Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

[AlicetheKurious]

Egypt's general prosecutor on Monday opened probe on former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly's reported role in the New Year's Eve bombing of al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria in which 24 people were killed, an Egyptian lawyer told Al Arabiya.

Laywer Ramzi Mamdouh said he had presented a proclamation to Egyptian prosecutor Abd al-Majid Mahmud to investigate news media reports suggesting that the former interior ministry had masterminded the deadly church attack with the intent to blame it on Islamists, escalate government crackdown on them, and gain increased western support for the regime.

Mahmud said the information contained in some reports were "serious."

The proclamation, numbered 1450, pointed to the news reports sourcing a UK diplomat who explained the reasons why Britain has insisted on the immediate departure of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his regime, especially his interior ministry's security apparatus previously directed by el-Adly.

Ramzi Mamdouh is known as a grandstander with a habit of launching spectacular but ultimately baseless lawsuits to get himself in the news. Egypt's Prosecutor-General is obliged to "open a probe" once a suit is filed, regardless of its merit (or lack thereof).

This entire "case" rests on a newspaper article in the Telegraph, which in turn sources an anonymous "UK diplomat". Hardly persuasive, especially in this particular case, which fits the Mossad like a glove. (On the other hand, given what we've seen in Lebanon, and the shamefully cozy relationship between the Egyptian and Israeli regimes, Egypt is no doubt riddled with Mossad cells, especially within its internal security apparatus, one of which may have very well handled the logistics for the attack).

[DoYouEverWonder]

I knew something smelled funny about that story. I was wondering why a government that's falling apart at the seams, would start probing anything except the price of plane tickets out of the country?

Thanks for the inside scoop.

[beeline]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_egypt

Strikes erupt as Egypt protesters defy VP warnings

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and TAREK EL-TABLAWY, Associated Press Maggie Michael And Tarek El-tablawy, Associated Press – 5 mins ago


CAIRO – Thousands of state workers and impoverished Egyptians launched strikes and protests around the country on Wednesday over their economic woes as anti-government activists sought to expand their campaign to oust President Hosni Mubarak despite warnings from the vice president that protests won't be tolerated much longer.

Some 8,000 protesters, mainly farmers, set barricades of flaming palm trees in the southern province of Assiut, blocking the main highway and railway to Cairo to complain of bread shortages. They then drove off the governor by pelting his van with stones. Hundreds of slum dwellers in the Suez Canal city of Port Said set fire to part of the governor's headquarters in anger over lack of housing.

Efforts by Vice President Omar Suleiman to open a dialogue with protesters over reforms have broken down since the weekend, with youth organizers of the movement deeply suspicious that he plans only superficial changes far short of real democracy. They refuse any talks unless Mubarak steps down first.

Showing growing impatience with the rejection, Suleiman issued a sharp warning that raised the prospect of a renewed crackdown. He told Egyptian newspaper editors late Tuesday that there could be a "coup" unless demonstrators agree to enter negotiations. Further deepening skepticism of his intentions, he suggested Egypt was not ready for democracy and said a government-formed panel of judges, dominated by Mubarak loyalists, would push ahead with recommending its own constitutional amendments to be put to a referendum.

"He is threatening to impose martial law, which means everybody in the square will be smashed," said Abdul-Rahman Samir, a spokesman for a coalition of the five main youth groups behind protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square. "But what would he do with the rest of the 70 million Egyptians who will follow us afterward."

Suleiman is creating "a disastrous scenario," Samir said. "We are striking and we will protest and we will not negotiate until Mubarak steps down. Whoever wants to threaten us, then let them do so," he added.

Nearly 10,000 massed in Tahrir on Wednesday in the 16th day of protests. Nearby, 2,000 more blocked off parliament, several blocks away, chanting slogans for it to be dissolved. Army troops deployed in the parliament grounds.

For the first time, protesters were calling forcefully Wednesday for labor strikes, despite a warning by Suleiman that calls for civil disobedience are "very dangerous for society and we can't put up with this at all."

Strikes broke out across Egypt as many companies reopened for the first time after closing for much of the turmoil because of curfews. Not all the strikers were responding directly to the protesters' calls — but the movement's success and its denunciations of the increasing poverty under nearly 30 years of Mubarak's rule clearly reignited labor discontent that has broken out frequently in recent years.

The farmers in Assiut voiced their support of the Tahrir movement, witnesses said, as did the Port Said protesters, who set up a tent camp in the city's main Martyrs Square similar to the Cairo camp.

In Cairo, hundreds of state electricity workers stood in front of the South Cairo Electricity company, demanding the ouster of its director. Public transport workers at five of the city's roughly 17 garages also called strikes, calling for Mubarak's overthrow, and vowed that buses would be halted Thursday, though it was not clear if they represented the entire bus system.

Also, dozens of state museum workers demanding higher wages staged a protest in front of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, crowding around antiquities chief Zahi Hawass when he came to talk to them.

Several hundred workers also demonstrated at a silk factory and a fuel coke plant in Cairo's industrial suburb of Helwan, demanding better pay and work conditions.

Two protesters were killed Tuesday when police opened fire on hundreds who set a courthouse on fire and attacked a police station in the desert oasis town of Kharga, southwest of Cairo, in two days of rioting, security officials said Wednesday. The protesters are demanding the removal of a senior local police commander accused of abuse. The army was forced to secure a number of government buildings including prisons. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Strikes entered a second day in the city of Suez on Wednesday. Some 5,000 workers at various state companies — including a textile workers, medicine bottle manufacturers, sanitation workers and a firm involved in repairs for ships on the Suez Canal — held separate strikes and protests at their factories. Traffic at the Suez Canal, a vital international waterway that is a top revenue earner for Egypt, was not affected.

"We're not getting our rights," said Ahmed Tantawi, a Public Works employee in Suez. He said workers provide 24-hour service and are exposed to health risks but get only an extra $1.50 a month in hardship compensation. He said there are employees who have worked their entire lives in the department and will retire with a salary equivalent to $200 a month.

In Tahrir, organizers of the central anti-Mubarak demonstrations called for a new "protest of millions" for Friday similar to those that have drawn the largest crowds so far. But in a change of tactic, they want to spread the protests out around different parts of Cairo instead of only in downtown Tahrir Square where a permanent sit-in is now in its second week, said Khaled Abdel-Hamid, one of the youth organizers.

A previous "protest of millions" last week drew at least a quarter-million people to Tahrir — their biggest yet, along with crowds of tens of thousands in other cities. A Tahrir rally on Tuesday rivaled that one in size, fueled by a renewed enthusiasm after the release of Wael Ghonim, a Google marketing manager who helped spark the unprecedented protest movement.

Still, authorities were projecting an image of normalcy. Egypt's most famous tourist attraction, the Pyramids of Giza, reopened to tourists on Wednesday. Tens of thousands of foreigners have fled Egypt amid the chaos, raising concerns about the economic impact of the protests. Mubarak met Wednesday with a Russian envoy.

Suleiman's interview Tuesday evening was a tough warning to protesters that their continued demonstrations would not be tolerated for a long time and that they must get behind his program for reform. The U.S. has given a strong endorsement to Suleiman's efforts but insists it want to see real changes. Vice President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Suleiman on Tuesday, saying Washington wants Egypt to immediately rescind emergency laws that give broad powers to security forces — a key demand of the protesters.

Officials have made a series of pledges not to attack, harass or arrest the activists in recent days. But Suleiman's comments suggested that won't last forever.

"We can't bear this for a long time," he said of the Tahrir protests. "There must be an end to this crisis as soon as possible." He said the regime wants to resolve the crisis through dialogue, warning: "We don't want to deal with Egyptian society with police tools."

He also warned of chaos if the situation continued, speaking of "the dark bats of the night emerging to terrorize the people." If dialogue is not successful, the alternative is "that a coup happens, which would mean uncalculated and hasty steps, including lots of irrationalities," he told state and independent newspaper editors in the round-table briefing Tuesday.

Although it was not completely clear what the vice president intended in his "coup" comment, the protesters heard it as a veiled threat to impose martial law — which would be a dramatic escalation in the standoff.

Suleiman, a military man who was intelligence chief before being elevated to vice president amid the crisis, tried to explain the remark by saying:

"I mean a coup of the regime against itself, or a military coup or an absence of the system. Some force, whether its the army or police or the intelligence agency or the (opposition Muslim) Brotherhood or the youth themselves could carry out 'creative chaos' to end the regime and take power," he said.

Suleiman, a close confident of the president, rejected any "end to the regime" including an immediate departure for Mubarak, who says he will serve out the rest of his term until September elections. Suleiman reiterated his view that Egypt is not ready for democracy.

"The culture of democracy is still far away," he said.

Over the weekend, Suleiman held a widely publicized round of talks with the opposition — including representatives from among the protest activists, the Muslim Brotherhood and official, government-sanctioned opposition parties, which have taken no role in the protests.

But the youth activists who participated say the session appeared to be an attempt to divide their ranks and they have said they don't trust Suleiman's promises that the regime will carry out constitutional reforms to bring greater democracy in a country Mubarak has ruled for nearly 30 years with an authoritarian hand.

A committee of the various youth groups behind the protests say they will hold no talks, and the Brotherhood underlined that they too have cut off contacts for now.

"Since our last meeting with Soleiman we have not met with him or anyone else from the government in either an official or nonofficial manner," said Mohammed Mursi, a Brotherhood leader.

Suleiman indicated the government plans to push ahead with its own reform program even without negotiations, a move likely to do nothing to ease protests. On Tuesday, Suleiman announced a panel of top judges and legal experts would recommend amendments to the constitution by the end of the month, which would then be put to a referendum.

But the panel is dominated by Mubarak loyalists, and previous referendums on amendments drawn up by the regime have been marred by vote rigging to push them through.

The head of the panel, Serry Siam, top judge on the country's highest appellate court, "represents the old regime along with its ideology and legislation which restrict rights and freedom," said Nasser Amin, director of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, an independent organization that works for judicial neutrality.

In one concession made in the newspaper interview, Suleiman said Mubarak was willing to have international supervision of September elections, a longtime demand by reformers that officials have long rejected.

___

Associated Press writers Hadeel al-Shalchi, Hamza Hendawi, Paul Schemm, Maggie Hyde and Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report.

[DevilYouKnow]

As my first post in this forum, I'll simply quote from beeline's post above:

He also warned of chaos if the situation continued, speaking of "the dark bats of the night emerging to terrorize the people." If dialogue is not successful, the alternative is "that a coup happens, which would mean uncalculated and hasty steps, including lots of irrationalities," he told state and independent newspaper editors in the round-table briefing Tuesday.

Rather thinly veiled.

[DoYouEverWonder]

As my first post in this forum, I'll simply quote from beeline's post above:

He also warned of chaos if the situation continued, speaking of "the dark bats of the night emerging to terrorize the people." If dialogue is not successful, the alternative is "that a coup happens, which would mean uncalculated and hasty steps, including lots of irrationalities," he told state and independent newspaper editors in the round-table briefing Tuesday.

Rather thinly veiled.

Thin ain't the word. Welcome to RI.

[vanlose kid]

Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture'
Military accused by human rights campaigners of targeting hundreds of anti-government protesters

Chris McGreal in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 February 2011 21.30 GMT

The Egyptian military has secretly detained hundreds and possibly thousands of suspected government opponents since mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak began, and at least some of these detainees have been tortured, according to testimony gathered by the Guardian.

The military has claimed to be neutral, merely keeping anti-Mubarak protesters and loyalists apart. But human rights campaigners say this is clearly no longer the case, accusing the army of involvement in both disappearances and torture – abuses Egyptians have for years associated with the notorious state security intelligence (SSI) but not the army.

The Guardian has spoken to detainees who say they have suffered extensive beatings and other abuses at the hands of the military in what appears to be an organised campaign of intimidation. Human rights groups have documented the use of electric shocks on some of those held by the army.

Egyptian human rights groups say families are desperately searching for missing relatives who have disappeared into army custody. Some of the detainees have been held inside the renowned Museum of Egyptian Antiquities on the edge of Tahrir Square. Those released have given graphic accounts of physical abuse by soldiers who accused them of acting for foreign powers, including Hamas and Israel.

Among those detained have been human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, but most have been released. However, Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo, said hundreds, and possibly thousands, of ordinary people had "disappeared" into military custody across the country for no more than carrying a political flyer, attending the demonstrations or even the way they look. Many were still missing.

"Their range is very wide, from people who were at the protests or detained for breaking curfew to those who talked back at an army officer or were handed over to the army for looking suspicious or for looking like foreigners even if they were not," he said. "It's unusual and to the best of our knowledge it's also unprecedented for the army to be doing this."

One of those detained by the army was a 23-year-old man who would only give his first name, Ashraf, for fear of again being arrested. He was detained last Friday on the edge of Tahrir Square carrying a box of medical supplies intended for one of the makeshift clinics treating protesters attacked by pro-Mubarak forces.

"I was on a sidestreet and a soldier stopped me and asked me where I was going. I told him and he accused me of working for foreign enemies and other soldiers rushed over and they all started hitting me with their guns," he said.

Ashraf was hauled off to a makeshift army post where his hands were bound behind his back and he was beaten some more before being moved to an area under military control at the back of the museum.

"They put me in a room. An officer came and asked me who was paying me to be against the government. When I said I wanted a better government he hit me across the head and I fell to the floor. Then soldiers started kicking me. One of them kept kicking me between my legs," he said.

"They got a bayonet and threatened to rape me with it. Then they waved it between my legs. They said I could die there or I could disappear into prison and no one would ever know. The torture was painful but the idea of disappearing in a military prison was really frightening."

Ashraf said the beatings continued on and off for several hours until he was put in a room with about a dozen other men, all of whom had been severely tortured. He was let go after about 18 hours with a warning not to return to Tahrir Square.

Others have not been so lucky. Heba Morayef, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Cairo, said: "A lot of families are calling us and saying: 'I can't find my son, he's disappeared.' I think what's happening is that they're being arrested by the military."

Among those missing is Kareem Amer, a prominent government critic and blogger only recently released after serving a four-year prison sentence for criticising the regime. He was picked up on Monday evening at a military checkpoint late at night as he was leaving Tahrir Square.

Bahgat said the pattern of accounts from those released showed the military had been conducting a campaign to break the protests. "Some people, especially the activists, say they were interrogated about any possible links to political organisations or any outside forces. For the ordinary protesters, they get slapped around and asked: 'Why are you in Tahrir?' It seems to serve as an interrogation operation and an intimidation and deterrence."

The military has claimed to be neutral in the political standoff and both Mubarak and his prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, have said there will be no "security pursuit" of anti-government activists. But Morayef says this is clearly not the case.

"I think it's become pretty obvious by now that the military is not a neutral party. The military doesn't want and doesn't believe in the protests and this is even at the lower level, based on the interrogations," she said.

Human Rights Watch says it has documented 119 arrests of civilians by the military but believes there are many more. Bahgat said it was impossible to know how many people had been detained because the army is not acknowledging the arrests. But he believes that the pattern of disappearances seen in Cairo is replicated across the country.

"Detentions either go completely unreported or they are unable to inform their family members or any lawyer of their detention so they are much more difficult to assist or look for," he said. "Those held by the military police are not receiving any due process either because they are unaccounted for and they are unable to inform anyone of their detention."

Human Rights Watch has also documented detentions including an unnamed democracy activist who described being stopped by a soldier who insisted on searching his bag, where he found a pro-democracy flyer.

"They started beating me up in the street their rubber batons and an electric Taser gun, shocking me," the activist said.

"Then they took me to Abdin police station. By the time I arrived, the soldiers and officers there had been informed that a 'spy' was coming, and so when I arrived they gave me a 'welcome beating' that lasted some 30 minutes."

While pro-government protesters have also been detained by the army during clashes in Tahrir Square, it is believed that they have been handed on to police and then released, rather than being held and tortured.

The detainee was held in a cell until an interrogator arrived, ordered him to undress and attached cables from an "electric shock machine".

"He shocked me all over my body, leaving no place untouched. It wasn't a real interrogation; he didn't ask that many questions. He tortured me twice like this on Friday, and one more time on Saturday," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/fe ... re-accused

*

[vanlose kid]

Analysis: Egypt military in power grab amid unrest
By HAMZA HENDAWI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 9, 2011; 5:47 PM


The military, already the country's most powerful institution, has taken advantage of the unrest to solidify its authority, using a combination of force and public relations to deliver what amounts to a soft coup in a country where it is widely viewed as the ultimate guarantor of national interests.

Vice President Omar Suleiman, a former army general and chief of intelligence, issued a veiled threat that the army could go even further. He warned that an outright coup could take place if the protests by tens of thousands continue in Cairo's central Tahrir Square.

It was a strong hint that the military could move to impose martial law and snuff out the protests, which have grown since Jan. 25, demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak and the implementation of sweeping democratic reforms.

"We cannot bear this for a long time," Suleiman told a round-table briefing of newspaper editors on Tuesday. "There must be an end to this crisis as soon as possible."

The mention of a coup left the circle of editors in stunned silence, media reports of the meeting said.

Suleiman may have been bluffing, but some analysts believe the military could be left with a limited number of options, especially if the strikes and protests grow in number or intensity.

"If this thing continues or grows, the military will have to decide whether to stage a coup and order a crackdown," said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert at the New York-based Century Foundation. "In the meantime, the situation will not change unless the army decides to change it."

Holding so much sway is not new for the Egyptian military.

It gave the country all four of its presidents since young army officers seized power in a 1952 coup that toppled the monarchy. It has over the past six decades lowered its public profile, but nevertheless remains Egypt's most powerful institution.

The recipient of $1.3 billion in annual U.S. aid, it has in recent years ventured into business, strengthening its hand with lucrative government contracts in construction, road building and food production. For decades, its generals have been given key government posts after retirement, including serving in the Cabinet, as heads of government departments, provincial governors and mayors.

"Any successor to Mubarak who does not enjoy the support of the senior military brass will be actively undermined and thwarted by the generals," said Augustus Richard Norton, a Middle East expert from Boston University.

The military's stealth offensive to take control of the country is multi-tiered.

For now, Mubarak, a former air force commander, still stands at the top of the regime, at least nominally. The Egyptian leader rejected calls for his ouster, insisting he serve out his term but said he would not run again for president in September elections.

Suleiman, a longtime Mubarak confidant, has become the face of the regime since Mubarak appointed him as vice president soon after the protests erupted. It was the first time Mubarak had named a vice president - and therefore presumed successor - since he came to power in 1981.

Suleiman has taken the lead in efforts to get through the crisis, creating a road map for reforms and trying, so far unsuccessfully, to draw the disparate protest organizers into participating in it. The protesters are deeply wary, fearing Suleiman will use negotiations on reform simply as a cover to force through cosmetic changes that preserve the regime's hold without bringing real democracy.

The vice president has fed that suspicion by repeatedly saying Egypt is not ready for democracy.

"We have two options to resolve this crisis: either dialogue and understanding, or a coup," Suleiman sternly warned in the meeting with editors. "A coup can be either beneficial or detrimental, but it could lead to further irrational steps and we want to avoid reaching that point."

In a sign of the military's solidarity with Mubarak, he said the protesters' blunt calls for Mubarak to "leave" were an insult to the armed forces.

"Mubarak is a hero of the October war," he said, alluding to the 1973 Arab-Israeli war when Mubarak served as air force commander. "The military institution takes care of its October heroes and will never forget or relinquish its history."

Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, warned Wednesday there would be chaos if Mubarak stepped down immediately and the opposition tried to form an unconstitutional government.

"Then maybe the armed forces would feel compelled to intervene in a more drastic manner," he said in an interview with "PBS NewsHour." "Do we want the armed forces to assume the responsibility of stabilizing the nation through imposing martial law, and army in the streets?"

So far, the military's two-week deployment in the streets - the first since it quelled a revolt by conscript policemen more than two decades ago - has projected the image of an institution that is preserving stability. Its pledge not to use force against the protesters won the hearts of many, though some remain wary the soldiers surrounding their protest camp could eventually move to clear them.

Its commander, Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi, was rarely seen in public before the crisis. But in a symbolic but significant move, Tantawi, a serving field marshal who is also the deputy prime minister, was the most senior regime official to visit Tahrir Square, talking briefly with protesters before driving away in a convoy of SUVs.

"I think the military is trying to firmly guide Egypt's transition," said Jon Alterman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The military has played a public and prominent role in steadying the events and it does not seem inclined to turn over the reins of power any time soon."

Rounding out the new quadrumvirate running the country is Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force officer like Mubarak. He heads a new government put together by Mubarak, has held talks of his own with the opposition and, in a bid to ensure the loyalty of Egyptians, ordered a 15 percent salary increase for some 6 million civil servants at a time when the economy has been dealt a severe blow by the unrest.

Taking advantage of the political vacuum created by the massive demonstrations, the military swiftly moved to settle old scores with two main rival groups. One consists of the mogul businessmen-politicians who have over the past decade rallied around Mubarak's powerful son Gamal to dominate society, causing friction with the military's own economic interests.

The second is Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party, in which the younger Mubarak rapidly rose through the ranks to become its de facto leader.

Nurtured by the two Mubaraks, these two groups have risen to such a position of power in recent years that they posed a credible threat to the military's longtime domination, according to the analysts and a senior NDP official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Shafiq has purged the businessmen who served in the administration he replaced and the attorney-general is now investigating three of them for alleged corruption.

The NDP official said the ruling party has been significantly weakened after its six-man leadership, which included Gamal Mubarak and a number of his father's longtime aides, resigned and a group of little-known members replaced them.

The official defended the party's record, saying that, allegations of corruption aside, the party was trying to "build a civilian state." But now, he said, "we are in the middle of a conflict between the military and all other forces, including the party and the businessmen."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 545_3.html

[vanlose kid]

28 hours in the dark heart of Egypt's torture machine
A blindfolded Robert Tait could only listen as fellow captives were electrocuted and beaten by Mubarak's security services

Robert Tait
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 February 2011 21.30 GMT

The sickening, rapid click-click-clicking of the electrocuting device sounded like an angry rattlesnake as it passed within inches of my face. Then came a scream of agony, followed by a pitiful whimpering from the handcuffed, blindfolded victim as the force of the shock propelled him across the floor.

A hail of vicious punches and kicks rained down on the prone bodies next to me, creating loud thumps. The torturers screamed abuse all around me. Only later were their chilling words translated to me by an Arabic-speaking colleague: "In this hotel, there are only two items on the menu for those who don't behave – electrocution and rape."

Cuffed and blindfolded, like my fellow detainees, I lay transfixed. My palms sweated and my heart raced. I felt myself shaking. Would it be my turn next? Or would my outsider status, conferred by holding a British passport, save me? I suspected – hoped – that it would be the latter and, thankfully, it was. But I could never be sure.

I had "disappeared", along with countless Egyptians, inside the bowels of the Mukhabarat, President Hosni Mubarak's vast security-intelligence apparatus and an organisation headed, until recently, by his vice-president and former intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, the man trusted to negotiate an "orderly transition" to democratic rule.

Judging by what I witnessed, that seems a forlorn hope.

I had often wondered, reading accounts of political prisoners detained and tortured in places such as junta-run Argentina of the 1970s, what it would be like to be totally at the mercy of, and dependent on, your jailer for everything – food, water, the toilet. I never dreamed I would find out. Yet here I was, cooped up in a tiny room with a group of Egyptian detainees who were being mercilessly brutalised.

I had been handed over to the security services after being stopped at a police checkpoint near central Cairo last Friday. I had flown there, along with an Iraqi-born British colleague, Abdelilah Nuaimi, to cover Egypt's unfolding crisis for RFE/RL, an American radio station based in Prague.

We knew beforehand that foreign journalists had been targeted by security services as they scrambled to contain a revolt against Mubarak's regime, so our incarceration was not unique.

Yet it was different. My experience, while highly personal, wasn't really about me or the foreign media. It was about gaining an insight – if that is possible behind a blindfold – into the inner workings of the Mubarak regime. It told me all I needed to know about why it had become hated, feared and loathed by the mass of ordinary Egyptians.

We had been stopped en route to Tahrir Square, scene of the ongoing mass demonstrations, little more than half an hour after leaving Cairo airport.

Uniformed and plainclothes police swarmed around our car and demanded our passports and to see inside my bag. A satellite phone was found and one of the men got in our car and ordered our driver to follow a vehicle in front, which led us to a nearby police station.

There, an officer subjected our fixer, Ahmed, to intense questioning: did he know any Palestinians? Were they members of Hamas? Then we were ordered to move again, and eventually drove to a vast, unmarked complex next to a telecommunications building.

That's when Ahmed sensed real danger. "I hope I don't get beaten up," he said. He had good reason to worry.

We were ordered out and blindfolded before being herded into another vehicle and driven a few hundred yards. Then we were pushed into what seemed like an open-air courtyard and handcuffed. I heard the rapid-fire clicking of the electric rattlesnake – I knew instantly what it was – and then Ahmed screaming in pain. A cold sweat washed over me and I thought I might faint or vomit. "I'm going to be tortured," I thought.

But I wasn't. "Mr Robert, what is wrong," I was asked, before being told, with incongruous kindness, to sit down. I sensed then that I would avoid the worst. But I didn't expect to gain such intimate knowledge of what that meant.

After being interrogated and held in one room for hours, I was frogmarched after nightfall to another room, upstairs, along with other prisoners. We believe our captors were members of the internal security service.

That's when the violence – and the terror – really began.

At first, I attached no meaning to the dull slapping sounds. But comprehension dawned as, amid loud shouting, I heard the electrocuting rods being ratcheted up. My colleague, Abdelilah – kept in a neighbouring room – later told me what the torturers said next.

"Get the electric shocks ready. This lot are to be made to really suffer," a guard said as a new batch of prisoners were brought in.

"Why did you do this to your country?" a jailer screamed as he tormented his victim. "You are not to speak in here, do you understand?" one prisoner was told. He did not reply. Thump. "Do you understand?" Still no answer. More thumps. "Do you understand?" Prisoner: "Yes, I understand." Torturer: "I told you not to speak in here," followed by a cascade of thumps, kicks, and electric shocks.

Exhausted, the prisoners fell asleep and snored loudly, provoking another round of furious assaults. "You're committing a sin," a stricken detainee said in a weak, pitiful voice.

Craving to see my fellow inmates, I discreetly adjusted my blindfold. I briefly saw three young men – two of them looked like Islamists, with bushy beards – with their hands cuffed behind their backs (mine were cuffed to the front), before my captors spotted what I had done and tightened my blindfold.

The brutality continued until, suddenly, I was ordered to stand and pushed towards a room, where I was told I was being taken to the airport. I received my possessions and looked at my watch. It was 5pm. I had been in captivity for 28 hours.

The ordeal was almost over – save for another 16 hours waiting at an airport deportation facility. It had been nightmarish but it was nothing to what my Egyptian fellow-captives had endured.

Later, I learned that Ahmed, the fixer, had been released at the same time as Abdelilah and me. He told friends we had been "treated very well" but that he had bruises "from sleeping on the floor". I had flown to Cairo to find out what was ailing so many Egyptians. I did not expect to learn the answer so graphically.

Robert Tait is a senior correspondent with RFE/RL. He was formerly the Guardian's correspondent in Tehran and Istanbul.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/fe ... k-security

*

[DoYouEverWonder]

Why are humans beings so cruel? Can you imagine torturing people for a living?

[23]

28 hours in the dark heart of Egypt's torture machine
A blindfolded Robert Tait could only listen as fellow captives were electrocuted and beaten by Mubarak's security services

Regrettably, our tax monies contributed to their torture capabilities:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/cabl ... torturers/
Cables: FBI trained Egypt’s state security ‘torturers’

Egypt's secret police, long accused of torturing suspects and intimidating political opponents of President Hosni Mubarak, received training at the FBI's facility in Quantico, Virginia, even as US diplomats compiled allegations of brutality against them, according to US State Department cables released by WikiLeaks.

One cable, dated November 2007 and published by the Telegraph, describes a meeting between the head of the SSIS, Egypt's secret police, and FBI deputy director John Pistole, in which the secret police chief praises Pistole for the "excellent and strong" cooperation between the two agencies. (Pistole has since been appointed head of the TSA.)

SSIS chief Abdul Rahman said the FBI's training sessions at Quantico were of "great benefit" to his agency. The cables did not address what sort of training Egyptian secret police received at Quantico, or how many officers were trained there.

In another cable, dated October 2009, a US diplomat reported on allegations from "credible human rights lawyers" that the SSIS was behind the torture of terrorism suspects held in Egyptian jails.

Members of a Hezbollah cell arrested in 2008 were tortured "with electric shocks and sleep deprivation to reduce them to a 'zombie state'," the cable stated. The lawyers "asserted that 'this kind of torture' is different from what [name redacted] normally sees, and speculated that a special branch of Interior Ministry State Security (SSIS) could be directing the torture."

The history of torture allegations against the SSIS reaches back decades, but allegations have grown since the war on terror was launched after 9/11. In a 2007 report, Amnesty International accused the Egyptian government of turning the country into a "torture center" for war on terror suspects.

"We are now uncovering evidence of Egypt being a destination of choice for third-party or contracted-out torture in the 'war on terror'," Amnesty's Kate Allen said at the time.

The Egyptian government acknowledged in 2005 that the US had transferred 60 to 70 detainees to Egypt since 2001.

'THOUSANDS' MAY HAVE BEEN TORTURED AMID PROTESTS: REPORT

The latest accusations of torture coming out of Egypt focus not on the SSIS, but on the Egyptian army, which in the early days of the Egyptian protests was lauded for taking a hands-off approach and not attempting to suppress the demonstrations.

According to the Guardian, witnesses reported "extensive beatings and other abuses at the hands of the military in what appears to be an organized campaign of intimidation."

Egyptian human rights groups say families are desperately searching for missing relatives who have disappeared into army custody. Some of the detainees have been held inside the renowned Museum of Egyptian Antiquities on the edge of Tahrir Square. Those released have given graphic accounts of physical abuse by soldiers who accused them of acting for foreign powers, including Hamas and Israel.

Among those detained have been human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, but most have been released. However, Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo, said hundreds, and possibly thousands, of ordinary people had "disappeared" into military custody across the country for no more than carrying a political flyer, attending the demonstrations or even the way they look. Many were still missing.

[eyeno]

The Copts are side by side with Muslims, and surprisingly I was surrounded by some young men from the Muslim Brotherhood, who told me, “we disagree with some of your writings, but we respect and love you because you did not show hypocrisy towards any power at home or abroad.”

That rocks! If that happened the world over the evil fucks would have to crawl under a rock or starve us all half to death. One or the other.

Obama has not mentioned even once the capital words "free elections".

I am surprised they have not offered free elections (sic) complete with Diebold voting machines.

[AlicetheKurious]

Surprise, surprise:

"Al Qaeda in Iraq" Calls the Demonstrators in Egypt to Jihad

February 8, 2011

Washington -- AFP 23 hours ago

The organization Al Qaeda in Iraq has called on the Egyptian demonstrators to engage in jihad and to set up an Islamic regime in Egypt, according to the American internet monitoring website SITE on Tuesday.

SITE further explained that the Islamic State in Iraq organization released a statement published on Tuesday on a Jihadi website, the first time an Al Qaeda-affiliated organization has commented on the current events in Egypt, which announced that the "marketplace for Jihad is emerging" in Egypt and that "the gates of martyrdom have opened".

The statement was signed by "The Ministry of War in the Islamic State" and was addressed to "our Muslim brothers in Egypt and surrounding states".

The above is my own translation of the first few sentences of the article, which goes on to describe how "Al Qaeda in Iraq" orders the demonstrators to kill and steal from the "enemies of God", blah-blah-blah, and how America is at its weakest now and the moment must be seized to expand the jihad internationally, blah-blah-blah (does Rita Katz still bother to write those things herself, or does she have a program that just generates them automatically?)


In a remarkable coincidence, the Mossad's Rita Katz is singing from the same page as Israel's best friend in Egypt:

Egypt’s VP says Al Qaeda ‘Jihadist elements’ escaped jails
Feb 9th, 2011 | By Mohamed Abdel Salam | Category: Egypt, Featured

CAIRO: Elements of Jihadist groups escaped from prisons during the political turmoil which has spread across Egypt over the past few weeks, said Egypt’s new Vice President, Omar Suleiman, to Egypt’s state-run news agency MENA.

Terror organizations are the primary threat to the security of Egypt, Suleiman added in his statement on Wednesday.

Terror groups such as the Jihadist Organization and Al-Qaida have not agreed to stop the violence and unrest in Egypt, he said.

“While I was intelligence chief I exerted huge efforts to bring these extremists from abroad, but now they are outside the prisons,” Suleiman added.

Thousands of prisoners escaped from jails across Egypt after security forces disappeared from cities for several days after protests against President Hosni Mubarak began on January 25.

However, anti-Mubarak protestors claim the government is keen to stir fears of chaos and Islamist resurgence in order to cling to power

Egyptian security forces battled militant Sunni Islamists during the beginning of 1990s.

Escapees also included a member of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Sami Chehab, accused of plotting attacks in Egypt, who managed to return to Beirut by the time news of his escape was revealed.

In other statements, the Vice President said the Egyptian government will not tolerate civil disobedience and cautioned against hasty political reforms as hundreds of thousands staged the biggest protest so far in the revolt against President Hosni Mubarak’s rule on Tuesday.

“Dialogue and understanding are the first way to achieve stability in the country and to exit the crisis peacefully, with a program of continuous steps to solve all problems,” official media quoted him as saying.

“The second, alternative way, would be a coup — and we want to avoid that — meaning uncalculated and hasty steps that produce more irrationality,” MENA quoted him as telling local editors.

Suleiman said the government would continue talking with political factions and youth who triggered the protests, “affirming there will be no ending of the regime, nor a coup, because that means chaos,” MENA reported.

The former intelligence chief also warned against calls for “civil disobedience,” saying, “the call is extremely dangerous for society, and we absolutely do not tolerate it.”

He added that the country could not cope for a long period with “the paralysis public services have been subjected to, brought about by the closure of banks, schools, universities, and the interruption of transportation.”

He blamed the large number of protesters who demonstrate in Tahrir Square along with “satellite channels that insult and belittle Egypt” for causing “citizens to hesitate to go to work.” Link

For those who don't get it, the new theme being pushed by Israel's sock-puppets is: democracy, freedom and dignity are for real human beings; sand-niggers get the dictator Israel wants, and "democracy" via batons, tear-gas, bullets and electric shock machines.







Fuck Israel. Game over.

[JackRiddler]

Omar Suleiman: a dark man haunted by lights

Ran Egypt From Behind The Veil

Islamonline - Doha

2011-02-09 07:58:26


His grim face gives a lot of mixed nods, what is most clear is that the man entrusted with the secrets of the Egyptian system and its viability today (perhaps this is what made him that way, despite his long experience in diplomacy and intelligence) is not good at hiding his annoyance with the many cameras, and lights being aimed at him recently after he was appointed by President Mubarak as Vice-President. After the “youth revolution” almost undermined the regime, and imposed on its "servants" the search for someone to guide the boat in the flood, someone who has skills in appealing to allies in the White House.

The day General Omar Suleiman was sworn-in in front of the Egyptian President, (his first Vice-President since he came to power three decades ago) he has not forgotten to greet him with the military salute in front of everyone, perhaps he wanted through his actions to remind everyone that he is a son of the military establishment, and has a "normal" connection to the generations of officers who ruled Egypt for sixty years.

America and Israel – who know the man well, were at the forefront of welcoming his candidacy for the job. Major international newspapers and satellite channels displayed his biography focusing on introducing a suitable alternative to President Hosni Mubarak, and to ensure "the change in the light of stability," enjoying the reliability of the West that tested his "honesty and sincerity" in many situations.



The Hamann of Egypt

The origins of Omar Mahmoud Suleiman extend to the southern Egyptian area of Quena. He is a descent of the system par excellence. His military experience combines between the art of American intelligence, which it considers him as a worthy son, and the Soviet where he trained at its bases for most of his time in the army. He moved from military engineering to artillery till he reached General Intelligence, which he headed for 18 years.

Suleiman participated in the largest 3 wars fought by Egypt, the war of Yemen in 1962 and the wars of 1967 and 1973 against Israel. Israel, which has turned into a friend and an important strategic ally - as Suleiman said in one of his interviews with the newspaper Maarif - and perhaps this is what he was taught in political science which he earned from the University of Ain Shams.

He won his internal fame from the war where he demolished the Egyptian “Islamic Group” and the “Islamic Jihad” movement in the 1990’s, which proved his reliability to Mubarak.

The world has known him more through the large profiles that he has been involved in, from the mediation between the Palestinians and Israel, ending with the profile of the Nile water, through the collaboration with the U.S. Intelligence in what is presumably “the war on terror”.

His relation to the internal affairs profiles remained confined to major security. It was not known about him his tendency to combine security and economic power, such as his peers in the system, perhaps because he was responsible for something much greater than business deals.

His first public political attendance was in 2002, when the front page of the newspaper «Al-Ahram» displayed his news and photos in the space normally allocated to the activities of the President.

Everything related to Egypt regionally and internationally was tied to him personally; from Palestine and Israel, to Libya, Sudan, Washington, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It became known that he dislikes the Iranian regime, until “WikiLeaks” revealed his confession that he established groups of spies working for him in Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq to maintain Iranian interference in Arab affairs under surveillance.

With CIA

Omar Suleiman trained during the eighties at the warfare Institute of John F. Kennedy in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Due to his position as Director of Intelligence, Suleiman adopted the CIA program to hand over detainees who were suspected of so-called “terrorism”, who were then transferred to Egypt and other countries where they are interrogated in secret and without legal proceedings.

Jane Mayer, author of the book "Dark Side", says that Suleiman was "a man of the CIA in Egypt for this program."

Immediately after assuming the presidency of intelligence, Suleiman overlooked an agreement with the United States in 1995 allowing the transfer of suspects secretly to Egypt for interrogation, according to the book "Ghost Plane" by journalist Stephen Grey.

An investigation published in Italy revealed that Omar Suleiman was the one who fabricated the lie of the cooperation of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with "Al Qaeda", a charge the Bush administration used to convince the world of the decision of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The newspaper "Corriere Della Sera" that published the investigation, also revealed that Suleiman is the one who fabricated the charge of the affiliation of Sheikh Abu Omar with "Al Qaeda", he then took charge of his abduction from Italy and handed him over to the Americans, who subsequently dismissed the invalid indictment.



American media sources say that Omar Suleiman was managing, by the authorization of the CIA, a program called “Extraordinary Rendition” , which began in 1995. Through it, the United States would arrest and abduct people accused of terrorism, transferring them to different countries, where they secretly suffer severe torture in the prisons. The U.S. wanted to take from them useful information to aid it in the Gulf Wars and later Afghanistan.

The “New Yorker” e-newspaper said that the stories that indicate the extent of the relationship between Omar Suleiman and U.S. intelligence agencies, is that when U.S. forces in Afghanistan killed someone it thought was Ayman Al-Zawahiri, they asked Omar Suleiman to compare the DNA of the body and the brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri in Egypt to confirm the identity of the deceased, Suleiman answered them: "If you want I can send you one of Zawahiri’s brother’s hands, and you can examine the DNA yourself".

When (Sheikh al-Libi) was arrested in Afghanistan, the U.S. sent him to Omar Suleiman in Egypt. The CIA asked him to wrest confessions from him that he was a senior members of Al Qaeda, and that there are ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein at that time.

At the end, under severe torture, he confessed to what he was asked to confess, and the confession was sent to the CIA in America where it was passed to the Secretary of State Colin Powell, who used them as information documented by the United Nations to justify the attack and occupation of Iraq.


Suleiman and the Brothers

Reuters presented the views of Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian Vice President, on the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, as contained in some secret documents leaked by the famous U.S. site Wikileaks, describing him as the director of intelligence.

This came after the first meeting convened by a government official with the representatives of the group since it was officially banned in 1954 during a dialogue between the government and the Egyptian opposition about the protests demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The agency included in its report the question of whether the man (in reference to Suleiman) who demonized the movement can be an honest broker with them to resolve the current crisis in the country?

Before exposing the contents of the statements made by Suleiman about the Brothers, Reuters requested a comment about the telegram received from the U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, who declined to comment on any telegram “classified as secret."

Suleiman confirms – according to a telegram sent by Ambassador Francis Ricciardone on February 15, 2006 - that the Muslim Brotherhood "established 11 radical Islamic organizations including the Islamic Jihad organization and the Islamic Group."

In a second telegram, dating back to February 2006 Suleiman also said to the FBI Director Robert Mueller during his visit to Cairo that the Brothers were "not a religious, social, or political party but are a mixture of the three components."

Suleiman adds, according to the telegram - the initial danger he sees in the group is the "exploitation of religion to influence the public."

In a third telegram, dating back to January 2, 2008 Ricciardone stated that Suleiman considered Iran to be an extraordinary threat to Egypt.

He adds that "Iran supports Jihad and undermines peace and had previously supported the extremists. And if they support the Muslim Brotherhood that would make them our enemies."

In reference to the Egyptian authorities intimidating the United States from the Muslim Brotherhood, Ricciardone said in a telegram before the arrival of Muller, that Egypt had "a history of threatening us with the Boogieman of the Muslim Brotherhood."

Suleiman and Israel

Dr. Myra Tzoref, a lecturer at the University of Tel Aviv, says that if Omar Suleiman assumes the reins of power after Mubarak, that demonstrates for Israel "the continuity of blessings," pointing to the fact that the method of the rule of Egypt will not change, but will become more lenient and flexible.

In an extensive investigation was written by Yossi Melman, intelligence affairs commentator in the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz," entitled "Omar Suleiman… the General who did not shed a tear while carrying molten lead". The writer uncovered the friendly relationship that encompasses Suleiman and dozens of senior staff in the Israeli Intelligence Services, as well as senior officers in the Israeli army, senior staff in the Ministry of Defense, and heads of governments and Ministers.

He adds that since Suleiman took office as head of the intelligence service in 1993, he established permanent contacts with most of the leaders of the Israeli Intelligence Agencies.

Mehlman confirms that Suleiman is considered one of the people who contributed to reaching a deal to sell Egyptian gas to Israel, a deal that the Egyptians object to and refuse, because Egypt committed to the sale of gas at low prices compared with the price of gas in the global market.

Mehlman says that based on the knowledge of the Israelis about Suleiman, one can say that Suleiman did not shed a single tear over the hundreds of Palestinians who were killed during the war launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip in late 2008.

General, Minister... President!

When the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak survived the famous assassination attempt in 1995 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, General Omar Suleiman was next to him in the bullet-proof car. And today, when the people of Egypt came out in the biggest revolution in the country asking to drop his regime, Mubarak found that his closest comrade and the most trustworthy person capable of becoming President after him is no one but Gen. Omar Suleiman.

Maybe the timing is not suitable for the Gen. Minister who may not fulfill his life dream of sitting on the “Egyptian throne”, but he certainly began to when he was appointed Vice-President. Moving in all directions to calm situations down; using his strong relations with the West sometimes, and with the strong security profiles between his hands in another time without forgetting to open the doors of dialogue (even if it was informal) with the enemies of yesterday.

Will the attempts of the strong dark man of the Egyptian regime succeed in the completion of the journey to the Presidency chair?

LINK
http://www.islamonline.net/cs/ContentSe ... 8407431650

.........................................



http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn ... index.html
(follow for many embedded links)

Tuesday, Feb 8, 2011 08:09 ET
Obama's man in Cairo
By Glenn Greenwald




AP
Anti-government protesters carry posters in English reading "USA, why you support dictator," center, referring to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and in Arabic reading "Down Omar Suleiman, Israel's man."


The New York Times, today:

Vice President Omar Suleiman of Egypt says he does not think it is time to lift the 30-year-old emergency law that has been used to suppress and imprison opposition leaders. He does not think President Hosni Mubarak needs to resign before his term ends in September. And he does not think his country is yet ready for democracy.

But, lacking better options, the United States is encouraging him in negotiations in a still uncertain transition process in Egypt. . . . The result has been to feed a perception, on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere, that the United States, for now at least, is putting stability ahead of democratic ideals, and leaving hopes of nurturing peaceful, gradual change in large part in the hands of Egyptian officials -- starting with Mr. Suleiman -- who have every reason to slow the process.


Lisa Hajjar, Al Jazeera English, today:

Suleiman has long been favoured by the US government for his ardent anti-Islamism, his willingness to talk and act tough on Iran -- and he has long been the CIA's main man in Cairo. . . . In the mid-1990s, Suleiman worked closely with the Clinton administration in devising and implementing its rendition program; back then, rendition involved kidnapping suspected terrorists and transferring them to a third country for trial. . . .

Under the Bush administration, in the context of "the global war on terror", US renditions became "extraordinary", meaning the objective of kidnapping and extra-legal transfer was no longer to bring a suspect to trial -- but rather for interrogation to seek actionable intelligence. The extraordinary rendition program landed some people in CIA black sites -- and others were turned over for torture -by-proxy to other regimes. Egypt figured large as a torture destination of choice, as did Suleiman as Egypt's torturer-in-chief. At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt -- Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib -- was reportedly tortured by Suleiman himself.


WikiLeaks cable, posted from U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, August 29, 2008:

[Israeli defense official David] Hacham said the Israeli delegation was "shocked" by Mubarak's aged appearance and slurred speech. Hacham was full of praise for Soliman, however, and noted that a "hot line" set up between the [Israeli Ministry of Defense] and Egyptian General Intelligence Service is now in daily use. Hacham said he sometimes speaks to Soliman's deputy Mohammed Ibrahim several times a day. Hacham noted that the Israelis believe Soliman is likely to serve as at least an interim President if Mubarak dies or is incapacitated. (Note: We defer to Embassy Cairo for analysis of Egyptian succession scenarios, but there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Soliman.)



Given the long-obvious fact that the Obama administration has been working to install Suleiman as interim leader as a (dubious) means of placating citizen anger, the above-referenced NYT article today offers a long and detailed profile of the new Egyptian "Vice President." Unfortunately, the paper of record wasn't able to find the space to inform its readers about Suleiman's decades-long history as America's personal abducter, detainer and torturer of the Egyptian people, nor his status as Israel's most favored heir to the Mubarak tyranny (though the article did vaguely and euphemistically acknowledge that "the United States has certainly had long ties with Mr. Suleiman" and that "for years he has been an important contact for the Central Intelligence Agency").

Suleiman's repression and brutality -- on behalf of both the U.S. and Mubarak -- has been well-documented elsewhere (The New Yorker's Jane Mayer was the first to flag it after the Egyptian uprising, while ABC News recounted how he once offered to chop off the arm of a Terrorist suspect to please the CIA; see also the above-linked Al Jazeera Op-Ed, which provides additional details of Suleiman's personal taste for overseeing torture). As I noted yesterday, there's a case to be made for the Obama administration's support of Suleiman; it's the same case used to justify our 30-year active propping up of Mubarak, along with the dictators of Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, and so many other places (and "torture-by-proxy" seems still to be an important part of U.S. policy in the region). But whatever one's views are on that conduct, no discussion of the U.S.'s current pro-Suleiman policy -- and certainly no purported media profile of Suleiman -- is complete without at least some mention of his status as Mubarak's torturer-in-chief and domestic oppressor, and of the Israelis' deep desire to see him rule Egypt. Does anyone dispute the central relevance of those facts?

Today's Times article does a decent job of conveying how unwilling Suleiman is to bring about anything resembling a real transition to democracy, how indifferent (if not supportive) the Obama administration seems to be about that unwillingness, and how dangerously that conduct is fueling anti-American sentiment among the protesters. But the fact that American policy has "changed" from imposing Mubarak on that country to imposing someone with Suleiman's vile history and character belongs at the forefront of every discussion, especially ones purporting to examine who he is. Praising Suleiman for his "valued analysis" and commitment to fighting The Terrorists while neglecting to mention these other critical facts -- as today's NYT article does -- is misleading on multiple levels.
More: Glenn Greenwald

[AlicetheKurious]

Excellent summary. Normally I'd just post the link, but this is worth posting in its entirety:

February 9, 2011
From Stalemate to Checkmate
Meet Egypt's Future Leaders

By ESAM AL-AMIN

O Youth, today is your day so shout
No more slumber or deep sleep
This is your time and your place
Bestow on us your talents and efforts
We want Egypt’s youth to hold fast
As they resist the aggressor and outsider

Egyptian Poet Ibrahim Nagi (1898-1953)

On June 6, 2010, soft-spoken businessman Khaled Said, 28, had his dinner before retreating to his room and embarking on his daily routine of surfing the Internet, blogging, and chatting with his friends on different social websites. Several days earlier, he had posted a seven-minute online video of Alexandria police officers dividing up confiscated drugs among themselves.

When his Internet service suddenly was disrupted that evening, he left his middle class apartment in the coastal city of Alexandria and headed to his neighborhood Internet café. As he resumed blogging, two plain-clothes secret police officers demanded that he be searched. When he inquired as to why or on whose authority, they scoffed at him while blurting out: emergency law. He refused to be touched and demanded to see a uniformed officer or be taken to a police station.

According to eyewitnesses, within minutes they dragged him to a nearby vacant building and began to severely beat up his tiny body, eventually smashing his head on a marble tabletop. His body was subsequently dumped in the street to be retrieved later by an ambulance that declared him dead. According to his mother, Leila Marzouq, his body was totally bruised, teeth broken, and skull fractured.

Immediately, the Interior Ministry started the cover-up campaign. The official report claimed that Said was a drug dealer who tried to escape arrest. They claimed that when he was busted he died by asphyxia as he tried to swallow the narcotics. The authorities backed up this incredible account with two medical reports from the state’s medical examiner. The government print and TV media recycled the official version by painting the reclusive and shy blogger as a reckless drug addict and dealer.

However, when graphic images of Said’s body began to circulate online, other political bloggers and human rights activists were enraged and the nascent youth movement to rescind the 29-year old emergency law started to transform itself from online group discussions to popular protests in the streets of Alexandria, which were predictably met with more police repression and brutality.

Since he became president in 1981, Hosni Mubarak has been utilizing the emergency law as a club to beat down political activity and civil liberties, as well as a means to sanction abuse and torture. According to human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Egyptian human rights groups, no less than 30,000 Egyptians have been imprisoned under the law, which allows the police to arrest people without charge, permits the government to ban political organizations, and makes it illegal for more than five people to gather without a permit from the government.

Even the U.S. government confirmed the regime’s atrocious record when the 2009 State Department Human Rights Report submitted to Congress in March 2010 stated, “Police, security personnel, and prison guards often tortured and abused prisoners and detainees, sometimes in cases of detentions under the Emergency Law, which authorizes incommunicado detention indefinitely.”

Said’s case is hardly unique. A recent report published by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights documented 46 torture cases and 17 cases of death by government secret police between June 2008 and February 2009.

Since his murder the case of Khaled Said has become the cause célèbre for Egypt’s youth. Hundreds of thousands of young people across Egypt have watched related online videos, songs, raps, sketches, or participated in group chat room discussions. A simple Google search of his name yields millions of results, almost all anti-government.

One of the groups that embraced this cause was the April 6 Youth Movement. It started as an Egyptian Facebook group founded by Human Resources specialist Isra’a Abdel Fattah, 29, and civil engineer Ahmed Maher, 30, in spring 2008 to support the April 6 workers strike in el-Mahalla el-Kobra, an industrial town along the Nile Delta.

On their Facebook page, they encouraged thousands to protest and join the labor strike. Within weeks, over 100,000 members joined the group, who were predominantly young, educated, and politically inexperienced or inactive. Moreover, by making extensive use of online networking tools, they urged their members to demonstrate their support for the workers by wearing black, staying at home, or boycotting products on the day of the strike.

As the secret police cracked down on the April 6 labor strikers, both Abdel Fattah and Maher were arrested, tortured (in the case of Maher, threatened with rape), and detained for a few weeks. Both came out of the prison experience more committed to the cause of freedom and democracy, as well as more determined than ever to carry on with their program of political reforms.

Asma’a Mahfouz, 26, a petite Business Administration graduate, is another prominent figure in the April 6 Youth Movement. By her account she did not have any political training or ideology before joining the group in March 2008. With her two colleagues she immediately helped set up the Facebook page urging Egyptians to support and join the strikes.

More significantly, Mahfouz played a critical role in the mobilization efforts for the current popular revolution. She posted passionate daily online videos imploring her countrymen and women to participate in the protests. In a recent interview, she elucidated her role when she stated, “I was printing and distributing leaflets in popular areas, and calling for citizens to participate. In those areas, I also talked to young people about their rights, and the need for their participation.”

She continued, “At the time when many people were setting themselves on fire, I went into Tahrir Square with several members of the movement, and we tried a spontaneous demonstration to protest against the recurrence of these incidents. However, the security forces prevented us and removed us from the Square. This prompted me to film a video clip, featuring my voice and image, calling for a protest.”

“I said that on the 25th of January, I would be an Egyptian girl defending her dignity and her rights. I broadcasted the video on the Internet, via Facebook, and was surprised by its unprecedented distribution over websites and mobile phones. Subsequently, I made four further videos prior to the date of the protest,” she added.

If Maher is the movement’s national coordinator, Muhammad Adel, 22, a college junior majoring in computer science, is its technology wizard and media coordinator. Online he jokingly calls himself “The dead Dean,” in a reference to his young age and what could be in store for him from the secret police.

In November 2008, he was arrested at the age of twenty, detained and placed in solitary confinement for over 100 days because of his political activities on the Internet. He was denied any means of communications with his family during the whole period. His interrogators pleaded with him to stop blogging so he could be freed. He refused to give them any commitment until he was freed in March 2009.

According to the “April 6 Youth” movement’s platform, its main concerns include promoting political reforms and democratic governance through a strategy of non-violence; constitutional reforms in the areas of civil rights, political freedoms, and judicial independence; and economically addressing poverty, unemployment, social justice and fighting corruption. Their focus is primarily the youth and students. Their means of communications, education and mobilization relies on the extensive use of technology and the Internet.

Wael Ghoneim, 30, a brilliant communications engineer, has been working for several years in Dubai, U.A.E, as Google marketing director for the Middle East and North Africa. As a consequence of the murder of Khaled Said by Mubarak’s regime, he was enraged and created the popular Facebook page “We are all Khaled Said.” A few days before the current uprising he left Dubai to Cairo so he could be part of the historical events.

As the administrator of the popular webpage, Ghoneim was instrumental in the online mobilization efforts of the Jan. 25 uprising. So on the evening of Jan. 27, four plain-clothes secret police officers kidnapped him during the protest, an event that was captured on tape. For the next twelve days the government refused to acknowledge that he was arrested until the newly appointed Prime Minister announced his release on Feb. 7 as a gesture to the demonstrators because of his popularity and prominence in the youth movement.

Upon his release, Ghoneim said that he was kept blindfolded and in isolation the entire time he was in detention as he was interrogated about his role in the uprising. After his release he gave an emotional TV interview calling the three hundred people that have lost their lives during the popular revolution the real heroes of Egypt.

Furthermore, one of the most articulate voices of Egypt’s revolution is thirty-seven year old Nawwara Nagm. Since her graduation as an English literature major, she has been a well-known political activist as well as a severe critic of Mubarak’s regime working as a journalist and blogger for opposition newspapers. In 1995 she was first arrested and sent to prison at the age of twenty-two because she protested the inclusion of Israel in Cairo’s annual Book Fair.

Both of her parents are also well known in Egyptian society. Her father, Ahmad Fuad Nagm, 81, is perhaps the most popular poet in Egypt today. He has been in and out of prison during most of the past five decades (during the reigns of Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak) because of his political and satirical poems that directly attack not only the regime but also its head. Her mother is Safinaz Kazem who broke many barriers as a female journalist. Educated in the U.S. in the 1960’s, she became one of the most respected literary and film critics and political analysts publishing in major Egyptian newspapers and magazines.

Since the uprising began on Jan. 25, Nawwara has been an eloquent spokesperson expressing the steadfast political demands of the organizers and protesters, and in the process mobilizing the support of millions of Egyptians and Arabs who are constantly following the revolution on Al-Jazeera and other satellite networks.

On Sunday Feb. 6, the youth groups that spearheaded Egypt’s revolution formed a coalition called the “Unified Leadership of the Youth of the Rage Revolution.” It consisted of five groups with a grassroots base and are considered the backbone of the organized activities of the revolution.

The coalition includes two representatives from each of the April 6 Youth Movement, the Justice and Freedom Group, the Popular Campaign to Support El-Baradei, the Democratic Front Party, and the popular Muslim Brotherhood Movement. In addition four independent members were also added to the leadership for a total of fourteen members. Maher, the coordinator of the April 6 movement, and Ghoneim, an independent, were elected to the leadership. All members are from the youth in their late 20s or early 30s.

Ahmed Naguib, 33, a key protest organizer, has explained how the leadership was formed. He said, “There are people from the April 6 and Khaled Said movement,” referring to groups that worked non-stop to set off the uprising. Speaking of some opposition parties that want to hijack the revolution or negotiate on its behalf, he said, “They talk a lot about what the youth has done, but they continue on the same path as the government, marginalizing young people - except for the Muslim Brotherhood and El-Baradei group."

Coalition spokesperson is attorney Ziad Al-Olaimai, 32, from the Popular Campaign to Support El-Baradei. He read a statement on behalf of the coalition at a news conference that laid out their seven demands, namely: the resignation of Mubarak, the immediate lifting of emergency law, release of all political prisoners, the dissolution of both upper and lower chambers of parliament, the formation of a national unity government to manage the transitional period, investigation by the judiciary of the abuses of the security forces during the revolution, and the protection of the protesters by the military.

Muhammad Abbas, 26, is another leader of the coalition representing the youth of the Muslim Brotherhood movement (MB). After initial hesitation at the beginning of the uprising, the MB has brought since Jan. 28 tens of thousands of its supporters to join and help organize the efforts in Tahrir Square as well as in other demonstrations across the country.

On Feb. 2, government goons were beating up, throwing Molotov cocktails, and shooting at the demonstrators. Some of the female demonstrators under siege called Muslim Brotherhood leaders Mohammad El-Biltagi and Esam El-Erian pleading for help. Both leaders rushed to Tahrir Square after midnight leading over five thousand MB members to break the siege.

Dr. Sally Tooma Moore, 32, a Christian Copt and an independent member of the coalition’s leadership, is an Egyptian-British medical doctor. Under gunfire, she helped save hundreds of lives using a makeshift hospital in a Cairo mosque during the violent attacks of the security forces and the outlaws sponsored by the ruling party.

In a recent interview she demonstrated the unity of all Egyptians, Muslims and Copts when she said, “It's totally beyond description how the mosque has been transformed into a working hospital. It is a mosque but there are no religious divisions.” Her answer to a question by Al-Jazeera about the regime’s assertion regarding the lack of stability in the country was, “What is stability without freedom?”

Revolution and counter-revolution: A test of two wills

Since the inception of the popular revolution on Jan. 25, the regime’s reaction has gone through many typical stages. The first phase was the customary use of security crackdown and utilization of police brutality, which yielded over three hundred people killed and five thousand injured.

A list of the people killed by the regime since Jan. 25 was published on the opposition’s magazine website, Al-Dustoor. It shows that over seventy per cent of those killed were under the age of 32, including children as young as ten, with female casualties constituting about ten percent of the total.

During this stage, the regime cut off all Internet, mobile phone, and instant messaging services in a frantic attempt to disrupt communications and information exchange between the organizers of the revolution. But the genie was already out of the bottle.

When that failed miserably, and in a desperate attempt to end the uprising, the regime created a state of chaos by withdrawing the police and security forces from the streets including from neighborhood police stations, while releasing thousands of criminals from prisons around the country hoping to spread terror and fear as a substitute to stability and order as the beleaguered president warned in his first address.

The formation of popular committees to protect the neighborhoods coupled with the arrest of the thugs roaming the streets was able to defeat this deplorable scheme. The thugs that were arrested by these committees were handed over to army units deployed throughout the country.

The next stage was a tactical retreat by the government, occurring as the embattled president tried to deflect the popular call for his immediate resignation. Four days after the commencement of the uprising and the subsequent crackdown, he gave an address dismissing his cabinet; mainly sacking his Interior minister as well as other corrupt businessmen who were doubling as ministers of major industrial sectors of the economy.

He appointed his old Air Force colleague, Gen. Ahmad Shafiq, as the new Prime Minister while still incredibly retaining eighteen ministers in the cabinet. He also appointed his long-serving intelligence chief, Gen. Omar Suleiman, as his first ever Vice President so he could be the face of the regime in leading a “dialogue” with the opposition to enact “political reforms.” But these acts were considered too little too late by the revolutionaries, and were rejected outright. In their eyes, he had lost his legitimacy when the first protester was shot dead on Jan. 25.

Within days, the regime offered many sacrificial lambs in the hope that public anger would subside. The ruling party that Mubarak has headed for decades, the National Democratic Party (NDP), was overhauled. All senior leaders, including his son Gamal, were purged. Many corrupt businessmen, who were considered influential party members just before the revolution, were now under investigation by the state prosecutor and prohibited from travel. A few were put under house arrest. Still the angry public was not satisfied, continuing to call on Mubarak to leave.

Moreover, throughout the popular protests the regime used all means to taint the main organizers of the revolution. First, they claimed that the protesters were members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. This claim while parroted by American Islamophobes and right-wing media, was never taken seriously in Egypt. It was clear to all that the main organizers did not belong to any political party or ideology. In fact, the MB did not join the protests until the Day of Rage on Friday, Jan. 28.

Then the state media repeated the claims that the organizers were agents of foreign powers, financed and manipulated by a foreign hidden agenda. The accusers could not make up their mind. They accused them of working for Iran, Qatar, Hezbollah, Hamas, the U.S. and Israel.

In one instance, state media falsely claimed to have obtained seven Wikileaks documents that showed a conspiracy between Qatar (read Al-Jazeera), the U.S. and Israel to de-stabilize Egypt. Why the U.S. and Israel would undermine a staunch ally like Mubarak was never addressed.

Najat Abdul-Rahman, a journalist in a state-owned magazine called 24 Hours, admitted to her boss that she was pressured by the regime to call a pro-government TV station and falsely claim to be one of the organizers of the protests. She then claimed on air that she and other fellow organizers were trained in the U.S. and Qatar by the Israeli Mossad to spread chaos in Egypt. Although she tried to change her appearance and mask her voice while on camera, her colleagues at the magazine were able to identify her and reveal her identity. She has been suspended without pay pending an investigation.

The regime then turned its fury against the media. It stripped the broadcasting license of Al-Jazeera and withdrew the accreditation of all its correspondents. It also started arresting, harassing, and beating up foreign journalists including CNN’s Anderson Cooper, ABC’s Christiane Amanpour, and CBS’s Katie Couric. This prompted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to declare, “This is a violation of international norms that guarantee freedom of the press. And it is unacceptable under any circumstances.” Egyptian journalist Ahmad Mahmoud was killed after being shot point blank while taking a photograph.

With intense international pressure mounting, Mubarak gave a second address in which he promised not to seek re-election for a sixth six-year term this September, but nonetheless he refused to bow out and resign. Throughout the crisis, he tried to portray a false image of being confidant and in charge. But clearly the ego of this dictator was bruised as he was denounced daily by millions of his people.

By the end of the first week, it was clear that the stubborn president would not listen to anyone. He was able to at least secure the neutrality of the army, which was not prepared to turn against the people. But it was still loyal to its long-serving commander-in-chief, and would not depose him.

Meanwhile, Vice President Suleiman moved quickly to contain the political fallout of the revolution, and invited the opposition parties for a dialogue including the regime’s nemesis, the MB. Although all opposition groups initially echoed the street demand of Mubarak’s ouster, some groups, which had very little public following, gladly joined Suleiman hoping to have a seat at the table and to get some attention.

But everyone knew that without the participation of the youth movement or the MB, any dialogue with the regime would be meaningless. While the youth steadfastly maintained their position of “no dialogue unless Mubarak is out,” the MB fell into the trap of the regime and participated, along with many other opposition groups, in a dialogue with Suleiman.

It was a classic trap. More than forty opposition members entered a room where a huge portrait of Mubarak hung on the wall, a slap across the face of millions of Egyptians who were chanting for his ouster in the past ten days. It was clear that Suleiman was in charge of the meeting as he chaired the session and dictated the agenda. The groups were guests in his house. Not a great start.

At any rate, the regime did not give an inch. Suleiman even refused to entertain discussing the idea of Mubarak’s ouster. He simply reiterated all the “concessions” given by Mubarak in his earlier speeches including cosmetic changes to the constitution, and pledging that Mubarak would not run in the next presidential elections.

It is not clear why the MB participated, but most observers believe that the group sought legitimacy after being outlawed since 1954. It is ironic that the group would seek legitimacy from a regime that has just been de-legitimized by its people.

Upon the end of the meeting, the regime immediately issued a communiqué that thanked Mubarak, and reiterated the regime’s perspective and interpretation of events. It claimed inaccurately that all participants agreed on the road map towards finding a solution to the “crisis,” which was based on limited reforms to the constitution and elections, while maintaining all state institutions and characters including the fraudulent parliament. It did not promise the immediate lifting of the emergency law. Ironically, a day after the dialogue Suleiman declared on national TV that “Egypt is not ready for democracy.” So much for a reform agenda.

The MB leaders who attended the meeting held a press conference afterwards that not only contradicted Suleiman’s assertions, but also previous statements given by other MB leaders such as Abdul Monem Abu-el-Futooh, who maintained the original stand of no negotiations until Mubarak’s ouster. It seems that for a perceived short-term gain, the MB was looking weak and confused. A day later the MB rejected Suleiman’s characterization of the talks and renewed its demand for Mubarak’s ouster.

Meanwhile, the Youth leadership in Tahrir Square immediately rejected Suleiman’s offer and proclamations. They declared that they were neither party to any agreement nor willing to consider any proposals until Mubarak is removed. For the previous twelve days they have been able to mobilize over ten million Egyptians in the streets, why should they compromise on their first demand? They asked rhetorically. The will of the people shall be respected, and must defeat the stubbornness of Mubarak and his regime, they declared. After fifteen days the crowds have been sharply on the rise all over the country. Daily they number in the millions from all walks of life.

Checkmate: Revolution legitimacy trumps an archaic constitution

For a day, the declared results of the so-called dialogue by the regime created breathing space for the feeble regime to recover. On Monday Feb. 7, the U.S. and its European allies, which for days had been hinting and pushing for Mubarak’s resignation, suddenly changed their stand and accepted for Mubarak to stay until September in order to allow for “a constitutional transfer of power.”

On Feb. 8, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowly stated, “if President Mubarak stepped down today, under the existing constitution, … there would have to be an election within 60 days. A question that that would pose is whether Egypt today is prepared to have a competitive, open election.”

In effect, supporters of the revolution feared that its momentum might slow down, a stalemate may come to pass.

Since the uprising began, Mubarak has been hiding behind the new face of the regime, Gen. Suleiman. The U.S, Israel and other Western countries strongly prefer him over any other candidates to maintain the status quo and “stability,” in order to keep the current balance of power in the region, which is hugely in favor of Israel.

Newly released Wikileaks documents reveal that Suleiman has been a long-standing favorite by the U.S. and Israel to succeed Mubarak for many years. The London Daily Telegraph recently published leaked cables from American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv showing the close cooperation between the Egyptian Vice President and the U.S. and Israeli governments.

The newspaper described that “One cable in August 2008, stated that “Hacham was full of praise for Suleiman, and noted that a ‘hot line’ set up between the MOD and Egyptian General Intelligence Service is now in daily use,” in reference to David Hacham, a senior adviser from the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

In another cable, Tel Aviv diplomats added: “We defer to Embassy Cairo for analysis of Egyptian succession scenarios, but there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Suleiman.” Moreover, the paper stated that “the files suggest that Mr. Suleiman wanted Hamas isolated, and thought Gaza should go hungry but not starve.”

Regardless, the organizers of the revolution declared that they have no trust in the regime. They asked rhetorically how could they trust a Vice President whose loyalty is to a discredited and illegitimate president. Thus they firmly rejected not only Suleiman and his parameters for a way forward, but also the premise that any real change would come from adhering to a constitution that has been shredded many time by an illegitimate regime. They advocated a position that called for the legitimacy of the revolution over any outdated constitutional legitimacy.

The youth leaders maintain that all institutions of state power, except the army, which on the surface declared its neutrality, have lost their legitimacy in lieu of the will of the people to support the revolution. They insisted that the people have already spoken and called for Mubarak’s ouster, the dissolution of parliament, the replacement of the government, and the formation of constitutional experts to re-write a new constitution. Therefore, all efforts by the regime to re-constitute itself through promised reforms to maintain its grip on power are illegitimate and rejected. This is a popular revolution not a protest, they maintained.

As the government attempts to weather the storm and deal with Tahrir Square as a Hyde Park phenomenon, a place where people vent their frustrations, the leadership of the revolution has devised new tactics to force the regime to accept their demands.

They have called for massive demonstrations not only in public squares but also called for similar protests around strategic governmental buildings. For example, on Feb. 8 in addition to a million demonstrators in Tahrir Square, hundreds of thousands held huge demonstrations around the Prime Minster’s building, preventing him from reaching his office. They also blocked the parliament, preventing any member from going in or out. They vowed that soon the presidential palace would be surrounded.

The protesters were also joined this week with professional syndicates and labor unions. Hundreds of judges stood in Tahrir Square on Tuesday wearing their judicial robes in support of the revolution. Similarly, hundreds of journalists chased away the pro-government head of their union declaring the union independent and free. Likewise, hundreds of university professors from colleges across Egypt showed up at Tahrir Square declaring their full support for the goals of the revolution.

Next week schools and universities will be back from the Spring break. The organizers plan to call on hundreds of thousands of students to participate in the demonstrations that could paralyze the whole education system. Meanwhile, they have also reached out to labor unions calling for massive strikes across the nation, especially in state factories and public industries. When this is fully implemented, Egypt’s export business could come to a screeching halt.

Slowly but surely selected major industries such as transportation, oil, or navigation through the Suez Canal could also be severely hindered. Sports activities have already ceased. The film industry has stopped all productions. There is no end to what activities the revolutionaries could advocate or call for. The initiatives are in their hands. They believe that they have the legitimacy and the support of the people.

In short, the revolution has adapted to the maneuvering of the regime and has adopted a comprehensive program of activities that are creative and extensive. Time is no longer on the regime’s side. With the passing of each week more Egyptians are joining the revolution. A culture of freedom and empowerment is on the rise.

Meanwhile, the international community could speed up the inevitable, which is the collapse of the corrupt and repressive regime. Last week the Guardian and several financial publications including the Wall Street Journal and MSNBC, showed that Mubarak’s family might be worth between $40 to $70 Billion. Most of this wealth is believed to be in the U.S, the U.K, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. In short, Western governments have access to ill-gotten money that belong to the Egyptian people. They can start investigations to determine the legality of these assets.

Similarly, they can encourage Mr. Mubarak to go to Germany for his annual (extended) medical check-up, after which he could render his resignation. The people of Egypt would not forget who stood with them during their revolution, who stood against them, and who was on the sideline.

When Mahfouz, the revolution’s video blogger was asked what her expectations are now after the massive demonstrations, she answered, “All Egyptians, not only the protestors, have broken through the fear barrier. I expect only one outcome - protests will continue until Mubarak steps down from power.”

Mubarak and his Western backers better take notice. Checkmate.

Esam Al-Amin can be reached at alamin1919@gmail.com Link

RE: the army. The army's role here is very ambivalent. On the one hand, it is, as many people have noted, a conscription army and every Egyptian has a relative in the armed forces including, obviously, the millions who are demanding the fall of the Mubarak regime, also including those who have been murdered or tortured or otherwise abused at the hands of the regime. Furthermore, the officer class has suffered an enormous loss of prestige and economic power under this regime, which privileged the Ministry of Interior's internal "security" forces at the expense of the army. At the same time, the regime has deliberately cultivated corruption among the army's top levels and advancement within its ranks has been contingent upon loyalty to Mubarak.

So you have a "people's army" led by corrupt regime toadies, leading to the kind of ambiguity and stand-off that we see on the ground. On the one hand, even though he is officially the commander in chief of the armed forces, Mubarak knows he can't order the army to attack the people, because this would create a serious risk of mutiny or a coup against the top brass. On the other, the people are aware that while the army's rank and file may sympathize with their objectives, those who give the orders are firmly with the regime. So we've got this weird situation where the army is collaborating with the regime but not openly and there are clear limits beyond which the army will face an ultimatum: to side with the regime or with the people. The regime has played every card it holds except this one, for a very good reason: it may very well be the final straw.

[Jeff]

Why Egypt's progressives win

Suleiman considers the business fraternity friendly, but it is the nation's women and youth who are driving the unrest.

Paul Amar Last Modified: 10 Feb 2011 12:30 GMT

On February 6, 2011, Egypt's hastily appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, invited in the old guard - or what we could call the Businessman's Wing of the Muslim Brotherhood into a stately meeting in the polished rosewood cabinet chamber of Mubarak’s presidential palace. The aim of their tea party was to discuss some kind of accord that would end the national uprising and restore "normalcy". When news of the meeting broke, expressions of delight and terror tore through the blogosphere. Was the nightmare scenario of both the political left and right about to be realised? Would the US/Israel surrogate Suleiman merge his military-police apparatus with the power of the more conservative branch of the old Islamist social movement? Hearing the news, Iran’s supreme leader sent his congratulations. And in the US, Glenn Beck and John McCain ranted with glee about world wars and the inevitable rise of the cosmic caliphate.

On that same day, an unnamed White House official told the Associated Press that any "academic type" who did not focus on the Muslim Brotherhood and see them as the principle actor in this drama "was full of sh*t". The White House seemed to believe that Suleiman, chief of Egypt’s intelligence services, was the kind of keen mind they could depend on. Suleiman’s brand of "intelligence" was on display in his interview on February 3, in which he traced the cause of Egypt’s uprising to a conspiracy coordinated by a united front of Israel with Hamas, al-Qaeda with Anderson Cooper. Is it true that Suleiman also has a dossier revealing the sinister role played in all this by "Simpsons" character C Montgomery Burns?

In reality, the Suleiman-Brotherhood tea party turned out to be nothing more than another stunt staged by Nile TV News. This once-interesting cable service was transformed in the past week into a rather Murdochian propaganda unit, whose productions are run by the artistic genius of Mubarak's presidential guards. Images of the Suleiman-Brotherhood tete-a-tete were broadcast at a time when Suleiman's legitimacy and sanity were appearing increasingly shaky within Egypt - and when this particular sub-group of the Brotherhood, who represent only one fraction of one faction of the opposition, was trying to leverage an unlikely comeback.

As reporters obsessed over which Brother was sitting with Suleiman, they continued to ignore or misapprehend the continuing and growing power of the movements that had started this uprising. Many progressives continued to think that the US was conspiring with Suleiman to crush all hope – as if America’s puny $1.5 bn in aid (which all must be recycled as purchases from US military suppliers anyway) really dictates policy for a regime that makes multi-billion dollar deals with Russia, China and Brazil every month - and that has channelled an estimated $40-70 bn into Mubarak’s personal accounts.

Proving Nile TV and the pessimists wrong, 1.5 million people turned out on February 7 - the biggest mobilisation so far in this uprising. Commentators focusing on the Brothers had completely missed the real news of the past two days. The ruling NDP party leadership had been savaged from within. In a desperate attempt to salvage his phantom authority, Mubarak had tossed his son Gamal and a whole class of US-linked businessmen to the lions, forcing them to resign and freezing their assets. And at the same time, Egyptian newspaper El-Masry El-Youm reported that the Muslim Brothers' Youth and Women’s Wings split from the main Brotherhood organisation - to join the leftist April 6 Movement. The men sitting around Suleiman’s table were left without much of a movement behind them.

Below I trace the declining power of the economic and moral politics of this "Businessman's Wing" of the Brotherhood. I map the ascendant socio-political power of a new national-development-oriented coalition of businessmen and military entrepreneurs, as well as the decisive force of micro-enterprise and workers' organisations consisting of women and youth - a force that portends well for the future of democracy and socio-economic inclusion in Egypt.

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http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/op ... 26228.html