Egypt’s most powerful military man, Field Marshall Mohammed Tantawi (on the right with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2002) has exchanged his allies in Washington  for allies in the Muslim Brotherhood.

The difference between democracy and liberalism is on display in the new Egypt.

Yaemine el Rashidi, writing in the New York Review of Books, is pessimistic, saying an alliance of of Islamists and military men is prevailing at the expense of pluralism.

Since its rise to power, the ruling military council, headed by Mubarak’s close friend Field Marshal Tantawi, has increasingly been criticized for its biased and repressive handling of the country’s affairs. Youth protesters and bloggers have been prosecuted and given jail sentences of several years; yet Tantawi’s regime has repeatedly stalled trials for corrupt government officials, who are sent to civilian courts with private lawyers or released on bail. The trial of Mubarak, and his transfer to Tora Prison where his sons are, have consistently been postponed, allegedly due to his fluctuating health. Few believe the trial—now set for August 3—or the transfer will happen.

Bobby Ghosh of Time is less negative, describing the ascendant Muslim Brotherhood as “Egypt’s best democrats”

The Brotherhood, meanwhile, is sitting pretty. It has offered to form a broad coalition with liberals and leftists in the elections, and promises that there will be no attempt to hijack the constitutional reform process afterward. “The new constitution has to be written by all Egyptians,” says Essam Erian, a top Brotherhood leader. “No one group should have a louder voice than the others.” This makes the Islamists look responsible and conciliatory, and is likely to play well with voters.”

Its hard not suspect the gender of the analyst plays a role in these differing liberal perspectives. Egypt’s new democracy may be a good thing, but it may be better for men than for women.

Now Ayatollah Khatami, Iran’s Supreme Leader for Life, wants to embrace Tunisia and Egypt’s revolution, saying the unrest is a replay of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

“I herewith proclaim to those (Western leaders) who still do not want to see the realities that the political axis of the new Middle East will soon be Islamic rulership and a democracy based on religion,” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said.

Khatami, a religious autocrat, want to claim the legitimacy of the Egyptian uprising without accomodating modern secular democratic movements in his own country. Its no surprise that Tunisa and Egypt’s opposition movement do not not take Iran as their model.

Why do you think  that Fars, a government controlled news agency , carries not a single story about Egypt right now?

Now why would Pakistan, an ostensible U.S. ally on the proverbial “war on terror,” provide health care for the one-eyed Taliban leader who is wanted for acts of terrorism?

The report, says Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, has “no basis whatsoever.”  Haqqani, a career diplomat and a democrat, is a credible man, perhaps more credible than the original source of the story, an organization called the Eclipse Group.

This is a shadowy consulting business run by Dewey Clarridge, a career CIA official whose loyalty to democratic norms has been questioned. Clarridge served as director of the CIA’s Latin American division of the CIA in the 1980s. In the 1980s, Clarridge was part of a CIA network that sought to evade congressional restrictions that forbade the CIA from waging covert war against the government of Nicaragua. Since then, he has toiled in the gray zone between public service and private enterprise. So let’s be clear on the dueling sources. Back then, Dewey Clarridge sought to evade the rule of law. Today, Husain Haqqani seeks to respect it.

On the other hand, Haqqani may not know what his own government is doing. There is no dispute that Pakistani intelligence service–our ally in defending the country’s nuclear arsenal–cultivates and funds its owns allies in the vastness of Afghanistan–including sworn and lethal enemies of United States.

Pakistani intelligence officials live and breathe the reality that the American public and the U.S. Congress have not quite grasped. The U.S. military–like every other Western expeditionary force in the region since Alexander the Great–will eventually leave Afghanistan. And when they do, Pakistan will still be there.

So: Nothing would be less surprising than Pakistan helping Mullah Omar in his hour of need.

1. There is a general public perception here that Ghailani was a key player in the planning and execution of the bombings. The mood is thus they expected that he would be deserved a more drastic punishment that what came out. As such, no one including human rights campaigners were celebrating or issuing statements.

2. There is also the matter to do with the Islamic faith. Both Muslims and Christians here would not be willing to comment openly for fear that they will be projecting the feelings, jubilations or otherwise on basis of their faith. It is a hands-off affair so to speak even if there was a case for any of the faith based organisations to come out and say something.

3. The media too has not been closely following up with the hearing of the case in the US since his arrest, detaining at Guantanamo bay and even when he was moved to the civilian courts. Only the landmark developments like last week’s indictment got to be recorded.

• Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is losing popularity at home and abroad.
• Even before their disputed elections last year, both Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were generally unpopular.  Ahmadinejad’s highest ratings are in the Palestinian territories (45% confidence) and Indonesia (43%), although even among these publics fewer than half express a positive view of his leadership.
• There is no country in which even 40% express confidence in Karzai. In Pakistan (10%), Turkey (7%) and Lebanon (7%) one-in-ten or fewer hold this view of Washington’s favorite Afghan.
• And there’s a couple of pockets of support for Osama.
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