The National (UAE)

Steven Clemons in The National | 'Obama’s Chief of Staff Carries Strong Ties to Israel'

Articles — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:02:00 -0500

New America in the News:
“My greatest fear about Emanuel is that he might perpetuate a ‘false choice’ orientation towards Israel in Middle East affairs that he’s going to have to compensate for and get under control,” said Steven Clemons, the founder of the Washington Note website and the director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation.

“There are no rational alternatives in the Middle East than actually delivering on a Palestinian state and finally putting the Middle East peace business out of business,” he said

“Emanuel needs to prove his judiciousness by not pre-empting serious progress in Israel-Palestine affairs and not encouraging Barack Obama to make thSteven e mistake of trying to define his presidency by exploiting some national security conflict.” LINK

Steven Clemons in The National | 'Imagined Community'

Articles — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:09:00 -0400

New America in the News:
“Both Muslims and Arab-Americans have been ill-treated in this political environment,” noted Steve Clemons, a veteran observer of American politics and popular blogger who is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington think-tank. “There has been some tacit acceptance of that, even by people around Barack Obama,” he added. LINK

Afshin Molavi in The National | 'The Saudi Arabia That the Middle East Needs is Finally Emerging'

Articles — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:17:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Sadly, the trajectory of Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and the 1990s suggests that Saudi Arabia indeed altered its course to accommodate its most conservative elements. As the leading Saudi experts Afshin Molavi and Jean-Francois Seznec wrote, the terms of the bargain were too favourable to those who opposed genuine modernisation: “While the king and the civil service would still control the hardware – defence, finance, oil, and foreign policy – he essentially handed over the software – the education system and the courts – to conservative forces.” Saudi leaders would come to regret this compromise. LINK

Peter Bergen in The National | 'Guantanamo Will Remain Open After Bush Leaves Office'

Articles — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:53:00 -0400

New America in the News:
In Foreign Policy magazine, Ken Ballen and Peter Bergen said: "When a federal judge ordered the release of 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees earlier this month, it was the first real chance in the seven-year history of the prison camp that any of the prisoners might be transferred to the United States. In making his ruling, the judge categorically rejected the Bush administration's claim that any of the released prisoners, who are all Chinese Muslims, were 'enemy combatants' or posed a risk to US security. The decision was temporarily suspended by the appeals court, but the judge was on solid ground.

"Controversy over the Bush administration's policy to detain enemy combatants at Guantanamo has raged since the facility opened in 2002 - fueled primarily by the lack of legal protections afforded the detainees and allegations of their mistreatment. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that most of these detainees have never posed any real risk to America, for the simple reason that the vast majority of them were never 'enemy combatants' in the first place. Indeed, striking new data we have obtained show that, if anything, the 17 innocent Chinese men are far from exceptional." LINK

We Run the Road

Articles — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:06:00 -0400

On May 12, a few days after street fighting erupted in Beirut, I drove to Majd al Anjar, a Sunni stronghold in Lebanon’s Bekaa, close to the Syrian border, where gunmen were still blocking the motorway from Beirut to Damascus. At the edge of town, several hundred men with automatic rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers, pistols and hand grenades stood before earthen barriers and fires. Some wore masks. There was nobody in command – this was a mob, not a militia. The men were angry, afraid, suspicious, shouting at strangers and each other, each one an authority unto himself, carelessly swinging weapons around, oblivious to… more

Afshin Molavi in The National | 'Iranians Question Harsh Propaganda'

Communications — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 13:35:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Besides the obvious propaganda, the local news broadcasts extensive reports from the Palestinian territories and Israel, with exceptionally graphic images from Gaza of mutilated bodies and weeping families after raids by Israel. “Iran spends a lot of money and attention on its propaganda machine,” said Afshin Molavi, a political analyst on Iran at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC.

Mr Molavi said the anti-Israeli and anti-US propaganda is actually aimed at winning over the Arab and Muslim world.

“Iran broadcasts news about Arabs, uses Arabic-speaking channels and invites Arab media over and does a lot to gain support of its neighbours,” he said. LINK

Boots on the Ground

Articles — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:00 -0400

If the 20th century really began with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in August 1914, which set in motion the start of a series of intrastate wars so brutal they killed tens of millions, then surely the beginning of this century was announced by the attacks of September 11, the harbinger of a new kind of war waged with spectacular acts of terrorism by non-state groups that seem likely to be a defining feature of the century to come.

On the beautiful morning of September 11, 2001 nineteen men armed only with knives attacked the preeminent symbols of American military and economic might, killing some three thousand people and… more

Anatol Lieven in the National | 'America Ignores Middle Eastern Public Opinion'

Communications — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:06:00 -0400

New America in the News:
...In the Financial Times, Anatol Lieven argued that the British government was in a position to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran.

"All that it needs to do is make clear to the US administration, initially in private but in public if necessary, that the consequence of an attack would be complete British military withdrawal, not only from Iraq but from Afghanistan as well.

"Israel must have US acquiescence to launch an attack since by far the easiest route for one lies over US-controlled Iraq. By starting the withdrawal of most of the Nato forces from Afghanistan, British withdrawal would throw an immense new burden on the US military, strip the Afghan operation of its international legitimacy and almost certainly wreck it altogether... LINK

Survey Says: Stop Backing Musharraf

Ron Tang — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:05:00 -0400

The US government is pressing the new Pakistani civilian administration to back off efforts to remove Pervez Musharraf from the presidency.

But if the United States truly wanted to shore up democracy and help fight terrorism inside Pakistan, it would pursue the exactly opposite policy: the United States should publicly back the immediate removal of Mr Musharraf. A new public opinion survey shows why.

More than the ailing economy, the survey, conducted by Terror Free Tomorrow in collaboration with the New America Foundation and the Pakistan Institute for Public Opinion, revealed that the most important priority for Pakistanis is an… more

Frida Berrigan in the National | 'Guantanamo Ruling Sets up Political Showdown'

Communications — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:02:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...“Politics is going to come in here very, very fast,” said Frida Berrigan, an organiser with the grassroots group Witness Against Torture, which is also seeking to close Guantanamo.

“Does Congress have a mandate to back the supreme court in the middle of this election season?” she asked. “I think there’s going to be a lot of roadblocks in the way of enacting what the supreme court has judged and determined.

“What does it mean for the men of Guantanamo?” Ms Berrigan said. “It means more waiting; it means more ambiguity; it means more games – with their lives at stake...” LINK