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  • 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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  • KXL Pipeline Process “Rigged” — Enviro Groups File FOIA Request

    “But there is another deep flaw with the report that is yet to be resolved and could be KXL’s ultimate undoing. Its analysis was contracted out to ERM [Environmental Resources Management], a British contractor with links to the oil industry. When publishing its long list of documents last Friday, the State Department had to suffer…

  • 84-Year-Old Nun Among Activists Jailed “To Bury the Truth” About U.S. Nuclear Policy

    “The United States is determined to carry out its nuclear agenda, to continue to violate its treaty obligations, to build new bombs and new bomb plants, and they will even put an 84-year-old nun in jail for the rest of her life if that’s what it takes to bury the truth.”

  • * Thousands to Die from State Medicaid Opt-Out * Food Stamps Cut as Corporations Profit

    “The number of deaths attributable to the lack of Medicaid expansion in opt-out states at between 7,115 and 17,104. Medicaid expansion in opt-out states would have resulted in 712,037 fewer persons screening positive for depression and 240,700 fewer individuals suffering catastrophic medical expenditures. Medicaid expansion in these states would have resulted in 422,553 more diabetics…

  • “Obama’s Underwhelming Plan to Tackle Inequality”

    “If you were wanting something bold and butt-kicking, something that takes on inequality in America the way Lyndon B. Johnson took on poverty in his 1964 State of the Union address, you did not find it. […] You didn’t hear about expanding Social Security, a sensible plan supported by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others. You…

  • SOTU: * Equal Pay: Why No Executive Order? * Fracking and Pete Seeger * Education: Obama Denounces “Bubble on a Test” While Backing Those Policies

    “It was very ironic that the day we were honoring Pete Seeger — a hero of peace and the environment — that President Obama would double down on fracking claims. Seeger has been one of our champions in the fight against fracking in New York State, coming to many of our recent Albany rallies.” Stephens…

  • State of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars

    “Regardless of what the U.S. does in Afghanistan, the war is not going to end for the Afghan people. […] Since [Obama] took office, violence in Afghanistan has worsened, corruption has greatly deepened, the opium trade has blossomed, both national elections have been massively fraudulent, and, militarily, we have not defeated the insurgency, rather the…

  • State of the Union and How Trade Deals Damage the Economy and Force Desperate Migration

    “Economists of all stripes agree that U.S. trade policy has been one of the major contributors to growing U.S. income inequality. There really is no disagreement about that — the only debate is the degree to which trade contributes. A study published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics — an early supporter of the…

  • Pro-Drone Lawyer Up for Judgeship while Drone Protesters Face Prison

    “Barron co-authored the infamous Justice department opinion authorizing Obama’s murder of U.S. citizens. This is a total disgrace. If approved, we will have a murderer and a war criminal sitting on the U.S. First Circuit.[…] Barron is neither fit nor qualified to serve as a Judge on the First Circuit — a post which would…

  • Ellsberg and Other Analysts on NSA

    “President Obama’s speech last Friday about the NSA’s domestic dragnet reflected the latest move in a continuing shell game. Ignoring the vast majority of his own review board’s 40 recommendations, preempting the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and failing to take advantage of the political cover offered by more meaningful changes supported by the…

  • Is Geneva 2 a Real Attempt at Peace in Syria, or a Path to Continued “Proxy War”?

    “…[E]ven if we imagine that there is international consensus around one solution, then the fact that Syrian civil society is not involved in the negotiations is an indicator that this is not a serious attempt to reach peace in Syria. There will be no peace in Syria without serious involvement from the civil society and…

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