Failing Islamic States - 2011

[Old Sweat]

Re possible courses of action open to the military, the following article from the CNN web site is reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Editor's note: Jon Alterman is director and senior fellow of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. He formerly served as a member of the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. He is the author or co-author of four books on the Middle East and the editor of two others.

Washington (CNN) -- Egypt's government is not just Hosni Mubarak's government, it is a military government. Generals and former generals control much of the government, and many are influential in business.

Since the military overthrew Egypt's monarchy in 1952, senior military officers have constituted Egypt's new aristocracy, holding on to positions of privilege from the socialist 1950s and 1960s to the capitalist present.

Mubarak is, of course, a former air force chief of staff who led Egypt's air campaign in the country's 1973 war against Israel -- a war that Egyptians remember as their country's greatest military triumph. He has a military bearing, a military distrust of disorder, and a military attachment to hierarchy.

His new vice president, Omar Suleiman, is a product of the country's internal security service, and he shares the president's bearing and his attitudes. Two-thirds of the country's governors are former generals, as are many of the country's Cabinet members -- especially those in noneconomic positions. They are still generals, but they are generals in suits.

When things have needed to be done in Egypt, from alleviating a bread shortage in 2008 to providing relief supplies to Upper Egypt after floods in 1994, Mubarak has turned to the military. He trusts the military, he understands the military, and the military delivers for him.

The relationship has been mutually advantageous. When Egypt began privatizing its public sector businesses in the 1990s, former generals were able to swoop in and get bargains, often financing their purchases with loans from state-owned banks at attractive rates.

As censorship in Egypt has dwindled in recent years, the military has remained beyond scrutiny. While journalists criticize the government, the president's family and even the president himself -- something unthinkable 20 years ago -- the military has remained sacrosanct, a curious void in an increasingly lively press.

Egyptians see the military as the national bulwark, an object of veneration and an outlet for their patriotism.

Journalists report on a wide range of government operations, but they are silent on a huge range of issues, from the size of the military budget to the activities of the army-owned factories that produce everything from munitions to food and clothing.

And yet, the military remains a respected institution in Egypt. Egyptians see the military as the national bulwark, an object of veneration and an outlet for their patriotism. There is deep respect for the sacrifices the military has made and gratitude for the wars it has fought.

The Egyptian public's attitudes toward the military are not recent; in fact, they date to the 19th century. It was desperation with where Egypt was going in the early 1950s that led to popular support for the military takeover in 1952; it may yet be desperation with the chaos unfolding on Cairo's streets that leads to support for continued military control in the coming days.

As we think forward to how events in Egypt might play out, it is worth remembering the stake that the Egyptian military has in preserving at least some of the status quo. Not only might officers and former officers stand to lose a great deal economically, but the collapse of the government might deal a severe blow to the military as an institution as well.

Egypt's military officers, then, face a difficult choice. If they must choose, are they to be loyal to their commander or to their institution? If it is clear to everyone but Hosni Mubarak that the time has come when he must stand aside, or at least begin a process that will end with his departure from office, what is their role in securing that transition?

Right now, the military is the only government institution that still enjoys broad legitimacy. It is at a time of maximum peril. The choices it makes in the coming days will not only help determine the military's future, but the fate of the country as well.

 

[57Chevy]

Other countries have already followed the Tunisian lead to overthrow the many corrupt dictatorships
that exist. Other than Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Albania, and Lebanon are experiencing
similar uprisings.
Article with full details:
North Africa & Middle East: Region in upheaval
____________________________
Because it is believed that Egypt is appoaching the boiling over point.
Ottawa warns Canadians to leave Egypt as revolt rages
OTTAWA - The federal government is reportedly planning to send charter flights to Egypt to help Canadian travellers flee the chaos that has swept the country.

Media reports Sunday said that Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon will announce the flights later Sunday.

The reported move would follow similar actions by countries including the U.S. and Iraq, which have told their citizens to evacuate and offered flights to take them home to safety.

Earlier on Sunday, as violent protests swept through the streets of the North African country for a sixth day Sunday, the federal government issued a travel advisory warning Canadians to leave Egypt.

The Department of Foreign Affairs upgraded its online warning, advising Canadians already in Egypt to "consider leaving if their presence is not necessary."

"They may wish to ask family or friends outside of Egypt to help with online travel arrangements, such as securing plane tickets, as local travel service providers may be limited in their capability to do so," the department's travel advisory read.

The Egyptian government shut down Internet access following the start of the riots.

There are believed to be about 5,500 Canadians in Egypt. During the riots, the death toll has climbed to more than 100 people as Egyptians continue to call for the ouster of embattled President Hosni Mubarak.

                                (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)

 

[Edward Campbell]

If not instructive, it is, at least, interesting to watch he somewhat different "takes" on the the Egyptian situation on CNN International and CCTV News, the Chinese 'official' English language news channel. The Chinese, also, have interests in the region  especially in Sudan, Egypt's Southern neighbour which is, at this very moment, in the midst of ts own secession crisis. The Chinese have, traditionally, had prettyvgood relations with the Afro-Arab states but the Chinese mistrust radical, fundamentalist Islam - it is probably better to say that the modern, 21st century Chinese 'Communists' distrust all ideologies, including communism and capitalism, preferring, instead, to rely upon variants of traditional Chinese 'mandated' authoritarianism. For the Chinese leaders radical Islam's promise of a complete way of life, a 'system' to regulate everything - personal, political, social, economic and political, is anathema. The prospect of major political changes to the status quo in the Afro-Arabian region frightens the Chinese who, like the Israelis, have learned to live with Mubarak et al and all that their sort of corrupt authoritarianism means.

The Chinese appear to agree with me about the extraordinarily slim prospects of anything like "democracy" arising from the ashes in North Africa and the Middle East.
 

 

[daftandbarmy]

Dictators ride to and fro on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

Winston Churchill

http://www.iwise.com/DSRP8

 

[57Chevy]

Quote:
"To be granted asylum,
Trabelsi would have to prove he needs to stay in the country in order to avoid persecution in Tunisia."

He would have no problem proving that, The whole country wants his head.
IMO if someone from another country is "wanted" in that country.....then he has no bussiness
coming here wimpering.
Send him back to face the policies he himself forced onto his own countrymen.

 

[George Wallace]

Quote:
"To be granted asylum,
Trabelsi would have to prove he needs to stay in the country in order to avoid persecution in Tunisia."

He would have no problem proving that, The whole country wants his head.
IMO if someone from another country is "wanted" in that country.....then he has no bussiness
coming here wimpering.
Send him back to face the policies he himself forced onto his own countrymen.

Claiming "Refugee" status is fine, but Dictators, War Criminals, or just criminals do not qualify.  Their home countries can simply file extradition claims and have them escorted back for trial.

 

[CougarKing]

link

..WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The highest-ranking U.S. military officer praised the "professionalism" of Egypt's armed forces in a phone call with a top Egyptian commander on Sunday, as Egyptian troops refrained from a crackdown on protesters.

Egypt receives about $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid, assistance that could be jeopardized if the army joined last week's harsh police crackdown. Police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons against protesters calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

The unrest has killed more than 100 people.

The Pentagon urged restraint from Egypt's military last week in face-to-face talks in Washington with one of its top officers -- Lieutenant General Sami Enan, chief of staff of the armed forces.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke on Sunday with Enan, who provided him an update, a spokesman said.

"The Chairman expressed his appreciation for the continued professionalism of the Egyptian military," said Capt. John Kirby. "Both men reaffirmed their desire to see the partnership between our two militaries continue, and they pledged to stay in touch."

The top U.S. diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Sunday also commended Egyptian military restraint, saying it was "working to try to differentiate between peaceful protesters -- who we all support -- and potential looters and other criminal elements who are obviously a danger to the Egyptian people."

It remains to be seen if the Egyptian armed forces, considered the most powerful institution in the country, will seek to keep Mubarak in power in the face of mass protests, or decide he is a liability.
Egypt's military -- the world's 10th largest with more than 468,000 members -- have been a central force in politics since army officers staged an overthrow of the monarchy in 1952.

All four Egyptian presidents since then have come from the military, now led by Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, whom Defense Secretary Robert Gates also spoke to over the weekend.

The Pentagon declined to provide details on Gates' conversation with Tantawi.

The Egyptian military has deep ties with the U.S. armed forces, staging large-scale joint exercises. There are some 625 U.S. military personnel stationed in Egypt.

The U.S. has also provided F-16 jet fighters, tanks, armored personnel carriers, Apache helicopters, anti-aircraft missile batteries and other equipment to the Egyptian military -- equipment it does not want to see used against peaceful protesters.

"We have sent a very clear message that we want to see restraint, we do not want to see violence by any security forces. And we continue to convey that message," Clinton told ABC television.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)
...

 

[57Chevy]

IMO I think it will be determined that Mr Mubarak is the liability

Egypt's government is not just Hosni Mubarak's government, it is a military government

Quote:
"We have sent a very clear message that we want to see restraint, we do not want to see violence by any security forces. And we continue to convey that message," Clinton told ABC television."
_______________

Oh......and we are telling our american citizens to get out of there ASAP  :

The reported move would follow similar actions by countries including the U.S. and Iraq, which have told their citizens to evacuate and offered flights to take them home to safety.

 

[Journeyman]

"We have sent a very clear message that we want to see restraint, we do not want to see violence by any security forces. And we continue to convey that message," Clinton told ABC television."

Is the Secretary of State saying "violence by protesters is fine"? There are several groups involved whose actions should be measured.

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Egypt's Opposition


Revolutionaries United in Anger

01/31/2011
By Yassin Musharbash in Cairo

SPIEGEL ONLINE

LINK


Twitter and Facebook may have been blocked, but that hasn't thwarted the protestors. Egypt's opposition, made up of students, trade unionists, workers, poets and politicians, has many strands but is united in one goal: to rid the country of its eternal ruler, President Hosni Mubarak.

Bilal can only speak in a whisper. At first he was just hoarse, then his voice turned into a croak and now he can barely speak at all. But that doesn't stop him from mouthing the chant of the demonstrators: "The people want the end of the system," over and over again. "The people want the end of the system."

And with each passing day Bilal spends on the street, the goal seems to come a little closer.

Bilal has been on the streets of Cairo for much of the last six days, even spending several days on Liberation Square wrapped in a wollen blanket in the glow of a camp fire. Demonstrators conquered the square in the city center last Friday after a battle with police -- and they haven't budged from it since.

It has become the beating heart of a revolution bent on toppling the seemingly eternal president, Hosni Mubarak.

'We'll Block the Regime'

And Bilal has become a passionate participant in that revolution. His family thinks he is at work, but Bilal's boss doesn't mind that his employee has taken to the streets almost fulltime. Bilal, after all, a 23-year-old native of Cairo, is a veteran of the Egyptian protest movement against Mubarak's regime.

In April 2008, the police arrested activists who had called for a general strike. A few days later, the prime minister at the time, Ahmed Nazif, held a speech at Bilal's university. Bilal embarrassed him by publicly calling on him to release the prisoners. Soon, Bilal became a regular guest on political talkshows in Egypt -- but he paid a price for his insubordination. His university only allowed him to graduate with a significant delay.

Bilal is close to several opposition parties and movements but has so far avoided committing to any one of them. He has his own Facebook page in which he joined the call for the latest demonstrations -- until the government switched off the Internet. The regime can block Facebook and Twitter, says Bilal. "But we'll block the regime."

The country has been brought to a standstill for almost a week. More than 100 people have died, most of them as a result of police violence, the army is out on the streets and the opposition is grasping for power -- only President Mubarak isn't budging. Rumors abound every night that he has already fled, that he will order the army to fire on demonstrators, that the army is preparing a coup.

Bilal, for his part, is sure the regime is about to fall and he has continued to do his best to mobilize people to protest. With the Internet unplugged, he has resorted to face-to-face encouragement.

Internet Helped Mobilize Demonstrators

The role Facebook and other social networking sites played in triggering the revolt should not be underestimated. There is a Facebook page in memory of the blogger Khalid Said, who was killed by police and it has hundreds of thousands of supporters. When the call for the first mass protest on January 25 was put on the page, 70,000 of them said they would take part. That was important, says Bilal. Unlike in April 2008, protestors could be pretty sure that they wouldn't be alone. Only numbers could offer a measure of protection from police brutality. At least 30,000 people turned up.

"Now we're in a different phase," says Bilal. "People are turning up without being called on, everyone knows we'll continue until Mubarak falls."

Liberation Square has turned into a hive of protest. A woman of about 35, veiled in a red robe is sitting on a wall and ruffles her son's hair as he lies in her lap and rests. Some activists are clearing away rubbish from last night. "We are civilized," they say. A man with a bandage on his face wants to tell his story. Another tells how people were killed when police opened fire with live rounds in front of the Interior Ministry. Here and there in the square, small groups form, agree on a battle cry and then march around chanting. As evening approaches, the crowd grows and by sunset there are tens of thousands here, just like on previous nights.

Bilal waves and greets people. He has made many new friends in the last few days. There are knots of protesters who have thrown their support behind Mohammed ElBaradei, Mubarak's challenger. Elsewhere are followers of the April 6 opposition movement. Bilal laughs. "It's a bit like Facebook -- but analog."

Multi-Faceted Movement

The Facebook generation is central to the uprising, but the movement is being fed by many other streams -- one of them originated a few kilometers away from Liberation Square, in the fifth floor of an old, slightly run-down office building, in the wood-panelled office of an intellectual and opposition leader Abd al-Rahman Yusuf.

Yusuf, 40, is a handsome man. He's wearing a smart black pullover and is sucking yellow throat lozenges. He too is hoarse. He has a massive desk with an imitation crocodile leather top.

Yusuf's business card says he is a poet, and YouTube has videos showing him reading his work. He doesn't mince words when it comes to Mubarak. Until December he was a kind of spokesman of ElBaradei's movement, now he's an ordinary, if high-profile, member. He spoke on Liberation Square before ElBaradei arrived from Vienna last Thursday.

Yusuf is part of a slightly different strand of the revolutionary movement than Bilal, one could call him a representative of the civil society. It is heterogeneous but a little more organized than the Facebookers, it includes political parties and trade unions. Yusuf's spectrum is less spontaneous, a little older, less Internet-based. That isn't to say that Yusuf doesn't use the Internet. He too mainly works online. His emails reach tens of thousands of people. His latest email started: "To the Egyptian people, I call on you to take part in the demonstrations. The hour of truth has come." But now he too is offline, like the whole country.

The hour of truth -- Yusuf too believes that the revolution is close to reaching its goal. "Mubarak," he says, "has days left, weeks at the most."

ElBaradei Emerges as Central Figure

Yusuf says he is driven by his belief that the people must determine the fate of the country, that they can't be pushed aside, like Mubarak is doing. "Power without control brings out the worst in people," he says.

A friend brings in herbal tea, Yusuf sips it. He knows very well that not every Egyptian is on the streets helping to topple Mubarak, and that the majority of the demonstrators are under 35. And he knows that not all protestors want the same thing. "But that is natural. There are right-wingers and left-wingers, what is important is that we have thrown off the shackles of fear and are making our rules ourselves."

On Sunday evening, ElBaradei made his first public bid for power. He said he wanted to form a government of national unity, with the Muslim Brothers, and after talks with the army. Yusuf stood next to him on Liberation Square. Shortly afterwards, the first "ElBaradei" chants could be heard. But not everyone found the Nobel Peace Prize-winner's speech inspiring.

Nevertheless, ElBaradei is now the central figure in the opposition and activists like Bilal wouldn't be opposed to him leading negotiations -- provided it doesn't lead to a feeble compromise. But it is completely open whether such talks will happen. Mubarak would have to leave voluntarily, or be forced out.

Activists Remaining Careful

The demonstrators are in high spirits. It is true that they have shaken off their fear. In effect, they have already enforced total freedom of assembly in Mubarak's dictatorship.

But the worry remains that the pendulum could swing back. Some activists want to stick to their clandestine organizations as a result. "We have a small office in Cairo," says one female activist. Only a few people know its location, she says. The office is used to keep in touch with activists in other Egyptian cities where the situation is tenser. They are organized in groups of six whose leaders maintain contact with other groups.

Now the entire opposition is calling for a new mass rally on Tuesday and hope to bring one million people onto the streets. Abd al-Rahman Yusuf, Bilal Diab and the unnamed activist will be there. And will be hoping that the power of the people will finally bring Mubarak down.

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

The Spirit of Cairo


Obama Has Failed to Fulfill His Mideast Promise

01/31/2011
A Commentary by David J. Kramer

SPIEGEL ONLINE

LINK


In recent months, the Obama administration has shifted its focus away from the Middle East. This approach might be justified if the situation were getting better there, but things are getting worse. Of the people living in the region, 88 percent live in countries that lack honest elections, a free press and rule of law.

A few months into his presidency, Barack Obama delivered what still ranks as the most ambitious foreign policy address of his administration. Presented at Cairo University, the speech set forth the outlines of a "new beginning" between the United States and the Muslim world.

While many of the president's words focused on contentious issues like Iraq and Iran's nuclear program, he also spoke eloquently about the centrality of democracy to the Muslim world's future. He said the United States would support "elected, peaceful governments" and endorsed democratic values like free expression, honest government and "freedom to live as you choose." He spoke of a "single standard for all who would hold power."

By his words, the president demonstrated that he, like President George W. Bush before him, understood that the Middle East's "democracy deficit" contributes in important ways to the strategic problems that feed regional instability and pose threats to the rest of the world. Put another way, governments responsive to the popular will would not serve as incubators for jihadis.

Obama Fails to Fulfill Vision

Unfortunately, President Obama's subsequent actions have failed to fulfill the promise of his Cairo vision, especially when it comes to confronting concerns over repression when committed by autocracies of the Middle East, to say nothing of China or Russia.

This pattern was established during the protests over the 2009 Iranian elections when the administration mustered little more than a pro forma objection to the suppression of the opposition movement. It continued with the administration's non-response to last November's sham elections in Egypt, in which the ruling party orchestrated results comparable to those in such obvious dictatorships as Syria and, until recently, Tunisia. And we witnessed it in the initial reactions to the latest developments in Tunisia and Egypt in which senior US officials came across as supportive of unpopular authoritarian regimes out of a false sense that those governments were best for stability and security in the region or because they mattered for energy interests or the Middle East Peace Process.

The risk to such a pattern, of course, is that we become associated, fairly or not, with propping up repressive leaders who could, before we know it, be on their way out.

An American president can certainly employ other tactics to nourish the spirit of freedom in authoritarian societies. There is quiet diplomacy through which the American government tries to persuade autocrats to loosen political control and release political prisoners. In this regard, the WikiLeaks documents suggest that US diplomats in authoritarian countries were shrewd, concerned about growing repression, and often sympathetic toward the political opposition. The United States also helps promote freedom by supporting local activists working for women's equality, press freedom and minority rights. But nothing substitutes for clear public statements from the Oval Office affirming support for freedoms of expression and association and condemning those regimes that violate fundamental human rights.

A Dismaying Record

If freedom was gaining headway in the Middle East, the Obama Administration's shift in emphasis away from the region and its less active approach might be justified. In fact, things are getting worse. According to Freedom House's latest report on global freedom, fully 88 percent of the people in the region lived in countries where honest elections, a free press, and the rule of law are unknown, a grim record that is actually worse than five years ago. The Middle East ranks at the bottom on each of the indicators that measure a country's level of freedom. Of the 20 countries ruled by "leaders for life," five are from the Middle East (the number was six until Ben Ali fled Tunisia).

This is a dismaying record, but we should remember that societies with equally dismaying environments have overcome tyranny and attained stable democracy. The Middle East, however, has no regional model to look to; indeed, the Assads and Mubaraks understand that freedom in one country is a danger to all the rest and will act accordingly.

Those who are on the streets in Tunis and Cairo understand that large segments of their own elites regard their actions with hostility. They have put aside the grievances of the recent past because they regard America as their principal ally whose solidarity is critical to the success of their democratic revolutions. Many of their placards are in English, and in interviews they direct their appeals to the United States. It is crucial that their voices are heard, their cause embraced, and that the Obama administration take the steps necessary to fulfill the spirit of Cairo.

David J. Kramer, 46, served under George W. Bush as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. Today he is executive director of Freedom House in Washington. The organization's research director, Arch Puddington, also contributed to this article.

More on LINK

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

The World from Berlin


'The Pharaoh in the Führerbunker'

01/31/2011
SPIEGEL ONLINE

LINK


The absence of police from Egypt's streets and the consequent looting and anarchy could be an unscrupulous ploy by President Hosni Mubarak to stay in power, say German commentators. But even though the army is in wait-and-see mode, his days are clearly numbered.

Six days of unrest, more than 100 people dead and an embattled president clings on to power. Egypt has reached something of a stalemate with protestors demanding that President Hosni Mubarak be swept from power, while the man who has ruled the country for 30 years refuses to go. And it could be the powerful army that ultimately decides Egypt's fate.

On Monday morning, thousands of protestors were still camped out in Cairo's Tahir Square, defying a curfew. The night before, this had been the site of a rally addressed by Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Laureate and former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, who arrived back in Egypt on Thursday. "Change is coming. What we have begun, cannot go back," the 67-year-old told the crowd on Sunday. "We have one main demand -- the end of the regime and the beginning of a new stage, a new Egypt." Most of those gathered were unfazed by the low-flying jets that swept above the square.

The demonstrators have dismissed Mubarak's appointment of a new cabinet and prime minister. His promises of economic reform to address rising prices and unemployment appear to be too little too late. Protestors have called for a general strike on Monday and a "protest of the millions" on Tuesday, to press for their demands for democracy and an end to 30 years of Mubarak rule.

Fear of Anarchy and Chaos

The hope for change has been coupled with fear of anarchy and chaos. The population was largely left to protect itself over the weekend as the police force, which had been involved in clashes with protestors during the week, disappeared. Neighborhood vigilante groups formed over the weekend, setting up checkpoints and patrolling the streets to defend their homes as thugs roamed the streets. Gangs have looted supermarkets and stores as well as homes, and there were breakouts from at least four prisons in Cairo in recent days, adding to safety concerns.

However, there are now reports that a semblance of security has been restored with extra troops being sent into the cities to help calm panicked residents, and the police are once again out on the streets. The unrest is having an impact on the economy, however, with shops and businesses closing and tourists fleeing the country in droves. Tourism is vital to the Egyptian economy, accounting for up to 6 percent of GDP.

The United States has also poured billions of dollars into Egypt since Mubarak came to power, seeing him as a key ally in the region, first against the Soviets and then radical Islam. US military aid alone is $1.3 billion a year. Washington has now stopped short of calling for his ouster, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking of an "orderly transition."

The role of the army may be crucial in the coming days. "The army has to choose between Egypt and Mubarak," one banner on Tahrir Square proclaimed. And soldiers sat in tanks overseeing the protests without intervening. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised the "professionalism" of the armed forces in refraining from cracking down on the protestors.

"In the next few days security and stability will return," Brigadier Atef Said told Reuters, speaking from Suez. "We will allow protests in the coming days. Everyone has the right to voice their opinion. We're listening and trying to help and satisfy all parties. We're not here to stop anyone. These are our people."

The German press on Monday looks at the ongoing unrest and some papers question whether Mubarak deliberately fuelled the chaos this weekend.

Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Everything hinges on one decision: the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. The country will only return to calm when the Egyptian leader, already deserted and ousted by his people, actually leaves. But the long-time ruler is clinging to power and even selling that as a sense of responsibility: 'I will not allow chaos.'"

"The contrary is the case: he has long since lost his power, and is seeking an escalation. His own police and thugs started the looting, doubtless acting on his orders. That is a mark of his unscrupulousness. If the Egyptians have to fear anarchy more than they love their uncompleted revolution, they might wish for the return of the president and his police state. That is Mubarak's ploy. The man who had such a tight grip on Egypt for three decades would love to present himself once more as the strong father of the nation protecting his citizens from the confusion and chaos. The man who restored law and order in the face of the rise of an unpredictable opposition."

"If the army ends up restoring calm by force, Mubarak and his followers could remain in power for a while."

"And if not? Then the aged president won't care any more. The pharaoh in the Führerbunker: If he has to go down, he'll take his country and his people down with him. In his downfall he can discredit the uprising that has cost him his power: he can stain the image of a revolt that started out peacefully: as an uprising by the youth and the middle class."

"Now that law and order have evaporated, the mob is dominating the picture of Egypt. The poorest of the poor are coming out of their slums. They are stealing what they could only gaze at in the glitzy shop windows for years, what they could never have afforded to buy."

"If the army (…) takes political power, the officers will have to ask themselves what is more important: to fly their old comrade out or take him where he should have been put long ago: in the dock."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"It is possible that the regime wants to show the urban population and the middle class what happens when the poor from the slums, criminals and the violent mob aren't kept down by force."

"Hosni Mubarak himself is in a precarious situation. The political demonstrations are calling for his resignation and the people want to shake off his corrupt regime. It is uncertain whether the army leadership stands fully behind him. The generals know that the 82-year-old, sick president is nearing the end of his term in any case. They will know their American ally won't want the brutal maintenance of a defunct system. An 'Iranian solution' in Cairo would disqualify Egypt as a partner in the West. So the army will watch whether the opposition produces a leader acceptable to both the people and the army."

Conservative Die Welt writes:

"Chaos and anarchy are mounting because the army hasn't chosen a side yet. There are signs that the chaos wasn't just caused by gangs of criminals and plunderers from the slums, but also by parts of the security forces. That happened in Tunisia too. That is what the regime is banking on: the worse the situation becomes, the more people will wish for the return of the strong arm of the law."

"It is unclear how long this interim phase will last. The regime is waiting for the demonstrations to lose momentum and for the situation to calm down. But the more damage is done in the cities, the less the military will be able to remain passive."

The left-wing Die Tageszeitung writes:

"The long-term ally Hosni Mubarak now has his back against the wall. And Washington lacks what Mubarak's repressive policy has been fighting for years: a direct link to a democratic opposition -- to people who could emerge from the democracy movement as an alternative to the dictator."

"In this atmosphere, which is marked by fears of a deja-vu of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and concern about the future neighbourhood of Israel, there's a fierce dispute going on in Washington between the advocates of stability and those who are banking on democratic reform."

"The outcome of this internal conflict in Washington is open. But it's clear that the days of the Mubarak regime are numbered. And that the other authoritarian rulers and kings face turbulent days. The domino that fell in Tunisia has long since touched all the others."

Mass-circulation Bild writes:

"We have reason to be worried. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians or more want a different kind of freedom from the freedom we mean. They want to be free to turn their country into a fundamentalist theocracy. They want the freedom to declare Israel as an enemy again after decades of peace. They want the freedom to tear down the solid bridges to America."

"That cannot be in our interest. We need Egypt as an ally in this chronically warlike corner of the world."

"We can only hope that the people in Egypt will take the right decisions in the coming weeks. For themselves and for peace in the region."

-- Siobhán Dowling and David Crossland

More on LINK

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

The Arab Revolution


Nile Insurgency Creates Uncertain Future for Egypt

01/31/2011
SPIEGEL ONLINE

LINK


In the wake of the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, the Egyptians are now revolting against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. The country feels as if it were waking up from a bad dream, but the West stands to lose a reliable partner -- and Israel one of its few Arab friends. By SPIEGEL Staff

The Pharaoh was silent. He was sitting, as he often does now in his old age, in his vacation home in Sharm al-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, gazing out at Tiran Island in the eternally glistening Red Sea. This is where the Egyptian president receives world leaders, where he has sat stiffly next to Israeli prime ministers, and where he has introduced alternating US presidents to alternating Arab rulers. Hosni Mubarak, 82, feels at home in the majestic calm of Sharm el-Sheikh, but not in noisy, dirty, crowded Cairo. Sharm el-Sheikh is where the Egyptian ruler holds court and where, for now at least, he was remaining silent.

He was allowing others to speak instead: His prime minister, who promised that the government would tolerate freedom of expression, as long as it was exercised "with legitimate means," and the head of the governing party, who denied that the party elites were leaving the country. Mubarak was not even denying the rumors about his son Gamal, who he had been preparing to succeed him for years, and who is now said to have left the country, or about his wife Suzanne, the daughter of an Egyptian and a British woman, who had reportedly flown to London.

Mubarak was not commenting on any of this. In fact, from his perspective, nothing could be more dangerous than to dignify the rumors with so much as a word, or to descend into the depths of his police state. That was what former Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had done two weeks earlier, and he was forced to flee the country. This explains why not a word had emerged from Sharm el-Sheikh all week.

A Rival Event to the 1977 Bread Riots

And then it was Friday. As if all the frustration that had accumulated during the 30 years of the Mubarak regime were suddenly erupting from the Egyptians, Friday would become a day of reckoning, a day of violence and retaliatory violence so excessive as to rival the 1977 bread riots. At the time, Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar al-Sadat, had ordered his soldiers to shoot at angry protestors, killing 80 Egyptians.

Thirty-four years ago, dockworkers and students in Alexandria were the first to take their anger to the streets. This time, the news of the first casualty came from Suez, where the police had reportedly shot and killed a protestor. But this did not deter the rest of the protestors, nor did the curfew that the government had imposed. Until early evening, that is, when Mubarak brought in the military to regain control of the city on the Suez Canal, a key petroleum processing center.

Clouds of smoke billowed across Alexandria, the port city on the Mediterranean. A protest movement had already emerged in Alexandria in the summer after a plainclothes policeman had beaten to death the 28-year-old blogger Khalid Said.

But no other place in the entire country was as hotly contested as Tahrir (Freedom) Square in the capital Cairo. A symbol of national power, the square is home to the headquarters of the Arab League, the Egyptian Museum, the American University and the headquarters of the Mubarak regime's National Democratic Party.

The first protestors began arriving before noon prayers, and the crowds in the capital swelled to tens of thousands.

Despite a heavy police presence, the protestors on Tahrir Square courageously broke through the crowd control barriers, allowing others to surge through in their wake. Doggedly defying the teargas employed by the police, they dragged metal panels and plastic barricades along the streets as protection. By early evening, they had pushed the security forces back far enough that they could no longer control the situation. The protestors, beating drums, chanted: "The people want to topple the regime." For the first time, the protesters had managed to drown out the shots coming from the security forces.

Police Universally Despised in Egypt

The police had abandoned Tahrir Square, at least temporarily. Nevertheless, they continued to fire teargas canisters and, apparently, rubber bullets into the crowd, even though the protestors included women and children. The police are so universally despised in Egypt that many protesters called for the military to step in, chanting: "Come and see what the police are doing to us! We want the army!" A bizarre scene unfolded in front of the state broadcasting building, where cheering protesters greeted military tanks.

Police vehicles were burning on the bridges across the Nile, where the driver of one police van attempted to push protestors in the river. Smoke from a massive and threatening fire hung in the air over the city after protesters had set fire to the headquarters of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party. The capital was descending into chaos.

And still the Pharaoh said nothing.

Early on Saturday morning, at 12:15 a.m., Mubarak finally broke his silence. It was an eerie speech. A few hours earlier, a handful of the country's top business leaders had left the country in their private jets. But Mubarak remained grimly determined, saying that although he respected the legitimate concerns of the people, he would not tolerate chaos in the streets. He, who had devoted his life "to the point of exhaustion" to his country, would "defend freedom and stability." He promised more democracy, more stability and more jobs, saying that he was willing to engage in a "national dialogue."

Then he fired his cabinet.

But even if the Egyptian president refused to believe it, after that Friday, Jan. 28, 2011, the world was no longer the same

Part 1: Nile Insurgency Creates Uncertain Future for Egypt (Back to top)
Part 2: A Difficult Conundrum for Europe and the United States
Part 3: Forty Percent of Population Live on Less than Two Dollars a Day
Part 4: Three Scenarios for Egypt's Future

More on LINK

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.


SPIEGEL ONLINE  Links:

Anger Grows in Egypt: Mubarak Fails to Quell Unrest   (01/29/2011)

Protests in Egypt: ElBaradei Under House Arrest as Demonstrations Rock Cairo   (01/28/2011)

Concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood: Israel Fears Regime Change in Egypt   (01/28/2011)

The World from Berlin: 'The Era of Paralysis in Egypt Has Ended'   (01/27/2011)

Mohamed ElBaradei on Democracy in Egypt: 'There Is No Turning Back Now'   (01/25/2011)

Interview with Mohamed ElBaradei: 'This Is a Historical Moment for Egypt' (07/12/2010)

 

[OldSolduer]

In my limited experience WRT international affairs,  I do not think the state of Egypt will be anymore demcratic than that of North Korea once the current government is ousted.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and I'd be dollars to donuts that the next government will be far more restrictive that the government of Mubarak. Or am I right out to lunch?

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Terrorism & Security


Islamist leader Rachid Ghannouchi returns to Tunisia. What's his next move?

By Arthur Bright, Correspondent / January 30, 2011
The Christian Science Monitor

LINK


Moderate Islamist leader Rachid Ghannouchi returned to Tunisia from exile Sunday, insisting that he's a democratic Islamist leader and that he will not run for office.

Rachid Ghannouchi says that he will not run for office, though his movement will enter democratic politics.

In the aftermath of the protests that toppled Tunisian President Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali and sparked upheaval across the Arab world, Tunisia's foremost Islamist leader returned to his homeland on Sunday after 22 years of exile.

Reuters reports that Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the the Islamist movement Ennahda, flew from London to Tunisia Sunday, setting foot in his homeland for the first time since 1989, when Mr. Ben Ali exiled him. Mr. Ghannouchi said he and Ennahda plan to help build Tunisia's new democracy.

"Our role will be to participate in realising the goals of this peaceful revolution: to anchor a democratic system, social justice and to put a limit to discrimination against banned groups," Ghannouchi told Reuters a day before his return.

"The dictator has fallen and I want to be in the country," he said.

Ghannouchi was exiled by Ben Ali in 1989, two years after Ben Ali seized power. Ennahda, which experts call a moderate Islamist group, was the strongest opposition group at the time of Ghannouchi's exile, but did not play a significant role in the protests this month that led to Ben Ali's ouster.

Women leaders protest Ghannouchi's return

Concern about Ghannouchi's then-pending return sparked protests by Tunisian women Saturday, reports Agence France-Presse. Hundreds of women, including "actresses, university lecturers, and human rights campaigners," took to the streets in Tunis to show their resolve to maintain the well-established rights of women in the country.

"We want to send an important message to the Islamists, especially those from the Ennahdha movement -- that we are not ready to pull back on or abandon our rights," said Sabah Mahmoudi, a university lecturer, told AFP.

Cabinet reshuffle

But Ghannouchi returns as the upheaval in Tunisia continues to wind down. Al Jazeera reported Thursday that Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi (no relation to Rachid Ghannouchi) reshuffled his cabinet for the second time since Ben Ali's ouster, removing several ministers whom protesters opposed as being a continuation of Ben Ali's government. Prime Minister Ghannouchi said that the new cabinet was "a temporary government with a clear mission - to allow a transition to democracy," and its members had been determined in consultaion with all political groups involved.

Although Rachid Ghannouchi has said that he plans to make Ennahda into an active Tunisian political party, he says he has no plans to run for office himself. In an interview with the Financial Times earlier this month, he said that "I have no political aspirations myself, neither for standing as a minister, for parliament or president. Some are presenting me as a Khomeini who will return to Tunisia – I am no Khomeini."

A pro-democracy Islamist?

He also told the Times that he believes democracy and Islam are compatible, noting that he himself came under criticism from Islamists for his pro-democracy stance.


[When I first came to the UK], I gave a lecture Manchester University in which I said democracy should not exclude communists. At the time, this was rejected strongly by Islamists who saw it as accepting atheism. I said that it is not ethical for us to call on a secular government to accept us, while once we get to power we will eradicate them. We should treat people like-for-like. As the Prophet Muhammad said, one should wish for his brother what he wishes for oneself. And Kant said you should use your behavior as your base for treating the rest of humanity.

At the time this was alien to political thought [among UK-exiled Arab Islamists] and I was described as a secularist and part of a secularist movement because I called for democracy that does not exclude anyone.

In the interview, Ghannouchi likened Ennahda to Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, another party with both an Islamist tradition and democratic leanings.

More on LINK

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Terrorism & Security


Sudan sees Egypt-inspired protests in the North, jubilation on referendum in the South

By Taylor Barnes, Correspondent / January 31, 2011
The Christian Science Monitor

LINK


Antigovernment protests in North Sudan led to the death of a university student Sunday while South Sudanese celebrated an overwhelming vote for independence.

Protesters in northern Sudan gained their first “martyr” late Sunday night when a student died in the hospital from injuries sustained in a police confrontation. The protests, which were inspired by neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, started Sunday. They came as South Sudan announced the near-unanimous results of its referendum vote on secession from the north.

Hundreds of young people in the country’s north were beaten by police with batons in the sporadic antigovernment protests. Armed police surrounded at least six universities today to prevent students from leaving the campuses, according to Reuters. Students in Khartoum University were tear gassed in their dormitories late Sunday, leaving at least five injured.

The news wire adds that students in north Sudan began clashing with police over rising food and petrol prices earlier this month, but protests have grown after demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt gained attention. Demonstrators have begun to call for regime change and widened their list of complaints to include corruption and the country’s practice of sentencing women to be lashed.

The police were not immediately able to comment on the death, and the morgue holding the demonstrator’s body declined to comment to Reuters. The BBC identifies the activist as Mohammed Abdulrahman, a student at Ahaliya University in Omdurman. It also reports that one human rights activist said Mr. Abdulrahman had been shot.

The Sudan Tribune notes that north Sudan already faces an economic crisis and stands to lose billions in oil revenue as the oil-rich south secedes. Opposition forces blame the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for the worsening economy and the secession of the south, the Tribune adds.

The north’s clashes contrast with the scenes of cheer in South Sudan capital Juba yesterday, where spontaneous dancing broke out as the first official announcement on the referendum showed that more than 99 percent of voters favored independence. The Christian Science Monitor reported that many South Sudanese chose to leave their jobs and lives in the north as the referendum approached, and the United Nations expects another 100,000 to migrate south in the next month. (See a map of north-south divisions here.)

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the African Union summit in Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa on Sunday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised the peaceful announcement of the referendum results. He warned, however, that border demarcation and the status of Abyei, a disputed region along the north-south border, could become issues as the south approaches its July 2011 independence, according to the Sudan Tribune.

Longtime Sudan observer Peter Moszynski, a documentary maker in the country’s south, adds a note of caution to the south’s jubilation, recounting the nation’s difficulty spurring development and need to properly harness its oil revenues. He writes in the Guardian:

The discovery of oil was also a major factor in the return to conflict. (Demonstrations in Khartoum over the weekend show people in the north are already uneasy about the region's economic problems. Some protesters called for president Omar al-Bashir to step down). It remains to be seen whether oil revenue can be successfully shared and harnessed to help drive agricultural development, as southern Sudan's transitional government says it plans to do, or if border tensions mean these revenues will continue to be squandered on military expenditure – currently 40 percent of its budget.

Southern Sudan's previous experience of failed post-war reconstruction efforts surely demonstrate the need to focus any potential peace dividend on development initiatives that bring positive benefits to its citizens and reverses the previous decades of decline.

More on LINK

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Terrorism & Security


Yemeni protesters fill streets, calling for president's ouster

By Taylor Barnes, Correspondent / January 27, 2011 
The Christian Science Monitor

LINK


The thousands of Yemenis who turned out to protest President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule were met with counterprotests by government supporters.

Thousands of Yemenis protested in the streets of Sanaa today, on the heels of popular movements in Tunisia and Egypt. The protesters are calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a US ally who has been in power for 32 years.

"The people want a change in president," protesters chanted, according to Reuters, which estimated that 10,000 had shown up at Sanaa University and about 7,000 elsewhere in the city. "Look at Tunis and what it did. Yemen's people are stronger."

Mr. Saleh was reelected in 2006 for a seven-year term, but parliament’s attempts to ease rules on presidential term limits has Yemenis worried that he will appoint himself for life, the BBC notes.

Saleh is also accused of trying to bequeath power to his son in the impoverished Middle Eastern nation that has come under increased US attention as it deals with instability on multiple fronts – a resurgent Al Qaeda movement, secessionists in its south, and a rebellion in its north.

There have not yet been clashes between police and protesters, Reuters adds. Government supporters held counterprotests, with thousands using the slogan, “No to toppling democracy and the Constitution,” Al Jazeera reports.

Protesters also addressed mounting social problems in the Arab world’s poorest nation, where nearly half the population is illiterate and a third is unemployed, the BBC notes. One banner at a popular protest read: "Enough playing around, enough corruption, look at the gap between poverty and wealth."

While today’s protests are the largest mobilization, smaller ones began last week, with prominent female activist Towakil Karman arrested Sunday on charges of organizing unlicensed rallies, undermining public social peace, and inciting to commit acts of rioting. Under apparent pressure from protesters,she was released on Monday along with nearly three dozen other jailed activists, The Christian Science Monitor reported.

“We the Yemeni people have been patient for years," Mahfoutha Hassan, an older woman, told Monitor correspondent Laura Kasinof at a Monday protest. "So when the government of Tunis fell, it stirred us up.”

Yemen is the latest in the region to be taken by popular protests since Tunisia toppled its president after a month of rallies. On Tuesday, Egyptians began protesting President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule, facing a heavy-handed government response which sent out security forces to violently break up protests and shut down Twitter, the Monitor reported. Activists in Jordan and Algeria similarly launched antigovernment rallies over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times noted.

On whether the movements predict broad regime change in the region, Nadim Shehadi, from the London-based think tank Chatham House, told the LA Times that Tunisia’s revolt is an effect of regional shifts rather than being the main catalyst for later protests.

"If you look at the history of the last 100 years or so, you find that when the mood changes in the region it changes throughout," he said.

"After the fall of the Ottoman Empire when you had sort of liberal, pro-Western elites trying to create democratic institutions, you saw the same phenomenon in Cairo, Baghdad, Algiers, even Kabul," he explained. "When you started having the military take over after 1948, it started with a couple of coup d'etats in Syria and then 10 years later the whole region is [run by] colonels, from Algeria all the way to Indonesia."

Shehadi believes a similar period of change could be happening, but recent history is also full of false starts. The opposition "green movement" that engulfed Iran in the wake of the contested 2009 presidential elections did not spark revolutions around the region, as some had hoped.

LINK

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Security


Egypt's Hosni Mubarak: following missteps of ousted Tunisian leader?

By Kristen Chick, Correspondent / January 31, 2011 
The Christian Science Monitor

LINK


Egypt's Hosni Mubarak at first ignored protesters, and then responded with force. 'I don’t think Mubarak learned anything from the Tunisian case,' says one observer.

Cairo
Tunisia’s deposed President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali seemingly provided the Arab world a textbook in what not to do to avoid being ousted.

Yet instead of avoiding Mr. Ben Ali's missteps, observers say, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak appears to be taking pages from his playbook.

“I don’t think Mubarak learned anything from the Tunisian case,” says Mustapha Kamel El Sayyid, political science professor at the American University in Cairo.

In both countries, uncontrollable protests only worsened when police tried to forcefully restrain them; police pulled back and an ensuing security vacuum prompted neighborhood residents to patrol their streets to protect their property; and people gave a joyous welcome to the Army when it stepped in to secure streets.

IN PICTURES: Egyptian protests

The similarities in the responses may not bode well for the Egyptian leader, or for the United States. While Tunisia’s revolution was a wakeup call to the Arab world and the West, the toppling of Mubarak, America’s most stalwart ally in the Middle East and leader of the most populous Arab country, would have far wider consequences for the region.

Similar roots of unrest, anger at police

The revolution in Tunisia was sparked by widespread anger not only over rising unemployment and increasingly difficult living circumstances, but the ruling family’s flagrant corruption and the government’s crushing repression. In Egypt, protesters as well have combined economic grievances with a stronger call for freedom and an end to the 30-year-rule of their autocrat.

The Egyptian protests are moving somewhat faster than in Tunisia, perhaps thanks to the example of the nation whose population is a little over half the size of Egypt’s capital, Cairo. While in Tunisia the demonstrations began as a protest against the government and did not, until the end, coalesce into clear calls for Ben Ali to leave, signs saying “Down with Mubarak” and “Mubarak out” have been a fixture at Egyptian demonstrations since the first one on Jan. 25.

As the demonstrations got bigger, police in both nations used force to try to put them down, in what Sayyid says was a key factor in pushing demonstrators over the edge.

Protesters fought police, welcomed Army

Tunisia’s Army did not step in to restore order on the streets until after Ben Ali’s departure. Egypt’s military began patrolling the capital after protesters overwhelmed police on Friday. But in both cases, the people welcomed the military with cheers, hugs, and flowers. The internal security apparatuses of both nations have earned the hatred of the populations after decades of being used to suppress them. Torture at the hands of police is common in Tunisia and Egypt.

The militaries of both nations, on the other hand, have not been used in domestic repression and are seen as professional. The scenes of Egyptians taking photos of their children with Egyptian Army officers in front of their tanks are almost exact replicas of the scenes that played out over and over again in Tunisia the week before last.

And when police retreated in both countries, unleashing chaos in the form of looting and violence, residents formed informal neighborhood watch committees to protect their property and families. Even the predominant weapons they used were the same: makeshift sticks and clubs.

Mubarak's speech echoes Ben Ali

Mubarak at first ignored the protests, not making a formal statement until Friday evening, though the massive uprising began Tuesday. To be sure, that was much swifter than the 11 days it took Ben Ali to make a televised response to the unrest sweeping his nation. But when he did, he both tried to reduce the distance between himself and the people, while at the same time criticizing the protesters. Neither attempt went over well with Egyptians.

"I understand these legitimate demands of the people and I truly understand the depth of their worries and burdens,” he said, in an attempt to wash away the stereotype among Egyptians that he’s out of touch with their problems. "I'll always be on the side of the poor."

It was reminiscent of Ben Ali’s final speech, when he dropped the formal Arabic normally used for public addresses and instead pleaded in the Tunisian dialect, “I have understood you.” Both attempts at closing the gap between leader and people were dismissed by the masses.

Failed attempts to offer reforms

But Mubarak also criticized the protesters for unleashing chaos in Egypt, and said the road to reform was through dialogue, not violence. Like Ben Ali’s first speech, in which he called the protesters terrorists and enraged the nation, Mubarak’s words infuriated the protesters who had taken to the streets peacefully, only to have the police use tear gas, batons, and bullets against them.

Both leaders attempted to pacify protesters with concessions that were rejected: Ben Ali fired his interior minister and promised more freedoms, but protests only grew stronger. Mubarak last week dissolved his government and appointed a vice president for the first time, yet Egyptians are not satisfied by these moves.

“With Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt, the concessions were not satisfactory to the people, and they wanted no less than the complete change of the regime,” says Sayyid.

Many Egyptians hope that Mubarak will take one more cue from Ben Ali, and flee to Saudi Arabia. As read one sign that a woman held on Friday: “Oh Mubarak, Saudi Arabia and Ben Ali are waiting for you."

More on LINK

 

[vonGarvin]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm hoping that Mubarek quells this little temper tantrum.  I'm hoping that some pundits are correct: once chaos restricts the average Egyptian's ability to eat, sleep and simply live in peace, Mubarek will be able to offer stability and security.

I would much prefer a stable Egypt, such as it is was a couple of weeks ago, to one in which someone will fill that power vacuum. 

As I've said elsewhere, I fear that this isn't so much a case of "vox populi" as it is "vox volumi".