Kuwait Feature: The Rise of Political Tension and Protest (Diwan)

The "March of Dignity" on Gulf Road, 21 October 2012

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Organizers of the March for Dignity tapped into the national reformist ethos and youthful activism of the 2006 campaign. The orange color chosen for the march established the continuity with the earlier electoral reform campaign and the more liberal and urban constituencies that had championed it, linking them to the more Islamist and more tribal activists of today. The theme of "dignity" elided the differences among them and resonated with the citizen demands of the early Arab Spring. Protesters demonstrated their expertise in civil disobedience and nonviolent struggle through speeches and videos quoting Gandhi and playing the U.S civil rights era protest song "We shall overcome."

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Kuwait Feature: A Guide to the Political Conflict (Ulrichsen)

Protesters storm the Kuwaiti Parliament, November 2011

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Kuwait's Emir on Monday took the unprecedented step of activating article 106 of the constitution, giving him the right to suspend the National Assembly for one month. It marked the first time in Kuwait's 50-year parliamentary history that the assembly has been suspended in this way, although it was twice dissolved unconstitutionally (in 1976 and in 1986), and has been dissolved constitutionally four times since 2006 alone. Two days later, the Constitutional Court issued an even more momentously abrupt decision as they ruled that the February 2012 election was void and ordered the return of the previous assembly. The ruling by Kuwait's highest court is final and cannot be challenged, and followed a challenge to the constitutionality of December's decree that called for new elections following the dissolution of the previous assembly on December 6 2011.

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WikiLeaks Iraq Special: Did US Ambassador "Green Light" Saddam's Invasion of Kuwait in 1990?

For more than 20 years, one of the controversies over the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent US-led war against Baghdad is whether the US Ambassador in Iraq --- deliberately or inadvertently --- gave a "green light" to Saddam Hussein to attack the Kuwaitis.

Now WikiLeaks makes an important intervention in the story, releasing the cable with Glaspie's lengthy account of her meeting.

So, taking a fresh look, did April Glaspie give "tacit approval" or at least refrain from objecting to an Iraqi invasion?

The general verdict: Not Guilty.

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