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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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  • Abu Risha Killed * Bush’s Speech

    DAVID ENDERS RICK ROWLEY In his speech last night, Bush referred to the recent killing of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, who he met with just last week in his visit to a U.S. military base in Iraq. Available for a limited number of interviews, journalists Enders and Rowley interviewed Abu Risha for their special report…

  • Bush Iraq Speech Tonight

    BEN LANDO Bush has repeatedly called for the passage of the proposed Iraqi oil law. The lead story in today’s New York Times is “Iraq Compromise on Oil Law Seems to be Collapsing.” Lando is energy editor for UPI and is just back from a major conference on Iraqi oil in Dubai in the United…

  • Is Petraeus Lying?

    RICK ROWLEY Just back from a month and a half in Iraq, Rowley is a journalist with Big Noise films. He said today: “When Gen. Petraeus says that he’s merely applauding the new Sunni militia allies from the sidelines, he’s lying. While embedded with the U.S. military, I filmed U.S. commanders handing wads of cash…

  • Anti-Peace-Movement Police Violence in D.C.?

    Reverend, Marine Mom Hurt by Police in Separate Incidents. Rev. LENNOX YEARWOOD Jr. Yearwood is president of the Hip Hop Caucus. A statement from the group says: “Rev. Yearwood was attacked by six Capitol police [Monday], when he was stopped from entering the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill, where Gen. Petreaus gave testimony ……

  • Petraeus and Crocker Testimony

    ADAM KOKESH Co-chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Kokesh attended the hearings where Petraeus and Crocker testified today. Kokesh said: “I was escorted out of the hearings after I shouted ‘swear them in, why do you still trust these people?’ … Petraeus is … being forced to draw down the five brigades for which…

  • Petraeus and 9-11

    The group September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, made up of families of the victims of the 9-11 attacks, has released a statement regarding the timing of the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus. It reads in part: “The timing of this testimony is another attempt by government officials to force a non-existent connection between the…

  • Finkelstein * Mearsheimer/Walt * Khalil Gibran School

    AP reports that “a DePaul University professor who has drawn criticism for accusing some Jews of improperly using the legacy of the Holocaust agreed Wednesday to resign immediately ‘for everybody’s sake.’ “University officials and political science professor Norman Finkelstein issued a joint statement announcing the resignation, which came as about a hundred protesters gathered outside…

  • Oil Law * Outlawing Unions * Iraq Benchmarks

    The Washington Post published an article yesterday on the proposed Iraq Oil and Gas Law. The piece quotes Issam al-Chalabi, a former Iraq oil minister: “This was a very bad move by the Americans to push for this law. … Now it looks like … the Americans are after oil — they will bring their…

  • Iran and Threats

    The Sunday Times in London reported over the weekend: “The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.” TRITA PARSI Parsi is author of the just-released book Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel,…

  • Bush and Iraq: * Air War * Drawdown of Troops?

    The New York Times is reporting in its front-page lead story today that President Bush’s statements yesterday — which included a reference to the possibility of withdrawing some troops from Iraq — were “embracing and preempting this month’s crucial Congressional hearings on his Iraq strategy.” CONN HALLINAN Hallinan wrote the recent article “Death at a…

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