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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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  • * Bush Challenged in Utah and Idaho * Iraqi Constitution

    CELESTE ZAPPALA Currently in Utah, Zappala is available for a very limited number of interviews. Her oldest son, Pennsylvania National Guardsman Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was killed in Baghdad in April 2004 while protecting the Iraq Survey Group, which was looking for weapons of mass destruction. She is a co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace.…

  • * Aceh Peace Accords * Sudan

    * ACEH This week, the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement signed a peace deal in Finland. ASNA HUSIN Husin is the director of the Peace Education Program of Aceh, funded by UNICEF and Nonviolence International. Currently visiting the U.S., she said today: “Peace benefits both sides. The Acehnese are hopeful yet skeptical.…

  • Law Professors Scrutinize Roberts * Quid Pro Quo? * Guantánamo Ruling * Federalist Society

    DAVID LUBAN The Washington Post reports today that “Judge John G. Roberts Jr. was interviewing for a possible Supreme Court nomination with top Bush administration officials at the same time he was presiding over a terrorism case of significant importance to President Bush.” Professor of law at Georgetown University, Luban co-authored the recent article “Improper…

  • Rising Gas Prices and Big Oil’s Agenda

    WENONAH HAUTER TYSON SLOCUM Hauter is director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program; Slocum is the group’s research director. Hauter said today: “Since Bush became president, the largest five oil companies operating in the U.S. — ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell — have enjoyed profits of $254 billion, with ExxonMobil leading…

  • Voices from Crawford

    CELESTE ZAPPALA DANTE ZAPPALA Celeste Zappala and her son Dante have just returned from Crawford to their home in Philadelphia. Celeste’s eldest son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was the first Pennsylvania National Guardsman to die in combat since World War II. He was killed in action in Baghdad on April 26, 2004, while searching for weapons…

  • * Gaza “Disengagement” * Ruling Against Taking Medicine to Iraqis

    ALI ABUNIMAH Abunimah is founder of the Electronic Intifada. He said today about the Gaza “disengagement” plan: “This is a giant theater piece designed to convince the world that Israel is taking steps towards peace, that it’s making enormous sacrifices. I have no doubt that there are settlers who genuinely don’t wish to leave Gaza;…

  • Media Advisory: “Over 2 Million Imprisoned Is Too Many”

    Events are taking place this weekend in Washington, D.C., organized by groups seeking to reform the U.S. prison system. The Alabama-based group Families and Friends of People Incarcerated, which is leading the protests and other events, points to over 2 million people currently behind bars in the United States. The group says: “The United States…

  • Interviews Available on Iraqi Constitution * Occupation * Women’s Rights * Economic Agenda * Kurdish Role

    RAED JARRAR Jarrar is an Iraq blogger currently in Jordan. He said today: “The situation with the constitution is similar to that of the election earlier this year. Iraq needs to have elections, it needs a constitution, but you can’t have these things done successfully under occupation. The basis of how things are proceeding is…

  • * Military Families Gathering in Crawford * Letter to Bush from Jailed Soldier’s Wife * Assessing Withdrawal of Troops from Iraq

    CELESTE ZAPPALA Celeste Zappala’s oldest son, Pennsylvania National Guardsman Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was killed in Baghdad in April 2004 while helping with the search for weapons of mass destruction. She is a co-founder, with Cindy Sheehan and others, of Gold Star Families for Peace and is now in Crawford. She said today: “It is good…

  • * Oil-for-Food * Mideast Nukes * Energy Bill * Hiroshima Cover-Up

    DENIS HALLIDAY Halliday is a former assistant secretary general of the United Nations and headed the UN “oil-for-food” program until resigning in protest over the continued sanctions on Iraq. He said today: “By not tackling the real UN failure — i.e., the role of the Security Council in Iraq — Volker’s new Oil for Food…

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