The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has become the most quoted, and most disputed, primary source of casualty figures in Syria. Al-Akhbar investigates the political disputes, personal gain and prejudice, and media role behind a recent row over its ownership.

Over the course of the Syrian uprising, the security situation went from bad to worse and the regime tightened its noose around journalists not willing to toe the official line. Propaganda coverage filled the airwaves. Independent verification of what was taking place became increasingly difficult. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) rose to become the primary source of information regarding human rights violations inside the country. Providing daily casualty figures, the Observatory is often quoted by news wires such as AFP and Reuters, as well as media outlets like CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera English, among many others.

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The money behind the Egyptian military
Exploring the shadowy economics of its brutal hold on power.

Charles M. SennottJanuary 22, 2012 21:47

One year ago, just before Egypt’s President Mubarak was toppled, protesters called the military to their side: The side of history. Hundreds of thousands chanted, “The army. The people. One hand.” The army was seen, then, as heroic. But now many fear the mighty Egyptian military with its vast economic resources will not relinquish power — that it has betrayed the revolution.

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In 1965, international revolutionary figure Ernesto “Che” Guevara, accompanied by late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, made a stop in Kamshish, a small village in the Governorate of Menoufiya, north of Cairo. There, with a wide grin and twinkling eyes, he saluted the young woman, who dared to rebel against feudalism, and her peasant friends.

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One year after the fall of Saad Hariri’s government his team’s economic legacy is still intact, albeit under new management. An alliance of former Taif signatories, along with a team of billionaires, are the caretakers of an establishment that continues to prove it is immune to change. The opposition, now lead by Hariri, has not been bothered much by the new leadership as their interests remain protected.
The security team seems for the most part content, as long as those managing the economy of Lebanon do not conspire against the resistance. The final part of this series looks at how one member of the Cabinet attempted to rattle the establishment that is eternally “on the verge” of crumbling.

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That all changed, not so much when other Syrians took to the streets to demand President Bashar al-Assad step down, but when a mysterious message popped up on his Facebook page; it told him to get out of town, or die - because he was the wrong religion.

"You Alawite," read a text on the social networking site, widely hailed by pro-democracy activists for enabling the Arab Spring uprisings. "We don't want to see your face in Barzeh."

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BY MAGDY SAMAAN | FEBRUARY 3, 2012

CAIRO -- When Hosni Mubarak fell from power in February 2011, many elements of his regime remained in place -- at least at first. In the year since then, the Egyptian army, the police, and the business elite have struggled to cope with the tide of revolutionary change washing over the Arab world’s most populous country.

Not one of these institutions has made it through the process entirely intact. The deeply unpopular national police force has seen its authority relentlessly eroded by protestors and the press. Mubarak-era crony capitalists have landed in jail, their old deals under fire from rivals or the courts. And the military, which has ruled the country in the guise of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), has become the focus of popular anger as it struggles to maintain its control. Now the Muslim Brotherhood, which has ridden recent electoral victories to a dominant position in the new parliament, is set to advance its own agenda,

thus adding a fresh element of unpredictability to the struggle for power.

Yet one pillar of the old regime has survived the turmoil with its authority intact -- if not expanded. It is the General Intelligence Directorate (GID

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A few months after the first democratic elections were held in Tunisia, a question that still hovers over this post-revolution political sphere is: Why did the Islamists win about 40 percent of the seats in the Constituent Assembly?

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[This is a translation of a Jadaliyya article that was originally published in Arabic. Click here to access the Arabic version.]

Should the production of pasta, mineral water, butane gas cylinders, and gas station services qualify as classified military secrets? And does discussing these enterprises in public pass as a crime of high treason? The leaders of the Egyptian Armed Forces believe the answer is “yes.”