______________ *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** This is a big deal - MSNBC in Arabic. The potential for Americans/the West and the Arab/Moslem world to communicate online is tremendous yet extremely limited in actual application. One of the places I always check for "from the source" information is local e-mail lists (often in English) tied to countries of interest. For example: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afghaniyat/messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/messages (Bangladesh) (Amazing ... note an e-mail on Oct 11 from a Bangladeshi in Minneapolis about his letter to the editor in the Winona Daily News.) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inin/messages (Islamic News Info Net) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pakgovnetwork/messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pakistan-zindabad/messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pakistanforum/messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uzbek-news http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=talk.politics.mideast http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=soc.culture.israel http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=soc.culture.palestine http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=soc.culture (more places) More lists at bottom: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Collections/NearEast/islam.html The question in my mind, particularly with select e-mail lists - does the U.S. government actively monitor these forums and see them as places to actively or covertly disseminate information. Late on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12 I visited a number of these lists and noted the disconnect between and these other forums. I think it would be a terrible mistake to not take key e-mail forums seriously when trying to monitor, gauge, and influence opinion within Middle Eastern countries and among their citizens of their diaspora. Steven Clift Democracies Online http://www.e-democracy.org/do ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 12:45:00 -0700 Wired News - a must-read for the latest information and commentary on our rapidly changing digital world. W I R E D N E W S Top Stories - 09:15AM 17.Oct.01.PDT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -clip- - - - - - - - - - 'Good News' for Arabs on MSNBC (Conflict 2001 2:00 a.m. PDT) http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47638,00.html?tw=wn20011017 In an effort to 'provide the real story,' and ostensibly mute some of the anti-American rhetoric offered by local media in the Middle East, MSNBC introduces an Arabic-language version of its website. By Farhad Manjoo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: clift@publicus.net Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Please send submissions to: DO-WIRE@TC.UMN.EDU *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: listserv@tc.umn.edu *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***