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  • Uprisings: Online Resouces

    With protests continuing, here is a partial list of online resources: For Libya: #Feb17; CNN’s Ben Wedeman; @EnoughGaddafi; For Bahrain: #Feb14, @OnlineBahrain; For Yemen: #Feb3; @JNovak_Yemen; Palestinian: #Mar15 Gulf: @dr_davidson, @tobycraigjones For Saudi Arabia: on Twitter: #Mar11; Webpages and blogs: rasid.com, ysoof.com/blog/?p=242, saudiwoman.wordpress.com, alasmari.wordpress.com, saudijeans.org To translate: translate.google.com Based in the U.S., but with extensive contacts…

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  • “A New Bipartisan Consensus Against Low Income People”

    The president’s budget is a prosaic austerity plan that inflicts disproportionate pain on low income Americans. Fundamental questions about the costs of war and the fairness of tax cuts for the rich have been avoided by the decision to narrowly target non-security “discretionary” spending to bear the weight of deficit reduction. It used to be…

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  • Challenges for Change in Algeria

    Tunisia and Egypt are relatively centralized states, Algeria not so, neither politically, nor culturally, nor geographically. Historically, the interior has been difficult to control, and there is no guarantee that the rest of the country would rally to the protests taking place in the capital as in the case of Egypt. The Algerian regime is…

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  • “Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t”

    CAIRO — Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t. We still have the same cabinet appointed by [Mubarak]. The emergency state is still enforced. Old detainees are still in detentions and new ones since the 25th of January remain missing. There is no public apology for the killing. We hear several executives are being prosecuted, including…

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  • Time to forge new, democratic system

    CAIRO — Last night, February 11, Cairo was the scene of what may well have been the largest street party in world history.  It was incredibly powerful and moving.  Of course, the night’s festivities marked both an end and a beginning. Now is the time for Egypt’s judges, other legal professionals, diplomats, other negotiators, intellectuals,…

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  • Our Man in Cairo

    With Mubarak’s departure, the focus now falls on his chosen successor, Omar Suleiman. According to a classified American diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, Suleiman was Israel’s pick to succeed Mubarak. But there’s little doubt that he was also the choice of the United States, or at least of one particular American agency with which he…

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  • Online Resources on Egypt and Beyond

    With protests against the Egyptian regime continuing, here is a partial list of resources: A critical Facebook page is “We are all Khaled Said” — also see the associated webpage elshaheeed.co.uk. (For background on Khaled Said, see IPA news release.) See: egyprotest-defense.blogspot.com; live updates at guardian.co.uk; Al-Jazeera English live blog and video, or via YouTube:…

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  • Hungry Gazans Feed Egyptian Troops

    RAFAH, Feb 9, 2011 (IPS) – Mustapha Suleiman, 27, from J Block east of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, crosses through gaps in the iron fence on the border carrying bread, water, meat cans and a handful of vegetables for Egyptian soldiers stationed on the other side. [See at Inter Press Service]

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  • Egypt’s military-industrial complex

    With US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington’s role in arming Egypt is under the spotlight In early January 2010, Bob Livingston, a former chairman of the appropriations committee in the US House of Representatives, flew to Cairo accompanied by William Miner, one of his staff. The two men were granted meetings…

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  • Uprising Pays Off -– Sort of

    Today I went to a town only 23 kilometers south of Tahrir Square. The plan was to see if the 11-day uprising in Egypt has produced any benefits so far – just by way of finding something different from the insecurity and chaos in Cairo. Kirdasa, a small town known for its flower nurseries and…

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  • The Presidential Candidates and South America Tensions

    ABC News reports: “Standing side by side in a show of solidarity, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and Ecuador President Rafael Correa stood firm in their support of one another after days of accusations lobbed back and forth between the two countries and Colombia.” JO ROSANO Rosano is the mother of Marc Gonsalves, a Pentagon contractor…

  • The Presidential Candidates and Israel

    Rabbi ARNOLD JACOB WOLF Sen. Barack Obama lives across the street from Rabbi Wolf’s synagogue, KAM Isaiah Israel, Chicago’s oldest Jewish congregation. Wolf, who has known Obama for about 10 years, said today: “Some of what has been ascribed to Obama is ridiculous. He takes very cautious positions on the Mideast. I am a supporter…

  • With McCain Visiting the White House, New Spotlight on Lobbying Scandal

    “At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust nor make a decision which in any way would not be in the public interest and would favor anyone or any organization.” — Sen. John McCain, Feb. 21, 2008 JEROLD STARR Starr just wrote the Nation magazine piece “The Other Side…

  • From Gaza

    AFP is reporting today: “Israel vowed on Monday to keep hitting Gaza even as troops pulled out of the … territory after clashes that killed at least 120 Palestinians.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Brussels from March 3 to 7. The following individuals are in Gaza,…

  • Obama Finance Chair Tied to Sub-Prime Disaster

    DENNIS BERNSTEIN Bernstein just wrote the piece “Obama’s Sub-Prime Conflict” for ConsortiumNews.com. He said today: “During a recent campaign stop in south Texas, Obama met with San Antonio-area residents who had been particularly hard hit by the sub-prime meltdown. He expressed dismay over how lobbyists for the sub-prime lending industry had spent more than $185…

  • The White House Agenda on Iran

    The New York Times reports: “The [UN] Security Council is expected to vote in the coming days on a third resolution to tighten sanctions against Iran… [Iranian ambassador Mohammad] Khazaee … brought up a new report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Friday, which said that suspicions about many Iranian activities…

  • Why do McCain, Obama and Clinton Want a Bigger Military?

    ERIK LEAVER Leaver is a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. He said today: “Obama and Clinton have both talked about cutting some wasteful systems but both have also talked about increasing the size of the military — a far more costly endeavor. So any of those savings will be dwarfed by troop…

  • Cuba and Terrorism: Villain or Victim?

    “I think it’s naive to think you can sit down and have unconditional talks with a person [Raul Castro] who has [been] part of a government that has been a state sponsor of terrorism not only in the hemisphere but throughout the world.” — Sen. John McCain, Feb. 23, 2008 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/25/headlines#2 WAYNE SMITH Available for…

  • Cuba and Castro

    AP reports: “On Sunday, the [Cuban] assembly will name the president, first vice president and five other vice presidents, and 24 other members of the Council of State. Fidel, who was re-elected to the National Assembly, could remain on the council but is unlikely to receive a top position.” PETER ROMAN Author of People’s Power:…

  • Serbian-Kosovo Crisis

    STEPHEN ZUNES Professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, Zunes returned from Serbia last week. He just wrote the piece “Kosovo and the Politics of Recognition.” Zunes said today: “Even among longstanding supporters of independence for Kosovo, the eagerness with which the Bush administration extended diplomatic recognition immediately upon that country’s declaration of…

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