Arab World

Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports in Arabic that the Transitional National Council in Benghazi says that it has a network of cells in Tripoli and plans to launch an uprising in the capital. A Tripoli resident who talked to the newspaper by phone said that most people in Tripoli feel as though they have been taken hostage […]

Egypt

Mubaraks Arrested

Juan Cole

Al-Ahram is reporting in Arabic that Gamal and Ala Mubarak, the sons of deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak, have been arrested and will be moved from Sharm El Sheikh to the maximum security Tura prison in the Muqattam hills above Cairo. They are said to have sat stunned and silent for some time on receiving the […]

Libya

Benghazi Rejects AU Plan to Leave Qaddafi in Power

Juan Cole

Reuters reports that, as expected, the Transitional National Council in Benghazi has rejected the African Union proposal for a cease fire. Since Muammar Qaddafi’s forces are actively attacking civilian cities such as Misrata and Zintan for having dared protest his rule, using truck-mounted Grad rockets fired into civilian areas, the rebels argued, it is meaningless […]

Iraq

Al-Sadr Threatens Mahdi Army Revival if US Troops Stay

Juan Cole

Al-Hayat writing in Arabic reports that nationalist Shiite clergyman Muqtada al-Sadr threatened on Saturday to revive his Mahdi Army militia if US troops tried to stay in Iraq past December 31, 2011. He said his fighters would return to carrying arms. Tens of thousands of Iraqi protesters, mainly his supporters, gathered beginning early in the […]

Egypt

Hundreds of Thousands of Arabs Protest their Governments

Juan Cole

On Friday, the US Congress endeavored to decide whether American democracy has irretrievably broken down because the representatives of the Billionaires refused to compromise with the representatives of the People (“cutting spending” while “cutting taxes” means “shifting the cost of running society to the middle class from the filthy rich”). The answer was that it […]

Yemen

Reuters: Saudi-US Plan to Nudge Saleh Out as Demonstrators Stage Tsunami of Taiz

Juan Cole

Reuters reporters in Dubai are saying that a diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations going on between the Gulf Cooperation Council and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told them that the plan was to have Saleh step down in favor of a transitional ruling council that would prepare for elections. Among those mentioned as potential […]

Yemen

OSC: Yemeni Tribes, Movements, Youth, Organizations Decry Regime’s ‘Bloody Massacres’

Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center translates reactions of major political groupings in Yemen to the massacre of protesters in Taiz [Ta’izz] by security forces on Monday and the wounding of some 50 with live fire at al-Hodeida the same day. Yemeni Tribes, Movements, Youth, Organizations Decry Regime’s ‘Bloody Massacres’… Wednesday, April 6, 2011 … Document […]

Yemen

24 Dead in Fresh Yemen Violent Repression

Juan Cole

Violent repression of Yemen’s protesters led to 24 deaths on Tuesday in Sanaa and Taizz. Demonstrations were put down near Sanaa university, and dissident Gen. Ali Mohsen Ahmar maintains that an assassination attempt was made on his life by members of the presidential guard. Aljazeera English reports on the renewed protests and violence.

Libya

Impatient Rebels Critique NATO Aid

Juan Cole

Gen. Abdelfatah Yunis, the commander of rebel military forces in Benghazi expressed dissatisfaction on Tuesday with the pace of the NATO/ UN intervention in his country. He worried that Misrata, the country’s 3rd-largest city, might fall altogether any moment. He could not understand why supplies were not delivered promptly to the harbor by NATO ships. […]