Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Check out my coverage of Strauss-Kahn's arrest for alleged sex crimes
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest in New York on Saturday for alleged criminal sexual assault may end his career at the IMF—and will transform the French presidential race.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-15/dominique-strauss-kahn-international-money-fund-head-charged-in-sexual-assault/
France24 Audio: An unmitigated disaster for StraussKahn's career, 15 May 2011
http://www.france24.com/en/node/5195563
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Check out "Galliano's Woes," a brief video
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Friday, May 06, 2011
Check out "The Next Terror Threat" about the risks to New York and Osama's legacy
On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning suggesting Al Qaeda had contemplated attacks on U.S. railroads. Christopher Dickey on why bin Laden's death won't protect us from attacks—and the new breed of small scale, random terror threats that may be coming next
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-06/al-qaeda-terror-threat-to-new-york-city-and-us-trains-remains-high
For rapid-fire updates follow me on Twitter at @csdickey
Check out my Newsweek cover story (a special edition) on the 15-year hunt for Bin Laden
Newsweek Cover (special edition): A Decade on the Lam, 6 May 2011
How much longer will Al Qaeda survive? Just look at all it took to hunt down its leader.
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/05/a-decade-on-the-lam.html
Also, this from Monday:
The Daily Beast, Why the U.S. Acted Alone, 2 May 2011
Islamabad's Al Qaeda allies complicated the hunt for Public Enemy No. 1. Christopher Dickey on how the U.S. went over the heads of bin Laden's Pakistan protectors.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-02/osama-bin-laden-dead-his-pakistan-protectors/
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Check out video: Cairo's Missing Tourists; plus John G. Morris' extraordinary personal collection of photos form Capa, Erwitt, W. Eugene Smith and others.
Has tourism resumed in Egypt since the revolution? Newsweek/The Daily Beast's Christopher Dickey reports that tourism is down and asks foreigners if they feel safe in Cairo.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid271557391?bctid=919987238001
Photographs from the John G. Morris collection go up for auction
As far as luminaries go in the world of photography, John G. Morris is Olympian. As the London photo editor of Life magazine during World War II, Morris worked closely with the likes of Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson to publish now-iconic images of Europe besieged.
http://www.newsweek.com/photo/2011/04/24/john-g-morris-collection.html
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Check out "Obama's Middle East Head Spin" and "The Evolution of Arab Revolutions"
The president's ineffectual statement on Friday's massacre in Syria is the latest act in a White House drama that began in 2009, starring a brilliant intellect who is nonetheless confounded by events. Christopher Dickey and John Barry on Obama's flailing foreign policy—which appears headed for unmitigated disaster
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-22/obamas-middle-east-head-spin-his-missing-strategy-on-syria-libya-more/
Video on Al Jazeera English: The Evolution of Arab Revolutions, 21 April 2011
t seems some regimes will stop at nothing to resist change. So with no unified leadership or clear agenda, and with domestic complications in each and every country, is this truly a revolution? And if this is an Awakening – what path will it follow – that of Turkey? Of Iran? Or rather a third way, an Arab way. Joining Marwan Bishara to discuss these issues are: Rabab el-Mahdi, a professor of political science at American University, Cairo; Christopher Dickey, Middle East editor of Newsweek and The Daily Beast; Patrick Seale, author of The Struggle for Arab Independence.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2011/04/2011421104111964650.html
For rapid-fire updates follow me on Twitter at @csdickey
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Check out the story "Burqas, Bikinis and BS" in France
The new French law against full-face veils is almost as dangerous as it is absurd—and the cops charged with enforcing it know it. Christopher Dickey on the "masquerade."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-12/frances-veil-ban-burqas-bikinis-and-bs
Friday, April 08, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
(BN) UN Answers Libyans’ Cry for Freedom With Global Protection
UN Answers Libyans' Cry for Freedom With Global Protection
March 21 (Bloomberg) -- The cheering on the streets of Benghazi when the United Nations approved military action against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi signaled something critics have long doubted: that the UN can play a vital role in an exploding crisis.
The Obama administration and its European allies said they wouldn't have begun armed intervention without the legality conferred by the UN Security Council, and the resolution adopted by a 10-to-0 vote with 5 abstentions puts Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the middle of its implementation.
"This is 21st century intervention, an extraordinary step that pushes the envelope for the UN," Jeff Laurenti, UN analyst at the New York-based Century Foundation research group, said in an interview. Intervening in an internal conflict such as Libya "goes beyond previous non-aggression measures such the steps taken against Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990."
The UN action on Libya contrasts with its failure to intervene in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the difference drew praise from those who have previously criticized the world body for its response to human-rights abuses, including Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights.
Preventing Atrocities
"The Security Council has defied expectations and risen to the occasion by making clear that all options are on the table to prevent mass atrocities," Roth said in a statement. It now needs to deal as decisively with other crises, such as halting "mass atrocities" in Ivory Coast, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, he said.
Libya is a "relatively easy case of a brutal dictator with few friends," Roth said.
President Barack Obama's decision to work through the UN also contrasted with then-President George W. Bush's move to sidestep the Security Council when he invaded Iraq in 2003. Then, the U.S. withdrew a draft resolution to authorize military force against Saddam Hussein when it became clear it wouldn't pass and began the invasion two days later -- eight years ago this week.
Adopting two Libya sanctions resolutions in three weeks, the first approved unanimously after some behind-the-scenes differences, shows the Security Council's ability to act even with some internal discord. China and Russia refrained from casting vetoes that would have reflected their objections. Aspiring permanent members Brazil, Germany and India expressed their concerns by abstaining instead of voting against.
Internal Divisions
"The UN has gone through decades when the international community has experienced gross violations of civilian populations," Ban said in an interview March 19 in Paris, where he was briefed on the allied attacks. "Sometimes the UN was not able to take proper measures because of the divisions of member states. I am encouraged that the member states and the Security Council have shown their leadership."
Ban arrived last night in Cairo from Paris and went straight to a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil El- Arabi. He met today with Amr Moussa, general secretary of the Arab League, who said the group remains committed to the no-fly zone in Libya.
Ban said the UN "stands ready to help protect civilians and promote reform." He condemned violence against demonstrators in Yemen and cited rising violence in Bahrain. "You cannot hold back demands for democracy and reform," he said.
Tahrir Square
The secretary general was forced to drop plans to walk through Tahrir Square -- scene of massive demonstrations last month that toppled President Hosni Mubarak -- before flying to Tunis. Ban was turned back after he left the press conference and was surrounded by a group of about 40 pro-Qaddafi demonstrators chanting "Down, Down USA!" and waving their fists at the secretary general.
The Security Council has scheduled talks on the allied military action for 3 p.m. today in New York, at the request of Qaddafi's foreign minister, Musa Kousa. In a March 19 letter to the Security Council Kousa asks for "an emergency meeting in order to halt this aggression, which is not aimed at protecting civilians, as is purported, but rather to strike civilian sites, economic facilities and sites belonging" to Libya's army.
In addition to invoking Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which authorizes military action to force compliance with UN demands, the no-fly resolution in seven instances either tells governments to report to Ban on their military action, or gives him a vital role in other enforcement tools. He must report to the Security Council weekly on its implementation.
The no-fly resolution also marks the first implementation of the 2005 global agreement on the "responsibility to protect," a doctrine that says collective action is justified when a government commits acts of genocide or other atrocities against its people. Bush and 170 other world leaders reached the accord at a UN summit in New York.
'Hesitant' Endorsement
"Since that controversial principle was introduced, it has been endorsed in general and hesitant terms," Bruce Jones, senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution said in an e-mail. "Libya was the first time it's been forcefully invoked in respect of a specific crisis."
The resolution, adopted after Obama last week decided to back a no-fly zone, also shows his administration's commitment to the UN and ability to work closely with Ban.
Bush was publicly antagonistic during his first term, particularly after former Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared the Iraq war to be illegal because it wasn't explicitly authorized by the Security Council.
Ban's relationship with Bush was "not a harmonious one" at first, Ban said in an interview in January at Bloomberg News headquarters in New York. That changed gradually in Bush's second term, he said, as the U.S. sought UN help imposing sanctions to block Iran's nuclear ambitions and to end the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Obama Embraces UN
Obama has embraced the UN system in a way Bush never did. The U.S. joined the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, supported a General Assembly declaration urging the decriminalization of homosexuality and gave government funds to a UN agency that offers abortion counseling. Obama also backed a treaty to regulate the trade in conventional weapons and agreed to strengthen the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"The U.S. has taken very strong leadership and a determined, principled position," Ban said of the administration's role in getting the no-fly resolution adopted.
An Italian government official, who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be identified in public statements, credited the combination of Obama's leadership and Ban's characteristic behind-the-scenes diplomacy for overcoming concerns of Brazil, China, Germany, India and Russia to get the no-fly resolution passed.
"The solicitude by Washington for the Security Council" shows the Obama administration has "learned to play with others in the global sandbox," Laurenti said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome at fjackson@bloomberg.net Bill Varner in New York at wvarner@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
Find out more about Bloomberg for iPhone: http://m.bloomberg.com/iphone/(BN) U.S. May Lose Key Ally Against Al-Qaeda as Yemeni President Faces Revolt
U.S. Facing Loss of Key Ally Against Al-Qaeda Group in Yemen
March 22 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is on the verge of
losing a key ally in the fight against al-Qaeda, as Yemeni President
Ali Abdullah Saleh appears unlikely to weather a popular uprising and
defections among his ruling elite, former U.S. officials said.
"It's clear at this point that Saleh will have to step down,"
Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, said in an
interview yesterday. With the "mounting numbers of senior people in
his administration resigning, we know it's over. The terms of his
departure, I think, are still being negotiated."
The March 18 killing of at least 46 protesters allegedly by police and
pro-regime gunmen -- which drew condemnation from Obama and Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton and prompted the defection of key military,
tribal and government officials -- may well be the tipping point.
Obama's counterterrorism chief, John Brennan, told Saleh in a
telephone call March 20 "that that kind of violence is
unacceptable," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser
for strategic communications, said aboard Air Force One yesterday.
Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, has been struggling to hang
on since demonstrations inspired by those in Egypt and Tunisia began
two months ago. The government deployed tanks yesterday to protect the
presidential palace.
"There's clearly going to have to be a political solution in Yemen
that includes a government that is more responsive to the Yemeni
people," Rhodes said.
'It's Hopeless'
Until last week, there was a "fading hope that somehow Saleh could
reach an accommodation with the opposition," said David Newton,
another former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, which the United Nations
ranks as the poorest Arab country.
"Friday really tore it," said Newton, now a scholar at the Middle
East Institute in Washington, referring to the shootings. "He's
going. It's hopeless."
Saleh's departure is likely to undermine, at least temporarily, U.S.
counterterrorism efforts, Yemen experts said. Saleh has been an
important ally in the fight against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,
the Yemen-based group responsible for sending two parcel bombs to U.S.
synagogues in October and the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound
plane on Christmas Day 2009.
Because of Saleh's cooperation, the Obama administration "has been
reluctant to be too critical" in its comments, said Christopher
Boucek, a Yemen analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace in Washington.
'Urgent Concern'
Clinton, on a visit to Yemen in January, said that Yemen- based
terrorists are an "urgent concern" for the U.S. Yemen, which gets
about $300 million a year in U.S. security and humanitarian
assistance, stepped up operations against al-Qaeda after the attempted
Detroit attack.
Last week's deadly violence, the worst in two months of protests,
prompted the resignation of three ministers, members of parliament,
and at least three diplomats. Numerous top military officials declared
support for the opposition.
Saleh, who said security forces weren't responsible, sacked his
cabinet, and prosecutors issued 10 arrest warrants in connection with
the deaths.
U.S. analysts said the White House will have to be nimble in revamping
in its Yemen policy.
"The hope is to come through a transition with at least some
cooperative measures still intact," said Steven Simon, a Middle East
fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Yemen's Problems
Yemen faces a failing economy, serious water shortages, declining oil
output and a society where more than half the population of 23 million
is under 20 years old and about 40 percent of the people live on the
equivalent of less than $2 a day.
"Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and fighting terrorism is our
biggest problem, but it's not Yemen's number-one priority,"
Boucek said.
The Yemeni government is struggling to quell two internal revolts, a
secessionist movement in the south and a Shiite uprising in the north.
Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based wing has also launched cross-border attacks on
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter.
The course of events for Saleh may largely depend on the loyalty of
people in the central security forces and the Republican Guard, said
Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University in New Jersey.
"If President Saleh steps down, it'll all go over peacefully," he
said. "If he attempts to fight this, then it could get very, very
bloody."