On the eve of massive planned protests dubbed "Day of Departure" in Egypt, continuing attacks by pro-government conspirators on anti-government protestors and roundups of human rights activists and foreign journalists are contributing to pressures on the administration of President Barack Obama to take a tougher line, including withholding military aid, toward the regime of Egyptian …
Continue reading “Obama Pressed to Pressurise Egypt’s Military”
JERUSALEM – Around the world, peoples revel in anticipation of the fall of a regime that has denied its citizens their basic rights. But most Israelis are haunted by nightmare scenarios of ‘the day after’, as if their country’s stability was anchored in the continuity of the rule of Hosni Mubarak – not in peace. …
Continue reading “Israelis Discover a New Love for Mubarak”
Stop the gravy train, says Justin Raimondo
Doug Casey on prospects for the future
CAIRO – Khalid Ibrahim Al-Laisi has been a soldier in the Egyptian army for 20 years. Today, far from shooting protesters, he says the time has come "to revolt against oppression." And as protesters vow to continue to press for President Hosni Mubarak to leave now, rather than at election time later in the year …
Continue reading “Why the Egyptian Army Won’t Shoot Protesters”
From his weekly perch at CNN, Fareed Zakaria speculated recently whether George Bush could take credit for the events that were unfolding in Tunisia, whether this was the late fruit of the neoconservative project to bring “democracy” to the Middle East. It is quite extraordinary watching Zakaria – a Muslim born and raised in India, …
Continue reading “A Surge of People Power in the Middle East”
The Egyptian events seem, on the face of it, fairly straightforward: a tyrant in office for 30 years, propped up by fulsome US support and a very efficient secret police apparatus, faces a full-scale revolution by his brutalized subjects, who are – finally! – enraged-beyond-endurance and just can’t take it anymore. A million people in …
Continue reading “Egypt: Battle of the Narratives”
In Egypt, where protesters continued to demonstrate Tuesday for the eighth day in a row, the use of torture by law enforcement officials over the past two decades has contributed to the growing unrest, rights groups say. In a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the international advocacy group claims the practice is endemic …
Continue reading “Litany of Abuses Fueled Protesters’ Fury”
With new anti-government demonstrations expected in Cairo and other Egyptian cities Tuesday, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama appears to have concluded that the 29-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak is coming to an end. But it hopes to avoid calling publicly for Mubarak’s departure, even as U.S. officials are scrambling to engage the …
Continue reading “Obama Looking Beyond Mubarak”
The death throes of the Mubarak regime in Egypt signal a new level of crisis for a U.S. Middle East strategy that has shown itself over and over again in recent years to be based on nothing more than the illusion of power. The incipient loss of the U.S. client regime in Egypt is an …
Continue reading “Why Washington Clings to a Failed Middle East Strategy” 
