Blog

  • 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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  • The Evolution of Trump’s Fascistic Politics

    Since 2016, critics have become more comfortable labeling Trump––and Trumpism––as fascist. 

  • Imran Khan Sentenced to 10 Years for Revealing How the U.S. Pushed for His Removal

    “Imran Khan has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of mishandling a classified national security document revealing U.S. pressure in his removal from power in 2022. A copy of the same document was published by The Intercept last year after being leaked by an insider from Pakistan’s national security establishment. The document…

  • Christian Zionism and the Middle East

    American evangelical Christians’ support for Israel has been used as a political tool in the shaping of U.S. government policies. 

  • World Court Cited UNRWA Against Israel, Now, U.S. Is Targeting It

    Murray writes: “the immediate response to the ICJ ruling was a coordinated attack by Israel and the combined imperialist powers on UNRWA, designed to accelerate the genocide by stopping aid, to provide a propaganda counter-narrative to the ICJ judgment, and to reduce the credibility of UNRWA’s evidence before the court.”

  • World Court Orders Israel to Abide by Genocide Convention and Stop Killing

    “This is a massive, overwhelming legal victory for the Republic of South Africa against Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. The UN General Assembly now can suspend Israel from participation in its activities as it did for South Africa and Yugoslavia. It can admit Palestine as a full member. And — especially since the International…

  • World Court to Announce Order on Israel Genocide Case Friday

    The International Court of Justice (also called the World Court) has announced it will “deliver its Order on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by South Africa in the case South Africa v. Israel this Friday, 26 January 2024, at 1 p.m.” (7 a.m. ET). South Africa filed its 84-page Application on Dec.…

  • Columbia University Scolds Students for “Unsanctioned” Gaza Rally Where They Were Attacked With Chemicals

    “Administrators at Columbia University responded to reports of students being injured by a chemical attack against an on-campus rally for Gaza by chiding students for holding protests without official authorization. Meanwhile, students told The Intercept that even as the school’s public safety department has said it is investigating the incident, school administrators themselves have yet…

  • Gaza: How Much of the Human Toll Do Americans Really See?

    In a piece titled “Why We’re Not Seeing the Real Gaza War in the Media,” author Norman Solomon writes: “The media words and images reach us light years away from what it’s actually like to be in a war zone. The experience of consuming news from afar could hardly be more different. And if we hold beliefs…

  • Reporting on the Radical Right

    The editor of Reporting Right, a weekly guide for journalists, assesses some of the pitfalls of reporting on the radical right ahead of the 2024 election.

  • Will Biden Policy Starve Yemen?

    “The U.S. designation of the Ansar-Allah, also known as Houthis as a specially designated Global Terrorist is raising concerns about its impact on the peace process and the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. With this designation, there is a heightened risk that the peace process could be derailed, as it may further estrange the Houthi and…

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