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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  • Disinformation on California GMO-labeling Initiative

    Michele Simon is a public health lawyer, president of Eat Drink Politics and author of Appetite for Profit: How the food industry undermines our health and how to fight back. She has been writing about California’s Proposition 37, which would require labeling of foods with GMOs. She recently wrote: “University of California at Davis agriculture…

  • Forgotten Haiti: Two Years After Cholera Outbreak

    BBC is reporting: “A top U.S. cholera specialist, Dr. Daniele Lantagne, said after studying new scientific data that it is now ‘most likely’ the source of the outbreak was a camp for recently-arrived UN soldiers from Nepal — a country where cholera is widespread.”

  • Larry King Moderating 3rd Party Debate; VotePact: An Escape from Voting for “the Lesser of Two Evils”

    Larry King will moderate a debate tonight featuring third-party candidates. King told the Associated Press: “They have a story to tell. It’s a valid story. It’s a two-party system, but not a two-party system by law.” The participants will be former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Green Party candidate Jill Stein, former Congressman…

  • * Romney’s War Cabinet * Israel’s Record in Gaza and Nukes * How the World Sees the Debates

    Elik Elhanan, Yonatan Shapira and Reut Mor, co-founders of Combatants for Peace, were among the passengers on a boat to Gaza that was intercepted by the Israeli military on Friday. A former paratrooper in the Israeli military, Elhanan was just released from prison and is currently under house arrest in Israel. He said today: “We…

  • Where’s the Foreign Policy Debate? * Kuwait * Drones * Libya

    A scholar in Middle East politics at Durham University, Christopher Davidson is author of the new book After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies. He said today: “The pro-loyalist groups are not serious about reform. While riot police were attacking peaceful protesters, the Emir was meeting with other members of the ruling…

  • * Syria * Pakistani Malala Yousafzai’s Shooting

    Sonali Kolhatkar is co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence and is co-director of the Afghan Women’s Mission. She said today: “The U.S. has been waging an undeclared drone war in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, including in the Swat valley where Malala Yousufzai was attacked. What is not…

  • How Romney and Vulture Funds Milked the Auto Bailout

    Investigative reporter Greg Palast wrote the just-published piece “Mitt Romney’s Bailout Bonanza: How Mitt and Ann made millions — and Mitt’s hedge fund donors made billions — from the auto-industry rescue that he condemned.” The piece states: “Mitt Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout has haunted him on the campaign trail, especially in Rust Belt…

  • Why the Silence on Global Warming?

    Daphne Wysham is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and is the co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. She said today: “The Arctic is melting to record lows, extreme weather is increasing, grain reserves are at record lows threatening millions with hunger should there be another bad grain harvest next year,…

  • Empowering Voter Choice: * Killing the Congressional Gerrymander * Instant Runoff Voting

    Rob Richie is executive director of FairVote, which has just released a pair of reports on “the roots of lack of competition in congressional races and a roadmap for reform.”

  • * Wal-Mart Strikes * Nobel in Economics

    Nelson Lichtenstein recently wrote the piece “A New Era for Wal-Mart Workers?” which states: “During this week and the last, perhaps a couple of hundred of Wal-Mart workers have walked out of their stores in at least a dozen cities across America. They have formed picket lines, spoken to the press, and demonstrated that it…

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