This is a fascinating piece of reportage about the power of the internet on Syria and, by extension, other closed societies. The anecdote on Hafiz Assad, the current dictator, asking the secret police (mukhabarat) to log onto the web is worth the click through by itself. And check out some of the Syrian dissident web sites.

Attention editors! What’s really missing is a good comprehensive piece on pro-reform web sites across the Arab world. What role do sites and viral e-mail lists have on driving demonstrators to the streets in Beirut? Will Iraq become a beacon of unregulated Arabic language for the Muslim world? Just how do they regulate the web in Baghdad? Are there hundreds of sites in Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and so on that we don’t know about? What about Afghanistan? Is there anything the Western powers can do to promote free speech online in the Middle East? Would the Bush doctrine of spreading democracy be possible without the web?