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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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  • Israel’s Liberal Supporters Are Taking Their Denial to a New Level

    Israel has been the fruition of a Zionist dream, but at the same time a real-life nightmare for Palestinian people. The occupation of Gaza and the West Bank that began in 1967 has been nothing less than an ongoing, large-scale crime against humanity.

  • Historic “Golden Rule” Ship Sails Again for Nuclear Disarmament

    The people of the world must demand meaningful implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons from 2017 and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which called on the incumbent nuclear powers to move toward eliminating nuclear weapons back in 1968.

  • Citizen Lawmaking Under Attack

    Progressive ballot initiatives enjoyed historic success nationwide last November, including wins on raising minimum wages, securing voting rights, expanding Medicaid, and protecting reproductive rights (pro-abortion-rights voters won in all six states with questions on the ballot, including three GOP strongholds. Now, Republican legislators are attempting to obstruct or sabotage the citizen initiative process in a dozen or more…

  • Behind the French Government Machinations that Sparked the Protests

    A noted political commentator, Bricmont said today: “France is rocked by constant demonstrations and strikes. And it is not business as usual, as some American cynics may think. The size of the demonstrations, the violence of the police repression and the fury of the people are quite unusual.

  • Push to End Yemen War

    “Despite the current pause in bombings in Yemen since April 2022, there is no structure to prevent Saudi Arabia from resuming airstrikes, nor to permanently end the Saudi-led blockade of Yemen. The U.S. has enabled Saudi Arabia and the UAE to subject the Yemeni people to over 25,000 air raids.”

  • Media Outlets Miss the Point on “Pandemic Preparation”

    A new brand of opinion pieces focus too narrowly on U.S. biomedical capabilities, ignoring the structural and social drivers of pandemics, says public health practitioner Anne Sosin.

  • Insulin Advocates on the Insulin For All Act of 2023

    After pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced it would lower the price of insulin, another major manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, announced it would begin slashing some U.S. insulin list prices up to 75 percent next year.

  • Did the Reagan Campaign Defeat Carter by Colluding with Iran to Hold on to the Hostages?

    Decades after allegations initially surfaced of a secret mission by the Reagan campaign to derail Jimmy Carter’s 1980 re-election bid by sabotaging his efforts to free 52 American hostages being held in Iran, the New York Times is finally giving the story the attention it deserves with its report on Ben Barnes’ new claims.

  • Putin and ICC “Rank Hypocrisy” 20 Years After Iraq Invasion

    The ICC has not indicted even one American, even one Brit, even one Canadian, even one Australian, even one NATO leader, even one Israeli. This despite all the death and destruction that they have inflicted upon humanity all over the world for the past two decades.

  • Is the Fed Both Causing and Exploiting Crises?

    The present crisis reveals some of the big shortcomings in the 2008 bailout approach — starting with a failure to nationalize and prosecute fraudster bankers

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