حصرياً وعلى راديو حريتنا وبس لكل عشاق الكاريكاتير وخاصة كاريكاتير عمرو عكاشة انتظرونا أسبوعيا على موقع راديو حريتنا، عمرو عكاشة هيعرض لكم كاريكاتير يناقش قضايا كتير تهم الشباب سواء كانت قضايا سياسية، اقتصادية، اجتماعية.. كل ده هيتقدم بطريقة ساخرة، لن تملك معها سوى أن تبتسم.

 بريشة.. الفنان الشاب شحاته

  بريشة.. الفنان الشاب شحاته

  بريشة.. الفنان الشاب شحاته

  بريشة.. الفنان الشاب شحاته

  بريشة.. الفنان الشاب شحاته

Photo: France 24. Major General Ken Tovo

Egypt will participate in a massive military exercise involving over 12,000 soldiers and 19 countries, based in Jordan.  Fellow participants include the United States, Jordan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia.  The exercise, dubbed Eager Lion, will span two weeks.

According to the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), the purpose of Eager Lion is to strengthen military-to-military relationships between participating nations through joint approaches, integrating all instruments of national power to meet current and future complex national security challenges. 

“The message that I want to send through this exercise is that we have developed the right partners throughout the region and across the world…insuring that we have the ability to…meet challenges that are coming to our nations,” said United States Major General Ken Tovo, commander of United States Special Operations Forces.

Major General Tovo took pains to emphasize no forces would be deployed to Jordan’s north bordering Syria.  “This has nothing to do with Syria.  We respect the sovereignty of Syria,” he explained. 

The exercise is expected to draw criticism from Iran, which is facing intense pressure from Western and Arab capitals to curtail its nuclear program and perceived regional aspirations. 

It is also meant to emphasize continued United States engagement in the region despite withdrawal from Iraq and United States support for Jordan.  Jordanian officials are concerned about unrest spilling over its borders from Syria entangling its own restless Palestinian population.

Publicly, officials from participating countries say the operation is aimed at no country in particular, but instead against “realistic threats.”

 By Eman el-Shenawi

Photo: CS Monitor

A top British politician has slammed Britain’s parliamentary system in a comparison to that of Egypt, saying that the Middle Eastern country is ahead of the game in legislative democracy with an elected, not appointed, second chamber.

In response to rising critique on the importance of reforming the House of Lords, former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown said the government should follow in Egypt’s footsteps. 

“We are almost the only country in the world which has an appointed second chamber rather than an elected one - by the way the company we keep includes Belarus, Bahrain, Yemen.

“Even Egypt under its new Muslim Brotherhood constitution is going to have an elected second chamber. It’s time we had a proper elected second chamber,” Ashdown told Sky News this week.

Egypt’s second chamber of parliament has two fundamental functions: to provide limits to the power of the first chamber and to compensate for the shortcomings in presentation in it, especially of monitories and marginalized groups, Gianluca Parolin, a professor of comparative law told an academic panel in Egypt last month which discussed the country’s post-revolutionary parliament.

A two-chamber system is used in some 200 countries, which include the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Jordan and Afghanistan.

This year’s second chamber, or Shura Council, elections resulted in Ahmed Fahmy of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party to be chosen as Speaker of the chamber.

Despite Fahmy being chosen as the Shura Council speaker in an uncontested vote, Lord Ashdown applauded the fact that the chamber was elected by Egyptians.

Previously, any potential value of the Shura Council was lost in a political system, seen by many as corrupt, owing to years of autocratic rule led by ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Former presidential hopeful and former People’s Assembly member Ayman Nour said that in recent Mubarak-era years the main purpose of the Shura Council was to reward the former president’s supporters. 

During those years, one-third of the council was appointed by the president, and the rest was virtually guaranteed to have a National Democratic Party majority, because of vote-rigging, al-Masry al-Youm reported.

While such alleged corruption within the British parliament is not of immediate concern in the country, the second chamber’s reform remains a weighty topic. 

Within Britain’s second chamber, the House of Lords, most members are appointed and some inherited their seats along with a title.

By Teresa Meoni

Photo: Jaakko Laajava (AP)

Planned talks aimed at creating a nuclear-free Middle East appeared to have fallen through this week as Jaakko Laajava, the Finnish diplomat responsible for their organization, failed to secure the attendance of key countries. 

While Laajava’s statement on the matter did not name the countries whose attendance was unclear, analysts stipulate both Israel and Iran are among the uncommitted countries.   

It is widely known that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, but because of a policy of “nuclear ambiguity” refuses to officially admit to the weapons.  It is also one of four nuclear countries that is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), created in 1970 to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction. 

Israel said it will sign the NPT and renounce its nuclear weapons only as part of a wider Middle East agreement that assures its security.

The United States and Israel accused the Arab states of signaling out the Jewish nation after it was called the greatest threat to peace in the region.  The two countries said the threat instead came from Iran.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Mahdi Akhondzadeh countered, condemning the “hypocritical and double standard approach” of the West for being “deadly silent on the Israel nuclear program [while] they express baseless concern about Iran’s nuclear program.

Egypt proposed the talks in 2010 to jumpstart the stalled implementation of a 1995 resolution on creating a nuclear and weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-free zone throughout the Middle East.  Egyptian Ambassador Ahmed Fathalla said, “The 2010 conference represents a crossroads for the Arab countries’ policies in the nuclear domain, and its failure would invite them to revise their policies in this regard.”

Egypt focuses its efforts on development of its conventional forces and chemical and biological weapons, instead of nuclear weapons.  Its nuclear weapons program was launched in 1954, but the program was halted after the 1967 war. 

Egypt continues to operate two research reactors under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

Polls opened Friday for Egyptians abroad to cast their votes in the upcoming presidential elections. They have until May 17 to vote.

Expat Egyptians will vote in one of 166 consulates abroad between the 13 approved candidates.  

Officials say fewer than one million of the ten million Egyptians abroad registered to vote.  

Nearly half of the registered voters live in Saudi Arabia, with over 261,000.  Over 27,000 registered in the United States and 99 registered in Israel.  

By Teresa Meoni

Photo: Wired

The CIA announced it foiled a planned terrorist attack on a United States-bound plane after a Saudi double agent infiltrated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The agent is reportedly “safe” in Saudi Arabia.

The double agent, recruited by Saudi’s intelligence bureau, was to hide a more sophisticated version of the bomb used in a 2009 terrorist attempt widely referred to as the “underwear bomber.” In December of that year, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to ignite explosives hidden in his underwear on a transatlantic flight but was stopped by his seatmate. 

The agent turned the device over to the CIA.  The device is reportedly “custom fit,” meaning it would be difficult to detect with current security checks.  Additionally, it had two detonators, unlike the failed 2009 device. 

United States Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, described the bomb as “a specific type of bomb that is of new design and very difficult to detect by magnetometer.”

US officials told the New York Times it “undoubtedly would have brought down an aircraft.”

The bomb is believed to be the handiwork of Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, a 30 year old Saudi and AQAP’s leading bomb expert.  Officials allege he created both underwear bombs, as bombs hidden in printer cartridges headed to the United States on cargo planes in 2010.

The agent also provided the CIA with information that led to a drone attack that killed AQAP leader Fahd al-Quso on Friday.  Al-Quso was wanted for his alleged role in the 2000 USS Cole bombing in the Yemeni port city of Aden.

Investigating judges are sending 293 Egyptians to trial on charges of resisting authorities, damaging public property and carrying weapons during an anti-government protest last year.

A three-week sit-in in December outside the Cabinet building turned violent when troops badly beat a protester. In four days of clashes that followed, 14 people were killed and hundreds injured.

The defendants, including 24 minors, are also accused of burning a research center housing old manuscripts.

Egypt's official news agency said Monday the minors will be tried in a juvenile court. No date has been set.

The military drew international criticism for its crackdown, including beating women and pursuing journalists.

Photo: AFP

Police in the Belarusian capital of Minsk arrested five Egyptian citizens described by Belarusian police sources as extremists.  

Officials allege the five were entered Belarus illegally with the aim of traveling to Western Europe to take "actions against European officials and leaders in response to European countries' politics toward Egypt."

No other information was made available, including information on the day of the group's arrival or arrest. 

Belarus is largely regarded as Europe's last dictatorship.  Its president, Alexander Lukashenko, has ruled since 1994.  

Protests against Lusashenko broke out in 2011 demanding his resignation.  

By Teresa Meoni

Photo: AFP

Arab youth activism may have driven the political uprisings that overthrew regimes across the Middle East and North Africa, but today they are more concerned about the state of the economy than political reform, according to a new survey. 

Anxieties over the rising cost of living, job opportunities, and homeownership topped fervor for “living in a democracy” among 2,500 respondents from twelve Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt. 

Other countries included in the poll were the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia, and Libya.

The fourth annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey found when asked about their greatest concern, 63 percent cited the rising cost of living, up from 57 percent last year.  Additionally, 42 percent cited corruption, skyrocketing from last year’s 16 percent. 

Those who said living in a democratic country is “very important’ to them dropped to 58 percent from 68 percent last year. 

There are about 200 million people under 30 living across the Middle East and North Africa, a region whose youth unemployment rate is the among the highest in the world, at 30 percent.  Egypt’s youth unemployment rate is around 25 percent. 

Youth unemployment in the region is largely driven by high population growth rates, low economic growth and weak economic diversification, poor education systems, and lack of government attention. 

Youth in the region see the political changes over the past year as a positive development and personally feel more optimistic about their futures.  Over seventy percent of those polled said the region was better off following the uprisings; 68 percent said they were personally better off today than a year ago.   

Photo: AP

Egypt must regain control of the Sinai and impose security on the region if peace with Israel is to be maintained, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said late Monday.

“We urge Egypt to contain lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula—this is imperative in order to keep our two nations firmly on the path of peace,” he told reporters. 

Incidents along the Israeli-Egyptian border increased after the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.  Egyptian security forces recently began a major operation to stamp out violent extremists in the region.  The operation’s results are inconclusive, at best. 

Even after the operation, Israel threatened Egypt it would intervene in the event Egyptian security forces were unable to clamp down on extremists.  

Photo: AP

An appeals court in Bahrain ordered the retrial in civilian court of Bahraini activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and 20 others convicted in a military court last June after he was arrested for “forming a terrorist group with intent to overturn the system of government” and colluding with a foreign state, ostensibly Iran.

The activists sought to give Bahrain’s Shi’ite majority a bigger role in the country’s politics and economy. 

“The court is [ordering] that the trial take place again and that testimony from prosecution and defense witnesses be heard once more as if it is a new trial,” the official news agency BNA reported. The date is not yet set.

Analysts note, however, the case is being reviewed by a civil court.

Al-Khawaja and seven of the twenty other activists were also convicted to life in prison. 

Al-Khawaja and his family led a high-profile campaign to draw attention to his case and their push for democratic reform during the Grand Prix race in Manama.  Al-Khawaja has been on a hunger strike for 82 days.  He is reportedly in serious condition and lost 25 percent of his body weight.

“He is very weak,” his wife, Khadija al-Moussawi, told the BBC.  “He has been restrained and force-fed through a tube for five days, but he agreed to be fed by IV.” 

Al-Moussawi dismissed the retrial, calling the civilian court a military court “but with different clothes.” 

Defense lawyer told reporters defendants would not be released during the process.  His supporters criticized his continued detention during the retrial. 

“Abdulhadi AlKhawaja did not go on #hungerstrike saying death or retrial, he said death or feedom.  A retrial doesn’t mean much,” tweeted Maryam al-Khawaja, the daughter of Abdulhadi. 

Photo: AFP 

Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Egypt and closed its embassy and consulates in Alexandria and Suez in response to protests against the arrest of Ahmed al-Gizawi, an Egyptian lawyer and human rights activist.

Saudi officials also said diplomatic and consular services for Egyptians were suspended.  

Saudi officials called the protests "unjustified" and that attempts to storm the embassy "threatened the safety of its employees."

He was arrested earlier this month on what the Saudis described as drug-smuggling charges.  Egyptians accuse the Saudis of arresting him for his loud criticism of Saudi Arabia's treatment of Egytptians in prison.  

He was on his way to pilgrimage when he was allegedly stopped in Jeddah with anti-anxiety pills in his luggage.  

Photo: Reuters

A Cairo court dismissed charges against actor Adel Imam and other artists for insulting Islam.  The ruling came days after another court sentenced Imam to jail.

Sources said the court told the lawyer who filed the charges he "had no standing to bring charges" against the artists.  The lawyer, Asran Mansor, has ties with Islamist groups.  Liberals saw the case as an example of the creeping Islamicization of Egyptian institutions. 

Imam, one of the most popular actors in the Arab world, has starred in movies critical of violent Islamic extremism.  

Despite the case, Imam refused to back down.

"Many people support me," said Imam. 

In fact, hundreds of people gathered outside the court on Thursday to show support for the actor.  

Photo: Panoramio

BEIRUT — Samir Geagea was bending down to pick a flower, he said, when he heard the sound of gunshots. From a hilltop a kilometer away, a sniper drew a bead on the political leader, a former warlord, sending a bullet past his head and another by his torso.

“It missed me by chance, or by providence,” said Mr. Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces, one of the country’s main Christian parties, of the apparent attempt on his life April 4. “It depends on if you are a believer or not.”

As the summer season begins in Beirut, with tourists and Lebanese expatriates flocking back to the country’s beaches, nightclubs and the outdoor cafes, there is a veneer of calm in many areas, a prevailing thought for some that tiny Lebanon is sheltered from the carnage next door in Syria.

But the quiet may be an illusion. Lebanon, which is only decades past a brutal civil war, remains sharply divided over Syria as increasingly heated rhetoric about the regime in Damascus dominates political discourse. The assassination attempt against Mr. Geagea, a critic of Hezbollah and Syria, and another soon after on Mustafa Jeha, a lesser-known figure with similar views, served as a reminder of ever-lurking instability.

Now, there is a fear that the country could return to a period of political assassinations similar to the one it went through in the years following the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, when many politicians, journalists and activists associated with the anti-Syria March 14 political bloc were the targets.

“The return to political violence is very, very highly possible,” said Imad Salamey, a professor of political science at the Lebanese American University.

In the past, official investigations into assassination attempts have rarely uncovered the identities of the assassins. The low risk to the killers has at times helped make assassinations a favored political tool.

Mr. Geagea, while revered by his followers, has made many enemies over the decades. Considered one of the most feared warlords during the country’s civil war, he has been accused of ordering a number of killings in the past, including those of fellow Christian rivals. As a member of the country’s March 14 opposition, he has continually antagonized Damascus and its allies in Lebanon.

Thus far, Mr. Geagea has spoken only in vague terms about who he believes was behind the attempt on his life, offering hints while not naming names. He suspects “a professional group with big means, with big facilities within the Lebanese state and who would have an interest in changing the balance of power in Lebanon.”

Despite his ambiguity on the subject, to many, such words point to Hezbollah, the powerful Shiite Islamist organization that leads the country’s March 8 bloc and has stayed by Damascus’ side throughout the turmoil next door.

Less than two weeks after the attempt on Mr. Geagea’s life, a gunman wielding a pistol opened fire on Mr. Jeha’s car as he drove on a highway south of Beirut. Two bullets slammed into the hood of his vehicle and a neat cluster of three shots pierced the windshield just to the right of where he was sitting.

Mr. Jeha showed little restraint in naming who he thought was behind the attempt. “I think Hezbollah and the Syrian regime are working together now,” he said. “They are ready to do anything to support the Syrian regime and the case of Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

“They opened the door for assassinations again in Lebanon,” he added.

Mr. Jeha, a 28-year-old Shiite Muslim, recently founded a new political organization called the Lebanese Sovereignty Movement and has been very critical of Hezbollah and Syria. Additionally, he began republishing books written by his late father — assassinated in 1992 — that attacked Hezbollah’s ally, Iran. Mr. Jeha alleged that his background and current activities made him a target.

The involvement of Hezbollah and Syria in the assassination attempts is plausible to some.

“It has been expected for a while that a greater instability and growing unrest in Syria would be reflected in one way or another in Lebanon,” said Mr. Salamey, the political science professor. The attempt on Mr. Geagea “may very well be sending a message to political leaders that those criticizing the Syrian regime or part of a coalition that is pressing for regime change in Syria may be assassinated or killed.”

Mr. Jeha charged that discord in Lebanon — such as that which could arise through assassinations — would aid the regime in Syria by diverting attention from the conflict there.

As divisions in Lebanon have grown deeper, March 14 politicians have become increasingly strident in the war of words with their pro-Syria rivals, the March 8 bloc, at times calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his cabinet and decrying what they say is continued support for the Syrian regime despite an official stance of neutrality on the conflict.

There are those who remain skeptical about whether Syria is stirring things up in Lebanon— even about whether the attempt on Mr. Geagea actually happened.

“We have the question of what would the Syrians really gain from destabilizing Lebanon?” said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut. “Disturbing Lebanon will not abate the uprisings in Syria.”

Mr. Khashan said that Hezbollah would not be interested in assassinations and that the organization was instead “lying low and doing their best to keep the situation in Lebanon quiet.”

Gebran Bassil, Lebanon’s energy minister, has questioned the truthfulness of Mr. Geagea’s account and suggested that false claims could be made to justify future assassinations against members of the pro-Syrian March 8 coalition.

But Mr. Geagea warned that the message is: Those who think like him “may be in danger.”

Photo: AFP

The Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission reversed its candidacy ban on Mubarak’s former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.  The Commission had initially barred Shafiq under a law that disqualifies anyone who served in a senior position under Mubarak from public office for ten years.

Shafiq appealed the initial decision, challenging the law’s constitutionality.

"The presidential electoral committee headed by Farouk Sultan accepts the appeal of former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, allowing him to contest the presidential race," MENA reported.

The Commission did not give reasons for agreeing to the appeal.

The law was enacted Tuesday shortly after it was ratified by SCAF.  After reinstating Shafiq, the Commission referred the law to the Supreme Constitutional Court. 

The final list of candidates is expected on Thursday.

Shafiq served as aviation minister and Mubarak’s last prime minister before his ouster last February.  His is considered by critics as a remnant of Mubarak’s regime.  Supporters hope his ties with the military will ensure a smooth transition and restore order.