On Slate, Fred Kaplan explains how there’s nothing weird or illegal about a general at the head of the CIA: rather, we might want to acknowledge that John Negroponte and the NSA are trying to tighten their grip of the intelligence community.
His (Rep. Peter Hoekstra) real concern, I suspect, is not so much that "a general," but rather that this particular general, is being put in charge—and that the move strengthens not so much Rumsfeld but, rather, Negroponte.
After writing a 16-page letter to “find a way out of the problems facing humanity”, Iran finds ways to laud Russia and China for their realism.
In Iraq, a tale of corruption, unsolved murders, and $125,035.
On the Egyptian Al-Ahram weekly, Carnegie scholar Amr Hamzawi has an interesting analysis of the Western framing of the Arab world into the secular/good, Islamist/bad categories:
It is harmful, both for Arab societies and civil society organizations, to portray all religious currents as radical and anti-democratic. This approach is unhelpful, except to those civil society organizations that depend on US and European aid for their existence -- and there are too many of those unfortunately.
Zuma: alright, Forsyth, not using a condom was a mistake.
A Chinese man wants his money back for the Russian fighter jet he bought on Ebay.
A bad day for Eastern Europe: China takes on Albania, and the EU 'humiliates' Bulgaria. Also, rioting and lynching in Darfur, and the Australian miners are free.
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