The arrest of Hossam Bahgat, the Egyptian human rights activist-turned-journalist, highlights the difficulties of resistance and the vulnerability of democracy in a web of increasingly restrictive laws that have materialized under the new Egyptian government. Military intelligence must have known that Hossam Bahgat could not be arrested without a massive public outcry. He is too well regarded for his professional integrity and reliability and consequently too well connected both in Egypt and abroad. Likewise, Hossam must have known that even his connections could not keep him from being called in one day given the shrinking space for dissent of any kind. Most activists I have talked to or...
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