May 2013
2 posts
The Black Bloc and the Ongoing Campaign to Quash...
My first piece for Tahrir Squared is about the government crackdown on street protesters:
In Egypt, brutality, intimidation and legal harassment have long been the blunt tools wielded by the state in its futile effort to quell citizens into submission. In the year since the country’s first democratically-elected president took office, the tactics of Egyptian authorities to quash dissent...
Can Mubarak's Cronies Buy Their Way Out of Jail?
My latest for The Nation:
On March 28, Egypt’s former trade minister, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, was removed from an arrest list after he paid back a total of 15 million Egyptian pounds (approximately $2.2 million) to the state as part of a reconciliation program under President Mohamed Morsi. Rachid, who served as minister from 2004 to 2011, fled just before the toppling of former president Hosni...
April 2013
2 posts
On Egypt’s Media, Sectarianism & State Violence...
While on a trip to the US I had the pleasure of being on Democracy Now! today with Lina Attalah, a remarkable journalist and chief editor of the Egypt Independent. Watch the episode:
Click for transcript
Egypt's Ongoing Revolution
I had the pleasure of delivering the annual McGill lecture at Trinity College in Hartford, CT today where I spoke about Egypt’s ongoing revolution:
March 2013
1 post
When Will Justice Be Served in Bahrain?
My second article on Bahrain has been published in The Nation after some delay:
The second anniversary of Bahrain’s uprising on February 14 was marked by street protests, tear gas, shotguns and Molotov cocktails. Two protesters and a policeman were killed and dozens of people arrested. The scenes were not unfamiliar in Bahrain, which has gone through two years of upheaval since demonstrators...
February 2013
4 posts
Scenes from a Bahraini Burial
My first of two pieces in The Nation on Bahrain:
Ali Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Jaziri helps lower his son’s shrouded body into a grave as dozens of mourners crowd around. Many cover their noses and mouths to ward off the sting of tear gas wafting nearby. On the outskirts of the graveyard, hundreds of young men and boys armed with rocks and molotov cocktails are confronted by a phalanx of security...
Two Years into Uprising, Bahrain Feels Like a...
I was interviewed on Democracy Now today about the second anniversary of the uprising in Bahrain:
Click to read transcript
Bahrain: Two Years Later, the Uprising Continues
I just returned from a reporting trip to Bahrain where I covered the two year anniversary of the February 14 uprising. I was one of the few foreign reporters on the ground. Click on the photo to see the full slideshow:
Port Said, a City of Grim Numbers
My report for The Nation from Port Said, where more than 40 people were killed and some 1,000 wounded over the span of four days:
Port Said has become a city of numbers, its narrative punctuated by a grim arithmetic: twenty-one sentenced to death in a trial for seventy-two killed in a soccer riot, thirty-two killed after the verdict was announced. Seven killed in a funeral march the next day....
January 2013
3 posts
Reporting from the restive city of Port Said
I reported for Democracy Now! from Port Said today where some 45 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since Jan. 26th:
Click for transcript
Egypt on the Brink
My latest for The Nation:
The second anniversary of Egypt’s revolution has been marked by rocks, firebombs, tear gas and bullets. More than fifty people have been killed and over a thousand wounded across the country. The army has been granted arrest powers, and military troops have been deployed to the three cities where President Mohamed Morsi has declared a state of emergency and ordered...
Qursaya: A story of betrayal and struggle
After a hiatus, I have a new column in the Egypt Independent:
It is important to consider the story of Qursaya as the second anniversary of the revolution approaches. It’s a story of violence and imprisonment, of the powerful targeting the marginalized, of ruling interests trampling over the rule of law, and of an ongoing struggle against a state that regards its poorest citizens as a bothersome...
December 2012
6 posts
Political Turmoil, Torture & Fatal Clashes in...
My video report on events leading up to the referendum - as well as voting day itself - ran today on Democracy Now! Unfortunately the last 30 seconds were cut off (the perils of live television) so it ends a little abruptly:
Click for transcript
Anti-Morsi Protesters Voice Their Grievances
I had a brief report today on Democracy Now! on protesters gathered at the presidential palace four days before the scheduled referendum on the constitution.
Click for transcript
Report: Unrest, Polarization Before Egypt’s...
I have a long report on Democracy Now! today about the latest developments in Egypt that I produced with videographer Hany Massoud.
It includes interviews with: Gehad El-Haddad, senior adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood; Khaled Fahmy, the chair of the history department at the American University in Cairo; Ahmed Shokr and Egyptian writer and activist; Lobna Darwish, a longtime Egyptian protester...
Street Fights Rock Cairo as Supporters and Foes of...
My latest for The Nation, unfortunately it was published just a few hours before President Morsi delivered a speech where he offered some concessions which are being criticized by the opposition as being merely cosmetic and a case of too little, too late.
Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi clashed in the streets around the presidential palace Wednesday,...
After Deadly Clashes in Cairo, Egypt Faces One of...
My interview on Democracy Now! about the clashes outside the presidential palace:
Click to read transcript
Egypt's Looming Constitution Referendum Amid...
I was interviewed on Democracy Now! today about all the latest developments in Egypt:
Click for transcript
November 2012
7 posts
Uproar in Egypt Over President Morsi's Power Play
My latest in The Nation on Morsi’s constitutional decree and the Muslim Brotherhood’s forcing through a Constituent Assembly vote on the constitution:
Egypt’s turbulent transition is in the midst of one its most chaotic and divisive periods since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The leaders of the assembly drafting Egypt’s new constitution are hurriedly forcing through a final document...
As Gazans Recover From Israeli Attacks, Trauma...
My piece for The Nation telling the effect of Israel’s assault on Gaza through the stories of ordinary Palestinians:
The traces of the Israeli drone strike that killed 28-year-old Samaher Qdeih are all around her family home. A large indentation in a sandy courtyard marks the point of impact. Shrapnel is etched in the trunk of a lemon tree and the side of the house it stands next to. Water...
Egypt's Morsi Re-Ignites Protests With Decree...
I was interviewed on Democracy Now! today about Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s constitutional decree that grants him sweeping and unchecked powers:
Click for transcript
In the second part of the interview I discuss the ceasefire in Gaza and its implications:
Click for transcript
'People Are Resisting By Existing': Gaza After the...
My piece for The Nation filed from Gaza after the ceasefire agreement ended Israel’s eight-day assault on the territory:
Gaza erupted in celebration Wednesday night, as thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in the wake of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Minutes after the agreement was implemented at 9:00pm, the crackle of gunfire, ululations, and cries of Allah Akbar began to...
Video: Egypt’s Mediator Role and Gaza’s Ongoing...
I was interviewed on Democracy Now! today by phone from Gaza. You can watch the video here:
Click here for transcript.
Mohamed Morsi in the Middle
My piece on Egyptian policy towards Israel and Gaza during the latest crisis. I filed this from the Rafah border crossing, where I waited three days to enter Gaza:
Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi is walking a political tightrope amidst Israel’s assault on Gaza, balancing the need to appease domestic anger whilst keeping foreign relations with Washington and Tel Aviv on an even keel. Just this...
In Egypt, escalating police abuse amid a lack of...
After some delays, my latest piece on escalating police abuse in Egypt is out in Al-Akhbar English:
On the evening of September 16, Atef al-Mansi walked up to the local police station in Meit Ghamr, an industrial town in the Nile Delta, to help file an assault complaint against the police. When he reached the gates, officers began beating him with the butts of their rifles and dragged him inside...
October 2012
1 post
Will Egypt's New Constitution Take the Country...
My latest piece in The Nation on the drafting of Egypt’s new constitution:
The battle over Egypt’s constitution has reached a critical juncture. Before the constituent assembly’s mandate expires in December—and in the face of a pending court case that threatens to dissolve the body altogether, allowing President Mohammed Morsi to handpick a new one—its members are rushing to finalize a...
September 2012
1 post
What’s Behind the US Embassy Protests in Egypt
My latest piece is up at The Nation looking at the buildup to the US Embassy protests in Egypt and how they unfolded:
Cairo: The main street leading to the United States embassy in downtown Cairo has been sealed by a twelve foot-high wall of concrete blocks. The acrid scent of tear gas lingers in the air as hundreds of black-clad riot police roam the area in and around nearby Tahrir Square. It...
August 2012
5 posts
How the Syrian Revolution Became Militarized
My third and final dispatch from Syria is online at The Nation, along with a brief audio interview. An excerpt:
Zabadani, Syria—Emad Khareeta says he had no choice but to defect. The 23-year-old member of the Free Syrian Army stands outside his family home in a deserted section of town. Shards of concrete and glass litter the ground, the result of nearby shelling. The street is dark and quiet,...
Walking to Syria
My second dispatch from Syria, about the illicit mountain journey undertaken by the Free Syrian Army and their supporters from Lebanon, is online at The Nation:
Zabadani, Syria—Abu Amer sits among strangers in the courtyard of a farmhouse at the foot of a mountain spanning the Lebanese-Syrian border. It’s just after sunset. Young children scamper around a mother and grandmother as they clear...
Morsi Ousts Tantawi, Takes Back Presidential...
I was interviewed on Democracy Now! today about President Mohammed Morsi’s surprise move on Sunday to force the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshall Hussein Tantatwi, and Sami Annan, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces into retirement. Morsi also cancelled the Constitutional Addendum issued by the SCAF in June that had curbed the powers of the presidency.
...
On the Ground in Zabadani, a Syrian Town in Revolt
The first of my dispatches from Syria has been published online at The Nation:
ZABADANI, SYRIA — Mustafa al-Dahab, 58, drives past shuttered shops on a deserted street in Hara, a neighborhood in this picturesque resort town located 20 miles northwest of Damascus. His nephew, five year-old Adee Adalati, is next to him in the passenger seat. It’s just after 11:00 on a Wednesday morning. ...
Photos: Zabadani, Syria
I just returned from a week-long reporting trip in Syria and will be publishing a three-part series at TheNation.com.
I spent most of my time in Zabadani, a mountain town about 20 miles northwest of Damascus near the Lebanese border. Zabadani is subject to daily shelling by the Syrian army from tanks and artillery guns stationed more than two miles away on the mountaintops that surround the...
July 2012
1 post
On the 60th anniversary of the coup
My first column for the print edition of the Egypt Independent published on July 12 is now online:
The inauguration of the country’s first elected president on 30 June was meant to mark the final step in the country’s so-called “transition,” with a long-heralded handover of power from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to a civilian government, complete with an elected parliament and a new...
June 2012
8 posts
Morsi Wins Egypt's Presidential Election
I was in New York City when the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohamed Morsi was declared the winner of Egypt’s first competitive presidential election, narrowly beating Ahmed Shafik, a stalwart of Mubarak’s regime, in the runoff. I was interviewed on Democracy Now! in studio about the news:
A President Without Power
My latest for The Nation on the SCAF’s last minute power grab:
Last week’s presidential elections in Egypt were supposed to mark the final step in what has been an arduous transition from military rule to an elected civilian government. Instead, sixteen months after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising calling for freedom and social justice, the Supreme Council of Armed...
Constitutional Amendments & Presidential Elections
I was on Democracy Now! today talking about the constitutional amendments issued unilaterally by SCAF minutes after polls closed for the presidential elections Sunday evening, the lack of enthusiasm in the vote as well as U.S.-Egypt relations:
Egypt's Heightening Electoral Crisis
My latest for The Nation about the Supreme Constitutional Court rulings on Thursday that dissolved parliament and kept Ahmed Shafik in the presidential race:
Egypt’s embattled transition of power was dealt a crippling blow on Thursday when a panel of judges issued a sweeping pair of rulings that dissolved the popularly elected parliament and allowed Hosni Mubarak’s former prime...
Court Rulings Dissolve Parliament, Allow Shafik to...
I was on Democracy Now! today to talk about the critical rulings by the Supreme Constitutional Court this week that dissolved parliament and allowed Ahmed Shafik to continue his presidential run:
Egypt Transition on Brink of Collapse
My debut column for Al Akhbar English:
As Egypt enters the final days of its so-called “transition,” the entire political process is on the verge of collapse. The essential foundations of a post-Mubarak government that were supposed to have been lain over the past 16 months - the legislature, the presidency, the constitution - each suffer a crisis of legitimacy, the result of a military-managed...
On Mubarak's Trial, Presidential Elections, and...
I was honored to be asked to do a video interview for the great English-Arabic site Jadaliyya. From the summary:
The interview begins with an overview of the verdict, the legal process that led up to it, and the erruption of protests in its aftermath. It then tackles the broader context within which the trial and verdict unfolded: the struggle to define the scope of revolution in Egypt. Sharif...
Egypt's Polarizing Presidential Election
My piece in The Nation on the outcome of the first round in Egypt’s presidential election:
Hours after the official results are announced in Egypt’s first-ever competitive presidential election, Ihab Badawi, a 28-year-old lawyer, is standing amid a throng of protesters in Tahrir Square. He holds aloft a cardboard placard bearing the smiling faces of the top two candidates—Mohamed Morsi and...
May 2012
6 posts
Protests Erupt in Wake of Official First Round...
Protests erupted last night after final results were announced in the country’s first-ever competitive presidential election. The top two candidates in the first round of the race are Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmed Shafik, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister. This is the report that we aired on Democracy Now! today:
Jimmy Carter on Monitoring Egyptian Elections,...
The Carter Center was one of three international organizations accredited to witness Egypt’s historic presidential election last week. Its mission was led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter [Click to read trip report]. Two days before the official election results were announced, Carter held a press conference at the Four Seasons to announce the mission’s preliminary findings.
I...
Egyptian Voters on the Promise, and Limits, of...
On the first day of Egypt’s presidential election, Democracy Now! videographer Hany Massoud and I spent the day visiting polling stations around Cairo. We visited the upper-calss neighborhood Zamalek, the working class informal neighborhood of Imbaba, Shubra - home to the greatest concentration of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority - and Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the Egyptian...
Presidential Election Day
Today was the first day of the presidential elections in Egypt. I was interviewed on Democracy Now! and spoke about who the leading candidates are and some of the issues at stake:
Egypt's Presidential Election Experiment
On the eve of Egypt’s first post-Mubarak presidential election, I have a new piece at The Nation outlining some of the leading candidates and issues in the race:
Egypt is gripped by election fever. A frenetic mix of excitement and anxiety has taken over the country on the eve of its first-ever competitive presidential poll fifteen months after thirty-year autocrat Hosni Mubarak was forced...
Growing Unrest In the Run-Up to Egypt's...
I have a new piece in The Nation about some of the political issues surrounding the upcoming presidential elections in Egypt:
Egypt’s ever-turbulent political transition has been particularly volatile in the past few weeks, as the country approaches a highly-anticipated presidential election scheduled to begin later this month. A series of deadly street clashes in the run-up to the poll have...
April 2012
2 posts
My uncle, the Brother
I have a new OpEd in the Egypt Independent about my uncle, Mohammed Abdel Qoddous. He has been longtime member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a leading dissident in Egypt.
My uncle standing at the new headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood. May 2011.
Having left Egypt when I was 18 years old, and spending most of my adult life in the United States, I would see my uncle briefly on trips home. I...
Egypt's Looming Economic Shock Doctrine
I have a piece from last week up at The Nation magazine about Egypt’s economic situation and the current negotiations surrounding a $3.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund:
Egypt is teetering on the edge of an economic crisis. Cast adrift in a deepening political quagmire over the past fourteen months, the economy has now reached a critical juncture, as the country faces the...
March 2012
2 posts
No Justice, No Peace
My latest OpEd for the Egypt Independent focusses on the issue of justice in post-Mubarak Egypt and looks at a series of court rulings over the past few weeks, including the case of Samira Ibrahim, who was one of seven women subjected to a so-called “virginity test” after she was arrested in an army crackdown on Tahrir Square on March 9, 2011:
Military prosecutors investigating...
