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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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  • VA and Education Nominees

    President-elect Obama is nominating Chicago public school CEO Arne Duncan (hearing Tuesday) to be secretary of education and Eric Shinseki (hearing Wednesday) to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. AARON GLANTZ Author of The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans, Glantz is Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism at The Carter Center.…

  • * Clinton * Ross

    Hillary Clinton’s hearing in the Senate for Secretary of State is scheduled for Tuesday. The Financial Times recently reported that Dennis Ross has been selected by President-elect Obama for Mideast envoy, a position Ross held in the Clinton administration. STEPHEN ZUNES Professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and a contributor to Foreign…

  • As Attacks on Gaza Continue

    RICHARD FALK Just back in the U.S. and available for a limited number of interviews with major media, Falk is the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Last month he was denied entry to Israel. He said today: “It is irresponsible to exclude Hamas from international participation…

  • Obama, Stimulus and Entitlements

    DAVID ROSNICK An economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Rosnick said today: “While short on specific numbers, President-elect Obama helped prepare the country for a large, but much-needed stimulus package to be negotiated by Congress over the next few weeks. Speedy and large should be our watchwords, as the recession continues to…

  • Sanjay Gupta: In Whose Interest?

    AP reports: “President-elect Barack Obama’s reported choice for surgeon general, CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, could bring a dose of star power to a job that hasn’t had that much clout in decades.” TRUDY LIEBERMAN Lieberman is director of the health and medicine reporting program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. She just wrote…

  • Intel Nominee “Aided Perpetrators of Killings”

    ALLAN NAIRN Currently in New York City, Nairn is available for a limited number of interviews. A noted independent journalist, he runs the weblog “News and Comment.” Nairn just wrote the piece “Admiral Dennis Blair, Prospective Obama Appointee, Aided Perpetrators of 1999 Church Killings,” which states: “Reports say that President-elect Obama wants to nominate retired…

  • Context for Gaza

    CHRIS HEDGES Hedges just wrote the piece “Lost in the Rubble,” which, among other things, recounts his meeting with Nizar Rayan, who Israel killed in a targeted assassination on Thursday. Author of several books, Hedges covered the Mideast for the New York Times for seven years. AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil is author of several books on…

  • Gaza: Crucial Perspectives

    EDWARD L. PECK Available for a limited number of interviews, Ambassador Peck spent November with a delegation to the Mideast organized by the Council for the National Interest. He was chief of mission in Iraq and Mauritania and deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration. He said today:…

  • Pressing Obama on Peace

    ANN WRIGHT, Reuters reports: “A small group of placard-waving pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered near U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s vacation retreat in Hawaii on Tuesday to protest against the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. … Obama has made no public comment on the strikes, which Israel launched on Saturday.” Wright is a former State Department diplomat and retired…

  • Israeli Military Refuseniks

    OMER GOLDMAN JESSE BACON Goldman is one of the “Shministim” — high school seniors who refuse to enter the Israeli military process. She said today: “I’m proud to refuse to serve in an army that claims to be for humanity and defense but hurts people on a daily basis.” She recently wrote: “I first went…

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