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For Immediate Release
June, 24 2014, 01:06pm EDT
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Egypt: Broad Repression with U.S. Backing
The Wall Street Journalreports: "Secretary of State John Kerry voiced strong U.S. support for Egypt's new president and signaled that Washington will continue the flow of military aid in an American welcome of the post-coup government."
WASHINGTON
The Wall Street Journalreports: "Secretary of State John Kerry voiced strong U.S. support for Egypt's new president and signaled that Washington will continue the flow of military aid in an American welcome of the post-coup government."
SHERIEF GABER, 011-20-109-643-5428, sgaber@gmail.com, @cairocitylimits, @mosireen
Gaber is a member of the Mosireen Independent Media Collective in Cairo, and a researcher focusing on housing rights and social justice issues. He said today: "What has to be understood is that the enormity of the issue is not just about the foreign Al Jazeera journalists, or even journalists in general, but that the scope and scale of politically motivated imprisonment in Egypt right now is astonishing. Also, while the criminalization and targeting of journalists is a heinous act in itself, instances of incitement and targeting of journalists and those who would seek to expose the truth has been a sad constant for years now.
"What is new, perhaps, is merely the cloaking of such attacks under the pretext of 'rule of law.' The judiciary is an unchecked force that uses its formal 'independence' to be a completely unaccountable wing of the regime, working parallel to the police.
"According to the independent documentation site Wikithawra, over 40,000 politically motivated arrests have taken place since Morsi's ouster. Recently, since the passage of the repressive protest law, we've seen sentences of up to 15 years prison being handed down for mere participation in a protest."
See video by Mosireen on the police, judiciary and public prosecutor's office ("three arms of injustice") on YouTube -- click on "cc" icon for English subtitles.
Gaber was quoted in the piece "U.S. Welcomes Coup Leader As Egypt's New President." He said, "The U.S. has looked forward to working with every single Egyptian regime to date ... to maintain [the] status quo relations favoring U.S. policy in the region, regardless of whether that was Mubarak, Morsi or now Sisi."
NOHA RADWAN, (510) 334-6223, nmradwan@ucdavis.edu
Radwan is associate professor of Arabic and comparative literature at University of California at Davis. She was born in Egypt and was among the participants in the 18-day Tahrir Square protests in early 2011. She stressed the case of Mohamed Soltan who "has been on a hunger strike since January 26 in protest of his continual detention and ill-treatment. Doctors who examined Soltan on June 9 found a severe drop in all his vital signs including pulse rate and blood pressure. Medical testing also determined the presence of blood clots in his lungs, and concluded that he is suffering from poisoning due to the disproportionately high level of drugs in his bloodstream. Unless immediately treated, he is in imminent danger of bleeding to death and/or slipping into a coma.
"Soltan is 26, an Egyptian-American and a graduate of Ohio State University. He was arrested in August 2013 and detained without charge until January when he made his first appearance before the court. His family reports that he was severely abused during this period. ...
"While Soltan's life threatening medical condition makes a demand for his immediate release a necessity, his case is not unique. Many of the political prisoners in Egypt today have not been charged with specific crimes or violations and have been incarcerated for months, awaiting formal charges. ...
"This is only the tip of the iceberg with regards to the abuse of the justice system in Egypt. It is quite clear that the post-July 2013 government, in its different guises before and after the recent presidential elections, has decided to run the country according to the wishes of General-cum-President Abd al Fattah al-Sisi and his criminal injustice system. The massive repressive measures, which aim at silencing all voices of dissent, including incarcerating journalists, banning publications and TV shows, are likely to continue."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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The country's largest Muslim civil rights group on Thursday called for added protections for U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar after Florida state Sen. Randy Fine issued an apparent threat against the two Muslim lawmakers.
Fine, who has the endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump in his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, called himself the "Hebrew Hammer" in a post on X on Tuesday and suggested Reps. Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Omar (D-Minn.) should leave office for their own safety.
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arrested 21 pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route.
According toABC 7:
For the second year in a row, the group ran in front of the Ronald McDonald float to briefly stop the parade.
This year, they jumped the barricades at West 55th Street just after 9:30 am.
Many sat on the ground, locking arms and chanting "Free, free Palestine!"
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Video footage shared on social media shows members of the New York Police Department grabbing protesters and their banner, and throwing at least one person face-first into the road.
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NDN Collective said that "as Indigenous peoples, we reject colonial holidays rooted in the genocidal erasure of our existence. We demand #LANDBACK to reclaim sovereignty, repair ties with Mother Earth, and protect Indigenous ways of life—honoring them for generations to come."
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