Babylon & Beyond

IRAQ: A slice of normality returns to Baghdad

Alexandra Zavis — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:53:48 -0700

By Caesar Ahmed in Baghdad

It is a place tinged in nostalgia for Baghdadis of a certain generation.

Many remember happy evenings strolling along Abu Nuwas Street, taking in the elegant homes, gardens and art galleries, and stopping at one of the many cafes for grilled fish, fresh from the Tigris River.

The riverside street, named after a respected Arabic poet, used to be famous for its nightclubs, restaurants and bars. In its heyday in the 1970s and early 1980s, it was a favorite nightspot for tourists from the Persian Gulf region, who enjoyed visiting Iraq because of its relaxed attitude toward alcohol.

But as Iraq's war deepened with neighboring Iran, the security services forced most of the businesses to close. They were afraid the crowds they drew would provide cover for an attack on Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace, on the other side of the river. By the 1990s, the street was basically dead.

After U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, Abu Nuwas Street became a war zone. After repeated bombings, the entire street was blocked off with concrete barriers to protect several large hotels and what was to become the heavily fortified Green Zone on the other side of the river.

For some time now, however, I have been hearing that Abu Nuwas Street has come back to life after a major renovation effort by the Baghdad municipality and the U.S. military. With violence declining in the city, I decided to go see for myself.

There are still some concrete barriers, but artists have decorated them with scenes from Iraq's past. Access to the street is controlled by two checkpoints on either end. The security guards welcome you, give your car a quick search and wave you through to a parking lot. From there, you are free to wander through the park that runs alongside the river.

I found four men sitting on the riverbank, drinking beers and eating nuts across from the new American Embassy complex, which people say is as large as the Vatican.

"We are happy to be gathered here enjoying ourselves," said one of them, a 29-year-old truck driver who asked to be identified by a traditional nickname, Abu Gazwa Shimari. "Eight months ago we could never do this. Security was terrible. People were lying dead in the streets. But now it’s a different story. We can feel the improvement."

He was particularly pleased to see municipal works cleaning the streets and repairing the famous statue of Scheherazade recounting her tales to her husband Shahryar over "One Thousand and One Nights."

"We really feel that the government is functioning, making us feel secure to the point that we can actually sit here and drink alcohol without fearing someone will shoot us from behind our backs," he said. "We want to take a break -- enough with the politics, bombs and killings."

From there, I walked past nice flower beds and a brightly painted playground where children played on the swings. Here I found Mahdi Haydar, an 18-year-old who was sitting on a fancy bench studying for his high school examinations.

"I chose this place because it is quiet, nice," he said. "The nature here is amazing, the river, the trees all allow me to concentrate on my studies."

Anwar Fatlawi arrives at the park every day at 9 a.m. to take photographs of visitors, which he will frame for about $5 apiece.

"Whenever there is a party or a school trip, I get invited and take many pictures," he said. "The place here is very protected, which attracts locals to visit."

One man told me he had brought his wife and 3-year-old son all the way from Hurriya, on the other side of Baghdad.

"A few months ago this place was deserted," said the man, who gave his name only as Hussein. "But now I can bring my family and actually see the river. We thank God for this. I am optimistic for more prosperity for this country.

After years of violence and fear, I am just thankful to be able to do something normal again."

Photos: Along Abu Nuwas Street, a statue of Scheherazade and her husband Shahryar from "One Thousand and One Nights"; friends enjoy drinks and snacks in the riverside park; Mahdi Haydar studies for his exams on a park bench; Anwar Fatlawi makes a living taking photographs of park visitors. Credit: Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times

IRAN: No U-turns on nuclear policy in Tehran

borzou — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:38:24 -0700

While the Bush administration appears to be making an eighth-inning adjustment to its Iran policy, there was little evidence of a gentler Iranian attitude toward the United States at prayers today.

The U.S. this week agreed to send an envoy to talks between European and Iranian negotiators over Iran's nuclear program. Hints increased that the U.S. may be interested in setting up a diplomatic outpost in Iran beyond the tiny Swiss-run interests section it now maintains.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki today heartily welcomed such an expansion and repeated a call for more direct air flights between Tehran and the U.S.

All this comes as Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, heads off to Geneva for talks with European, Russian and Chinese counterparts.

But not all Iranians were so chummy.

At Iran's 1,500th Friday prayer session since the once-outlawed sermons were resumed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami gave a typically fiery speech during which followers chanted slogans likening the U.S. to the Roman empire and punctuated the sermon with cries of "Death to America."

Khatami, not to be confused with the liberal minded former president who shares the same last name, dismissed international concerns about Iran's nuclear programs as "pretexts" for pressuring Iran. "If not the nuclear issue, then human rights, and if there is no human rights case, they look for other pretexts, such animal rights," he said.

He said Western news outlets ("the media of the arrogant powers," as he put it) had managed to convey Iran's message that if attacked by the U.S. "our nation will give a lesson that our enemies never forget."

He rejected the idea that there were moderates and hardliners in the Iranian leadership. "Far from it," he said. "The Supreme National Security Council is in charge of [the nuclear issue], and all officials and statesmen are in unison," he said.

Still, even a hard-line cleric such as Khatami welcomed negotiations with the U.S., so long as there were no preconditions and talks were used only as a tactical tool. "Negotiation is important for knowing the approach of the other side," he said.

— Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami.

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EGYPT: War on the silverscreen

Jeffrey Fleishman — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:50:55 -0700

As a rebuttal to the recent Iranian documentary in which late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is shrugged off as a traitor, an Egyptian writer announced that he was putting together a movie script that dismisses Ayatollah Khomeini as a “terrorist.”

“This movie aims to glorify President Sadat and show that the ideas, advanced by Khomeini, stood behind his assassination,” said Mohamed Hassan El-Alfy, screenwriter. “Khomeini’s ideas sowed the seeds of terrorism and extremism in the region.”

El-Alfy said he was already working on his script “The Imam of Bood” (in reference to Khomeini) long before the Iranian documentary “Execution of the Pharaoh” came out. “However, the fury that I and many Egyptians felt made me rush to finish the script and produce the movie.” added El-Alfy, who expects his feature movie to be out in a few months.

The Iranian documentary has elicited too much fury in Egypt over the last couple of weeks. Between Sadat’s family that vowed to take all legal procedures against the film makers and commentators who seized the opportunity to reiterate that Iran posed an imminent threat to Egypt, prospects for the cooling off in Egyptian-Iranian relations waned.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were cut almost three years ago after Sadat had signed a peace treaty with Israel and hosted the ousted Iranian Shah. Egypt has been very reluctant to take seriously recent Iranian calls to resume relations. In recent months, Egyptian state-owned papers have headed a campaign against Iran, accusing it of disturbing regional stability.

Apart from being a riposte, the Egyptian movie seems to be part of the ongoing state-sanctioned campaign. However, El-Alfy, who edits El-Watani El-Youm, the ruling party’s mouthpiece, insisted it was an independent initiative.

“The movie is a personal initiative and has nothing to do with the [ruling] National Democratic Party or the state,” argued El-Alfy.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photos (from top down): Khomeini, Sadat. Credit: Wikimedia

LEBANON: A writer with many facets

Raed — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:34:04 -0700

Rabih Alameddine loves to tell stories, all sorts of them. Stories about intimate sexual experiences, about twisted family gatherings and even ancient ones about an Arabian prince who failed to have a son.

And just like his diverse and multifaceted stories, this Lebanese American fiction and essay writer juggles various identities that he hates to label.

Alameddine, 48, is an openly gay writer, but that's not how he'd like to be categorized. He quickly adds that he also happens to be a writer with a hairy chest, and that he loves to play soccer.

Born in Jordan in an upper-middle-class Lebanese family, he was raised between Kuwait and Lebanon. He went to the United Kingdom then to the United States after the civil war broke out in 1975, shifting his career from engineering to painting and writing along the way.

Today, Alameddine lives between San Francisco and Beirut, where he was recently promoting his new novel, "The Hakawati," or "The Storyteller."

Alameddine, also wrote the novels "Koolaids," and "I, the Divine," sat down for an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles Times: Your new book follows an old tradition in Arabic literature. Yet, what you present is a modern vision of the Arabian nights that seems more subversive and more overt. What is the book really about?

Rabih Alameddine: I am fascinated about how families start, where they come from.... In a large measure, the book is the stories I tell myself about myself. Those include personal stories.... Some are true, others are not true. But they are also stories that I tell about my family, how I fit among my family and my friends. There are stories that I tell also about my culture whether in the U.S. or Lebanon. It is the meeting of these stories that define a person, relationships and who we are as people. And that’s what I am interested in.

LAT: Like in your previous novels, the Lebanese civil war is palpable. What role do your memories of the war play in your narration?

RA: They are extremely important. I don’t know any Lebanese who was not affected by civil war on a number of levels.... Again, it comes to the stories we tell, how in a civil war a brother can kill his brother simply because of the way they define themselves.... It’s all two or three passages of a same story.... I am interested in the civil war as a place of chaos where the normal is put aside. I personally believe that we become much more human in some ways when there is chaos because we can see the best within ourselves but also the worst.... Under wartime and chaos and stress whether it’s great disease or, you know, a major earthquake, one forgets the minor issues of life and the major ones come full force.

LAT: You once said writing for you was a form of revenge. What did you mean?

RA: Every writer uses his own way to motivate oneself. I do best when I think I am underappreciated and I want to get back either at the world or, say, friends who think I am not a good writer.... It’s a constant struggle between one neurosis and the other. When I wrote my first book, "Koolaids," I felt rejected and not wanted. I was 36 and I wanted to be a writer all my life and I never could have any reason to.... So I came up with the “I got dumped” and “the world is not fair to me” reason. I sat down to write and make the world pay for this.... It’s nothing more than a story that I tell myself. It doesn’t mean that I believe it or that it’s true. It’s just a story.

LAT: You’re a gay Lebanese American writer. Your books are about sexuality, exile, alienation, integration, etc. How are each of your identities manifested in your literature?

RA: I am also a bearded writer. I am a writer who doesn’t sleep well at night. Nobody ever calls me a soccer-playing writer even though I play soccer and it’s part of who I am. So, Identity politics is what is the flavor du jour. I am all that but does it define me or, more importantly, is that all that I am.... Even some of the best reviews that were written have stressed the fact that I can make you understand Arab culture more. The truth is that it was never my intent.... In some ways, you can say that I am a minority writer and that I don’t look to the world as someone from the dominant culture does, but what minority is important when I am writing, I can’t really tell you. I allegedly am an outsider writer, so I write from the perspective of somebody who doesn’t completely fit in. But at the same time I can state the fact that I don’t know of any good writer who is not an outsider writer.

LAT: As a painter, you re obsessed with self-portraits and in your book, "I, The Divine," Sarah, your heroine, is obsessed with starting her memoirs. What does this obsession with self-portrayal in painting and writing represent?

RA: Basically, it’s the human condition which is trying to figure out who one is and where one fits and who we are as people. It’s the idea of an immortality project. It’s a general theme in all my books in some ways.

LAT: Your books are translated into many languages except your mother tongue, Arabic. Are your books too subversive for an Arab reader?

RA: I don’t know how the Arab reader might react. Publishers are terrified of censorship. I am not sure how to go about this issue. For me, censorship is a big issue.... I was told I could be translated or published if I change a few things but I can’t even imagine changing a few things. The fact that somebody sitting in an office can determine what is best to a general public just boggles my mind.

LAT: Have you said everything you wanted to say as an author?

RA: Of course not.... I can’t even imagine yet that I am done. Right now, what I am mostly interested in is belief. I am fascinated by people who believe enough that it takes over their lives. I am not talking only about religious belief but also, say, Americans believing that their country is the greatest in the world, the French thinking that they have a very enlightened society or the Arabs believing that their mode of living is the most moral.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: Rabih Alameddine during a recent book-reading session at a bar in Beirut. Credit: Raed Rafei / Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: Are rules of engagement real rules or just words?

Tony Perry — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:55:46 -0700

The talk at Camp Pendleton in recent days has been about the rules of engagement, which are meant to tell Marines in Iraq or Afghanistan when it's OK to use their weapons.

In HB0's new miniseries, "Generation Kill," which had its premiere on base last week, the Marines are constantly debating whether using deadly force in a specific incident is covered by the rules.

Much the same kind of debate is being heard in courtrooms where Marines are charged with abuses in Fallouja, Haditha and the Tharthar Lake region. Prosecutors routinely note that Marines get multiple lectures on the rules of engagement; defense attorneys counter that the rules are vague.

On Monday, a hearing officer in a case involving a Marine sniper who killed two Syrians and wounded two others seemed to want it both ways: He recommended that manslaughter and assault charges be dropped but that the Marine receive nonjudicial punishment for breaking the rules of engagement by not having positive identification that his targets were hostile.

Evan Wright, who wrote the book that is the basis for "Generation Kill,'' came to have a jaundiced view of the rules of engagement during his six weeks with a Marine reconnaissance battalion during the U.S.-led assault on Baghdad in 2003:

"However admirable the military's attempts are to create ROE, they basically create an illusion of moral order where there is none. The Marines operate in chaos. It doesn't matter if a Marine is following orders and ROE, or disregarding them.

"The fact is, as soon as the Marine pulls the trigger on his rifle, he's on his own. He's entered a game of moral chance. When it's over, he's as likely to go down as a hero as a baby killer. The only difference between [a Marine in the book] and any number of Marines who've shot or killed people they shouldn't have is that he got caught."

Tony Perry, at Camp Pendleton

Photo: Marines at Camp Pendleton training for deployment to Iraq. Credit: Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: Lawyer: Marine tricked in prisoner killing case

Tony Perry — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:47:08 -0700

Marine Sgt. Jermaine Nelson made admissions during a taped interview with a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent that could go a long way toward convicting him of killing Iraqi prisoners during the fight for Fallouja in late 2004.

On the tape, played in a preliminary hearing last week at Camp Pendleton, Nelson said that he, Sgt. Ryan Weemer and Sgt. Jose Nazario fatally shot four prisoners rather than take time to process them according to the laws of war.

But Joseph Low, Nelson's attorney, argued in a Camp Pendleton courtroom Monday that the statements should be ruled inadmissible because they were obtained, in effect, through trickery.

Low told a judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, that the NCIS agent did not read Nelson his rights until midway through the interrogation. Also, Low said, Nelson had just been told by a noncommissioned officer that he had done nothing wrong and thus felt he was free to talk in gruesome detail.

It's common in military and civilian courts for defense attorneys to try to keep juries from hearing damaging statements their clients made to the police.

But the issue of whether the Marine Corps has protected the legal rights of Marines accused of abuse in Iraq has arisen before.

The prosecution of Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the battalion commander in the Haditha case involving the deaths of 24 Iraqis in 2005, may unravel unless the prosecutors succeed in getting an appeals court to overrule a military judge. That judge, Col. Steven Folsom, ruled that the convening authority erred by letting a lawyer involved in the early investigation of the Haditha killings sit in on meetings where the case was discussed.

If the Chessani case falls apart, the case against Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the squad leader whose troops did the killings in Haditha, may also be thrown out on similar grounds.

In the Nelson case, Meeks set a hearing for later in the summer to hear arguments.

Tony Perry, at Camp Pendleton.

Photo: Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, accused of murder in the alleged killing of prisoners in Fallouja in late 2004.

IRAQ: One province gets extended weekend — whether it wants it or not

Alexandra Zavis — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:27:42 -0700

Another footnote to the absurdity of daily life in Iraq: On a recent Thursday I dropped by the Rafidain Bank in Amarah. I was surprised to find it closed. I was more surprised when I noticed bank employees moving about inside.

I told the guard I needed to get in to conduct some business.

"Today is a holiday," he said.

I knew of no holiday, and the weekend in Iraq begins on Friday.

"But there are employees inside," I protested.

"Today is just to do the Ministry of Finance work," he said.

No matter how hard I pressed him, he wouldn't let me in.

Asking around for an explanation, I learned that despite two weeks of military operations to restore the rule of law, Maysan province had retained its outlaw status in one respect. Of all Iraq's 18 provinces, Maysan is the only one that hadn't yielded to Baghdad's definition of the workweek.

Everywhere else, Friday and Saturday were the days of rest. Friday is the Islamic Sabbath. A few years ago, the government added Saturday as a second day off.

Under pressure from the followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr, the provincial council of Maysan, a predominantly Shiite region, declared Saturday unacceptable because it is the Jewish Sabbath. The weekend in Maysan was officially made Thursday and Friday.

With the return of government authority, the Maysan weekend became problematic for institutions such as banks that are under federal regulation. They had to decide whether to defy the authorities in Baghdad or the ones nearby in Maysan's capital, Amarah. Adopting a prudent course, Rafidain Bank decided to serve both masters.

The bank had employees come into work on Thursday, but did not open its doors. As a consequence, its customers got a three-day weekend away from bank services, whether they wanted it or not. It has now been a month since the beginning of Operation Herald of Peace the central government's military campaign to tame Amarah. If a clear sign of its success is needed, it appeared a few days ago when the Maysan council quietly capitulated to Baghdad. It decided that Friday and Saturday would be the province's official weekend. Now I can do my banking on Thursday again.

By Haydar al-Alak in Amarah

Photo: Rafidain Bank in the southern city of Amarah is closed as officials work out when the weekend starts. Credit: Haydar al-Alak / Los Angeles Times

EGYPT: Handcuffing the media?

Jeffrey Fleishman — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:38:41 -0700

The disclosure of an alleged draft bill that would grant the Egyptian government wider authority in controlling the media and silencing political opponents, including Facebook activists, has drawn quick condemnation from journalists and human rights groups.

The bill, which was leaked to the independent daily newspaper El-Masry El-Youm, would give the government of President Hosni Mubarak control over all visual and audio transmissions in the country, as well as on the Internet. It stipulates that the media should respect "social peace, national unity, citizenship, public order and morals" -- vague terms that journalists view as an attack on freedom of expression. El-Masry El-Youm reports that Parliament will deliberate the bill in the fall.

"The law aims at shutting up all mouths; it is a law to terrify, intimidate, control and destroy," wrote prominent broadcast journalist Tarek El-Shamy in independent daily El-Dostour. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights condemned the bill as "a new step to violate freedom of opinion and expression."

The government has not commented. However, government supporters contend that the bill aims at regulating rather than restricting the media.

Earlier this year, Egypt and Saudi Arabia sponsored an Arab League resolution to restrict private satellite channels, which in recent years have reported on uncensored news viewed as threatening to authoritarian Arab regimes.

The Egyptian bill would tighten the government's grip on the Internet, which has become an influential outlet for political opponents. In May, a Facebook activist was arrested for calling for a national strike against the Mubarak government. Mubarak's young detractors host several groups on the Facebook network that peddle biting criticism supported by mocking cartoons of the 80-year-old president. Some of their slogans: "I hate Hosni Mubarak," "Hosni Mubarak Lovers. Oh, Pardon Haters."

Facebook users condemn government attempts to regulate cyberspace. "Egypt has become like a big prison with no food, no water and now they want to forbid us from talking. This is not acceptable, we have to take a stand," wrote a Facebook activist commenting on the bill.

Bloggers are also in jeopardy. The bill would give the government leeway to crush the blogsphere. Over the last three years, Egyptian bloggers have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with by breaking all taboos and exposing beatings, harassment and serious human rights violations allegedly carried out by the state.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photo (top): Picture posted on a Facebook group condemning the law. The Arabic reads "No to shutting Egypt up."

Photo (bottom): Al Jazeera.

SAUDI ARABIA: A Muslim king's Western dream

Jeffrey Fleishman — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:56:24 -0700

Up the corniche, along the Saudi Arabian coast where boats carrying pilgrims bound for Mecca sailed for centuries, a thicket of cranes rises over whitewashed mosques along the Red Sea.
Steel flashes and blowtorches glow as 20,000 workers build a $10-billion university ordered up by a king who hopes Western ingenuity will revive the economy of this ultraconservative Muslim nation. When finished next year, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology will offer coed classes, Western professors, a curriculum in English and other touches loathed as dangerous liberalism by Islamic fundamentalists.
The West may be dependent on Saudi crude, now as high as $145 a barrel, but this campus outside the ancient fishing village of Thuwal is a recognition that the country that is home to Islam’s holiest shrines needs the likes of USC, Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to survive globalization.

Read more about the university in the Los Angeles Times.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Photo: King Abdullah. Credit: AFP

IRAN: McCain cigarette joke smolders in Tehran

borzou — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:40:38 -0700

U.S. Sen. John McCain made a wisecrack last week describing reports of increased American cigarette exports to Iran as a way of killing off Iranians. It was just a joke, the presumptive presidential candidate insisted immediately afterward.

Today, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini responded to the comment, and he was not smiling at all.

Mohammed Ali Hosseini said the Iranian government regarded the comment as ugly and immoral, "especially for someone who intends to lead a country claiming civilization," according to a report carried by the Fars News Agency:

"We condemn such jokes and believe them to be inappropriate for a U.S. presidential candidate. It is most evident that jokes about genocide will not be tolerated by Iranians or Americans."

On Wednesday, McCain responded to a question about American cigarette imports to Iran by saying, "That's one way of killing them."

He quickly insisted that he meant it as a joke, as someone who quit smoking 28 years ago.

Iran has no plans of discouraging smoking on the home front. According to the Fars News report, the country hopes to increase domestic cigarette production from 26% to 75% over the next two years.

— Borzou Daragahi in Tehran

Photo: A pack of Iranian-made Bahman cigarrettes. Credit: Cigarettespedia.com

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East. You can subscribe by registering at the website here.

AFGHANISTAN: Admiral says Marines fighting corruption

Tony Perry — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:56:41 -0700

In Afghanistan for a six-day trip, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Friday with Marines from the Twentynine Palms-based 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment.

The two-seven is assigned to train the Afghan National Police.

Afghan police, Mullen said, "have a history of corruption, and they've had challenges with this in every local area and district. Up until now, they haven't been trained very well, and so we start with a significant deficit, and it's going to take some time to catch up."

Mullen is known for straight talk. While it's not unusual for brass to talk candidly to the troops and then ask reporters to keep their comments off the record, Mullen had his posted on a military website.

The two-seven, Mullen added, has "a very critical, top priority mission in a very tough environment." Also dangerous: the battalion has had 10 Marines killed, 50 wounded since arriving in the spring.

Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Adm. Mike Mullen meets troops in Afghanistan. Credit: U.S. Navy

IRAQ: Tourism takes flight in southern shrine city

Alexandra Zavis — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:44:01 -0700

The government may be in Baghdad and the oil reserves in Basra, but the smaller city of Najaf, halfway between Iraq’s two centers of power, has a treasure that could be the envy of them both.

"Our oil here is tourism," said Abed Hussein Abtan, the deputy provincial governor in Najaf.

Next to Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad, Najaf and its neighbor Karbala hold Islam’s holiest monuments. If they could, Shiite Muslims from around the Middle East would flock to the city to pray at the shrine of Imam Ali, the cousin and companion of Muhammad, and the first caliph of the Shiite branch of Islam.

Decades of repression and war had reduced the pilgrimage to a trickle. But next week, Najaf is taking a giant step toward tapping into its tourism resource when it joins the short list of Iraqi cities with airports capable of handling large commercial jets.

After an $80-million renovation of an abandoned military airfield, Najaf Airport will open to commercial traffic July 20, Abtan said.

At first, there will be three or four flights a day. Najaf officials foresee rapid growth and are planning to pump $170 million more into the project. Within six months, they foresee 50 flights a day.

"In theory, the airport should be able to receive 3 million travelers a year in two years," Abtan said.

Their hope is that the convenience of air travel will stimulate a quick return of the religious pilgrims who once flocked in at the rate of 30,000 a day from Shiite areas.

The main attraction is the shrine of Imam Ali. It contains a gilded monument that is said to cover the burial sites of Adam and Noah in addition to Ali. Pilgrims filing by the three crypts recite one prayer to each.

The shrine is part of a standard itinerary that takes in a number of other sites in the two cities and often also includes a visit to the Salam Valley cemetery where Shiites from around the Middle East bury their relatives. Karbala, about 35 miles away, has the shrine of Ali’s son Hussein, whose murder was one of the causes of the split of Islam into Shiite and Sunni.

The airport is a key extension of a commercial resurgence that has taken off in Najaf since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein, who had severely cut down the traffic of Shiites from Iran and other countries.

The battles fought between the U.S. military and followers of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr briefly put a stop to that development in 2004, but it has taken off again with improved security.

"Opening the airport is considered as a dream for the people of Najaf, as it will open the doors for economic affairs to be refreshed and for the tourism projects," said Nouri Juhaishi, owner of the Dur Najaf Hotel.

Hotel owners are hoping that air travel will diminish the bargaining power of the Iranian Haj Ministry, which oversees pilgrimage visas and has taken advantage of the hotel glut to drive down prices for Iranians. Currently, about 2,000 Iranians arrive daily, Abtan said. He is expecting that to more than double once the airport opens.

The airport will be capable of handling the Boeing 727 and 737, and the Airbus 300. In Iraq, only Baghdad, Basra, Irbil and Sulaimaniya have large carrier airports.

Several international carriers are expressing interest in scheduling flights. Abtan said the city is being picky.

"We were careful about dealing with unknown companies," he said. "We needed to deal with companies that have good reputations, so we don’t accept used and not good airplanes."

The July 20 opening ceremony will go on with the main terminal only about a third complete. Work will continue another two or three months. The construction was done by local companies working under a foreign consultant, Abtan said.

The project began with only a runway of insufficient width for large aircraft, project manager Karim Abdali said. A consortium of Iraqi companies rebuilt the runway and is constructing the new terminal.

A British firm won the security contract with an agreement that within three years, it would be staffed entirely by Iraqis. Aqiq Kuwaiti Co. won a $50-million contract to operate the airport, also with the understanding that in three years it will staff the management team with Iraqis.

Haider Mayali of the Najaf building board said the city has taken the lead among Iraqi’s 18 governorates in issuing licenses under a new law adopted last year to encourage foreign investment.

"The airport will be our door to the world," Mayali said.

- Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf. Saif Rasheed and Doug Smith contributed from Baghdad.

Photo: Construction is underway at the Najaf Airport, which opens to commercial traffic July 20. Credit: Saad Fakhrildeen / Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: In one 'Black Night,' another Baghdad neighborhood is walled in

Alexandra Zavis — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:27:45 -0700

By Usama Redha in Baghdad

The vehicles moved through the cratered roads and alleys, looking for a way to leave the neighborhood.

My microbus driver zig-zagged aimlessly, changing course or going straight as other drivers made hand gestures to indicate that the road ahead was closed or open.

After a while we were all moving like a convoy, a convoy of microbuses searching for a way out of the neighborhood.

It was the day after the wall went up. The wall consists of gloomy concrete chunks, 12 feet high, set side by side to enclose my neighborhood.

Seven miles of it went up overnight. We call it "the Black Night."

The wall wasn't erected completely, so my driver hoped to find an opening he could squeeze his microbus through. Eventually he gave up and went to the exit manned by two checkpoints and took his place at the end of a long line. When we finally cleared the checkpoints, the other passengers and I saw fresh graffiti that said, "Rafah Crossing welcomes you."

But we were not in Rafah Camp, we were not in Israel at all; we were in Baghdad and the area was Hurriya.

Hurriya has been a hot zone, used by the Madhi Army militia of the anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr to launch missiles and mortars against American bases in Baghdad. To avoid capture, the militia would hide among the civilians.

Until Sadr renewed a cease-fire declared last year, there were sometimes several attacks a day.
Recently the attacks diminished as the Madhi Army splintered and declined under the U.S. and Iraqi campaign against militias.

Despite the reduced threat, the Americans informed the municipal council of Hurriya that they intended to wall the suburb on the northwest side of the city, said a council member who declined to be named. The engineers left four entrances.

"But it was not enough because Hurriya is a vast area," the council member said. "We need at least five for the vehicles and six for people."

On the first day of the wall, people made their own entrances by squeezing through the cracks.
The graffiti that quickly showed up expressed several points of view:

"Yes to the government," one person wrote. "Fat people stay out," said another.

But the workers came back that night, and the next day, the cracks were gone.

Abd al-Sahib, 34, an electrical engineer, was outraged.

"This is a war against the people of Hurriya," he said. "I barely could find a hole between a chunk and electricity pole close to my house."

Abu Sara, 26, a civil servant who was visiting his brother in Hurriya, approved.

"I wish they would wall it completely and burn it to the ground because of the bad people," Sara said.

A police officer who asked not to be named took a middle stance.

"The reason behind walling the city is to make it a no-arms zone, to pave the way to bring the displaced people back to their homes."

Whether it is good or bad, this I can say about the wall. It is exhausting me. I now wait at the checkpoint every day, sweltering in a vehicle with no air conditioning as the thermometer rises past 100.

My father has suffered too. When I dropped by to say hello after work, I saw that his legs were bandaged.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I found a good entrance," he said. "But the second day, when I wanted to use it again, it was smaller, and I didn’t have the energy to go looking for another one."

Now some people are starting to pry apart the concrete blocks with tools.

Photo: A child tries -- and fails -- to scale the wall that encloses Baghdad's Hurriya neighborhood. Credit: Usama Redha / Los Angeles Times

LEBANON: A rockin' American messenger of 'peace and love'

Raed — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:54:38 -0700

This time, the U.S. envoy to Lebanon was not a politician or a security official but a messenger of "peace and love" straight from the world of American rock.

Coming to Lebanon to sing for the "regeneration" of the city of Beirut and to voice her rejection to war, the U.S. singer and poet Patti Smith performed this week in Lebanon a mixture of antiwar and rebellion songs, including "Because the Night", "Gloria" and "Helpless."

The celebrated 1970s rock icon turned political activist performed near the old Phoenician port at the opening of the Byblos music festival, one of numerous music events taking place this summer in Lebanon after violence has subsided in the country and tourists have started to flood in again.

"To all mothers and children who lost children, all unnecessarily in war, which seems to me in our time something we can make obsolete," Smith said before dazzling the audience with "Qana."

The song is pointedly political. It's about the children who died in an Israeli air strike on a Lebanese village during the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Here are some excerpts:

There's no one in the village, not a human nor a stone... Children are gone and a mother rocks herself to sleep. Let it come down, let her weep… Some stayed buried, others crawled free... Little bodies, tied head and feet, wrapped in plastic, laid out in the street… The new Middle East… The dead lay in strange shapes… Wine to blood, Oh Qana, the miracle is love.

At one point, Smith wore a kaffiyeh, a scarf with black and white patterns that has become a symbol of the Palestinian upheaval.

-- Raed Rafei in Beirut

Credit: Patti Smith performs in Byblos, Lebanon. Credit: Associated Press

SYRIA: Back on the world stage, with a fury

Raed — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:37:50 -0700

It’s payback time for Syrian President Bashar Assad. Just as he prepared to move his country out of almost four years of isolation imposed by Americans and Europeans, Assad pointed out that Syria was an important player in the fight against terrorism.

Even the French, who shunned Damascus for years, now acknowledge that developing relations with Syria was "in favor of Lebanon and the region."

In an interview with the Arab daily Al Hayat published today, French official Claude Gueant said permanent solutions to Middle East's problems would not be possible without Syria's participation.

Assad is expected in France to attend a summit of European and Mediterranean countries in the next day. Recently, the Syrian president made a flurry of dovish remarks to a group of French journalists who interviewed him in his private retreat on the hills of Damascus.

One of those who interviewed Assad, Alain Gresh, editor of the French monthly publication Le Monde Diplomatique, described him as "confident, relaxed, talkative."

In an article that appeared Thursday on the website of the publication and that was translated into English in the Monthly Review, Gresh quoted Assad as accusing the current U.S. administration of obstructing peace:

The biggest obstacle to peace is the White House. This is the first time a U.S. administration has advised Israel not to make peace.

Syria and Israel held indirect peace talks recently through Turkish mediation. But the prospects of quick breakthroughs remain slim. The West is trying to persuade Damascus to loosen its ties with Tehran, an unlikely prospect.

Asked about Iran, Assad described his country’s strong links to the Islamic Republic as a relationship between two equal allies:

We have been isolated by the United States and Europe. The Iranians have supported us, and yet I'm supposed to tell them: I don't want your support — I want to be isolated! We don't need to agree on everything to have relations. We see each other regularly for discussion. The Iranians do not try to change our position — they respect us. We make our own decisions, as in the time of the Soviet Union. If you want to talk about stability, and peace in the region, we must have good relations with Iran.

Talking about threats to peace in the region, Assad also criticized the way Americans have led their war on terrorism:

Terrorism is a threat to all humanity. Al Qaeda is not an organization but a state of mind that no border can block out.... I fear for the future of the region. We must change the soil that nurtures terrorism. This requires economic development, culture, an education system, tourism — and also an international exchange of information on terrorist groups. The army alone cannot solve this problem, as the Americans are trying to do in Afghanistan.

U.S. refusal to negotiate with his country was counterproductive, he said:

They must accept that we are part of the solution not just in Lebanon but also in Iraq and Palestine. They need us to combat terrorism in order to achieve peace. They cannot isolate us, nor can they solve the region's problems by manipulating such words as "good" and "evil," "black" and "white." You need to negotiate, even if you do not agree on everything.

Assad's official visit to France to take part in Bastille Day celebrations comes as a sign of international recognition after the signing of a peace agreement among Lebanese rivals in Doha in May. For the last few years, Syria had been accused by the international community of creating instability in Lebanon. But relations between the two countries are back on track with the presidents of both countries scheduled to meet in France.

In an earlier interview published Monday in the French daily Le Figaro, Assad expressed his hopes for the next U.S. administration:

Frankly, we do not think that the current American administration is capable of making peace. It doesn't have either the will or the vision and it only has a few months left.... We are betting on the next president and his administration. We hope that it will be rather an advantage to have a change of president in the United States.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: Syrian President Bashar Assad. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

IRAQ: Marine taped calls in Fallouja killing probe

Tony Perry — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:22:23 -0700

Marine Sgt. Jermaine Nelson spent 18 days in federal jail recently for refusing to answer questions from a grand jury about the alleged killing of Iraqi prisoners, particularly the involvement of former Sgt. Jose Nazario.

But in a tape-recorded interview with a Naval Criminal Investigation Service agent a year earlier, Nelson, in graphic terms, explained how he, Nazario, and Sgt. Ryan Weemer killed prisoners during the battle in Fallouja in late 2004. Part of the tape was played Thursday at a preliminary hearing at Camp Pendleton for Weemer.

Nelson also agreed to act as a confidential informant for the NCIS and taped one or more phone calls with Nazario, according to testimony by an NCIS agent.

The feds wanted to know who allegedly asked Nazario over the radio "Are they dead yet? Are they dead yet?" when Nazario reported that the Marines had taken four prisoners. Nazario allegedly took the question as an order to kill the prisoners.

Weemer and Nelson are charged in military court with murder. Nazario faces manslaughter charges in federal court in Riverside.

If prosecutors at either the Marine Corps or the U.S. attorney's office know who asked "Are they dead yet?," they have yet to reveal that in court.

-- Tony Perry, at Camp Pendleton

Photo: Marine Sgt. Jermaine Nelson. Credit: Marine Corps Times

ISRAEL: 'Bruno' burns Israeli and Palestinian analysts

Batsheva Sobelman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:42:36 -0700

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. And when life gives you the editors of Bitterlemons.org, you squeeze them for all they're worth -- if you happen to be Sacha Baron Cohen.

And squeeze he did, right where it hurts.

Yossi Alpher is a prominent Israeli political analyst, formerly of the Mossad, the American Jewish Committee and the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (now the INSS think tank). Together with Palestinian co-editor Dr. Ghassan Khatib, vice-president of Birzeit University, they run bitterlemons.org, an online magazine presenting Israeli and Palestinian viewpoints on issues of concern, mostly related to the conflict and peace process.

Much sought-after for interviews, Alpher and an unnamed Palestinian colleague were not surprised when contacted by a production company and contracted to interview for a documentary that would explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to youth. The interview was to be conducted by a German rock star.

They couldn't have known he was really Sacha Baron Cohen -- better known as Borat -- hunting unsuspecting participants and gathering material for his new film "Bruno" (expected 2009?).

The pair of professional pundits are widely respected commentators and well-versed in the business of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but don't really know their rock stars from their moon rocks. The "rock star" -- heir apparent to the retired Borat and based on the character of Bruno, memorable host of "Funkyzeit mit Bruno" on Baron Cohen's "Da Ali G Show" -- showed up an hour late, a ghoulish thing in leather, studs and heavy makeup. Still, the worthy cause made him forgivable. At first.

Patiently answering rather basic questions about the conflict, the interview went OK. Until one of them had mentioned Hamas.

The rest is best told by Alpher himself, who (gallantly leaving his Palestinian colleague's name out of it) outed himself in The Forward:

-- "Vait, Vait. Vat's zee connection between a political movement and food. Vy Hummus?"

We exchanged astonished glances. "Hamas," we explained, "is a Palestinian Islamist political movement. Hummus is a food."

-- "Ya, but vy hummus? Yesterday I had to throw away my pita bread because it vas dripping hummus. Unt it's too high in carbohydrates."

It was downhill from there.

-- "Vy don't you Jews and Arabs settle the conflict with a timeshare on the land? Ven will you Jews return the pyramids? Vy can't Jews and Hindus get along?" These were among the high points of the low interview, during which the duped duo's request for a break was ignored. "We knew something ludicrous was happening but couldn't quite figure it out," says Alpher.

He and his Palestinian fellow-interviewee "are not hand-holders." But gentlemen they are, and as such silently suffered through a mortifying kum-ba-ya moment too.

"Yes, dear reader, Sacha Baron Cohen is loose in the Middle East," wrote Yossi Alpher. "The end product will no doubt be hilarious. We will try to be good sports about it."

But will Sacha Baron Cohen do the same? Alpher doubts it: "He is exploiting our tragic and painful conflict in the most cynical and deceptive manner. I doubt he'll give us anything in return."

Funkyzeit in the Middle East -- drinks (where permitted) on Bruno, jokes on us...

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem.

IRAN: War games are over ... now, let's talk

borzou — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:10:47 -0700

Just a day after the end of Iranian missile tests meant to scare away any potential Israeli or American attack on its nuclear facilities, a powerful Iranian cleric was all nicey-nice at Friday prayers about the continuing diplomatic negotiations over the country's atomic research and production program.

"Now it is high time for negotiation," Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, a member of the influential Expediency Council, told worshipers gathered for prayers in downtown Tehran. "Iran is ready for negotiation. Europe is ready for negotiation."

He said the recent missile tests were meant to show Iranian strength, not hostility toward the West.

"The reality is that you, the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, ought to recognize the power of Iran," he told the faithful.

"In the past 30 years we have never been a threat to any country," he said. "On the contrary, you invaded Afghanistan, Iraq under the pretext of fighting terrorism.... We have no intention to wage war. We have no plan for nuclear weapons."

He had pointed words for the U.S. and Israel:

When you say "Iran is a threat," where is the threat? Your brain is mixed up. Your sentences are confused. We clearly have announced that we are brother to the all Islamic world. We have no war with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy. But Israel is different. It is a usurper regime. If Israel attacks, we counterattack.

And he all but cursed the Bush administration:

Thank God all of you are at the end of your careers. You U.S. officials are running a smear campaign. You are liars, spreading lies. You must know that if you dare to transgress us, if you attack us, we will give you a lesson which you will not forget.

— Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani. Credit: Al-Shia.com

IRAQ: Marines admit they killed prisoners

Tony Perry — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:56:14 -0700

At an Article 32 preliminary hearing Thursday for Marine Sgt. Ryan Weemer, above, he and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson were heard on taped interviews telling how they and a third Marine killed four prisoners during the battle for Fallouja in late 2004.

It was some of the most graphic (and profane) testimony heard at one of the many hearings at Camp Pendleton involving allegations of misconduct in Iraq.

Weemer, 25, and Nelson, 26, face murder charges in the military system; former Sgt. Jose Nazario, 27, is charged with manslaughter in federal court in Riverside.

Nelson, in an interview with a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent, said that Nazario told him, "I'm not doing this [expletive] all my myself. You're doing one and Weemer is doing one."

Nelson added that he watched as Nazario shot a handcuffed prisoner at point-blank range. "He hit the dude in the forehead, the dude went down, and there was blood ... all over his [Nazario's] boots."

Then it was Weemer's turn, Nelson said, to kill a prisoner with his service pistol: "He shot him and the dude was on the ground and rolling, and [Weemer] was shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting."

In a job interview with the Secret Service, Weemer is heard saying that there were several instances of Marines killing prisoners during the fight for Fallouja. His comments during the 2006 interview sparked the investigation that led to criminal charges against the three.

Weemer, once praised as a hero by the Marine Corps, now faces murder and dereliction of duty charges. He told the interviewer that the Marines did not have time to process the prisoners because they needed to support other Marines sweeping the insurgent stronghold.

Weemer, in his interview, said his platoon had been ordered to storm the house the insurgents were in as a way to "get our heads back in the game" after a Marine had been killed earlier in the day by an insurgent sniper.

After the preliminary hearing, the hearing officer will recommend to Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland whether the case should go to a court-martial.

During his interview, Nelson said that he had been bothered by the killings and seen the faces of the dead prisoners in his dreams.

— Tony Perry, at Camp Pendleton

Photo: Sgt. Ryan Weemer entering the courtroom for his preliminary hearing. Credit: San Diego Union-Tribune.

IRAN: U.S. Navy says Iran is not always truthful

Tony Perry — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:38:06 -0700

If the Iranians doctored the photo of their supposed missile tests this week, it might not be the first time that they've altered images for propaganda value.

U.S. Navy commanders in the Persian Gulf say the Iranians have changed and recycled images to suggest they've got more speedboats, more guns and more mines ready to blockade the gulf than they actually have.

-- Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: An Iranian speedboat that allegedly harassed U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf in January zips along. Credit: U.S. Navy

IRAN: Doctored missile image?

LATimes — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:01:37 -0700

The New York Times is reporting today on its The Lede: Notes on the News blog that a photograph released by Agence France-Presse (AFP) of the Iranian missile launch Wednesday showed one too many missiles. This image was used on the front page of several newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, The Palm Beach Post and Chicago Tribune. The New York Times used the image on the homepage of their Web site.

From The Lede:

Agence France-Presse said that it obtained the image from the Web site of Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, on Wednesday. But there was no sign of it there later in the day. Today, The Associated Press distributed what appeared to be a nearly identical photo from the same source, but without the fourth missile.

AFP sent this note on the photos:

ATTN EDITORS - CORRECTIVE REFILE ADDING INFORMATION ABOUT DIGITAL ALTERATION TO IMAGE:A handout picture released on the news website and public relations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Sepah News, shows an image apparently digitally altered to show four missiles rising into the air instead of three during a test-firing at an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert on July 9, 2008. The 2nd Right missile has apparently been added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test.

In the photograph above, released on the online service of the Iranian daily Jamejam today, three missiles rise into the air as a fourth remains on the ground during a test at an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert Wednesday. An apparently altered version of this image was released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards news website, Sepah News, on Wednesday, which shows a fourth missile in mid-launch in place of the missile on the ground. (AFP / Getty Images)

The photograph above, released on the news website and public relations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Sepah News, has been apparently digitally altered to show four missiles rising into the air, instead of three, during a test-firing Wednesday in Iran. The third missile from the left has apparently been added to cover up the missile on the ground that may have failed during the test. Numerous news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, published this image. (Iranian Revolutionary Guards)

--Patrice Roe, Los Angeles

IRAQ: Marines laugh, hoot, then go silent at HBO's 'Generation Kill'

Tony Perry — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:26:17 -0700

The upcoming HBO miniseries "Generation Kill" may have faced its toughest, certainly its most knowledgeable, audience at its premiere Wednesday night at Camp Pendleton.

Several hundred Marines and several dozen spouses watched the first two episodes of the seven-part series, taken from Evan Wright's bestselling book about the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the six-week assault on Baghdad in 2003.

The Marines laughed and hooted in appreciation at the profanity, the hard-edged joking and the blatant disrespect shown toward certain officers (other officers are shown as figures worthy of admiration).

The episodes got high marks for realism, right down to details like the pizzas that were delivered from Kuwait as Marines waited for the invasion to begin, and the persistent rumor that Jennifer Lopez was dead. Chronic problems with communication gear and the lack of basic supplies (like batteries and lubricants) are also captured.

It was a young, enlisted, interactive crowd as the Marines saw things they knew to be true.

But there were moments when the audience fell silent: as Marines killed two guerrilla fighters and later as the Marines shot their way through a small town with gunfire raining down from all sides. For these scenes there was no laughing, no cheering, just heads nodding. This is a base that has suffered nearly 350 killed in Iraq and tenfold that many wounded.

"This is the real story about the real guys," former Staff Sgt. Eric Kocher, who is portrayed in the series and served as technical advisor, warned the audience before the lights went down.

— Tony Perry at Camp Pendleton

Photo: Reporter Evan Wright (played by Lee Tergesen) interviews Lt. Nathaniel Fick (Stark Sands) in a scene from the HBO miniseries "Generation Kill."

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East. You can subscribe by registering at the website here.

EGYPT: Sex and a feminist novelist

Jeffrey Fleishman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:37:29 -0700

The apartment door bears no man's name, which is unusual in Cairo, but it's a fitting snub at convention for feminist author Sahar El-Mougy, who lives and writes outside society's strictures. Her independent lifestyle -- women here are whispered about and prayed for if they live alone -- defies the patriarchal order beyond her flat and inspires emancipation on the pages of her novels and short stories.

El-Moguy, 45, is a rising Arab feminist voice, articulating the conflict between western liberal values and Middle East gender identities. Her two novels and two short-story collections have gained wide acclaim, especially since the recent publication of "Noon," a story that explores the challenges and paradoxes facing independent Egyptian women navigating a nation rooted in traditional customs and a growing strand of conservative Islam.

"These women don't have enough space in society; however, they seem very influential," said El-Mougy, who works as assistant professor of English poetry at Cairo University. "Their mere presence sets a model for my girls in their 20s who live in a society that suffers from a frightening spread of salafi [Islam]. These women lecture, write and deal with other sectors in the society."

The protagonist in "Noon" is Sarah, a divorced woman in her late 30s who lives alone, hangs out with men and women alike, derives fulfillment from academic research, fights male dominance over her intellect, and more controversially, enjoys extramarital sex. For El-Mougy, Sarah represents a widening class of women struggling to carve out a space for themselves.

Besides Sarah, "Noon" depicts two other nonconformist middle-class women. One endures family oppression; the other turns to sex and drugs for escape.

"Each and every character in 'Noon' is a mixture of people I know in reality and other fictional components," said El-Moguy, adding that Sarah embodies her own personality and dilemmas.

“These women’s characters are not bound by traditional models; they are capable of creating a parallel society through their friendships. In this alternative society, they get to discover new horizons of knowledge," said El-Mougy.

However, Muslim society seems incapable of tolerating women with such profiles, added El-Mougy. "The society perceives them as rebellious and aversive to social laws," she said.

"The main challenge that these women face is how to find a partner. These women have reached a level of consciousness that no men have reached,” said El-Moguy. “In our society, men are schizophrenic; they want to establish themselves and succeed but want women to be inferior and weaker. They usually get attracted to this model of independent women but they are not willing to pay the price of this independence."

El-Moguy spoke out of personal experience. As her husband could not tolerate her independence and intellectual growth, El-Mougy chose to divorce. El-Mougy admits that her first novel, “Daria,” which came out in 1999, is inspired by her own marriage experience. The book's protagonist is a married woman whose domineering husband looked down upon her intellect and sought to crush her talent for poetry.

"That was a moment in my real life that I lived with all its details,” recounted El-Mougy. “I was getting out of a pressuring marital life that was going to kill every potential; I was scared and racked by a guilt trip because leaving my kids to their father was part of the price I paid to gain my freedom."

But it is not only about lifting the male grip over women’s minds. In fact, El-Mougy’s literature seeks to liberate women’s minds as well as bodies. The depiction of women who have relations outside marriage stands as the most incendiary tip in El-Mougy’s few works. Challenging the most deeply entrenched social norms, El-Mougy affirms that women’s emancipation cannot be completed without sexual freedom.

"You have freed the brain, how come you don't free the body? How and when did we have that separation between the brain and the body?" she asks.

Since it was released last summer, "Noon," whose title in Egyptian is a hieroglyphic that refers to the ancient myth that the universe emanated from a dark ocean, has sold thousands of copies. But El Mougy’s critics don't share her feminist zeal; they accuse her of being a high-class intellectual who peddles not reality, but cheap sex.

—Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photos: Cover of Sahar El-Mougy's novel "Noon"; novelist El-Mougy; (courtesy of El-Mougy)

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East. You can subscribe by registering at the website here.

ISRAEL: Educators use comics to bust Bible blues

Batsheva Sobelman — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:22:14 -0700

In an attempt to make Bible studies more appealing to Israeli students, a new textbook will be tested during the next school year. The text teaching the books of Samuel (Shmuel) and Kings (Melachim) to fifth-graders in non-religious public schools will incorporate catchy comics to illustrate each chapter and chart the plot for children who are becoming less proficient in reading biblical texts, much less understanding them.

The Center for Educational Technology, (CET) the largest publisher of textbooks for all streams of the education system, has launched this initiative to make this core-syllabus component more accessible to Israeli children.

The words are actually far less remote from modern Hebrew than one might expect. But tenses can be confusing, along with vowel markings and syntax, for children (and parents) struggling with the language. A decline in reading has eroded general language skills, widening the gap between instant-messaging abbreviations and biblical phrases. Secularization also has had an effect on the language. Fewer Israelis recognize biblical references and phrases that still adorn modern Hebrew, and adults' package-deal approach to religion and politics in Israel probably hasn't helped.

Teachers and education planners acknowledge that the Bible has gone from being the book of books to an unpopular and poorly understood classroom subject. "The Bible has gone from being the first Hebrew text to a 'foreign language' that distances children from the text," says CET's June newsletter. It says that as far as young pupils are concerned, the stories might as well be describing "life on another planet."

Somewhat apologetically, the publisher asks, "Do we really need to make the Bible more clip-like and trendy?! And must we fight for its ratings?"

Their answer is clear: "YES."

Defending the decision, the publisher explains that comics have long since moved from the funnies-fringe into the mainstream as an educational tool and a means of dealing with diverse social and historical issues, such as Art Spiegelman's Maus.

The polemic on Bible instruction (Tanach, really. Tanach is the Hebrew acronym for the three components of Scripture: Torah, Prophets and Writings.) questions the purpose and whether this should be an identity-shaping experience or merely required curricular proficiency. Either way, it's not quite working. Elementary school pupils enjoy the lessons, which typically begin in second grade, but lose interest in the subject somewhere along the way to their high school final, considered by many students (and some teachers) to be unnecessary, technical and — worst of all — utterly boring. The average score is 72.5.

Anat Gov, an Israeli playwright long out of school, came across a question in the high school final exam last year: "Explain the etiological basis of chapter 11 in Genesis." She found that the chapter contains the very cool and "expressly unboring" story of the Tower of Babel.

"Etiological?! What's that word even doing here?" she asked in exasperation. "Instead of focusing on the story and its meaning, you give them 'etiological?' This is how you're going to make them like Tanach?!"

— Batsheva Sobelman, in Jerusalem

The cover of new sample textbook from the online catalogue of the Center for Educational Technology. The banner reads "David King of Judea (Judah), welcome home!" The child on the left asks, "Can I get in?" The tough-looking bouncer replies, "Sorry, entrance for members of the Tribe of Judah only."

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East. You can subscribe by registering at the website here.

IRAQ: Marine set for hearing in Fallouja killings

Tony Perry — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:28:22 -0700

Marine Sgt. Ryan Weemer, accused of murder in the alleged killing of prisoners during a battle in Fallouja in late 2004, is set for an Article 32 (akin to a preliminary hearing) at Camp Pendleton on Thursday.

It may be the first time that details of the incident are aired publicly. Weemer and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson are accused in the military system; former Sgt. Jose Nazario awaits trial in federal court.

Weemer, 25, was out of the Marine Corps and trying to join the Secret Service when he mentioned the alleged killings during a job interview. That set off an investigation that led to charges against him, Nelson and Nazario. Weemer was recalled to active-duty so that he could be charged.

Weemer spent 21 days in federal jail on a contempt of court citation for refusing to testify to a federal grand jury about the incident. He and Nelson were released last week after a judge concluded that they would never break their silence.

It's been a long fall from the Marine Corps' good graces for Weemer. Wounded three times during the 11-day battle, he received the Purple Heart and also a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for bravery and leadership.

The commendation, signed by the-Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, says that Weemer, confronted with heavily-armed and barricaded insurgents, "quickly formulated a plan and personally led an assault on the enemy position, killing two insurgents with his M-9 service pistol. Cpl. Weemer then charged into the enemy kill zone hunting for remaining insurgents when he was wounded."

Although wounded, the commendation continues, Weemer pulled one wounded Marine to safety and organized a rescue team that saved another. His actions, Natonski wrote, were in keeping with "the highest tradition of the Marine Corps."

Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Sgt. Ryan Weemer. Credit: family website, www.defendingahero.org