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| Salameh Nematt |
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Salameh Nemat is a Jordanian journalist and writer. He is currently Al-Hayat Newspaper’s Bureau Chief in Washington DC.
Nemat was born in 1962 in Amman, Jordan. He studied Business Administration at the Jordanian University and graduated in 1982.
He started working as a journalist in 1983 at the English language newspaper, The Jordan Times. In 1985 he was granted a six-month Alfred Friendly training scholarship from the National Press Foundation.
In 1988, he worked as a reporter for the BBC and Al-Hayat, as well as for the German news agency, DPA.
He covered the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the second Gulf War in 1991, and the Madrid Peace Conference that same year. He specialized in Foreign Affairs and relations between Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
He was instrumental in unveiling the scandal of Jordanian officials and members of parliament accepting bribes from Saddam Hussein’s regime, one of his most outstanding journalistic achievements. He was consequently imprisoned for three days until King Hussein ordered his release.
He was a pioneer in Jordanian journalism, taking advantage of the freedoms available to foreign language newspapers to write and stir debate about political reform.
When King Abdullah II took office promising to introduce political reforms, Nemat wrote about the disparity between the Jordanian regime's slogans and reality.
In 1999, he moved to London to work as a diplomatic editor for Al-Hayat, and specialized in writing about foreign affairs. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed by the Jordanian Royal Diwan as the director of the strategic unit that had been established to advise King Abdullah on political reform issues.
“I was in charge of proposing specific reform policies” says Nemat, “but I faced fierce resistance from the Old Guard and the Conservative current of the regime including the Jordanian Intelligence chief and the Prime Minister, as well as some members of the royal family. At a certain point, the Prime Minister threatened to resign if I was to keep my job”.
Consequently, Nemat submitted his resignation to King Abdullah, who offered him alternative posts. Nemat went back to Al-Hayat where he continued writing about the disparities created by the regime. This led to tensions between Nemat and the Old Guard, which was loyal to Saddam Hussein. Nemat was advised to leave Jordan in 1991.
Later, he worked as the Al-Hayat-LBC newsroom Director. But, as Nemat stated: “due to my liberal ideas, I collided with the project sponsors, and because of Syrian pressures on Lebanese media, I couldn't apply the media strategy I had adopted. I was forced to leave the job and moved to Washington DC as Al-Hayat-LBC Bureau chief in 2003”.
“My liberal ideas,” Nemat continued, “similar in certain aspects to those of the New Conservatives, had caused me trouble with Al-Hayat-LBC as well as with a number of Arab governments. I was accused in the Arab World of becoming a Neo-Con. I have been writing about democracy for 20 years and it isn’t my fault if the Neo-Cons have gone the same way”.
Nemat stresses that he never encourages the use of military force to expand democracy. Rather he advocates political and economic pressure on Arab countries to force them to take the path of reform.
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Salameh Nematt
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Salameh Nemat is a Jordanian journalist and writer. He is currently Al-Hayat Newspaper’s Bureau Chief in Washington DC.
Nemat was born in 1962 in Amman, Jordan. He studied Business Administration at the Jordanian University and graduated in 1982.
He started working as a journalist in 1983 at the English language newspaper, The Jordan Times. In 1985 he was granted a six-month Alfred Friendly training scholarship from the National Press Foundation.
In 1988, he worked as a reporter for the BBC and Al-Hayat, as well as for the German news agency, DPA.
He covered the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the second Gulf War in 1991, and the Madrid Peace Conference that same year. He specialized in Foreign Affairs and relations between Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
He was instrumental in unveiling the scandal of Jordanian officials and members of parliament accepting bribes from Saddam Hussein’s regime, one of his most outstanding journalistic achievements. He was consequently imprisoned for three days until King Hussein ordered his release.
He was a pioneer in Jordanian journalism, taking advantage of the freedoms available to foreign language newspapers to write and stir debate about political reform.
When King Abdullah II took office promising to introduce political reforms, Nemat wrote about the disparity between the Jordanian regime's slogans and reality.
In 1999, he moved to London to work as a diplomatic editor for Al-Hayat, and specialized in writing about foreign affairs. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed by the Jordanian Royal Diwan as the director of the strategic unit that had been established to advise King Abdullah on political reform issues.
“I was in charge of proposing specific reform policies” says Nemat, “but I faced fierce resistance from the Old Guard and the Conservative current of the regime including the Jordanian Intelligence chief and the Prime Minister, as well as some members of the royal family. At a certain point, the Prime Minister threatened to resign if I was to keep my job”.
Consequently, Nemat submitted his resignation to King Abdullah, who offered him alternative posts. Nemat went back to Al-Hayat where he continued writing about the disparities created by the regime. This led to tensions between Nemat and the Old Guard, which was loyal to Saddam Hussein. Nemat was advised to leave Jordan in 1991.
Later, he worked as the Al-Hayat-LBC newsroom Director. But, as Nemat stated: “due to my liberal ideas, I collided with the project sponsors, and because of Syrian pressures on Lebanese media, I couldn't apply the media strategy I had adopted. I was forced to leave the job and moved to Washington DC as Al-Hayat-LBC Bureau chief in 2003”.
“My liberal ideas,” Nemat continued, “similar in certain aspects to those of the New Conservatives, had caused me trouble with Al-Hayat-LBC as well as with a number of Arab governments. I was accused in the Arab World of becoming a Neo-Con. I have been writing about democracy for 20 years and it isn’t my fault if the Neo-Cons have gone the same way”.
Nemat stresses that he never encourages the use of military force to expand democracy. Rather he advocates political and economic pressure on Arab countries to force them to take the path of reform.
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| U.S. Will 'Respond Firmly' as Iran Seeks Greater Role in Iraq |
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PBS,
(01/27/2007)
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President Bush said Monday that the United States would "respond firmly" to Iran's intentions to expand its economic and military ties with Iraq, as outlined by Iran's ambassador to Baghdad. Analysts discuss the possible outcomes.
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(2007/01/27)
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(2006/04/12)
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| Recovering The Cradle Of Civilization |
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Haaretz,
(12/26/2006)
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But in today's world, the Middle East is better known for being the world's biggest source of political upheaval and violence, that has not only plagued the region's people but is now threatening global security. The term "terrorism," which is yet to gain a globally accepted definition, has become a common term associated with developments in the Middle East, and, more ominously, linked to people originating from that mainly Muslim part of the world.
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Haaretz,
(2006/12/26)
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| Freedom for Peace |
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bitterlemons,
(10/07/2003)
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If the events of the last three years in the Middle East served to prove anything, it is the ineffectiveness, if not dismal failure, of Arab diplomacy in regional politics. The two major crises that hit the region in Israel/Palestine and in Iraq were allowed to escalate dramatically - one leading to a vicious cycle of violence and the other to a full-scale war - with Arab states doing little more than admonishing the parties in conflict to avoid violence and resort to negotiations.
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bitterlemons,
(2003/10/07)
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If the events of the last three years in the Middle East served to prove anything, it is the ineffectiveness, if not dismal failure, of Arab diplomacy in regional politics. The two major crises that hit the region in Israel/Palestine and in Iraq were allowed to escalate dramatically - one leading to a vicious cycle of violence and the other to a full-scale war - with Arab states doing little more than admonishing the parties in conflict to avoid violence and resort to negotiations.
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| America and Its Allies Must Do the Right Thing |
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Chronwatch ,
(06/24/2004)
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The brutal murder of Paul Marshall Johnson was not the first such act of terrorism targeting innocent civilians, and it is not likely to be the last. The murderers of Johnson in Riyadh and Nicholas Berg in Baghdad, just like the murderers of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, are part of a global campaign of terror that has been long in the making, way before 9/11 and the wars to liberate Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Chronwatch ,
(2004/06/24)
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The brutal murder of Paul Marshall Johnson was not the first such act of terrorism targeting innocent civilians, and it is not likely to be the last. The murderers of Johnson in Riyadh and Nicholas Berg in Baghdad, just like the murderers of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, are part of a global campaign of terror that has been long in the making, way before 9/11 and the wars to liberate Afghanistan and Iraq.
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| Salameh Nematt Interviews Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage |
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Al Hayat,
(10/25/2004)
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MR. NEMATT: So we've had elections in Afghanistan. Are we going to have them in Iraq?
DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Yes. This was one of the subjects that I spoke about with the Deputy President today. He expressed his view that we should have these by the end of January and be all-inclusive, which is exactly our view as well.
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Al Hayat,
(2004/10/25)
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MR. NEMATT: So we've had elections in Afghanistan. Are we going to have them in Iraq?
DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Yes. This was one of the subjects that I spoke about with the Deputy President today. He expressed his view that we should have these by the end of January and be all-inclusive, which is exactly our view as well.
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| The Last Word: an Assault on Hypocrisy |
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Newsweek International,
(12/13/2004)
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The first democracies we're going to have in the region—potentially—are the ones that were forced upon the regimes in those countries.
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Newsweek International,
(2004/12/13)
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The first democracies we're going to have in the region—potentially—are the ones that were forced upon the regimes in those countries.
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| Democratic Occupation and Occupied Democracies |
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Al Hayat ,
(02/13/2005)
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It seems that terrorism in Iraq blew up in the face of its perpetrators. Instead of achieving the objective of impeding the Iraqi elections and encumbering the process of the inauguration of the majority in their respective positions according to the ethos of democracy, it meted out damages to the side these terrorists claim to defend and their acquired, yet wasted rights, with the collapse of the mass grave regime.
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Al Hayat ,
(2005/02/13)
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It seems that terrorism in Iraq blew up in the face of its perpetrators. Instead of achieving the objective of impeding the Iraqi elections and encumbering the process of the inauguration of the majority in their respective positions according to the ethos of democracy, it meted out damages to the side these terrorists claim to defend and their acquired, yet wasted rights, with the collapse of the mass grave regime.
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| The Arab Stockholm Syndrome |
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Al Hayat ,
(04/28/2005)
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Quite interesting is the discretion of some Arab countries not to provoke Syria's feelings toward its withdrawal from Lebanon. Quite interesting is this cautiousness in comforting Damascus regarding the continuity of its strategic interests in Lebanon following the withdrawal. As if logic calls for compensating Syria for the damages that have resulted from the termination of its domination over the little sister. As if those people prioritize the Syrian interests over the Lebanese ones and wish that Syria hadn't extended Emile Lahoud's term in office…and that Hariri was not killed…otherwise the situation would have remained as it was.
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Al Hayat ,
(2005/04/28)
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Quite interesting is the discretion of some Arab countries not to provoke Syria's feelings toward its withdrawal from Lebanon. Quite interesting is this cautiousness in comforting Damascus regarding the continuity of its strategic interests in Lebanon following the withdrawal. As if logic calls for compensating Syria for the damages that have resulted from the termination of its domination over the little sister. As if those people prioritize the Syrian interests over the Lebanese ones and wish that Syria hadn't extended Emile Lahoud's term in office…and that Hariri was not killed…otherwise the situation would have remained as it was.
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| The Arab System and American Gullibility |
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Al-Hayat,
(12/23/2004)
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If it is yet undiscovered by Washington, it is bound to be revealed sooner or later: In Iraq, America is not only fighting insurgents remaining from the ousted Baathist regime and some "lunatic" volunteers who supported it, but is also fighting a regional system, which survived passing decades resisting change regardless of its source, goals, and tools.
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Al-Hayat,
(2004/12/23)
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