News

Obama’s greenlight to Mubarak brings bloodshed to Egypt

From Protests in Cairo turn violent:
Female anti-government protester telling Al Jazeera that they cannot leave the square even if she wanted to – she is crying on air and sounds very scared and emotional. Telling Al Jazeera not to refer to the pro-government group as “demonstrators” because they are actually “violent thugs”.

The thuggery scenario
A Western correspondent in Cairo told me that Mubarak goons targeted many reporters and that they also sexually harassed female protesters.  Those goons and criminals are the linchpin of Obama’s Middle East policy. When the book is written about what he did to save Mubarak, it should be titled: it is all for you, o Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/thuggery-scenario.html

More of the latest news from Egypt:

Obama to Mubarak: License to Murder the Egyptian people

As soon as I saw the defiant tone and substance of Mubarak’s speech, I realized that he is not speaking for himself but for the US/Israeli sponsors.  Israel erred before the Arab people by exposing her intense panic and fear from the prospect of an Arab democracy next door.  Of course, Obama would take note and he consulted with his key adviser on the Middle East, Netanyahu.  I just read the speech by Obama: it confirmed my suspicion, that basically Mubarak was permitted by the US to do with the Egyptian people as he would like.  Every drop of blood that is spilled in Egypt from this day onwards should be blamed on Obama because he has embraced this new strategy of letting Mubarak defy the popular will of the Egyptian people.  I don’t trust the Egyptian army: the top brass is hand picked by the US/Israel and can be easily bought off by a combination of bribes, gadgets, and perks.  They could care less about the Egyptian people.  This is part of the ruling group of this tyrant.  The speech by Obama was a not-so-coded language that let Mubarak do what he wish: the talk about transition means that he was basically told to stay in power, because Israel really freaked out at the prospect of Egypt without Mubarak.  How dare Obama talk about technology for the Egyptian youth when his speech did not utter one word about how Mubarak is silencing and restricting the technology of the youth of people. Make no mistake about it: this could be like the 1953 Operation Ajax in Iran.  The US is now arranging for a coup against the will of the Egyptian people.  It requires utmost vigilance and steadfastness and thus far those qualities have been abundant among the Egyptian people.  This move by Obama towards Egypt can be described as criminal because it will lead to blood on the streets.  I wonder if Obama during his talk with Mubarak discussed numbers like: just don’t kill more than 50 or 60 a day, or something like that. His unprincipled cynicism reminds me of the conspiracies of the 1950s.  I am so glad that I resisted all efforts by my liberal and leftist friends who were urging me to vote for this personification of the Bush Doctrine.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/obama-to-mubarak-license-to-murder.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Bloodbath
When the pro-Mubarak protestors appeared on the streets yesterday they were a comical sight. The small crowd near the Egyptian TV building (so obviously a propaganda set-up) were surrounded and outnumbered by police. It was as if they were trying to remind Egyptians what a traditional demonstration should look like. It was a vision from a previous age, but not quite authentic because the police didn’t break any heads.
http://pulsemedia.org/2011/02/02/bloodbath/

Clashes break out in Tahrir Square
More than 100 injured as pro-Mubarak supporters attack protesters seeking president’s ouster in Egyptian capital.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201122124446797789.html

Anderson Cooper ‘punched in the head’ 10 times by pro-Mubarak thugs
CNN’s Anderson Cooper said Wednesday that he and his crew were violently attacked by pro-Mubarak forces as they tried to make their way through the streets of Cairo. “Anderson Cooper punched 10 times in the head as pro-Mubarak mob surrounds him and his crew at Cairo rally,” Maan News Agency’s George Hale tweeted.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/anderson-cooper-punched-head-10-times-promubarak-thugs/

Egypt army urges end to protests
Egypt’s army calls for protesters to return to their homes and allow the country to return to normal after nine days of huge anti-government protests.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-12343402

Mubarak ‘holed up’ in Sharm el Sheikh ready to be airlifted out of Egypt
“…. A worker walking home from the hotel said: “You are not safe here.Everyone says he is here and so they are watching for people taking photographs.“I think he is there because otherwise in Cairo he will be killed.“The crowds will not get him in Sharm because the roads all the way from Cairo are heavily guarded by roadblocks. “There are not enough people here to cause him harm, and too many police.” A tourist shuttle bus driver claimed to have seen Mubarak’s entourage arrive on Wednesday, and that his official plane was at Sharm-el-Sheikh airport but nobody at the airport would confirm if this was true. A number of military aircraft were visible from the perimeter fence, but the airport is frequently used by the armed forces for operations and for public airshows.
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubarak-holed-up-in-sharm-el-sheikh.html

Politics pervade Cairo’s streets
Egyptians air different views on their hopes for the future but all of them agree it is time for Mubarak to go.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/02/20112112719651683.html

Mubarak concessions ‘insufficient’
Egypt protesters continue to demand president’s immediate ouster, as US calls for urgent transition and reforms plan.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/02/20112272918301323.html

Egypt Protesters Deride Mubarak’s Speech As Not Enough
CAIRO – President Hosni Mubarak defied a quarter-million protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing Tuesday he would serve out the last months of his term and “die on Egyptian soil.” He promised not to seek re-election, but that did not calm public fury as clashes erupted between his opponents and supporters.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/egypt-protests-mubarak-speech_n_817263.html


Unmoved by Mubarak’s speech, Egyptian protesters insist: ‘He must leave.’
Responding to Egyptian President Mubarak’s offer to not run for reelection in September, one protester in Cairo’s Tahrir Square said: ‘Thirty years of injustice is enough. We don’t need eight more months.’
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/iS7t742q7m4/Unmoved-by-Mubarak-s-speech-Egyptian-protesters-insist-He-must-leave
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Egyptian Activist’s Rebuttal of Mubarak’s Speech
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/latest-updates-on-day-8-of-protests-in-egypt/?src=twt&twt=thelede#egyptian-activists-rebuttal-of-mubaraks-speech


Egyptians vow to oust Mubarak
Hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million people gathered at the Tahrir Square on Tuesday, chanting insults to a leader they lived in fear of for much of the past 30 years. Tuesday attracted the largest and the most diverse crowd of a week of demonstrations, men and women, young and old, workers and unemployed, all camped in the heart of the city demanding the ouster of Husni Mubarak. Al Jazeera’s Dan Nolan reports from Tahrir Square.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BIV0dbR1Rs&feature=youtube_gdata

Army chief candidate for Egypt president
A member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said Tuesday the armed forces chief of staff could be an acceptable successor to President Hosni Mubarak while a coalition of opposition groups said they would only begin talks with the military on a transition to democracy once the president stands down.  Kamel al-Helbawy, a prominent overseas cleric from Egypt’s main opposition movement, told Reuters that armed forces chief of staff Sami Enan, who has good ties with Washington, was a liberal who could be seen as suitable by the coalition.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=124418#axzz1Ckxnh96R


ElBaradei calls Mubarak move a trick to retain power
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Long-time Egyptian diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei does not believe President Hosni Mubarak went far enough to meet the demands of protesters on Tuesday, calling his moves “a trick” to try to remain in power, CNN reported.  CNN, which interviewed ElBaradei but did not immediately air his comments, said the former head of the U.N. arms control agency indicated he would consider running for president in Egyptian elections in September but added that was not currently his main focus. CNN said ElBaradei told an interviewer he preferred that Mubarak step down immediately and hand over power to a caretaker government until elections can be held.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/elbaradei-calls-mubarak-move-a-trick-to-retain-power


U.S. ambassador meets with Egypt pro-democracy leader ElBaradei
U.S. state department spokesman says the meet is part of U.S. outreach to convey support for an ‘orderly transition in Egypt.’
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/u-s-ambassador-meets-with-egypt-pro-democracy-leader-elbaradei-1.340623?localLinksEnabled=false

‘Talks only after Mubarak leaves’
Opposition coalition says they will hold talks with military on transition only after president stands down.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121161525971840.html

Mubarak promise comes after private Obama message
* Special envoy for Obama urged transition in power
* Analysts question if Mubarak vow will satisfy clamor
* Influential U.S. lawmakers added to pressure on Mubarak (New throughout with more details)
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/us-envoy-tells-mubarak-to-prepare-for-transition

Copts say Egypt regime change trumps Islamist fears
* Mubarak has portrayed self as bulwark against Islamism
* Some Copts still worry Islamists could gain more power
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/copts-say-egypt-regime-change-trumps-islamist-fears

Obama: Change in Egypt ‘must begin now’
President Barack Obama called in a televised address Tuesday night for an “orderly transition” in Egypt to “begin now,” signaling the administration’s acceptance that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s days are numbered.  The president’s call for immediate change may have been a challenge to Mubarak, who announced in a speech several hours earlier that he would not seek another term in office, but would remain as president until the election in September.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/obama-change-egypt-must-now/

Josh Rogin, “Top House Appropriator: U.S. Aid to Egypt Not Stopping Any Time Soon”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked that back on Jan. 30, telling ABC News, “There is no discussion as of this time about cutting off any aid. We always are looking and reviewing our aid.” And on Monday, House Appropriations State and Foreign Ops subcommittee chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX) also indicated that aid to Egypt would not be cut off anytime soon. “While there are calls for eliminating Egypt’s economic and military aid, I urge caution when deciding what the U.S. response will be,” she said. “It is critical that we are deliberate about the actions we take. Egypt has been a moderate influence in the Middle East and has a peace agreement with Israel.”
http://bit.ly/eBcCHh

WikiLeaks: U.S. Concerned For Years Over Power Succession In Egypt After Mubarak
WASHINGTON  The protests rocking Egypt could change the political landscape of the entire Arab world and beyond. Possible outcomes range all the way from pro-democracy forces taking charge in Cairo to in a worst case an all-out war bringing in Israel and Iran. In between, there could be a long period of instability that could breed economic chaos across the region and derail economic recoveries in the U.S. and Europe.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/wikileaks-us-concerned-fo_n_817244.html

Turkish PM calls for Mubarak to stand down
Recep Erdoğan, the Turkish prime minister, has called on Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president, to listen to the calls for change from Egyptian people. Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught in Istanbul speaks about the Turkish PM’s forceful remarks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L6SnqyDros&feature=youtube_gdata

Egypt protests: Five world leaders jump into the fray
Concerned about ending up on the wrong side of history, world leaders have appeared hesitant to vocally support either the Egyptian government or the growing number of protesters in Cairo. Below are the reactions from five regional and world players to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his government, and the protests.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/FkpTFvPvKSk/Egypt-protests-Five-world-leaders-jump-into-the-fray

Mitt Romney calls for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down
Sounding more like a potential GOP presidential contender, Mitt Romney says Hosni Mubarak ‘needs to move on.’  WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney became, on Tuesday, the first of the potential 2012 GOP presidential contenders to call for the exit of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/qUKeDHmX60Q/la-pn-romney-egypt-20110202,0,5226923.story


Palestinians join Egyptians to defend properties
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Palestinians in Egypt say they have been forced to join vigilante groups to protect their property as huge anti-government protests rage for an eighth day.  “We, like everyone, are holding sticks and defending our homes here,” said Marcell Lahham, a first year student in Cairo.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=356238

Thousands escape Egypt prisons
Egypt’s anti-government uprising has also seen lawlessness and looting in several cities. As the police abandoned their posts, thousands of prisoners were set free across the country, in a series of mass jailbreaks. More in this report from the Abu Zaabal prison, on the outskirts of Cairo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fZx_Bm9WwM&feature=youtube_gdata


Egyptians feel the economic pinch of protest
CAIRO: There is no money at the banks. Fuel is scarce. Tourism is evaporating. As a popular uprising to oust President Hosni Mubarak enters its second week, Egyptians are feeling the economic pinch.  Banks have been shut since Sunday, and they remained so Tuesday, the day that protesters hope will see a million-strong demonstration in Cairo to demand an end to Mubarak’s regime.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=124404#axzz1Ckxnh96R

EGYPT: Cairo residents grapple with food shortages, security threats
CAIRO 02 February 2011 (IRIN) – It is 6.00am and Rida Mansur feels she is running late. The 57-year-old mother of five has to get to the vegetable market early to buy food for her family before things run out. But she was not lucky today: All she could get were a few expensive tomatoes and cucumbers.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=91811

The Protests
A million Egyptians united against Mubarak
CAIRO (IPS) – Organizers called it Egypt’s “million man march.” Whether they achieved that targeted head count is unclear, but their message was unequivocal.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11772.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

Egypt: A New Spirit of National Pride
While Egyptians battle for their political future, social change is already sweeping the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5GSfSRY2PQ

Khalid Nasser supports the protesters in Egypt
The son of the former Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser joins the protesters in Tahrir Square.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkqmFegnfMQ&feature=youtube_gdata

Cairo protesters to march on the presidential palace
Anti-government protesters in Egypt say they will stage a march from the focus point of the recent demonstrations, Tahrir Square. They will head to the presidential palace, and some are even threatening to storm it. Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urCtnefeguE&feature=youtube_gdata

Scenes from Tahrir Square
Video from the massive protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FQHFSfMRxA&feature=youtube_gdata

Scenes from Tahrir Square, part 2
Another round of images from Tuesday’s historic protest in Tahrir Square.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZO-Zr3gqg8&feature=youtube_gdata


Millions rally to oust Mubarak
More than a million protesters flooded into central Cairo, turning Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital, into a sea of humanity as massive protests against President Hosni Mubarak swept across Middle East’s most populous nation. Packed shoulder to shoulder in and around the famed Tahrir Square, the mass of people on Tuesday held aloft posters denouncing the president, and chanted slogans “Go Mubarak Go” and “Leave! Leave! Leave!” Similar demonstrations calling on Mubarak to step down were also witnessed across other cities, including Sinai, Alexandria, Suez, Mansoura, Damnhour, Arish, Tanta and El-Mahalla el-Kubra. For the latest on Egypt go to: http://english.aljazeera.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zFPUdY5EPo&feature=youtube_gdata

Alexandria protest attracts more than 100,000
Jubilant crowds form a mile-long procession. A small counter-demonstration shows support for President Hosni Mubarak.  In the ancient seaside city of Alexandria, more than 100,000 people took to the streets Tuesday in protest, so many that there was no place large enough in Egypt’s second-largest city to accommodate the crowds.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/b5s2HGL4QCs/la-fg-egypt-alexandria-20110202,0,5476413.story

The Foreign policy connotations of the Egyptian Uprising: a message to Netanyahu
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/foreign-policy-connotations-of-egyptian.html

Photos Courtesy of Arabs48.com
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2011/02/photos-courtesy-of-arabs48com.html

In Pictures: Revolt on the Nile
Images of the thousands of Egyptian protesters that defied a curfew in the capital Cairo and other cities taken throughout the week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj3hjdcbF98&feature=youtube_gdata

Revolution spreads to Egypt’s deprived Sinai
SINAI (IPS) – A Bedouin youth casually spreads out a piece of cloth before a police headquarters in Sheikh Zwayyed town in Sinai, the vast desert area to the east of Cairo across the Suez. “I will leave when Mubarak leaves,” he says.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11770.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

Egyptian actor supports the protesters
Khalid Abo al-Naga, an Egyptian actor and pro-democracy activist, told Al Jazeera “I decided to be part of this years ago when young Egyptian in twitter said that they can’t live like this, they [Mubarak regime] are trying to hijack the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydsi_zm57-o&feature=youtube_gdata

Millions Against Mubarak: Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous Reports Live from Tahrir Amid Massive Protest
One week after the unprecedented popular uprising began in Egypt, more than two million people descend on Tahrir Square in Cairo, defying the military curfew, to demand regime change in the country. The Egyptian army has declared they will not use force and have recognized the “legitimate grievances” of the people. We speak to Sharif Abdel Kouddous, senior producer at Democracy Now!, live from Tahrir Square. “I am standing in an ocean of people… They are demanding with one voice for the President Mubarak to step down,” Kouddous says. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/1/millions_against_mubarak_democracy_now_s


Ahmed Moor from Cairo: ‘The people here are determined and have reached the point of no return’
I just spoke with Ahmed Moor who has been reporting from Cairo since the beginning of the protests last week. He was in Tahrir Square today for the “march of a million people” and has this update.
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/ahmed-moor-from-cairo-the-people-here-are-determined-and-have-reached-the-point-of-no-return.html


Egypt’s youth ready for the future, protester says in moving interview
A young female protester at Cairo’s Tahrir Square told filmmakers that the widespread rallies against President Mubarak show the Egyptian people “can take this country forward.” The interview was part of the upcoming documentary “Zero Silence” by filmmakers Jonny von Wallström and Alexandra Sandels.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/egyptian-protester-country-future/

Quiet Acts of Protest on a Noisy Day
CAIRO — The retired general in the blue suit walked alone, with a cane, as hundreds of Egyptian protesters surged past him, chanting and holding signs. He stopped to catch his breath, grabbing the railing of a bridge so he could look out at the Nile.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/world/middleeast/02scene.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Egyptian-Americans hold rallies
Standing in solidarity with those back home, people across the US organise protests against the Egyptian president.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/02/20112119402452716.html

Witness – Blogging on the Nile
All over Egypt thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against Hosni Mubarak’s government. Blogs, twitter, Facebook and mobile phone footage have all played some part in mobilising the crowds and getting messages to the wider world. And this despite a draconian crackdown on media and an unprecedented blackout of the internet by the authorities. In today’s Witness we look back at a film made four years ago, when bloggers were relatively few and new in Egypt. They claimed the Egyptian government was nothing better than a dictatorship, using torture, intimidation and corruption to maintain its hold on power, and they were attracting a growing audience. Back then they were already making waves – and paying a high price. But they were sewing the seeds of today’s multi-media uprising. We are also joined in the studio by two guests who have been following the development of media in Egypt – Sharif Nashashibi from Arab Media Watch and researcher Ramy Aly who experienced blogging in Egypt in 2006 and 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMfbr3Fkciw&feature=youtube_gdata

Scenes from Egypt’s uprising
For years, Egyptians fearful of their country’s pervasive secret police apparatus would reflexively lower their voices and glance around before daring to speak a word against President Hosni Mubarak. During these heady days in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, they’ve felt free to speak their minds, and vent their anger.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/__Ho2dF6c-M/la-fg-egypt-vignettes-20110202,0,702658.story


Egypt: “The People / Demand / the Fall of the Regime” — Eyewitness Account
It was a new slogan. I don’t recall ever hearing it before in a demonstration. It is rhythmic, in proper Arabic in fact, but most of all — it is a slogan that started with “the people demand.” One that all could agree on.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mohamed-el-dahshan/egypt-the-people-demand-t_b_816058.html

In Tahrir Square, Egyptians sense they are part of a turning point in history
CAIRO – As thousands upon thousands of demonstrators converged Tuesday on Tahrir Square, and spilled over onto the streets that flow into it, the chants and signs were about their desire to be rid of President Hosni Mubarak. But the mood at times seemed to be one of surprise as much as anything …
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=d74a8426d047967cfba08932c9848e07

Robert Fisk: Secular and devout. Rich and poor. They marched together with one goal
It was a victory parade which started without the victory. They came in their hundreds of thousands, joyful, singing, praying, a great packed mass of Egypt, suburb by suburb, village by village, waiting patiently to pass through the “people’s security” checkpoints, draped in the Egyptian flag of red, white and black, its governess eagle a bright gold in the sunlight. Were there a million? Perhaps. Across the country there certainly were. It was, we all agreed, the largest political demonstration in the history of Egypt, the latest heave to rid this country of its least-loved dictator. Its only flaw was that by dusk – and who knew what the night would bring – Hosni Mubarak was still calling himself “President” of Egypt.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-secular-and-devout-rich-and-poor-they-marched-together-with-one-goal-2201504.html


Media & Repression
Internet service restored in Egypt
Partial service back up after unprecedented five-day blackout aimed at stymieing savvy, anti-Mubarak protesters.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201122113055781707.html

Google searching for executive missing in Egypt
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Google Inc <GOOG.O> on Tuesday began a public search for an executive missing in Cairo, where the Internet company has offered tools to help Egyptians communicate amid chaotic protests.  Google, which launched a way for Twitter users to communicate without Internet access, said on Tuesday that Wael Ghonim, head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, has not been seen since late Thursday in central Cairo.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/google-says-executive-missing-in-egypt

Al-Jadeed yields after NileSat threatens action
BEIRUT: Lebanese television station Al-Jadeed faced being taken off the air in Egypt Tuesday after Egypt’s second biggest satellite provider, NileSat, threatened to cut off coverage.  NileSat made the warning after Al-Jadeed suspended regular broadcasting Tuesday, replacing its programs by Al-Jazeera coverage of the Egyptian protests. Live feeds from Al-Jazeera first appeared on air at around 5 p.m. with Al-Jadeed announcing it was interrupting its scheduled programming out of “solidarity with Al-Jazeera television and the Egyptian revolution.”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=124427#axzz1Ckxnh96R


Egypt: Al Jazeera Signal Disrupted, Arab Channels Band Together In Support
Al Jazeera’s signal is being disrupted in “unprecedented ways” as it covers the Egyptian revolution, the New York Times’ Brian Stelter reports. “We have been working round the clock to make sure we are broadcasting on alternative frequencies,” an Al Jazeera spokesman said in a statement to the Times. “Clearly there are powers that do not want our important images pushing for democracy and reform to be seen by the public.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/al-jazeera-signal-disrupted-egypt_n_817042.html

Egypt’s Internet shutdown, visualized
Google Transparency Report’s traffic numbers provide a stark illustration of the impact of the Egyptian government’s Internet shutdown that began last week.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/L7xmUwZ8NKY/Egypt-s-Internet-shutdown-visualized

Media Blackout in Egypt and the U.S.: Al Jazeera Forced Off the Air by Mubarak, Telecommunications Companies Block Its Expansion in the United States
Reporters from Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language news network, have been arrested and forced off the air by President Hosni Mubarak. “This regime, which couldn’t find the time to protect Egypt’s priceless relics in the National Museum in Cairo, found the time to drag journalists through the streets … and found time to shut down Al Jazeera,” says Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera English is broadcast to more than 200 million homes around the world, but it’s hardly available in the United States. Critics have called it a media blackout by U.S. cable and satellite providers. We speak to Tony Burman of Al Jazeera English.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/1/media_blackout_in_egypt_and_the

Digital Darkness: U.S., U.K. Companies Help Egyptian Regime Shut Down Telecommunications and Identify Dissident Voices
Doing the regime’s bidding, British-based Vodafone shut down Egypt’s phone and internet service. The American company called Narus — owned by Boeing — sold Egypt the surveillance technology that helped identify dissident voices. We are joined by Tim Karr of Free Press and CUNY Professor C.W. Anderson. Karr outlines how communications was shut down in Egypt and discusses the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, a proposed Senate bill that could lay the foundation for blocking communications in the United States in the case of a “national threat.” Anderson traces the activist roots of Twitter to U.S. protests at the 2004 Republican and Democratic conventions. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/1/digital_darkness_us_uk_companies_help


Egypt’s State TV Reacts To Uprising
CAIRO — As hundreds of Egyptian protesters filled Tahrir Square on Monday, many calling for their president to go into exile, one of the two state-owned television stations had its cameras focused elsewhere, capturing the steady flow of traffic on a Cairo bridge. It was one of two scenes Nile News has favored over the last few days. The other was a static shot of the street below the offices of the station, empty except for some tanks. The channel’s viewers did not see the thousands of people fleeing the country or the hundreds of thousands of protesters, including one in the square on Monday holding up a sign saying “No to the lying Egyptian media.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/egypts-state-tv-reacts-to_n_816793.html

Washington Embraces Al Jazeera
Cowardly US cable providers refuse to grant the channel a distribution platform, largely for fear of being perceived as supporting or enabling a network that for years has been portrayed negatively by US officials.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/158183/washingtons-sudden-embrace-al-jazeera-wont-erase-past-us-crimes-against-network

Witness – A multi-media uprising?
From Tahrir Square in Cairo to the corniche in Alexandria, all over Egypt thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against Hosni Mubarak’s government. Blogs, twitter, Facebook and mobile phone footage have all played some part in mobilising the crowds and getting messages to the wider world. And this despite a draconian crackdown on media and an unprecedented blackout of the internet by the authorities. Witness presenter Samah El-Shahat is joined by two guests who have been following media developments in Egypt. Sharif Nashashibi is the chairman and co-founder of Arab Media Watch, an independent, non-profit watchdog, set up in 2000 to strive for objective coverage of Arab issues in the British media. And Ramy Aly is a researcher who has written about social networking in Egypt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ERS26tLS_k&feature=youtube_gdata

An Egyptian revolution, unplugged
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Despite the Hosni Mubarak regime’s attempts at muzzling communication and dissent, and the reportedly government-sanctioned shutdown of Egypt’s last standing Internet service provider to individual users Monday, Egyptians are still managing to get their voices heard and mobilize — both through advanced technical workarounds and older, traditional technologies.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11771.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

‘Egypt state TV anchor resigns’
President Hosni Mubarak speaking to the nation in Cairo. Mubarak said he will
CAIRO (Ma’an) — An Egyptian news anchor has resigned from state television after 20 years for what she said was a “lack of ethical standards” in its coverage of Egypt’s mass protests, news reports said.  Soha El-Nakash told Reuters she presented five programs for state news channel Nile News on Jan 26, the second day of the protests, and was dismayed the streets of Cairo were portrayed as calm when in fact thousands of people were demonstrating.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=356347

As`ad Abukhalil’s Commentary
The Egyptian Army
Of course, the primarily responsibility for the blood in Tahrir Square is that of cynical Obama who decided to heed Israel’s advice regarding what is happening in Egypt.   The imperial power that is the US requires the existence of one region–the Middle East–ruled largely like colonial settlements of the 19th century.  Obama has given license to Mubarak and the Egyptian Army is executing the plan.  The dumbest view by the Egyptian protesters is to regard the Army as their protectors or even as being neutral.  The Army was a tool for Mubarak and will remain his tool to the last day, unless ordered otherwise by the US.  This is not the same Army that overthrew Faruq–and many in that Army were with Faruq which explained the secrecy that Nasser required for his plan prior to the revolution.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/egyptian-army.html

Mubarak’s propagandist
`Imad Ad-Din Ad-Dib, the chief propagandist for Mubarak, is on Al-Arabiyyah TV (the news station of King Fahd’s brother-in-law), and he is saying that the lousy Egyptian Army (famous for its humiliating defeats at the hands of Israel) will now issue a statement to ban demonstrations altogether.  They sent goons to the square and now they will say that the clashes in the square require the intervention of the Army.  We have seen those scenarios in 1960s CIA coups in Latin America.  I did not enjoy the film the first time around, and doubt that Arabs will enjoy it now in 2011.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubaraks-propagandist.html

Israel is freaking out
“According to the media, Israel engaged in backstage efforts to get the West to tone down rhetoric against Mubarak, whose regime it credits with keeping stability and peace. On Tuesday, the U.S. dispatched an envoy to Egypt, Frank G. Wisner, veteran diplomat and former ambassador to Cairo in the 1980s.  Israeli media described his mission as negotiating a “dignified way out” for Mubarak with Vice President Omar Suleiman, whose appointment was “too little but mostly too late,” according to one commentator. There was little negotiation and the U.S. proposal was rejected.  Israel’s having — or thinks it is — one of those “told you so” moments, which it’s trying to be rather mature about. But these are short-lived and one can’t bask — or wallow — in them for long. Sooner or later, you need to get back to work.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/israel-is-freaking-out.html

Another Zionist is freaking out: the dictatorship of Mubarak as the model
“For Israel, then, peace with Egypt has been not only strategically but also psychologically essential. Israelis understand that the end of their conflict with the Arab world depends in large part on the durability of the peace with Egypt — for all its limitations, it is the only successful model of a land-for-peace agreement…Israelis now worry that this fragile opening to the Arab world is about to close.”  Oh, yeah. It was a great opening.  The Egyptian people never accepted peace with Israel and it required the preservation of a bloody dictatorship to maintain it.  Opening? Did you see the Arab people “opening up” to Israel?  And notice how this writer basically flippantly justified all of Israeli wars, massacres, and murders from 1982 to now: “Since then all of Israel’s military conflicts — from the first Lebanon war in 1982 to the Gaza war of 2009 — have been asymmetrical confrontations against terrorists.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/another-zionist-is-freaking-out_6366.html

Bastille in Egypt
The Egyptian protesters now need the equivalent of the storming of the Bastille.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/bastille-in-egypt.html

Mubarak defiant: it is Israel (and US), stupid
He has just given his speech.  He is bizarrely defiant.  Says that he won’t seek another term, as if this was the issue.  He hit hard against the protesters and even addressed the “peasants and workers of Egypt” (like when Trotsky gave his first speech in New York City and addressed the crowd in the Bronx as “workers and peasants of the Bronx”).   He is so weird: he talks like he is still in control and talks about a process that will last for months.  The man is going to leave but with Egypt in flames behind them.  The situation only got more tense and more potentially explosive.  But I will say this: this defiance does not come out of nowhere.  I can’t believe that this is the same leader who is rejected by his own people before TV cameras.  He even reminded us of his military role: yes brag of the defeats of 1967 and 1973.  But I speculate this: Israel so freaked out, and it was so clear and blatant.  They realized that peace with Egypt won’t survive.  So the US scrambled: sent an envoy to Cairo: realized that there is no US puppet to lead the country so the scenario of defiance was adopted. His tone and stance of defiance is matched by the rhetoric of the Obama administration which is clear in its avoidance of the issues of democracy in Egypt.  And don’t forget that many racists lead the US policy making in the Middle East (people like Feltman at State and Shapiro at NSC) and they concur with Kaplan’s racist dictum about the Arabs and democracy.   US is digging itself in a bigger hole, as we speak.  Aljazeera is now silent: in the sense it is showing the protesters at Tahriri Square and they are in a state of rage that is even scary from my living room.  The man is asking for trouble: they will physically push him out if he does not leave.  Israel wants him to fight to the last Egyptian.  But that won’t work.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubarak-defiant-it-is-israel-and-us.html

Two scenarios
1) people would storm that the presidential palaces and TV station and government headquarters; 2) the Army would take over and oust him.  He clearly adopted the Netanyahu-Obama option of disregarding the will of the Egyptian people and staying in power at all cost.  It is all for you, Israel.  I want to see Arab public opinion vis-a-vis the US after this.  The US is cooking a dirty plot reminiscent of the 1950s plot, but this time it is much more clumsy.  
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/two-scenarios.html

Frank Wisner
This will be mocked for a long time: that the Obama administration chose this guy to negotiate with Mubarak.  This is akin to Ernst Hanfstaengl being sent by the US to negotiate with Hitler.  (Of the course, the Nazi Hanfstaengl later worked for the US government as expert on Germany). 
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/frank-wisner.html

Obama’s envoy to Egypt: Frank Wisner
I received this: “I’d like to remain anonymous on this one.  In addition to being close to Mubarak as mentioned in the piece you linked to, Frank Wisner is very close to many of Egypt’s oligarchs and his brother Graham, a lawyer, has represented the business interests of several of them.   Which is why I chuckled when I read that the State department had said that Wisner “will meet Egyptian officials to urge them to embrace broad economic and political changes that can pave the way for free and fair elections.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/obamas-envoy-to-egypt-frank-wisner.html

John Kerry’s priorities in Egypt: from 2004
“On Egypt, Kerry said that he would not tie foreign aid to greater openness and reform. “I would first want to link it to the warmth of the relationship with Israel and the effort to secure general stability in Middle East,” he said. “You have to put your priorities first.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/john-kerrys-priorities-in-egypt-from.html

Sen. John Kerry on Mubarak
Nothing in the piece, of course. What do you expect from Kerry.  But one thing stood out: Israel was not mentioned.  Not once.  That is the impact of the Egyptian uprising already.  But lest John Kerry thinks of himself as a champion of the Egyptian uprising, I would like to ask my readers to send me past praise by Kerry for Husni Mubarak.  Oh, and I want them NOW.  NOW.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/sen-john-kerry-on-mubarak.html

They are fleeing Egypt
Lebanese News Agency is report that a member of Mubarak’s puppet parliament has fled Egypt with his family on a private jet and has just arrived in Beirut. 
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/they-are-fleeing-egypt.html

Randa Abu Al-`Azm (III)
Randa Abu Al-`Azm (a chief but competent propagandist for the Mubarak regime) covered extensively a small demonstration by Mubarak goons.  If you watch it on Mubarak state TV, you can even see a guy leading the goons before the cameras and choreographing the affair.  So Abu Al-`Azm covered that and then the goons started cheering to Al-Arabiyya TV and said that they love it.  I bet they do.  I bet.  I just worry about the safety of Al-Arabiyyah TV correspondents once the regime is overthrown.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/randa-abu-al-azm-iii.html

the journalists of the new Egypt
Write down those two names. You will hear about them.  Hamdi Qandil is a principled long time Arab nationalist.  He has been close to Baradi`i and served as the spokesperson of this movement.  Has been banned by Egyptian State TV and Saudi TV.  I met him once in Beirut: he is married to famed Egyptian actress, Najla’ Fathi (I only mention that because I had a strong adolescent crush on her).  Also, write down the name of `Abdul-Halim Qandil, a secular Arab nationalist.  This man is a hero. Has been the most vociferous critic of Mubarak.  Once, Mubarak goons kidnapped him, beat him up, and then left him naked near the pyramids.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/journalists-of-new-egypt.html


This fanatic Zionist who leads the Inter Rel committee in the House tells Arabs who can qualify to lead them

“The U.S. should learn from past mistakes and support a process which only includes candidates who meet basic standards for leaders of responsible nations – candidates who have publicly renounced terrorism, uphold the rule of law, recognize Egypt’s international commitments including its nonproliferation obligations and its peace agreement with the Jewish state of Israel, and who ensure security and peace with its neighbors,” she said in a statement.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-fanatic-zionist-who-leads-inter.html

Here is another Zionist freaking out
“The ugly facts are that the two peace treaties that Israel concluded so far – the one with Egypt and the other with Jordan – were both signed with dictators: Anwar Sadat and King Hussein.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/here-is-another-zionist-freaking-out.html

Another Zionist is freaking out
“A truly worst-case outcome of the unrest in Egypt is frightening to contemplate. It might go something like this: The current situation leads, through a process of resignations, external pressures and interim governments to free elections in which the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and best-organized opposition group, wins the day. The Brotherhood, which opposes Israel’s very existence, cancels Egypt’s peace treaty with the Jewish state, declares Hamas (an offshoot of the Brotherhood) an ally, denounces the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, demands that international forces leave the Sinai Peninsula and asserts Egypt’s right to send heavy forces into the presently demilitarized territory. The Suez Canal is abruptly closed to passage of Israeli naval ships that have been disrupting Iranian-Hezbollah-Sudanese arms smuggling in the Red Sea.”  Le me think.  For Israel, I cant think of far worse scenarios than this one.  Oh, ha ha ha.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/another-zionist-is-freaking-out_3178.html


Jamal and `Ala’ Mubarak have blood on their hands
Those two are not innocent.  For me, they committed a terrible crime last year when they both incited the Egyptian people along racist lines against the Algerian people following a defeat by Egypt in a soccer match.  Their racist incitement resulted in the death of injury of people, in Egypt and in Algeria. 
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/jamal-and-ala-mubarak-have-blood-on.html

Palestinian Reaction
The people: Egypt’s revolution inspires Gaza’s youth
The revolution underway in Egypt is being closely watched by Gaza’s youth who see it as a source of empowerment and inspiration. It has stirred our sentiments and has moved us to take to the streets to show our solidarity with our neighbors in Egypt. We attempt to absorb every minute event so as to carry it through the years when we will be able to tell our children how proud we were to have lived through one of the greatest and most inspirational events in the history of the Arab world.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11769.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29


Hamas:  Gaza Strip: Police Prevent Egypt Solidarity Demonstration
(Jerusalem) – Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip prevented Gazans from demonstrating in solidarity with protesters in Egypt, according to witnesses who spoke to Human Rights Watch.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/01/31/gaza-strip-police-prevent-egypt-solidarity-demonstration


Palestinian Authority:  Disrupts Egypt Solidarity Protest in Ramallah
(Ramallah) – Palestinian Authority security forces shut down a demonstration on January 30, 2011, in front of the Egyptian embassy in Ramallah, after calling in one of the organizers for questioning multiple times on January 29 and ordering him to cancel the event notice that he had created on Facebook. Human Rights Watch monitored the demonstration and spoke with participants.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/01/30/palestinian-authority-disrupts-egypt-solidarity-protest-ramallah

Zionist Reactions
Anxious Israel
Egypt’s neighbour fears what might follow Mubarak.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-12338222

Israel places resources at Suleiman’s disposal “to protect the Egyptian regime”
Well-placed Israeli sources have disclosed that the Zionist state has offered to place “all its capabilities” at the disposal of General Omar Suleiman, the recently appointed Vice President of Egypt, for the “protection of the regime in Egypt”. This offer includes the implementation of “various operations to end the popular revolution”. Israel has also asked Suleiman to work on preventing arms being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2009-israel-places-resources-at-suleimans-disposal-qto-protect-the-egyptian-regimeq


Bolton: Mubarak’s downfall would mean we’d have to bomb Iran …quick
HANNITY: Do you think that the Israelis are going to have to strike — they are going to have to take action. … As you pointed out, El Baradei, you know, ran cover for the Iranians for all those years that he was with the IAEA. And, I just don’t think the Israelis have much longer to wait…they’re going to have to act in fairly short order.  BOLTON: I think that’s right. I don’t think there’s much time to act. And I think the fall of a Egyptian government committed to the peace agreement will almost certainly speed that timetable up.
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/02/bolton-mubaraks-downfall-would-mean-wed.html


When Egypt shakes, it should be no surprise that Israel trembles | Jonathan Freedland
Given the region’s history, Israelis are bound to fear democracy in the Arab world. But that alone can bring real peace. They fear they’ve seen this movie before. In the first reel, the world watches with awe as the streets of a distant capital fill with the young and the angry, brave enough to shake their fist at a hated dictator. In the second, the statues fall, the tyrant flees and all hail a triumph for democracy. But in the final reel there’s a twist: the original street rebels are pushed aside, replaced by a tyranny just as ruthless as the one it toppled – and much more menacing to its neighbours.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/01/egypt-israel-democracy-arab-world-peace

Analysis/Op-ed
A look at Mubarak’s rule of Egypt
Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president has announced that he will not run for a new term in office but for the moment he has refused to stand down. After running the country for three decades he is one of the region’s longest ruling leaders. Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reports on Mubarak’s political career.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjo_hgcIJ6E&feature=youtube_gdata

Everybody Loves Loved Hosni
For 30 years the world welcomed Egypt’s president — they shook his hand and looked the other way. But the time for photo ops is likely over.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/01/everybody_loves_loved_hosni

Susan Abulhawa: Mubarak: Destroying Egypt to Stay in Power
Mubarak’s latest cynical tactic is to send in armed gangs, mostly from his notorious police force, to ignite riots, thus making his hold on power all the more necessary for the sake of restoring security and order.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-abulhawa/mubarak-destroying-egypt-_b_817375.html

By switching on the internet and rocks, Mubarak seeks to make violence the face of the revolution
Everyone is now running from Tahrir, so something major is happening there, Tighe Barry reports from north of Tahrir Square. He is watching a dozen Mubarak thugs beating a kid with a metal pole.  Now going after a man who tried to protect him.   How can he survive?  More people piling on all the time.  The human shields of Tahrir Square have given up and are now defending themselves with stones as well. Barry: One guy here has been shooting video through a tiny crack in the steel shutter.  We see five or six men beating a boy lying on the ground.
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/by-switching-on-the-internet-mubarak-seeks-to-make-violence-the-face-of-the-revolution.html

Suburban demonstrations and handmade signs show that democracy movement is organic
The internet has come back up, largely I think so that financial transactions can be processed.  People are lined up at ATMs everywhere.  Also out are pro-Mubarak forces, vastly smaller than the anti-Mubarak forces.  The first rally I saw this morning was about 200 people in Talat Harb Sq. about 1/4 mi. from Tahrir Square.  All men and very threatening.  They had nothing to say other than, “We love Mubarak.  He gives Egypt everything.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/the-democracy-movement-is-organic-and-will-not-be-stopped.html

Mubarak Exit: Egypt President Misses Chance For Dignified Departure
WASHINGTON — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak missed his cue for a dignified exit from 30 years of iron-fisted rule.  By saying he would leave later instead of now, Mubarak infuriated the crowds numbering hundreds of thousands massed to demand his immediate resignation. Mubarak promised Tuesday not to run again for the presidency in September, but the crowds want him out immediately.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/mubarak-exit-egypt-presid_n_817320.html

Egyptian Labor Unions Lead the Way, DAVID MACARAY
Let’s give Egypt’s labor unions some credit.  According to a report presented at a symposium hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in February, 2010, there have been more than 3,000 labor protests by Egyptian workers since 2004.  That’s an astounding number. The report declared that this figure “[dwarfs]  Egyptian political protests in both scale and consequence.”
http://www.counterpunch.com/macaray02012011.html

Inside Story – New faces, same old policies?
After 30 years of resistance, why has Hosni Mubarak , the Egyptian president, chosen to appoint a vice president now? Is this appointment and the appearance of other new members of the cabinet a sign for real change? And what is the West looking for if Mubarak falls?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jpSJw4AbAk&feature=youtube_gdata

Every Square is a Tahir Square, AHMAD BARQAWI
Amman, Jordan.  For thirty years; generations of Arab people were deliberately spoon-fed a fallacious reality about themselves; a reality of passiveness, instinctive capitulation and quiet submission; a reality that seemed to contradict –and indeed often wrestled with- their true identity, their heritage and honorable history of rising against social injustices, rule of force and corruption; from the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman rule to the 1936 Palestinian Revolution against the British, from the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 to the two blessed Intifadas in Palestine in 1987 and 2000, still oddly enough; for thirty years we’ve found ourselves admiring the history of the French revolution instead, romanticizing the American War of Independence and cheering –from afar- for the fall of the Berlin wall.
http://www.counterpunch.com/barqawi02012011.html

Egypt on the Brink: The Arab World at a Tipping Point?
Hosni Mubarak is still President of Egypt but his days in power are numbered. There will be no Mubarak dynasty either. The authoritarian order in Egypt and throughout the Arab world has been profoundly shaken. The ousting of Ben Ali in Tunisia, a remarkable event in itself, now appears to have been the trigger for a far broader upheaval that is shaking regimes across the region.   Since Muhammad Bouazizi set himself alight in Tunisia on December 17, self-immolations have taken place in Egypt, Algeria, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Unprecedented demonstrations have since spread to Algeria, Jordan, and Yemen.  Remember too that all this was taking place against the backdrop of a tense regional environment: the dangerous paralysis in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, a simmering crisis in Lebanon, continuing uncertainties over Iraq, and the Iranian nuclear issue. 
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/518/egypt-on-the-brink_the-arab-world-at-a-tipping-point-

Why Mubarak is Out
The “March of Millions” in Cairo marks the spectacular emergence of a new political society in Egypt. This uprising brings together a new coalition of forces, uniting reconfigured elements of the security state with prominent business people, internationalist leaders, and relatively new (or newly reconfigured ) mass movements of youth, labor, women’s and religious groups. President Hosni Mubarak lost his political power on Friday, 28 January. On that night the Egyptian military let Mubarak’s ruling party headquarters burn down and ordered the police brigades attacking protesters to return to their barracks. When the evening call to prayer rang out and no one heeded Mubarak’s curfew order, it was clear that the old president been reduced to a phantom authority. In order to understand where Egypt is going, and what shape democracy might take there, we need to set the extraordinarily successful popular mobilizations into their military, economic and social context. What other forces were behind this sudden fall of Mubarak from power? And how will this transitional military-centered government get along with this millions-strong protest movement?
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/516/why-mubarak-is-out-

Hicham Safieddine, “Tomorrow’s Tunisia and Egypt: Reform or Revolution?”
On the economic front, high rates of growth and prosperity in both countries reported by the World Bank and other so-called world bodies masked the ugly truth of unequal development and unproductive capital. In Tunisia, unemployment soared to an 18 per cent (reaching a whopping 32 per cent in Sidi Bouzid, the site of the first protests in Tunisia). Uneven investment in tourism and other global-market-oriented industries along the narrow coastal strip captured over 80 per cent of total investment. In Egypt, close to 40 per cent of Egyptians are estimated to live under the poverty line.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/safieddine010211.html

Rami G. Khouri: Tunisia Was the Trigger, Egypt Is the Prize
Five important developments Sunday combined to mark the beginning of the end of the Mubarak era.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rami-g-khouri/tunisia-was-the-trigger-e_b_816880.html

Tunisia’s spark and Egypt’s flame: The Middle East is rising, Phyllis Bennis
Is this how empires end, with people flooding the streets, demanding the resignation of their leaders and forcing local dictators out? Maybe not entirely, but the breadth and depth of the spreading protests, the helplessness of the U.S.-backed governments to stop them, and the rapidly diminishing ability of the United States to protect its long-time clients, are certainly resulting in a level of revolutionary fervor not visible in the Middle East in a generation. The legacy of U.S.-dominated governments across the region will never be the same. The U.S. empire’s reach in the resource-rich and strategically vital Middle East has been shaken to its core.
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/tunisias-spark-and-egypts-flame-the-middle-east-is-rising.html

Raffi: Cairo Sunshine All Around — Reflecting on the Rebirth of My Birthplace
Egypt’s revolution is humanity’s. And as a revolution enhanced by social media before the state silenced them, the Cairo scenario begs a question.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raffi/cairo-sunshine-all-around_b_817241.html


Mona Eltahawy Should Be Careful What She Wishes For
Mona Eltahawy has been touring the media circuit as the champion of freedom and democracy in Egypt and the Arab world, but what would a free and democratic Arab world look like? And what would it mean for those few who share Eltahawy’s views.  Now that Mona Eltahawy is posing as the voice of the oppressed Arab masses, and an advocate of democracy, we think it would be helpful to compare her political outlook to the well-known, and repeatedly verified views held by a vast majority of the Arab public.
http://ikhras.com/2011/02/mona-eltahawy-should-be-careful-what-she-wishes-for/

Mubarak gives go-ahead to his goons
This afternoon (U.S. Eastern time) we were waiting anxiously for the statement that, Egyptian state TV promised, was coming “shortly” from– or on behalf of– Pres. Mubarak. Would it contain notice of his resignation or his departure from the country? In the end, no. He promised only that he “would not run again” in the presidential elections scheduled for September… And he vowed that…
http://justworldnews.org/archives/004144.html


The Making of Egypt’s Revolution, ESAM AL-AMIN
On April 21, 2008, an assistant high school principal placed an advertisement in Al-Ahram, the largest daily newspaper in Egypt, pleading disparately with President Hosni Mubarak and his wife to intervene and release her daughter from prison.  It turned out that her 27 year-old daughter, Israa’ Abd el-Fattah, was arrested 10 days earlier because of her role in placing a page on Facebook encouraging Egyptians to support a strike in the industrial city of al-Mahalla that had taken place on April 6.
http://www.counterpunch.com/alamin02012011.html

The ugly American: ‘This is an American grenade. American! American!’, Alex Kane
The Obama administration has not taken a strong and unequivocal stand against Hosni Mubarak’s regime yet, and has instead opted for calling for an “orderly transition” to a new government. The latest news on the administration’s reactions to the Egyptian uprising is that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt “spoke today with Mohammed El-Baradei.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/the-ugly-american-%e2%80%98this-is-an-american-grenade-american-american%e2%80%99.html

The Egyptian revolution is coming– to the U.S.A., Philip Weiss
The Egyptian revolution is sure to have a great victory within days: the ouster of Mubarak. But a greater victory even than that will be the liberation of American thinking from the crude paradigms about the Middle East that have held our political imagination in such thrall for 50 years. I speak as someone who for all my liberalism was also captured by those paradigms, who so doubted the Arab world I would never have dared to imagine what is happening in Cairo.
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/the-egyptian-revolution-is-coming-to-the-u-s.html

Obama and Egypt: Some History
The recent remarkable and revolutionary unrest in the Arab world and particularly in Egypt has created an awkward dilemma for the Obama administration. Despite his campaign rhetoric of “change,” Barack Obama has continued the basic George W. Bush policy of encouraging an anti-Iran alliance between Israel and so-called moderate Arab states. These “moderate” states include Egypt’s atrocious police-state dictatorship and Saudi Arabia’s misogynist theocracy, which is perhaps the most reactionary government on earth. All of these states have continued to be lavishly funded by the United States under Obama—ironically enough given Obama’s following comment in his (not-so) anti-Iraq war speech in Chicago in the fall of 2002: “You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope…” Six and a half years later, Obama as U.S. president refused even to call Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak “authoritarian” (much less a dictator). He praised the Egyptian government as “a force for stability and good in the region.” He claimed to have been “struck” by the “wisdom and graciousness” of Saudi king Abdullah, the head of state in a nation that regularly practiced public beheadings. These comments amounted to a clear endorsement of torture, martial law, secret police, and worse in the Middle East.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/02/obama-and-egypt-some-history/

Hosni Before Bros:Tony Blair’s Unapologetic Policy of Wretchedness, Nima Shirazi
Former British Prime Minister and current unpunished war criminal Tony Blair has been on a roll lately. On January 21, 2011, Blair revealed to the Iraq Inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot, that he felt no personal responsibility for the millions of lives affected and destroyed by the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. “I regret deeply and profoundly the loss of life, whether from our own armed forces, those of other nations, the civilians who helped people in Iraq or the Iraqis themselves,” Blair told the panel, as if the majority of the dead had lost their lives due to a smallpox outbreak or polar bear attack rather than an unprovoked, illegal, calculated, and devastating military assault.
http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com/2011/02/hos-before-bros-tony-blairs.html

Time for another Obama “envoy” to Egypt?
Following Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak‘s announcement he will not run for president again and the Egyptian protesters’ apparent rejection of that concession, it’s clear is that even if “envoy” Frank Wisner‘s mission to Cairo was a success, the Obama administration isn’t out of the woods yet on this crisis.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/02/01/time_for_another_obama_envoy_to_egypt

Whose Side Are We On?
The current crisis in Egypt represents a profound dilemma for the United States, as Brookings Fellow, Shadi Hamid, notes in The Atlantic. For thirty years, the U.S. has been the largest supporter of the Mubarak dictatorship. The United States has struck that same devil’s bargain repeatedly all over the world, supporting regimes which abuse the human rights of their own citizens, but which offer regional “stability.” We pay governments to support American political and economic interests over and against the popular will of their own people.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/02/whose-side-are-we-on-2/

Obama and the Despots of the Middle East, CORINNA MULLIN
Karl Marx, in his famous treatise on Louis Bonaparte’s 1851 coup d’état, which shared much in common with the late 18th century coup undertaken by his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte, remarked that history has the tendency to repeat itself, ‘the first [time] as tragedy, then as farce’.  As with many other aspects of the dramatic developments unfolding in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region in recent weeks, Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak’s midnight 28 January speech, and the various White House statements that preceded it, prove just how relevant the ideas of the German political theorist and revolutionary are today.
http://www.counterpunch.com/mullin02012011.html

American Hypocrisy in the Middle East, PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
The hypocrisy of the US government is yet again demonstrated in full bore force. The US government invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, laid waste to much of the countries including entire villages and towns, and massacred untold numbers of civilians in order “to bring democracy” to Iraq and Afghanistan. Now after days of Egyptians in the streets demanding “Mubarak must go,” the US government remains aligned with its puppet Egyptian ruler, even suggesting that Mubarak, after running a police state for three decades, is the appropriate person to implement democracy in Egypt.
http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts02012011.html

Why Washington Clings to a Failed Middle East Strategy, GARETH PORTER
The death throes of the Mubarak regime in Egypt signal a new level of crisis for a U.S. Middle East strategy that has shown itself over and over again in recent years to be based on nothing more than the illusion of power.   The incipient loss of the U.S. client regime in Egypt is an obvious moment for a fundamental adjustment in that strategy.
http://www.counterpunch.com/porter02012011.html

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