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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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  • Election Analysts See Opportunity, Challenge

    WASHINGTON — While think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute are showcasing their analysts for the 1998 elections, many political researchers say the greatest concerns of most Americans will remain on the back burner. Issues such as education, the distribution of prosperity and the relationship between money and political access are addressed by the…

  • Military Spending Claims Draw Fire

    WASHINGTON — Projections for the Pentagon budget by one of the nation’s most prominent think tanks drew criticism today from several specialists in military spending. The Heritage Foundation’s new report, “Current Budget Priorities May Have Serious Defense Consequences,” was faulted for its claim that by 2020, “the downward trend in defense would result in the…

  • Whitewash of IMF Role Charged

    WASHINGTON — A new report on the Asian economic crisis, put out by Washington’s best-known think tank on international economic issues, is drawing fire for its favorable assessment of the International Monetary Fund. Released by the Institute for International Economics, the report is titled “The Asian Financial Crisis: Causes, Cures, and Systemic Implications.” It has…

  • Debate Heats up on Social Security and Savings

    WASHINGTON — On the eve of the National Summit on Retirement Savings, some analysts are denouncing new efforts to tilt the debate on savings and Social Security. The Heritage Foundation released a report Tuesday, entitled “How Government Policies Discourage Savings,” calling for privatization of Social Security. But scholars and other researchers said today that such…

  • Arms Experts Warn Against Missile Defense Push

    India-Pakistan Nuclear Escalation Deemed No Excuse for New SDI WASHINGTON — Some arms experts expressed concern today over efforts to revive a new version of the Strategic Defense Initiative promoted during the 1980s by the Reagan administration. A recent report from the Heritage Foundation following nuclear tests in South Asia declared that President Clinton “should…

  • Pakistan’s N-Tests Heighten Concerns of U.S. Nuclear Survivors

    Atomic Veterans and Downwinders Speaking Out on Pakistani Blasts After today’s nuclear detonations by Pakistan, some Americans who have experienced atomic testing firsthand are stepping up their efforts to warn against fueling a nuclear arms race. While commentators from think tanks join with U.S. government officials in assessing the Pakistani tests, more acute concerns are…

  • Supporters of Test Ban Denounce Efforts to Stall Treaty

    India’s Nuclear Blasts Being Used as Excuse, Critics Charge WASHINGTON — Efforts are underway to scuttle the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty under the guise of urging a go-slow approach by the Senate in the wake of India’s nuclear tests, some experts said Friday. Citing a new statement from the Heritage Foundation titled “India’s Nuclear Tests…

  • Social Security Panel Attacked as “Dangerous Farce”

    Critics Blast “Poisonous Recipe” For Retirement Policy WASHINGTON — A national consortium of public-policy experts denounced proposals released today that would transform Social Security by setting up individual investment accounts and hiking the retirement age to 70. The proposals came from a private panel of politicians, economists and business executives called the National Commission on…

  • As G-8 Leaders Gather, “Free Trade” Arguments Rage in U.S.

    Critics Say That Even Prominent Foes of IMF Fail to Grasp Problem WASHINGTON-While President Clinton and leaders of seven other industrialized nations gather in Britain, debates over key global economic issues continue to rage back in the United States. On the eve of the annual G-8 summit, which will consider the International Monetary Fund’s role…

  • Study Finds Conservative Think Tanks Prevalent in 1997

    Brookings, Heritage, AEI and Cato Are Most Often Cited WASHINGTON-A study released Thursday found that conservative think tanks dominated much of the national debate last year. The joint study-conducted by sociologist Michael Dolny for Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) and the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)-found that in 1997, right-leaning think tanks accounted for…

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