Public gets tips to fight terrorism

By Zhu Zhe
China Daily Staff Writer
Updated: 2008-07-23 06:33

Stay calm, don't touch it, move away quickly and send a text message to police, possibly with a photograph. That's how police want people to respond when they see something that looks like a bag with explosives.

The advice is part of a new anti-terrorism manual the Ministry of Public Security has prepared in the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games.

It is the first government warning that addresses the public and tells it how to tackle a situation in case of a terrorist attack.

People have welcomed the new manual, available on the Internet and at some police stations from last weekend.

"It's really a timely book. It tells us when and where to be aware of danger, and how to protect ourselves," Zhang Jun, head of the security staff of the Chengwaicheng Furniture Mall, said Tuesday after getting a few copies of the manual from Xiaohongmen police station.

Liu Wancheng, head of a neighborhood committee in Beijing's Fengtai district, said he would write the manual's warning tips and how to handle a potential attack on a blackboard. "I think the public should know about them."

The manual tells people how to react during 39 possible situations, including an explosion, shooting, hijacking, and chemical or nuclear attack.

"The book is practical. If people follow its instructions, they can escape or even prevent a terrorist attack," the public security ministry has said on its website.

Terrorism remains a real threat to the Games. Only last week, Ma Zhenchuan, director of the Beijing public security bureau, said the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, labeled as a terrorist organization by the UN in 2002, poses a "real threat" to the Olympics because investigations show it has been plotting attacks on Olympic venues.

Li Wei, director of the anti-terrorism research center of China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said Tuesday that the manual would raise public awareness on counter-terrorism.

"Compared with hardware such as advanced weapons, software like public awareness and emergency plans are more important in the fight against terrorism," said Wang Dawei, a professor with the Chinese People's Public Security University.

Li, however, said the manual could have provided more information on how to deal with public panic after an attack. "The book focuses too much on actions to be taken but doesn't tell people how to face their fears," he said.

The public should not get paranoid. "Instead, we should feel confident (to face any situation)," he said. "Terrorists can be identified and nabbed if the public is vigilant."

Bin Laden's driver put at heart of conspiracy

July 22, 2008

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, CUBA - The U.S. government opened its first war-crimes prosecution Tuesday with a narrative of Osama bin Laden's driver overhearing his boss offer an eerie post-mortem in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks:

"If they hadn't shot down the fourth plane, it would've hit the dome," declared Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Stone.

And so with his first words to a military jury, the prosecutor conjured up a conversation from inside the world of Al-Qaida, revealed by the accused, driver Salim Hamdan. Bin Laden told his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that U.S. forces -- not heroic passengers -- brought down United Airlines Flight 93 in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11 before terrorist hijackers could slam it into "the dome" of the U.S. Capitol.

Hamdan, 37, a Yemeni, is charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terror for allegedly serving as the Al-Qaida leader's driver, sometime bodyguard and weapons courier.

Prosecutors put him at the heart of the conspiracy -- driving Bin Laden to a meeting with some of the 9/11 co-conspirators, to an Al Jazeera interview, to a Ramadan feast at a paramilitary training camp to "further recruit and indoctrinate young individuals for their organization."

Seattle defense attorney Harry Schneider portrayed Hamdan as a nobody, an orphan who left the poverty of Yemen for Afghanistan and became Bin Laden's $200-a-month driver because "he had to earn a living, not because he had a jihad against America."

He lamented the "horrible crimes" of 9/11, but said, "This man -- the only man before you in this trial -- did not commit those crimes." Moreover, the defense contends that Hamdan offered to help the United States while in Afghanistan.

The two sides addressed the war court judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, and a jury of six colonels and lieutenant colonels, whose names are withheld by order of the judge.

MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

Arab American comedy matures

By Khalil AlHajal - The Arab American News
Friday, 07.04.2008, 11:40pm

Mizna Arab American Comedy Festival co-producers Mike Mosallam (R), Sonny Mandouh and short film director Mike Eshaq observe as locals audition for roles in theatrical sketches to be performed at the festival in August.

DEARBORN — Arab American comedy is still going strong. And it's not just about post-9/11 anymore.

Young people keep discovering jokes in their struggles, or appeal in their goofiness.

Actor Mike Mosallam, director of an upcoming Dearborn comedy festival, said he and other performers have moved past airport security humor, drawing on culture and everyday life for material.

"I'm done with talking about those things," he said about discrimination fodder from the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

"It's no longer time to talk about, to make excuses for, to try to make sense of those events… It's now time to humanize the Arab experience. It's really about the community."

Writers and comedians are focusing more on jokes about idiosyncrasies and everyday cultural struggles — the fears, mannerisms and wails of Arab mothers, the vulnerable stubbornness of Arab fathers, the accents that even those that are born in the U.S. seem to develop…

Characteristic Arab impatience, facial hair, racism — both being subjected to it and dishing it out — the tense closeness of Arab families and the awkwardness of young people trying to fit themselves into some sort of identity are all increasingly being put to use in standup routines and comedic sketches.

The humor has meant the world to many young Arab Americans as they cope during the worst of times as children of Middle Eastern immigrants in this country. They say it has helped them raise their heads high, take pride in their struggle, laugh at absurdity, and smile at the laughter of others — a sign of mutual recognition of the same absurdities, struggles and triumph.

"It teaches people about our culture, helps them see things in a different light," said Mosallam, 28.

The second annual Mizna Arab American Comedy Festival, inspired by the five year-old New York Arab American Comedy Festival, is scheduled for August 15 at Dearborn's Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.

The event is set to feature four live theatrical sketches and two short films, with New York standup comic Meena Dimian as MC.

Auditions for various parts in the sketches were held last week in west Dearborn.

Steven Saleh, a Dearborn schoolteacher with some acting experience, read for the part of Doug, a white man married into an Arab family in one of the sketches.

When he first auditioned last year, he was taken aback by frequent use of stereotypes in the scripts.

"At first I felt offended by it," he said.

But he later warmed up to the idea of satirizing, overdoing the stereotypes to disarm them.

"If you're laughing at your own self, there's nothing. It's gone," said Saleh, 33.

He said it takes away the ability of others to use the stereotypes negatively.

"Say what you want, but we're laughing with you," he said.

Mosallam said the routines also serve to show Arabs "doing the things that everybody does."

"People in this community are not used to this method as an outlet of expression," he said about feelings of uncertainty that many have had when first exposed to Arab American comedy.

James Moussa Stevick, a drama student from Ann Arbor whose father is Palestinian, auditioned for the role of a self-centered Arab satellite newscaster.

He said the rise of Arab American comedy has helped unite a diverse community and create a true, distinct Arab American culture.

"It's kind of like theatrical pan-Arabism," he said.

"A lot of Arab comedy, when it started out, was about post-9-11 stuff. It's more reflective of the community… If you can make a joke about something, you can analyze it a lot better. When you parody it, you can examine it a lot better."

Another aspiring comedic actor, Ali Bulldog Abdallah, 25, of Dearborn, auditioned for the role of Samia, an impatient store clerk.

He said he could draw on his aunt Mariam to prepare for the role.

"That's exactly why we appeal to a community that's not used to this kind of thing," said director Mosallam.

He said last year's show got an overwhelming response from non-Arabs too.

"They laugh at the delivery," he said. "Even if they don't understand a certain reference, they understand what the reference is trying to do. They come along for the ride.

"They loved it. It was something so new and fun… You make more friends with honey than with vinegar."

The most popular part of last year's festival was a short film by local director Mike Eshaq. The film, a spoof of MTV cribs — Arab American style — won awards for best comedy and audience favorite last month at a Hamtramck film festival.

Eshaq has two more spoofs of MTV reality shows in production for this year's festival.

"We want to build excitement for this kind of event happening yearly," said Mosallam.

from: http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Artamp;Culture&article=1239&page_order=1&act=print

Realising the Potential of Arab Women in the Private and Public Sectors

Representatives from both the public and private sector discussed the means to optimize the contribution of Arab women in the development of the region during the first U.S.-based conference of the Arab International Women’s Forum (AIWF), hosted by the World Bank Middle East North Africa in Washington, D.C. recently

The conference, titled ‘Partners for Change: Realizing the Potential of Arab Women in the Private and Public Sector,’ drew participants from over 20 countries including the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. It gathered Arab and international policymakers in an attempt to stimulate dialogue aimed at removing roadblocks to women’s gainful participation in Arab politics, economies and society.

Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank, argued that Arab women, given the right environment, could be successful entrepreneurs, influential political leaders, and formidable global business managers. Pointing to the findings of a recent Bank report, he said, “While only 13% of firms or companies in the Middle East are owned by women, there is no significant difference in terms of size, age, sector, exports, and foreign direct investment to those firms owned by men”. Successful women entrepreneurs from all over the Middle East also gathered during the two day conference to hear ministers including HE Dr. Sharifa Khalfan Al Yahyai, Minister of Social Development in Oman, HE Hala Bseisu Lattouf, Minister of Social Development in Jordan, and HE Dr Huda Ali Al-Ban, Minister of Human Rights in Yemen, talk about the gains women have made in the region.

Speakers also argued, however, that much progress was still needed in the region. Despite the rising number of young Arab women enrolled in higher education, which has resulted in a pool of qualified potential employees, research showed that the number of graduates who actually moved into the work force in countries within the MENA region remains low.

Nadereh Chamlou, Senior Advisor and gender specialist for the MENA region, expressed confidence that the conference had “showcased these accomplished, dedicated and successful Arab women as role models for future generations in the Middle East, a side to Arab women that is not adequately covered in the media.”

Haifa Fahoum Al-Kaylani, Founder and Chair of AIWF, said, “AIWF was established in 2001 as a non-profit organization aimed at bringing together women from the Arab world with those from across the international community. Our goal is to serve as the voice of Arab women in business and government, through a series of global initiatives, conferences, and programmes. It is truly representative of the direction that the region is taking, and of our continuing commitment to the promotion of cross-cultural diversity, connectivity and understanding between the Arab world and the international community through women.”

The conference was supported by a number of AIWF’s global corporate partners, including PepsiCo International, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Shell and DLA Piper.

HE Hala Bseisu Lattouf, Minister of Social Development in Jordan, Mrs. Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani, Chairman Arab International Women's Forum, Mr Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank HE, Dr. Sharifa Khalfan Al Yahyai, Minister of Social Development in Oman, HE Dr Huda Ali Al-Ban, Minister of Human Rights in Yemen.

Arab International Women’s Forum

Founded in 2001 as an independent, non-profit organisation, the Arab International Women’s Forum has served as a voice for Arab women in business and in government, showcasing their contribution to economic growth and development in the Arab region and globally. Headquartered in London and led by a voluntary Board of Trustees, AIWF brings growing numbers of influential, progressive women in corporate, academic and public life from 22 Arab countries together with their counterparts in Europe, the Americas, Africa and beyond, to foster closer cooperation and realize the full potential of Arab women in achieving progress, prosperity and development in the region.

© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

ran stages Persian Gulf missile tests amid warnings to its 'enemies'

CAIRO -- With U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the rhetoric between Iran and Israel growing heated, Tehran announced today that it had test-fired nine missiles, including at least one capable of striking Israel and other American interests in the Middle East.

The missiles were fired during military exercises staged by Iran's Revolutionary Guards near the strategic oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. State television quoted one of Iran's top military leaders, Gen. Hossein Salami, as saying the war games in the Persian Gulf would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language."The launches were the latest drama in the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says will produce power for civilian use. The West and Israel, however, allege that Iran is intent on building a bomb.

The missiles streaked into the desert sky as U.S. and British ships were on military maneuvers in the gulf, and just days after disclosures that Israel had conducted long-range military exercises last month as a rehearsal for a possible strike on Iran.

Iranian TV showed three simultaneous launches, including a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which Tehran claims carries a 1-ton conventional warhead and can travel 1,250 miles, well within the range of U.S. troops in Iraq, the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain and American allies such as Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran said earlier this week that it would retaliate against U.S. and Israeli interests in the region if its nuclear facilities were attacked.

"Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch," the official IRNA news agency quoted Salami as saying today.

The launches came a day after seemingly contradictory statements from top Iranian officials. A spokesman for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, said Tel Aviv and the U.S. fleet in the gulf would "burst into flames" if Tehran were attacked. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, usually the official leading the bellicose rhetoric, appeared to soften the atmosphere by saying that the prospect of Israel and the U.S. striking Iran was a "funny joke" and that there "won't be any war" in the future.

"The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity," said Gordon Johndroe, deputy White House press secretary, speaking from Japan where President Bush is attending the Group of Eight summit. "They should also refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was traveling in Bulgaria, said the test launches were "evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one."

Israel's reaction to the test was low-key. Government spokesman Mark Regev said the Jewish state "does not desire hostility and conflict with Iran. But it is clear that the Iranian nuclear program and the Iranian ballistic missile program is a matter of grave concern."

Tehran and the West are expected to resume talks on Iran's nuclear program later this month. But there appears to little progress. On Saturday, Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, an Ahmadinejad loyalist, reiterated Iran's long-standing position that it won't stop producing nuclear material, a highly technical process that involves running uranium gas through spinning centrifuges. The uranium enriched to a lower quality can be used as fuel for civilian power plants; highly enriched material can be made into nuclear weapons.

jeff.fleishman@latimes.com

Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem and special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.

Students Study the Middle East, But on Their Own

By Margaret Ernst

Talking to Dina Rubey ‘09 is like talking to a textbook on recent Middle Eastern history, but that wasn’t always the case. “I grew up in New York City, and I probably couldn’t have told you where the Middle East was on the map,” she said. “But then 9/11 happened. It’s so easy to be totally oblivious about what’s going on around you, let alone across the ocean.” As a freshman, Rubey took Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies, which included an online-facilitated discussion between Arab students and American students called “Soliya”; since then she says she hasn’t looked back.

Rubey has focused on the Middle East as a political science major, complemented by her own version of an independent major in Mideast Studies—a concentration in comparative politics, minors in Peace and Conflict Studies and developmental economics, and a semester abroad at the American University in Cairo. “I thought I would study abroad in Paris, major in English,” she said. “I never would have expected I would go to Cairo.”

There is currently no Middle East Studies major at Bryn Mawr, nor is there a minor, concentration, nor a department, but there is an initiative. The Middle East Studies Initiative was so named five years ago, according to Professor Deborah Harrold, who teaches many of the Initiative’s classes, and its goal is to bring more classes on the Middle East into the Bryn Mawr curriculum. But as more students enter the College with an interest in the region, their lives shaped by 9/11 and the events that followed it, the current Middle East Studies Initiative may be forced to assume greater clout than its name implies.

“Bryn Mawr has been hiring more professors who teach about the region, offering more classes, and especially considering our new president is a Qur’an scholar, it seems like a good time to do it,” said Jesse Solomon ’11, referring to her plans to design an independent major in Mideast Studies. Unlike many students who study the Middle East in the context of a specific discipline, Solomon feels that she will learn the most about the region by getting as much background as possible—background that is inherently interdisciplinary.

“I’m not sure exactly what the major will look like, except that I like being able to get so many perspectives,” she said. When she entered in the fall Solomon assumed she would major in political science, but as she explored the curriculum within the Tri-Co and Penn, she started to consider how her interest in the Middle East could turn into a major. “Between the Tri-Co and Penn, there will be enough classes for me to take,” said Solomon. “But the only problem is that they tend to be very similar.”

For Rubey, the requirements of a political science major have allowed her to view her specialty in the context of a larger and highly connected world. “Right now I’m taking a modern Latin American history class, and it’s infuriating how similar it is,” she said. This summer she will travel to Nicaragua for an internship, where she sees blatant parallels to current events in the Middle East. “Twenty years ago, the whole world was falling down in Nicaragua, with America playing the same role—with some of the same last names as the people who are making the same mistakes now.”

To avoid mistakes when it comes to the Middle East, be they in diplomacy or literature, one of the first steps to understanding the region is understanding Arabic; currently at Bryn Mawr, however, many feel there is a disconnect between the two. Though as of last year Bryn Mawr and Haverford students have finally been able to take Arabic classes on their own campuses, the Arabic program is still based out of the modern languages department at Swarthmore and students have experienced the problems inherent in participating in a program from forty minutes away.

Solomon says that although her Arabic professors and drill instructors are brilliant, the program at Swarthmore restricts how they are able to teach. “We learn from a very old book that relies on wrote memorization,” she said. “Swat’s program drills in this idea, and it’s hard for professors who want to bring culture into it.” Solomon thinks Bryn Mawr could do much better by overseeing its own professors and in general, running its own program.

“This is the first year of the tri-co program, and it’s still going through growing pains,” said Professor Kim, who teaches Arabic at Bryn Mawr and Haverford. He sees that many of his students want to supplement their language study with other courses about the region, and he hopes that the Arabic program can be more integrated with the Middle East Studies Initiative in the future. “If there is a concentration in Middle East Studies there would be better integration between language and the content classes,” he said. “Right now, in many ways, the Arabic program is a separate entity.”

He says that problems associated with teaching Arabic are not just unique unto the Tri-Co, however. “Recently there has been a lot of student interest in the country, but there are just not enough qualified teachers out there,” he said, explaining why Bryn Mawr and Haverford have had to piggyback onto Swarthmore’s program.

There is also a challenge that has to do with the language itself; in the Tri-Co and wherever Arabic is taught, one learns Modern Standard Arabic, the strict, formal dialect that is rarely actually spoken in the Middle East. Though newscasters broadcast in Modern Standard, only colloquial dialects are heard in the streets; in other words, though Professor Kim thinks language training is essential to non-western studies, studying Arabic at Bryn Mawr and then in the Middle East is very different from studying French in Paris.

Rubey admits that taking Arabic in the U.S. would not have necessarily helped her get by on a day to day basis in Egypt. “It’s very rare that people use Modern Standard in their daily life. It’s like if someone addressed you using Shakespearean English.” Regardless, she wishes that she had had some background before she left. “I wish I had taken Arabic before, and I wish that Bryn Mawr and Haverford made it easier for people to take Arabic.”

Mawrtyrs interested in Middle East Studies currently have to be creative with their curriculum, but from a westward angle, creativity is often essential when talking about the Middle East. “If you want to know what’s going on, it doesn’t mean just reading the New York Times,” said Rubey. “It means reading Al-Jazeera, and it means actually talking to people from there.”

Whether motivated by current events or simple curiosity, student interest is forcing the Arabic program at Bryn Mawr to find its roots in the bi-college community. “So many people ask me how Arabic is and say they want to take it next year,” said Solomon. At the same time, the Middle East Studies Initiative will have to turn the mirror on itself to see how it can be a home for those who want to know exactly “what’s going on over there.”

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