"“Freedom” Scholar Michael Ledeen’s African Friend" by Ken Silverstein (Harper's Magazine): "A majority of people in the Republic of Congo get by on less than $1 a day, but money is no object for Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso, the 24-year-old son of the country’s long-time ruler. The London-based group Global Witness has recently posted credit card bills racked up by Sassou-Nguesso, the head of the state oil company’s marketing arm, that show he has racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in a global shopping spree. That includes stops in Paris (where he shopped at Louis Vuitton and stayed at the Bristol Hotel to Dubai (where he shopped at Rodeo Drive). "
Broken Spring? : Information Clearing House This is a sequel to my June 2011 article, ‘After the spring’, on the upheavals in the Arab world. It is an article that has been painful to write, because it brings bad tidings and offers a pessimistic analysis of the upheavals, at least in the short term, in a number of Arab countries. The outcomes and potential outcomes of these uprisings have also acquired new, very significant dimensions. These include a complex entanglement with the accelerated preparations for a possible attack on Iran, and a poisonous, sectarian aspect that could have the consequence of ripping Syria and the Middle East apart.
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