Qifa Nabki
Bashar al-Assad
Syria’s Defecting Bloggers
I’ve been a little obsessed with the changes in the Arab blogosphere over the past year, and the Syrian blogs are among the most interesting to me, perhaps because I’ve been reading several of these bloggers for years. The shift in perspective as a result of the uprising is remarkable. People like Robin Yassin-Kassab and … Continue reading
Crisis in Syria: A Bloggingheads Diavlog with Michael Young and Elias Muhanna
I recorded a discussion with Michael Young this weekend about the situation in Syria and its impact on Lebanon. You can watch the whole thing at the Bloggingheads website, but be sure to come back and comment. Michael is the opinion editor of the Daily Star, and the author of a very interesting book about … Continue reading
The SSNP’s Fiefdom in Hamra
If you read nothing else today, be sure to read this Jadaliyya anonymous account of an attack on a group of protesters outside the Syrian Embassy in Beirut. As anyone who lives, works, or pub crawls in Hamra knows, this area is SSNP territory. Every six months or so, when I visit my family in … Continue reading
Western Intelligence and the Arab Revolutions
As I was perusing some of the latest Wikileaks cables, I came across this little nugget about Asif Shawkat, the former head of Syrian Military Intelligence and brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad: 05PARIS6580 (September 26, 2005) — President Jacques Chirac’s Technical Advisor on Middle East/Americas Dominique Boche “reiterated that the content of the final Mehlis report would … Continue reading
Muhanna and Yacoubian Talk Lebanon at Bloggingheads TV
Mona Yacoubian and I chat here about the new Lebanese cabinet and the challenges facing it, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the events in Syria, and the new US draft legislation targeting Hizbullah. Be sure to also check out Joshua Landis’s conversation with Ausama Monajed about the Syrian uprising. I believe it was recorded prior to President … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…