Blog

  • 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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  • Major International Issues: * G-8 * Nuclear Policy * Indonesia

    NEIL WATKINS Watkins, a project coordinator for the Center for Economic Justice, is scheduled to return to Washington from Genoa at 4 p.m. ET today (Monday). He said today: “The real story in Genoa, where the largest anti-corporate globalization protests yet took place, is the failure of the G-8 to cancel the debt of the…

  • Bush at Six Months: Big Picture Issues

    THEODORE LOWI Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University and author of The End of the Republican Era, Lowi said today: “The most serious issue in the Bush administration is that there is a stigma in his election…. The Supreme Court aborted the election process. This was unprecedented. To try to overcome this lack of…

  • G-8 and Genoa: Key Issues

    As leaders of the G-8 countries gather in Genoa, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: ELLEN FRANK Author of the forthcoming book Money Illusion and a professor of economics at Emmanuel College in Boston, Frank said today: “The U.S. is sliding into a recession, Europe is stagnant, Japan is in a depression. Argentina…

  • Global Military Issues: * Russia, China and ABM * UN Small Arms Conference

    ROBERT WEIL Author of Red Cat, White Cat: China and the Contradictions of “Market Socialism,” Weil said today: “The new Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty signed today, though largely economic in focus, is also a response to the strategic goals of the Bush administration, and especially its anti-missile program. Despite its supposed ‘rogue nation’ rationale, the effort…

  • Assessing Bush’s Pharmaceutical Cards

    Responding to George W. Bush’s announcement today supporting discount cards for more Medicare recipients to use while buying pharmaceutical drugs, the following board members of Physicians for a National Health Program are available for interviews: DON McCANNE, M.D. A retired family physician, McCanne said today: “White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer claims that ‘the president is…

  • ExxonMobil: Under Fire

    On Wednesday (July 11), an array of groups will be protesting the policies of ExxonMobil. Many are calling for a boycott of the oil giant. The following activists and policy analysts are available for interviews: CHRIS DORAN Doran is campaigns director for PressurePoint, an organization launching its first major campaign directed at ExxonMobil on Wednesday.…

  • U.S. Preparing to Resume Nuclear Tests?

    Critics are expressing dismay in response to published reports that the White House is exploring options for resumption of American nuclear blasts. The Knight Ridder news service reported Thursday that “the Bush administration has asked U.S. nuclear weapons scientists to examine ways that nuclear test explosions beneath the Nevada desert could resume more quickly if…

  • Mideast Issues: *Iraq Sanctions * Sharon’s Record * Algeria

    DENIS HALLIDAY The UN Security Council is conducting a rare open meeting on Iraq today. Halliday is a former assistant secretary general of the UN and ex-head of the UN’s oil-for-food program in Iraq. He just returned from a visit to Iraq along with Hans von Sponek, who subsequently was head of the oil-for-food program.…

  • U.S. Decision on Brazil and AIDS Drugs: Global Implications?

    With the Associated Press reporting Monday afternoon that “the United States has withdrawn a complaint with the World Trade Organization over a law used by Brazil to ensure cheap drugs to fight AIDS,” public health advocates are assessing the implications. The following policy analysts are available for interviews: MARIA LUISA MENDONCA Director of the Global…

  • Talks on Tobacco Lawsuit: Set Up for a Sellout?

    While the Justice Department moves ahead to arrange settlement talks with major tobacco firms, critics are speaking out. The following tobacco policy advocates are available for interviews: JEANNETTE NOLTENIUS Noltenius, executive director of the Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco, said today: “Too many people have died of tobacco-related diseases for the Justice Department not…

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