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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | ||
| Heavy Hand of the Secret Police Impeding Reform in Arab World | ||
| 2005-11-15 | ||
Mr. Qudah, sentenced to a year in jail for a similar offense in 1996, was apprehensive but not surprised. The secret police, or mukhabarat in Arabic, is one of the most powerful and ubiquitous forces in the Arab world. Jordan's network had surreptitiously videotaped his reading. "We are hungry for freedoms like the right to express ourselves," said Mr. Qudah, 35, whose day job is supervising construction projects as a civil engineer. "But our country lives under the fist of the mukhabarat." In Jordan and across the region, those seeking democratic reform say the central role of each country's secret police force, with its stealthy, octopuslike reach, is one of the biggest impediments. In the decades since World War II, as military leaders and monarchs smothered democratic life, the security agencies have become a law unto themselves. Last week's terror attacks in Amman accentuate one reason that even some Jordanians who consider themselves reformers justify the secret police's blanket presence - the fear that violence can spill across the border. But others argue that the mukhabarat would be more effective if it narrowed its scope to its original mandate of ensuring security. "The department has become so big that its ability to concentrate is diluted," said Labib Kamhawi, a businessman active in human rights. "The fact that the intelligence is involved in almost everything on the political and economic level, as well as security, might have loosened its grip on security." In Jordan, one of the region's most liberal countries, the intelligence agencies vet the appointment of every university professor, ambassador and important editor. The mukhabarat eavesdrops with the help of evidently thousands of Jordanians on its payroll, similar to the informant networks in the Soviet bloc.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 Nope. Nuthin. Just "ignores" the click. I try it every time my post is more than 2-3 sentences. Works about 1 out of 10-12 times, on avg. Using IE, too, which always worked with all of the edit buttons before, which I can't say about Firefox. The only thing I can think of is something thinks there is insufficient memory to fire off a new window, but I can fire off a new IE window when it happens. No real clues to offer, I wish there were. BTW, it failed on this comment. :( |
| Posted by: .com 2005-11-15 13:59 |
| #4 Are you getting an error message? |
| Posted by: Fred on Debian 2005-11-15 13:52 |
| #3 I've said this before, but this seems a prime moment to expand on the idea a little. Dictators, whatever their flavor, always have their secret police for the status quo is the most precious thing to a Kingy Thingy (or whatever) sort. When you add in Muzzyness, you get a blending of the very worst of Stalin, Hitler, Mohammed - the bottom of the pit of mankind. I like his Harley, but nothing else about him. Another accommodation of the Pervy sort that yields tiny amounts of good stuff - and perpetuates evil. I will cheer at his fall with the same gusto reserved for the Mad Mullahs and The House of Saud. The differences are momentary convergence of interests and convenience. I know - I've already heard the so-called realpolitik crap - the Standard State Department line. Changes nothing - it is convenience and temporary gain, usually miniscule, in exchange for our blind eye to what we would describe as evil under any other circumstances. This too, shall bite us in the ass someday. O/T P.S. ed - Yes, I can only get Preview to work once in awhile, now. Started about a week ago. Sucks. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-11-15 05:10 |
| #2 What a remarkable coincidence. oooh...ouch! |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-11-15 04:52 |
#1 Steve White writes:What a remarkable coincidence. As the late-night conspiracy talk show hosts are fond of saying, there are no coincidences. But I doubt you'll ever hear them discuss it in _this_ context. |
| Posted by: Abdominal Snowman 2005-11-15 01:20 |