The Times has a fascinating dispatch on the case of a doctor, Cyril Karabus, who has been held in the United Aran Emirates against his will for seven months.
The article says that "Officials in the United Arab Emirates did not return telephone calls seeking comment."
Well, telephone calls are nice, but if you really want a comment, there is nothing as good as an in-person visit. One fine opportunity would have been this week's 50th birthday party for MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Joe Scarborough, which, according to Mike Allen's Politico Playbook, was "hosted by Yousef Al Otaiba, ambassador to the U.S. from the United Arab Emirates." At least two Times columnists, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Steven Rattner, were invited to the party. There were plenty of other journalists there, too, and if the case of Cyril Karabus was raised, it didn't make the report of the party in Playbook.