ElBaradei: "This week the Egyptian people broke the barrier of fear..."

[mhgaffney]

I for one am ashamed that Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are taking the side of Mubarak - instead of seeing this for what it is -- a genuine peoples' revolution. Long overdue.

This shows that our own leaders need to be replaced as soon as possible. The sooner the better.

Tunisia, now Egypt...will this now spread to other Arab states...such as Saudi Arabia?

MHG

A Manifesto for Change in Egypt

By Mohamed ElBaradei

January 28, 2011 "Daily Beast" -- When Egypt had parliamentary elections only two months ago, they were completely rigged. The party of President Hosni Mubarak left the opposition with only 3 percent of the seats. Imagine that. And the American government said that it was “dismayed.” Well, frankly, I was dismayed that all it could say is that it was dismayed. The word was hardly adequate to express the way the Egyptian people felt.
Then, as protests built in the streets of Egypt following the overthrow of Tunisia’s dictator, I heard Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s assessment that the government in Egypt is “stable” and “looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people”. I was flabbergasted—and I was puzzled. What did she mean by stable, and at what price? Is it the stability of 29 years of “emergency” laws, a president with imperial power for 30 years, a parliament that is almost a mockery, a judiciary that is not independent? Is that what you call stability? I am sure not. And I am positive that it is not the standard you apply to other countries. What we see in Egypt is pseudo-stability, because real stability only comes with a democratically elected government.

If you would like to know why the United States does not have credibility in the Middle East, that is precisely the answer. People were absolutely disappointed in the way you reacted to Egypt’s last election. You reaffirmed their belief that you are applying a double standard for your friends, and siding with an authoritarian regime just because you think it represents your interests. We are staring at social disintegration, economic stagnation, political repression, and we do not hear anything from you, the Americans, or for that matter from the Europeans.

So when you say the Egyptian government is looking for ways to respond to the needs of the Egyptian people, I feel like saying, “Well, it’s too late!” This isn’t even good realpolitik. We have seen what happened in Tunisia, and before that in Iran. That should teach people there is no stability except when you have government freely chosen by its own people.

Of course, you in the West have been sold the idea that the only options in the Arab world are between authoritarian regimes and Islamic jihadists. That’s obviously bogus. If we are talking about Egypt, there is a whole rainbow variety of people who are secular, liberal, market-oriented, and if you give them a chance they will organize themselves to elect a government that is modern and moderate. They want desperately to catch up with the rest of the world.

Instead of equating political Islam with al Qaeda all the time, take a closer look. Historically, Islam was hijacked about 20 or 30 years after the Prophet and interpreted in such a way that the ruler has absolute power and is accountable only to God. That, of course, was a very convenient interpretation for whoever was the ruler. Only a few weeks ago, the leader of a group of ultra-conservative Muslims in Egypt issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for me to “repent” for inciting public opposition to President Hosni Mubarak, and declaring the ruler has a right to kill me, if I do not desist. This sort of thing moves us toward the dark ages. But did we hear a single word of protest or denunciation from the Egyptian government? No.

Despite all of this, I have hoped to find a way toward change through peaceful means. In a country like Egypt, it’s not easy to get people to put down their names and government ID numbers on a document calling for fundamental democratic reforms, yet a million people have done just that. The regime, like the monkey that sees nothing and hears nothing, simply ignored us.

As a result, the young people of Egypt have lost patience, and what you’ve seen in the streets these last few days has all been organized by them. I have been out of Egypt because that is the only way I can be heard. I have been totally cut off from the local media when I am there. But I am going back to Cairo, and back onto the streets because, really, there is no choice. You go out there with this massive number of people, and you hope things will not turn ugly, but so far, the regime does not seem to have gotten that message.

Each day it gets harder to work with Mubarak’s government, even for a transition, and for many of the people you talk to in Egypt, that is no longer an option. They think he has been there 30 years, he is 83 years old, and it is time for a change. For them, the only option is a new beginning.

How long this can go on, I don’t know. In Egypt, as in Tunisia, there are other forces than just the president and the people. The army has been quite neutral so far, and I would expect it to remain that way. The soldiers and officers are part of the Egyptian people. They know the frustrations. They want to protect the nation.

But this week the Egyptian people broke the barrier of fear, and once that is broken, there is no stopping them.

Mohamed ElBaradei was awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize along with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which he headed at the time. Since his retirement at the end of 2009, he has emerged as a political force in his native Egypt

[cutthemdown]

Great the couple countries that won't attack anyone going to fall and be replaces by what? Hopefully not Syria, Lybia, Iran type leaders. Oh wait thats what you want.

You have no problem with those dictators right?

[mhgaffney]

The demonstrations have now spread to Jordan.

It is instructive that the Internet is down in Egypt. By next summer -- we could see this in the US -- if the economy worsens (it will) and we have street protests here (we will).

The power elite are looking for an opportunity to take down the Internet.
MHG


Saturday 29th January, 2011

Military deployed in Cairo, ElBaradei put under house arrest

Big News Network.com

Chaos has enveloped Egypt as the military has been deployed in major cities and curfews imposed.

Buildings have been set ablaze including a police station and the ruling party's headquarters, while a clampdown on the media has been stepped up. Security forces shut down al-Jazeera's Cairo office while a CNN camera crew was attacked and their camera taken by security forces. Protestors have surrounded the government TV and radio compound which is being closely guarded by the military.

The Egyptian Opposition Leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei has been placed under house arrest, a high-level security source told CNN on Friday.

Web sites within Egypt are inaccessible even from outside the country, while Internet access with Egypt is almost completely offline. Cell phones are reportedly inoperative with only landlines continuing to function.

Military-imposed 6pm to 7am curfews in major cities Cairo, Suez and Alexandria, were extended throughout the entire country, however the curfews were failing to deter people from coming out on to the streets. Security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds, and were seen on state television using batons to severely beat protestors. A woman in Cairo was killed when hit by a tear gas canister.

CNN said police were reportedly confiscating cameras from guests, including tourists, at the Hilton Hotel in Cairo. Elsewhere journalists were being attacked by plain-clothed and uniformed police and having their cameras taken from them. Reporting from (and within) Egypt has been severely restricted as reporters have no cell-phone connections or Internet access. CNN and the BBC are getting signals out of the country but how, and for how long, is unknown, although much of the BBC footage is coming from Egyptian state television.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the U.S. administration is monitoring the situation in Egypt, and is deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against the people protesting. At the same time protestors should also refrain from violence and protest peacefully, the secretary said.

The protests Clinton said underscores there are deep grievances in Egyptian society, "and the Egyptian government needs to understand that violence will not make these grievances go away."

"People in the Middle East want a say in the decisions that shape their lives," she said.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak not seen or heard from publicly since the riots began Tuesday appeared on television on Friday night in an address to the nation. He said he had dismissed the entire Egyptian cabinet and would appoint a new government on Saturday. He promised a raft of new reforms.

Meantime thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in Jordan, in the capital Amman, for a third day. Protestors are demanding the Prime Minister Samir Rifai step down.

[mhgaffney]

Looks like the crack down has failed. The people are defying the curfew. If the people occupy and hold the state TV apparatus -- they will win.


Egypt protesters defy curfew as tanks roll into Cairo


• At least 25 killed on day of violent protest
• Mubarak stays but dismisses government
• Demonstrators defy nationwide curfew


Peter Beaumont, Jack Shenker in Cairo and Ian Black

guardian.co.uk,
Friday 28 January 2011 20.15 GMT


Tanks moved on to the streets of Cairo and Alexandria as protesters in Egypt defied a nationwide curfew ordered by President Hosni Mubarak in an effort to quell the fourth and most violent day of demonstrations against his 30-year rule.

In a late-night TV address, Mubarak refused to relinquish power, but dismissed his government, promising a new administration to tackle unemployment and promote democracy.

But his call for stability appeared to cut little ice with many protesters, who surged on to the streets as soon as he finished speaking, defying a curfew. Protesters who had earlier been forced into nearby side streets by the military could be heard chanting "People want to change the regime" immediately after Mubarak's broadcast to the nation finished.

One eyewitness said that a small fire had been set at the Mogama building, housing several government offices in the central Tahrir square, which was shrouded by clouds of smoke and teargas.

Mubarak, in his first public appearance since unrest broke out four days ago, said on state television: "It is not by setting fire and by attacking private and public property that we achieve the aspirations of Egypt and its sons, but they will be achieved through dialogue, awareness and effort."

Two weeks to the day after Tunisia saw its veteran president flee into exile, the capital of the Arab world's largest country witnessed extraordinary scenes as tens of thousands of demonstrators braved teargas, rubber bullets and baton charges to vent their fury at repression, poverty, unemployment and corruption.

Medical sources said at least five protesters had been killed and 1,030 wounded in Cairo. Thirteen were killed in Suez, and six in Alexandria. A teenager was shot dead in Port Said, al-Jazeera reported.

The toll of wounded from other towns and cities was not immediately available.

Demonstrators were reported to have stormed the Egyptian state television building in the centre of Cairo.

During the day, protesters all over the capital, many of who wrapped themselves in Egyptian flags to show their protest is patriotic, chanted "Mubarak out, Mubarak out" and waved signs proclaiming "game over".

Barack Obama last night warned Mubarak that he must reform his regime and refrain from violence against protesters. But the US president's message suggested Washington would go on supporting its longstanding ally for now.

"When President Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people tonight he pledged a better democracy and greater economic opportunity," said Obama. "I told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words. To take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise. Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people, and suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away."

In another significant development, Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN weapons chief who may stand in presidential elections later this year, was placed under house arrest for "his own protection" after returning from abroad.

The appearance of the army on the streets of Cairo last night was met with a mixed response in different areas of the city. In Tahrir square, the Guardian saw an angry crowd torch two army scout cars after seizing control of them and dragging the soldiers out. Other members of the crowd attempted to protect the injured soldiers, one of them shouting "we salute you". There were conflicting reports as to whether the army had been firing on the crowd.

"The soldiers were overpowered after they arrived in the square. The people don't know if they are on the people's side, or the side of the police," said Sabri al-Ahmed. "But we're looking after them now. We're not ignorant people. We Egyptians are kind people."

In the square, the sound of continued fighting was still clearly audible in the area of the American University, near the ministry of the interior, while vehicles were burning in front of the parliament building. From the headquarters of Mubarak's National Democratic party, flames were billowing from every window.

Events accelerated after Friday prayers, with disciplined crowds moving from mosques shouting and raising their hands in an outburst of anger and energy in response to leaflets advising on tactics, slogans and targets.

"No one has the right to control you but God," was the message of one sermon relayed by loudspeaker. "You have the right to speak out, only do it peacefully." There was little sign of an organised involvement by the Muslim Brotherhood, the biggest opposition force in Egypt, perhaps because it is biding its time to see how things develop.

Mass protests were also staged in Suez, where tanks were reportedly deployed, and Alexandria. Al-Jazeera said 80,000 people were demonstrating in Port Said.

The unrest has widened to include Egyptians from all walks of life, old and young, the middle classes and the urban poor. Those who did not take to the streets waved from their balconies or threw water bottles and onions to people in the crowd below to be used against teargas. Others handed out paper facemasks.

[Boomhauer]

...
Saturday 29th January, 2011
Military deployed in Cairo, ElBaradei put under house arrest
...
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the U.S. administration is monitoring the situation in Egypt, and is deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against the people protesting. At the same time protestors should also refrain from violence and protest peacefully, the secretary said. ...

Anyone recall a bigger failure at International policy than this administration? Venezuela, N.Korea and the Middle East have all tested the waters and found Hilbama impotent. Europe, India, China, Brazil and Russia have all chosen to dismiss, challenge or roll on the US in the last two years. Now as Muslim societies erupt, the only thing our retards in charge can say is the obvious....
http://waltmorgan.com/img/timemagking.jpg
FYI - I lived in SoCal at the time.

[Spider]

Anyone recall a bigger failure at International policy than this administration? Venezuela, N.Korea and the Middle East have all tested the waters and found Hilbama impotent. Europe, India, China, Brazil and Russia have all chosen to dismiss, challenge or roll on the US in the last two years. Now as Muslim societies erupt, the only thing our retards in charge can say is the obvious....
http://waltmorgan.com/img/timemagking.jpg
FYI - I lived in SoCal at the time.

LOL so all of this is Obamas fault ? .............. ROFL!

[Obushma]

LOL so all of this is Obamas fault ? .............. ROFL!

I didn't read that anywhere in what he posted Spider. I think the people who realize that there is little difference between the (D) and the (R), know that this isn't a Republican/Democrat thing, but an authoritarian vs. the people situation.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1JSBhI_0at0" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

[W*GS]

gaff-o thinks that Cairo will transplant to New York, LA, Chicago...

Back off on the drugs, son.

[mhgaffney]

Here's a report from Robert Fisk, who is in Cairo


A People Defies Its Dictator, And a Nation's Future is in The Balance

A brutal regime is fighting, bloodily, for its life.

Robert Fisk reports from the streets of Cairo


January 29, 2011 "The Independent" -- It might be the end. It is certainly the beginning of the end. Across Egypt, tens of thousands of Arabs braved tear gas, water cannons, stun grenades and live fire yesterday to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak after more than 30 years of dictatorship.

And as Cairo lay drenched under clouds of tear gas from thousands of canisters fired into dense crowds by riot police, it looked as if his rule was nearing its finish. None of us on the streets of Cairo yesterday even knew where Mubarak – who would later appear on television to dismiss his cabinet – was. And I didn't find anyone who cared.

They were brave, largely peaceful, these tens of thousands, but the shocking behaviour of Mubarak's plainclothes battagi – the word does literally mean "thugs" in Arabic – who beat, bashed and assaulted demonstrators while the cops watched and did nothing, was a disgrace. These men, many of them ex-policemen who are drug addicts, were last night the front line of the Egyptian state. The true representatives of Hosni Mubarak as uniformed cops showered gas on to the crowds.

At one point last night, gas canisters were streaming smoke across the waters of the Nile as riot police and protesters fought on the great river bridges. It was incredible, a risen people who would no longer take violence and brutality and prison as their lot in the largest Arab nation. And the police themselves might be cracking: "What can we do?" one of the riot cops asked us. "We have orders. Do you think we want to do this? This country is going downhill." The government imposed a curfew last night as protesters knelt in prayer in front of police.

How does one describe a day that may prove to be so giant a page in Egypt's history? Maybe reporters should abandon their analyses and just tell the tale of what happened from morning to night in one of the world's most ancient cities. So here it is, the story from my notes, scribbled amid a defiant people in the face of thousands of plainclothes and uniformed police.

It began at the Istikama mosque on Giza Square: a grim thoroughfare of gaunt concrete apartment blocks and a line of riot police that stretched as far as the Nile. We all knew that Mohamed ElBaradei would be there for midday prayers and, at first, the crowd seemed small. The cops smoked cigarettes. If this was the end of the reign of Mubarak, it was a pretty unimpressive start.

But then, no sooner had the last prayers been uttered than the crowd of worshippers, perched above the highway, turned towards the police. "Mubarak, Mubarak," they shouted. "Saudi Arabia is waiting for you." That's when the water cannons were turned on the crowd – the police had every intention of fighting them even though not a stone had been thrown. The water smashed into the crowd and then the hoses were pointed directly at ElBaradei, who reeled back, drenched.

He had returned from Vienna a few hours earlier and few Egyptians think he will run Egypt – he claims to want to be a negotiator – but this was a disgrace. Egypt's most honoured politician, a Nobel prize winner who had held the post of the UN's top nuclear inspector, was drenched like a street urchin. That's what Mubarak thought of him, I suppose: just another trouble maker with a "hidden agenda" – that really is the language the Egyptian government is using right now.

And then the tear gas burst over the crowds. Perhaps there were a few thousand now, but as I walked beside them, something remarkable happened. From apartment blocks and dingy alleyways, from neighbouring streets, hundreds and then thousands of Egyptians swarmed on to the highway leading to Tahrir Square. This is the one tactic the police had decided to prevent. To have Mubarak's detractors in the very centre of Cairo would suggest that his rule was already over. The government had already cut the internet – slicing off Egypt from the rest of the world – and killed all of the mobile phone signals. It made no difference.

"We want the regime to fall," the crowds screamed. Not perhaps the most memorable cry of revolution but they shouted it again and again until they drowned out the pop of tear gas grenades. From all over Cairo they surged into the city, middle-class youngsters from Gazira, the poor from the slums of Beaulak al-Daqrour, marching steadily across the Nile bridges like an army – which, I guess, was what they were.

Still the gas grenades showered over them. Coughing and retching, they marched on. Many held their coats over their mouths or queued at a lemon shop where the owner squeezed fresh fruit into their mouths. Lemon juice – an antidote to tear gas – poured across the pavement into the gutter.

This was Cairo, of course, but these protests were taking place all over Egypt, not least in Suez, where 13 Egyptians have so far been killed. The demonstrations began not just at mosques but at Coptic churches. "I am a Christian, but I am an Egyptian first," a man called Mina told me. "I want Mubarak to go." And that is when the first bataggi arrived, pushing to the front of the police ranks in order to attack the protesters. They had metal rods and police truncheons – from where? – and sharpened sticks, and could be prosecuted for serious crimes if Mubarak's regime falls. They were vicious. One man whipped a youth over the back with a long yellow cable. He howled with pain. Across the city, the cops stood in ranks, legions of them, the sun glinting on their visors. The crowd were supposed to be afraid, but the police looked ugly, like hooded birds. Then the protesters reached the east bank of the Nile.

A few tourists found themselves caught up in this spectacle – I saw three middle-aged ladies on one of the Nile bridges (Cairo's hotels had not, of course, told their guests what was happening) – but the police decided that they would hold the east end of the flyover. They opened their ranks again and sent the thugs in to beat the leading protesters. And this was the moment the tear-gassing began in earnest, hundreds upon hundreds of canisters raining on to the crowds who marched from all roads into the city. It stung our eyes and made us cough until we were gasping. Men were being sick beside sealed shop fronts.

Fires appear to have broken out last night near Mubarak's rubber-stamp NDP headquarters. A curfew was imposed and first reports spoke of troops in the city, an ominous sign that the police had lost control. We took refuge in the old Café Riche off Telaat Harb Square, a tiny restaurant and bar of blue-robed waiters; and there, sipping his coffee, was the great Egyptian writer Ibrahim Abdul Meguid, right in front of us. It was like bumping into Tolstoy taking lunch amid the Russian revolution. "There has been no reaction from Mubarak!" he exalted. "It is as if nothing has happened! But they will do it – the people will do it!" The guests sat choking from the gas. It was one of those memorable scenes that occur in movies rather than real life.

And there was an old man on the pavement, one hand over his stinging eyes. Retired Colonel Weaam Salim of the Egyptian army, wearing his medal ribbons from the 1967 war with Israel – which Egypt lost – and the 1973 war, which the colonel thought Egypt had won. "I am leaving the ranks of veteran soldiers," he told me. "I am joining the protesters." And what of the army? Throughout the day we had not seen them. Their colonels and brigadiers and generals were silent. Were they waiting until Mubarak imposed martial law?

The crowds refused to abide by the curfew. In Suez, they set police trucks on fire. Opposite my own hotel, they tried to tip another truck into the Nile. I couldn't get back to Western Cairo over the bridges. The gas grenades were still soaring off the edges into the Nile. But a cop eventually took pity on us – not a quality, I have to say, that was much in evidence yesterday – and led us to the very bank of the Nile. And there was an old Egyptian motorboat, the tourist kind, with plastic flowers and a willing owner. So we sailed back in style, sipping Pepsi. And then a yellow speed boat swept past with two men making victory signs at the crowds on the bridges, a young girl standing in the back, holding a massive banner in her hands. It was the flag of Egypt.

Egypt's day of crisis

*President Mubarak's regime called in the army and imposed a curfew after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding an end to his rule.

*Large numbers of protesters defied the curfew in Cairo to storm the state TV building and the Foreign Ministry.

*The headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party were set alight.

*Protesters chased riot police away from Cairo's main square. Some police are reported to have removed their uniforms to join the demonstrators. Tanks and troops were ordered to retake the square.

*At least 20 people were killed in violent clashes in Egyptian cities.

*Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was put under house arrest after being hosed by water cannon.

*Mobile phone and internet services were disrupted to prevent social networking sites such as Facebook being used to orchestrate protests.

*Mr Mubarak announced he will form a new government this morning. He has asked his cabinet to resign.

*US President Barack Obama made a televised address in which he revealed that he told Mr Mubarak he must deliver on reforms.

[Spider]

I didn't read that anywhere in what he posted Spider. I think the people who realize that there is little difference between the (D) and the (R), know that this isn't a Republican/Democrat thing, but an authoritarian vs. the people situation.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1JSBhI_0at0" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

the question mark ..... has a meaning junior

[cutthemdown]

The problem is that Mubarak will get replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood and they will have even less freedom, more persecution of the Christians, and a worst relationship with Israel and the USA. How is this good for us?

If it was Syria or Iran yeah but Egypt is one of the countries that add stability. This is bad news.

[Jay3]

The problem is that Mubarak will get replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood and they will have even less freedom, more persecution of the Christians, and a worst relationship with Israel and the USA. How is this good for us?

If it was Syria or Iran yeah but Egypt is one of the countries that add stability. This is bad news.

I think Egypt was worse than it's reputation. I think it might have a real chance to to avoid Islamic extremism. Cairo is such an international City, it's got a shot.

[Arkie]

Tear-gas canisters fired on the people say “Made in U.S.A.” That's a little awkward.
http://i.imgur.com/NwLWb.png

[mhgaffney]

Thanks, Arkie. That pretty much says it all.

The US has been bankrolling Mubarak for 2 $billion a year since 1978. That buys a lot of tear gas, US weapons, armmo, surveillance technology, swat gear, etc repress the Egyptian people.

Mubarak was our puppet - like the Shah in Iran.

You guys have been so brainwashed for so long to associate "Arab" with "terrorist" that the real history sounds like sci fi.

[Bronco Yoda]

Tear-gas canisters fired on the people say “Made in U.S.A.” That's a little awkward.
http://i.imgur.com/NwLWb.png

On the bright side... we finally found something we still make here :ouwknow: who knew?

[ant1999e]

the question mark ..... has a meaning junior

And the LOL, ROFL?

[ant1999e]

On the bright side... we finally found something we still make here :ouwknow: who knew?

That was my thought. Not made in China.

[mhgaffney]

That's some pretty dark humor, guys.

Are you sure it's really funny?

It's like funny haha. We laugh so as not to weep.

[W*GS]

gaff-o is so happy. He's got another reason to hate America. It's what he lives for - hate, hate, hate.

[mhgaffney]

The next few days should tell the tale.

IF the Egyptian army attacks Egyptian civilians they will be using US helicopters, fighters, tanks etc. Doesn't it make you feel proud?!

MHG

Mubarak gives army shoot-to-kill order

Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:17PM

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/162767.html

Embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has reportedly given his armed forces the authority to shoot-to-kill as anti-government protests gain momentum.

Reports say the army has been ordered to shoot when it sees fit. Military helicopters and jet fighters fly over major locations as the numbers of protesters multiply there.

Tens of thousands of people have practically taken over the Tahrir Square in the city center despite heavy military presence, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Clashes between demonstrators and police have left at least 150 people dead and thousands more wounded since anti-Mubarak rallies began in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria on Tuesday.

Protesters have one demand and that is the resignation of President Mubarak. They want a regime change and have dismissed Mubarak's appointment of a vice-president and prime minister.

The Egyptian president has visited an army military operations center on the sixth day of the protests against his regime.

Local media say Mubarak has met with top military commanders and troops at their headquarters.

Mubarak's newly appointed vice president, defense minister and chief of staff have also attended the meeting. No further details have been released.

On Friday, Mubarak ordered the army out to the streets in an effort to maintain control.

Thousands of people across the world have taken to the streets to express support for the anti-government demonstrations in Egypt.

[Rohirrim]

Mohamed ElBaradei uses terms like "That's obviously bogus?" Who'd a thunk it? ???

[mhgaffney]

Mohamed ElBaradei uses terms like "That's obviously bogus?" Who'd a thunk it? ???

Is it a problem that an Egyptian speaks English like an American?

If you are being funny -- Ok - no big deal.

But if you have a problem with it -- I suggest it's your problem -- not ElBaradei's.

[mhgaffney]

Balance whatever you are seeing on US TV with this report from Robert Fisk -- who is in Cairo as we speak...



Egypt: Death Throes of a Dictatorship

Our writer joins protesters atop a Cairo tank as the army shows signs of backing the people against Mubarak's regime

By Robert Fisk

January 30, 2011 "The Independent" --

The Egyptian tanks, the delirious protesters sitting atop them, the flags, the 40,000 protesters weeping and crying and cheering in Freedom Square and praying around them, the Muslim Brotherhood official sitting amid the tank passengers. Should this be compared to the liberation of Bucharest? Climbing on to an American-made battle tank myself, I could only remember those wonderful films of the liberation of Paris. A few hundred metres away, Hosni Mubarak's black-uniformed security police were still firing at demonstrators near the interior ministry. It was a wild, historical victory celebration, Mubarak's own tanks freeing his capital from his own dictatorship.

In the pantomime world of Mubarak himself – and of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Washington – the man who still claims to be president of Egypt swore in the most preposterous choice of vice-president in an attempt to soften the fury of the protesters – Omar Suleiman, Egypt's chief negotiator with Israel and his senior intelligence officer, a 75-year-old with years of visits to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and four heart attacks to his credit. How this elderly apparatchik might be expected to deal with the anger and joy of liberation of 80 million Egyptians is beyond imagination. When I told the demonstrators on the tank around me the news of Suleiman's appointment, they burst into laughter.

Their crews, in battledress and smiling and in some cases clapping their hands, made no attempt to wipe off the graffiti that the crowds had spray-painted on their tanks. "Mubarak Out – Get Out", and "Your regime is over, Mubarak" have now been plastered on almost every Egyptian tank on the streets of Cairo. On one of the tanks circling Freedom Square was a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Beltagi. Earlier, I had walked beside a convoy of tanks near the suburb of Garden City as crowds scrambled on to the machines to hand oranges to the crews, applauding them as Egyptian patriots. However crazed Mubarak's choice of vice-president and his gradual appointment of a powerless new government of cronies, the streets of Cairo proved what the United States and EU leaders have simply failed to grasp. It is over.

Mubarak's feeble attempts to claim that he must end violence on behalf of the Egyptian people – when his own security police have been responsible for most of the cruelty of the past five days – has elicited even further fury from those who have spent 30 years under his sometimes vicious dictatorship. For there are growing suspicions that much of the looting and arson was carried out by plainclothes cops – including the murder of 11 men in a rural village in the past 24 hours – in an attempt to destroy the integrity of the protesters campaigning to throw Mubarak out of power. The destruction of a number of communications centres by masked men – which must have been co-ordinated by some form of institution – has also raised suspicions that the plainclothes thugs who beat many of the demonstrators were to blame.

But the torching of police stations across Cairo and in Alexandria and Suez and other cities was obviously not carried out by plainclothes cops. Late on Friday, driving to Cairo 40 miles down the Alexandria highway, crowds of young men had lit fires across the highway and, when cars slowed down, demanded hundreds of dollars in cash. Yesterday morning, armed men were stealing cars from their owners in the centre of Cairo.

Infinitely more terrible was the vandalism at the Egyptian National Museum. After police abandoned this greatest of ancient treasuries, looters broke into the red-painted building and smashed 4,000-year-old pharaonic statues, Egyptian mummies and magnificent wooden boats, originally carved – complete with their miniature crews – to accompany kings to their graves. Glass cases containing priceless figurines were bashed in, the black-painted soldiers inside pushed over. Again, it must be added that there were rumours before the discovery that police caused this vandalism before they fled the museum on Friday night. Ghastly shades of the Baghdad museum in 2003. It wasn't as bad as that looting, but it was a most awful archeological disaster.

In my night journey from 6th October City to the capital, I had to slow down when darkened vehicles loomed out of the darkness. They were smashed, glass scattered across the road, slovenly policemen pointing rifles at my headlights. One jeep was half burned out. They were the wreckage of the anti-riot police force which the protesters forced out of Cairo on Friday. Those same demonstrators last night formed a massive circle around Freedom Square to pray, "Allah Alakbar" thundering into the night air over the city.

And there are also calls for revenge. An al-Jazeera television crew found 23 bodies in the Alexandria mortuary, apparently shot by the police. Several had horrifically mutilated faces. Eleven more bodies were discovered in a Cairo mortuary, relatives gathering around their bloody remains and screaming for retaliation against the police.

Cairo now changes from joy to sullen anger within minutes. Yesterday morning, I walked across the Nile river bridge to watch the ruins of Mubarak's 15-storey party headquarters burn. In front stood a vast poster advertising the benefits of the party – pictures of successful graduates, doctors and full employment, the promises which Mubarak's party had failed to deliver in 30 years – outlined by the golden fires curling from the blackened windows of the party headquarters. Thousands of Egyptians stood on the river bridge and on the motorway flyovers to take pictures of the fiercely burning building – and of the middle-aged looters still stealing chairs and desks from inside.

Yet the moment a Danish television team arrived to film exactly the same scenes, they were berated by scores of people who said that they had no right to film the fires, insisting that Egyptians were proud people who would never steal or commit arson. This was to become a theme during the day: that reporters had no right to report anything about this "liberation" that might reflect badly upon it. Yet they were still remarkably friendly and – despite Obama's pusillanimous statements on Friday night – there was not the slightest manifestation of hostility against the United States. "All we want – all – is Mubarak's departure and new elections and our freedom and honour," a 30-year-old psychiatrist told me. Behind her, crowds of young men were clearing up broken crash barriers and road intersection fences from the street – an ironic reflection on the well-known Cairo adage that Egyptians will never, ever clean their roads.

Mubarak's allegation that these demonstrations and arson – this combination was a theme of his speech refusing to leave Egypt – were part of a "sinister plan" is clearly at the centre of his claim to continued world recognition. Indeed, Obama's own response – about the need for reforms and an end to such violence – was an exact copy of all the lies Mubarak has been using to defend his regime for three decades. It was deeply amusing to Egyptians that Obama – in Cairo itself, after his election – had urged Arabs to grasp freedom and democracy. These aspirations disappeared entirely when he gave his tacit if uncomfortable support to the Egyptian president on Friday. The problem is the usual one: the lines of power and the lines of morality in Washington fail to intersect when US presidents have to deal with the Middle East. Moral leadership in America ceases to exist when the Arab and Israeli worlds have to be confronted.

And the Egyptian army is, needless to say, part of this equation. It receives much of the $1.3bn of annual aid from Washington. The commander of that army, General Tantawi – who just happened to be in Washington when the police tried to crush the demonstrators – has always been a very close personal friend of Mubarak. Not a good omen, perhaps, for the immediate future.

So the "liberation" of Cairo – where, grimly, there came news last night of the looting of the Qasr al-Aini hospital – has yet to run its full course. The end may be clear. The tragedy is not over.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

http://www.bartcop.com/eqypt-invade.jpg

[mhgaffney]

The problem is that the CIA thumbed its nose at Obama and encouraged Mubarak to ride out the protests. This shows the impotence of Obama.

The Israelis are also backing Mubarak.

It looks like the popular demand for democracy is going no place. The US actually stands for tyrrany --