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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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  • Is the U.S. the “De Facto Occupier” of Lebanon?

    “Awkar also forced Middle East Airlines to comply with its orders not to transport injured people from Lebanon on its flights for treatment abroad, especially those injured in the pager and telecommunications bombings on 16 and 17 of September, by threatening to impose sanctions on MEA should it disobey. …

  • Election Day ICBM Test Launch Denounced as “Dangerous” and “Wasteful”

    “Test launches damage human communities and ecosystems. The Marshall Islands, already forced to bear the overwhelming environmental costs of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, are still used as a target test area.

  • Election Denialism as Voter Suppression

    “If you look at all the things being done to disrupt, dismantle, or dissuade people about the election results, it is all about voter suppression: keeping people [the Republican Party doesn’t] want to vote from voting.”

  • Is Israel Turning Lebanon into Gaza?

    “Amos Hochstein, born in Israel in 1973 and once an Israeli tank crewman, returned to Lebanon as a U.S. envoy, not to protect peace but to redefine it” on Israel’s terms.

  • Mapping Election-Related Violence

    Experts from the Center for Election Innovation and Research, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law gathered for a webinar on Oct. 30, “Red, White & Coup: Mapping Threats of Violence Around the 2024 Election.” They discussed credible threats to election integrity and safety before, during,…

  • Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing and Violations of U.S. Law

    From a legal standpoint, the Biden administration is breaching international humanitarian law by providing ongoing military assistance to Israel while these grave violations occur. This conduct exposes U.S. officials to potential accountability under international law, including before the International Criminal Court.

  • Gaza Stance Could Mean Harris Loss

    “A recent poll from the Arab American Institute received some much-deserved attention (if not enough) because it showed a massive decline in support for Democrats among Arab American voters because of White House support for Israel’s attack on Gaza. That decline could cost the Democrats several swing states.

  • “Pope Francis, Go to Gaza for God’s Sake!”

    KATHY BOYLAN, [email protected] Boylan is a member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community. Video of her — “Pope Francis, go to Gaza for God’s sake!” — has gone viral on Instagram. She said: “The Pope should go to Gaza — immediately. I think the Pope has a responsibility to go. The Pope knows that…

  • Oxfam Condemns Israel Banning UNRWA, Highlights Right of Return

    “Israel will have the obligation to take UNRWA’s place under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, The Hague Regulations of 1907, and international humanitarian law. … If not, this would be a war crime and a crime against humanity and an element of genocide.”

  • South Africa Files Over 700 Pages at World Court Against Israel

    The Biden administration’s phony ‘ceasefire negotiations’ maneuvers have simply bought Israel more time to commit more crimes, including its recent annihilation of northern Gaza.” See IPA news release from June: “U.S. ‘Ceasefire’ a ‘Ploy to Sabotage the Rule of Law.'”

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