Human Rights

(By Andrea Germanos) As part of their arsenal of spying tools, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, the GCHQ, are sucking up personal data leaked from smartphone apps, according to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. One of the apps the NSA and GCHQ used to gather data is the popular game […]

Egypt

The 18th Brumaire of Gen. al-Sisi in Egypt

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) On Monday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) announced that Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (also the minister of defense) was free to run for president if his conscience led him to do so. There had been a question whether the officers wanted him to get directly involved in politics. […]

Human Rights

Despite Reform Pledges, Rouhani’s Iran remains Human Rights Nightmare

contributors

(By Sarah Leah Whitson) (Beirut) – Iranians are facing serious rights abuses, despite President Hassan Rouhani’s numerous promises to respect people’s rights following his June 14, 2013, electoral victory, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2014. Authorities have released some prominent political prisoners but executions continued at high rates. Officials continued to […]

censorship

Only post-Snowden did FISA Court even Consider if NSA Bulk Phone Collection is Legal

contributors

(By Michael Masnick) FISA Court Waited Until After Snowden Leaks To Actually Explore If Bulk Phone Record Collection Was Legal (via Techdirt) One of the most common defenses of the NSA’s bulk phone record collection (in which they get access to the record of basically every phone call in the US) is that the program […]

Egypt

Why Tunisia’s Transition to Democracy is Succeeding while Egypt Falters

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) On Sunday, Tunisia’s parliament will vote on the final text of the new constitution. If it passes by a two-thirds vote, the text will not have to go to a national referendum, but just would become the organic law of the country. The constitution guarantees equal rights for women and wants gender […]

Human Rights

Israel’s KKK: Violent Squatters increasingly Attacking Palestinians

contributors

(By César Chelala) Increasing acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories have been repeatedly denounced. Together with the increasing number of settlements being built on Palestinian land, those acts of violence betray justice and seriously undermine the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. In 2007, Israeli prosecutors established that […]

Arab Spring

3 Years Later, Young Bloggers who made the Tahrir Revolution are in Jail

contributors

The military “interim government” in Egypt is cracking down on virtually all meaningful form of assembly, association, or opposition. Following the passage of a November 2013 law banning peaceful protest, dozens of activists and organizers have…

Climate Change

Top Ten Ways GOP could avoid “War on Women” Label

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Mike Huckabee objects to the charge that the Republican Party is waging a war on women. The GOP obviously is increasingly a party of angry white men. It suffers from a significant gender gap, which helped elect Barack Obama twice. Huckabee wants to just wish all these realities away. But in the […]

Dissent

Egyptian Professor Defends Himself from Coup Gov’t’s McCarthyite “Grand Espionage” Charges

contributors

(By Emad Shahin) Statement to my Students, Family and Friends January 23, 2014 It was with severe shock that I received news that I have been named in a case known as the “Grand Espionage,” which also included former President Mohamed Morsi and senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. These claims are baseless and politically […]