Free Arab Speech!

My hero, Thomas Friedman, has yet another incisive column on the Arab world. In this one he informs us that the third volume of the blockbuster Arab Human Development Report is being held up by a regime that refuses to allow intellectual criticism of its policies: the United States. We're allying ourselves with the oppressive autocrats of the Arab world, against the scholars and democrats, and if we kill this project, we will have hurt Arab reform more than ever we have helped it.

[NYTimes] So there you have it: a group of serious Arab intellectuals - who are neither sellouts nor bomb throwers - has produced a powerful analysis, in Arabic, of the lagging state of governance in the Arab world. It is just the sort of independent report that could fuel the emerging debate on Arab reform. But Bush officials, along with Arab autocrats, are holding it up until it is modified to their liking - even if that means it won't appear at all.