Al-Jazeera Takes a Dive on Gaza Freedom March

http://husseini.org

In Cairo, Egypt --

Robert Naiman at Huffington Post rightly reports on the lack of coverage in the US media of the Gaza Freedom March. 

What's even more remarkable is the lack of coverage in the Arab media, most notably Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English. They are covering Gaza in many respects, they are covering the Viva Palestina effort, which is in the Jordan port of Aqaba. 

But the Gaza Freedom March is a separate effort now in Cairo, a city of millions. The people of Cairo here do not know about over 1,000 people from over 40 countries who are in their midst the last 48 hours trying to get into Gaza. The state run media have virtually totally blocked it out. There is in effect a farcical, tragic misunderstanding going on, where people in Cairo think they know about efforts to get into Gaza, but not the one here, the one that is protesting, the one that they conceivably could join with in protest, should they choose to brave the state "security" system. 

When the Gaza Freedom March participants have held protests, they are immediately penned in and any interaction with passerbyers is totally minimized.

The net effect of Al-Jazeera and other such coverage is total disempowerment -- the Egyptian people can watch efforts in other places, but should not be informed about what is happening right here. 

The most "comprehensive" piece on Al Jazeera I could find about the Gaza Freedom March now in the largest Arab city led by talking about the Viva Palestina effort and then gave the Egyptian government spin on the whole affair in a totally subdued manner: 

Meanwhile, at least 300 French participants of the Gaza Freedom March spent the night camped out in front of their embassy in Cairo, bringing a major road in the Egyptian capital to a halt as riot police  wielding plexiglass shields surrounded them.

Hossam Zaki, an Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman, accused the French protesters of lying and trying to embarrass Egypt. "They claimed they had aid to carry to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which is a lie," the MENA news agency quoted Zaki as saying. "They want media exposure and to pressure and embarrass Egypt," he said. On Sunday, police briefly detained 38 international participants in the Sinai town of El-Arish, organisers said. "At noon (1000 GMT) on December 27, Egyptian security forces detained a group of 30 activists in their hotel in El-Arish as they prepared to leave for Gaza, placing them under house arrest. "Another group of eight people, including American, British, Spanish, Japanese and Greek citizens, were detained at the bus station of El-Arish in the afternoon of December 27," they said.
On Sunday, Egyptian police also stopped some 200 protesters from renting boats on the Nile to hold a procession to commemorate those who died in the Gaza war. On December 31, participants are hoping to join Palestinians "in a non-violent march from northern Gaza to the Erez-Israeli border," the organisers said.

Sam Husseini following Gaza Freedom March

The Washington Stakeout’s Sam Husseini is in Egypt, accompanying the international component that hopes to meet the “Gaza Freedom March” in Gaza. Egyptians and internationals have assembled in Cairo with hopes of visiting Gaza on the year anniversary of Israel’s bombing and invasion last January. Egypt has prevented participants from traveling so far. This past day Sam has observed a demonstration outside the United States embassy and heard word from a similar demonstration at the French Embassy as activists try to bring pressure upon Egypt.

We hope to see more from Sam tomorrow. You can follow his observations as they are shared raw at husseini.posterous.com, with more potentially being compiled here on this site later. Sam is posting from a smartphone and hopes to share brief written accounts of his observations, photos, and video when the technology complies.

You can also follow Sam on Twitter at twitter.com/samhusseini and he can be reached atsam@washingtonstakeout.com.

While Sam is following the march, opportunities for the Stakeout here in Washington are on hold.

Updated 30 Dec 2009: Edited to reflect that the Gaza Freedom March is, in fact, based in Gaza, and the Egyptian and international activists gathered in Cairo to meet them is a solidarity effort. It should be noted that there have been developments with regards to the movement allowed by Egypt, and reportedly the US, since this post has been made. Follow the link to Sam’s material for more current snippets of observation and analysis.

[originally published on Washington Stakeout on Dec. 28, 2009; posted on posthaven Nov. 13, 2015]

The Egyptian Puppet State

Just after midnight I couldn't sleep. Went out to get a bite to eat or maybe a glass of wine to help me sleep.

See several CodePink people and others with the Gaza Freedom March, say they are going to the French embassy -- they had put out an alert:

"As we are writing this hundreds of French delegates are camped outside the French Embassy, pitching tents and sleeping bags on the sidewalk, chanting 'Palestine Freedom!' The French Ambassador and his wife are outside negotiating with the delegates and the police and Egyptian authorities. It is a powerful action and the French invite solidarity and support - come wherever you can! This is a critical situation and the police are surrounding the group. Check it out if you can. We will send out an update when possible."

Indeed, it was a powerful action. By the time we got there, the protest was lively, but almost all on the sidewalk in front of the embassy, it had been on the street. A while after we got there, a long line of at least 100 government forces with riot gear appeared across the street. They had helmets and shields and clubs.

They came towards us. But it was not to beat us.

It was I think to keep us confined. Not letting the passing drivers see a vibrant protest.

I began talking to the riot police. In my broken Arabic: "Gaza wants to eat." And then through a French translator: "These people want to get supplies to Gaza. The Egyptian government is stopping them, why?" A commander came by, told the woman who was translating for me to stop talking to them. Of course, he doesn't want his men to fully appreciate how the Egyptian state appears to be doing the bidding of Israel.

I tried to get him to answer if he really has a government. One of the apparent demands that the Egyptian government on the convoy led by Galloway is that he get permission from Israel.

What does Israel have to do with it?

Egypt has a border with Gaza. If Egypt is a nation state, it should be able to do what it wants with its border. But it is saying that what it does is dependent on Israel. So Egypt is a puppet state, not a nation state.

When the commander went away, most of the soldiers looked dolefully upon me, one pointed to his eye and his heart -- after looking in either direction to make sure none of the commanders could see him.

I think a larger opportunity may be here. It's one thing for a few hundred, or maybe a thousand people from the US and France and such to protest in Cairo. But if Egyptians know what their government is doing and feel safe protesting, will they join us? This is one more reason why the cause of Palestine linked globally to the cause of human freedom, and perhaps how the cause of human freedom is linked to solidarity.

Sharing this, maybe I can sleep for an hour or two.

On Deck This Sunday

Talking Points Memo gives us the line-up this week and it’s the Stakeout’s understanding most if not all of these guests will be in the studio come Sunday.

  • ABC, This Week: Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ).
  • CBS, Face The Nation: Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
  • CNN, State Of The Union: Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I), Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA).
  • Fox News Sunday: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
  • NBC, Meet The Press: Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod, former DNC chairman Howard Dean.

So, what would you ask these people if you (or we) had the chance?

Let us know in the comments or email questions@washingtonstakeout.com.

If the predicted “Snowpocalypse” doesn’t get us we’ll be out there.

Update (Saturday evening): Our videographer is snowed-in, and tonight DC’s roads aren’t ready to be traveled. We’ve called this one off. Many thanks for the suggestions over email.

[originally published on Washington Stakeout on Dec. 18, 2009; posted on posthaven Nov. 13, 2015]

Feingold on War Constitutionality, Israeli Nukes, CBO Scoring Single Payer



Is the Afghanistan War Violating the Constitution?

We asked: “You, as all senators, are pledged to uphold the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8says that Congress has the power ‘to declare war’. Aren’t we operating in an unconstitutional manner?”

Feingold stated that Congress “should actually be declaring war in such situations” (which — perhaps unintentionally — implies which way the votes would go) and that he’s raised the point many times. But he refrained from explicitly calling the current situation unconstitutional. Feingold added: “We did have a resolution on this Afghanistan war in the beginning that clearly authorized this action even though it wasn’t a formal declaration of war. But that doesn’t mean you can just stay in a place forever without any sort of renewal of it.”

(Feingold was presumably referring to the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed on Sept. 18, 2001, which technically doesn’t explicitly mention Afghanistan. Arguments questioning the legality of the AUMF and what is happening have been written by Francis Boyle, David Lindorff, and Sherwood Ross. Also, for a more precise look at war powers, see a this week’s essay from Bill Moyers Journal.)

We then asked Feingold: “Is there going to be an up or down vote on the funding?”

Feingold: “I certainly intend to try to force that, yes.” (For an article on the prospects of an up or down vote, see Robert Naiman’s “We Need a Clean Vote Now on Afghanistan Escalation.”)

Feingold Acknowledges Israel’s Nuclear Weapons

We asked Feingold: “Helen Thomas asked Obama at his first news conference if he knew of any country in the Mideast which possesses nuclear weapons. He said he didn’t want to ‘speculate’ (see video). Senator: Do you know of any country in the Mideast that has nuclear weapons?”

Feingold initially responded: “I’m not free to comment on that.”

However, after further questioning, he changed.

Question: “Why can you not say that Israel is a nuclear power, Senator?”

Feingold: “I basically think it is, but I’m not somebody who is privy to all the details on that. Pakistan clearly is, Pakistan concedes it, admits it.”

Question: “Do you have an estimate as to how many nuclear weapons Israel would have?”

Feingold: “I do not.”

While Feingold should almost certainly have been more forthright — he is on the Select Committee on Intelligence as well as the Foreign Relations Committee — he was more willing to basically acknowledge the existence of Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal than many establishment politicians, for example, see Stakeout’s questioning of John Edwards.

Feingold Dodges Question About Getting CBO Numbers on Single Payer

Perhaps most significantly, Feingold did not respond to repeated questioning about why he hasn’t gotten the Congressional Budget Office to “score” a single payer healthcare program.

He did say some nice things about the plan, which would take the insurance companies out of their central role in the system by having a single entity that would cover everyone. But such support is rhetorical. What’s been needed is for the Congressional Budget Office to come out with numbers assessing what people like former New England Journal of Medicine editor Dr. Marcia Angell’s have been arguing: that it’s the only way to cover everyone and control costs.

Our questions: “Have you tried to ask the Congressional Budget Office for an assessment to verify or falsify that [Angell's assertion]?” and “But why not get the CBO to crank the numbers?” went unanswered.

Background: The CBO had favorable findings for single payer in 1993.

Camera and video work by Brandon Kramer.

[originally published on Washington Stakeout on Dec. 6, 2009; posted on posthaven Nov. 13, 2015]