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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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  • Biden Threatens Houthis in Yemen as They Try to Force Israeli Ceasefire

    “Yemen has been under a U.S.-supported, Saudi-led blockade for over eight years and Gaza is under siege. The results have been horrific. Yet no one cared and now, a military coalition is coming to aid Apartheid Israel while it is committing Genocide in Gaza.”

  • As Democratic Establishment Sticks with Biden, Is Trump’s Vengeful Return More Likely?

    “It’s stunning that the Democratic leadership is sticking with Biden. … Racial justice activists, Arab-American activists, Muslim-American activists, young people of all colors including Jewish young people, are appalled by what Biden has done in Gaza. And many of them are announcing that they won’t be voting for Biden even if they live in swing…

  • Supreme Court Takes Up Mifepristone Access

    The Supreme Court will decide whether to limit access to mifepristone, a key abortion drug.

  • “Washington is a Direct Partner in the Israeli War on Gaza”

    “In other words, Washington is a direct partner in the Israeli war on Gaza. This realization shall have direct consequences, not only to U.S. reputation in the Middle East, but in the short and even long-term U.S.-Middle East strategies, including its military presence in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.”

  • Clarity Sought for Facts on Medicare Advantage

    Four U.S. senators sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, calling on CMS to increase data collection on Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. 

  • 153 Countries Vote for Ceasefire, UN Can Do Much More

    Going to the ICJ, also known as the World Court, is especially urgent given that the International Criminal Court has effectively become an instrument of U.S. policy and will not lift a finger to help the Palestinians. Secretary-General of the UN António Guterres took far too long to invoke Article 99 of the UN Charter.…

  • Palestinians Cancel Christmas Celebrations Amid Gaza Devastation

    “The president of the Council of Local Evangelical Churches in the Holy Land, Munir Kakish, said the decision came due to ‘the thousands killed — and in prayer for peace.’ He added that ‘we will only hold traditional services and devotionals on the meaning of Christmas.'”

  • Israel’s Killing of Alareer

    “Israel ordered Refaat Alareer’s assassination after he derided Israeli claim of babies burned in an oven as a hoax. He was right, but died for it.” Silverstein cites an anonymous Israeli official who claimed: “Because of the joke, the war cabinet decided that Alaeer is an ‘Amalekite,’ and ordered Shabak & IDF to find and kill him.”

  • Changes to Census Bureau Data Collection on Disability

    The Census Bureau announced potential changes that could result in the undercounting of the number of disabled Americans by 20 million people.

  • Israel, Starvation as a Weapon and Inaction by ICC

    “‘Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions.’ is a WAR CRIME. cc @KarimKhanQC.”

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