NEWS FOR TODAY:
Why Americans should care about
what happens in Egypt
This weekend the country of Egypt faces a critical juncture as thousands of citizens protest the government of President Honsi Mubarak. There is a very real possibility of the protest movement turning into a full-scale revolution that brings about a new government in the country. The result of this weekends’ events will dramatically affect the lives of approximately 80 million human beings, which is reason enough to care about the story. Still, some may need some additional motivation to pay attention to what happens in Egypt. So, with no further delay, here are three reasons every American should care about Egypt.
[Slideshow: Dramatic images from the protests in Egypt]
The Suez Canal
The country of Egypt contains a crucial choke point for transportation called the Suez Canal. The canal connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Without the canal, ships are forced to go all the way around the southern tip of Africa. A significant amount of oil travels through the canal, and United States warships frequently are transported through the canal. Simply put, the canal holds vital economic and strategic importance. Over 60% of the world's known oil reserves are in the Middle East. The United States imports approximately 9 to 12 million barrels of oil each day just to keep up with the massive demand of the economy, and much of that oil comes through the Suez canal. At least one United States aircraft carrier fleet is always stationed in the area.
If the Egyptian government falls into chaos, it could endanger the continued operation of the canal. If the country is taken over by a government unfriendly to the United States, it could seriously endanger the ability of the United States to use the canal.
Oil Prices
As stated above, the United States is still tremendously reliant on oil from the region. Yesterday crude oil prices spiked 4.3% on news of the unrest within in Egypt. The country of Egypt actually has very little crude oil reserves. The larger concern is that the Suez Canal could cut off transportation of crude oil from the region, or that the unrest spreads to other countries like Saudi Arabia that do have more oil. Many analysts believe the current protests in Egypt were inspired by those in Tunisia over the last month. The large-scale protest in Egypt may spur movements in other countries and cause instability in a region that is responsible for keeping American cars running. At the very least, the unrest in Egypt alone is likely to cause gas prices to rise over the next month.
Stability in the Middle East
As undemocratic as the country of Egypt may be, the United States has still viewed the nation as a source of stability in the relatively volatile Middle East over the last three decades. Egypt has a long-standing peace agreement with Israel. Egypt was supportive of the United States' first war in Iraq, and has been called a close ally in the United States' fight against terrorism in the region.
Under the best case scenario, the authoritative regime of Mubarak falls and a new, democratically-elected, peaceful government is installed in its place. However, the best case scenario may not unfold. In fact, history tells us that revolutions quite often result in an even worse government than that which was overthrown. A weaker government in Egypt may allow for a growing influence of terrorist groups within the country. Under the worst case scenario, an even more ruthless anti-Israel regime would take over - similar to what happened in Iran after the revolution in that country during the late 1970’s. •
############################################
An unidentified protester in Egypt stands before a fiery background (courtesy: Al-Jazeera)
Worldwide Islamist revolution explodes – Aaron Klein www.wnd.com
As powder keg spreads across Mideast, clerics celebrate rise of Muslim power
TEL AVIV – Islamists, in particular the anti-Western Muslim Brotherhood, seem poised to take power throughout the Middle East as a result of riots that have already toppled one Arab regime and are threatening others, in what some are calling only the latest wave of an Islamic "tsunami" sweeping the globe.
In Egypt, members of President Hosni Mubarak's family reportedly have fled the country as a flood of violent, fatal street protests threatens the stability of this most populous Arab nation, a longtime U.S. ally and the only Muslim nation with a long-lasting peace agreement with Israel.
The White House has been championing the protests, calling for a transition to democratic rule in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood formed the main opposition to Mubarak.
The Obama administration's support for the unrest is strikingly reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's support of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, which marked the birth of modern Islamist expansion now seemingly sweeping the Mideast.
In fact, some Muslim clerics are already calling the riots in Egypt simply an extension of 1979's Islamist conquests.
"Thirty-one years after the victory of the Islamic Republic, we are faced with the obvious fact that these movements are the aftershocks of the Islamic Revolution," said Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, as reported by Iran's Radio Zamaneh. "The fate of those who challenge [our] religion is destruction."
Speaking of media and government leaders, Khatami added, "They want to highlight the labor, liberal and democratic issues, but the most important issue, which is the religious streak of these protests, [is] being denied."
The leader of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, Hammam Saeed, warned that the unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast until Arabs succeed at toppling leaders allied with the United States.
"The Americans and Obama must be losing sleep over the popular revolt in Egypt," Saeed said at a sympathy protest held outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman. "Now, Obama must understand that the people have woken up and are ready to unseat the tyrant leaders who remained in power because of U.S. backing."
And on the Internet, the Middle East Media Research Institute reports, prominent Salafi cleric Abu Mundhir Al-Shinqiti issued a fatwa in the website Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal Jihad encouraging the protests in Egypt, claiming Islamist jihadis are now on the verge of a historic moment in the history of the Islamic nation, an "earthquake" he likened to the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City.
As the clerics are accurately noting, Egypt is only one of many recent cases where Islamic unrest has surged in the Middle East and North Africa.
In Tunisia, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled following rioting and street protests and widespread looting.
In Yemen, last week witnessed the largest protests in years against Yemen's leader, Ali Abullah Saleh, who is considered a crucial ally in the U.S. fight against al-Qaida in his country and in the Middle East. The protests further escalated yesterday.
Banners wielded by protesters in Yemen demanded the country's president abandon changes to the constitution that would grant Saleh another 10 years in power.
Algeria, Jordan and Morocco are taking note, fearing similar outbreaks.
In Pakistan, even the "peace-promoting," so-called "moderate" Islamic Barelvi sect is organizing rallies demanding the release of a policeman who confessed to the assassination of Punjab governor Slaman Taseer, a liberal politician who criticized federal blasphemy laws.
In Lebanon, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia seems to be hijacking the country's government using legal means.
Earlier this month, Hezbollah used its veto power to topple the government of the Western-oriented prime minister, Saad Hariri. Hezbollah feared Hariri would use security forces to arrest members of its militia following indictments expected to be issued in the near future against Hezbollah for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Last week, the Hezbollah-backed candidate for prime minister, Najib Mikat, seemed poised to form the next government, sending Hariri into the opposition amid the threat of sectarian clashes.
Hezbollah members reportedly deployed on the streets of Beirut this week in a clear signal intended to deter Hariri backers from rioting.
The news media largely have painted the revolts in Yemen, Tunisia and Egypt as popular unrest, citing the use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to make the arrangements for the demonstrations.
White House championing
The White House itself has been almost openly championing the unrest.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today called for an "orderly transition" to democracy in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood is the main opposition group.
Obama himself reportedly voiced support for an "orderly transition" in Egypt that is responsive to the aspirations of Egyptians in phone calls with foreign leaders, the White House said.
Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, speaking in a White House webcast, also urged the government and protesters in Egypt to refrain from violence.
Egyptian officials speaking to WND, however, warned the Muslim Brotherhood has the most to gain from any political reform.
The Brotherhood seeks to spread Islam around the world, in large part using nonviolent means. Hamas and al-Qaida are violent Brotherhood offshoots.
An Egyptian security official noted the Muslim Brotherhood was directly involved in protest organization.
Similarly, it is Islamists allied with the Muslim Brotherhood who stand to gain in Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia and Yemen. Already, the Shiite fundementalist Hezbollah organization is poised to exert enormous influence over Lebanon.
WND reported the Egyptian government suspects elements of the current uprising there, particularly political aspects, are being coordinated with the U.S. State Department.
A senior Egyptian diplomat told WND the regime of Mubarak suspects the U.S. has been aiding protest planning by Mohamed ElBaradei, who is seen as one of the main opposition leaders in Cairo.
ElBaradei, former International Atomic Energy Agency chief, has reinvented himself as a campaigner for "reform" in Egypt. He is a candidate for this year's scheduled presidential elections. ElBaradei arrived in Cairo just after last week's protests began and is reportedly being confined to his home by Egyptian security forces. He is seen as an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in Egypt.
Last week, ElBaradei gave an interview to Der Spiegel defending the Brotherhood.
"We should stop demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood. ... [They] have not committed any acts of violence in five decades. They too want change. If we want democracy and freedom, we have to include them instead of marginalizing them," he said.
Just today, the Muslim Brotherhood said it was in talks with other anti-government figures, including ElBaradai, to form a national unity government without Mubarak.
David Rubin, former mayor of the Israeli town of Shiloh and author of the book "The Islamic Tsunami," however, warns that the Obama administration cannot continue to ignore the Muslim Brotherhood's and other Islamist groups' greater goals.
"There is a plan to take over Western civilization," Rubin told The Washington Times, "and we need to recognize it for what it is."
"Confronting the growing threat to Western civilization first involves admitting the problem exists, something President Obama not only refuses to do but strongly denies," a Times editorial on Rubin continues. "The administration has censored any discussion of the problem in these terms within the government, preferring to focus on ill-defined 'violent extremism' when the real extremist threat is only partly violent and wholly Islamicist."
Muslim Brotherhood declares war on U.S.
Multiple prominent U.S. commentators have also been claiming the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate organization and denying any Islamist plot to seize power.
On Friday, President George W. Bush's former press spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told Fox News, "Don't be afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. This has nothing to do with religion."
Bruce Reidel, a former CIA analyst and advisor to President Obama, penned a Daily Beast article in which he claimed, "The Egyptian Brotherhood renounced violence years ago. … Its relative moderation has made it the target of extreme vilification by more radical Islamists."
Reidel's assertion the Brotherhood renounced violence, however, is contradicted by the Brotherhood's own statements in recent months, including a call to arms against the West.
In November, the Brotherhood's new supreme guide, Muhammad Badi, delivered a sermon entitled, "How Islam Confronts the Oppression and Tyranny."
"Resistance is the only solution," stated Badi. "The United States cannot impose an agreement upon the Palestinians, despite all the power at its disposal. [Today] it is withdrawing from Iraq, defeated and wounded, and is also on the verge of withdrawing from Afghanistan because it has been defeated by Islamist warriors."
Badi went on to declare the U.S. is easy to defeat through violence, since it is "experiencing the beginning of its end and is heading toward its demise."
Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center, noted Badi's speech evidenced "the likelihood that more Brotherhood supporters in the West will turn to violence and fund-raising for terrorism."
Frank Gaffney, president of the American Center for Security Policy, takes it a step further.
"In short, the Muslim Brotherhood – whether it is operating in Egypt, elsewhere in the world or here – is our enemy," he wrote.•
##########################################################
Blessings to you in these troubled times. -Missygirl*
# posted by Missygirl : 10:37 AM
TODAY'S NEWS:With Egypt in turmoil, Israeli PM says 3-decade-old ties, peace agreement must be preserved
JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister said Sunday that his government is "anxiously monitoring" the political unrest in Egypt, his first comment on the crisis threatening a regime that has been one of Israel's key allies for more than 30 years.
Israeli officials have remained largely silent about the situation in Egypt, but have made clear that preserving the historic 1979 peace agreement is a paramount interest. The peace, cool but stable, turned Israel's most potent regional enemy into a crucial partner, provided security on one of its borders and allowed it to significantly reduce the size of its army and defence budget.
"We are anxiously monitoring what is happening in Egypt and in our region," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before his Cabinet's weekly meeting.
"Israel and Egypt have been at peace for more than three decades and our objective is to ensure that these ties be preserved. At this time, we must display responsibility, restraint and utmost prudence."
It was the first high-level comment from Israel on the Egypt protests, which began last week with disorganized crowds demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and have grown into the most significant challenge to Egypt's autocratic regime in recent memory.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak discussed the situation in Egypt with U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday, according to a statement from Barak's office. No details of the discussion were released.
Over the weekend, Israel evacuated the families of its diplomats from Cairo and security officials began holding urgent consultations.
Israel's primary concern is that the uprising could be commandeered by Egypt's strongest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, and its allies, who would presumably move Egypt away from its alignment with the West and possibly cancel the peace agreement with Israel.
"Israel has an interest in Egypt being democratic, but through a process that promises sustainability," said Dan Shueftan, director of the National Security Studies Center at Haifa University. "If you have a process that starts with a desire for democracy but then sees radicals take over, then the result at the end of the process is worse than what you had at the beginning."
The benefits to Israel of peace with Egypt have been significant.
In the three decades before the peace agreement, Israel and Egypt fought four major wars. Israel now spends 9 per cent of its gross domestic product on defence, Shueftan said — compared with 23 per cent in the 1970s, when a state of war with Egypt still existed.
Where Israel once deployed thousands of soldiers along the Egyptian frontier, today there are several hundred. This reduction allowed the Israeli economy to begin flowering in the years after the peace deal, he said.
Mubarak has also served as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.
If Egypt resumes its conflict with Israel, Israelis fear, it will put a powerful Western-armed military on the side of Israel's enemies while also weakening pro-Western states like Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Cairo, offered a grim assessment Sunday in the daily Yediot Ahronot.
"The assumption at present is that Mubarak's regime is living on borrowed time, and that a transition government will be formed for the next number of months until new general elections are held," he wrote.
"If those elections are held in a way that the Americans want, the most likely result will be that the Muslim Brotherhood will win a majority and will be the dominant force in the next government. That is why it is only a question of a brief period of time before Israel's peace with Egypt pays the price," wrote Shaked.
Some in Israel have critically compared President Barack Obama's response to the crisis to that of President Jimmy Carter to the Iranian revolution in 1979. Obama has called on Mubarak to show restraint and pass unspecified reforms in Egypt.
"Jimmy Carter will go down in American history as 'the president who lost Iran,' which during his term went from being a major strategic ally of the United States to being the revolutionary Islamic republic," wrote the analyst Aluf Benn in the daily Haaretz. "Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who 'lost' Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt, and during whose tenure America's alliances in the Middle East crumbled."
In the short term, Israel will face increased smuggling activities in the Sinai peninsula, where the authority of the Cairo government — never strong — has been further weakened by the unrest, said Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli general.
Weapons, fuel and other goods enter the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which is subject to a partial Israeli and Egyptian blockade, through tunnels from the Sinai desert.
"They will now try to get in everything they couldn't get in before," Amidror said.
Israel captured Sinai in 1967 and then ceded it to Egypt in the 1979 peace deal. The area was demilitarized as part of the agreement.
For now, the unrest seems to have had the opposite effect. Gaza smugglers said the supply routes have been disrupted and that they have not received any merchandise from Egypt since Friday, apparently because of difficulties in transporting the goods across Egypt to the Gaza border. •
Fighter jets flew low over the crowd of tens of thousands of protesters defying a state-imposed curfew Sunday in Cairo's Tahrir Square. But many among the protesters insisted on standing their ground. •
#######################################
Egypt's Mubarak faces crisis, protest defies curfew
CAIRO (Reuters) – President Hosni Mubarak, clinging on despite mass popular demands for an end to his 30-year rule, met on Sunday with the generals who may hold the keys to Egypt's future, but in Cairo protesters defied a curfew.
As his key ally the United States called for an "orderly transition," Mubarak's disparate opponents, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, rallied behind retired international diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei to lead possible talks with the army on organizing a handover of power to a national unity coalition.
"I ask of you patience, change is coming in the next few days," Baradei told thousands of demonstrators on Cairo's Tahrir Square after dark. "You have taken back your rights and what we have begun, cannot go back."
He added: "We have one main demand -- the end of the regime and the beginning of a new stage, a new Egypt."
"The people want the regime to fall!" thousands chanted as troops looked on patiently from their U.S.-built battle tanks.
Baradei, 68, won a Nobel peace prize as head of the United Nations' nuclear body. Though little known to many Egyptians, he had hoped to run in a presidential election in September.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Fox News: "We want to see an orderly transition so that no one fills a void.
"We also don't want to see some takeover that would lead not to democracy but to oppression and the end of the aspirations of the Egyptian people."
For a week, since Egyptians inspired by the overthrow of the aging strongman in Tunisia began a push for change, it has been unclear who might emerge as an alternative to Mubarak and, more widely, to the military class which has run Egypt since 1952.
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
A senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist group that has long seemed the strongest single force against Mubarak, said it backed ElBaradei as negotiator.
The Brotherhood has stayed in the background although several of its senior officials have been rounded up. The government has accused it of planning to exploit the protests.
Some of its leaders walked free from jails on Sunday.
As many as 10,000 people protested in Tahrir Square, a rallying point in the center of Cairo, to express anger at poverty, repression, unemployment and corruption -- themes that are rumbling across the Arab world after first Tunisia and now the most populous Arab state Egypt have been plunged in unrest.
As the curfew started and was ignored, warplanes and helicopters flew over the square. By late afternoon more army trucks appeared in a show of military force but no one moved.
"Hosni Mubarak, Omar Suleiman, both of you are agents of the Americans," shouted protesters, referring to the appointment on Saturday of intelligence chief Suleiman as vice president, the first time Mubarak has appointed a deputy in 30 years of office.
It was the position Mubarak, 82, held before he become president and many saw the appointment as ending his son Gamal's long-predicted ambitions to take over and as an attempt to reshape the administration to placate reformists.
Mubarak held talks with Suleiman, Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Chief of Staff Sami al-Anan and others.
Clearly those in Tahrir Square did not wish to see Mubarak's ruling structure replaced by a military line-up featuring his closest associates. "Mubarak, Mubarak, the plane awaits," they said. There was also a big protest in Alexandria.
SHOCKWAVES AROUND MIDDLE EAST
The turmoil, in which more than 100 people have died, has sent shock waves through the Middle East where other autocratic rulers may face similar challenges, and unsettled financial markets around the globe as well as Egypt's allies in the West.
In Tunisia, the detonator of the regional movement, an exiled Islamist leader was welcomed home by thousands on Sunday. In Sudan, Egypt's southern neighbor, police beat and arrested students taking part in anti-government protests in Khartoum.
In Egypt, the military response to the crisis has been ambivalent. Troops now guard key buildings after police lost control of the streets, but have neglected to enforce a curfew, often fraternizing with protesters rather than confronting them.
It remains to be seen if the armed forces will keep Mubarak in power, or decide he is a liability to Egypt's national interests, and their own. It was also unclear if Mubarak had decided to talk with the generals or if he was summoned by them.
It was Tunisian generals who persuaded former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee last month after weeks of protests.
In Suez, on the canal, one senior local officer, Brigadier Atef Said said his troops would give protesters a free voice:
"We will allow protests in the coming days," he told Reuters. "Everyone has the right to voice their opinion."
The crisis deepened on Sunday after police had disappeared from the streets. Egyptians faced lawlessness on the streets with security forces and citizens trying to stop looters.
Through the night into Sunday, Cairo residents armed with clubs, chains and knives formed vigilante groups to guard neighborhoods from marauders after the unpopular police force withdrew following the deadly clashes with protesters.
Security sources said police would be back on Monday.
TANKS SPRAYED WITH SLOGANS
In surreal scenes, soldiers from Mubarak's army stood by tanks covered in anti-Mubarak graffiti: "Down with Mubarak. Down with the despot. Down with the traitor. Pharaoh out of Egypt."
Asked how they could let people scrawl anti-Mubarak slogans on their mostly American-made vehicles, one soldier said: "These are written by the people, it's the views of the people."
Egypt's armed forces -- the world's 10th biggest and more than 468,000-strong -- have been at the heart of power since army officers staged the 1952 overthrow of the king. It benefits from about $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid.
The army appears to be showing restraint and there is no talk at this time about halting U.S. aid to Egypt, Clinton said.
The government has interfered with Internet access and mobile phone signals to try and disrupt demonstrators' plans.
On Sunday, it ordered pan-Arab channel Al Jazeera to shut down and cut off its local broadcasts.
The tumult was affecting Egypt's tourist industry and the United States and Turkey said they were offering evacuation flights Other governments advised people to leave Egypt.
The United States and European powers were busy reworking their Middle East policies, which have supported Mubarak, turning a blind eye to police brutality and corruption in return for a bulwark against first communism and now militant Islam.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was closely watching events in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979.
"This is the Arab world's Berlin moment," said Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics, comparing the events to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. "The authoritarian wall has fallen, and that's regardless of whether Mubarak survives."•
############################################
ElBaradei calls for Mubarak to leave
January 30, 2011
ElBaradei: Egypt's Mubarak must leave
(CNN) -- Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei made his way through swarming crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square Sunday, an appearance that signaled a defiant gesture against the current military curfew.
The move could also signal a possible attempt to position himself as President Hosni Mubarak's leading opponent.
"I came today to participate today in the lives of Egyptians," he told protesters. "Today I look into the eyes of each one of you and everyone is different today. Today you are an Egyptian demanding your rights and freedom, and what we started can never be pushed back. As we said, we have one main demand: the end of the regime and to start a new phase."
Earlier Sunday, ElBaradei called for Mubarak to "leave today and save the country."
"This is a country that is falling apart," ElBaradei told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
Egypt is entering a period of transition, and a government of national unity is needed to fill the void and hold "fair and free" elections, ElBaradei said.
Mubarak continues to cling to power, though he sacked his government and appointed a new vice president and prime minister.
"I think this is a hopeless, desperate attempt by Mubarak to stay in power," ElBaradei said. "I think it is loud and clear from everybody in Egypt that Mubarak has to leave today, and it is non-negotiable for every Egyptian."
A transitional unity government is needed to move the country from dictatorship to democracy, he said.
"Egypt needs to catch up with the rest of the world. We need to be free, democratic, and a society where people have the right to live in freedom and dignity," he said.
Asked if he would serve as interim president of Egypt, ElBaradei said that if the people of Egypt requested his leadership, he would serve. •
(A click on the following will bring up the Jerusalem Post with more news from Egypt:)
Egyptians have reservations about ElBaradei
(Reuters) - Egyptians on the streets of Cairo said on Monday they had reservations about opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, who has offered to act as transitional leader to prepare Egypt for democratic elections.
ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), returned to Egypt on the eve of the protests which swept the country on Friday, when tens of thousands of people called for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the IAEA, ElBaradei and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood said on Sunday he had a mandate from opposition groups to make contact with the army and negotiate a government of national unity.
At least one opposition party, the Arab nationalist Karama Party of Hamdin Sabahi, has rejected ElBaradei outright as a transitional figure, saying he was trying to jump on the bandwagon of the popular uprising.
ElBaradei joined protesters at the hub of anti-Mubarak protests in central Cairo on Sunday.
ElBaradei, 68, began overt opposition to Mubarak on his return to Egypt in February 2010 and won a widespread following among the young and the middle classes.
But the Egyptian authorities harassed his supporters and ElBaradei lost much credibility through his long absences abroad. The official media tried to ridicule him, saying he knew nothing about Egypt and had no political experience.
Some elements of the government's campaign appear to have stuck. "ElBaradei won't do. He doesn't have the experience here and he's a little weak," said Khaled Ezzat, 34, an information technology engineer who had joined the evening vigil in Tahrir Square.
"NOT NEUTRAL" ON IRAN
Omar Mahdi, a sales manager, said: "I'm not convinced by ElBaradei, even as a transitional figure, he hasn't really been present in the country."
Some of the protesters objected to ElBaradei on the grounds that he was too close to the United States, despite the frictions between him and the U.S. administration over the Iranian and Israeli nuclear programs when he was head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog body.
"ElBaradei's positions toward other Arab countries, and toward Iran and North Korea, were not neutral... So I don't find him very acceptable," said Walid Abdel-Mit'aal, 36, who works for a public sector company.
"He would follow Mubarak in the same policies and would take U.S. aid," he added, reflecting an anti-American strand which was largely absent in the first four days of protests.
ElBaradei's cosmopolitanism -- he lived abroad for years and speaks fluent English -- may be an advantage among some Egyptians but it is also a source of suspicion among others.
The protesters in Tahrir Square suggested several alternatives to ElBaradei as transitional leader, including Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, a popular former foreign minister, the president of the constitutional court or the president of the supreme administrative court.
Others said they were open-minded and what mattered was changing the constitution to ensure that no one man clings to power as long as Mubarak, who took office in 1981.
"ElBaradei is a very acceptable option because he will not stay," said Islam Ashraf, 24, a quality operations coordinator. "But we're not really interested in faces. What matters to us is having another system," he said. •
####################################
Muslim Brotherhood Wants War With Israel
Mohamed Ghanem, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, calls Egypt to stop pumping gas to Israel and prepare the Egyptian army for a war with it’s eastern neighbor. Speaking with Iranian television station Al-Alam, Mohamed Ghanem blamed Israel for supporting Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Ghanem also said that the Egyptian police and army won’t be able to stop the Muslim Brotherhood movement. •
############################################
Egypt's Military Makes Show of Force Amid Chaos in Cairo
CAIRO -- Fighter jets swooped low over Cairo Sunday in what appeared to be an attempt by the military to assert control of a city beset by looting, armed robbery and anti-government protests.
Minutes before the start of a 4 p.m. curfew, at least two jets made multiple passes over downtown, including a central square where thousands of Egyptians were calling for the departure of President Hosni Mubarak.
Police could be seen returning to some streets nearly two days after they virtually disappeared, creating a security vacuum only partially filled by the presence of army troops backed by tanks at key sites around this city of 18 million people.
The army made no attempt to disperse some 5,000 protesters gathered at Tahrir Square, which protesters have occupied since Friday afternoon in violation of a nighttime curfew. The military has been generally welcomed by demonstrators across Cairo, unlike the widely despised police.
Nobel Peace laureate and democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei appeared in the square around 7 p.m., live television footage showed.
On the first day of trading across the Mideast after a weekend of violent protests, nervous investors drove stocks down sharply, and crowds filled Cairo International Airport, desperate and unable to leave.
Banks were closed on orders from Egypt's Central Bank, and the country's stock market was shut on what is normally the first day of the trading week.
Gangs of armed men attacked at least four jails across Egypt before dawn, helping to free hundreds of Muslim militants and thousands of other inmates. Gangs of young men with guns and large sticks smashed cars and robbed people in Cairo.
An unprecedented Internet cutoff remained in place after the country's four primary Internet providers stopped moving data in and out of the country early Friday in an apparent move by authorities to disrupt the organization of demonstrations blaming Mubarak's regime for poverty, unemployment, widespread corruption and police brutality.
ElBaradei called on American television for Mubarak to step down, telling CBS' "Face the Nation" that, "He absolutely has to leave ... The American government cannot ask the Egyptian people to believe that a dictator who has been in power for 30 years will be the one to implement democracy."
Egyptian mobile-phone networks were back up but with text-messaging widely disrupted. Because of its ability to reach many people with a single message, text messaging has been a tool of protesters across the world.
The official death toll from five days of growing crisis stood at 74, with thousands injured.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo told its citizens in Egypt to consider leaving the country as soon as possible, and said it had authorized the voluntary departure of dependents and non-emergency employees, a display of Washington's escalating concern about the stability of its closest Arab ally.
Private tour groups and corporations began trying to evacuate their clients and expatriate employees. But dozens of flights were canceled and delayed.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. expects that the protests in Egypt will lead to free and fair elections as part of an "orderly" transition to "real democracy."
"I want the Egyptian people to have a chance to chart a new future," she said. "It's not a question of who retains power ... It's how are we going to respond to the legitimate needs and grievances expressed by the Egyptian people."
Israel's prime minister told his Cabinet that he was "anxiously following" the crisis, saying in his first public comments on the situation that Israel's three-decade-old peace agreement with Egypt must be preserved.
After a night of violence in many cities across Egypt, the army sent hundreds more troops and armored vehicles onto the streets starting Sunday morning.
State television showed Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi in green fatigues outside the state TV headquarters in downtown Cairo, speaking with soldiers and civilian onlookers.
Truckloads of hundreds of police poured back into Cairo neighborhoods Sunday afternoon and took up positions on the streets.
In some spots, they were jeered by residents who chanted anti-police slogans and demanded that they only be allowed to deploy jointly with the military.
In one part of Tahrir Square, soldiers working with civilian protester volunteers were even checking IDs and bags of people arriving at the square, saying they were searching for weapons and making sure plainclothes police did not enter the square.
"The army is protecting us, they won't let police infiltrators sneak in!" one volunteer shouted.
Then, as the curfew loomed, the jets roared over the Nile and toward Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, where thousands of protesters have gathered each day to demand the end of the administration.
The jets made several passes over the square, dropping lower every time and setting off alarms in parked cars.
Some protesters clapped and waved to them while others jeered.
"This is terrorism, they are trying to scare the people with the planes and the tanks. They are trying to make people afraid and leave the square," said Gamal Ahmed, a 40-year-old air-conditioning technician.
Lines of army tanks jammed a road leading into Tahrir, and a military helicopter hovered overhead.
Massive trucks and cranes moved 3-foot-high (meter-high) concrete barriers in front of the foreign ministry in central Cairo near the Nile.
Troops in full combat gear and half a dozen armored personnel carriers guarded one of the largest symbols of the government.
Mubarak, 82, perpetuated the overriding role of military men in Egyptian politics by naming his intelligence chief, former army general Omar Suleiman, to the new role of vice president on Saturday. Ahmed Shafiq, the outgoing civil aviation minister and Mubarak fellow former air force officer, was named prime minister.
State TV Sunday showed images of Mubarak during what it said was a visit to the country's military command center. The president looked somber and fatigued in his first public appearance since he addressed the nation late Friday to promise reform and annouce the dismissal of his Cabinet.
The brief footage appeared designed to project an image of normalcy.
Egyptian security officials said that overnight armed men fired at guards in gun battles that lasted hours at the four prisons including one northwest of Cairo that held hundreds of militants. The prisoners escaped after starting fires and clashing with guards.
Those who fled included 34 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best organized opposition group. The Muslim Brotherhood's lawyer, Abdel-Monaem Abdel-Maqsoud, told The Associated Press the 34 were among scores rounded up by authorities ahead of the large anti-government demonstrations on Friday. The escapees included at least seven senior members of the group.
The security officials said several inmates were killed and wounded, but gave no specific figures. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media.
The officials told The Associated Press that army troops were hunting for the escaped prisoners, in some cases with the help of the police. State television also showed footage of what it said was dozens of prisoners recaptured by the army troops, squatting on dirt while soldiers kept watch over them.
In the southern city of Assiut, officials said riot police stormed the city's main prison to quell a prison riot, using tear gas and batons against inmates. An Associated Press reporter saw army tanks were deployed outside the prison, on bridges straddling the Nile and at the police headquarters.
Sponsored Links
Thousands of Alexandrians met to pray in downtown Alexandria, a Mediterranean port city that is a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood. After prayers, the crowd marched towards the city's old mosque to pray for the souls of those who died in the protests.
Egyptian mobile networks were back up after days of cutoffs but with text-messaging widely disrupted. Blackberry Messenger and mobile Internet services were operating sporadically.
The pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera said that Egyptian authorities ordered the closure of its Cairo news hub overseeing coverage of the country's massive street protests, denouncing the move as an attempt to "stifle and repress" open reporting.
The Qatar-based network has given nearly round-the-clock coverage to the unprecedented uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and had faced criticism by some government supporters and other Arab leaders as a forum to inspire more unrest. •
The
New York Times reported Sunday that the White House "has refrained from calling publicly for Mr. Mubarak to step down ... because it worried about losing its leverage over him and about contributing to a political vacuum in Egypt, which could be filled by extremist, anti-American forces." •
#####################################################
Thousands of inmates, including Muslim militants, break out of jails amid turmoil in Egypt
CAIRO - Thousands of inmates escaped prisons across Egypt on Sunday, including at least one jail that housed Muslim militants northwest of Cairo, adding to the chaos engulfing the country as anti-government protests continue to demand the ouster of longtime authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak.
Security officials said the prisoners escaped overnight from four jails after starting fires and clashing with guards. The inmates were helped by gangs of armed men who attacked the prisons, firing at guards in gun battles that lasted hours.
Looting and arson continued overnight as the police totally disappeared from the streets of the capital and several major Egyptian cities. There has been no explanation for why the police have vanished.
The vacuum left by the police has prompted residents to form neighbourhood protection groups, armed with firearms, sticks and clubs to set up self-styled checkpoints and barricades to ward off looting gangs roaming Cairo and other cities. The groups set up barricades, using bricks and metal traffic barriers.
Groups of youths also directed traffic in parts of Cairo, chasing away gangs of criminals smashing passing cars. Residents said gangs were also stopping people on the streets and robbing them.
At least one shopping mall was on fire Sunday morning after it was looted the previous day.
Army helicopters were flying low over the city.
The army appears to be reinforcing its presence on the streets of Cairo, but entire neighbourhoods remained without any troops two days after Mubarak called the army out on the streets to restore order.
The security officials said several inmates were killed and wounded during the escapes early Sunday, but gave no specific figures. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media.
State Egyptian television, meanwhile, said authorities have decided to close down the Cairo offices of the Qatar-based Al-Jazzera television and suspend the accreditation of its reporters.
The Egyptian TV did not give a reason for the move, but Egyptian authorities have often in the past charged that station's coverage of events in Egypt was sensational or biased against Mubarak's regime. •
#####################################################
Civilians watch over neighborhoods in Egypt chaos
CAIRO -When Egypt's police melted from the streets of Cairo this weekend, the people stepped in.
Civilians armed with knives, axes, golf clubs, firebombs, metal bars and makeshift spears watched over many neighborhoods in the sprawling capital of 18 million this weekend, defending their families and homes against widespread looting and lawlessness.
The thugs had exploited the chaos created by the largest anti-government protests in decades and the military failed to fill the vacuum left by police.
On Saturday, the army sent out an appeal for citizens to help.
"The military encourages neighborhood youth to defend their property and their honor," it said in a statement.
On Sunday, joint teams of civilians and military were patrolling, some with guard dogs.
Mohammed Gafaar, a 34-year old salesman in the Nasr City area, said his neighborhood watch organized soon after the night curfew went into force at 4 p.m. They did it at the behest of residents, who appealed for protection of their property, sending out the call from the local mosque.
"I feel betrayed by the police," said Gaafar, who had carried rocks, a stick and a firebomb in a soda bottle. "They have to be tried for the protesters they killed and for their treason. They left the country to be looted. I am angry at the regime."
Akram al-Sharif, a 33-year old Cairo resident who lives in one of the affluent compounds in the city's west at the edge of the desert, said locals hired twenty bedouins with guns, and organized into groups to protect the five gates of the compound.
"I am happy this is happening. There was solidarity," he said. But he criticized the military for failing to protect private property.
The troubles began after days of protests calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak reached a crescendo Friday, when tens of thousands poured into the streets after noon prayers in the city's 3,000 mosques. The protests quickly spiraled into clashes with riot police, who fired countless canisters of tear gas, rubber bullets and waters cannons and beat the demonstrators with sticks.
By Friday night, protesters had set fire to the ruling party headquarters along the Nile in central Cairo and the first reports of looting emerged — people making off with electric fans and televisions from the burning complex. Mubarak ordered the military into the streets for the first time to try to control the escalating turmoil.
On Saturday, the tens of thousands of police who normally patrol the streets vanished. Security officials, asked why they disappeared, said that remained unclear. But the police, who are hated by many, may have been seen as just fanning the flames.
Throughout the day, shops and malls were ransacked and burned, and residents of affluent neighborhoods began reporting burglaries by gangs of thugs roaming the streets with knives and guns. By mid-afternoon, shopowners and residents were boarding up their stores and houses.
Gangs of armed men attacked jails, sending thousands of inmates into the unpoliced streets.
As night fell, the neighborhood watches took up where the police left off.
In the affluent neighborhood of Zamalek, where many foreigners live and embassies are located, groups of young men, some as large as 40 people, set up barricades on every street entrance to the island in the middle of the Nile.
In other neighborhoods, residents wore arm bands to identify each other and prevent infiltrators from coming into their midst. In Zamalek, a handwritten announcement hanging on a street window asked people to register their names for neighborhood defense committees.
Watch groups armed themselves with a makeshift arsenal of shovels, baseball bats, whips, and the occasional shotgun. Young men organized themselves into shifts, and locals brought tea and other snacks.
Neighborhood guardians set up metal barricades and stopped cars, questioning them about their destinations and street addresses and sometimes searching them. With many roads blocked, drivers went the wrong way on largely empty one-way streets to get around.
Long after midnight, gunshots rang out on a scenic street along the Nile, near the Indian embassy and the Algerian ambassador's residence. One youth said the neighborhood watch confronted the passengers of a car, one with a firearm, and persuaded them to leave.
Residents said they were filled with pride to see Egyptians looking out for each other in a society where many, if not most, struggle just to subsist.
Gaafar, the salesman, had returned from Dubai to take part in the protests. He said he feels sad at how things turned out, but believes it won't deter people from continuing to protest.
"This has brought out the best in people," he said. "There were people who were much younger than me who have never come across gunfire before... They looked scared. But they were still standing. Everyone was so brave."
As the curfew began at 4 p.m. Sunday, police were seen returning to some neighborhoods and working in tandem with the army to try to restore a sense of security.—
Associated Press reporter Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo. •
#####################################################
# posted by Missygirl : 10:08 AM
