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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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  • What’s VEBA? Behind the GM-UAW Tentative Healthcare Deal

    LARRY SOLOMON Former UAW Local 751 president in Decatur, Ill., Solomon worked at Caterpillar for 34 years. He said today: “The UAW better be very careful about this Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association that GM is pushing. “For years, we were told by Caterpillar that we were getting an invisible paycheck in the form of free…

  • UN Gathering & Private Meeting with Ahmadinejad

    STEPHEN ZUNES Zunes was part of a private two-hour meeting today with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Zunes is Middle East editor of Foreign Policy in Focus, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, and the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism. More Information IAN WILLIAMS Author…

  • UAW’s GM Strike: Major Issues

    CHRIS KUTALIK Editor of Labor Notes magazine, based in Detroit Michigan, Kutalik said today: “Many have portrayed the national strike launched at General Motors as something that fell from the sky. For United Auto Workers’ members and other labor observers the only surprise was in how long such a confrontation took to develop. Industrial restructuring;…

  • Lieberman-Kyl: Declaration of War on Iran?

    Sen. James Webb (D-Va) said on the Senate floor today about the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment on Iran: “It could be read as tantamount to a declaration of war.” (Copy of the legislation is available online.) GARETH PORTER Investigative journalist Porter has just written the piece “The Evidence Against the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment.” He is author of several…

  • Ahmadinejad in the U.S.

    Today Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is speaking to the National Press Club and at Columbia University. JOHN LEINUNG A member of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization of family members of people killed in the 9-11 attacks, Leinung said today: “If he really wanted to go lay a wreath [at the WTC site],…

  • Iran Threats * Gaza Crisis

    STEPHEN ZUNES Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus, Zunes said: “[Iranian] General [Mohammed] Alavi’s comment regarding Iran’s contingency plans to attack Israel with air and missile raids was explicitly in reference to how Iran would respond if attacked by Israeli forces. Despite White House claims to the contrary, Iran was simply re-stating the…

  • Iraq Bases and the Korea Model: An “Enduring” Relationship

    ZOLTAN GROSSMAN Grossman is a geographer and faculty member at The Evergreen State College (Olympia, Wash.) and wrote the new article “The Korea Model Rationale for Staying in Iraq: An Endless Occupation?” He said today: “The ‘Korea Model’ is President Bush’s rationale for extending the U.S. occupation of Iraq from four years to four decades…

  • Clinton Health Plan

    DAVID HIMMELSTEIN, M.D. Himmelstein is associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He said today: “Hillary Clinton is combining two failed Massachusetts plans: the [former Gov. Michael] Dukakis plan, which fell apart 20 years ago, and the [Gov. Mitt] Romney plan, which is in the process of falling apart. “Clinton is advocating the Marie…

  • Blackwater: Expelled from Iraq?

    CNN is reporting that “[Iraqi] Government ministers Tuesday backed the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s decision to shut down Blackwater USA’s operations in Iraq after the American security firm was involved in a Baghdad firefight that authorities say killed eight civilians. “The ministers also stressed the need to ensure foreign security firms operate within Iraqi laws, according…

  • Greenspan: * Oil * Fed

    JAMES PAUL Executive director of the Global Policy Forum, Paul has written several pieces about oil including “Oil in Iraq: The Heart of the Crisis” in 2002. He said today: “Finally, the cat is out of the bag! After years of denial by political leaders and cautious intellectuals, we finally know — from former Fed…

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