Essay by Israel's Tzipi Livni, Washington Post

A good essay, about the continuing dramatic developments in the Middle East, from the 2/23/11 Washington Post.  Tzipi Livni is the leader of Israel's Kadima party.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/23/AR2011022305364.html

A follow-up, concerning Lara Logan

On February 16th, The New York Post reported the following, concerning the February 11th attack on CBS reporter Lara Logan in Egypt's Tahrir Square, as she covered the resignation of Hosni Mubarak:

"60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan was repeatedly sexually assaulted by thugs yelling, "Jew! Jew!" as she covered the chaotic fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's main square Friday, CBS and sources said yesterday.

Logan, for the record, is not Jewish.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/cbs_reporter_cairo_nightmare_pXiUVvhwIDdCrbD95ybD5N

Wishing the best, to Lara Logan

Lara Logan, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for CBS News, and a correspondent for 60 Minutes, is a fine—and courageous—reporter. She has for years reported regularly from war zones (such as, in Iraq and Afghanistan).

Today’s news story, concerning the Friday attack on her in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, while she covered the story of Hosni Mubarak’s resignation for 60 Minutes, is indeed very distressing.

From the CBS News statement: “In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.”

Logan is recuperating in a U.S. hospital. As the Huffington Post story below notes, Katie Couric, the anchor of The CBS Evening News, says that Logan is "recovering well.”

In an on-line column on Tuesday, Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post wrote the following:

“It took great courage for [Logan] to make this story public, and I wish her a speedy recovery.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/15/lara-logan-suffered-bruta_n_823677.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/compost/2011/02/what_happened_to_lara_logan_wa.html

On February 3rd, eight days before she was assaulted, Logan and her crew had been detained by the Egyptian army, and she had described the severe treatment to which she and the crew had been subjected. Her description of the detention appears as part of the following report:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/15/egypt.logan.assault/index.html?hpt=T2

Piece about Egypt, in The Washington Post

The essay is by the columnist Richard Cohen, and appeared on 2/1/11.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104014.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions

Recommended Reading

1.  Dear American Airlines, A novel by Jonathan Miles (Mariner Books, 2009).

http://www.amazon.com/Dear-American-Airlines-Jonathan-Miles/dp/0547237901/

2.  Have also, recently, been reading some of Richard Bausch's short fiction (The Stories of Richard Bausch, Perennial, 2004).  Had not read his work previously (and have admired the stories I've read thus far).

http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Richard-Bausch/dp/0060956224/

3.  100 Years of Lynchings, By Ralph Ginzburg.  (Black Classic Press, 1996; originally published in 1962).  An important (and graphic, and terrifying) book, consisting solely of 19th and 20th century newspaper reports of the lynchings of African-Americans.

http://www.amazon.com/100-Years-Lynchings-Ralph-Ginzburg/dp/0933121180/

WikiLeaks, #2

A follow-up from the previous post.

I was looking last night at the WikiLeaks page on Facebook, and read a number of posts (many from other countries).

In that it is WikiLeaks’ page, it was not surprising to see many posts from people who think of Julian Assange as a great hero.

“One day soon,” one poster wrote, “we should choose a day and all use Julians (sic) profile pic as our own face book profile.”

Wrote another: “Julian Assange is a God!”

In short order, too, I came upon various anti-Israel and anti-Jewish posters.

One such poster had this for a Facebook picture: a Jewish star with a swastika contained within it.

Another ugly posting proclaimed the following (I am, unfortunately, no longer surprised by the ubiquity of this kind of thing):

“Weird that there never any mention (sic) about everything that's being done by Israel and the Jews who are running most of the governments around the world, including Sweden I'm sorry to say!”

(I am assuming that a significant amount of support for WikiLeaks comes from people who dislike the United States—and so it is not surprising that one would quickly come upon anti-Israel vitriol on WikiLeaks’ Facebook page. Anti-Americanism, and animus toward Israel, not infrequently go hand-in-hand, throughout the world.)

While I admit to being interested in some of the information recently released by WikiLeaks (such as, the evident behind-the-scenes desire of some Arab leaders to have the United States stop Iran, militarily, from acquiring nuclear weapons), WikiLeaks' indiscriminate publication of hundreds of thousands of highly-sensitive documents remains utterly irresponsible, and potentially perilous. (Assange's disclosures have certainly put lives in jeopardy—which includes his previous release of documents containing the names of Afghans serving as informants for the United States. Please see: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20011886-503543.html.)

And then, today, Assange’s dangerous campaign continued. This, via the CBS News website: “WikiLeaks has been condemned by British and U.S. officials for publishing a secret State Department inventory of sites across the world deemed vital to American security.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20024666-503543.html

WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks is a deplorable outfit. The website’s latest publication of highly sensitive and secret U.S. documents is profoundly reckless, and dangerous.

From CNN.com:  "...White House spokesman Robert Gibbs condemned the release, warning that publishing the documents would jeopardize 'our diplomats, intelligence professionals and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government.' "

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/28/wikileaks.documents.published/index.html?hpt=T1

Here's a story from The Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton: WikiLeaks release an 'attack on international community.’”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112903231.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

And lastly, here's an interesting piece from the website of The New Yorker, by the writer George Packer. He writes, of this latest release of documents by WikiLeaks: “It will make the work of American diplomacy harder for a long time to come."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2010/11/the-right-to-secrecy.html#ixzz16ieUOYhV