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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23012-2004Oct10.html
An Opening For Arab Democrats
(Washington Post) Jackson Diehl- No one really expects most Arab governments - or even most Europeans - to take the cause of Middle Eastern democracy seriously in the near future. But just as the Cold War-era Helsinki process encouraged independent democracy and human rights groups to spring up under the cover of intergovernmental talks, the Forum for the Future has given Arab democrats a crucial opportunity. "A voice is beginning to emerge that wasn't there before," says Carl Gershman, the president of the National Endowment for Democracy.