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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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  • Hezbollah

    Israel has bombed homes of Hezbollah leaders and the group’s Al Manar TV station while likening the group to al-Qaeda. But a Washington Post reporter wrote yesterday that “[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah has only disdain for bin Laden and the Taliban. In April, an al-Qaeda cell in Lebanon tried to assassinate him.” AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil…

  • Crucial Background on Gaza and Lebanon

    JAMAL DAJANI Dajani is producer of the TV program “MOSAIC: World News from the Middle East,” which features dramatic recent footage of the conflict. He said today: “We try to provide in a half-hour program a comprehensive look at both the narrative and pictures from the TV networks in the Mideast. From the footage that…

  • U.S.-Russia: Conflict and Convergence

    STEPHEN F. COHEN KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL Available for a very limited number of interviews, Cohen is professor of Russian studies at New York University and author of the book Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia. Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor of The Nation and, with Cohen, author of the book Voices of…

  • G8 Meeting

    JOCHEN HIPPLER Bush is now in Germany. Senior research fellow at the Institute for Development and Peace at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, Hippler is author of a number of books, including Pax Americana? He said today: “In the general population here, there is still a deep mistrust of Bush, mostly in regard to his…

  • · Just Back from North Korea · Just Back from Lebanon

    PAUL CARROLL Carroll is a program officer at the Ploughshares Fund, which works on disarmament issues. He has just returned from North Korea, where he had rare, detailed conversations with North Korean officials, including Vice Foreign Minister for U.S. Relations Kim Gae Gwan and his deputy, Li Gun, their former UN ambassador. Said Carrol: “We…

  • Gaza: Is it the “Largest Prison in the World”?

    Dr. MONA EL-FARRA A physician and community activist in northern Gaza, El-Farra wrote in Monday’s Boston Globe: “Most Gazans … believe that Israel’s latest assault was pre-planned, that the soldier’s capture is merely a trigger. Israel dropped thousands of shells on Gaza, killing women, children and old people, long before his capture. This time, Israel…

  • Questions About Mexico Election: Is Recount Needed?

    LAURA CARLSEN Carlsen just wrote the article “ Mexico’s Dramatic Vote Count Lacks Credibility.” She is director of the International Relations Center Americas Program in Mexico City, where she has worked as a writer and political analyst for the past two decades. GILBERTO LOPEZ RIVAS Gilberto López Rivas is an anthropologist with the National Institute…

  • Israelis Denounce Attack on Gaza

    Though rarely featured in recent news coverage, Israeli critics of the Gaza attacks are speaking out loudly. TANYA REINHART Professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University, Reinhart is author of the forthcoming book The Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003. She said today: “The present Israeli ‘operation’ is not about releasing the captured Israeli soldier…

  • · North Korea and U.S. Missiles · UN Hypocrisy · Mexico Election Credibility

    The Washington Post reported today that North Korea’s missile testing prompted “a hastily called session of the UN Security Council after the Stalinist state unnerved the region.” The Associated Press reported on June 14: “The Air Force successfully tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile early Wednesday, officials said. The missile traveled 4,800 miles…

  • · Mexico Cliffhanger · Iraq: Troops Home Fast

    JOHN ROSS A U.S. journalist currently in Mexico City, Ross is author of the book Mexico in Focus: A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture. NADIA MARTINEZ Policy analyst for Institute for Policy Studies, Martinez said today: “While it isn’t yet clear who will be Mexico’s next president, the overwhelming support garnered by Lopez…

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