Media in Middle East & North Africa

The push to remove witnesses may be the prelude to a Tehran Tiananmen. Yet a secret Internet lifeline remains, and it’s a tribute to the crazy, globalized world we live in. The lifeline was designed by Chinese computer engineers in America to evade Communist Party censorship of a repressed Chinese spiritual group, the Falun Gong.Today, it is these Chinese supporters of Falun Gong who are the best hope for Iranians trying to reach blocked sites.“We don’t have the heart to cut off the Iranians,” said Shiyu Zhou, a computer scientist and leader in the Chinese effort, called the Global Internet Freedom Consortium. “But if our servers overload too much, we may have to cut down the traffic.”

China is fighting back against the “hacktivists.” The government has announced that new computers sold beginning next month will have to have Internet filtering software, called Green Dam (the consortium has already developed software called Green Tsunami to neutralize it). More alarming, in 2006 a consortium engineer living outside Atlanta was attacked in his home, beaten up and his computers stolen. The engineers behind Freegate are now careful not to disclose their physical locations.

bullets usually trump tweets

With the Iranian government clamping down on foreign journalists, Kelly has a point: access to Twitter and ilk are crucial sources of information. Social media tools like Twitter and Facebook have already emerged as sources of raw news in disasters and political crises before--from the Hudson River emergency plane landing to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. But this is the first time they've been highlighted as vital information channels in Iran--both for protesters trying to spread information and for government authorities trying to gather it.

the military was investigating whether the reported anti-AKP plan was authentic. Along with the AKP, it also allegedly targeted a Muslim brotherhood led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen.

Whatever the case, perception is what counts. And the perception of large numbers of Iranians that their votes were "stolen" presents the authorities - and especially the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - with a burning dilemma.

perception is what counts. And the perception of large numbers of Iranians that their votes were "stolen" presents the authorities - and especially the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - with a burning dilemma.

The outcome has also played into the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government in Israel.

Syrian officials have been silent on Lebanon for weeks, unlike Americans - an irony that must really tick them off given how insistent American officials have been about the need for smooth elections untainted by foreign meddling.

Many Syrian Christians are gratified by Aoun’s turn toward Syria because it provides them with a strong political figure who is not a Geagea or Jemayyal. It shows that even Lebanese Christians stand with Syria. They are not alone.

Damascus too may feel a certain relief in the very highest halls of the foreign ministry. It has avoided the complications of an Hizbullah win, which could have strained already bad relations with the US even further. The Lebanon situation will take some of the oomph out of Syrian hardliners, who may believe that Syria is winning the long term struggle for Arab public opinion and can afford to play hardball with Washington.