Dissent

By Juan Cole For those of you who like “long reads,” my new book will be out next Tuesday. For those of you intending to buy it, let me suggest that you all purchase it on its publication date, July 1. The way the publishing metrics work, if you can get the book to a […]

Arab Spring

Religion and the Fight over Public Space in Egypt

contributors

By Marwa Fikry Abdel Samei | Cairo (Special to Informed Comment) “Have you pronounced blessings on the Prophet today?” These words alarmed the Egyptian regime and impelled it to announce a war on the posters carrying them. Last week, whenever you go around the streets of Cairo and some other governorates, you could hardly miss […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan Elections: Abdullah refuses to Concede, Protests Erupt charging Fraud

contributors

By Frud Bezhan via RFE/RL KABUL — As allegations of fraud in Afghanistan’s runoff election pile up, protest movements have mobilized against what they see as systematic vote-rigging. Two groups have taken the lead in protesting the June 14 presidential vote, holding separate demonstrations and sit-ins in several locations around Kabul. In various events that […]

censorship

Egypt: 15-Yr. Sentence for Hero of Tahrir Revolution, blogger Alaa, 24 others

contributors

By Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch (Beirut) – A Cairo court on June 11, 2014, sentenced the prominent Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and 24 others to 15 years in prison and LE100,000 fines (US$14,000) on a range of charges stemming from their involvement in a peaceful protest on November 26, 2013, in Cairo. Police […]

Democracy

Lighting the Darkest Corners of Government: Review of Glenn Greenwald’s No Place to Hide

contributors

Book review and discussion questions for reading groups In No Place to Hide, Glenn Greenwald shows that a modern investigative reporter doesn’t just need the courage to take on the United States government and established media. He also needs a whole…

Constitution

5 Falsehoods Defenders of NSA keep Repeating that Destroy their Credibility

Juan Cole

By Cindy Cohn and Nadia Kayyali Over the past year, as the Snowden revelations have rolled out, the government and its apologists have developed a set of talking points about mass spying that the public has now heard over and over again. From the President, to Hilary Clinton to Rep. Mike Rogers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein […]

Asia

Tiananmen still Under Lockdown after all These Years

contributors

By Philip Cunningham I approached the Square from Qianmen which back in the old days of the Qing Dynasty was the traditional gate into the Forbidden City; nowadays it’s the gate to a quasi-forbidden public square. In better times, one used to just walk onto the Square, from almost any direction, at almost any time. […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

NSA Intercepting Millions of Personal Images for Facial Recognition Tech

contributors

By Sarah Lazare The National Security Agency is mass collecting facial images through its surveillance programs for use in facial recognition technology, journalists James Risen and Laura Poitras revealed Saturday in the New York Times. Secret documents exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal that the spy agency views facial recognition as the next frontier […]

Censors

NYT’s James Risen risks Jail For Protecting Sources after SC declines to Take Appeal

contributors

By Trevor Timm: The Supreme Court today rejected New York Times reporter James Risen’s appeal of a 4th Circuit decision that ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source under oath. The case, one of the most important for reporter’s privilege in decades, means that Risen has exhausted his appeals and must now […]