Blog archive all
14th December 2013
Following their investigation of the Sarin attacks that killed hundreds near Damascus on August 21, the UN inspectors have continued to look into other alleged cases of chemical weapons being used in the Syrian conflict. Their latest report, issued this week, confirms that people in Syria have been… Read more
11th December 2013
My blog post yesterday about re-ignited debate over the chemical attacks in Syria last August has brought a surprising response from some regular critics of the mainstream media.
On one side of the chemical weapons debate is Seymour Hersh, the veteran investigative journalist, who suggested in an… Read more
10th December 2013
In the blue corner, Seymour Hersh, one of America's most famous and highly paid investigative reporters. In the red corner, Eliot Higgins, who sits at home in an English provincial town trawling the internet and tweets and blogs about his findings under the screen name Brown Moses.
On Sunday, in a … Read more
8th December 2013
Sharmine Narwani, a defender of the Assad regime who trolls on Twitter, seems to have found another dictatorship to support. Last week she was busy promoting a forged letter which seeks to implicate Amnesty International in a plot against the Afewerki regime in Eritrea.
It began with this tweet:
#… Read more
5th December 2013
For several months now, Saudi Arabia's religious police have been considering a plan to recruit women into the force. There's no decision so far and some doubt a decision will ever be made, since the plan raises issues which are probably insoluble under the kingdom's gender segregation rules.
The… Read more
4th December 2013
Tomorrow marks the start of a two-day conference in Cairo fronted by an obscure NGO called the Egyptian Council for Democracy Support (EGCODS) – and backed by the military-led government.
The conference, to be held in a five-star hotel which is owned and run by the Egyptian military, seems to be… Read more
3rd December 2013
Five Arab League countries – Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Iraq and Syria – are among the bottom ten in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index issued by Transparency International.
The United Arab Emirates, in 22nd position worldwide, is narrowly ahead of Qatar as the least corrupt Arab country. Both,… Read more
2nd December 2013
The Saudi Gazette published a disturbing article the other day in which a number of Saudis talked about relations with their foreign servants – and defended what amounts to slavery.
The article highlights one of the many iniquities in Saudi Arabia's "sponsorship" system for employing migrant… Read more
1st December 2013
For the last month or so, as regular readers will know, I have been following the story of Saudi Arabia's crackdown on migrants. I have spent hours gathering information from open sources in an effort to get a clear picture of what is happening – and this is my fourteenth blog post on the subject… Read more
28th November 2013
Saudi Arabia has deported 71,118 “illegal” foreigners since its crackdown on migrant workers began on November 4, according to latest figures from the kingdom’s Passport Directorate.
This total is likely to continue increasing because of delays in processing deportations since many of the arrested… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
