Juan Cole

‘We Will Close Down Twitter’: Erdogan’s Attempt Fails

‘We Will Close Down Twitter’: Erdogan’s Attempt Fails

JUAN COLE: Let it be a warning to dictators around the world – a clumsy attempt to shut down Twitter in Turkey back-fires.

 Ramzy Baroud

Libyan Chaos: The Colourful Life and Times of Khalifa Hifter

Libyan Chaos: The Colourful Life and Times of Khalifa Hifter

RAMZY BAROUD: Daily life in Libya today can be easily described in one word – ‘chaos’. What are the chances that order will be soon restored?

 Juan Cole

Egypt’s New Constitution: A Very Mixed Bag

Egypt’s New Constitution: A Very Mixed Bag

JUAN COLE: Many of its provisions will be welcomed by secularists, in particular those with plenty of money but there are some fundamental contradictions too.

 Common Ground News Service

Tunisian Youth ‘Turned Off’ By Politics To Effect Change

Tunisian Youth ‘Turned Off’ By Politics To Effect Change

GHADA DALY, CGNEWS: The apathy that Tunisian young people feel for politics is being re-directed in a positive direction into varied civil projects

 Common Ground News Service

#RumorControlLibya: Authorities Try to Seize Initiative

#RumorControlLibya: Authorities Try to Seize Initiative

MAROUANE BAKIT, CGNEWS: Rumor is the new currency in post-revolutionary Libya. Its effects are widespread and damaging.

 James M. Dorsey

Algerian Revolt: Surge in Soccer-Related Violence A Signal

Algerian Revolt: Surge in Soccer-Related Violence A Signal

JAMES M. DORSEY: Violent protest attending soccer matches has proven to be a reliable indicator of an imminent popular revolt in the Arab World. Algeria’s next then.

 The View From Fez

Diplomacy Undone: Rice’s Disastrous Moroccan Blunder

Diplomacy Undone: Rice’s Disastrous Moroccan Blunder

THE VIEW FROM FEZ: As the plot to a Hollywood movie it would have been thrown out as incredible. But fact beat fiction this week in Morocco

 Common Ground News Service

‘Talk or Shoot?’: Tunisian Society on a Knife-Edge

‘Talk or Shoot?’: Tunisian Society on a Knife-Edge

LAMIA HATIRA, NURA SULEIMAN, CGNEWS: We don’t have a culture of armed conflict but it’s possible that we’re moving in that direction.