Al Jazeera Egypts 12,001 missing votes Referring to the Egypt elections,Mark LeVine writes that 12,2001 Egyptians werent able to vote in parliamentary elections that began last weekthey are prisoners of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Which begs the question: How can these elections be described as free and non-violent when so many Egyptians remain political prisoners of the countrys military junta? Winners,especially the Islamist parties,are celebrating their victories and losers are generally urging supporters to work with the process. But many activists,who worked the hardest since January to bring real democracy to Egypt,have been left asking: What does this election mean when thousands are jailed merely for opposing those in power. The Independent Rules for surviving a scandal Why do some politicians survive sex scandals while others are ruined by them,asks Rupert Cornwell,as US Presidential candidate Herman Cain faces one scandal after another. Tales of sexual misconduct have swirled around presidents and would-be presidents ever since Thomas Jefferson,in 1802,was accused of an affair with his slave Sally Hemings, writes Cornwell. Then there was Bill Clinton who,when campaigning for the New Hampshire primary in 1992,was in trouble when Gennifer Flowers,a nightclub singer,went public with tales of an affair. His camp claimed the tapes had been doctored and Clinton was labelled as The Comeback Kid. And now Cain. Cornwell states that Cain has denied the stories but the evidence against him was stacking up and if Ginger White (the woman alleging she had a 13-year affair with him) is telling the truth,the affair continued even as Cain was campaigning. Washington Examiner No more virgins A recent report in Saudi Arabia has said allowing Muslim women to drive would lead to such rampant pornography,prostitution,homosexuality and divorce that there would be no virgins left in Saudi Arabia within 10 years. This report,authored by Kamal Subhi,a former professor,was delivered to the countrys legislative council. Commenting on this report,Barbara Hollingsworth says,A Saudi professor has inadvertently come up with an ingenious way for the US to win the war on terror. If American influence can help topple dictators in Egypt and Libya,surely the US can launch a diplomatic and PR campaign to pressure the oil-rich desert nation into giving Saudi Arabian women drivers licences. With no more virgins left to entice would-be jihadists into blowing themselves up and taking innocent victims along with them,terrorist recruitment numbers would presumably plummet. Why didnt somebody at the State Department think of this before? Dawn Uncertain times Talking about the November 26 killing of Pakistans security personnel by NATO forces,Touqir Hussain writes that this incident refocuses attention on the nagging question as to what the US-Pakistan relationship is about. Pakistan and the US have almost become belligerents in a war. Not one but multiple wars; Afghanistan is one,the drones another,and now the border attacks,and then the war the Pakistan Army is fighting at Americas behest. At the heart of the relationship,he says,are serious policy dilemmas. In Washington,the administration does not know whether to focus on Pakistan or Afghanistan,to treat Pakistan as an ally or a target,as a country under rescue or siege. Pakistanis are facing their own dilemmas. At the policy level,there is the civil-military divide,while the public has come to define all national problems in terms of US-Pakistan relations.
