The UN has released its third annual Arab Human Development Report. According to the New York Times, the report says that Arabs don’t have very much freedom. I would say that while this is an issue that needs attention, it does not come as a surprise.
More interestingly, the article notes that our lovely president tried to suppress the report because it suggests that “the United States and Israel have also played a part in suppressing Arab freedom.â€
Don’t like that someone’s saying you’re restricting freedom? Restrict their ability to say it. Seems to me like that’s a classic and time-honored strategy.
hehehe, very well said. Cheers to our “champion of democracy,†Mr. Bush. He said he was after terrorists and weapons of mass destruction when he invaded Iraq. After these links were proven non-existent, he quickly changed course and said his mission was to spread freedom to the Middle East. I wonder how long he’ll keep up this new rhetoric.
I just clicked on the link to see the NYT’s story and I noticed that there was an extensive editor’s note at the bottom that seemed to apologize for blaming the Bush administration for causing a delay in the UN report’s release. Looks like someone in Bush’s camp may have had a talk with the editor in chief at the NYT.
Am I dreaming? We’ve been waiting for this UN report to come out for three months and during this time, it’s been reported by several reliable news agencies and newspapers that the holdup was due to (mostly) U.S. and (also) Egyptian pressures. Everyone knows this.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8092617&type=worldNews
What’s more is that this is the first time in three years running that the report has come with a disclaimer.
Are we really supposed to believe that there was no U.S. pressure? What the heck’s going on over there in Washington? It’s not enough to oppress freedom in the Arab world? Is Bush trying to silence the New York Times, too???
So much for freedom.
I could go into extensive detail on White House efforts to control the rest of the administration, the judiciary, science, the media and pretty much everything else … but have all read the stories. This White House, if nothing else, excels at spin control and shutting down opposition. Right now even, I’m sure an alarm is going off somewhere, and at some point soon a bolt of electricity will mysteriously short out my computer or I’ll be whisked away in van and sent to Gitmo … so if I disappear suddenly you’ll know where I am. And I’m only half-kidding.
Lovely. Thanks for pointing out the editor’s note, Kristin.
A Google News search on the report turns up a broad range of perspectives, some neglecting to mention the US completely. Only a few mention the the “alleged†delay. But the 2003 report came out in October of that year. This isn’t far from proof that there was an external delay — maybe the report’s writers procrastinated too much this time around — but certainly allows room for one to have existed.
As a side note… I do just want to point out to the offended among you that neither I am *not* saying that the report is saying that the US is the primary oppressor of human rights in the Middle East. That would be as ridiculous as denying that it plays any role.