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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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  • Crisis at a Crossroads: * Blix at the UN * Global Protests

    IMAD KHADDURI Khadduri worked with the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission from 1968 until 1998. He was able to leave Iraq in late 1998 with his family. Now in Canada, he was recently interviewed by UNMOVIC. More Information DANIEL ELLSBERG Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, warns of the government using deceit to drive the nation…

  • * Turkey * NATO * Bin Ladin Tape

    SANAR YURDATAPAN Yurdatapan was recently awarded the Global Rights Defenders award by Human Rights Watch. He said today: “Turkey is boiling. Ninety percent of the people are against an attack on Iraq. We are shocked at the depictions we see of the situation in the U.S. media. People here are not unhappy with NATO. No…

  • U.S. Credibility Problems

    GLEN RANGWALA Rangwala, a lecturer in politics at Cambridge University, exposed the British government’s plagiarism in its recent dossier which Secretary of State Colin Powell praised before the Security Council last week. Britain’s government has admitted that Rangwala is correct. He said today: “Powell’s citation of the plagiarized paper is merely a symptom of the…

  • Powell Cited Sham “Fine Paper”

    “My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence… “I would call my colleagues’ attention to the fine paper that the United Kingdom distributed yesterday which describes in exquisite detail Iraqi deception activities.”…

  • Some Analysis of Powell’s Speech

    PHYLLIS BENNIS A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis is author of the book Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis and the article “Powell’s Dubious Case for War.” Bennis said today: “Contrary to Powell’s pronouncements, Hans Blix said the UNMOVIC inspectors have seen ‘no evidence’ of mobile biological…

  • Oil: The Heart of the Crisis?

    REESE ERLICH Coauthor of the new book Target Iraq, Erlich said today: “While the U.S. government and media say oil is an important factor influencing other countries, such as France and Russia, they rarely acknowledge oil as a motivating factor for U.S. policy…. If a pro-U.S. regime privatizes Iraqi oil, then U.S. companies would stand…

  • Colin Powell in the Spotlight: The Record Behind the Image

    A new USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll found that — “when it comes to U.S. policy toward Iraq” — Americans trust Secretary of State Colin Powell more than President Bush by a margin of 63-24 percent. With Powell appearing before the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, the following analysts are available for interviews, offering perspectives on Powell’s…

  • The Columbia Disaster: Interviews Available

    LLOYD J. DUMAS Dumas is the author of Lethal Arrogance: Human Fallibility and Dangerous Technologies and is a professor of political economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. He said today: “The tragic breakup of the space shuttle Columbia as it re-entered the atmosphere this morning once more underlines the vulnerability of highly complex…

  • Fact-Checking and Spin-Checking President Bush: A Critical Assessment at Accuracy.org/2003

    The Institute for Public Accuracy today released an in-depth analysis of key claims in President Bush’s State of the Union Address, drawing on the work of more than 20 analysts. The critique — available at www.accuracy.org/2003 — focuses on issues of foreign policy and the domestic economy. Contributing analysts who are available for interviews include:…

  • Former U.N. Official Just Back From Iraq

    A former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Denis Halliday, will be available for interviews back in New York City on Tuesday afternoon and evening. He will also be available for interviews in London on Thursday and Friday. Halliday, who headed the U.N. oil-for-food program, has just returned from three days in Iraq. On…

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