Delaying Withdrawal in Iraq? * Extending Repression in Egypt

RAED JARRAR
Jarrar is the Iraq consultant for the American Friends Service Committee
and a senior fellow with Peace Action. He is recently back from a visit
to Iraq. Jarrar said today: "According to President Obama's withdrawal
plan, all combat forces must leave Iraq by the end of August. But this
deadline is being challenged by the spike of violence in Iraq and by a
drumbeat in Washington using that violence to justify prolonging the
occupation.

"Iraq is broken, but the U.S. military occupation is not a part of
the solution. The vast majority of Iraqis don't think we can fix what
the military occupation has damaged through prolonging it. If President
Obama were to break his promises and delay the withdrawal, that will
add another layer of complications to Iraq, and will harm his image and
credibility in the U.S., Iraq, and the rest of the world."

AIDA SEIFALDAWLA
Seifaldawla is program director of the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence,
which just released a statement with 12 other major Egyptian
organizations: "The Egyptian government is often forced to recognize
past abuses in the course of putting a pretty face on future ones, as
aptly illustrated by a presidential decree issued on May 11 that
extended the State of Emergency for another two years. This time, the
prime minister and parliamentarians with the ruling party swore that
the Emergency Law would only be applied in terrorism and drug cases,
implicitly admitting that it has been applied much more broadly over
the last 29 years, despite repeated denials by the government." See the
full statement: "Twenty-Nine Years of Lies ... And Now Two More Years."

GOUDA ABDEL KHALEK, via Mokhtar Kamel
Khalek is a professor at Cairo University. He is among the speakers at a symposium titled "The Future of Egypt as a Constitutional Democracy" taking place at the City University of New York on Saturday and co-organized by the Alliance of Egyptian Americans. Kamel is a member of the group and can arrange interviews with various speakers.