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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  • Skewed Coverage of the Vietnam War

    “Scapegoating the media fits neatly into ‘stab in the back’ theories of Americans who can’t stand the fact that their country lost a war to impoverished Vietnamese fighters. And praising the media as catalysts for the nation’s roused conscience gives undue credit while fostering illusions about mainstream news coverage of America’s wars.”

  • Israel Breaks Records in Killing Journalists

    Journalism is not a crime, but Israel treats it like one. It wants to suppress our voices. It’s inhuman and barbaric and an enemy of the truth because the truth is not in its favor. … The international media organizations have failed to protect Palestinian journalists.”

  • Is Israel Set to Shred International Law? How to Stop It

    “If Israel gets away with genocide, all of that nascent project of a world governed by human rights and the rule of law crumbles, and then it’s every person for themselves.”

  • Slaughters in Gaza and Yemen, Bombing Beirut — and Iran?

    AntiWar.com reports: “Sixty-Eight Reported Killed by U.S. Airstrike on African Migrant Facility in Yemen” and “Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 167 Palestinians in Three Days Amid Total Siege.”  Hala Jaber, author of Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance, states: “Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs again [Sunday night]. The Lebanese government, stripped of deterrence & forced by the U.S.…

  • The Pope and Palestine

    “’Yesterday, children were bombed,’ Pope Francis said in his final Christmas message last December. ‘Children. This is cruelty, this is not war.’

  • “Unconstitutional” U.S. Strikes on Yemen Kill Civilians

    Action Corps, a humanitarian advocacy group, and Peace Action, the nation’s largest grassroots peace network, just called for Congress to “introduce a War Powers Resolution to end U.S. military operations in Yemen, following disturbing new reports of civilian deaths and a second leak of sensitive war planning details by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

  • Making It Easier to Have and Raise Children

    The New York Times reported that the White House “has been hearing out a chorus of ideas in recent weeks for persuading Americans to get married and have more children, an early sign that the Trump administration will embrace a new cultural agenda pushed by many of its allies on the right to reverse declining…

  • Trackers Help the Public Follow DOGE’s Chaos

    The Revolving Door Project is updating resources that track public health crises and the Trump administration’s defiance of court orders as well as profiles of DOGE personnel. The trackers aid coverage of the Trump administration’s actions by providing additional context for breaking news.

  • “Closing Military Bases Overseas Will Save Billions and Improve National Security”

    According to the Pentagon, the military has at least 19–22 percent excess base capacity worldwide, imposing billions in unnecessary costs.

  • * A Push for DNC Emergency Meeting * Biden Back 

    The petition adds: “The predatory, extreme and dictatorial actions of the Trump administration call for an all-out commensurate response, which so far has been terribly lacking from the Democratic Party.”

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