Just back from the Mideast, Mounzer Sleiman directs Think Tanks Monitor and is founder of the Center for American and Arab Studies. He said today: “The Egyptian popular uprising begun on January 25 is being threatened on two fronts: The clique immediately around Mubarak through force and intimidation are trying to use the army and…

Dear President Obama: “As political scientists, historians, and researchers in related fields who have studied the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy, we the undersigned believe you have a chance to move beyond rhetoric to support the democratic movement sweeping over Egypt. As citizens, we expect our president to uphold those values.

Philip Rizk is an independent blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. Rizk is editing video of some of the most critical parts of the protests. He is reporting on the Egyptian government apparently releasing criminals against protesters, looting, lack of police protection and other critical events. He can also address economic inequality, the lack of…

Professor of political science and international studies at Richmond University and currently visiting at the American University in Cairo, Sheila Carapico told the Institute for Public Accuracy shortly before phone lines were cut: “Earlier this week Hillary Clinton said that Egypt is ‘stable’ — but Egyptians are not interested in stability. They’re interested in change.…

AP is reporting: “A judge says protesters’ moral opposition to drone warfare overseas didn’t absolve them of guilt for trespassing at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada in April 2009. Las Vegas Justice of the Peace William Jansen delivered a 20-page ruling Thursday finding a group dubbing themselves the ‘Creech 14’ guilty of trespassing at…

Rick Wolff is author of the book Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. He said today: “Some 20-30 million unemployed, underemployed, and no-longer-even-looking workers were not worth addressing nor offering any new governmental program … . The past program of Bush and Obama to rely on the…

Seif Da’Na is an associate professor of sociology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside specializing in Mideast and North Africa. He said today: “Repercussions of the Tunisia example will be deep and significant and will be felt throughout the region. The uprising signifies not only the failure of the neo-liberal economic model that…

Vice president for income security policy for the National Academy of Social Insurance, Virginia Reno said today: “There’s much talk about cutting Social Security to reduce the deficit. Deficit commission co-chairs, Bowles and Simpson, said cuts are needed to ensure the future of our children and grandchildren. Yet, their benefit cuts fall directly on those…

David MacMichael, who commanded the facility where Manning is being held, last week wrote a letter to General James F. Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps. The letter reads in part: “I wonder, in the first place, why an Army enlisted man is being held in a Marine Corps installation. Second, I question the length…

Thomas Ferguson said today: “Volcker out and Immelt in, because the administration now wants to emphasize ‘recovery’ and ‘jobs’ instead of ‘crisis stabilization’? Since when did any stabilization not include jobs as a top priority? What we actually have here is the disappearance from the scene of the best known and most visible critic of…