By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Syrian rebel commanders have elected a new 30-member leadership council and a chief of staff, a senior rebel said Saturday in a major step toward unifying the opposition that is fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.
On Feb. 13, just 48 hours after the abdication of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's 18-member Supreme Military Council abolished the constitution, dissolved parliament and vowed to hold presidential and parliamentary elections within the year. Though promising, a series of procedural changes is not a revolution. For that to happen, Egyptians must refuse to submit to an unrepresentative elite promising state-delivered economic growth - essentially, a repeat of the Mubarak era.
