July 2

BBC - Saudi Arabia has signed a deal with a major European defence contractor to build a hi-tech security system including a fence around the whole of its 9,000 kilometre border. The country has been wanting to build a strong border security system for some time.

Its two main concerns are its neighbours Iraq and Yemen, and the instability and lawlessness of these two countries have raised fears in Saudi Arabia that their problems will overflow the border. Specifically, the Saudis are worried about weapons and drug smuggling. The cost of the contract has not been officially disclosed, but a French magazine said it is worth about $3 billion.

Magdi Abdelhadi | June 29

BBC - A member of the Saudi royal family has called for the assets of his brother to be frozen.

Prince Khaled bin Talal denounced his brother's media empire in an unprecedented public attack from within the ruling family.

Prince Khaled accused Prince Walid bin Talal of disseminating vice and violating the rules of Islamic Sharia in the conservative kingdom.

Prince Walid is one of the richest businessmen in the world.

It has long been known that there is a split within the ranks of Saud family between liberals and conservatives.

But, until now, they have always managed to keep a lid on the problem.

The media has some news apart from MJ, including the countdown to the USA withdrawal from Iraqi cities over the next day, with Army General Raymond T. Odierno stating that the USA Military has met the status of forces agreement deadline. What is intriguing is how air sovereignty will be handled. Over the past years billions of dollars of USA advanced arms sales have been given to Saudi Arabia and Israel to balance out any war-like aggression from Iran. Who is going to maintain the "air straits"?

Gareth Porter | June 22(UPDATED) | IPS

On Jun. 25, 1996, a massive truck bomb exploded at a building in the Khobar Towers complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, which housed U.S. Air Force personnel, killing 19 U.S. airmen and wounding 372.

Immediately after the blast, more than 125 agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were ordered to the site to sift for clues and begin the investigation of who was responsible. But when two U.S. embassy officers arrived at the scene of the devastation early the next morning, they found a bulldozer beginning to dig up the entire crime scene.

PART 2: Saudi Account of Khobar Bore Telltale Signs of Fraud
PART 3: U.S. Officials Leaked a False Story Blaming Iran
PART 4: FBI Ignored Compelling Evidence of bin Laden Role
PART 5: Freeh Became "Defence Lawyer" for Saudis on Khobar

William Maclean | London | June 19

Reuters - Under pressure in his Pakistan enclaves, Osama bin Laden is facing a familiar quandary: Where to go next? The answer is unlikely to be Yemen or Somalia, despite their new prominence as regional al Qaeda sanctuaries.

U.S. drone attacks and a looming Pakistan army offensive against one of al Qaeda's main allies in a northwestern tribal area have stirred speculation that bin Laden's men are seeking a less risky refuge for their anti-Western campaign.

But simply leaving Pakistan's remote Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) could expose the world's most wanted man and his entourage of planners and bodyguards to satellite detection and the curious gaze of a local population of uncertain loyalty.

Related thread: Yemen could be "another Afghanistan" -EU official

Christian Lowe | Algiers | June 18

Reuters - Yemen is in danger of following Afghanistan down the path to becoming a safe haven for Islamist militants, the European Union's anti-terrorism chief said in an interview on Wednesday.

Three foreign women were found dead in Yemen this week after they were kidnapped by an armed group, heightening long-standing fears the country could slip into chaos and provide a launchpad for militant attacks.

Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, said he had recommended that Yemen be ranked alongside Pakistan and the northern Sahara as regions that harbour threats to European interests.

"I was in Yemen a month ago. It's a state that really needs to be assisted. It is confronted with many challenges and we have to avoid Yemen becoming another safe haven or another Afghanistan," de Kerchove told Reuters.

Riyadh | June 8

WaPo - Saudi Arabia's first woman cabinet minister cannot appear on television without permission, a newspaper quoted her as saying on Monday.

Noura al-Faiz's appointment in February as deputy minister for women's education was hailed as a big step for the integration of women in conservative Saudi Arabia where a puritanical form of Islam bans women from driving, voting and mixing with unrelated men.

"I don't take my veil off and I will not appear on television unless it is allowed for us to do so," Faiz told the daily Shamss, which published a picture of the deputy minister wearing a headscarf with her face showing.

Saudi state television has hired Saudi women as presenters in recent years as part of a reform drive launched after the September 11 attacks in U.S. cities which focused international attention on radicalism in the world's biggest oil exporter.

Faiz also dismissed calls for girls to be allowed to do sport at school, which Saudi Arabia's powerful religious establishment has prevented. "It's way too early," the paper reported her as saying.

Anthony Shadid | Washington Post |June 3 | Haditha

Legacy of Haditha, Abu Ghraib Looms

The dirt overturned to bury some of the 24 people killed by U.S. Marines here in 2005 has turned to dust. The graves where women were interred with their children along the Euphrates River are bereft of tombstones. Weeds mark the passage of time, though not the pain of memories.

"No one cares whether an Iraqi dies," said Yassin Salem, whose brother and uncle were killed here in their homes on a single day, Nov. 19. Bitterly, he looked down at the plastic bottles and newspaper that now litter the cemetery. "What does it matter?"

When President Obama delivers his address to the Middle East on Thursday from Cairo, he will face the legacy of names like Haditha, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, places that have become more symbol than geography over nearly a decade of perhaps the most traumatic chapter in America's relationship with the Muslim world.

Compare: Obama's speech

Riyadh | May 29

Reuters - Saudi Arabia executed a man for double murder on Friday and displayed his body in public as a deterrent, state media said.

The body of the man, beheaded by sword, was put on a cross in the Saudi capital Riyadh, state news agency SPA said, quoting the interior ministry.

Rights activists said authorities only rarely use this form of deterrent in a bid to stop crimes spreading.

Ahmad Adhib bin Askar al-Shamalani al-Anzi had been convicted of killing a man and his 11-year old son in a shop in Riyadh, SPA said.

Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, usually carries out executions by public beheading for murder, rape, drug smuggling and, increasingly, armed robbery.

May 26

BBC -

President Nicolas Sarkozy has formally opened a French military base in the United Arab Emirates, France's first permanent base in the Gulf.

The flags of France and the UAE were raised at a ceremony at the so-called "Peace Camp" in the Abu Dhabi emirate.

France is a leading military supplier to the Gulf state, and signed a nuclear co-operation agreement last year.

Its new base will host up to 500 French troops and include a navy base, air base, and training camp.

Mr Sarkozy flew to Abu Dhabi on Monday with four ministers and a delegation of businessmen.

In a recent interview with Diplomatie magazine, he said that the military presence underscored France's desire "to participate fully in the stability of this region that is essential for the world's equilibrium".

Analysts say the move positions France - along with the US and UK, which already have bases in the Gulf - in the forefront for lucrative defence contracts and nuclear energy deals.

Howard LaFranchi | May 25

CSM - The Obama administration, anxious to demonstrate America's willingness to deepen relations with reliable partners in the Muslim world before the president's much-heralded speech to that community early next month, has signed a controversial nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates.

The nuclear accord, negotiated by the Bush administration but left for President Obama's sign-off, is touted by the new administration – as it was by the former – as a model for future civilian nuclear cooperation with Arab countries.

With Obama set to lay out his vision for America's cooperation with Muslim countries from Cairo June 4, the US-UAE accord is also seen as a counterpoint to Iran's nuclear program and its combative relations with the international community.

In endorsing the accord, administration officials highlight the UAE's agreement to forego the production of nuclear fuel, which could eventually be used for production of a nuclear weapon – the issue at the crux of Iran's standoff with the US and other world powers.

But opponents of the accord blast it as a short-sighted plan designed to secure lucrative contracts for US corporations that build nuclear reactors, yet one which may result in a string of plants producing nuclear fuel across a very volatile region.

"The US does not have a strategy to deal with this very real issue of proliferation, all they have is a sale," says Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, an organization that promotes a nuclear-weapons-free world. "We shouldn't be sprinkling the Middle East with nuclear power reactors until we figure out how to stop them from turning out nuclear bombs."

Mark Tran | May 17

The Guardian - A significant crack has appeared in Kuwait's glass ceiling after four women emerged winners in the Gulf state's parliamentary elections at the weekend.

The victory marked the first time women have won parliamentary seats since given the right to vote and run for office in 2005. For the past 50 years Kuwait's parliament has been the sole preserve of men.

In an election that saw fundamentalist groups lose ground, Massouma al-Mubarak, who was appointed Kuwait's first female cabinet minister in 2005, two US-educated professors, Salwa al-Jassar and Aseel al-Awadhi, and an economist, Rola Dashti all won seats in the Kuwaiti parliament.

"Frustration with the past two parliaments pushed voters to seek change. And here it comes in the form of this sweeping victory for women," al-Mubarak said today.

Caryle Murphy | Riyadh | May 15

CSM - Saudi rights activists have sent King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz a petition asking for an elected parliament, term limits on royal princes appointed to official posts, and an end to "secret tribunals" for Saudis charged with terrorism offenses.

The petition, which also requests that the post of prime minister be given to "a commoner," is another attempt by Saudi Arabia's tiny but persistent democracy movement to get its voice heard in an absolute monarchy that prohibits political parties.

Sent Wednesday by express mail to the king and 20 other officials, the petition signed by 77 people – mostly self-described "human rights activists" – asks for a constitutional monarchy "like UK, Jordan, and Morocco."

"Our people have to share in the decisions of our country," says petitioner Fowzan Mohsin Al Harbi, a mechanical engineer at King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh.

Cooperative Security Locations, Not Permanent Just Enduring
Charles Lemos | May 11 | MYDD

The Department of Defense has released a FY 2010 Budget Request Summary Justification (pdf.) presentation outlining its proposed expenditures. Some are curious, a few are disconcerting.

The FY 2010 Base budget includes $46 million for a cooperative security location at Palanquero Air Base in Colombia.

This is news to Colombians. Though Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos broached the subject of stationing a base in Colombia back in February, that trial balloon did not float. Colombians remain opposed to any US military presence in the country.

Significant investment at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, a forward operating site for which responsibility has been moved from CENTCOM to AFRICOM.

It looks like AFRICOM, which remains homeless or perhaps better put awaiting a home in temporary quarters in Stuggart, Germany, is going to get rammed down hapless Djibou

Claude Salhani | Washington | May 11

(UPI) -- As the famous song by Vietnam-era band Buffalo Springfield goes, "There's something happening here; what it is ain't exactly clear."

The same can be said about the Middle East peace process today. There is something happening, but no one seems quite sure what that is, and those who do know are keeping the news very close to their chests. But what appears to be filtering through the maze of Middle East peacemaking is that some

Robert F Worth | Beirut | May 2

NYT - TALKING to Islamists is the new order of the day in Washington and London. The Obama administration wants a dialogue with Iran, and the British Foreign Office has decided to reopen diplomatic contacts with Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group based here.

But for several years, small groups of Western diplomats have made quiet trips to Beirut for confidential sessions with members of Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist groups they did not want to be seen talking to. In hotel conference rooms, they would warily shake hands, then spend hours listening and hashing out accusations of terrorism on one side and imperial arrogance on the other.

The organizer of these back-door encounters is Alastair Crooke, a quiet, sandy-haired man of 59 who spent three decades working for MI6, the British secret intelligence service. He now runs an organization here called Conflicts Forum, with an unusual board of advisers that includes former spies, diplomats and peace activists.

Caryle Murphy | Awwamiya, SA | Apr 28

CSM - Despite the vast oil fields underfoot, this rural village of struggling farmers and narrow streets is a long way from the gleaming riches and wide boulevards of Riyadh.

It is also far from the strict Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam favored by the Saudi government, since most Awwamiya residents are Shiite Muslims.

These religious and economic realities help explain the graffiti on view here: "Death to Wahhabi," "Down with the government," and "We will not forget our prisoners."

Somewhere here, too, Sheikh Nimer Al-Nimer, a firebrand Shiite cleric in his late 40s, is hiding from police. He is wanted for questioning, officials say, about an angry sermon threatening secession and his possible behind-the-scenes role in Sunni-Shiite clashes in the holy city of Medina earlier this year.

"We've been patient a long time hoping to get our rights," says one Awwamiya resident. "But it's useless."

Recent developments in Medina and Awwamiya reflect deepening frustration among Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority at continuing discrimination in jobs and schools as well as government tolerance for hateful anti-Shiite rhetoric from Wahhabi clerics, according to more than a dozen Shiite activists, writers, and clerics interviewed in the oil-rich Eastern Province.

Shiite leaders also warn of rising militancy in a younger generation that is losing faith in the older leadership's approach of working peacefully for change.

I knew what the Syrian Consulate was going to say before I even stepped into the place. But it was still worth a try as rumor on the travelers grapevine were that both the Consulate here and the Embassy in Ankara were handing out visas to Americans. Policies change and often overnight. I walked up to the consular section and asked how I was to go about getting a visa. The man told me, "you must apply for a Syrian Visa in America if you do not have Turkish residency papers."

"Well, I have Singaporean residency papers, and I am not resident in America, so will that work," I asked? He made a phone call and informed me that I would have to apply for a visa at an embassy or consulate closer to Singapore.

"Umm, how would I do that," I asked. "You don't have an embassy in Singapore. I believe the closest one is in Pakistan?"

"Yes, you would have to apply there, or in America," he said.

"But I was refused a Pakistani visa," I said.

"I am sorry. I cannot help you," he replied with a long bureaucratic sigh.

I have a trick up my sleeve, but I doubt it will work. I will give it a try. But at this point it looks like I will have to overnight my passport to the States later this summer and then have it overnighted back to me, probably when I am in Denmark. Looks like Syria isn't going to happen for a while at this point. When my lease is up on the Second of May I'll head down the Aegean Coast of Turkey to Antioch and then across to Sanliurfa (the former Edessa), Diyarbakir and then back up through Anatolia to Istanbul where I will meet a friend in Istanbul in late May.

Kim Sengupta/Nairobi & Daniel Howden | Apr 21

Organised piracy syndicates operating in Dubai and other Gulf states are laundering vast sums of money taken in ransom from vessels hijacked off the Horn of Africa.

Investigators hired by the shipping industry have told The Independent that around $80m (£56m) has been paid out in the past year alone – far more than has previously been admitted. But while some of this money has ended up in the pirate havens of Somalia, millions have been laundered through bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Middle East.

From Rasheed's World:

I REALLY wasn't that surprised when I read that the Saudi Ministry of Education had ordered all private schools in the kingdom to erase all images of pigs and musical instruments, but I was saddened. Yet one more news story to further stir anti-Saudi sentiment around the world, I thought to myself.

After living in Saudi Arabia for 20 years and having to work around censorship when I worked as a reporter and editor at Arab News, I was used to having to change JERUSALEM in a dateline to OCCUPIED JERUSALEM and censoring pictures of female celebrities that showed too much skin. We eventually stopped using OCCUPIED JERUSALEM a few years ago and reverted back to just plain JERUSALEM. As for censoring pictures, we went through a period of about four years when our editor in chief was the late Islamist Dr Abdul Qader Tash, who didn't like to shake the hands of female staff members and insisted we obliterate any hint of cleavage or too much leg of Hollywood stars. That later changed after he left Arab News, with the comeback editor Khaled Al-Maeena telling us if we couldn't use a risque picture without Photoshopping it to dump it and find another one.

Of all the things I expected to see in the Manama, Bahrain Airport, a transvestite was certainly no where near the top. Stereotypes bedevil us all, at pretty much every turn. At least, that's how it appears to me.

Can't say much about the country, as I'll only be here long enough to sleep, shower, head to the airport and fly out to Istanbul--12 hour layovers aren't much fun. But the airport is nice. And full of thousands of immigrants. Indians, Indonesians, Chinese, Malays, Thais, Africans and European tourists, mostly English and retired, escaping the damp winter of the isles. Haven't met a single Bahraini yet!

One thing that I have found odd about the internet in Oman and now Bahrain, something maybe those of you smarter about the internet than I can explain is this: why is The Agonist always quick to load but everything else takes ages? I don't think it's a cache deal, but what do I really know? Gmail takes an eternity. It's really just downright painful checking my email. And my Flickr pages load faster than The New York Times. Just weird.

And what is it with the weird fascination Arabian countries have with C&W? I hear it everywhere.

One last note: ever had one of those days when you have deja vu everywhere you look? Every face reminds you of someone back home? Or from somewhere? I see familiar faces everywhere today for some reason. Very strange.

Lucia Newman | Doha | Mar 31

IPS - The Moors invaded and conquered much of the Iberian Peninsula in 711AD. By the time they were driven out of Granada in 1492, the Arabs had left an indelible racial and cultural imprint. Both the Spanish and Portuguese languages have a marked Arabic influence.

Yet, when the Spanish and Portuguese crossed the Atlantic to conquer America, the close connection with the Arab world was somehow lost as the new colonies fought to establish their own identities.

More than five centuries later, the arrival of South American heads of state on Mar. 31 in Doha, Qatar to attend a presidential summit with Arab leaders is a conscious effort on each side to rediscover the other and forge a relationship that is seen as long overdue.

For Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, it is a priority.

"It is imperative for the countries of South America to establish a real understanding with the nations of the Middle East, with the Arab world, so that we can establish not just a commercial relationship, but a political and cultural relationship, so that we can be free of the ties and decisions of the so called rich countries," he said in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera.

The effort to find common ground with the Arab region reflects Latin America's changing priorities.

Chris Seiple | Arlington, Va. | Mar 31

CSM - There's a big difference between what we say and what they hear.

In the course of my travels – from the Middle East to Central Asia to Southeast Asia – it has been my great privilege to meet and become friends with many devout Muslims. These friendships are defined by frank respect as we listen to each other; understand and agree on the what, why, and how of our disagreements, political and theological; and, most of all, deepen our points of commonality as a result.

I have learned much from my Muslim friends, foremost this: Political disagreements come and go, but genuine respect for each other, rooted in our respective faith traditions, does not. If there is no respect, there is no relationship, merely a transactional encounter that serves no one in the long term.

As President Obama considers his first speech in a Muslim majority country (he visits Turkey April 6-7), and as the US national security establishment reviews its foreign policy and public diplomacy, I want to share the advice given to me from dear Muslim friends worldwide regarding words and concepts that are not useful in building relationships with them. Obviously, we are not going to throw out all of these terms, nor should we. But we do need to be very careful about how we use them, and in what context.

They are, quite obviously, not the best photos in the world, taken via iPhone, instead of a camera proper. But I'm extremely lazy right now so this will have to do. (Start here and move forward.)

I have plans to go see Old Muscat and a wadi this afternoon, if the weather holds out. It's about 100* right now and no rain in sight. But that can change. It was the same yesterday at this time and ended up raining a few hours later.

Tomorrow night I fly out to Bahrain. I've an 8 hour layover there--I'll be sleeping on the airport floor, than you very much!--and then I am off to Istanbul, or rather, εισ τιν πολυ!

More soon.