The German media is very critical of any wrong doing by the US government, a few US soldiers and many US companies. Hedge funds were not just characterized as bloodsuckers, but as American bloodsuckers. German companies receive less criticism. Sometimes they even receive government support for doing business with rogue states.

The Sudanese government is complicit in the genocide in the western province of Darfur, but the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor sponsored a "German Pavilion" at a trade fair in the Sudanese capital in February 2005 and will do so again in February 2006 due to "the positive feedback from the German participants," according to one chamber of commerce.
 

Neokomplott has exposed another chamber of commerce, which calls the genocide "political disturbances," praises Sudan's dynamic oil industry and the improved business climate and mentions the German government's support of the fair. 

One of the more than 500 detainees at Guantanamo is the 23 years old Murat Kurnaz, who was born and raised in Bremen in northern Germany. He travelled to Pakistan in October 2001, was arrested shortly afterwards and detained at Guantanamo Bay since at least January 2002, because a military panel ruled that he was a member of Al Qaeda. However, according to a March 2005 article in The Washington Post:

Evidence, recently declassified and obtained by The Washington Post, shows that U.S. military intelligence and German law enforcement authorities had largely concluded there was no information that linked Kurnaz to al Qaeda, any other terrorist organization or terrorist activities. (…)

The Command Intelligence Task Force, the investigative arm of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the Guantanamo Bay facility, repeatedly suggested that it may have been a mistake to take Kurnaz off a bus of Islamic missionaries traveling through Pakistan in October 2001. "CITF has no definite link/evidence of detainee having an association with Al Qaida or making any specific threat against the U.S.," one document says. "CITF is not aware of evidence that Kurnaz was or is a member of Al Quaeda."

According to a Wall Street Journal article from January 2005, Murat Kurnaz isn't an isolated case:

American commanders acknowledge that many prisoners shouldn't have been locked up here in the first place because they weren't dangerous and didn't know anything of value. "Sometimes, we just didn't get the right folks," says Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, Guantanamo's current commander." 

"It's long been predicted that France's simmering cauldron of lawless Muslim ghettoes would someday combust," contends Duncan Currie in his article called "Over There, Over here" in the rightwing magazine The Weekly Standard.

Along with the chronic troubles in Iraq, the 7/7 bombings in London, and last year's murder of Theo van Gogh in Holland, the French riots pose one of the central geopolitical questions of our age: Does democracy quell ideological fanaticism?  President Bush thinks so, and he's based his long-range anti-terrorism strategy on spreading liberal institutions and decent governance in the Middle East. 

The terrorist attacks in Jordan on November 9th were apparently supposed to be a reminder of the 9-11 attacks, because November 9th is written "9.11." in many parts of the world. While 9-11 has shaped US foreign policy and national identity significantly, 9.11. (aka November 9th) has been "Germany's Day of Destiny" according to the Deutsche Welle (Article is in English) and shaped German identity and foreign policy even more than 9-11 did in the US.

 
On November 9th, 1848 Germany's first revolutionary dreams were killed. Nov 9th 1918 marked the proclamation of the Weimar Republic. Nov 9th 1923 Hitler first attempted to take over the government. Nov 9th 1938 the so-called Reichskristallnacht increased the brutal persecution of Jews that would end in the murder of millions of people. And on Nov 9th 1989 the Berlin Wall fell.

Prof. Joshua Landis works as a Fulbright Scholar in Damaskus. His frequently updated blog Syria Comment is one of the most read English news sources about Syrian politics and related US policy and his often quoted in the US mass media.

Raphael Cohen-Almagor, Israeli Fulbright Alumnus and Professor at The University of Haifa, writes about "events in the Middle East in general and in Israel in particular." The latest of his monthly posts covers the attack on Hadera, opinion polls in Israel, the UN report on the Hariri assassination, and other issues.

Curiousity in a Kingdom is a new group blog by three American Fulbrighters "sharing their experiences, ideas and tips on Jordanian life." The three also run their individual websites: Jim Korpi, Elisabeth Page and Will Raynolds. Another US Fulbrighter, Brendan Geary, moved to Qatar recently and writes once a month about his life as a Fulbright Scholar at Tales from Qatar.

UPDATE 11/10/05: Prof. Marcy Newman is a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan and informed us of her blog body on the line by commenting on this post. She attended a solidarity march for the victims of the terrorist attacks and wrote in her Amman's 9/11 entry:

Steven and I offered our condolences to people we met in the march. One very sweet woman, who teaches autistic children, began crying while I spoke to her. After she learned I was American she told her children and relatives that these Americans were here to join them in solidarity. To me, this is what Fulbright is all about. Isn't this the epitome of cross-cultural exchange? If you're not going to put yourself out there to connect with people when they are at their worst then when will you do it? I even told people, who asked, that I am also Jewish. Equally important, I think, for Jordanians to understand that a Jewish American woman stands in solidarity with them at this moment.

 
If you want to see how beautiful, smart, serious and funny Fulbrighters from around the world look like, go to http://fulbright.smugmug.com/ or directly to the photo gallery from the Islamic Civilization Enrichment Seminar in Tunisia.

Keith Reinhard, president of Business for Diplomatic Action, told the NY Times (republished by Eccentric Star Public Diplomacy Weblog) that the bad US image hurts the economy and offered various strategies to improve the image: "We're working with a group called Young Arab Leaders that has identified 500 Arab and Muslim youth who we think should be brought into the United States and into U.S. companies. Think of it as the Fulbright for the private sector."