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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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  • U.S. Still Hindering Ceasefire as European Group Demands Action on Gaza

    “Through adopting this approach, the EU continues to support the Israeli blockade by steadfastly refusing to call for a ceasefire, and by not calling for Israel to open the land borders to allow the hundreds of aid trucks already positioned to enter Gaza. This is the only effective means through which aid can be distributed…

  • Should We Care About Moms for Liberty?

    Moms for Liberty is not just a group of moms.

  • Could TikTok Be Owned by Its Users?

    “The bipartisan move to ban TikTok does nothing to address the crisis of surveillance capitalism that Americans are experiencing. Even if TikTok ceased to exist tomorrow, foreign governments would still have access to the personal data of Americans via U.S.-based big tech companies because the business model is fundamentally predicated on selling data for targeted…

  • Is the Targeting of TikTok Actually About Israel?

    “This bill is nothing but an attempt to censor young Americans’ progressive political education, activism, and organizing under the guise of protecting national security. The U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians exposed on TikTok and the abundance of pro-Palestinian content has renewed calls for tighter imperialist control of the narrative while protecting U.S. monopoly capitalist interests.”

  • 35 Big Corporations Paid More to Top Executives Than Federal Taxes

    Thirty-five major U.S. corporations paid less in federal income tax between 2018 and 2022 than they paid their top five executives.

  • St. Patrick’s Day and Gaza

    She recounts how in the Irish famine, “starving people died with their mouths stained green because, according to historian Christine Kinealy, their last meal was grass. Shamefully, British occupiers profited from exporting out of Ireland food crops so desperately needed. Over a seven year period, beginning in 1845, one million Irish people died from starvation…

  • Israeli Attacks on West Bank and Jerusalem

    “The Israelis committed an atrocity at a hospital in Jenin this morning. I just interviewed the hospital director and he showed us videotape of the crime. An unarmed Palestinian man was shot in the back as he was running into the hospital to take cover from gunfire.” See his latest articles: “In Jenin Refugee Camp,…

  • How Foreign Intervention Precipitated Haiti’s Current Crisis

    “What is clear is that the announcement in Kingston late last night is unlikely to lead to a solution to the current crisis by itself. After criticizing Henry for relying on the support of the U.S. and other foreign powers, an agreement pushed by those same foreign powers is likely to face legitimacy concerns from…

  • What Drug Pricing Reforms Can We Expect in 2024?

    Last month, Congress abandoned its attempt to reform pharmacy benefit managers. Advocates say other drug pricing issues need special attention right now. 

  • Report: Israel Tortured False Confessions Out of UNRWA Staff

    “These allegations are shocking but unsurprising. Numerous UN reports attest to the fact that the Israelis have subjected Palestinians to these abhorrent violations on a very large scale for decades as a routine instrument of occupation. What’s new is that the Israelis are doing this to force confessions from UNRWA staff that they were involved…

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