THE EGYPTIAN ARMY’S UNLIKELY ALLIES

When the Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswany took the stage in October at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris to promote the French translation of his latest novel, he was presumably not expecting to be heckled and chased from the venue by a crowd of his own countrymen. But minutes into his talk, the author’s voice was drowned out by the shouts of Egyptian emigrés who had come out for the chance to tear him to bits.

One of the Arab world’s most popular novelists, Aswany was a prominent supporter of the demonstrations that climaxed with the dramatic fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. (Wendell Steavenson wrote a Profile of Aswany for the magazine in early 2012.) More recently, in his columns for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (and, since October, for the International New York Times), Aswany has been a relentless critic of Mohamed Morsi and his followers in the Muslim Brotherhood—and a passionate defender of the man who deposed him, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whom Aswany has called “a national hero.”

Streamlining the dragonfly

The next time your boat gets into trouble 130 kilometres off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, don’t worry, Italy has your back.  And your call is important to them – even if they can’t understand it.

Yes, we are all Shang Rideout now. After closing the Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre in St.John’s, the Harper government promised that things would still be handled in a safe and responsible way for fishermen like Shang and his father. Mr. Harper was at full purr in the House of Commons, using his most reassuring Paul Wolfowitz voice to defend the indefensible – and to confabulate.

Emergency calls, he said, had always been handled this way. By that, the PM meant that in the new dispensation, Newfoundland and Labrador distress calls will be routed to Halifax – over a thousand kilometres away. And if their lines are busy, then as has “always” been the case, the world was waiting to take the call – as soon as it scares up an interpreter with a minor in geography. Of course this is false, just as Liberal leader Bob Rae said in the House. But not to a man who believes he manufactures facts every time he makes a declaration. Like the spider, all the silk comes out of him.

Admiral Seeks Freer Hand in Deployment of Elite Forces

WASHINGTON — As the United States turns increasingly to Special Operations forces to confront developing threats scattered around the world, the nation’s top Special Operations officer, a member of the Navy Seals who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, is seeking new authority to move his forces faster and outside of normal Pentagon deployment channels.       

The officer, Adm. William H. McRaven, who leads the Special Operations Command, is pushing for a larger role for his elite units who have traditionally operated in the dark corners of American foreign policy. The plan would give him more autonomy to position his forces and their war-fighting equipment where intelligence and global events indicate they are most needed.

It would also allow the Special Operations forces to expand their presence in regions where they have not operated in large numbers for the past decade, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

While President Obama and his Pentagon’s leadership have increasingly made Special Operations forces their military tool of choice, similar plans in the past have foundered because of opposition from regional commanders and the State Department. The military’s regional combatant commanders have feared a decrease of their authority, and some ambassadors in crisis zones have voiced concerns that commandos may carry out missions that are perceived to tread on a host country’s sovereignty, like the rift in ties with Pakistan after the Bin Laden raid.