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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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  • Iran and the United States

    Members of the U.N. Security Council are reportedly considering a U.S.-backed statement on Iran. MUHAMMAD SAHIMI Sahimi is professor of chemical engineering at the University of Southern California and co-author, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, of the recent op-ed “Defusing Iran with Democracy.” He said today: “There are struggles within Iran right now;…

  • · Israeli Raid · Iraq War Costs

    NASEER ARURI Aruri is chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and author of the book Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine. He said today: “The storming of the Jericho prison and kidnapping of Ahmed Saadat and his four colleagues by Israeli troops only 15 minutes…

  • Knight Ridder Deal

    AP is reporting that “the McClatchy Co. has reached a deal to buy Knight Ridder Inc., the second-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, for about $4.5 billion in cash and stock.” The following analysts are available for interviews: BEN H. BAGDIKIAN Author of the groundbreaking book The Media Monopoly and professor emeritus and former dean of the…

  • Iran Standoff at the UN

    SELIG HARRISON Available for a limited number of interviews, Harrison is director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy and author of five books on nonproliferation and Asian affairs. He wrote recently: “The nuclear negotiations between Iran and the European Union were based on a bargain that the European Union, held back…

  • Another $70 Billion for War

    On Wednesday the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the Bush administration’s “emergency supplemental” request for approximately $70 billion more for war in Iraq and Afghanistan. MIKE FERNER JEFF LEYS Ferner is a Vietnam War veteran and author of the forthcoming book Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran for Peace Reports from Iraq.…

  • Impeachment: A Debate

    The Wall Street Journal published a story Monday featuring a graphic which noted that 51 percent of respondents in a recent national poll said yes when asked: “If the president didn’t tell the truth about the reasons for the Iraq war, should Congress consider impeachment?” In 1998, in contrast, 27 percent said yes to the…

  • Iraqi Women

    A delegation of Iraqi women has recently arrived in the United States. Their visit is timed to coincide with International Women’s Day (March 8). FAIZA AL-ARAJI Amnesty International released a new report Monday, “Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and Torture in Iraq,” saying: “Thousands of detainees being held by the U.S.-led Multinational Force (MNF) in Iraq…

  • Bush in Pakistan

    ANITA WEISS Co-editor of the book Power and Civil Society in Pakistan and professor of international studies at the University of Oregon, Weiss said today: “It’s not clear if the bombing of the Marriott hotel was to protest Bush’s visit or if it was more agitation over the cartoon issue, which is really a proxy…

  • · Afghan Warlords · Iraqi Death Squads · Palestinian Cutoff

    MALALAI JOYA SONALI KOLHATKAR At 27, Joya is one of the youngest members of the Afghan Parliament. She arrived in the U.S. yesterday and will tour the country until March 24. Kolhatkar, co-director of the Afghan Women’s Mission, said today: “Joya first rose to international prominence in 2003 when she openly denounced the warlords at…

  • India: Crucial Issues

    VINEETA GUPTA, M.D. Gupta is director of the Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative. She said today: “As a physician and human rights lawyer who worked in the slums and rural areas for 18 years, I want legal and policy changes that would make medicines more affordable and accessible to poor people, especially those suffering from…

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