 |
| crédit: Le Monde |
More: Freedom fighters in Egypt may be close to achieving their chief demand that dictator Hosni Mubarak resign immediately before efforts of constitutional reform go forward. Mubarak is scheduled to address the Egyptian people tonight. President of Mubarak's party, PND, said that the chief of state would respond to the demands of the people in the hours to come. The Egyptian army said it would examine "the measures for preserving the nation". It may intervene if a transfer of power to Vice President Suleiman is not respected by protesters. So far, soldiers and tanks in Tahrir square have not moved, but clearly the army holds a great deal of influence in Egypt, and the army is funded by the United States. Former national security advisor Elliott Abrams said, "the Army may not have made up its mind yet. Now is the time [for the United States] to signal them this aid is conditional." Protesters will have to be convinced Suleiman will restore civil liberties lost during the regime and respect the outcome of free elections in September.
Update: {9.2.11}The largest crowds in the sixteen day old revolution have assembled to demand the ouster of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak. Demonstrations have spread beyond Cairo's Tahrir Square and thousands went on strike today to protest a regime that has impoverished almost half of its people. Protesters are sleeping in the tracks of army tanks [photo] to dissuade their use against supporters of democracy in Egypt. The economic cost of the unrest is starting to weigh on the regime. Vice President Suleiman, picked to succeed Mubarak, said in coded language the crisis must end soon or "irrationalities" could occur if "police tools" were used in a coup d'etat. A leader of a coalition of youth organizations said Suleiman was threatening martial law in which protesters in Tahrir Square would be "smashed". Human Rights Watch says there have been more than 300 fatalities in the uprising so far based on a survey of hospitals.
{8.2.11} Obamacon spouts the empty democracy talk, but his security obsessed government backs Vice President Omar Suleiman, the dictator's handpicked successor. The former security chief, whose intelligence service tortured suspected terrorists on behalf of the CIA, (go ahead call US Person a liar because the democrats in Liberation Square believe him) told interviewers he does not think the thirty year rule of martial law needs to be lifted or that Mubarak must resign. Suleiman has a long history of close cooperation with western intelligence services. Wikileaks' diplomatic cables describe him as Murabak's "consigliere" (an Italian mafia term for legal counselor) with primary responsibility for managing Egypt-Israel relations. He has warned the US about the aspirations of Jama 'at al-Ikhwan al Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood), no doubt to his own government's advantage*. His information has fallen on receptive ears in the US security apparatus. US officials fear the largely secular uprising will be taken over by Islamic extremists inside the Muslim Brotherhood movement. These fears are stoked by hysterical Zionists in both Israel and America. So the media spinners in the White House are having a difficult time reconciling Suleiman's anti-democracy stance with its own public statements of very cautious support for a "peaceful transition" to democracy. The Egyptian government has attempted to buy off democratic support by raising government worker pay by 15% while trying to project a return to "business as usual" with plans to reopen the stock market and its newspapers. Meanwhile, street democrats are preparing for a protracted standoff with the reactionary government having beaten back the baltagies($10 per hooligan, $70 for mounted) with their bare hands. Meetings between the sides have been little more than propaganda theatre so far.
*Ron Jacobs reports about the Muslim Brotherhood at Counterpunch. The organization is on record against jihad and in favor of democratic processes including the right of women to participate in political affairs and assistance for the poor. It is a conservative religious movement, but it does not dominate Egyptian politics. Jacobs sees Suleiman as playing for time to insure any election results go the way Washington, and ultimately Tel Aviv, want them to go. An Egyptian government that includes the Brotherhood is unlikely to continue supporting the status-quo on the issue of Palestine.