JONATHAN KUTTAB
Kuttab, a noted Palestinian human rights attorney, said today: “The Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions have already had a profound impact throughout the Middle East. We formerly believed the only change coming to the region was through the Islamists, but now we are enthusiastic about the possibility of secular reform. Arab nationalism, Christian-Muslim unity, and optimism currently reigns supreme in much of the Arab world. Egypt is a monumental earthquake. … The U.S. needs a major shakeup in its entire approach to the Arab world. It has fundamentally ignored the Arab public, simply dealing with compliant regimes that make deals with Israel. You now have a public demanding rights.” Kuttab is in the U.S. until Saturday.

NUBAR HOVSEPIAN
Hovsepian is Armenian from Egypt who teaches political science at Chapman University. He said today: “For the transition to have any meaning, the military must take several steps to pave the way for a free and democratic election. The press, including Egyptian national TV must be free and open to all political forces in Egypt; emergency regulations must be suspended immediately, political parties must be legalized; human rights must be upheld and all political prisoners must be released immediately. Once these and other measures are instituted, then and only then can free and fair elections be held — with international supervision. Lastly, those responsible for the killing of Egyptians must be brought to justice.” Hovsepian recently wrote the piece “The Arab Pro-Democracy Movement: Struggles to Redefine Citizenship” for the new journal Jadaliyya.

EMAD MEKAY
Based in Cairo, Mekay reports for Inter Press Service and other outlets. He recently wrote the piece “Labor Activists Rejoice in Egypt, but Will It Last?” for the New York Times.

He also recently wrote the piece: “Egypt Labor Strikes Energize Pro-Democracy Push.”

The blog arabawy.org — @3arabawy on Twitter — is regularly covering strikes and other labor actions in Egypt.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Dr. AIDA SEIF EL-DAWLA
El-Dawla is with the Nadeem Center for Victims of Torture in Cairo. She was profiled by Time magazine as a global hero in 2004. She sent an email to the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t. We still have the same cabinet appointed by [Mubarak]. The emergency state is still enforced. Old detainees are still in detentions and new ones since the 25th of January remain missing. There is no public apology for the killings. We hear several executives are being prosecuted, including minister of Interior Habib El Adly. Process [is] not transparent.”

KHALED BEYDOUN
Beydoun is co-founder of FreeEgyptNow.org — he is currently in Detroit and will be in D.C. Tuesday.
He said today: “Mubarak gained an absurd amount of wealth by effectively impoverishing his own people, and therefore, his funds should be frozen, reclaimed, and returned to the people of Egypt. … One cannot ignore the thousands of imprisoned Egyptians who were locked away for the very same actions and behavior of the revolutionaries in Tahrir Square — political dissent, speaking truth to power and organizing against government repression and corruption. The army should take the immediate steps to vindicate these individuals, as well as any detained since January 25.” See: “Mubarak family fortune could reach $70 billion, say experts.”

GILBERT ACHCAR
Currently traveling in North America and available for a limited number of interviews, Achcar is professor of development studies and international relations at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He said today: “Barack Obama’s statement [following Mubarak's resignation]  was very obviously trying to make the best of what actually is a severe blow to U.S. influence in the region, because it affects a major ally of the United States, a major strategic ally of the United States. That’s what Egypt has been since the early ’70s in the region. So what Obama basically has been trying is to recuperate this whole event as a confirmation of the adherence of the Egyptian people to U.S. values. … But if we get to real democratic elections and the people of Egypt really have their say in the political direction of events and the foreign policy of their country, you can be sure that the choice won’t be friendly to either the state of Israel or the United States of America as a hegemonic power.”

Achcar, whose latest book is The Arabs and the Holocaust, has done a series of interviews on Egypt with The Real News. The latest is titled: “Will Democracy Movement Challenge Military After Mubarak?”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

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SIBEL EDMONDS
Edmonds, a former FBI official and whistleblower, recently wrote the piece “Let It Cut Both Ways: U.S. Foreign Aid & State Sponsored Terrorism.” See her blog at boilingfrogspost.com
The piece examines the connection between torture, backing oppressive regimes and the emergence of groups like Al-Qaeda.

DAVID PORTER
Porter just wrote the piece “The Triumph of Leaderless Revolutions,” which states: “‘Leaderless revolutions,’ as seen currently in North Africa, pose important challenges to outside media and to foreigners, generally, seeking authoritative voices to clarify the picture of fast-moving events. But genuine revolutions are made from below, with the myriad energies and objectives of hundreds of thousands or millions coalescing at least around certain fundamental demands. Time-constrained and impatient foreign journalists and audiences, dependent on fast analyses by the usual hierarchical menu of ‘experts’ and political leaders, naturally resist an arduous process of grassroots inquiry.”

Porter researched and wrote on the large workers’ self-management experience in Algeria almost fifty years ago. He is a professor emeritus of political science at SUNY/Empire State College. Among the numerous courses he taught were classes on comparative revolutions and modern Algerian history. He is the editor of Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution.

LAILA EL-HADDAD
Author of the book Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting and Everything in Between, Haddad is now in the U.S. She said today: “For far too long, Hosni Mubarak, propped up by the United States, has repressed his own people and colluded with Israel to keep Gaza under lock and key. This time has come to an end. Obama came out in strong support today of the Egyptian people and the change brought. But the question remains: will he support a demand to end former dictator Mubarak’s closure of Gaza?”
[Read more...]

The analysts listed below are in the U.S. and Egypt, which is 7 hours ahead of U.S. ET. For online resources see: accuracy.org/online-resources-on-egypt

Dr. AIDA SEIF AL-DAWLA, Dr. MOSTAFA HUSSEIN
Hussein is a doctor at Nadeem Center for Victims of Torture in Cairo; Al-Dawla is a psychiatrist with the group. She was profiled by Time magazine as a global hero in 2004.

SHEILA CARAPICO
Professor of political science and international studies at Richmond University and currently visiting at the American University in Cairo, Carapico is author of Civil Society in Yemen.

PHILIP RIZK, twitter.com/tabulagaza
Rizk is an independent blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. He was featured on a news release Sunday from the Institute for Public Accuracy, “Egypt: Threat of the Army, Resilience of the Protests.”

NUBAR HOVSEPIAN
Hovsepian is Armenian from Egypt who teaches political science at Chapman University. He just wrote the piece “The Arab Pro-Democracy Movement: Struggles to Redefine Citizenship” for the new journal Jadaliyya. [Read more...]

Former Ambassador, CIA Official Weigh In

On Wednesday, the Institute for Public Accuracy distributed a news release titled “Omar Suleiman, ‘Egypt’s Torturer-in-Chief,’ Tied to False Iraq WMD Tortured ‘Intel.’”

Reporter Robert Tait writes in the Guardian on his abduction in Cairo just this week. The Guardian reports Tait could “only listen as fellow captives were electrocuted and beaten by Mubarak’s security services.” Writes Tait: “I had ‘disappeared,’ along with countless Egyptians, inside the bowels of the Mukhabarat, President Hosni Mubarak’s vast security-intelligence apparatus and an organisation headed, until recently, by his vice-president and former intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, the man trusted to negotiate an ‘orderly transition’ to democratic rule. Judging by what I witnessed, that seems a forlorn hope.”

ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN
Loewenstein is an independent journalist and author in Sydney, Australia. He just interviewed Mamdouh Habib, an Egyptian-born Australian who wrote the book “My Story: The Tale of a Terrorist Who Wasn’t.” Loewenstein’s web page features audio of a new interview with Habib in which he says of Suleiman: “He should be arrested, he should be in jail, he’s a criminal. … If America supports Suleiman, people in Egypt will say Obama is a criminal.”

Loewenstein’s webpage also features selected excerpts from Habib’s 2008 book in which he recounts how Suleiman personally threatened his life and tortured him and how he was offered money to state that he was planning a terror attack. Twitter feed: twitter.com/antloewenstein
[Read more...]

Laura Rosen of Politico writes that “the United States supports talks on an orderly transition being led by Egyptian Vice President Gen. Omar Suleiman,” who was recently appointed vice president by Hosni Mubarak.

KATHERINE HAWKINS
A human rights lawyer, Hawkins has been a researcher for Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side and the new piece “Who is Omar Suleiman?” in The New Yorker Mayer writes: “Suleiman has headed the feared Egyptian general intelligence service. In that capacity, he was the CIA’s point man in Egypt for renditions — the covert program in which the CIA snatched terror suspects from around the world and returned them to Egypt and elsewhere for interrogation, often under brutal circumstances.” See Hawkins’ Twitter feed for background and regular updates: twitter.com/KHawkins5

Mayer added to her piece: “Katherine Hawkins, a sharp-eyed human-rights lawyer who did legal research for my book, points out that, according to [author Ron] Suskind, Suleiman was the CIA’s liaison for the rendition of an Al Qaeda suspect known as Ibn Sheikh al-Libi. The Libi case is particularly controversial, in large part because it played a role in the building of the case for the American invasion of Iraq.”

Hawkins wrote “The Promises of Torturers: Diplomatic Assurances and the Legality of Rendition.” Also, see some of her recent updates.

LISA HAJJAR
Hajjar is a professor in the sociology department at the University of California-Santa Barbara and a co-editor at the new journal Jadaliyya, where she recently wrote the piece “Omar Suleiman, the CIA’s Man in Cairo and Egypt’s Torturer-in-Chief.”

The piece states: “At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt — Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib — was tortured by Suleiman himself. … A far more infamous torture case, in which Suleiman also is directly implicated, is that of Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi. Unlike Habib, who was innocent of any ties to terror or militancy, al-Libi allegedly was a trainer at al-Khaldan camp in Afghanistan. He was captured by the Pakistanis while fleeing across the border in November 2001. He was sent to Bagram, and questioned by the FBI. But the CIA wanted to take over, which they did, and he was transported to a black site on the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea, then extraordinarily rendered to Egypt. Under torture there, al-Libi ‘confessed’ knowledge about an al-Qaeda — Saddam connection, claiming that two al-Qaeda operatives had received training in Iraq for use in chemical and biological weapons. In early 2003, this was exactly the kind of information that the Bush administration was seeking to justify attacking Iraq and to persuade reluctant allies to go along. Indeed, al-Libi’s ‘confession’ was one the central pieces of ‘evidence’ presented at the United Nations by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to make the case for war. As it turns out, though, that ‘confession’ was a lie tortured out of him by Egyptians. …

“According to Evan Kohlmann, who enjoys favored status as an ‘al-Qaeda expert’ among U.S. officials, citing a classified source: ‘Al-Libi’s death coincided with the first visit by Egypt’s spymaster Omar Suleiman to Tripoli.’ Kohlmann surmises and opines that after al-Libi recounted his story about an al-Qaeda-Saddam WMD connection, ‘The Egyptians were embarrassed by this admission, and the Bush government found itself in hot water internationally. Then, in May 2009, Omar Suleiman saw an opportunity to get even with al-Libi and traveled to Tripoli. By the time Omar Suleiman’s plane left Tripoli, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi had committed “suicide.”‘” [Read more...]

Envoy to Egypt Frank Wisner stated this weekend that “President Mubarak’s continued leadership is critical.”

PRATAP CHATTERJEE
Chatterjee is a regular columnist for the Guardian. He has used documents obtained via the Sunlight Foundation and WikiLeaks to highlight the nature of the relationship between the U.S. government and American firms and the Mubarak regime. He recently wrote the piece “Egypt’s military-industrial complex,” which states: “The Livingston Group [of Bob Livingston, former chairman of the appropriations committee in the U.S. House of Representatives] made the largest number of contacts with the U.S. government for the Egyptians to make sure that this money [from the U.S. Congress to the Egyptian regime] continued to flow, but they were not the only ones. Tony Podesta, the brother of a former White House chief of staff, and Toby Moffett, a former Democratic Congressman, joined forces with Livingston to create the PLM Group to represent Egypt in Washington, according to foreign-agent records at the Justice Department. Sunlight records show that the joint venture was paid $1.1 million a year. …

“Nor is PLM the only Washington lobbyist for the Egyptian government. Frank Wisner, the former U.S. ambassador that President Barack Obama dispatched to Cairo earlier this week to advise President Hosni Mubarak, is employed by Patton Boggs, a law firm and registered lobbyist. On its website Patton Boggs summarises the contracts that it has won in the last 20 years to advise the Egyptian military, leading ‘commercial families in Egypt,’ as well as ‘manage contractor disputes in military sales agreements arising under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Act.’”

Chatterjee also wrote “Lobbyists Help Egyptian Officials Get Aid, Support From U.S.,” which fleshes out information about Wisner and Omar Suleiman, who was recently installed as vice president by Hosni Mubarak.

Said Chatterjee: “Wisner is just one example of the revolving door between U.S. diplomacy and the Egyptian elites in which words whispered by Mubarak and his cronies like Omar Suleiman have become National Security Council policy.” Chatterjee is author of Halliburton’s Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War. He is also a fellow at the Center for American Progress.

VIJAY PRASHAD
Prashad recently wrote the piece “Frank Wisner in Cairo: The Empire’s Bagman.” [Read more...]

Egypt is 7 hours ahead of U.S. ET. For online resources see: http://www.accuracy.org/online-resources-on-egypt

JACK SHENKER
Shenker is a London-born journalist who reports for the Guardian from Egypt. Last night he reported on a statement from activists at Tahrir (Liberation) Square. The first demand is “the resignation of the president.” See full statement

ASMAA MAHFOUZ
A member of the April 6 Youth Movement, Mahfouz posted several YouTube videos, including one on January 18 that has been credited by many with having helped spark the protests in Egypt that began on January 25; for example, “Equal Rights Takes to the Barricades” by Mona El-Naggar in the New York Times.

See video with English subtitles:

The April 6 Youth Movement was set up largely to support workers in El-Mahalla, an industrial town, who held a series of strikes over the last several years (including [planed strike] on April 6, 2008). See from The Real News “Roots of the Egyptian Revolutionary Moment” [Read more...]

U.S. government officials had been saying that the future of Egypt should be decided by Egyptians, but today, Obama’s special envoy to Egypt Frank Wisner stated: “We need to get a national consensus around the preconditions for the next step forward. The president [Mubarak] must stay in office to steer those changes.”

RAHUL MAHAJAN
Mahajan is author of Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond and writes at his Empire Notes blog: EmpireNotes.org.

He said today: “According to the Saturday New York Times, the Obama administration has come out firmly in support of Omar Suleiman, Hosni Mubarak’s designated successor (and CIA-allied torturer), and is in favor of a ‘gradual transition, managed by Mr. Suleiman, a pillar of Egypt’s existing establishment, and backed by the military.’ Although many lower-level officers have great sympathy for the Egyptian people, and early on even protected them against the riot police, the military has clearly united in favor of continued military control of Egypt and against popular democracy.”

PHILIP RIZK, twitter.com/tabulagaza
Rizk is an independent blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. He said today: “Although the Egyptian anti-government demonstrators welcomed the arrival of the military on Friday night the 29th, I have considered their presence a threat to the people’s demands from the start. I believe the military dispersed on the streets of Egypt in order to calm down a very fragile situation and then to gain the demonstrators’ trust in order eventually to act as the element of surprise when they partner with government security forces and turn on the demonstrators. So far the military has been biding its time while the state propaganda convinces the local population of their good intentions with the ultimate aim of waiting for the most strategic moment to clear the streets of Cairo of any sign of protest. The only complication in the regime’s calculations is that the protesters are relentless in their call: down with the regime of Hosni Mubarak.”
[Read more...]