Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tunisian Journalists Arrested on Morality Charges

Three Tunisian Journalists Arrested

[Trois journalistes arrêtés]

On 15 February, 2012,  Tunisian authorities arrested the owner and publisher of  the newspaper Attounsia, as well as one of its editors and a reporter, for “violating public morals,” after the publishing on its front page a photo one of a sports figure with a nude woman. Here’s what the page looks like:

Real Madrid midfielder German-Tunisian Sami Khedira and his partially-nude girlfriend German model, Lena Gercke.
 
 

This is the first documented incident of journalists being arrested since the Tunisian Revolution overthrew the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali  in January 2011. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities to release them immediately.

“Really, this is laughable,” a staff member of the Arabic-language daily said. “This photo has gone around the world and yet they stand accused of violating decency,” he said. The photo was widely shared on Facebook. Originally, it appeared on the cover of  the German magazine GQ.

The journalists face up to five years in prison under article Article 121 of Tunisian penal code.
Under Article 121(3) of the Tunisian penal code, distributing or displaying information “that can harm public order or good morals.” Here’s the original Arabic text:

الجمهورية التونسية * المجلة الجزائية

الفصل 121 ثالثا (أضيف بالقانون عدد 43 لسنة 2001 المؤرخ في 3 ماي 2001 والمتعلق بتنقيح مجلة الصحافة)

يحجر توزيع المناشير والنشرات والكتابات الأجنبية المصدر أو غيرها التي من شأنها تعكير صفو النظام العام أو النيل من الأخلاق الحميدة وكذلك بيعها وعرضها على العموم ومسكها بنية ترويجها أو بيعها أو عرضها لغرض دعائي.

وكل مخالفة للتحجير المنصوص عليه بالفقرة السابقة يمكن أن يترتب عنه زيادة على الحجز في الحين عقاب بالسجن من 6 أشهر إلى خمسة أعوام وبخطية من 120 دينارا إلي 1200 دينار

————–

Last August, the magazine Tunivisions published an article featuring Tunisian supermodel Kenza Fourati clothed only in body paint that raised questions about freedom of the press and what is appropriate to show on the cover of a magazine.

Tunisian supermodel Kenza Fourati
More Images for Tunivisions Kenza Fourati

Trois journalistes arrêtés pour une couv’ osée

“Vive la Révolution!”

FOLLOW  UP,  Thursday, February 23:

Tunisian newspaper publisher arrested over nude photo released ahead of verdict

A court has released the publisher of a Tunisian newspaper accused of violating public morals by publishing a photo of a naked woman, pending a verdict in the case. Publisher Nasreddine Ben Saida was released Thursday while he awaits the verdict in the case, expected March 8.

FOLLOW  UP: 9 March 2012

Tunisian Publisher Fined Over Photo
By REUTERS

Copyright 2012 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.TUNIS (Reuters) — A Tunisian court fined a newspaper publisher $665 on Thursday for printing a photograph of a soccer player posing with his nude girlfriend, a ruling that raised concerns about a possible news media crackdown by the country’s new Islamist government.

The newspaper, Attounissia, is a tabloid created after the revolution that ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali last year. It published a photograph last month of Sami Khedira, a soccer player for Real Madrid who is Tunisian and German, dressed in a tuxedo with his hands covering the breasts of his naked girlfriend, Lena Gercke, who is a German model.

The photograph angered the country’s public prosecutor, who ordered the detention of the publisher, Nasreddine Ben Saida, as well as of two senior journalists at the newspaper. The journalists were quickly released, but Mr. Ben Saida spent eight days in jail before being released on bail during a court hearing on Feb. 24.

Mr. Ben Saida was fined on Thursday for offending public morals and taste by publishing the photograph, the official news agency TAP reported. The case has led secular Tunisians to fear that the Islamist-led government will seek increasingly to censor material it deems offensive.

 غرامة بألف دينار لمدير جريدة “التونسية”

 قضت أمس الدائرة الجناحية الثامنة بالمحكمة الإبتدائية بتونس بتخطئة مدير جريدة «التونسية» نصر الدين بن سعيدة بخطية مالية قدرها ألف دينار وإعدام المحجوز من أجل تهمة وضع وبيع نشرات وكتابات إلى العموم من شأنها النيل من الأخلاق الحميدة

 وكذلك المس من صفو النظام العام طبق أحكام الفصل 121 من المجلة الجزائية. وكان بن سعيدة أطلق سراحه بعد أن قضى ثمانية أيام في سجن ايقافه وذلك على خلفية نشر»صورة فاضحة» للاعب الكرة القدم الألماني من أصل تونسي سامي بن خذيرة البالغ من العمر 24 سنة صحبة عارضة الأزياء الألمانية لينا جارك البالغة من العمر 23 عاما بصحيفة «التونسية».

Libya declares liberty with Gaddafi dead & Gaddafi’s ‘Last Will’ [al wasiyyah]

LA 2011-10-25T104933Z_01_SJS01_RTRMDNP_3_LIBYA.JPG

[Gaddafi’s Death Certificate, issued in Misurata]

‘Sic transit gloria mundi’

BENGHAZI, Libya, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Libya’s new rulers declared the country freed from Muammar Gaddafi’s 42 years of one-man rule, saying the “Pharaoh of the times” was in history’s garbage bin and a future of democracy and reconciliation beckoned… [Graphic!]

washpliby

gaddNyt

gaddShur

Gaddafi’s ‘Last Will’

Three days after his death, a website published Sunday, October 23, what it said the last will written by slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

English transcript of Gaddafi’s last will as published by the BBC.

“This is my will. I, Muammar bin Mohammad bin Abdussalam bi Humayd bin Abu Manyar bin Humayd bin Nayil al Fuhsi Gaddafi, do swear that there is no other God but Allah and that Mohammad is God’s Prophet, peace be upon him. I pledge that I will die as Muslim.

Should I be killed, I would like to be buried, according to Muslim rituals, in the clothes I was wearing at the time of my death and my body unwashed, in the cemetery of Sirte, next to my family and relatives.

I would like that my family, especially women and children, be treated well after my death. The Libyan people should protect its identity, achievements, history and the honorable image of its ancestors and heroes. The Libyan people should not relinquish the sacrifices of the free and best people.

I call on my supporters to continue the resistance, and fight any foreign aggressor against Libya, today, tomorrow and always.

Let the free people of the world know that we could have bargained over and sold out our cause in return for a personal secure and stable life. We received many offers to this effect but we chose to be at the vanguard of the confrontation as a badge of duty and honor.

Even if we do not win immediately, we will give a lesson to future generations that choosing to protect the nation is an honor and selling it out is the greatest betrayal that history will remember forever despite the attempts of the others to tell you otherwise.”

Gaddafi’s ‘Last Will’ in Arabic

الوصية

أوصى العقيد الليبي الراحل معمر القذافي في وصية نسبت إليه بدفن جثمانه في مقبرة سرت بجوار عائلته، كما حث على استمرار المقاومة من بعده

وقال موقع « سيفن دايز نيوز » الإخباري، الموالي للقذافي في صفحته على موقع التواصل الاجتماعي « الفيسبوك »، إنه انفرد بوصية القذافي التي كتبها بتاريخ 17 أكتوبر/تشرين الأول في آخر أيامه في سرت احتياطا لمقتله وسلمها لثلاثة أشخاص توفي أحدهم ووقع آخر في الأسر ونجا الثالث.

:وجاء في نص الوصية

» كل نفس ذائقة الموت وإنما توفون أجوركم يوم القيامة »

هذه وصيتي أنا معمر بن محمد بن عبد السلام بن حُميد بن أبو منيار بن حُميد بن نايل القُحصي القذافي.

أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأن محمدا رسول الله عليه الصلاة والسلام وأموت على .عقيدة أهل السنة والجماعة

:وأوصي بما يأتي

أن لا أُغسّل، وأن أدفن وفق تعاليم الشريعة الإسلامية وفي ثيابي التي أموت فيها.

أن أُدفن في مقبرة سرت إلى جوار قومي وأهلي.

أن تُعامل عائلتي وخاصة نساءها وأطفالها معاملة حسنة.

أن يحافظ الشعب الليبي على هويته وعلى منجزاته وتاريخه وصورة أجداده وأبطاله المشرفة وأن لا يسلّم في تضحيات أحراره وأخياره.

أن تستمر مقاومة أي عدوان أجنبي تتعرض له الجماهيرية الآن أو غدا وعلى الدوام.

أن يثق الأحرار في الجماهيرية والعالم أننا كنا نستطيع المتاجرة بقضيتنا والحصول على حياة شخصية آمنة ومستقرة وجاءتنا عروش كثيرة، ولكننا اخترنا أن نكون في المواجهة واجبا وشرفا، وحتى إذا لم ننتصر عاجلا فإننا سنعطي درسا تنتصر به الأجيال التي ستأتي، لأن اختيار الوطن هو البطولة وبيع الوطن هو الخيانة التي لن يستطيع التاريخ أن يكتب غيرها مهما حاولوا تزويره.

أن يبلّغ سلامي إلى عائلتي فردا فردا وإلى أوفياء الجماهيرية وإلى كل أوفياء العالم الذين ساندونا ولو بقلوبهم

والسلام عليكم جميعا

معمر بن محمد القذافي

سرت الوفاء الاثنين 17 التمور 2011 مسيحي

_______________________________________

*

gadTelegaddQudsبعد لحظات من إعلان مقتل القذافي انهى المطرب الشعبي شعبان عبد الرحيم تسجيل أغنية جديدة عن مقتل الزعيم الليبي معمر القذافي، من كلمات والحان إسلام خليل، توزيع سيد شعبان وتقول كلماتها

:

لا الشماتة من طبعي .. ولا حتى من أهدافيأهي

لفّت الأيام .. وجات على القذافي

واخدينا بيع وشرا .. مفيش رحمة في قلوب

ده آخرة اللي افترى .. واللعب بالشعوب

مبروك على شعب ليبيا .. حمد لله على السلامة

لكن خدوا بالكو برضه .. من الخطة بتاع أوباما

الغرب عينه على النفط .. وعنيه في كل بير

مش حرية وعدالة .. دول ناس ملهاش كبير

بعد العراق ما وقعت .. الدور على السودان

عايزين الكل يضعف .. عشان يفضوا لإيران

 

**********************************

Farewell Poem by Gaddafi

(Shortly  before his death Gaddafi wrote a poem saying goodby to Libya and accusing the Arabs …) –Updated Dec. 2012

في قصيدة نظمها قبيل مقتله: القذافي يودع ليبيا… ويتّهم العرب

الخميس 13 ديسمبر 2012 الساعة 09:53:27 بتوقيت تونس العاصمة

طرابلس ـ (وكالات)

تنتشر بين الشباب الليبي  قصيدة يعتقد انها من نظم العقيد الراحل معمر القذافي، وانه قد نظمها  قبل يومين من مقتلة في مسقط رأسه في مدينة سرت الليبية وقدم العقيد الراحل ما اعتبر تحية الوداع لبلاده. وقال موقع «السوسنة» على الانترنت ان القصيدة انتشرت بشكل كبير عبر الهواتف النقالة والرسائل النصية وصفحات التواصل الاجتماعي واعتبرت اكثر العبارات استعمالا في ليبيا.

 

وبدأ مواطنون ليبيون  بنشر جزء من القصيدة على بعض المباني الحكومية والطرقات العامة  في العاصمة الليبية طرابلس ، وفي ما يلي جزء من القصيدة.

 

 هيا بالسلامة يا بلادي تهني ….. توا تعمري كانه خرابك مني
 هيا بالسلامة وروقي …… عليك بالنفس انبدل معاه بشوقي…
 ومدام باعوني اقراب اعروقي ….. وفيهم اقراب الدم خايب ظني…
 عطيت حقكم ياشعب وين احقوقي …… وياريت واحد من العرب طمني…
 هيا بالسلامة يا بلاد تهني …… توا تعمري كانه خرابك مني …

 

ويذكر أن  نظام القذافي سقط بفعل ثورة السابع عشر من فيفري وبمساعدة كبيرة من حلف الناتو الذي قتل القذافي بطريقة غير مباشرة يوم الخميس 20 أكتوبر 2011 عندما قصف رتل سيارات القذافي بمدينة سرت بواسطة طائرة «بريديتور» أمريكية بدون طيار وطائرة «الميراج» الفرنسية مما مكن قوات الثوار من الإمساك بالقذافي وكان قد بلغ من العمر 69 عاما وقتل بالرصاص ومثلت بجثته ودفن هو ورفاقه في مكان مجهول وفق ما نشره موقع «السوسنة» على الانترنت.


Tunisian Elections, 2011

tunivote

TUNIS (AFP) – Tunisians queued in their hundreds to vote in their first free elections on Sunday, basking in their status as democratic trail-blazers nine months after their revolution sparked the Arab Spring. “The turnout of Tunisians exceeded all expectations,” elections chief Kamel Jendoubi told journalists five hours into voting, adding the final rate “may exceed 60 percent”… The European Union hailed Tunisia’s elections and vowed support for the new authorities, while British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “As the first country in the region to put democracy to the test at the polling booth, Tunisia is once again leading the way.”…

Tunisian Elections – Live Updates – Tunisia Live

elecLPrelecLTelecSabaelecTHelecSAHElecnyt

linei9

Tunisia’s Elections for A Constitutional Assembly

The campaign for the first elections born of the revolts that swept the Middle East began in Tunisia on Saturday, 1 October. It features 81 political parties (out of more than 115 recognized parties) which will be competing in the election to make up 785 electoral lists; another 676 lists are composed of independent candidates. They’re competing for 217 seats. It is expected that those elected will then have a year to write a constitution to dictate how Tunisians will govern themselves before elections for a parliament will be held.

Voters Online Guides  (about Candidates and Parties)

votunis

TuniVoteAims to Help Voters Understand Parties, Tunisia’s best fixers” A new interactive platform for voters to better know the political parties running for the elections. The web site is designed to address the questions of whom to vote for, why, and how to tell the difference between Tunisia’s numerous political parties.

Elections 2011 Ajidoo.com

nshuf

Nchoof.org | عينك على بلادك

Nchoof.org, launched on Sunday (October 2nd), enables Tunisians to present their complaints of malpractice during the electoral campaign and vote counting. The Citizenship Alliance for Elections Monitoring, which comprises associations “My Voice”, “Political Awareness” and Internet Society Tunisie (ISOC), developed the initiative.

ikhtiyo_enIkhtiarTounes New Tool for Undecided Voters

****

flag39_vignette

“… To the shores of Tripoli”

America’s Military Connection to Libya and Tripoli’s Link to the US Marines’ Hymn

American_and_lib_4dfcadc89a2ed_90x90

Two Hundred years ago the newly independent U.S.A. won a military victory in Libya that inspired the famous words from Francis Scott Key:

THE MARINES’ HYMN

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land and sea.

United States relations with what is now Libya have a complex history going back to America’s first decades. Although two other North African states, Morocco and Tunisia, were among the first countries in the world to recognize the USA diplomatically, the new nation soon fought the Barbary Wars in the Mediterranean over attacks on its ships by pirates from Tripoli—the origin of the “shores of Tripoli” reference in the Marines’ Hymn.

Why the Corps were on the shores of Tripoli

President Thomas Jefferson became the first US president to bypass Congress and take the nation to war in 1801. It was the First Barbary War of 1801-1805. It was also a war of many firsts: the first foreign war fought by the US after the American Revolution,  the first time an American soldier shed blood on foreign soil, the first time the US Marines saw battle, and the first time the Stars and Stripes were raised over foreign soil after a military victory. It was also the first attempt by the US to overthrow a foreign ruler and install an American-friendly government – an attempt which ended in compromise, not in victory. The mission was embarrassingly abandoned yet oddly commemorated by the Marines who never actually made it to the shores of Tripoli.

The Barbary Wars


125px-Flag_of_the_Ottoman_Empire_(1453-1844).svgولايت طرابلس غرب =Vilâyet-i Trâblus Gârp = Flag of the Ottoman Empire -Tripoli

The “Barbary” states are actually the North African states of today’s Algeria, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia that were nominally governed by the Ottoman Empire. The Barbary Wars originated from the Barbary Coast pirates’ attacks on ships and crews along the North Coast of Africa. Since the 13th century, Barbary Coast pirates had attacked European ships in the Mediterranean, freeing crews and cargoes only after receiving ransom payments. For a higher price, the pirate states would agree to abstain from taking ships or hostages in the first place. During the 2nd half of the 18th century and before the Treaty of Paris, which granted America’s independence from Great Britain, American shipping was protected by France. Shortly after independence, more than one-fifth of U.S. trade then was with Mediterranean countries. And without the protection of the British and the French navies (then fighting each other elsewhere), American shipping began to fall prey to the pirates around 1784, sometimes at a cost of 20% of the US budget. The need to protect American shipping was a major factor in drafting a new and stronger US Constitution. James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers of “the rapacious demands of pirates and barbarians,” that should be a good reason for American states to unite into a strong central government.

USS_Philly_1799-250px

USS Philly 1799

Thomas Jefferson preferred “confrontation with Barbary to blackmail.” US naval squadrons began to appear off the North African coasts to demand  liberation of hostages as well as free trade and free passage. In October 1803, Tripoli’s fleet captured the flagship USS Philadelphia intact after the frigate ran aground on a reef while patrolling Tripoli harbor. The ruler of Tripoli,  Yusuf Karamanli, imprisoned the entire 307-man crew of the 36-gun frigate and aimed its cannon at the rest of the U.S. fleet. In February 1804 U.S. Marines stormed the vessel and set fire to Philadelphia.

220px-Burning_of_the_uss_philadelphia

The burning frigate Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 1804, by Edward Moran, painted 1897.

In 1805, William Eaton, the former US Consul in Tunis, organized a land attack on Libya. He lead nine Marines and 400 mercenaries on a two-month march of 500 miles from Egypt to Darnah, then Libya’s second-largest city. U.S. Navy ships also  bombarded the town where more than 800 people were killed. Marines then raised the 15-star U.S. flag over Darnah’s harbor fortress. A month later, Karamanli signed a new treaty and released the captain and crew of the Philadelphia (in exchange for $60,000). The American victory in Libya (though not in the city of Tripoli proper) was a historic event which established the US new military prowess. It would be enshrined in the Marine Corps Hymn, written in celebration of William Eaton’s victory of 1805:

Francis Scott Key’s new poem, “When the Warrior Returns,” was about the battle in Darnah, Libya. In it was a phrase that he would use nine years later while watching the British attack Fort McHenry:

And pale beamed the Crescent, its splendor obscured

By the light of the Star Spangled flag of our nation.

Where each radiant star gleamed a meteor of war,

And the turbaned heads bowed to its terrible glare.


handar4Translation into Arabic of the the Marines Hymn:

من قاعات مونتيزوما

إلى شواطئ طرابلس ؛

نحارب معارك بلادنا

والحفاظ على شرفنا النظيف ؛

في الهواء ، في البر والبحر ؛

الأولى للكفاح من أجل الحق والحرية

والحفاظ على شرفنا النظيف ؛

نحن فخورون للفوز بلقب

البحرية الولايات المتحدة

[MORE]——


22px-US_flag_15_stars.svg

Remains of sailors from the USS Intrepid are buried at a cemetery overlooking the harbor in Tripoli. Some may be at a site nearby.


Remains of sailors from the USS Intrepid are buried at a cemetery overlooking the harbor in Tripoli. Some may be at a site nearby. (Courtesy U.S. State Department) A bipartisan group of senators is pressing to repatriate the remains of 13 American sailors who died two centuries ago fighting pirates off the Libyan coast.

The sailors’ remains have been buried near the shores of Tripoli for 207 years after the sailors died in a failed mission against Barbary pirates.

In recent years, a small group of descendants has been seeking to bring them back to the United States. That effort appeared to gain momentum last spring, when the House backed a measure that would force the Defense Department to repatriate the remains. But the measure stalled in the Senate.

This week, a group of key senators wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees, urging them to include a repatriation provision in the defense authorization bill that’s in conference committee. Although the cemetery was recently restored, the senators said, it remains in jeopardy because of concerns about U.S.-Libyan diplomacy..

“Today, the future of our relations with Libya is uncertain,” the senators wrote. “For this reason, the restoration and preservation of the American Cemetery and its graves for the Navy’s sailors are … problematic.”

The Navy, however, opposes bringing the remains back to American soil, saying it considers Libya to be the sailors’ “final resting place.” Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, has asked the Navy and other defense officials for more information about their views on the issue. The Navy has said it has concerns about the ability to identify the remains.

In their letter, the senators backing the measure said there was no comparison between the physical state of the cemetery in Tripoli and other overseas locations where U.S. troops are buried, and that, as a result, they supported the effort to “exhume, identify and to repatriate.”

An assessment from the Congressional Budget Office found that repatriating the remains would cost $85,000 to $100,000, according to the letter.

The letter was signed by Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Jim Webb (D-Va.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).