U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the U.S. ambassador in Egypt, Anne Patterson, spoke with top Egyptian officials including the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Friday to press U.S. demands that the non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, be allowed to resume normal operations,

“The ambassador has sought and received Egyptian leadership assurances that the raids will cease and property will be returned immediately,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in emailed comments.

Panetta spoke on Friday with the leader of the military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi to convey his concern over the raid, Defense Department spokesman George Little said.

“After two successful rounds of parliamentary elections, the secretary emphasized that it is critical for Egypt to continue on the path to democratic transition,” Little said.

“The secretary reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Egyptian security relationship, and made clear that the United States remains committed to the strategic partnership and stands ready to cooperate with Egypt as it continues its democratic transition.”

The United States reacted sharply on Thursday after Egyptian police raided the offices of 17 non-governmental groups, including several that receive U.S. backing, and hinted it could review the $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Cairo if the raids continued.

The European Union also expressed concern, saying on Friday the police raids amounted to an “open demonstration of force” and urged authorities to support civil society.

Egypt’s official MENA news agency said the raid was part of a probe into foreign funding of civil society groups, which helped drive the protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February and have been frequent critics of the army’s response to continued street unrest.

Among those targeted in Thursday’s raid were the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, which are loosely associated with the U.S. Democratic and Republican political parties and receive U.S. government funding for programs aimed at promoting democracy in Egypt and elsewhere.

Nuland said Patterson had agreed to participate in a dialogue with Egyptian officials “to resolve the underlying issues related to the operation of U.S.-supported NGOs in a transparent, open manner.”

“These NGOs should be allowed to operate freely as they do in countries around the world in support of democracy and free elections,” Nuland said.

Egypt’s ruling generals have pledged to stand aside by mid-2012, but many democracy activists say the military is eager to preserve its privileges and broad business interests.

Reuters

At polling stations from the Arctic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, the election will indicate the scope of fatigue with Putin’s 12-year rule just three months before he asks voters to endorse his return to the Kremlin as president.

Russians interviewed by Reuters across the world’s biggest country gave a mixed picture. Some expressed disgust with a parliamentary election they said was likely to be rigged while others said they supported Putin and his United Russia party.

“I support United Russia. I like Putin. He is the strong leader we need in our country,” said Nikolai, a 33-year-old customs officer in Vladivostok, a port city of 600,000 people on the Pacific and the biggest city in Russia’s Far East.

Some voters said they would vote for Just Russia or the Communists because they were disillusioned with Putin and his party, a trend that could cost United Russia dearly.

Polls show Putin’s party is likely to win a majority but less than the 315 seats it currently has in the 450-seat lower house of parliament, known as the Duma.

If it gets less than two-thirds of seats, Putin’s party would be stripped of its so called constitutional majority which allows it to change the constitution and even approve the impeachment of the president.

Opposition parties say the election is unfair because the authorities support United Russia with cash and television air time while they say vote rigging will be employed to boost United Russia’s result.

Supporters say the former-KGB spy saved Russia during his 2000-08 presidency from the chaos of the immediate post-Soviet era and supplied the longest and steepest economic boom in a generation. He also crushed a rebellion in the southern region of Chechnya that tested the fabric of a federation spanning 9,000 Km (5,600 miles) from the Baltic to the Pacific.

Russian customs officers held the director of an independent election watchdog for 12 hours at a Moscow airport Saturday. The United States said it was concerned by “a pattern of harassment” against the watchdog.

PUTIN’S PARTY

Putin remains by far Russia’s most popular politician and the 59-year old leader is the ultimate arbiter between the clans which control the world’s biggest energy producer.

But his party has had to fight against opponents who have branded it as a collection “swindlers and thieves” and a growing sense of unease among voters at Putin’s grip on power.

“I shall not vote. I shall cross out all the parties on the list and write: ‘Down with the party of swindlers and thieves,’” said Nikolai Markovtsev, an independent deputy in the Vladivostok city legislature.

“These are not elections: this is sacrilege,” he said, adding that the biggest liberal opposition bloc had been barred from the vote by the authorities.

Opponents say Putin has crafted a brittle political system which excludes independent voices and that Russians are growing tired of Putin’s cultivated tough man image.

An outburst of boos and whistling at Putin by fans at a Moscow martial arts fight and a sharp fall in opinion poll ratings during the election campaign had raised concerns Putin may be losing his legendary political touch.

FAR EAST

Putin is almost certain to win the March 4 presidential election but signs of disenchantment are extremely worrying for the Kremlin’s political managers. Putin’s self-portrayal as the anchor of Russian stability hinges on his popularity.

In an attempt to reinvigorate his party, which President Dmitry Medvedev is leading into the election as part of a job swap announced in September, Putin has sent his closest allies to lead United Russia in some of Russia’s 83 regions.

Conquered by the Eastern Slavs under the tsars in the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia’s far east covers an area almost twice the size of India but has just 6.3 million inhabitants.

Russians in the region braved temperatures as low as minus 41 degrees Celsius (minus 42 Fahrenheit) to vote eight hours before polls opened in Moscow.

Chukchi reindeer herders living across the Bering Sea from Alaska began voting in late November as did some oil workers on rigs pumping the lifeblood of Russia’s $1.9 trillion economy.

Putin sent First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to his native Far East to lead the ruling party’s campaign in an area where one local journalist angered Medvedev during the campaign by appearing to imply the Far East was not even part of Russia. ($1 = 30.8947 Russian roubles)
Reuters

Her remarks come as protesters took to the streets on Friday in different cities, a nationwide outpouring supporting the “free army,” a reference to personnel who have defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s military and the recently-formed Syrian Free Army. At least eight people have died in protests, one activist group said.

Pillay said the government has “manifestly failed to protect its population” and has “ignored the international community’s calls to cooperate with international investigations,” she said.

“At stake are the universal rights to life, liberty and security of person which must never be brushed aside in the interests of realpolitik. The international community must speak with one voice and act to protect the Syrian people.”

Protests in Syria erupted seven months ago, with demonstrators demanding changes to regime policies and/or an end to the regime. Opposition activists have accused officials of killing protesters, but the government has said it is going after armed groups.

The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, a London-based activist group with a network of informants across Syria, estimates that more than 3,100 people have died since the uprising began in mid-March. Most of them are civilians but some are military personnel as well.

Pillay also said the death toll has exceeded 3,000 people and at least 187 of them are children. She said more than 100 people have been reported killed in the last ten days.

The government “has consistently used excessive force to crush peaceful protests,” she said.

“Sniping from rooftops, and indiscriminate use of force against peaceful protesters — including the use of live ammunition and the shelling of residential neighborhoods — have become routine occurrences in many Syrian cities,” she said.

“In addition, thousands have been arrested, detained, forcibly disappeared and tortured. Family members inside and outside the country have been targeted for harassment, intimidation, threats and beatings. As more members of the military refuse to attack civilians and change sides, the crisis is already showing worrying signs of descending into an armed struggle.”

Two months ago, she said there had been “credible allegations of crimes against humanity in Syria” and urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court.

Countries across the globe have expressed outrage over the instability in Syria. The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions against the regime.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, six Gulf Arab states, urged an immediate meeting of Arab League states to discuss the country’s violence. The meeting should be at the foreign ministers level, the council said in a statement Thursday without providing details. Syria is a member of the Arab League.

Demonstrations occur regularly in Syria but activists mount nationwide demonstrations every Friday after Muslim prayers and those events regularly have labels, like the “Free Army Friday” theme.

The Syrian Observatory said seven civilians killed and more than 30 wounded in the city of Dael in Daraa province in the south amid sustained gunfire. A civilian was killed during clashes in the Damascus suburb of Saqba, it said.

Activists said security forces opened fire on protesters in the cities of Homs, in the west, and Damascus, the capital, and besieged worshipers at a mosque in Banias, in the west. More than 4,000 people chanted for the Free Syrian Army in Idlib province, in the northwest.

In the city of Douma, in the south, communication lines including cell phones were cut off after earlier demonstrations, the group said. In Hasaka, in the northeast protesters outside a mosque chanted “freedom.”

The Syrian Arab News Agency, the state-run outlet, reported “10 army and law enforcement officers” were killed after they were “ambushed by an armed terrorist group in the Idlib province town of Binnish on Thursday. This narrative directly contradicts that of the opposition, which claims defector soldiers and civilians were killed.

At least 15 people were killed Thursday, including two young children, the Syrian Observatory said. Twelve of those killed were in Binnish, which soldiers raided searching for dissidents and army defectors, activists said.

Among those SANA reported killed on Thursday in Binnish was Lt. Col. Abdul-Majeed al-Misri from Daraa.

But on Friday, Omar Idlibi, a Beirut-based spokesman for the opposition Local Coordination Committees told CNN Brig. Gen. al-Misri was in fact killed in the city of Hama, in the west.

Idlibi told CNN Syrian security forces opened on al-Misri’s car, killing him, after he defected from the military.

An opposition video shows people marching and denouncing Bashar and Hafez al Assad in al-Misri’s home village of Atman outside Daraa city. Hafez al-Assad is Bashar’s late father and one-time Syrian president

The man filming the video says at the beginning “this is Free ArmyFriday, after the burial of Abdul-Majeed al-Misri.” Thirty seconds into the video, a man holds up a martyr’s portrait purportedly of al-Misri.

The crowd is chanting “God damn you Hafez and Bashar.”

CNN cannot independently confirm events in Syria, which restricts international journalists from accessing many parts of the country.

CNN

Syrians have little confidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime can solve the country’s current problems, although they are optimistic about the future, a poll conducted by Pepperdine University shows.

The survey, which was conducted in conjunction with the Democracy Council of California, also found that eight out of 10 Syrians questioned want al-Assad’s regime to leave power and more than seven out of 10 are more hopeful that reforms will come, in light of the uprisings in other Middle Eastern and North African countries now known as the Arab Spring.

The Democracy Council is a nonpartisan, non-profit group that promotes democracy in emerging countries. The group receives funding from the U.S. government agency USAID, although the Syria poll was not commissioned by the government. CNN obtained a copy of the survey, which will be released Wednesday.

The poll was conducted in secret due to a Syrian government ban on opinion-gathering, officials from both organizations told CNN.

“The most surprising thing about these results is that they could be collected in the first place,” Angela Hawken, associate professor of Economics and Policy Analysis at Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy, told CNN.

The results are the product of face-to-face interviews in Arabic by trained data collectors with 551 Syrians over the age of 18. The poll was carried out between August 24 and September 2, Hawken said.

She explained that the tense security situation in Syria, coupled with the fact that the poll was done without the permission of the government, presented many logistical challenges for the field team collecting the data. For example, she said, the team had particular difficulty interviewing women, who were less willing than men to participate. Those women who did answer the questions were less critical of the government.

Those factors also likely skewed the results somewhat.

“Those who agreed to answer a poll conducted without government approval may be more likely to express anti-government sentiments than their neighbors who refused,” Hawken said, adding that it was hard to tell how representative the numbers were of overall public opinion in Syria.

“Still, we know a lot more now than we did before the survey,” she said. “And, equally important, we have shown that it is possible to collect public opinion data even in very repressive countries.”

Democracy Council President James Prince said the poll reflects “the deep-seated angst felt by most Syrians” about the regime and their hopes that the Arab Spring will result in better leadership in Syria.

“The Syrian people do not have confidence in the Assad regime. They no longer want to live in the Baath security state,” Prince told CNN. “As in other regional countries, the Syrians are fed up with the corruption, nepotism and lack of opportunity in Syria. The people are searching for alternatives to Assad.”

Despite their discontent with their government, Syrians remain optimistic, the survey found, with nine in 10 expecting the future to be better than the present.

Prince noted that the findings of the survey are consistent with polling in other countries involved in the Arab Spring, such as Tunisia and Egypt, with corruption and the lack of freedom and opportunity in people’s lives driving them to look for alternatives to their government. He points to the fact that 78.3% of the Syrians surveyed feel more hopeful about the prospect for reforms in their country in light of popular movements elsewhere in the Arab world.

Prince, a leading expert on Arab civil society, has been working on democracy promotion in the Middle East for more than 20 years.

He said the poll showed that the Syrian public “has very little confidence in the Assad regime and the government in general.”

A little more than 86% of the respondents judge al-Assad’s performance negatively, and 88.2% do not think the current government is capable of solving the country’s problems, Prince explained.

The results of the survey come as world pressure intensifies against the Syrian regime, with the imposition of more international sanctions and a renewed call by a United Nations body to bring in the International Criminal Court.

Unrest has plagued Syria for more than six months, as protesters demanding more freedom, democratic elections and an end to al-Assad’s regime have been met by brute force. The government has maintained a consistent narrative: It is going after armed terrorists, who are the ones causing the problems. But opposition activists say the regime is behind a systematic, sustained slaughter of protesters and innocent civilians.

The poll found most of the Syrians questioned – 71.1% – had positive views of the protesters, and only 5.5% had negative views. A whopping 88% think that the majority of the population shares the protestors’ concerns.

Two-thirds of the respondents agree that “democracy is preferable to any other form of government.” But the survey found that mere reforms by the Assad regime will not placate the Syrian people. Only 11.5% want the regime to remain power and make reforms, while 87.9% think that reforms will not satisfy the protestors and 81.7% want regime change.

CNN

In a first direct call by the opposition for foreign intervention, Syria’s underground opposition said a rise in the number of protesters killed during the revolt had won over many reluctant Syrians to the need for outside help.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission umbrella bloc of activists appealed to the international community on Thursday to send in human rights monitors to help deter military attacks on civilians in the increasingly bloody crackdown.

“Calling for outside intervention is a sensitive issue that could be used by the regime to label its opponents as traitors. We are calling for international observers as a first step,” spokesman Ahmad al-Khatib told Reuters news agency.

“If the regime refuses it will open the door on itself for other action, such as no-tank or no-fly zones,” he said, adding that Assad’s forces have killed 3,000 civilians, thousands have been arrested and thousands more are counted as missing.

Crackdown continues

The announcement came as Syrian forces arrested dozens of people in house-to-house raids in the city of Homs following military operations that killed at least 28 civilians on Wednesday. Activists and residents also reported more defections among the rank-and-file army.

In the northwestern province of Idlib near the border with Turkey, at least three army defectors were killed by the military as it raided the Jabal al-Zawiya area in pursuit of deserters, local activists said.

With large gatherings virtually impossible in most parts of the country under an overwhelming security grip, and with military loyal to Assad deployed in numerous cities and towns, Friday prayers have provided an opportunity for crowds to gather in the biggest protests.

The Syrian military launched offensives against the cities of Latakia, Aleppo and Deir al-Zor last month, with Assad repeatedly saying he was fighting a foreign conspiracy to divide Syria and the authorities blaming “armed terrorist groups” for the killings, including 500 army and police.

The argument did not go well with the West, and with Turkey, which had once strongly backed Assad.

“Mr. Assad, how can you say you are killing terrorists when you were actually shelling Latakia from the sea and hitting civilian targets?” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told Al Jazeera in an interview broadcast on Thursday.

Iran has also placed pressure on Assad’s regime to end the crackdown.

Syrian President Bashar Assad should back away from his violent crackdown on protesters and enter talks with the opposition, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

“There should be talks” between the Syrian government and its opponents, Ahmadinejad said in a live interview in Tehran with Portuguese broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa.

“A military solution is never the right solution,” Ahmadinejad said.

“We believe that freedom and justice and respect for others are the rights of all nations. All governments have to recognize these rights,” he said. “Problems have to be dealt with through dialogue.”

Al Jazeera

The decision by the top four figures in the military establishment to step down Friday stunned many in a country long accustomed to its military calling the shots. But as the dust settled, the realization dawned that the dramatic move was just one more step in the erosion of the military’s power in favor of civilian government that has taken place under the rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Yesterday was a new phase, a sharp curve toward pushing the military to adapt to the current changes in Turkey,” said Yavuz Baydar, a columnist for Today”s Zaman newspaper. “It shows how toothless the military has become compared to the civilian authority.”

Turkish President Abdullah Gul sought to play down any sense of crisis in comments to reporters on Saturday.

“Nobody should see this as a continuing crisis or problem in Turkey,” he said, according to the semi-official Anatolian news agency. “Without a doubt, the events of yesterday were extraordinary in their own right, but it is all back on track. It is not right to speak of a vacuum.”

Nevertheless, “it was a watershed,” said Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. “This was the day the military threw in the towel.”

The resignations were prompted by disagreements between the military and the government over who would be eligible for promotion at Monday’s annual meeting of the High Military Council, at which military officials meet with government representatives to review appointments in the armed forces.

Erdogan had made it clear he was not prepared to consider candidates implicated in ongoing investigations in which about 250 soldiers and officers are awaiting trial for allegedly plotting coups.

Three of the men who responded by resigning — the commanders of the air force, army and navy — had been due to retire in a month in any case. Erdogan swiftly named Gen. Necdet Ozel to replace the most senior of the four, General Chief of Staff Isik Kosaner, in an acting capacity and as commander of ground forces.

That the generals chose to bow out rather than dig in signaled the enormity of the shift away from military dominance that has taken place over the past decade, Barkey said.

“In the old days, the military would warn and threaten and wave a big stick. They can’t do it any more,” he said. “In America and most European societies, the whole promotion process is supervised by civilians. Turkey is now like any other country where if you disagree with your bosses, you resign.”

Some expressed concern that the military’s stature is being eroded too far, too fast, by the judicial pursuit of those implicated in the coup plot. Secularists in particular are worried that Erdogan’s efforts to defang the military presage a creeping Islamization of society under the auspices of his moderately Islamist Justice and Development Party.

“Casting a shadow over the military, slandering it and thereby damaging its esteem does not serve our nation. These types of efforts will pull the military into active politics,” said Emine Ulker Tarhan, a senior official with the Republican People’s Party, the main secularist opposition party in Turkey’s parliament.

The resignation of the generals, she said, “points to a serious disconnect between government bodies.”

But Erdogan’s resounding electoral victory in June, when he won an unprecedented third term with 50 percent of the vote, seemed to indicate that most Turks support the transition underway.

On Saturday, Erdogan vowed to press ahead with changes to the constitution that will further institutionalize civilian authority over the military.

“Turkey cannot continue on its path with a constitution that was written at a time when democracy was suspended,” Erdogan said in a televised address to the nation, referring to the 1982 charter drawn up by Turkey’s generals at a time when their power was unchecked.

WP

The development came as security forces detained dozens of people in the capital Damascus and several other cities in search for anti-government protesters and regime opponents, activists said Monday. The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said a seven-year-old child, a boxing champion and a writer were among those arrested.

The multiparty bill, approved by the Cabinet late Sunday, follows other concessions Assad has made as part of his efforts to quell more than four months of protests against his regime.

The revolt has only grown more defiant in the face of the government response, and protesters have shifted their demands from political change to the outright downfall of the regime.

The draft law, which still needs parliamentary approval, would allow for the establishment of any political party which is not based on religious or tribal lines, or discriminates due to ethnicity, gender or race, the state-run news agency said.

Assad’s ruling Baath Party, which calls for “unity, freedom and socialism,” has held a monopoly over political life in Syria for decades.

A key demand of the protest movement is the abolishment of Article 8 in the Syrian constitution which states that the Baath Party is the leader of the state and society.

Lawmaker Mohammad Habash told The Associated Press on Monday that the bill still needs to be endorsed by parliament and will likely be presented for debate at the next session on August 7.

He said the bill in itself was positive but that some articles of the constitution must be amended first, including article 8.

Assad, who inherited power in 2000 after the death of his father, President Hafez Assad, has made a series of overtures to try to ease the growing outrage. He lifted the decades-old emergency laws that gave the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge, granted Syrian nationality to thousands of Kurds – a long-ostracized minority – and issued several pardons.

But the concessions failed to sap the momentum of the protest movement, which dismissed them as either symbolic or far too late.

As a first step, the protesters are demanding an immediate end to the security crackdown and the release of thousands of people who have been detained in recent months.

The government, however, has shown no signs of letting up in its efforts to crush the uprising.

On Monday, security forces tightened their siege of neighborhoods in central Syria’s city of Homs, sending military reinforcements and cutting mobile and land lines in the Khaldieh and Bayada districts, activists said.

The heavy deployment of troops and army vehicles sparked concerns of renewed military operations. An activist in Homs said there were fears of a large scale military operation to try and force an end to the unrest there before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week, during which protests are expected to gain momentum.

The activist spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said among those arrested in Homs was one of Syria’s boxing champions, 26-year-old Mahmoud Kaadi, who was picked up while training. Seven-year-old Naim Qteifan was detained three days ago in the southern town of Daraa, Qurabi also said in a statement.

The Local Coordination Committees, which monitors and helps organize anti-government protests in Syria, also reported a “massive wave of raids and arrests” in the Hajar Aswad district of Damascus.

On Sunday, Syrian troops stormed a northwestern village and made sweeping arrests in the region and in the capital Damascus.

Also Sunday, the president replaced the governor for the eastern oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour, which has seen intense protests calling for the downfall of the regime. Since the uprising began, Assad has removed several governors in tense provinces.

AP / Zeina Karam

Venezuela’s president, who hasrevealed that he has had surgery in Cuba to remove a cancerous tumour, turned one of Chomsky’s books into an overnight bestseller after brandishing it during a UN speech. He hosted Chomsky in Caracas with smiles and pomp. Earlier this year Chávez even suggested Washington make Chomsky the US ambassador to Venezuela.

The president may be about to have second thoughts about that, because his favourite intellectual has now turned his guns on Chávez.

Speaking to the Observer last week, Chomsky has accused the socialist leader of amassing too much power and of making an “assault” on Venezuela’s democracy.

“Concentration of executive power, unless it’s very temporary and for specific circumstances, such as fighting world war two, is an assault on democracy. You can debate whether [Venezuela's] circumstances require it: internal circumstances and the external threat of attack, that’s a legitimate debate. But my own judgment in that debate is that it does not.”

Chomsky, a linguistics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spoke on the eve of publishing an open letter (see below) that accuses Venezuela’s authorities of “cruelty” in the case of a jailed judge.

The self-described libertarian socialist says the plight of María Lourdes Afiuni is a “glaring exception” in a time of worldwide cries for freedom. He urges Chávez to release her in “a gesture of clemency” for the sake of justice and human rights.

Chomsky reveals he has lobbied Venezuela’s government behind the scenes since late last year after being approached by the Carr centre for human rights policy at Harvard University. Afiuni earned Chávez’s ire in December 2009 by freeing Eligio Cedeño, a prominent banker facing corruption charges. Cedeño promptly fled the country.

In a televised broadcast the president, who had taken a close interest in the case, called the judge a criminal and demanded she be jailed for 30 years. “That judge has to pay for what she has done.”

Afiuni, 47, a single mother with cancer, spent just over a year in jail, where she was assaulted by other prisoners. In January, authorities softened her confinement to house arrest pending trial for corruption, which she denies.

“Judge Afiuni has suffered enough,” states Chomsky’s letter. “She has been subject to acts of violence and humiliations to undermine her human dignity. I am convinced that she must be set free.”

Amnesty International and the European parliament, among others, have condemned the judge’s treatment but the intervention of a scholar considered a friend of the Bolivarian revolution, which is named after the hero of Venezuelan independence, Simón Bolívar, is likely to sting even more.

Speaking from his home in Boston, Chomsky said Chávez, who has been in power for 12 years, appeared to have intimidated the judicial system. “I’m sceptical that [Afiuni] could receive a fair trial. It’s striking that, as far as I understand, other judges have not come out in support of her … that suggests an atmosphere of intimidation.”

He also faulted Chávez for adopting enabling powers to circumvent the national assembly. “Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo [authoritarianism] and it has to be guarded against. Whether it’s over too far in that direction in Venezuela I’m not sure, but I think perhaps it is. A trend has developed towards the centralisation of power in the executive which I don’t think is a healthy development.”

Chomsky expressed concern over Chávez’s cancer and wished the president a full and prompt recovery.

Chomsky’s book Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance became a publishing sensation after Chávez waved a copy during a UN address in 2006 famous for his denunciation of President George W Bush as a devil.

Its author remains fiercely critical of the US, which he said had tortured Bradley Manning, alleged source of the diplomatic cables exposed by WikiLeaks, and continued to wage a “vicious, unremitting” campaign against Venezuela.

The Chávez government deserved credit for sharply reducing poverty and for its policies of promoting self-governing communities and Latin American unity, Chomsky said. “It’s hard to judge how successful they are, but if they are successful they would be seeds of a better world.”

Leonardo Vivas, co-ordinator of Latin American initiatives at the Carr Centre, said that Afiuni’s case was the most prominent example of the erosion of justice in several Latin American countries. The centre hoped that Caracas would now heed Chomsky.

“He is one of the most important public intellectuals in the US and is respected by the Venezuelan government.”

The decision to lobby publicly was taken because quiet diplomacy had limits, said Vivas.

Chávez, who is convalescing in Cuba, has a reputation for lashing back at criticism, raising the risk that the Afiuni initative could backfire.

“That could happen,” said Vivas. “But that would mean recognition of the problem.”
Chomsky’s letter
Judge María Lourdes Afiuni has suffered enough

With this public letter I want to express my open support of the liberty of judge María Lourdes Afiuni, detained in Venezuela since December 2009. In November of last year I was informed of her situation by the Latin American initiative of the Carr Centre for human rights policy at Harvard University. Ever since, I have been directly involved in mediation efforts with the Venezuelan government, with the purpose of releasing her from prison through a gesture of clemency by President Chávez.

Judge Afiuni had my sympathy and solidarity from the very beginning. The way she was detained, the inadequate conditions of her imprisonment, the degrading treatment she suffered in the Instituto Nacional de Orientación Femenina, the dramatic erosion of her health and the cruelty displayed against her, all duly documented, left me greatly worried about her physical and psychological wellbeing, as well as about her personal safety.

Those reasons motivated me in December 2010 to address, jointly with the Carr Centre, a petition for an official pardon from the president in the context of the yearly presidential amnesties.

In January I received with relief the news that Venezuela’s attorney general had suggested house arrest for judge Afiuni given her fragile health condition, which ended up with emergency surgery. Being in her house with her family and with adequate medical attention has been without doubt a significant improvement of her situation.

However, judge Afiuni has suffered enough. She has been subject to acts of violence and humiliations to undermine her human dignity. I am convinced that she must be set free, not only due to her physical and psychological health conditions, but in conformance with the human dignity the Bolivarian revolution presents as a goal. In times of worldwide cries for freedom, the detention of María Lourdes Afiuni stands out as a glaring exception that should be remedied quickly, for the sake of justice and human rights generally and for affirming an honourable role for Venezuela in these struggles.

For the above reasons I want Venezuelans to be aware of my total solidarity with judge Afiuni, while I affirm my unwavering commitment with the efforts advanced by the Carr Centre in Harvard University to release her from imprisonment. At the same time, I shall keep high hopes that President Chávez will consider a humanitarian act that will end the judge’s detention.

Guardian

In his speech, telecast by Hezbollah-owned television channel Al Manar, Nasrallah gave a clean chit to the Syrian government, which has been using military force against mass protests in the country, while at the same time criticising Bahrain for using force against protesters calling for reforms.

“The Syrian regime is the only one in the Arab world resisting Israel. Toppling this regime will mean serving the interests of the US and Israel,” Nasrallah reportedly said in his speech.

He expressed confidence in the reforms announced by Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, saying the regime was serious about its words.

On the other hand, Nasrallah said reforms in Bahrain would not work “because the government is responding to calls for reforms with life sentences.”

“Yes, Nasralllah’s image has deteriorated in the Arab world since long. He did great damage to Lebanon, and recent reports about Hezbollah spies in Egypt have further damaged his reputation,” Qatari writer and intellectual Dr Abdul Hameed Al Ansari told The Peninsula, when asked for his comments on Nasrallah’s speech.

“While all the people are supporting the Arab Spring, Nasrallah is backing the oppressive Syrian regime. He is taking a contradictory stance on Arab revolutions,” he added.

He said the argument that Syria had been resisting Israel was not true. “Syria has not fired a single bullet against Israel for many years. The Golan Heights are occupied by Israel since 1973, but Syria is not fighting to recapture this territory,” said Al Ansari.

“Many analysts believe there is mutual understanding between Syria and Israel. Israel is worried about a possible overthrow of the Syrian regime,” he noted.

He said reforms in Syria could not be implemented because President Assad was surrounded by an old guard that would resist any serious reforms.

On the other hand, the ruler of Bahrain is serious about calling for dialogue, he said. “Why didn’t the opposition accept this call for reform,” asked Al Ansari.

“We back the Shia demands for education and jobs, but they want foreign intervention in Bahrain’s internal affairs. This was the best opportunity for reforms in Bahrain,” he added.

Prominent Qatari writer Dr Mohammed Al Misfir agreed with Al Ansari.

“Hassan Nasrallah is no more a hero in the Arab world. On the one hand he is defending the people protesting in Bahrain, but on the other he is ignoring the demands of people in Syria and Iraq,” said Al Misfir.

He said Nasrallah had been celebrated in the Arab world for his war against Israel in southern Lebanon.

“Nasrallah divided the Lebanese society between the south and the north on sectarian grounds,” said Al Misfir. In Tripoli, for instance, there is a rift between Sunnis and Alawis supporting Syria.

“Nasrallah is now considered by many people as a sectarian leader, not as a revolutionary… We want him to go back to his former role as a Lebanese leader,” he added.

He said Nasrallah wanted to reward Syria for its support for Lebanon in the 1982, 2000 and 2006 wars against Israel.

“But when the Syrian regime oppresses its own people and denies them their political rights we should oppose it,” said Al Misfir.

Peninsula

The motto of the gathering will be:”Syria is for all in a civil democratic state”.

The famous Syrian writer Lou’ay Hussein who has also spent time behind bars told AFP:
“We will hold an open national independent meeting on Monday at one of the Damascus hotels for consultations on the current situation in the country and how to transition to a democratic civil state.”

Hussein stressed that none of the participants belong to any political party or grouping.

Hussein added” this is our right and we have been calling for this gathering since a long time” .

Another opposition writer Fayez Sara, who was arrested by security forces in April in Damascus and released a month later, is among the expected participants.

“Our goal is to diagnose the cause of the crisis and contribute to its resolution,” Sara said, inviting “everyone” to come join the discussion.

Syrian activists and protesters do not trust the authorities, who unleashed a fierce crackdown on the opposition movement

The protesters are calling for an end to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and for free elections.

Activists are claiming that over 1400 protesters have been killed , over 8000 have been injured and over 10000 have been detained by the security forces . On Friday security forces gunned down 20 protesters , activists said.