The costs to the United States of failure to promote peaceful democratic transition in Egypt should not be underestimated. The uprising in Egypt, and in other countries of the region, has presented the U.S. commitment to promoting human rights and democracy around the world with a stern test.

No one knows exactly how many Bahrainis are living in hiding within the kingdom. It's thought that dozens are on the run from authorities, who stand ready to jail them for their part in the protests. Hundreds more have been imprisoned after sham trials.

Assertions that Morsi exercises unprecedented powers in his current role as nominal head of the executive should be taken with a large grain of salt.

The Bahrain government has concentrated on creating bureaucratic processes for implementation instead of producing real change that can be felt by those peacefully pressing for reform.

By stifling the possibility of legal street protests, the Bahraini regime has made more illegal protests a certainty. There isn't much left for those pressing for democratic reform.

While time drags on without meaningful reform, the protests across Bahrain intensify, some of which have developed a violent edge. The regime needs to find something better than its current Ostrich Strategy if it's to convince anyone that it is serious about reform.

Egyptians will go to the polls tomorrow to vote in their first-ever competitive presidential election. Whoever wins will have legitimacy in a contest in which tens of millions of voters will choose from a broad range of candidates.

Ignoring the human rights and democracy conditions that Congress has placed on U.S. foreign assistance to Egypt would be seen as the U.S. government giving its unconditional support to anti-democratic forces in Egypt.

There they sit, squeezed onto two benches in Bahrain's criminal court: the 20 medics who were tortured into making false confessions.

With delicious irony, the Government of Bahrain sent out a press release last week declaring that it "welcomes visits by all human rights organization...

Egypt's democratic transition faces two main threats: subversion by anti-democratic religious extremists; and obstruction by an authoritarian military junta loathe to yield power to civilian rule. Those who support continuing democratic progress in Egypt must oppose both.

As human rights abuses persist in Bahrain, human rights defenders on the ground there are forced to take their fight for political freedom to other mediums, including Twitter.

In Bahrain, an unknown number of the security forces have been detained for joining the calls for democracy and refusing to join the regime's violent crackdown.

The Bahraini government's inept handling of its students is a great example of why the kingdom is increasingly seen as a pariah state.

Bahrainis who stand up publicly to promote human rights risk harassment and arrest. Human rights defenders remain in constant jeopardy from the Bahraini dictatorship. Despite those threats, they continue to document human rights abuses and work for political freedom.

The quality of the U.S. relationship with Egypt will be determined by the progress Egypt makes towards democratic governance that protects and upholds the basic rights and freedoms of all of its people.

The outbreaks of violence in Egypt have to date not been that serious, but they have been sufficient to deal a serious blow to people's confidence.

If U.S. officials in Cairo, Tunis, Washington and elsewhere could admit they made some bad choices, recognize they got things seriously wrong over many years it might help restore some desperately needed credibility. But sorry seems to be the hardest word.

There is much talk in Washington DC and elsewhere of the events in Africa and the Middle East being a 1989 moment. It's hard to think otherwise, but good outcomes are far from guaranteed.

An Indonesian rights lawyer is fatally poisoned on a flight. State agents abduct a Zimbabwean activist and hold her incommunicado. These shocking incidents occur in a context of routine surveillance.