Global Voices Online

Iraqi blogger Omar gives us an overview of the political situation in Iraq. He admits that it is a rough time but insists that he will not panic. “The political process in Iraq has reached another very critical and important stage. This is the time that will decide if Iraq will emerge as a country that can sustain itself and where groups of people-while have many differences-can share this nation and coexist peacefully.
There's no doubt that this is going to be a difficult journey until key requirements to reconciliation, especially the oil distribution law and the Justice and Accountability law (which will replace the debaathification law) see the light. Many concessions will have to be made by every one of the major constituents of this country before the final compromise is reached,” he notes.

Iraqi blogger Lady Bird links to a newspaper article which claims that there are 14,000 Iraqi prisoners held in her country - making it a new Guantanamo, which no one knows about.

Lebanese blogger Anton Efendi sheds light on the role Syria is playing in Iraq.
“Reality is that Syria has zero assets inside Iraq. It has no influence over any Iraqi political group (here's a test, to contrast with Iran: name a single Iraqi politician that can be said to be “Syria's guy.” Exactly.). This is why they tried to create a seat for themselves at the table by hosting a sham Baath party conference in Syria, where certain marginal Iraqi Baathi figures were co-opted. The result was that the Iraqi Baath party disowned them and attacked the Syrians for trying to create a splinter leadership,” he notes.

Blogger Dan Fleshler reports that IDF soldiers have received orders to prevent Palestinians from accessing the Dead Sea. “This is the kind of story that feeds into the increasingly popular tendency to equate Israel with South Africa under apartheid. I don’t buy into this equation…yet. There are a number of good arguments that show the differences,” he argues.

An exhibition of photographs of Arab women leaves Lebanese blogger Leila Abu-Saba scratching her head. “I do scratch my head, however, at the breathless description of the purpose of the show. See Arab women cross-dressing! Unveiled! Scantily clad! Those poor Arab women, they used to be liberated and now they're all veiled and oppressed! Look at these pictures, they are so surprising! Arab women aren't all just hiding under burqas! They have intense, modern cultural interests that have been documented for the last hundred years - what a shock!” she rants.

Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah reports about mass protests to end Israeli occupation, planned on June 9th and 10th in Washington, DC.

Debito comments on a New York Times article describing the case of 13 men and women “acquitted this year in a local district court, which found that their confessions had been entirely fabricated“. Debito notes that “The Japanese authorities have long relied on confessions to take suspects to court, instead of building cases based on solid evidence. Human rights groups have criticized the practice for leading to abuses of due process and convictions of innocent people.”

Syrian blogger Wassim charges that Al Hurra is an American propaganda channel. “A lecturer of mine invited me to a talk that was being held by Al Hurra in London (a channel I despise) called the ‘Arab Europeans'. I will review it later and also about what I plucked up the courage to blurt on camera :)
Now I have a strong desire to go wash myself, I feel unclean..” he writes.

The blogger at Morir Antes Que Esclavos Vivir [ES] is bewildered that the case is closed in the investigation of the murder of Cristian Urresti, the 17-year old Cochabamba resident killed in the civil unrest of January 2007. Even though there are supposed amateur video and eyewitnesses of the death, the police deemed that there was insufficient evidence.