of people with vested interest want to make this into a proxy fight [against Iran],"
one analyst tells The
National newspaper.
The Arab League says it rejects "undermining the sovereignty of the Republic of Yemen and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia".
The Gulf Cooperation Council says Yemen is its "most important neighbour" and will continue to support it "in countering threats".
Egypt has "reaffirmed the full solidarity of the leadership, government and people of Egypt with the government and people of Yemen against the elements of sabotage and terrorism in Saada."
Kuwait – not noted for success in defending its own borders – "stands ready to support Saudi Arabia in preventing any further attacks".
A group linked to al-Qaeda has also called on Sunni Muslims in Yemen and Saudi Arabia to "fight Iran-backed Shiite rebels". In a recording on the internet, Mohamed bin Abdul Rahman al-Rashid, who is on the Saudi list of most-wanted terror suspects, said: "Shiite Iran poses [a more] extreme danger to Sunnis of Yemen and Saudi Arabia than Jews or Christians. Driven by a greed to take over Muslim countries, Shiite Iran has long been plotting to install a Hizbullah-like group to occupy areas at the joint-border of Yemen and Saudi Arabia."
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister said: "We strongly advise regional and
neighbouring states not to interfere in Yemen's internal affairs and try to restore peace and stability to the state ... Those who choose to fuel the flames of conflict must know that the fire will reach them."
Yemen, not surprisingly, declined Iran's offer to help "restore security". A
foreign ministry source said it "definitely rejects the interference in its internal affairs by any party" (unless, of course, they are
supporting the regime).
Two Arab countries with large Shia communities – Iraq and Lebanon – seem to be keeping quiet. The radical Iraqi Shia leader, Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army have allegedly been providing the Houthis with some assistance.
In Kuwait, there are claims
that "religious groups" (presumably from the Shia minority) "have been supporting the rebels financially and through the media".
In Bahrain (Sunni-ruled but with a Shia majority), the opposition al-Wafaq party abstained from a parliamentary vote expressing support for Saudi actions against the Houthi rebels. One of the Shia party's MPs
told Asharq al-Awsat: "We do not want to involve ourselves in the Yemeni problem ... this is a complicated and internal Yemeni issue."
On Tuesday, the official Yemeni news agency announced the
signing of a "military cooperation" deal with the United States. Few details have been revealed and the Yemenis are possibly exaggerating its importance. There has long been military/security collaboration between the two countries in connection with al-Qaeda but the official US position on the Houthi conflict is that it will not be resolved militarily.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 12 November 2009.
challenge to Saudi state
Yemen's Houthi rebels drew up a plan two years ago to establish a Shia state embracing parts of northern Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia, according to one of the movement's former leaders
quoted in the Yemen Post.
The state would include all of Saada province together with large areas of al-Jawf, Marib and Hajja in Yemen, plus large areas of Najran and Jizan in Saudi Arabia, "as a first
step", the paper said.
Whatever the motives of the ex-leader (identified as "Abu Sulaiman") for saying this now, the story is certainly intriguing in the light of Saudi Arabia's increasingly public military embroilment in the conflict.
There has been much talk in the past about the Houthis wanting a separate state in Yemen (which may be one of several alternative options) but as far as I'm aware this is the first suggestion that such a state would aspire to include parts of Saudi
Arabia too.
It would not be very surprising if the Houthis were indeed thinking along these
lines, however. As I pointed out last week, there are strong affinities between the Zaidi Shia in northern Yemen and many of their neighbours across the border in Saudi Arabia – a shared sense of ethnicity, shared religion and long-term marginalisation.
That does not necessarily mean the Houthi rebels have supporters or sympathisers within the kingdom but it's a possibility that the Saudi authorities
must surely be considering.
Meanwhile, the Saudis are said to have "imposed a naval blockade on the Red Sea coast of northern Yemen to stem the flow of weapons and fighters", though it is unclear how extensive or effective this will be. With numerous islands dotted around the sea in the vicinity, plus lots of small fishing boats and others bringing refugees from Africa, it's probably quite difficult to police.
The Saudi navy is also quite
small, and split between the Gulf and the Red Sea.
A strongly-worded editorial in the Yemen Post suggests the Saudis will get a bloody nose from taking on the Houthis, and that Yemen's president can now sit back and watch it happen:
The headache of the last five years has suddenly turned into the gift that Salih always dreamed of having, making Saudi pay for its mistakes against Yemen.
Even though we respect Saudi Arabia, we cannot hide the fact that they are the main reason for the sectarian clashes in Saada between Houthis, Zaidis, and the Saudi-supported Wahhabis.
The headache of the last five years has suddenly turned into the gift that Salih always dreamed of having, making Saudi pay for its mistakes against Yemen.
Even though we respect Saudi Arabia, we cannot hide the fact that they are the main reason for the sectarian clashes in Saada between Houthis, Zaidis, and the Saudi-supported Wahhabis.
One of the factors underlying the conflict
is Zaidi resentment at the spread of Wahhabi/Salafi influences
from Saudi Arabia in their area.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 11 November 2009.
heritage industry
Uncovering the past is one thing, but turning it into politicised "heritage" is something else. The National
reports the arrival of 13 Polish archaeologists in Kuwait for a "rescue mission" before history is buried under a $77billion megaproject known as City of Silk:
Piotr Bielinski, the director of the research institute who is heading the excavations, said the Poles were on an "intellectual mission", but because Kuwaitis use archaeology to build a national identity, there is also a political angle.
Mr Bielinski said archaeology in Kuwait was given a boost in 1991 after the allied forces ended the Iraqi occupation ... He said the Kuwaitis started to legitimise their statehood by "looking for particular features of their civilisation".
Piotr Bielinski, the director of the research institute who is heading the excavations, said the Poles were on an "intellectual mission", but because Kuwaitis use archaeology to build a national identity, there is also a political angle.
Mr Bielinski said archaeology in Kuwait was given a boost in 1991 after the allied forces ended the Iraqi occupation ... He said the Kuwaitis started to legitimise their statehood by "looking for particular features of their civilisation".
But you don't need an archaeologist to dig up the relevant
Wikipedia page to find that the Sabah family, who preside over this ancient civilisation, arrived from Nejd (in modern-day Saudi Arabia) as recently as the 18th century.
Saudis admit attacks in Yemen
Saudi Arabia has now admitted what the Houthi rebels have long claimed and the Yemeni government has long denied: it is engaged in cross-border military action in Yemen.
The admission, which was possibly accidental, came when Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the deputy
defence minister, visited troops in Jizan province earlier today.
"We are not going to stop the bombing until the Houthis retreat tens of kilometers inside their border," the prince said in remarks
reported by the Saudi TV channel, al-Arabiya.
Clearly, pursuing the rebels for tens of
kilometers beyond the frontier line cannot be achieved without cross-border action.
Al-Arabiya also said that one of the Saudi soldiers earlier reported missing had "returned to the kingdom" on Monday with important maps and other military documents. It did not say from which country he returned but, given the context, the presumption has to be that it was from Yemen.
Four Saudi soldiers are still missing, possibly held captive by the rebels. A Houthi
video posted on the internet purports to show one of them receiving medical attention.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 10 November 2009.
did the Iraq 'surge' achieve?
Some important new research raises doubts about the effects of the famous "surge" in Iraq and whether it could become
a model for
In an article for ISN Security Watch, Claudio Guler argues that the US surge – and the troop increase in particular – was not responsible for ending the flare-up of violence in
Iraq in 2006-2007. Instead, he suggests, the surge dovetailed with
"converging dynamics on the ground", facilitating a cessation of hostilities rather than directly bringing it about.
"Iraq's civil war was foremost about the country's violent
post-invasion shift from a Sunni minority-run state under Saddam Hussein to a Shia majority-run country," Guler writes.
A central element in this shift was the sectarian "cleansing" of Baghdad, and a series of maps produced by Michael Izady of Columbia University shows the city's changing sectarian make-up through
2007 and 2008-2009.
Pre-invasion Baghdad was the most ethnically diverse part of Iraq, and what the maps
demonstrate "is that from early 2006 to mid-2007 the Mahdi army and affiliated Shia militia groups cleansed Baghdad of Sunnis, forcing diehards into Sunni stronghold neighbourhoods in the western part of the city," Gular says.
Most of the bloodshed associated with this had already occurred before the extra US troops arrived.
Guler suggests that changes in US military tactics and the embracing of the Sunni "awakening movements" helped to "temper the bloodletting" but the 28,000 extra troops probably "played a marginal role in stamping out smouldering embers".
Middle East International is back
Middle East International was a unique publication, once described by Edward Said as "the best fortnightly on the region". Sadly, it closed in 2005 but now it's back, under the editorship of the BBC's former Middle East correspondent, Gerald Butt.
Among other things, the current issue takes a detailed look at the situation in Yemen. It also has a
review of my book, What's Really Wrong with the Middle East. The magazine is available both in print and online, and a
sample copy can be downloaded free of charge in PDF format.
Video of 'captured
Yemen's Houthi rebels have released a video purporting to show a captured Saudi soldier, one of several they claim to be holding after last week's fighting.
"The rebels identified the man, who is seen receiving medical attention in the video, as Ahmed Abdullah Mohammed al-Amri," al-Jazeera
The video – which has not been independently verified – is
here, along with several others posted on Facebook under the name
On Sunday, the Yemeni military lost another warplane – the third to crash since Operation Scorched Earth began on August 12. As on previous occasions, the rebels said they shot it down and the government blamed a technical fault.
the music in Kuwait
Another ludicrous parliamentary row has broken out in Kuwait - this time over a decision to include music in the core curriculum of schools.
Mohammad Hayef
al-Mutairi, a tribal-Salafist MP, is seeking to grill the prime minister (a move that can lead to impeachment) and threatening to introduce a bill that would ban music from schools altogether.
He is supported by the Kuwaiti Society of the Constituents of Human Rights which says that "requiring students to study music or to produce the biographies of singers and composers is a blatant violation of human rights".
Music has been taught in Kuwait for the last
45 years but from the start of the current school year it counts towards students' overall results.
Salafists believe music is forbidden in Islam but some MPs accuse Mutairi and other Islamists of wasting parliamentary time on trivial issues. The music protest also signals their disapproval of education minister Moudhi al-Humoud, who is a woman. Mutairi is one of seven MPs who walked out during her swearing-in ceremony last year because she was not wearing a headscarf.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 9 November 2009.
blogger interrogated
Reinvigorated after its meticulously orchestrated election victory, the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia is hard at work again.
Fatma Riahi, a 34-year-old blogger and drama teacher from Monastir, was
detained last week for interrogation – along with her computer. She has since been released following a
Facebook campaign and at present it's unclear if she will face charges. Her blog and
her personal Facebook page have been deleted.
It's thought the authorities were trying to discover if Fatma has any connection with the cartoonist "Z" whose political satire on the
DEBATunisie blog (see
below) has enraged the regime.
But it looks as if they are no closer to tracking down the culprit.
While Fatma was detained, "Z" posted a cheeky cartoon saying "I am not Fatma. We are
all Fatma."
"After the electoral comedy - the
feast of Halloween." A recent cartoon by "Z".
Saudis deport 3,000 to Yemen
One serious question that arises from last week's fighting between Saudi forces and the Yemeni-based Houthi rebels is whether the "infiltrators" have any support inside the kingdom.
The Saudi authorities certainly seem to be taking no chances. Under the reassuring headline "Situation under total control", the Saudi daily, Arab News,
reveals that some 3,000 people (described as "violators of Saudi residence regulations and unidentified persons") have been summarily dumped across the border into Yemen – presumably as a result of security checks on the local population.
Portraying the events of the last few days simply as an "incursion" by "infiltrators", as many of the news reports have done, doesn't fully reflect the complexities on the ground – in particular the long-standing connections and affinities among inhabitants on both sides of the Yemeni-Saudi border.
Jizan (Jazan, Gizan, Gazan) province is not what we usually think of as "typical" Saudi Arabia. It is one of the ethnically Yemeni areas conquered by the Saudis in 1934 and not permanently ceded by Yemen until the
border treaty of June 2000.
The border in this area is difficult to control (especially with numerous islands dotted around the Red Sea nearby) and consequently it's a hornets' nest of illicit activity which sometimes extends to government officials.
Local tribes view the border either as a modern inconvenience or an opportunity to make money from smuggling. To avoid arrest, smugglers have even trained donkeys to transport goods across the frontier pathways unaccompanied. This was also the route taken from Yemen by two al-Qaeda militants who were
shot dead in Jizan province last month.
The 100,000-plus population of Jizan
city, the provincial capital, is a mix of Arabs and Africans – with the Africans mainly of Somali or Eritrean origin. The Yemeni Arabic dialect predominates over Saudi dialects.
In religious terms, Jizan province is traditionally Shia (Zaidi and Isma'ili), with a Sunni minority. Wahhabi influence has increased since the Saudi conquest in the 1930s.
This is another element of common ground, since the Houthis
in Yemen are also Zaidi Shia.
The root of the "Houthi problem" in Yemen is marginalisation coupled with resentment at encroaching Wahhabism. Similar conditions exist in the southern provinces of Saudi Arabia – so the main threat
to Saudi security is not so much attacks by rebel infiltrators as the possibility that sections of the local population might start to identify with their struggle.
Shia Muslims are marginalised throughout the kingdom but there is also an ethnic dimension with the Yemenis, who are often presumed to be illegal migrants or members of a criminal underclass, and this further exacerbates tensions.
The map below shows the area affected by the current fighting in Saudi Arabia, with the white line marking the border. Jabal al-Dukhan, where the rebels first attacked on Tuesday, is at the top right, east of Ruayli. Samtah/Samitah (centre left) is where casualties have been taken to hospital.
Dagharir, where six "infiltrators" were reportedly caught sitting on the roof of the village mosque,
is close to the point where the road from Samitah to Ruayli intersects with another on the map. It is well inside Saudi terrority – a good 30 miles by road from the border. Unfortunately, the villages of al-Qarn, Qawa and al-Dafeneyah, mentioned in an
report, are not marked.
Shrinking the map brings in Jizan city and the Red Sea.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 8 November 2009.
continue battle with Yemeni rebels
Saudi Arabia continued its air strikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels yesterday but
insisted all the attacks were confined to Saudi territory.
Similar air strikes on Thursday were widely reported to have included targets
Yemen. Two videos posted on the internet (here and
here) purport to show the Saudi airforce in action over Yemen.
The Yemeni government continues to deny this – probably for political
reasons. It does, however, admit that the two countries are "cooperating and sharing intelligence".
The Saudis say they have captured 103 Yemeni rebels
on Saudi territory in the Jabal al-Dukhan area – including 40 who were trying to escape disguised as women. The rebels, in turn, say they have captured an unspecified number of
Although the air strikes now appear to
have ceased, ground operations are reported to be continuing
today – suggesting that some rebels are still in the area.
I'm not sure that "incursion" is the best word to describe the rebels' presence in Saudi
Arabia, because there has always been a lot of unregulated cross-border by the local population. A
Reuters article suggests the rebels have been using the kingdom as a "back base" and the Saudis have come under pressure from Yemen to put a stop to it. (The article, incidentally, contains a good deal of useful background information.)
There's no indication that Saudi Arabia wants to become heavily involved in Yemen militarily – the result would be a quagmire – but there's a risk of being gradually drawn in. Some already view the Houthi conflict as a proxy war, with Sunni Saudi Arabia on one side and Shia Iran on the other. That probably overstates the situation at the moment, though it's clearly heading in that direction.
On the Iranian side, we now have a few more details about the "arms ship"
detained by Yemeni forces on October 26 with a crew of five Iranians and one Indian. Finally, there is a photo of it:
Almotamar website (connected President Salih's party)
says its name is Mahan 1 – which also happens to be the name of a
US Navy destroyer – and it has a cargo capacity of 1,000 tons.
The Yemen Observer gives its name as Yohan 1 and says those on board threw equipment into the sea before they were arrested.
"The Iranian crew of the ship destroyed the SIMs of the mobiles and all documents in their laptops and some of the ship's devices so that nobody can understand where the ship came from and where it was going," an unnamed investigator is quoted as saying.
The ship was reportedly stopped near Midi and the Yemen Observer says: "Midi harbour is only a few kilometers away from al-Malahaid, the western frontline of fighting between al-Houthi rebels and the government troops."
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 7 November 2009.
soon: female muftis
The UAE is likely to appoint its first government-approved female muftis by the end of next year,
according to The National. Six women are currently being considered for the training programme, which last several months.
A mufti is a scholar qualified to interpret Islamic law and issue religious opinions (fatwas).
The move appears to be the most significant of several changes in various Arab countries that are beginning to give women a greater role in religious affairs.
The Abu Dhabi fatwa centre, for instance, already has female religious advisers but their role is limited to "women's issues". The new female muftis will have a wider role advising on "matters of worship, jurisprudence, morality and behaviour", Dubai's Grand Mufti, Ahmed al-Haddad, said.
AFP notes that last year Egypt appointed its first female Islamic notary with the ability to perform marriages and divorces, and that since 2006, Morocco has trained mourchidates – female "guides" who give religious advice, especially in prisons, hospitals and schools.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 6 November 2009.
Arabia joins the war
Saudi forces hit back relentlessly at Yemen's Houthi rebels earlier today with fighter jets and artillery.
The attack followed a border incident on Tuesday when rebels crossed into Saudi territory, killing at least one soldier, and apparently seized an area known as Jabal al-Dukhan.
Saudi forces are now said to have recaptured the territory, killing about 40 rebels in the process.
Numerous reports from various sources say the Saudis also attacked the rebels with air and artillery fire
inside Yemen. Possibly special forces are involved on the ground too.
According to al-Jazeera, six locations were hit in Yemen, including one that received about 100 missiles in the space of an hour.
Although the Houthis have been alleging Saudi military involvement for some time, Yemen continues to deny it. However,
today's statement from the government news agency not a blanket denial; it merely denied Saudi "air raids targeting Yemeni villages".
Saudi involvement would be unpopular with many Yemenis and admitting it would cause a serious loss of face for the government, implying (probably correctly) that its own military is incapable of handling the situation
Now, though, it's looking as if the Saudis intend to become much more heavily and openly involved. One Saudi source talked to AP of "a sustained operation which aims to finish this problem on our border". If the conflict drags on, this in turn could lead to increased Iranian support for the Shia rebels.
In the light of President Salih's recent call to end the conflict within 10 days, it may be that Yemen and Saudi Arabia have agreed on a combined push to quell the rebellion.
The Yemen Observer's report of Yemeni tanks and artillery destroying houses in a rebel-held district of Saada city suggests the government may be close to regaining control there. That would be a significant breakthrough, though the rebels do have a habit of resurfacing in unexpected places.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 5 November
2009 at 21.00 GMT.
Arab education
In Arab schools, the time allotted to religious instruction is far above the global average of 5%. In Saudi Arabia it is 28%, in Yemen 20%, in Sudan 18% and in Oman 17%. This is one of the factors that skew the curriculum, with the result that maths is virtually the only subject where the proportion of teaching time (around 16%) matches the rest of the world.
Comparisons such as these – between the Arab countries and between the Arab region and other parts of the world – are one of the strengths of the
Arab Knowledge Report published last month. They help pinpoint areas of deficiency which, hopefully, can be addressed by policymakers.
I wrote an introductory note about the report
here a few days ago and promised to take a more detailed look later at three of its key chapters.
The chapter on education runs to more than 40 pages and I won't try to summarise it all. It covers the whole range, from literacy at the most basic level, through to postgraduate studies at universities.
One thing that stands out, though, is that in education there are problems of both quantity and quality. For example, in maths, where by world standards the quantity seems right, there is obviously something wrong with the quality. In a comparative maths test, Arab students from 10 countries performed noticeably worse than the international average.
The key question, of course, is what to do about it. The report says:
The poor quality of education almost across the board in Arab countries and, indeed, the quantitative deficiencies in many of them, reveal that our dream of using education as the avenue to becoming masters of nature and of our fate – the great dream of the Arab Renaissance – remains thwarted. Some of the obstacles have been inherited from the past, but others are rooted in our failure to properly manage our problems in education
The poor quality of education almost across the board in Arab countries and, indeed, the quantitative deficiencies in many of them, reveal that our dream of using education as the avenue to becoming masters of nature and of our fate – the great dream of the Arab Renaissance – remains thwarted. Some of the obstacles have been inherited from the past, but others are rooted in our failure to properly manage our problems in education
Better management, wiser allocation of resources and so on can certainly make a difference, but
the report doesn't really acknowledge the limitations of this "must try harder" approach. You can't go very far down that road before running into the problem of political choices. Imagine the furore, for instance, if Saudi Arabia tried to cut its religious education quota down to the world average. Not even the king would dare to do that.
Amid all the facts and figures, useful as they are, what I felt the report fails to convey is any real sense of the character of Arab education – of the culture that encourages people to absorb what they are told without asking questions.
I heard some horrifying stories from students and ex-students while researching my
book. One, who had studied economics at a university in Egypt, told me:
There was an emphasis on making profuse notes when you attended lectures. You tried to get the professor's [exact] wording because you would be expected to regurgitate that in the exam and the closer you came to how the professor put it, the higher the grade you were likely to get.
There was an emphasis on making profuse notes when you attended lectures. You tried to get the professor's [exact] wording because you would be expected to regurgitate that in the exam and the closer you came to how the professor put it, the higher the grade you were likely to get.
A lot of that, he said, is about "prestige and authoritarianism in the sense that professors expect you to act like a disciple – what they say is gospel". He added: "I would often question the professor's thinking in lectures and exam papers, and that hurt my grades."
A Moroccan told me that at his secondary school students believed they could get higher marks by writing "bismillah" at the start of an essay and decorating it nicely with coloured pens.
These attitudes, far more than resources or good management, are the central problem in Arab education – and
ultimately this is a social and political issue.
In principle, Arab governments are happy to "improve" education if that brings economic benefits further down the line. For the most part, though, they don't want improvements that will produce thoughtful, informed citizens with original or unorthodox ideas. But in an age where economic progress and so much else hangs on free flows of information and thinking outside the box, they can't have it both ways.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 5 November 2009.
slavery in Mauritania
Mauritania's law against slavery is not being properly enforced and victims are not encouraged to come forward,
according to a UN expert who has just completed a
fact-finding mission to the country.
Although "significant steps" have been taken, "a comprehensive and holistic national strategy" is needed, the UN Special Rapporteur, Gulnara Shahinian,
told a news conference in the capital, Nouakchott. If the issue is not addressed, "slavery in all its forms may be an obstacle to the stability, sustainable development and prosperity of Mauritania," she warned.
The practice of owning slaves, which has gone on for centuries, was not criminalised in Mauritania until two years ago. Since then, no one has been prosecuted but Ms Shahinian said she was informed that the government has "some cases under investigation".
The afrol News website says "Only the recent military reform government under Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall (2005-07) and the democratic government under President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi (2007-08) seriously addressed slavery in the country."
The current regime, led by president, Mohamed Ould Abdel
Aziz, who seized power in 2008 and recently won a
election, has shown little interest in fighting slavery and helping slaves to be freed, afrol News says.
Ms Shahinian, who will report to the UN Human Rights Council next year, is urging changes in the 2007 law. These include a clearer definition of
slavery (which would facilitate prosecutions) and support programmes for victims that would encourage them to come forward.
more days' of war in Yemen
President Salih has ordered Yemen's military to "put an end to the battles with the Houthi insurgents within 10 days",
according to the Yemen Post.
Whether this is a realistic prospect, or whether it will simply open an even more bloody phase in the conflict, remains to be seen. In a speech on October 14, Salih
predicted that victory would be declared "over the coming few days" but it didn't happen.
On Tuesday, the rebels clashed with Saudi forces – reportedly for the first time on Saudi soil. One Saudi border guard
was killed and 11 others injured. This could possibly signify a widening of the conflict (the Houthis have repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia of providing military support for Yemen's military) but at the moment it looks more like an isolated incident. AFP cites a website close to the rebels as saying the clash started when Saudi border guards fired on one of their vehicles, killing one person.
The Times interprets the skirmish as a sign that the rebels "have been backed up against the Saudi border" by Yemeni forces.
Torture in
Egypt: UN report
Amid all the fuss about the Goldstone Report and accusations of anti-Israel bias at the Human Rights Council, another
UN report – this time about Egypt – has attracted zero attention from the world's media.
The report, issued last month, is by Martin
Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism and, according to the source who sent me
a link to it, the Egyptian government is "really pissed off" – especially about the parts that discuss systematic torture, secret detentions and extraordinary renditions.
Professor Scheinin visited Egypt last April, mainly to look at the government's plans for
ending its exceptional powers under the "state of emergency" (which has been in force almost continuously for more than half a century) and replacing
them with an anti-terrorism law. He was not happy with what he found.
The draft anti-terrorism law "appears to include in the definition of terrorism acts that do not entail physical violence against human beings" such as the occupation of buildings, his report says.
The Egyptian authorities also seemed to have a rather wide-ranging notion of what constitutes a "terrorist organisation". "Any anti-terrorism law that is not properly confined to the countering of terrorism is problematic," the report warns.
Professor Sheinin was also troubled by the "highly problematic"
Article 179 of the Egyptian constitution (as amended in 2007) which appears to allow detentions, home searches and surveillance or seizure of communications without judicial oversight. Article 179, he says, "carries features of a permanent state of emergency, although under a new name".
In a section headed "Irregular detention facilities and the use of torture during investigation of alleged terrorist crimes", the report speaks of "an alarming lack of judicial oversight"
for facilities run by the State Security Investigations (SSI).
Although torture by the security services "appears to display a systematic
pattern" and suspects held by the SSI are "at particular risk", it says that "complaints against SSI officers in this regard have produced no results".
Noting "credible indications that Egypt has been one of the most prominent countries involved" in the much-criticised CIA
programme, the report says: "The Special Rapporteur regrets that the government of Egypt has not started any meaningful internal investigation into any rendition case, and he is deeply concerned about its passive obstruction of investigations by other countries by refusing to cooperate ..."
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 4 November 2009.
threat to Hizbullah?
The Lebanese Shia organisation, Hizbullah, is on its highest possible state of alert,
according to The National. Besides confirmation of this from an unnamed Hizbullah military commander, the paper notes signs of unusually strict security measures on the ground.
"In 20 years, I have never seen Hizbullah this paranoid and worried about security incidents," a resident of Beirut's southern suburbs with close ties to the organisation is quoted as saying.
Although the alert may be connected with Israel, The National suggests the cause of Hizbullah's fear could be coming from another direction: Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda.
The article mentions "a reported influx of Sunni jihadists from across the region who are drawn to Lebanon because of its poor internal security, proximity to Israel and its large population of Shiites". It quotes an official from Hizbullah's military wing who says: "The Qaeda guys want to target us, you can see their statements on the internet about targeting the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon."
chiefs killed in Yemen
Suspected al-Qaeda militants ambushed and killed three senior security officials along with several guards yesterday near the Saudi border in Yemen's south-eastern Hadramawt province. The dead included the chief of political security for Hadramawt, the regional security chief and the head of the regional criminal investigation division. Reports:
New York Times.
UPDATE at 0820 GMT: In an
unrelated incident, Houthi rebels from northern Yemen appear
to have carried out their first
attack inside Saudi territory. A Saudi security officer
has reportedly been killed and the rebels claim to have
captured a mountainous area known as Jabal al-Dukhan.
Investigating slavery in Mauritania
The UN's special rapporteur on modern forms of slavery,
Shahinian, is due to complete a two-week fact-finding visit to Mauritania with a press conference today.
Despite legislation against it, light-skinned Arab Muslims
(bidanes) continue to own black-skinned haratines, though estimates of the numbers vary wildly. Many technically "freed" slaves are said to remain dependent on their former masters.
A report by Anti-Slavery International in 2002 said:
Virtually all cases of slavery in Mauritania concern individuals whose ancestors were enslaved many generations ago. Birth continues to impose slave status on different ethnic groups, whereby they are viewed as slaves by some and as servants or family retainers by others. They typically work as herders of livestock, agricultural workers and domestic servants, but remain completely dependent on their traditional masters to whom they pass virtually all the money they earn or for whom they work directly in exchange for food and
Virtually all cases of slavery in Mauritania concern individuals whose ancestors were enslaved many generations ago. Birth continues to impose slave status on different ethnic groups, whereby they are viewed as slaves by some and as servants or family retainers by others. They typically work as herders of livestock, agricultural workers and domestic servants, but remain completely dependent on their traditional masters to whom they pass virtually all the money they earn or for whom they work directly in exchange for food and
Slavery in Mauritania was officially abolished by a presidential decree in 1981 but it was not until 2007 that a law was passed
criminalising the practice, with penalties of up to 10 years in jail for owning slaves.
Before leaving for Mauritania, Ms Shahinian – the first UN slavery expert to visit the country –
said her aim was to investigate "the impact of this newly-adopted legislation". She will present a report on her findings to the Human Rights Council next year.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 3 November 2009.
The Arab
Knowledge Report
Last week I noted the publication of the first
Arab Knowledge Report and said I would come back with more comments after taking a closer look.
Sadly, my first reaction was one of disappointment. The Arabist
blog is right to say the report contains "a lot of turgid language", which makes the content less accessible than it might have been. The report also re-traces a lot of ground previously covered by the Arab Human Development Reports. That is probably unavoidable,
but at least it provides more detail with more up-to-date information.
Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on
it, though. It's not meant to be the last word on the state of Arab knowledge but, rather, the first in a series of reports. And it does pinpoint a host of issues that merit further investigation, either in subsequent
Arab Knowledge reports or by other researchers.
The knowledge project – a joint venture by the UNDP and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation – is based on two premises. Firstly, that knowledge, development and freedom are inter-related. Secondly, that building a knowledge society "tends to engender social development, including economic, social, and cultural efforts to overcome the deficiencies that limit the expansion of human well-being" [p27]. This seems a
reasonable starting point.
The aim, the report says, is "to furnish the Arab decision-maker, specialist, and citizen with a reference study that includes reliable indicators by which to measure the condition of knowledge in the Arab countries and thus assist with the development of plans and the assessment of performance and to kindle the spirit of competitiveness in a field in which this is of the essence" [pII].
The report is clearly seeking to influence policy in a positive direction, but that is where things start to get tricky and political. It's not just a matter of providing "better" education, more computers, and so on. You can't build a knowledge society without also changing the nature of Arab society and the regimes that govern it. Nor can you build a knowledge society without challenging a lot of the current religious teaching.
Not surprisingly, the report doesn't really get to grips with this fundamental problem, though it does hint at it here and there.
Despite all that, though, there's still plenty of meat to chew on and over the next few days I hope to look in more detail at three of the key chapters – on education; information and communications technology; and research and innovation.
Book review
The first
review of my book, What's
Really Wrong with the Middle East was published today in
the Jordan Times.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 2 November 2009.
'war on butterflies'
You've probably heard of the butterfly effect – an idea in chaos theory where some small event, such as a butterfly flapping its wings, can trigger
hurricanes, tidal waves and other cataclysms.
In order to avert such crises in the future, Dr Makhboul Rasmi, a scientist at Azhar hospital, has come up with a plan to exterminate all of Egypt's butterflies, and he'll be presenting a paper on the subject at the Copenhagen Climate Summit next month, according to
El Koshary
It's completely untrue, of course. The story is mocking the Egyptian government's
ludicrous decision last April to slaughter all the country's pigs in the mistaken belief that this would prevent the spread of swine flu.
El Koshary – named after the cheap but filling
Egyptian dish and billing itself as "Egypt's most reliable news source" – was created by web designer
Shalaby, and good luck to him.
I've often thought there's far too little satire in the Middle East. But perhaps that's because the reality is often so bizarre that satirists can't improve on it. Anyway, all we have to do now is sit back and see who will be the first blogger or news organisation to pick up one of El Koshary's stories and report it as fact.
of slamming the door
Writing in The National, Marc Lynch of George Washington University cautions against slamming the door on democratic currents within Islamist movements.
"Moderate Islamist movements across the Arab world have made a decisive turn towards participation in democratic politics over the last 20 years," he says. "They have developed an elaborate ideological justification for contesting elections, which they have defended against intense criticism from more radical Islamist competitors.
"But rather than welcome this development, secular authoritarian regimes have responded with growing repression. Again and again, successful electoral participation by Islamists has triggered a backlash, often with the consent – if not the encouragement – of the United States."
After examining in some detail the
efforts to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and Egypt, and alluding to western rejection of Hamas's electoral victory in 2006, he concludes:
The Jordanian, Egyptian and American governments may see all this as something of a success story: the influence of the Islamists has been curbed, both in formal politics and in the social sector, and the restraint exercised by the Brotherhood leadership has meant the states have not faced a backlash.
But this is dangerously short-sighted. The campaigns against Islamists weaken the foundations of democracy as a whole, not just the appeal of one movement, and have had a corrosive effect on public freedoms, transparency and accountability ...
Sowing disenchantment with democratic politics in the ranks of the Brotherhood could forfeit one of the signal developments in Islamist political thinking of the last few decades. The failure of the movement's democratic experiment could empower more radical Islamists, including not only terrorist groups but also doctrinaire salafists less inclined to pragmatic
The Jordanian, Egyptian and American governments may see all this as something of a success story: the influence of the Islamists has been curbed, both in formal politics and in the social sector, and the restraint exercised by the Brotherhood leadership has meant the states have not faced a backlash.
But this is dangerously short-sighted. The campaigns against Islamists weaken the foundations of democracy as a whole, not just the appeal of one movement, and have had a corrosive effect on public freedoms, transparency and accountability ...
Sowing disenchantment with democratic politics in the ranks of the Brotherhood could forfeit one of the signal developments in Islamist political thinking of the last few decades. The failure of the movement's democratic experiment could empower more radical Islamists, including not only terrorist groups but also doctrinaire salafists less inclined to pragmatic
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 2 November 2009.
capitulates over niqab
Al-Azhar's bold but brief confrontation with the
niqab (face veil) seems to have fizzled out, leaving Mohammed Tantawi, the government-appointed Sheikh of al-Azhar, with egg all over his face.
It began early last month when Tantawi asked a female student to
remove her
niqab, reportedly saying there was no Islamic obligation to wear it. Tantawi was
heavily criticised
at the time – not only by Islamists but also human rights groups arguing for freedom of choice – and on Saturday the research centre at al-Azhar (Egypt's oldest university) issued a definitive set of rules which amount to a wholesale capitulation. There are three situations where female students should remove the niqab, the research centre said:
1. In an all-female class with women teachers;
2. In exam rooms when all students and supervisors are women;
3. In all-female dormitories.
1. In an all-female class with women teachers;
2. In exam rooms when all students and supervisors are women;
3. In all-female dormitories.
It is hard to imagine even the most conservative salafis finding fault with that, but it doesn't really get Tantawi off the hook. None of
those rules would apply to the situation where he asked the student to take off her veil.
An article by Yasser Khalil in the Daily Star discusses the political/religious ramification of the controversy. He suggests it has damaged al-Azhar because Tantawi is viewed by Egyptians as too much influenced by the government and "more concerned with upholding the current regime than religious principles".
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 1 November 2009.
of mass destruction
A journalist who described President Salih as a "weapon of mass destruction" has been given a two-year
jail sentence and banned from writing for two years by Yemen's special press court.
Munir al-Mawri, who now lives in the US and was tried in his absence, also questioned the president's political ability and accused him of protecting corrupt officials in an article for al-Masdar newspaper last May.
The paper's editor, Sameer Jubran, was given a one-year sentence, plus a one-year ban from his post.
According to the head of the Yemeni Journalists' Syndicate, these are the toughest sentences imposed on journalists since
1990, when Yemen formally espoused press freedom. A court set up specifically to deal with media "offences"
started work last July with about 150 cases pending.
Article 103 of the Yemeni press law says it is forbidden to criticise "the person" of the head of state but adds, ambiguously, that this does "not necessarily apply to constructive criticism".
In remarks quoted by the German Press Agency, al-Masdar's editor argues that the article in question was a criticism of "the president's performance", not his person.
Previous blog
November 2009
God or government?
Tunisian president: health rumours
Yemen 'dragged Saudis into war'
Reflections on Eid
What's Really
Wrong ...
Too graphic
for Egypt
Doing the
hajj in style
Jailing Egypt's boat people
Deadly clashes in southern Yemen
A very British
Saudi witch hunt
Rescuing Yemen?
prime minister may face grilling
troops 'enter Yemen'
Widows 'bring
bad luck'
Rebels kill three Saudi soldiers
'Indecency' in the UAE
Arabia's border clear-out
and information technology
Plight of Lebanon's Palestinians
Saudis fanning the flames
Palin's peace process
Clashes in southern Yemen
progress against corruption
journalists face jail
respect, Mr President ...
Clearing out
the meal ... jail and flogging
Shielding corruption
Lining up
against the Shia
challenge to Saudi state
Kuwait's heritage
did the Iraq 'surge' achieve?
Video of 'captured
the music in Kuwait
blogger interrogated
deport 3,000 to Yemen
continue battle with Yemeni rebels
soon: female muftis
Arabia joins the war
Arab education
slavery in Mauritania
more days' of war in Yemen
Torture in Egypt:
UN report
threat to Hizbullah?
chiefs killed in Yemen
The Arab
Knowledge Report
'war on butterflies'
of slamming the door
capitulates over niqab
of mass destruction
Blog archive
All blog posts
General topics
Saudi Arabia
Your comments
Readers' comments, suggestions and
corrections are welcome. Contact details are here
and readers' feedback is here.
What's Really Wrong
with the Middle East
Brian Whitaker, 2009
View statistics
Last revised on 13 December, 2009


text:
The Special Philippines Development Forum on Bangsamoro was successfully held on November 5-6, 2014 in Davao City. The event was led by Government, with the Department of Finance (DOF) as Secretariat.
The PDF Working Groups were not mobilized for this PDF since the event focused on Bangsamoro. As the Government solely led the event, the World Bank did not co-chair the Special PDF on Bangsamoro.
For any queries, please contact the Internantional Finance Group of the DOF.
The PDF is the primary mechanism of the Government for facilitating substantive policy dialogue among stakeholders on the country's development agenda. The Forum also serves as a process for developing consensus and generating commitments among different stakeholders toward critical actionable items of the Government's reform agenda.
The Philippines Development Forum process involves continuous dialogue on thematic areas through working groups, which are expected to hold meetings in between the formal PDF meetings to follow up on the issues and agreements at the last one. The Development Forum has 10 working groups, each focused on one of the following themes:
Group on MDGs and Social Progress
Government Convener Agency
Department of Social Welfare and Development
Hon. Corazon "Dinky" Soliman
Development Partner Co-Convener
UN Coordination Office
Ms. Luiza Carvalho
Resident Coordinator
Sub-Working Groups
Social Protection
Food Security and Nutrition
Group on Growth and Investment Climate
Government Convener Agency
Department of Trade and Industry
Principal - Hon. Gregory L. Domingo, Secretary
Alternate - Ms. Zeny Maglaya, Undersecretary
Development Partner Co-Convener
International Finance Corporation
Mr. Hans Shrader
Senior Operations Officer
Ms. Gerlin Catangui
Operations Officer
Sub-Working Group
Local Investment Reforms
Group on Economic and Fiscal Reforms
Government Convener Agency
Department of Finance
Ms. Ma. Edita Tan
Assistant Secretary
Development Partner Co-Convener
International Monetary Fund
Mr. Shanaka Jianath Peiris
Resident Representative
Group on Governance and Anti-Corruption
Government Convener Agency
Department of Budget and Management
Hon. Florencio "Butch" Abad
Development Partner Co-Convener
Asian Development Bank
Ms. Shigeko Hattori
Director, Public Management, Financial Sector and Trade Division
Public Financial Management
Group on Decentralization and Local Government
Government Convener Agency
Department of Interior and Local Government
Mr. Austere Panadero
Development Partner Co-Convener
World Bank
Mr. Lawrence Tang
Urban Management Specialist
Group on Sustainable Rural Development
Government Convener Agency
Department of Agriculture
Mr. Fred Serrano
Development Partner Co-Convener
German Development Cooperation (GIZ)
Dr. Bernd-Markus Liss
Green Sector Coordinator
Director & Principal Advisor Climate Program
Government Convener Agency
Department of Agriculture
Mr. Fred Serrano
Development Partner Co-Convener
German Development Cooperation (GIZ)
Dr. Bernd-Markus Liss
Green Sector Coordinator
Director & Principal Advisor Climate Program
Government Convener Agency
Mindanao Development Authority
Hon. Luwalhati Antonino
MinDA Chair
Development Partner Co-Convener
World Bank
Ousmane Dione
Manager, Sustainable Development
Mr. Matt Stephens
Senior Social Development Specialist
Working Group on Infrastructure
Government Convener Agency
National Economic Development Authority
Principal - Mr. Rolando G. Tungpalan
Deputy Director-General
Alternate - Mr. Ruben S. Reinoso Jr
Assistant Director-General
Development Partner Co-Convener
Embassy of Japan
Mr. Takahiro Etchu
Financial Attache
Power, Energy & Electrification
Water Resources
Group on Rule of Law
Government Convener Agency
Department of Justice
Principal - Hon. Leila de Lima
Alternate - Mr. Geronimo Sy
Assistant Secretary
Development Partner Co-Convener
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Ms. Gloria Steele
Mission Director
Group on Climate Change
Government Convener Agency
Climate Change Commission
Hon. Mary Ann Lucille Sering
Development Partner Co-Convener
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Mr. Toshihiro Tanaka
Country Director
The last PDF formal meeting was held on February 4-5, 2013 in Davao City with around 300 participants from Government, international development partners, and other stakeholders.
The WBG as an institution supports the principles of integrating gender sensitivity and responsiveness in Official Development Assistance (ODA) programs and policies. As co-convener of the Forum, the WBG encourages all Philippines Development Forum working and sub-working groups to ensure that the crafting and monitoring of policies are gender sensitive and responsive. In that regard, we recommend the (sub) working groups to welcome members of the ODA-GAD (Gender and Development) Network to your various meetings.
This site is co-managed by the Department of
Finance and the World Bank, chair and co-chair,
respectively, of the Philippines Development
For Working Group updates, please contact Ms. Stephanie Anne Margallo, email@example.com.
Disclaimer: Material posted on
this website does not necessarily imply endorsement
of the Government, the World Bank, or any particular

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Welcome to Palm Shores
Since 1985, we have been committed to providing quality mental health treatment to our community's youth. Palm Shores Behavioral Health Center provides the highest quality of comprehensive mental health care and education services for at risk children and adolescents, families and our community.
Palm Shores Behavioral Health Center is an intensive inpatient psychiatric program for males and females, ages 5 – 17 years old. We offer a highly structured supportive and safe environment for children and adolescents who are experiencing behavioral, emotional, family and social challenges.
Treatment involves a multi-disciplinary team of clinical staff, including psychiatrists, mental health therapists, expressive and recreational therapists, registered nurses, mental health technicians and certified teachers.
The program is designed to re-establish healthy behaviors while successfully transitioning residents back into the family, home, school and community as soon as possible.
Palm Shores is a fully licensed specialty hospital, accredited by the Joint Commission. We are a network provider for most major insurance plans with residential treatment benefits, including TRICARE certified and Medicaid (SIPP).


text:
College Hockey:Maine Sweeps North Dakota At Home
Bishop Stellar In Goal For Black Bears
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Maine goalie Ben Bishop came up short of a shutout by two minutes and seven seconds, but his outstanding play in net was instrumental in helping the visiting Black Bears sweep North Dakota with a 3-1 win at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
"Whenever you can take a win in North Dakota in their own barn, you're going to take the win," said Bishop, a 6-foot-7 sophomore who stopped 33 of 34 shots he faced. "I'm not really worried about the shutout."
After seeing his team melt down in the second period Friday night and give up five goals, UND coach Dave Hakstol thought the Fighting Sioux played well enough to win.
"Last night, we didn't play well. Tonight, I thought we deserved a better fate," he said. "We played extremely hard and we played well enough to win tonight."
Maine coach Tim Whitehead also felt the Black Bears were fortunate to leave North Dakota with a road sweep.
"I think tonight we got a little lucky with a few posts and some good bounces," he said. "Our goalie was exceptional tonight. But I did like our determination and we did have some good moments. To come in here against a team this strong and get these results, we're very pleased."
"We've had a tough five first games against good opponents and we wanted to prove that we can play, and that's what we did," said Maine captain Michel Leveille, who had two goals. "It's tough to get a sweep here."
With the sweep of UND and a win over Minnesota, Maine is proving to be a thorn in the WCHA's side.
"The WCHA is always a strong league and we want to prove that Hockey East is just as strong, and that's what we did," Leveille said. "We want to show them that we can compete."
Maine got on the board at 3:20 of the third period. Forward Teddy Purcell came into the UND zone one-on-one and fired a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Philippe Lamoureux stick side, giving the freshman his fifth goal of the season. Maine held that lead at the end of the first period.
On Friday night, the Sioux lost their cool at the start of the second period and gave up three power-play goals. This time, Maine got into penalty trouble, twice giving UND two-man advantages. Bishop, however, repeatedly came up with big saves and got some help from the pipes. T.J. Oshie set Matt Watkins up for a shot at a wide-open net, but the Sioux forward's wrister from the slot rang off the post.
"Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it goes in the net," Hakstol said.
"They had a lot of shots on the five-on-threes in the second period, but my defense did a great job," Bishop said. "I saw most of the shots. I was just trying to stay patient and not run around too much because they're so good at passing the puck."
After weathering a storm of UND power plays, Maine scored on just its third shot on goal of the period at 8:39. Black Bear senior forward Josh Soares won a battle in the corner and fired a centering pass to Leveille, who one-timed the shot past Lamoureux. The goal proved to be the game-winner.
Leveille struck again when a defensive error in the Sioux zone enabled him to skate in alone on Lamoureux and flip in a backhander that gave Maine a 3-0 lead at 11:27.
With his team on the power play and trailing 3-0 late in the third period, Hakstol pulled Lamoureux for a six-on-four advantage. The move paid off when defenseman Brian Lee's wrist shot from the point beat Bishop high glove-side at 17:53.
Despite playing without a goalie for most of the remainder of the game, the Sioux could get no closer.
UND assistant captain Erik Fabian said there was no team letdown from Maine's 6-2 rout of the Sioux on Friday.
"I thought everybody competed up and down the lineup. There wasn't one weak link out there tonight. It was gut-check time for us and everybody came out ready to play," he said.
UND outshot Maine 34-28 and was 1-5 on the power play. The Black Bears were 0-6 on the power play. Lamoureux had 25 saves.
The Sioux played without star sophomore forward Jonathan Toews, who left Friday's game with an injury. Hakstol wouldn't comment on Toews' injury or how long he might be out of the lineup.
Fourth-ranked Maine improved to 5-0-0 while third-ranked UND fell to 3-3-0 (1-1-0 WCHA). The Black Bears next face Massachusetts at home Oct. 28. The Sioux travel to WCHA opponent Minnesota State for a two-game series Oct. 27-28.
The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the "Flag" link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.
Please also keep "woofing," taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.


text:
Idukki: Senior CPI-M leader M M Mani was today arrested for declining to turn up for a polygraph test as part of the probe in connection with his controversial speech in which he said his party had in the past eliminated some of its political rivals in Idukki district.
Mani was arrested from his house at Kunnhithanni near here and was taken to the police station at Nedumkandam.He would be produced before the magistrate later in the day after medical examination, police sources said.
The special investigation team probing the case had last week served a notice to Mani seeking to know whether he was prepared to appear for the polygraph test by today. Citing legal and medical grounds, Mani had informed the police that he would not comply with the demand of the investigators.
CPI(M) has called a hartal in Idukki district,where Mani was party secretary for long, tomorrow to protest his arrest.
Police had registered a criminal case against Mani and two other party activists and started a fresh probe into the murder of an INTUC activist in the district 30 years ago in the light of Mani's speech.
While addressing a public meeting at Manakkad near Thodupuzha in the district a few months ago, Mani said his party had in the 1980s drawn up a list of political rivals to be eliminated and executed that, which sparked a raging controversy within and outside the state.
With Mani's speech causing deep embarrassment to even the central leadership of the CPI(M), he was removed as the CPI-M Idukki district secretary and suspended from the state committee in July last.


text:
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Points of View Reference Center is a full-text database designed to provide students with a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. The database provides 200 topics, each with an overview (objective background/description), point (argument) and counterpoint (opposing argument).
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text:
March 5, 2012
TUCSON, Ariz. - The University of Arizona Wildcat men's golf team finished the first two rounds of the Fresno State Lexus Classic with a total of 718 (-2) for fifth place. The tournament, hosted by Fresno State, is held at the Fort Washington Country Club, a par-72, 6765-yard course.
Oregon State currently resides in first place with a two-round total of 707 (-13). Eight strokes behind the Ducks are Sacramento State and UC Irvine with scores of 715 (-5). In the individual race, UC Irvine's Michael Yang has a four-stroke lead for first place with a total of 135 (-9). Teammate Allan Jun sits in a tie for second with Oregon State's Nick Sherwood with scores of 139 (-5). Oregon State's Alex More also broke into the top five with a two-round total of 140 (-4), and is in a tie for fourth place with five others, two of which are from second-place Sacramento State, Jake Johnson and Grant Rappleye.
For the Wildcats, junior Juan Pablo Hernandez and sophomore Erik Ojafinished under par with scores of 141 (-3) and 143 (-1), respectively. Hernandez's three under puts him in a tie for tenth place with six others, including conference foes Matt Rawitzer of Oregon State and Trent Sanders of Washington State. After shooting a first-round 77, Oja came back with an impressive 66 (-6) in the second round to finish the day in a tie for 20th place.
Competing as an individual, freshman Alex McMahon finished in a tie for 33rd place and one over for the two rounds with a score of 145. Also in the 33rd-place tangle are junior Trent Redfern and freshman Brenden Redfern.
The final eighteen holes of the Fresno State Lexus Classic will begin Tuesday, March 6 with the first holes teeing off at 8:00 a.m. PT. Live scoring will be available through golfstat.com.
Top 5 Teams
1. Oregon State, 355-352=707 (-13)
2. Sacramento State, 362-353=715 (-5)
UC Irvine, 359-356=715 (-5)
4. Washington State, 351-366=717 (-3)
5. Arizona, 363-355=718 (-2)
Top 5 Individuals
1. Michael Yang, UC Irvine, 70-65=135 (-9)
2. Allan Jun, UC Irvine, 71-68=139 (-5)
Nick Sherwood, Oregon State, 70-69=139 (-5)
4. Alex Ching, San Diego, 71-69=140 (-4)
Alex Edfort, Pacific, 70-70=140 (-4)
Jake Johnson, Sacramento State, 71-69-140 (-4)
Alex Moore, Oregon State, 71-69=140 (-4)
Grant Rappleye, Sacramento State, 71-69=140 (-4)
Curtis Yonke, Kansas State 72-68=140 (-4)
Arizona Finishers
T10 Juan Pablo Hernandez, 70-71=141 (-3)
T20 Erik Oja, 77-66=143 (-1)
T33 Alex McMahon*, 72-73=145 (+1)
T33 Trent Redfern, 74-71=145 (+1)
T33 Brenden Redfern, 71-74=145 (+1)
T50 Tucker Wadkins, 71-77=148 (+4)
T88 Philip Bagdade, 77-73=150 (+6)
*Competing as an individual
For complete results from the event and continued coverage of Arizona Wildcat men's golf, visit ArizonaWildcats.com.


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I'm not sure where to begin or even if my thinking is in the right direction. Hopefully someone here can tell me what to do or at least give me a direction to start travelling.
I work on a Intranet Website, that contains multiple MVC3 and Coldfusion Applications. I have set the AppPool to Recycle every morning at 2:00 AM. Now, I would like to create a Scheduled Task to reload every application contained under that IIS Website so that when the first user comes in in the morning, they don't have to wait 30 seconds to 2minutes for their application to be reloaded into the IIS AppPool.
Is there an easy to to do this? As I see it my only options are:
- Writing a bash script, inserting each website manually to load
- Writing a program that would try to find every application and load them
Now, if there those are my only options, is there possibly a .NET Library I can tap into that would allow me to easily find the MVC3 Applications under IIS?