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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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  • Nigeria Violence and Oil

    Limited human-rights and press reports indicate a substantial escalation of violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta region in Nigeria. Amnesty International reports: “Hundreds of people are feared dead. … Thousands have fled their communities and are unable to return to their homes.” JOEL BISINA Currently in the U.S. (until June 1), Bisina is founder of…

  • Obama Violating Constitution on Detainees Plan?

    MICHAEL RATNER, via Jen Nessel SHAYANA KADIDAL, Alison Roh Park The president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ratner said today in response to Obama’s speech at the National Archives: “The president wrapped himself in the Constitution and then proceeded to violate it by announcing he would send people before irredeemably flawed military commissions and…

  • Former U.S. Ambassador to be CEO of Afghanistan?

    The New York Times reports today: “Zalmay Khalilzad, who was President George W. Bush’s ambassador to Afghanistan, could assume a powerful, unelected position inside the Afghan government under a plan he is discussing with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, according to senior American and Afghan officials.” The Times adds that, according to U.S. and Afghan…

  • $96 Billion More for War

    The Washington Post reports today, “The House passed a bill yesterday that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it. “Democratic opponents are accusing Obama of the same charge they leveled against…

  • Questioned, Obama Says Single Payer Would Be Best

    AP is reporting: “President Barack Obama says if he were building the health care system from scratch, a single-payer system would be the best approach. But he says his goal is to improve the current system.” The comments were made in response to the first question at the “town hall” type event in Rio Rancho,…

  • An Openly Gay Supreme Court Justice?

    PAUL SOUSA Founder of Equal Rep, Sousa said today: “Kathleen Sullivan is hands down one of the most qualified candidates. She is a Marshall scholar and former Stanford Law dean whom constitutional law legend Laurence Tribe once called ‘the most extraordinary student I had ever had.’ She is the author of the nation’s leading casebook…

  • Credit Card Regulation

    Bloomberg reports: “The U.S. Senate might consider capping interest rates on credit cards, Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd said as the lawmakers began debating amendments to consumer-protection legislation. … Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, will offer an amendment limiting all lenders to 15 percent interest rates, he said in a written statement.” ROBERT MANNING,…

  • How Torture Facilitated Invasion

    Professor and author Juan Cole writes in his blog today: “The best refutation of Dick Cheney’s insistence that torture was necessary and useful in dealing with threats from al-Qaeda just died in a Libyan prison. … “Al-Qaeda operative Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was captured trying to escape from Afghanistan in late 2001. He was sent to…

  • Healthcare: * Single Payer Efforts Excluded, Nurses Arrested * Analyzing “Voluntary Efforts”

    ROSE ANN DeMORO, CHARLES IDELSON [now in D.C.] SHUM PRESTON Rose Ann DeMoro is president of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association. Idelson and Preston are spokespersons for NNOC/CNA, which just released a statement: “Registered nurses, physicians and healthcare activists delivered an emphatic protest before the Senate Finance Committee for its failure to open…

  • “Not Surprising”: U.S. Soldier Kills Five Others in Iraq

    The New York Times is reporting: “The United States military said Monday that five American soldiers had been shot to death by a fellow soldier who opened fire on them at one of the biggest American bases in Baghdad, and that the suspected shooter was in custody.” AARON GLANTZ Glantz is a Rosalynn Carter Fellow…

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