MERIP Media Resource List, October 18, 2005

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
- Saddam Hussein's trial begins, October 19
- Palestinian President Abbas meets with President Bush, October 20
- Mehlis report on former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination due October 21
 
Saddam Hussein trial:
 
JOE STORK
Joe Stork is deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. He commented today: "The legitimacy of the Iraqi court trying Saddam Hussein and other former government leaders is under heavy scrutiny in Iraq and the Arab world. There are serious concerns that the court will not provide elemental fair trial protections, and disputes among Iraqi political factions have called its impartiality into question."
 
LINDA A. MALONE
Linda A. Malone is the Marshall-Wythe Foundation Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights and National Security Law Program at the College of William and Mary School of Law. Malone is the author of numerous articles in a wide range of publications and has authored and co-authored 12 books on international law, human rights, and environmental law. She is a featured expert on Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog. She commented today: "The Hussein trial exemplifies a new direction in the processes of international criminal justice that we can expect to see arising in the future in the context of internal conflicts and repressive regimes, including both the positive and negative aspects of the coming trial."
 
Abbas meets with Bush:
 
ROBERT BLECHER
Robert Blecher is Director of Scenario Planning at Strategic Assessments Initiative, where he directs a team of Israeli and Palestinian scholars investigating unorthodox solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. A visiting scholar this year at the University of Iowa's Center for Human Rights, his current research examines the histories of partition and integration in Palestine and Israel. He is also a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report . Commenting today about Palestinian President Abbas' meeting with President Bush on Thursday, he said: "Mahmoud Abbas wants a commitment from the US for a meaningful push forward on final status issues (including the settlements, final borders, refugees and Jerusalem) but it's unlikely that he'll be able to get one. With the US having embraced Israeli unilateralism, it's not clear the PA has any cards to play that will advance its agenda. Any gestures the US makes to Abbas will likely be of a smaller scale -- which is not to say unimportant."
 
Mehlis report on Hariri:
 
STEVEN HEYDEMANN
Steven Heydemann is director of the Center for Democracy and the Third Sector at Georgetown University and a political scientist whose research focuses on democratization and economic reform in the Middle East. He is author of Authoritarianism in Syria: Institutions and Social Conflict, 1946-1970 (Cornell University Press, 1999), editor of Networks of Privilege: The Politics of Economic Reform in the Middle East , (Palgrave-St. Martin's Press, 2004) and editor of War, Institutions and Social Change in the Middle East (University of California Press, 2000). He commented today on the Mehlis report: "It's unlikely the report will resolve uncertainties regarding Hariri's assassination. Mehlis and his staff were thorough, but it's more than likely that the report will be suggestive rather than definitive. I suspect it will not provide critics of the Syrian regime with a smoking gun. I would be surprised, however, if it did not indicate some level of Syrian involvement. Western governments, including the US, France and Britain, will try to make use of findings, no matter how suggestive they might be, to keep pressure on Damascus. But my current sense is that it won't provide the kind of ammunition that they are hoping for."
 
BASSAM HADDAD
Bassam Haddad teaches political science at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia and is author of "The Formation and Development of Economic Networks in Syria: Implications for Economic and Fiscal Reforms, 1986-2000," in Networks of Privilege: The Politics of Economic Reform in the Middle East , (Palgrave-St. Martin's Press, 2004). He is also author of "Syria's Curious Dilemma," Middle East Report 236, "Inside Syria and Lebanon," Fall 2005.
 
Background :
 
+ Human Rights Watch, "Saddam's Day in Court: Fair Trials at Risk," October 16, 2005.
 
+ "Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog"
Features key documents related to the Iraqi Special Tribunal, answers to frequently asked questions and expert debate and public commentary on the major issues and developments related to the trials of Saddam Hussein and other former Iraqi leaders.
 
+ Bassam Haddad, "Syria's Curious Dilemma," Middle East Report 236, "Inside Syria and Lebanon," Fall 2005.

 
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Members of the media should feel free to contact the individuals listed above directly.
 
For more information, contact Michelle Woodward, MERIP Media Coordinator, at (202) 223-3677 or at mwoodward@merip.org. Media Resource Lists are an initiative of the MERIP Media Outreach Program. Past releases are archived in the MERIP Press Room at http://www.merip.org/press_room/pr.html
 
Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), 1500 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 119, Washington, DC 20005, Tel: (202) 223 3677, Fax: (202) 223 3604, http://www.merip.org -------------

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For more information, contact Michelle Woodward, MERIP Media Coordinator, at (202) 223-3677, or merip.media@merip.org.  Media Resource Lists are an initiative of the MERIP Media Outreach Program.

The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), 1500 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 119, Washington, DC 20005, Tel: (202) 223 3677, Fax: (202) 223 3604, www.merip.org