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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  • See Where Each 2012 Tax Dollar Went

    “The largest share of federal income taxes went to the military, which accounted for 26.5 cents of every dollar. Meanwhile, education programs accounted for 3.5 cents on the dollar and science took a single penny.”

  • Exxon Arkansas Tar Sands Pipeline Gash: 22 Feet Long

    The fact that not one independent source (press/citizen) is allowed to verify what Exxon is saying to the Arkansas AG and the fact that the FAA is allowing Exxon to run the skies above ground should be part of any other journalist’s story.”

  • Hagel Faces Congress Over Defense Budget

    AP reports: Hagel and Dempsey [are] to testify [today] before the House Armed Services Committee on Obama’s 2014 defense budget, a day after Obama unveiled the $526.6 billion proposal to cover the cost of buying ships, aircraft, tanks and maintaining the nation’s war fighters.

  • Social Security and Medicare Cuts in the President’s Budget

    President Obama has announced that he will propose a budget plan on April 10 that would cut Social Security benefits and increase Medicare deductibles.

  • Drones in Your Backyard

    The Associated Press reported yesterday: “At the start of what could be a new era in police surveillance, an Illinois legislator is proposing a limit on how law enforcement agencies can use drones highly sophisticated, unmanned aircraft that authorities are eyeing for aerial surveillance.”

  • Equal Pay Day

    April 9th is ‘Equal Pay Day’ symbolizing how far past the new year women must work in order to simply receive the same salary men earn in only 12 months.

  • “I’m a Nation to Myself:” Iraqi Refugees in the United States

    Ten years after U.S. forces cemented their victory over Iraq by toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square on April 9, 2003, Iraqis continue to flee their country, adding to the estimated 4 million displaced by the war and occupation. The Progressive magazine has a new report on the largest community of Iraqi…

  • The Koreas: Lurching Towards War

    Reuters is reporting: “The United States said on Wednesday it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it from North Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called a ‘real and clear danger’ from Pyongyang.”

  • Atlanta Test Cheating Scandal: “Tip of the Iceberg”

    “Atlanta is the ‘tip of an iceberg’ in a sea of standardized test score manipulation that has swept the U.S. in response to politically mandated misuses of standardized exams.”

  • Launch of Campaign to Revoke Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

    A campaign for revoking President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize got underway today with a petition launched by a quarter-million member online group.

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