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Archives: January 2011
Million-Person March Planned as Elbaradei made Opposition Leader
Protesters in downtown Cairo on Monday morning were calling for a general strike. On Tuesday, they said they will launch a 'million-person march,' clearly with the aim of toppling the Mubarak government.…
Kolin: How the US Became a Police State
Andrew Kolin writes in a guest column for Informed Comment To understand how the U.S. government became a police state, look no further than how it freed itself from colonial rule. For…Egypt’s Class Conflict
On Sunday morning there was some sign of the Egyptian military taking on some security duties. Soldiers started arresting suspected looters, rounding up 450 of them. The disappearance of the police from…Zewail’s 4 point Plan for Egypt
Nobelist in chemistry, Dr. Ahmed Zewail of the California Institute of Technology, is an Egyptian-American who has sometimes been mentioned as a candidate for president of Egypt. He has served as a…Mubarak’s Response to Demand for end of Military Rule
Gen. Hosni Mubarak's response to a mass uprising demanding an end to military rule in Egypt? He appoints the former head of Egyptian military intelligence (Omar Suleiman) his vice president (and therefore…Mubarak Turns to Military for Support
After a dramatic day in which hundreds of thousands of Egyptians came out in all the major towns and cities of the country to challenge the police and the ruling party, President…
“Egypt is a Praetorian State:” Cole on Democracy Now!
My interview on Democracy Now on the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 is available on the Web. A text transcript follows at that link. and here it is mirrored on YouTube:Thousands of Protesters Challenge Police Crackdown in Egypt
Thousands of protesters came out into the streets of Cairo on Friday, to be met with concerted opposition from the security police, who kept them away from Maidan al-Tahrir (Liberation Square) with…Egyptian Demonstrators Rev up for Big Friday as Regime Cracks Down
As of Friday Egypt began being cut off from text messaging and internet access was disrupted ahead of planned mass protests. At 12:30 am Egyptian time, according to an email sent around…
Egyptians Defy Protest Ban, Plan big Rallies for Friday; Death toll Rises to 6
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed away from her unqualified support of the Egyptian government on Wednesday, saying, "We believe strongly that the Egyptian government has an important opportunity at this moment…Anzalone: Hezbollah’s Double Standards: Tunisia and Iran
Christopher Anzalone writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Hezbollah’s Double Standards: Tunisia, Iran, & Popular Protest Hezbollah just issued a statement via its media relations office expressing strong support for…
Egypt forbids Protests a Day after it was Shaken by Thousands of Demonstrators, 3 Killed
Egypt was wracked by demonstrations on Tuesday's "Day of Rage," called for by the April 6 committee of youth activists on social media last week. The protesters were hoping to profit from…Pressman: One Leaked Document on the Annapolis Process
Jeremy Pressman writes in a guest column for Informed Comment One Document in the Annapolis Process Jeremy Pressman As al-Jazeera continues to release more leaked documents from the negotiation office of the…The US Corruption Game – Cole in Tomdispatch
My essay, "The Corruption Game: What the Tunisian Revolution and WikiLeaks Tell Us about American Support for Corrupt Dictatorships in the Muslim World is up at The Nation Institute's Tomdispatch. Excerpt: In…
Protest against Aljazeera Leaks in Ramallah; US Dictated Leadership to Palestinians
Aljazeera reports on how Palestinians in the West Bank town of Ramallah were so angered at the allegations against the Palestine Liberation Organization leadership in the leaked documents published at the Qatari…US Case Against Wikileaks’ Julian Assange Collapses
The US government, according to NBC correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, now admits that it cannot tie Pfc. Bradley Manning to Wikileaks leader Julian Assange. The military also admitted that Manning was put on…Continued Protests in Tunisia
Tunisian activists began focusing on Monday evening on Egypt, where they hoped a planned protest on Tuesday would show the continued impact of their own Jasmine Revolution among Arab neighbors. This, as…Aljazeera’s Leaks Reveal Sham ‘Peace Process,’ Israeli Stonewalling
The Qatar satellite channel Aljazeera has gotten hold of some 1600 documents from the Palestine Authority regarding negotiations with Israel, which cast the Israelis, the Americans and the Fatah faction of Palestinians…
Bradley Manning and Mohamed Bouazizi
Activists David House and Jane Hamsher tried to visit Pfc. Bradley Manning, who stands accused of leaking classified US government documents, at Quantico on Sunday. They allege that while still outside the…
Thousands Protest Interim Government in Tunis
Signs that the Tunisia story is by no means over emerged this weekend. Protests continued in Tunis and elsewhere against the interim prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi and the president, Fouad Mebazaa, on…
Olbermann Departs, as Media Consolidate Further
People are blaming the abrupt departure of Keith Olbermann from MSNBC on that company's merger with Comcast and Olbermann's loss of the protection and patronage of Jeff Zucker, the former head of…Iranian-American Comedians on Daily Show
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show interviews two Iranian-American satirists, Saman Arbabi and his colleague Kambiz Husseini about their television show, Parazit. The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p /…Iraq’s Civil War Grinds on, with 62 Dead, 200 Wounded in Karbala Blasts
Bombings took the lives of 62 Shiite pilgrims, mostly in the holy city of Karbala, but also in Diyala province. Sunni Arab guerrillas are still attempting to destabilize the Shiite-dominated government of…
Beck: You’re Going to Have to Shoot them in The Head
On June 10, 2010, Glenn Beck painted a picture of the Democratic Party as deeply divided into a front group (President Obama, Nancy Pelosi) and a set of radical backers, whom the…Tunisia’s Uprising: A Real Shot at Democracy – Cole at the Economist
A podcast interview with me about Tunisia and its wider significance in the Middle East is up at the Economist web site.
Map: Industry by Province in Tunisia
Courtesy Centre Technique du TextileTunisian Ministers Resign En Masse from old Ruling Party
Stung by continued protests against the Rally for Constitutional Democracy (RCD) of deposed president Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali, the members of that party in the interim cabinet all resigned from it on…Ala. Governor Apologizes to Muslims, Hindus, Jews
Gov. Robert Bentley, the new governor of Alabama, created a firestorm of controversy on Monday when he said that if you are not a Christian he does not consider you his brother…GOP to Uninsured: Don’t Get Sick, if you Get Sick, Die Quickly: Part Deux
In a mostly 'symbolic' gesture (i.e., the kind that uses the middle finger), the Republican-dominated House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Health Care law passed late last year. The GOP…
Top Ten Horrible Things done to Us by Outgoing Sen. Joe Lieberman
Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) announced Tuesday that he would not seek reelection in 2012, and progressive Americans breathed a sigh of collective relief. It is worth reviewing the most horrible things Lieberman…
Juan Cole: Tunisia Uprising “Spearheaded by Labor Movements, by Internet Activists, by Rural Workers; It’s a Populist Revolution” (Democracy Now!)
My interview on Tunisia on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!, which aired on Tuesday, is on the Web. A transcript is here. Here is the YouTube video: Excerpt: ' AMY GOODMAN: And, of…Tunisian Revolution Shakes, Inspires Middle East – Cole in Truthdig
My column is out at Truthdig on the wider repercussions in the Middle East of the Tunisian events, "Tunisian Revolution Shakes, Inspires Middle East". Excerpt: 'The spectacle of masses of demonstrators pouring…
No News is Good News (for Them)
Does anyone doubt that if Tunisia's president had been overthrown by an Islamic Revolution, there would have been 24/7 coverage of it in US media? Stories more important than almost everything on…
New Tunisian Government Declares Total Liberty of Information, as the Opposition Demands more Change
The Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) managed to remain in control of Tunisia on Monday, with Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi announcing a national unity government in which his party retained the most powerful…King on Guns, War and Non-Violence as a Social Movement
' I have condemned any organizer of war, regardless of his rank or nationality. ' - Martin Luther King, Jr. ' All history teaches us that like a turbulent ocean beating great…New Wikileaks: US Knew Tunisian Gov. Rotten Corrupt, Supported Ben Ali Anyway
The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten released a series of US diplomatic cables from 2006 on massive and pervasive corruption and nepotism in Tunisia and its effect on economic development and social problems. The…Tunisia: Government of National Unity or Tanks in the Street?
The video on Aljazeera shows Tunis as a war zone on Saturday afternoon, with burned out vehicles in the streets and heavy black smoke floating over the city. Security forces loyal to…Tunisia between Democracy and Anarchy
Tunisians woke Saturday morning to delirious joy at the advent of political liberty, but many worried about the simultaneous advent of social anarchy. The fall of the government of dictator Zine al-Abedin…
The First Middle Eastern Revolution since 1979
Tunisian President Zine al-Abidin Bin Ali has fled the country before the advancing crowds pouring in to the capital's center. A French eye-witness said of the masses thronging Bourguiba Avenue that "it…Sadr Demands Oil Shares for Iraqis, Insists on US Withdrawal
Washington observers are worried that the return to Iraq of Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr will forestall a revision of the Status of Forces Agreement. The SOFA specifies that the remaining 47,000 US troops…Over 9,000 Murders by Gun in US; 39 in UK
Number of Murders, United States, 2009: 15,241 Number of Murders by Firearms, US, 2009: 9,146 Number of Murders, Britain, 2008*: 648 (Since Britain's population is 1/5 that of US, this is equivalent…Another US Quagmire? Lebanon Government Falls
Ironically, while Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri was meeting with President Obama on Wednesday, his government fell. As one Arab commentator observed, he went into the meeting a prime minister and came…Palin Borrows ‘Blood Libel’ from Israeli Far Right
Sarah Palin in her response to the controversy over her violent political imagery and that of the US right wing in general in the wake of the Tucson massacre, provoked a new…Random Shooting in Egypt or Sectarian Hatred?
Was it sectarian hatred or a policeman's random meltdown? The answer is not clear, though many press accounts are rushing to judgment. One thing that seems clear is that people who have…Biden: US Could be in Afghanistan Past 2014; Bombing Shakes Capital
Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday in Kabul that the US might keep troops in Afghanistan after 2014 if asked to do so by the Afghanistan government. He thus reversed his earlier…Death Penalty for Blasphemy Rare in Muslim World
Pakistani campaigners against the country's blasphemy laws are pointing out that out of 54 Muslim-majority countries in the world, at most 5 permit capital punishment for blasphemy. They are Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,…
Rightwingers feeling Unfairly Blamed
(courtesy Stacey (twitter.com/flipflops).
24 Dead in Tunisia Clashes; US Ambassador Called In
Some 24 persons have been killed in clashes between protesters and government security forces in Tunisia. The government has closed schools and universities "indefinitely" as a way of demobilizing youthful protesters. The…
Naw, There’s been no Right Wing Extreme Rhetoric
Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other far right-wing demagogues have been quick to defend themselves from the charge of fostering a climate of poisonous political hatred in the United States, in the…
Sarah Never Does Anything Wrong
Sarah Palin's aides are claiming that the crosshairs marking the targeted Democratic candidates (including Gabrielle Giffords) on her infamous poster (scroll down) were not crosshairs but a 'surveyor's symbol.' But Palin called…Death of Pakistani Secularism Much Exaggerated
There has been a lot of hand-wringing about religious extremism in Pakistan in the wake of the assassination of Punjab governor Salman Taseer. On Sunday the fundamentalist religious parties held a rally…
White Terrorism
Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged assassin of Federal judge John M. Roll and five others and attempted assassin of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), was clearly mentally unstable. But the political themes of…DOJ Subpoenas Twitter Account of Wikileaks Volunteer and now Iceland MP
The US Department of Justice has subpoenaed from Twitter the private emails of former Wikileaks activist Birgitt Jonsdottir, now a member of Iceland's parliament. She tweeted, "USA government wants to know about…
Egyptian Muslims Throng in Thousands to Protect Christians
Thousands of Muslims honored a promise made by their leaders and showed up at Christmas Mass or at candlelight vigils outside Egyptian churches on Friday, offering their bodies as human shields against…Today in Apartheid
Israeli troops made an incursion into the Palestinian city of al-Khalil (which the Israelis call Hebron) and killed the wrong man, invading his apartment and riddling him with bullets. They then went…
Wikileaks: US Offered to Block anti-Whaling Protesters
Some environmentalists are arguing that whales and dolphins are so intelligent, social and self-aware that they deserve a special status, of non-human individuals with basic human rights. Some cultures are still dedicated…
Wainwright: Taseer’s Assassination Lays Bare Contradictions in Pakistani Islam
Aadil Wainwright writes from Pakistan in a guest column for Informed Comment: The assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer has laid bare a crucial debate within the Pakistani public over the nature…Iran’s Oily Revenge on US Drivers, US Troops
They're baaaack. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is being chaired by Iran at the moment. And Iran thinks the run-up of the price of crude to over $90 a barrel…
Sadr Returns Triumphantly to Najaf
Al-Zaman (The Times of Baghdad) writes in Arabic that Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadr Movement, returned on Wednesday to Najaf after 4 years in Iran. An aide issued a communique…Wikileaks: Israelis ‘Intend to Keep the Gazan Economy on the Brink of Collapse’
The Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost has released a March, 2008, US embassy cable describing the Israeli blockade and siege of Occupied Gaza as an attempt to reduce the society to the lowest possible…
Reagan gave Medicare the Tea Party Treatment
2011: GOP pledges to repeal Health Care as socialist plot, on behalf of big Pharma. 1961: Ronald Reagan attacks Medicare as socialist plot, on behalf of the AMA.Calls for Peace, Tolerance in Cairo
Hundreds of Christians peacefully marched on Tuesday evening to a cathedral in Cairo, protesting the New Year's Day bombing of the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria. Pope Shenouda III , head…
Death of Pakistani Progressivism?
Salman Tasir, the governor of Punjab Province in Pakistan, was assassinated by one of his own guards Tuesday, allegedly for his desire to repeal Pakistan's blasphemy law, which has been increasingly misused…Wrong Again, Sen. Graham: Cole in Truthdig
My column is just out in Truthdig, entitled "Wrong Again, Sen. Graham," on the South Carolina senator's modest proposal to keep two big American air bases in Afghanistan "permanently." Graham says the…Women enlist as Fighters in Gaza
CNN reports on a handful of militant women in Gaza who have joined the radical al-Nasir Salahuddin Brigades and gained training as guerrillas. The women explicitly mentioned the model of women in…Taliban Getting Stronger, As US Public Support for Afghanistan War Collapses
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is getting weaker over time, and the Taliban are getting stronger, according to Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Matthews says that there will…5000 Birds fall out of Sky in Arkansas
An environmental mystery: The blogosphere is abuzz about the mystery of thousands of birds falling out of the sky in Arkansas. Such things happen sometimes because of atmospheric events, lightning storms, etc.…Glaspie Memo Vindicates Her, Shows Saddam’s Thinking
Wikileaks has released the July 25, 1990 cable by US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie in which she reported her meeting with Saddam Hussein over the Kuwait crisis. Saddam had summoned her.…
Christian Crowds Protest Violently in Egypt
Crowds of Christian youth protested in the hundreds in Alexandria and Cairo on Sunday. The protesters in Alexandria were prevented by riot police from reaching the Saints Cathedral that had been bombed…Wikileaks: Israel Plans Total War on Lebanon, Gaza
The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has summarized an Israeli military briefing by Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi of a US congressional delegation a little over a year ago and concludes that…
Mubarak: We will Cut off the Head of the Snake; Al-Azhar: This was an Attack on all Egyptians
The semi-official Egyptian newspaper, al-Ahram, reports that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak asserted in a speech to the nation on Saturday that a foreign hand was behind the car-bombing of a Coptic Christian…Top Ten Middle East Challenges for U.S. Policy, 2011
10. The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives will attempt to stampede Obama into keeping troops in Iraq, delaying any withdrawals from Afghanistan, and launching a military strike on Iran.…