Free Republic

Jama'a al-Islamiya leader Omar Abdel Rahman, who is being held in a prison in North Carolina, US, in a 15-minute telephone conversation with his wife Aisha said “the Egyptian revolution achieved the impossible.” His son Mohamed said an officer from the prison called Abdel Rahman’s home on the landline first to make sure that his wife was there, and that her voice matched the registered "voiceprint." He added that a recorded message from the prison’s phone said the line would be cut immediately if any person other than Aisha talked on the phone. He also said that his father was...

While we watch from afar the turmoil rolling across the Mideast, first toppling the government in Tunisia and now playing out in the streets of Cairo, the effects on Americans are more immediate than the distance between here and Egypt would suggest. A quick trip to the local gas station underlines the strategic importance of the Middle East to the well being of the American economy. And with that economy mired in recession, a surge in gasoline prices is the wrong prescription for an already weak patient. The effect in states like California, where prices are moving toward four dollars...