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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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  • Advisory — War Made Easy

    The Los Angeles Times has published an early review of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death — a new book by Institute for Public Accuracy executive director Norman Solomon. The review said that “Solomon offers 16 brutally persuasive chapters, each centered on a perennial falsehood, such as ‘If This…

  • U.S. Government Fining Activists for Taking Medicine to Iraq

    A Federal District Court heard additional oral arguments today in the case of activists with the campaign Voices in the Wilderness who openly violated the U.S. economic embargo against Iraq. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control alleges that a 1998 Voices delegation violated economic sanctions law when it delivered medical supplies to…

  • Supreme Court: Major Decisions

    NAN ARON Aron is president of the Alliance for Justice, which is a national association of public interest and civil rights groups. She said today that decisions by the Supreme Court will affect a wide variety of issues including “workers’ rights, consumer protections, environmental protection, civil rights and women’s rights.” More Information ELLEN CHESLER Chesler…

  • G8 Agenda on Africa: “Public Relations”?

    Today, President Bush made a public statement about the annual G8 summit which will be held in Scotland from July 6-8. He said with regards to malaria in Africa: “We believe that every life matters and every person counts.” The Live 8 concert is on July 2. The G8 Alternatives Summit in Scotland is on…

  • * Debunking Bush’s Speech * How Iraq Can Get Worse

    CINDY SHEEHAN Currently in the D.C. area, Sheehan is co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace. Her son Casey was killed in Iraq. She said today: “Bush says his war in Iraq is ‘worth it.’ What’s worth it? People in the U.S. are not safer, Iraq lies in devastation, our troops are dying, Iraqis are…

  • Can Bush Be Believed on Iraq?

    Reuters, in a story on an ABC News/Washington Post poll, reports: “For the first time, a majority of Americans said the administration ‘intentionally misled’ the public in going to war.” The following are available for interviews: NANCY LESSIN Lessin is co-founder of Military Families Speak Out. For a list of their members from around the…

  • Disturbing Testimony on Iraq War

    HAIFA ZANGANA Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and former political prisoner. She went back to Iraq for the first time in 2004, after 25 years of exile. She had been imprisoned in Abu Ghraib by the Ba’athist regime and tortured. She said today at the World Tribunal on Iraq underway in Istanbul, Turkey: “The U.S.…

  • Iran’s Runoff Presidential Election Friday

    Iranians are voting Friday (June 24) in a runoff election that will determine the next president of their country. The contest pits former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani against the current Tehran mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the context of Iranian politics, Rafsanjani is a “moderate” while Ahmadinejad is a hardline fundamentalist. The following analysts are…

  • Voices on Iraq: World Tribunal Convening

    The World Tribunal on Iraq gets underway Friday (June 24) in Istanbul, Turkey. Participants include award-winning author Arundhati Roy, who will chair a “Jury of Conscience.” The following commentators are available for interviews: AYCA CUBUKCU Cubukcu is a member of the coordinating committee of the Istanbul World Tribunal on Iraq. She said today: “Official institutions…

  • Iran at a Big Crossroads

    The runoff election in Iran’s presidential race, coming up this Friday, has profound implications for the future. SIMIN ROYANIAN Royanian is co-founder of Women for Peace and Justice in Iran. She said today: “President Bush had proclaimed the elections in Iran undemocratic and a hoax from the beginning. … Mr. Bush, by claiming that the…

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