Egypt’s combination of popular street power and military power continued to dominate the unfolding events in that country on Friday. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on the Egyptian masses to gather on Friday to “delegate” to the army the authority necessary to root out terrorism. Al-Sisi got his wish, as enormous crowds […]
Tunisia: Demos, Parliament Resignations and the Republic of Sidi Bouzid Secedes
The assassination on Thursday of the leftist leader of the Popular Front, Mohamed Brahmi, provoked no end of trouble in Tunisia on Friday. The left and the middle and upper class secularists tended to blame it on the ruling Renaissance (Ennahda) Party, a party of the religious Right. Some outright accused Renaissance of being behind […]
Pentagon: Americans must give up Liberties to fight “enemies” but we won’t say who they are (Currier)
Cora Currier writes at ProPublica In a major national security speech this spring, President Obama said again and again that the U.S. is at war with “Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their associated forces.” So who exactly are those associated forces? It’s a secret. At a hearing in May, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., asked the […]
Egypt: Military announces ‘War on Terror,’ Calls for Massive Demos Against Muslim Brotherhood
Here are two videos from AFP that help explain all those people milling in the street today in Egypt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Minister of Defense, called for big demonstrations on Friday so that that people can “delegate” to the military the ability to wage a “war on terror.” The use of that language […]
Tunisia Plunged into Crisis by Second Political Assassination
The assassination Thursday of opposition member of parliament Mohamed Brahmi (from the small far left Popular Front coalition) shook the country for the second time this year, following on a similar killing in February of another Popular Front figure, Chokri Belaid. Thousands demonstrated throughout the country against the ruling Renaissance (Ennahda or al-Nahda) Party, a […]
Pakistan: Civilian Drone Casualties from Poor US Intelligence: Gen. Shah (Woods)
Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: US officials are claiming that an internal Pakistani assessment of civilian deaths from US drone strikes – obtained and published in full by the Bureau – is ‘far from authoritative.’ The secret document was obtained by the Bureau from three independent sources. It provides details of […]
What Congress Could do about NSA Spying if It were Serving the People (Brandeisky)
Kara Brandeisky writes at ProPublica: Although the House defeated a measure that would have defunded the bulk phone metadata collection program, the narrow 205-217 vote showed that there is significant support in Congress to reform NSA surveillance programs. Here are six other legislative proposals on the table. 1) Raise the standard for what records are […]
Congress betrays vow to Uphold Constitution, abrogates 4th Amendment; Snowden is Better
The US House of Representatives narrowly declined on Wednesday to deny funding for National Security Agency collection and storage of millions of Americans’ phone records. The requisition of the records of domestic and foreign calls made by Verizon customers was revealed by The Guardian newspaper’s New York operation . The NSA Prism program seems to […]
Top Ten Things Anthony “Carlos Danger” Weiner has said that are worse than Sexting
Reprint Edition: The real scandal surrounding Anthony Weiner is that he is bigoted against Palestinians and used to misuse his position in Congress to support punitive policies against them. Americans appear to be bored by policy, titillated by private peccadilloes [well, OK, years later it is clear that these are a mental problem, not just […]
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