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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. That’s one camp. The people of Egypt (most of them now) are the other. The Americans want Mubarak to stay on for longer while they look for a suitable successor that would be best for U.S. interests. Mubarak’s tactic is to make Egyptians choose between…

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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 that principle, in the Arab/Muslim region it has generally supported radical Islamists in fear of secular nationalism (as has the UK).  Familiar examples include Saudi Arabia, the ideological center of radical Islam (and of Islamic terror), Zia ul-Haq, the most vicious of Pakistan’s dictators, Reagan’s…

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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 over Egypt. As citizens, we expect our president to uphold those values. For thirty years, our government has spent billions of dollars to help build and sustain the system the Egyptian people are now trying to dismantle.

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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 ago.”

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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 the protests. Mahmoud Saad, a popular TV host, has told other journalists that his disappearance from his daily show, Masr El-Naharda (Egypt Today), comes in protests against pressure to defame protesters as rioters “destroying the country”. The state is clearly starting to launch a media…

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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 worse if you use violence” many journalists were telling police officers outside the building. In the industrial city of Mahala, police virtually cordoned off the city. My sources in the city tell me the police ordered early dismissal of textile factory workers to preempt any…

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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 street in the center of the city. There have been minor clashes with protesters in various parts of Cairo, as well as in Assiyut – a city to the south. At the moment, security forces are cordoning off Tahrir Square. Private security guards in the…

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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 frequencies were not legally authorized. But critics, including many from abroad, have accused the Kiev government of using the case as a way to bludgeon a troublesome media voice into silence. … [See full piece on consortiumnews.com]

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  • Egypt: Threat of the Army, Resilience of the Protests

    Philip Rizk is an independent blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. He said today: “Although the Egyptian anti-government demonstrators welcomed the arrival of the military on Friday night the 29th, I have considered their presence a threat to the people’s demands from the start. I believe the military dispersed on the streets of Egypt in…

  • Egypt: U.S. Government’s “Dynamic Hypocrisy”

    Edward Peck served in Tunisia and Egypt, was chief of mission in Iraq and Mauritania, and deputy director of the Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan White House. He said today: “Asked why they don’t have Mubarak step down, the administration says that is not its role, it’s up to the Egyptian people,…

  • Mubarak’s Base

    Fawaz Gerges is director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. He writes in a piece in today’s Independent: “The regime’s base is extremely shallow in comparison to the opposition, which represents an overwhelming majority of the population. The regime has alienated most of the rising social and political classes: centrists…

  • “Mubarak Will Hunt Us Down One by One”

    Based in Cairo, Mekay reports for Inter Press Service and other outlets. He just wrote the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Just outside Tahrir Square right now. Pro-Mubarak ‘hired muscle’ is attacking journalists and stopping them from going into the square. These are the government types, possibly even police staff in plainclothes. They are confiscating all…

  • Egypt into Iran? — “A Self-Fulfilling Prophesy”

    Ervand Abrahamian, who was born in Iran, is a distinguished professor of history at City University of New York. His books include A History of Modern Iran. He said today: “Those who warn that if the U.S. eases out Mubarak the outcome will be another Iran may unwittingly bring about a self-fulfilling prophecy. In Iran…

  • Following Mubarak and Obama Speeches, Government Thugs Attack Demonstration

    Pro-regime forces in Cairo have attacked peaceful protesters and media personnel. Phone lines are intermittent; Egypt is 7 hours ahead of U.S. ET. Last night, following Mubarak and Obama’s speeches, As’ad AbuKhalil, wrote the piece “Obama to Mubarak: License to Murder the Egyptian People.” For updates on his blog, see: angryarab.blogspot.com. See Al Jazeera English…

  • On Healthcare Insurance Ruling: How to Get to Universal Coverage Without a Mandate

    Executive director of Health Justice, Clark Newhall is a doctor and a lawyer. He said today: “Just like the government cannot force you to buy a car from GM because there is not enough mass transit, so too Congress cannot force you to buy insurance from Wellpoint when there is not enough health care access.

  • Will Wall Street Be Held Accountable for Fraud and “Greatest Redistribution of Wealth Upward?”

    William Black recently wrote the piece “How can the Architects of the Crisis Investigate it?”

  • * Chomsky * Threats to the Egyptian Uprising * U.S. Arms Egypt

    Just back from the Mideast, Mounzer Sleiman directs Think Tanks Monitor and is founder of the Center for American and Arab Studies. He said today: “The Egyptian popular uprising begun on January 25 is being threatened on two fronts: The clique immediately around Mubarak through force and intimidation are trying to use the army and…

  • 100 Academics Call for New Mideast Foreign Policy

    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 over Egypt. As citizens, we expect our president to uphold those values.

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