CIA declares Mission Accomplished, Mubarak says not so fast

[compared2what?]

I also like that dress.

It's by Stella McCartney, of all people. Who'da thunk?

[compared2what?]

hi crikkett, it gets a facepalm because a) it's so mind-bogglingly petty,

You think that bribes, kickbacks, contracting fraud, insider trading and/or unreported offshore income are petty? Because I don't see why any of those should be excluded in theory, and they're quite common among the spouses of the wealthy and powerful the world over in practice.

b) it would be difficult if not impossible to disprove

Up to a certain point, financial crimes are among the easiest offenses to prove and/or disprove on earth. Beyond that point, the money just vanishes without a trace if it's well-laundered. But it first has to go through several cycles of transactions the records of which are both discoverable and provably legal or illegal.

So what are you talking about?

and c) the Marie Antoinette routine has been done to death.

By Marie Antoinette it was, for sure. However, it's highly disputable that she obtained illegal wealth using her husband's position and authority (eg, "the diamond necklace affair"), or even that she was inappropriately profligate relative to other dauphines and queens of France in the expenditures she made during her marriage.

You've been reading the libelles again, haven't you?

[JackRiddler]

and c) the Marie Antoinette routine has been done to death.

By Marie Antoinette it was, for sure. However, it's highly disputable that she obtained illegal wealth using her husband's position and authority (eg, "the diamond necklace affair"), or even that she was inappropriately profligate relative to other dauphines and queens of France in the expenditures she made during her marriage.

You've been reading the libelles again, haven't you?

Her mistake was to be Austrian while acting like the rest of the French royalty. Also, the timing was probably injudicious. Me, all I know is the movie. The omission of the guillotine was a let-down. I expect Hollywood to provide happy endings, damn it.

.

[compared2what?]

I know, right?

What the deal was with MA is one of the few aspects of the French Revolution I can reliably recall in context. I don't know why they had to make that thing so complicated. I mean, just try keeping events in any kind of chronological order after the Terror. It can't be done, it's all one big blur:

The Third Estate declared Mission Accomplished, Jacobins, Sans-Culottes, Girondins, Montagnards, a couple of directorates, restorations of the monarchy, 16,000 beheadings, Napoleon Bonaparte and new names for all the days of the week said not so fast.

Fucking French.

[JackRiddler]

The Third Estate declared Mission Accomplished, Jacobins, Sans-Culottes, Girondins, Montagnards, a couple of directorates, restorations of the monarchy, 16,000 beheadings, Napoleon Bonaparte and new names for all the days of the week said not so fast.

Fucking French.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31369&p=386750

[crikkett]

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... ess-o.aspx

Ousted president Mubarak to ask Egypt for forgiveness on air
Egypt's ousted president is expected to address the nation soon to ask for forgiveness, offer to return money to the country and plead for amnesty
Ahram Online, Tuesday 17 May 2011

Former ousted president Hosni Mubarak is expected to apologise to the nation soon, according to media reports, and is aiming for amnesty.

According to the Shorouk newspaper, the speech is currently being prepared and will be aired on several Egyptian and Arab channels. Mubarak will apologise for his or his family’s wrongdoing against the Egyptian people, which he is expected to blame on bad advice and misinformation given to him by his consultants.

During the speech Mubarak will also express his willingness to return most of his wealth to Egyptians. He will also stress the fact that he was once a member of the country’s armed forces and fought to protect Egypt during the 1973 war against Israel.

The ousted president will also say that he never expected to ever hold the position of president and did his best to perform his duties, as did his wife, Suzanne Thabet, who did a lot of humanitarian work for the country.

The purpose of the speech would be to ask the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for amnesty and to not put him on trial.

The speech is expected to be written by the same speech writer who wrote his emotional address to the nation on 1 February where he promised reforms and urged the protesters in Tahrir Square to go home.

Mubarak, who stepped down from power on 11 February, has been detained in the Sharm El Sheikh International Hospital after suffering a heart attack while being questioned on 13 April. His wife is also in the hospital after she suffered from a nervous breakdown on 13 May hours after the Illicit Gains Authority ordered her detention for 15 days on charges of illegal acquisition of wealth.

Thabet has also reportedly already handed over some of her assets to the state.

[JackRiddler]

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/12294/Egypt/Politics-/Ousted-pres-Mubarak-to-ask-Egypt-for-forgiveness-o.aspx

Ousted president Mubarak to ask Egypt for forgiveness on air
Egypt's ousted president is expected to address the nation soon to ask for forgiveness, offer to return money to the country and plead for amnesty
Ahram Online, Tuesday 17 May 2011

Former ousted president Hosni Mubarak is expected to apologise to the nation soon, according to media reports, and is aiming for amnesty.

According to the Shorouk newspaper, the speech is currently being prepared and will be aired on several Egyptian and Arab channels. Mubarak will apologise for his or his family’s wrongdoing against the Egyptian people, which he is expected to blame on bad advice and misinformation given to him by his consultants.

Hope he remembers to throw the CIA GID AID Mossad IMF and his other foreign friends and sponsors into the list of "consultants."

My philosophy generally with such figures is that they should be imprisoned forever but in greater luxury than usually accorded to prisoners and treated humanely, as long as they're permanently dishing out full unvarnished disclosure on fucking everything they know and everything they did. That's their job, and if they do it they get nice meals, visits, TV time, videos of their greatest hits, old sashes and uniforms, access to documents to jog their memory, etc. Call it "The Fletcher Memorial Home For Incurable Tyrants and Kings" (is everyone in?). I say so because full historical truth is an indispensable condition for a future that breaks out of the past's patterns. The less they're willing to say, or the more they try to get away with lies and omissions, the fewer privileges they should have.

What he shouldn't get is an opportunity to make an emotional sell for amnesty on his own terms.

.

[lupercal]

Mubarak’s wife released from custody
Latest update: 17/05/2011



REUTERS - The wife of Egypt's ousted president was released from detention on Tuesday after giving up assets but is still being investigated, said an official leading a probe into whether she amassed wealth illegally.

Suzanne Mubarak, who denies charges that she abused her husband's influence for unlawful personal gain, was admitted to hospital on Friday after suffering symptoms of a heart attack. She has been detained in the same hospital as her husband.

Hosni Mubarak, the former president, is also under investigation for abuse of power, embezzlement and responsibility for the deaths of some protesters during the 18 days of unrest that led to his ouster on Feb. 11. He is still in detention.

"Suzanne Mubarak was released pending investigations after she gave up her assets of 24 million Egyptian pounds ($4 million) to the state," Assem el-Gohari, the head of the illicit gains authority, told state radio.

A judicial source said earlier that Mubarak would be released after posting bail.

http://www.france24.com/en/20110517-mub ... tion-egypt
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great, she's broke. Are we happy now?