The events in Egypt have overshadowed them.
"Jordanian king dismisses Cabinet; protests possible in Syria" by Ranya Kadri and Ethan Bronner, New York Times / February 2, 2011
AMMAN, Jordan — And in Tunisia, the country that set off the regional unrest after protests toppled the government, the army was called in to calm fears of chaos.
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"UN mission says at least 219 killed in Tunisia uprising, report of attack on small synagogue" by Bouazza Ben Bouazza, Associated Press February 2, 2011
TUNIS -- At least 219 people were killed and 510 injured in the unrest that led to the fall of Tunisia's dictatorial regime, a United Nations mission said Tuesday, as sporadic violence continued to flare around the country.
A gang set fire overnight to a small synagogue, a Jewish leader said, in what appeared to be the first attack on a Jewish institution since the start of the unrest that forced the Muslim North African nation's autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia....
Here we go with the false-flag attacks!
Tunisia's rebellion has spread to Egypt, where protesters are calling for the departure of President Hosni Mubarak, as well as to Jordan and Yemen.
Meanwhile, in Tunisia the interim government has been trying to stabilize the country and reassure demonstrators that democratic change is possible — in large part, by removing Ben Ali's old guard from many posts of power.
On Tuesday, 27 high-ranking police and Interior Ministry officials were ordered to retire, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to reporters. Critics had accused them of repression under Ben Ali.
During 23 years in power, Tunisia's ousted president was accused of systematic repression, torture of political prisoners and corruption. Opponents, including proponents of political Islam, were jailed or forced into exile.
But he was our ally so you never heard or read much about them.
Amid the rapid changes in Tunisia, scattered unrest has continued. Police in the capital, Tunis, dispersed demonstrators Monday with tear gas and youths sacked several state offices in the central-western town of Kesserine.
A small synagogue in the southern town of El Hamma was set alight overnight and a Torah was burned, said Perez Trabelski, who heads the historic Ghriba synagogue in Djerba. Gangs also damaged four cars belonging to Jews in Djerba, he said. The Muslim nation has a small Jewish community.
Say what?
The Ghriba synagogue was the target of a deadly terror attack in 2002 that left 21 people dead, including 14 German tourists, in the only major attack in Tunisia by Islamist extremists.
Hmmmmmmm.
Wasn't that about the time Germany was wavering on the Iraq war?
Meanwhile, Tunisian authorities on Tuesday freed a former Guantanamo detainee as part of a promise by the interim government to free all political prisoners, according to attorney Samir Ben Amor.
Oh, right, we torture, too.
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Time to get out of Tunisia:
"Minister is urged to resign over Tunisia trip" by Steven Erlanger, New York Times / February 4, 2011
PARIS — France’s new foreign minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, is facing renewed calls for her resignation, and once again the problem is Tunisia.
Alliot-Marie and her partner, Patrick Ollier, a government minister in charge of relations with Parliament, vacationed in Tunisia between Christmas and New Year’s, when small antigovernment demonstrations were under way and some protesters had died.
Even worse, her opponents say, she and Ollier took a flight on a private jet owned by Aziz Miled, a Tunisian businessman who is in a partnership with the family of the country’s former president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was forced from office by the protests.
The flight was reported by the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine.
Miled, as an associate of Ben Ali’s brother-in-law Belhassen Trabelsi, is on a list of people subject to an assets freeze by Swiss authorities.
Alliot-Marie, 64, angrily rejected calls from the Socialist opposition for her resignation and said that Miled, who made a fortune in tourism, was a friend who offered space on his jet for a trip he would have taken in any event....
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And if it is a CIA-instigated coup it's failing:
"Tunisia suspends former ruling party" by Associated Press / February 7, 2011
TUNIS — Tunisia’s interior minister suspended all activities of the country’s former ruling party yesterday amid the most serious protests since the country’s autocratic president fled into exile less than a month ago....
The announcement came hours after crowds pillaged, then burned a police station in the northwestern city of Kef a day after police shot dead at least two demonstrators....
Protests have also erupted in other corners of the North African country, which is being run by a caretaker government before presidential elections to be held in six to seven months....
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Also see: Tunisian Tumult
Tunisian Turnabout
Tunisian Trickle
Today's Tunisian Drip
Can't seem to shut it off.
