On Saturday morning, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood held a news conference in which its leader, Muhammad Badie, insisted that the so-called opposition in Egypt is nothing more than criminals and saboteurs and condemned the security forces for allowing the burning of Muslim Brotherhood HQ in Cairo. He complained that an attempt had been made to […]
Senate Wraps up Investigation of CIA Rights Abuses but You’ll Likely Never See it (Currier)
Cora Currier writes at ProPublica A Senate committee is close to putting the final stamp on a massive report on the CIA’s detention, interrogation and rendition of terror suspects. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who heads the Select Committee on Intelligence, called the roughly 6,000-page report “the most definitive review of this CIA program to be […]
Syria Rebels make Advances as Hillary Clinton calls for ‘a Concerted Push’ for Democratic Transition (Videos)
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a ‘concerted push’ on Friday to begin a political transition in Syria. She said that the transition must eventuate in a unified, democratic Syria. AFP reports: Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson , expressed severe reservations about what he called ‘politicized’ […]
Egypt; New Demos; Obama Expresses Alarm; and al-Azhar Clerics condemn Constitution
US President Barack Obama called Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi on Thursday to express his anxiety about the violence that broke out on Wednesday in front of the presidential palace in Cairo’s Heliopolis district and elsewhere in the country, which left 7 dead and over 700 wounded (according to the latest revised count). Obama called for […]
Another thing Utah Could learn from Kenya: Olkaria IV Geothermal Plant to be largest in World
Utah did not vote for President Obama, whose father hailed from Kenya. But that state has something else to learn from the east African country. Scientists have found a massive geothermal hotspot in the Utah that could be used to generate electricity, with natural steam. (Most electricity generation, including by nuclear plants, just consists of […]
America is officially a Center-Left Country (Young Turks)
On how America is a center-left country, and the younger voters are more left wing than their elders. Cenk Uygur of Current TV’s “Young Turks” explains: On former wedge issues such as gay marriage, on marijuana legalization, on progressive income taxes– on a whole range of issues a clear majority of Americans, especially younger Americans, […]
President Obama needs to get us Out of Iran, too– not Just Iraq (Escobar)
Pepe Escobar writes at Tomdispatch.com: Let’s start with the obvious but important: on entering the Oval Office in January 2009, President Obama inherited a seemingly impregnable three-decade-long “Wall of Mistrust” in Iran-U.S. relations. To his credit, that March he directly addressed all Iranians in a message for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, calling for an […]
Egypt: Faction Fighting in the Streets Threatens Stability, leaves 5 dead, 450 wounded
Egypt has descended into faction-fighting in the streets that left some 5 dead and 450 wounded on Wednesday, as President Muhammad Morsi prepared to make a major address to the nation on Thursday. Violence has broken out not just in Cairo itself but also in provincial cities such as Suez, Port Said, Ismailiya, Zaqaziq and […]
Egypt: 100,000 Demonstrators Deliver “Final Warning,” chase President Morsi from Palace
On Tuesday, another big wave of protests was held against the policies of President Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, with rallies in in the public squares of most of Egypt’s major cities. The protests were called “The Final Warning.” Many newspapers and television stations went dark, while big rallies were held in Tahrir Square […]