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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Plastic Mimolette

As we reported last week, mimolette cheese, with it’s mite-eaten rind, bas been barred from the United States. But we discovered in the mass-market cheese section of a local supermarket in Paris, France, yesterday that it’s available here in vacuum-sealed plastic. Frankly, we’d rather have the mites than packaging.

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Friday, July 26, 2013

My latest: The Obama Doctrine (that doesn't exist, and why); Ideas for a Better (or more interesting) World; and The Secret Life (on the surface) of a Banned Cheese

The Daily Beast: In Search of the Obama Doctrine, 26 July 2013
During desperately dangerous times, solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the last best chance for the U.S. to influence events in the region. By Christopher Dickey.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/26/in-search-of-the-obama-doctrine.html


BETTER WORLD ITEMS:

Newsweek: Little Brother is Watching You, 24 July 2013
A new educational program has Orwellian overtones.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/07/24/providence-talks-aims-to-boost-vocabulary-through-surveillance.html


Newsweek: Scent from My iPhone, 24 July 2013
New technology could send smells from one smartphone to another
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/07/24/ever-wanted-to-use-your-phone-to-send-a-smell.html


Newsweek: Brave New World, 24 July 2013
Will an even more populous planet lead to greater suffering?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/07/24/crowded-planet-un-says-9-3-billion-will-live-on-earth-by-2050.html


Newsweek: A Note of Caution, 24 July 2013
Was classical music a kind of cultural imperialism?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/07/24/the-surprising-roots-of-cultural-imperialism-in-the-middle-east.html


Newsweek: Street Cleaners, 24 July 2013
Could special paving stones reduce smog?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/07/24/high-tech-paving-stones-could-help-clean-the-air.html


The Daily Beast: Freedom Cheese, 20 July 2013
Fancy some mite-covered fromage from France? The U.S. government has banned it, and libertarians are angry. Alice Guilhamon and Christopher Dickey report from Paris.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/20/u-s-wants-freedom-from-filthy-french-cheese.html

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Saturday, July 20, 2013

Background to CIA Bungling in Italy: Robert Seldon Lady, Abu Omar, and Agents of Incompetence, from 2005


Shadowland: Bourne Again? 4 July 2005
Who doesn't love a good spy story? Shadowy operatives, evil terrorists, dangerous betrayals and the future of the free world hanging in the balance. Throw in the suggestion of sinister conspiracies at the very top of government--and some sex, of course--and you've got a pretty good book to take to the beach. But when real U.S. officials start acting like they're living a Robert Ludlum saga, then you've got problems. And the more documentation that surfaces about the mysterious abduction of a suspected Al Qaeda figure from the streets of Italy in February 2003, the more it looks like whoever in the administration ordered the snatch got carried away with the dangerous glamour of the moment.... http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2005/07/04/shadowland-bourne-again.html



Shadowland: The Road to Rendition, 15 June 2005
... Last week, I passed through Milan and decided to visit the scene of the crime. As I walked the quiet roads between Abu Omar's apartment and that lonely stretch of Via Guerzoni where he was kidnapped, I kept thinking of something he was told by the mysterious visitor from Germany in that conversation tape recorded back in the summer of 2002. In the Italian transcript, which I have, they talked about reorganizing the Hizb Al Tahrir group after the post-9/11 arrests in Europe. They talked about money: where to get it (from Saudis); how to use it (to make more money). They talked about "the youth" who could be used as martyrs. And toward the end of the chat, the Unidentified Man warned Abu Omar, as if from nowhere, "You need to study the street, because war ought to be studied ..." In the shadow world of terror and counterterror, even a quiet street like Via Guerzoni can be a battlefront.... http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2005/06/15/shadowland-the-road-to-rendition.html

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Thursday, July 18, 2013

From Silicon Valley Ice Cream to the Spacetime Debate; plus the search for The Pinball Wizard of Paris

Newsweek, Better World, 17 July 2013
Frank Snepp on Lessons Unlearned from Vietnam; the secret of hi-tech ice cream; safely sifting precious metals from circuit boards; brain scans for criminals; and a debate over the spacetime continuum.

The Daily Beast, Searching for the Pinball Wizard of Paris, 13 July 2013
Not so long ago, pinball machines were as much a fixture in French cafés as coffee and Calvados. But today it's the Americans in Paris who seem to cherish them most, reports Solène Cressant, with a contribution by Christopher Dickey


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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Five More Eclectic Ideas from Around the World
























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Friday, July 12, 2013

NYPD's Ray Kelly for Director of Homeland Security? Background...

Janet Napolitano is resigning her post as Director of Homeland Security and New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly stands a good chance to replace her. I profiled him extensively in my 2009 book Securing the City: Inside America's Best Counterterror Force -- The NYPD. 

 This is John Avlon's take from The Daily Beast:
This is my profile of Kelly from last year:
And this is a close look at Kelly's fight against guns in New York:
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

My latest "Better World" column: The Fight for Humanities, (Racial) Color Blindness, Dining Solo, RoboRoaches, and the US Oil Boom






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Tuesday, July 09, 2013

"Who Will Benefit?" - Aftermath of the Monday Morning Massacre in Egypt

The Daily Beast: Death on the Nile, 8 July 2013
A massacre before dawn in Cairo today raises the risks of massive violence. Christopher Dickey and Mike Giglio on the first casualty in Egypt: the truth.


Updates continue on our Egypt Revolution LiveBlog

MSNBC Video: Egypt's Revolution Timeline and the Consent of the Governed, 6 July 2013


Background:

The Daily Beast: Egypt's Military is Waiting for the Worst, 6 July 2013
The death toll is mounting. If violence continues between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators the army may see no choice but to impose martial law. Christopher Dickey and Mike Giglio report, with Sophia Jones

Plus: Notes on the Sinai Tunnels, 7 July 2013


The Daily Beast: Egypt's Declaration of Independence: Not So Different From Ours, 4 July 2013
Yes, it was a coup. But the Egyptians are striving for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness just like America did in 1776. Christopher Dickey on what Washington should do to help.

The Daily Beast: What Egyptians Really Want, 3 July 2013
Will all hell break loose, or can the military keep control? Christopher Dickey on the forces driving Egypt's unrelenting uprisings.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/03/what-egyptians-really-want.html


The Daily Beast: An Egyptian Coup in the Making, 1 July 2013
Many forces are lined up against President Morsi. But who will take his place if he falls? Christopher Dickey on a dangerous moment in the Middle East.

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Monday, July 08, 2013

Video: Egypt's Revolutionary Timeline and the Consent of the Governed

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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Sunday, July 07, 2013

My latest: Egypt's Military is Waiting for the Worst, the Prospects for Martial Law; Notes on the Sinai Tunnels and the El-Arish Massacre that Wasn't

The Daily Beast: Egypt's Military is Waiting for the Worst, 6 July 2013
The death toll is mounting. If violence continues between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators the army may see no choice but to impose martial law. Christopher Dickey and Mike Giglio report, with Sophia Jones

Plus: Notes on the Sinai Tunnels, 7 July 2013
http://thebea.st/1533jqV

NO MORE KFC FOR GAZA?
THE EGYPTIAN ARMY GETS SERIOUS ABOUT THE SINAI TUNNELS
We are keeping an eye on the Sinai amid Egypt’s upheaval. As noted earlier on this blog, the region is virtually lawless. A Coptic Christian priest was shot there yesterday and his car stolen. Army checkpoints and the El-Arish airport came under attack the day before, with at least one soldier killed. The same day, someone opened fire as Islamists were saying their prayers in El-Arish, causing panic.
Because the Sinai is next door to Gaza, most international attention has focused on Israel’s worries about the tunnels. Iranian funds for the Hamas leadership and components for the rockets frequently launched at Israel go through them.
But the problem for the Egyptian military is not what’s been going into Gaza, it’s what is coming out.
This morning we see reports that the Egyptian army has destroyed more than 40 smuggling tunnels in Sinai “in order to prevent infiltration of terrorists into the [Egyptian] peninsula [from Gaza].” Concerns are growing that Islamists and jihadists will take the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi as reason to step up terrorist attacks against the Egyptian military and the civilians who worked with it to carry out his overthrow. (Arguably, that would make more than half the people in Egypt “legitimate” targets for murder in the terrorists’ eyes.) Hamas, which runs Gaza, is a branch of the international Muslim Brotherhood, the same organization that spawned Morsi.
The Egyptian government, even under Morsi, vowed to shut down the tunnels. But that seemed to be at the behest of Israel, there was little real commitment, and the tunnels continued to operate with virtual impunity. The people of Gaza got so blasé about these subterranean thoroughfares that, as The New York Times reported in May, they’ve been ordering deliveries of Kentucky Fried Chicken through them. “Nearly all of the animals at Gaza's South Forest zoo, including hyenas, wolves, ostriches, chimpanzees and its prize lion, came though the tunnels,” the Guardian reported recently. “Two months ago, 17-year-old Egyptian bride Manal Abu Shanar, veiled and dressed in flowing white, made the subterranean journey to her wedding in Gaza.”
This time, for its own reasons, the Egyptian military may be deadly serious about shutting the tunnels down. – Christopher Dickey


THE EL-ARISH SHOOTING EXAMINED
A massacre? Not really. This video posted by an Islamist group, and watched by more than 300,000 people so far, is worth looking at closely. The way it’s being excerpted on TV reports around the world may be very misleading. It shows people at afternoon prayers yesterday in the street in El-Arish, an Egyptian city in North Sinai near Gaza. In the background are the Egyptian military’s armored personnel carriers. Lawlessness has spread throughout the Sinai in the last couple of years, and earlier in the day groups reportedly identified as “Islamist gunmen” briefly attacked the El Arish airport and several military checkpoints with rocket propelled grenades and other weapons. At least one soldier was reported killed. So it’s likely that these soldiers were nervous.

Suddenly, shots ring out: automatic weapons fire that sounds like it is coming from two or more assault rifles. We cannot see who is shooting at whom, whether there was some provocation, or whether the shots are being fired in the air. But the men at prayer suddenly realize shots are being fired and run away from the military.

The scene of panic and the noise of the gunfire are such that you might well assume people are being mowed down in the street. And that is where the video clip usually ends when it is rebroadcast. But this raw footage does not show any casualties; in fact, quite the contrary. The crowd realizes that nobody is dying and within a minute or so of the shooting, men start to pour back into the square toward the military amid shouts of “God is great.” There are two men in white galabeyas lying on the pavement, but between 1:30 and 1:55 minutes into the video, you see them get up and dust themselves off. Toward the end of the video, you see the parked personnel carriers starting their engines and pulling back from the crowd. Then the video ends.

An ugly incident, to be sure. But a murky one. And not the massacre it appears to be.




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Thursday, July 04, 2013

And now, Egypt and the Fourth of July in one piece

The Daily Beast: Egypt's Declaration of Independence: Not So Different From Ours, 4 July 2013
Yes, it was a coup. But the Egyptians are striving for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness just like America did in 1776. Christopher Dickey on what Washington should do to help.

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Egypt/DC: When is a Coup not a Coup?

Looks like Washington is going to tie itself in knots over the question of whether the coup in Egypt is really a coup, since if it is, Washington will tie its own hands with an automatic aid cut off. ... Hmmm, sort of like sequestering foreign policy. It's time Congress got out of the ultimatum business. But there's little hope of that, I suppose.


WAS THE OVERTHROW OF EGYPT'S GOVERNMENT A COUP?

By The Associated Press
— Jul. 3 6:39 PM EDT
Was the overthrow of Egypt's Islamist government on Wednesday a coup?
Much hangs on the exact words used to describe what happened.
If the U.S. government determines the Egyptian military carried out a coup, it could affect the $1.5 billion in economic and military assistance Washington gives Egypt each year. ...
The usual Arabic term for a military coup is "inqilab askari." Inqilab literally means overturning; askari means military.
"Coup" comes from the French "coup d'etat," or "stroke of state." Webster's New World College Dictionary defines it as the "sudden, forcible overthrow of a ruler, government, etc., sometimes with violence, by a small group of people already having some political or military authority." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language also speaks of a "small group."
Egypt's military overthrew an elected government after giving Morsi and his political opponents first seven days, then 48 hours to work out their own differences. Egypt's top military officers could also be defined as a "small group," but they acted after millions of citizens across the country demonstrated for Morsi's removal. The military's statement said its move was "an interaction with the pulse of the Egyptian street."
The military installed a civilian government, not putting generals directly in power.
So far, The Associated Press is not characterizing the overthrow as a "coup," using purely descriptive terms like "the overthrow of Morsi by the military."
___
Associated Press reporters Donna Cassata in Washington and Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this story.

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Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Posting this in case it disappears later: Statement from the foreign affairs assistant to President Morsi

The Egyptian Presidency

Office of the Assistant to the President on Foreign Relations & International Cooperation 

___________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release, July 3, 2013

As I write these lines I am fully aware that these may be the last lines I get to post on this page.

For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let’s call what is happening by its real name: Military coup.

It has been two and a half years after a popular revolution against a dictatorship that had strangled and drained Egypt for 30 years.

That revolution restored a sense of hope and fired up Egyptians’ dreams of a future in which they could claim for themselves the same dignity that is every human being’s birthright.

On Januray 25 I stood in Tahrir square. My children stood in protest in Cairo and Alexandria. We stood ready to sacrifice for this revolution. When we did that, we did not support a revolution of elites. And we did not support a conditional democracy. We stood, and we still stand, for a very simple idea: given freedom, we Egyptians can build institutions that allow us to promote and choose among all the different visions for the country. We quickly discovered that almost none of the other actors were willing to extend that idea to include us.

You have heard much during the past 30 months about ikhwan excluding all others. I will not try to convince you otherwise today. Perhaps there will come a day when honest academics have the courage to examine the record.

Today only one thing matters. In this day and age no military coup can succeed in the face of sizeable popular force without considerable bloodshed. Who among you is ready to shoulder that blame?

I am fully aware of the Egyptian media that has already attempted to frame ikhwan for every act of violence that has taken place in Egypt since January 2011. I am sure that you are tempted to believe this. But it will not be easy.

There are still people in Egypt who believe in their right to make a democratic choice. Hundreds of thousands of them have gathered in support of democracy and the Presidency. And they will not leave in the face of this attack. To move them, there will have to be violence. It will either come from the army, the police, or the hired mercenaries. Either way there will be considerable bloodshed. And the message will resonate throughout the Muslim World loud and clear: democracy is not for Muslims.

I do not need to explain in detail the worldwide catastrophic ramifications of this message. In the last week there has been every attempt to issue a counter narrative that this is just scaremongering and that the crushing of Egypt’s nascent democracy can be managed. We no longer have the time to engage in frivolous academic back and forth. The audience that reads this page understands the price that the world continues to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Egypt is neither Afghanistan nor Iraq. Its symbolic weight and resulting impact is far more significant. Last night, demonstrators at Cairo University supporting the President were fired upon using automatic weapons. Twenty people died and hunderds were injured.
There are people in Egypt and around the world that continue to try to justify the calls for early presidential elections because of the large numbers of demonstrators and the validity of their grievances.

Let me be very clear. The protesters represent a wide spectrum of Egyptians and many of them have genuine, valid grievances. President Morsy’s approval rating is down.

Now let me be equally clear. Since January and again in the last couple of weeks the President has repeatedly called for national dialog. Equally repeatedly, the opposition refused to participate. Increasingly, the so-called liberals of Egypt escalated a rhetoric inviting the military to become the custodians of government in Egypt. The opposition has steadfastly declined every option that entails a return to the ballot box.

Yesterday, the President received an initiative from an alliance of parties supporting constitutional legitimacy. He discussed it with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense and all three of them agreed that it presented an excellent path for Egypt out of its current impasse. The initiative called for a full change of cabinet, a prime minister acceptable to all, changing the public prosecutor, agreement on constitutional amendments, and a reconciliation commission.

And let us also be clear. The President did not have to offer all these concessions. In a democracy, there are simple consequences for the situation we see in Egypt: the President loses the next election or his party gets penalized in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Anything else is mob rule.

In the last year we have been castigated by foreign governments, foreign media, and rights groups whenever our reforms in the areas of rights and freedoms did not keep pace with the ambitions of some or adhere exactly to the forms used in other cultures. The silence of all of those voices with an impending military coup is hypocritical and that hypocrisy will not be lost on a large swathe of Egyptians, Arabs and Muslims.

Many have seen fit in these last months to lecture us on how democracy is more than just the ballot box. That may indeed be true. But what is definitely true is that there is no democracy without the ballot box.

-ENDS-

 https://www.facebook.com/Foreign.Relations.President.Asst.Egy?hc_location=timeline
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My latest writing on the crisis in Egypt, plus a piece from the archives for July 4

The Daily Beast: What Egyptians Really Want, 3 July 2013
Will all hell break loose, or can the military keep control? Christopher Dickey on the forces driving Egypt's unrelenting uprisings.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/03/what-egyptians-really-want.html


The Daily Beast: An Egyptian Coup in the Making, 1 July 2013
Many forces are lined up against President Morsi. But who will take his place if he falls? Christopher Dickey on a dangerous moment in the Middle East.

Updates constantly on  -
LiveBlog: 48 Hours in Cairo

-----

And thinking about July 4, this column from 2006:

Newsweek: American Dream, American Nightmare, 4 July 2006
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2006/07/04/american-dream-american-nightmare.html

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Monday, July 01, 2013

My appearance on MSNBC Sunday talking about the CIA and the NYPD

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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