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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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  • World AIDS Day

    Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. DAVID HOLTGRAVE ANGELA AIDALA REGINA QUATTROCHI NANCY BERNSTINE Bernstine is the executive director of the National AIDS Housing Coalition. The NAHC has recently released a report titled “Housing is the Foundation of HIV Prevention and Treatment.” The report states that “homelessness or unstable housing is directly related to greater…

  • Behind Bush’s “National Strategy” on Iraq

    CLOVIS MAKSOUD Maksoud is just back from Cairo, where he met with Iraqis participating in the recent Arab League meeting. He is former ambassador of the Arab League to the United Nations and is currently director of the Center for the Global South at American University. Maksoud said today: “President Bush is clearly trying to…

  • Global Warming Summit

    Reporting on the 10-day U.N. Climate Control Conference, which has begun in Montreal, the Associated Press noted that it is “considered the most important gathering on global warming since Kyoto, bringing together thousands of experts from 180 nations to brainstorm on ways to slow the alarming effects of greenhouses gases.” KEVIN KNOBLOCH President of the…

  • Hurricane Evacuees: No Home For the Holidays

    Last week, Katrina evacuees received notice that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will stop paying their hotel bills on Dec. 1. Currently, implementation plans are unclear. SUSHMA SHETH Sheth is communication director for the Miami Workers Center, which has been organizing relief efforts for families displaced by Hurricane Wilma. She said today: “Low-income residents face…

  • “Crude Designs”: New Report Charges Big Oil “Rip-Off” of Iraq

    GREG MUTTITT The British group PLATFORM has just released a report: “Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq’s Oil Wealth.” Among the group’s findings: · “Current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64 percent of Iraq’s reserves to foreign oil companies.” · “The estimated cost to Iraq over the life of the…

  • Iraq Debate

    MICHAEL HOFFMAN Hoffman is a co-founder and national coordinator of Iraq Veterans Against the War. He was in the U.S. Marine Corps for over four years and was part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. More Information NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, is the author of the new book…

  • Wal-Mart Under Scrutiny

    This week, the documentary “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” has been released theatrically, along with thousands of home and community screenings of the DVD version. LIZA FEATHERSTONE Featherstone is the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights At Wal-Mart. She said today: “Most people wouldn’t like to live in…

  • Bush in Asia

    THOMAS KIM Kim is acting executive director of the Korea Policy Institute and professor of politics and international relations at Scripps College. He can address the six-party talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, South Korean attitudes toward the Bush administration and the Bush administration’s relationship with the South Korean government. KARIN J. LEE…

  • Scrutinizing the Koch Deal to Buy Georgia-Pacific

    Bloomberg reported Monday: “Koch Industries Inc. agreed to buy Georgia-Pacific Corp. for $13.2 billion … to become the largest privately held company in the U.S.” But some underlying political implications of the move have not yet been publicly addressed. The following analysts are available for interviews: BOB WILLIAMS A project manager at the Center for…

  • Rewriting How the War Began

    President George W. Bush stated on Friday: “While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went…

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