Blog

  • 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.…

    Read more »


  • 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]

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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:

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • CIA Findings on Iran

    The Bush administration has denounced Seymour Hersh’s latest piece, The Next Act: Is a damaged administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?” In the article, Hersh writes: “The Administration’s planning for a military attack on Iran was made far more complicated earlier this fall by a highly classified draft assessment by the CIA challenging…

  • Pelosi: Image vs. Record

    TIM REDMOND Executive editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Redmond has been tracking Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s career for over a decade. He recently wrote the article “Pelosi is not one of us,” in which he stated: “Pelosi is by no means a San Francisco liberal. She’s a Washington insider, a born and bred…

  • Bush Administration and Legal Accountability

    ELIZABETH DE LA VEGA Elizabeth de la Vega served as a federal prosecutor in Minneapolis and San Jose for 20 years. She is author of the new book U.S. v. George W. Bush et. al. She said today: “Over half the people in the United States believe that the president misled the country into a…

  • Hawk Slated to Chair International Relations

    Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) is the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and is reportedly slated to chair the committee in the next Congress. His foreign-policy views are widely deplored by antiwar analysts. For several articles about and by Lantos, see: Peninsula Peace and Justice Center. PAUL GEORGE George is director of the Peninsula…

  • Olmert in Washington

    DANIEL LEVY Lead Israeli drafter of the unofficial Geneva Initiative detailed peace plan and former official Israeli peace negotiator and advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office to the Barak government, Levy is now senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the Century Foundation and directs their respective Middle East and Peace initiatives. His upcoming…

  • Post-Election Iraq Politics: Peace Mandate?

    NANCY NAHVI CINDY SHEEHAN Both Nahvi and Sheehan have lost sons in the Iraq War. Following a White House press conference where President Bush announced the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, they were arrested during a protest organized by the group Gold Star Families for Peace. Nahvi met Sheehan in summer 2005 when Sheehan set up…

  • Behind Gates and Rumsfeld

    ROBERT PARRY Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek and is the founder and editor of ConsortiumNews.com. He has written extensively about Robert Gates. Parry said today: “There have been suspicions that Gates was involved with secret dealings with both Iran and Iraq during the 1980s.…

  • Virginia Recount?

    SPENCER OVERTON A law professor at George Washington University, Overton was a commissioner on the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform. Author of the new book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression, Overton just wrote the piece “Bush v. Gore II?: Virginia Election Irregularities and Recount Procedures.” More Information WARREN STEWART Stewart is…

  • Second Look at Saddam Verdict: · Timing · History

    SCOTT HORTON Horton is chairman of the International Law Committee at the New York City Bar Association and adjunct professor at the Columbia University Law School. He makes frequent trips to Iraq, working as an attorney representing arrested local-hire reporters of U.S. media. On Oct. 26, Horton was quoted on a news release from the…

  • Voting Integrity on Election Day

    WARREN STEWART Stewart is the policy director of VoteTrustUSA.org and will be available for interviews in New York. More Information JUSTIN LEVITT Levitt is associate counsel with the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. More Information DEBORAH NARRIGAN JOE IRRERA Narrigan works in Tennessee with Gathering to Save…

Mastodon