Blog

  • Mubarak, Army, U.S., Israel vs Egyptian People

    [As government forces have attacked peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square, Emad Mekay from Cairo reports] Mubarak is clearly backed by the Americans. He took some moves after speaking with Obama and a visit by a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner. Mubarak, the army, the Americans and the Israelis are clearly on one side.…

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  • Unrest Spreads to Sinai

    A Bedouin youth casually spreads out a piece of cloth before a police headquarters in Sheikh Zwayyed town in Sinai, the vast desert area to the east of Cairo across the Suez. “I will leave when Mubarak leaves,” he says. [Full piece from Inter Press Service]

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  • Chomsky: Strategic and Economic Objectives, Not Anti-Islamization, Drives U.S. Policy

    [While many are claiming that a central goal of U.S. policy is to minimize influence of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Noam Chomsky contributed this to our blog] It is well-established, including the major scholarly literature, that the U.S. supports democracy if and only if that accords with strategic and economic objectives.  Following…

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  • An Open Letter to President Barack Obama

    ————————————————————————————————————————— [To sign; for recent news releases on Egypt from the Institute for Public Accuracy] 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…

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  • Report from Cairo

    From Alex Ortiz in Cairo: “The army is beginning to come into Cairo … tens of thousands converged in midan al-gala’ coming from three different protest marches. Total communication blackout. Reports of senior police officers ordering their men to stand down and not beat or fire tear gas at protesters in Midan al-gala an hour…

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  • Report on Latest from Cairo

    CAIRO, Egypt [11 p.m. local time] — 1-Some government media figures appear to be joining ranks with the protesters. Mahmoud Saad, a talk show host in the Egyptian state-run TV, has announced that he will no longer appear on TV starting tonight after he came under pressure from top government officials to report “untruths” about…

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  • Police in Cairo Beating up Jounalists

    [From 9:28 a.m. ET]: Police started beating up journalists protesting outside the Press Syndicate in downtown Cairo. They beat up women journalists too who were screaming and crying for help. “Do not club women. Do not club women,” some of the men rushed to the police asking them not to target women. “You’ll make things…

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  • From Alex Ortiz in Cairo

    [The Egyptian government has apparently block Twitter, Facebook (as of Wed. morn U.S. ET) and other internet tools, though apparently some people are able to get around such restrictions. Email from 8:45 a.m. ET:] Downtown Cairo today remains in a state of high alert. There are many security forces and plainsclothed policemen visible on every…

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  • Video from Cairo

    Phone lines are intermittent and Twitter has reportedly been blocked in Egypt. Here is a live video feed: ustream.tv/channel/cairodowntown [update: ustream has been blocked, streaming now intermittently at livestream.com/cairowitness — further update, now at: www.justin.tv/cairowitness] Here is a YouTube video from earlier today:

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  • Ukraine’s Assault on a Free Press

    In Ukraine, where media diversity is often defined by which powerful oligarch controls which TV station, one network, TVi — known for its independent investigative style — is under intense legal pressure, with its owner not part of Ukraine’s power circles. TVi faces a court hearing on Tuesday over a legal claim that the station’s…

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  • ICE Detention Centers Endanger Public Health

    While the United States is likely to soon lose its measles elimination status and the Trump administration continues to undermine public confidence in vaccines, two people detained at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas have active measles infections. 

  • Epstein and Israel: The Case of India

    “Epstein connected an Indian billionaire close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak ahead of the first ever trip by an Indian PM to Israel. Days later, that billionaire, Anil Ambani, told Epstein after a visit to Delhi that ‘Leadership’ wanted Epstein’s assistance for Ambani to meet ‘jared and Bannon…

  • * Hind Rajab * Attack on Iran “Imminent”

    In “The Coming War with Iran: Why This Escalation Path Is Structurally Plausible,” Elijah Magnier warns of an “Israeli alarmist narrative. … What is being revived is not new evidence, but an old pretext — one that has already been proven unfounded and is now being repurposed to manufacture consent for confrontation.”

  • Exclusive: Leaked ‘Board of Peace’ Resolution Outlines U.S.-Led Plan to Rule Over Gaza

    “No Palestinians were included on the Board of Peace, though Trump did give a spot to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains under war crimes indictment and is subject to an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. The board, which critics say is an attempt to circumvent any meaningful U.N. oversight or even to…

  • Trump’s Planned “Weaponization of Aid” for Gaza

    “The U.S. military-led group supporting ‘stabilization efforts’ in Gaza has put forward plans for a housing block for Palestinians in Gaza in an area under full Israel military control. According to materials circulated by the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) and obtained by Drop Site News, the ‘planned community,’ if developed, would contain and control its…

  • Funding for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Programs

    Last week, the funding for thousands of programs offering mental health and substance use services was halted when the Trump administration suddenly cut $1.9 billion in funding to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Approximately 2,800 grantee organizations were impacted. But the Trump administration quickly reversed course, reinstating the funding just a…

  • Israel Literally Bulldozes Relief Agency, Trump Expands “Board of Billionaires and War Criminals”

    Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, just condemned Israel bulldozing the headquarters of the relief group in Jerusalem as Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrated: “A new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law, including of the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, by the State of Israel.”

  • Why Was Controversial Hepatitis B Vaccine Trial Halted?

    A controversial U.S.-funded study on hepatitis B vaccination of newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been cancelled. The $1.6 million project, funded under Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., drew outrage over its withholding of vaccines proven to prevent disease from hepatitis B. Guinea-Bissau has a high burden of disease from hepatitis B.

  • Assessing Trump Administration’s New Food Pyramid

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently released a new food pyramid for dietary guidelines  and commissioned a report justifying those guidelines. The report was reviewed by several individuals with financial ties to food companies as well as beef and milk industries’ trade groups, according to The Lever. “The updated guidelines put…

  • RFK Jr. Adds Anti-Vaccine Members to CDC Committee

    Following up on his firing of all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) last year and replacing them with new anti-vaccine members, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed two more anti-vaccine committee members this week.

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