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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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  • Political Journalism in 2024

    “If you have one political party in a two-party system that has built lying, cheating, and stealing into its DNA, and the media treats [both parties] as equal actors, then the media is biased toward the party willing to lie, cheat, and steal. The Republicans get a booster seat from mainstream journalism.”

  • * Self-Immolation * NYT Credibility

    “While Self-immolation became well-known in the West after Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation in what was formerly known as Saigon (currently Ho Chi Minh City) on June, 11 1963, this practice has been described in ancient Hindu and Buddhist literature. In one of the earliest tales of the Jataka-Mala, they recount a story of…

  • Anti-Zionist Jews Take on AIPAC

    Jewish Voice for Peace states: “Over 5,000 Jews and allies, including rabbis and descendants of Holocaust survivors, shut down the AIPAC headquarters in New York City on Thursday, protesting the organization’s involvement in U.S. politics that threatens to undermine democracy by funneling millions of dollars into swaying members of Congress to oppose a ceasefire in Gaza,…

  • Doctors Without Borders: Israel Is Attacking Our Convoys

    Israeli forces have attacked our convoys, detained our staff, and bulldozed our vehicles, and hospitals have been bombed and raided. Now, for a second time, one of our staff shelters has been hit. Our colleagues in Gaza are fearful that, as I speak to you today, they will be punished tomorrow. Madame President, every day we…

  • Myths About Israel and International Law

    Regarding the ongoing International Court of Justice hearings on the legality of Israel’s 56-year occupation of Palestinian land, he noted: “This is the largest case in history — more than 50 countries are taking part in this, and the U.S. is virtually alone (but for Fiji) in defending the legality of Israel’s occupation. Most states are…

  • Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Plans and the Ignored Barghouti Factor

    Silverstein continued: “Given the close security relationship between Israel and Egypt, the latter would certainly permit Israeli troops to enter the camps at will. Isn’t that convenient? Prest-0 change-o, Israel solves its Gaza problem. It gets to destroy Hamas (and Gaza along with it), unloads 80 percent of Gaza’s population on others, and Bibi Netanyahu…

  • Four States Expand Insurance Coverage to Immigrant Populations

    Four states have recently expanded medical insurance coverage to immigrants through the private marketplace, part of a larger push to expand coverage to all low-income residents.

  • What Now? U.S. Vetoes Another Ceasefire Resolution as Israel Attacks Hospitals

    Boyle highlights that the General Assembly could do the following under Uniting for Peace: “Suspend Israel from participation in its activities as the General Assembly did to the former criminal apartheid regime in South Africa and to the genocidal Yugoslavia; Set up an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel in order to prosecute its highest level civilian…

  • The Heritage Foundation and Viktor Orbán

    The conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation has ties with Viktor Orbán’s far-right authoritarian government in Hungary. 

  • Biden Bill Slashes Humanitarian Relief for Gaza, Sets Stage for Ethnic Cleansing

    Eskow is host and managing editor of The Zero Hour and was the lead writer for the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign. He just wrote the piece “10 Reasons House Progressives Must Reject Biden’s Pro-War, Anti-Humanitarian Bill.” He said today of the Israeli attack on Gaza: “Western governments and media may report or note certain individual attacks here…

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