When you have one family in charge, soaking everyone in Egypt for the right to do business, why, I can see how people might get a little angry about that : Mubarak — who stepped down on Friday in the wake of massive protests that have gripped Cairo and Alexandria for weeks — and his family have a net worth of at least $5 billion , analysts tell The Huffington Post. Recent media reports pegging the family fortune at between $40 and $70 billion are considered to be exaggerated. Much of their fortune has reportedly been invested in offshore bank accounts in Europe and in upscale real estate. On Friday, Switzerland froze accounts possibly belonging to Mubarak and his family, a spokesman told Reuters, under new laws governing ill-gotten gains. Last month, the Swiss froze the accounts of Mubarak’s ally, ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, whose overthrow inspired the first protests in Cairo. The Mubarak family reportedly owns properties around the world, from London and Paris to New York and Beverly Hills. In addition to homes in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh and the upscale Cairo district of Heliopolis, they also have a six-story mansion in the Knightsbridge section of London, a house near the Bois de Bologne in Paris and two yachts. Largely through Mubarak’s two sons, Gamal and Alaa, the family controls a network of companies that earn money through concessions wrangled from foreign companies that do business in Egypt, according to prominent businessmen and “Corruption In Egypt: The Black Cloud Is Not Disappearing,” an investigative report compiled in 2006 by a coalition of opposition groups. (The report, which names the companies allegedly owned by the Mubarak brothers and details multiple instance of corruption by government officials, has been cited by numerous international good government groups, such as Transparency International, but it was taken offline and is no longer available on the Internet. The Huffington Post obtained a copy, replete with rhetorical flourishes and thinly-sourced allegations, which is available here .) “Egypt’s state under Mubarak’s regime is an embodiment of corruption,” concludes the report, with descriptions of numerous allegations of corruption involving bribery, undue influence and nepotism. In the 1980s, Mubarak seemed sincere in his desire to crack down on corruption in an effort to distinguish himself from Sadat, says an Egyptian-American businessman who often does business in the country. “But as time went on, the cronies around him started taking advantage of the system,” he says. “And the other factor was his children got into business, taking commissions out of each and every company that comes to Egypt. The way they have amassed that money is not by stealing but by ensuring that businesses that want to operate in Egypt pay from 5 percent to 20 percent commission to a company formed by Gamal Mubarak. I know businessmen who have been squeezed this way.” Some of the family’s wealth is also believed to be through partnerships with foreign companies — under Egyptian law, foreign businesses are required to give a local partners a 51-percent stake in their Egyptian operations. “According to this law, any multinational company needs to have a local sponsor, and this local sponsor usually goes through members of the family or powerful people in the ruling party,” says Aladdin Elaasar, the author of “Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future.”
Continue reading …Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Neocons Have a Hard Time With Democracies That Emerge From Within a Country
February 12, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Ed Schultz talked to The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel last night about the uprisings in Egypt and across the Middle East and the need for the United States to redefine our national security policies in the region. When Ed asked her about the many on the right who have been supportive of Mubarak and whether their labor’s role in the movement might have had anything to do with it. Vanden Heuvel reminded him that neocons have never had much use for real democracy, whether it be at home or abroad. SCHULTZ: How is in your opinion the president and his advisers and the State Department handling all of this now that we go to day number 18 and mixed signals from the president and really demeaning talk coming from the vice president telling these protesters to go home but—oh, by the way don‘t watch television. What do you make of all of this? VANDEN HEUVEL: You know, I think we all need to step back a little and speak with some humility. Egyptians are putting their lives on the line. Hundreds of thousands came out yesterday as you reported, Ed, across the country—labor, doctors, lawyers, across class, gender, religious lines. I think it is the Egyptians to sort out, and they will. They have shown the world, they have shown us what a democracy movement looks like. I believe that behind the scenes, because this country has over invested in, quote, “stability,” propping up dictators, intelligence, security, military apparatuses that we have to be using our leverage, that $1.5 billion a year we give the Egyptian military, to make sure that there is some process, some outcome that will resolve in a more democratic country. But as you pointed out, Ed, earlier, you know, the labor movement, others in Egypt, have been working toward this moment for years. And it is those people who in this country, human rights organizers and independent trade union organizers, were the ones who put a check on the repression, not our government. So, I hope that this is a moment to redefine U.S. national security thinking in this region. It is a beginning. It is a process just as democracy is a process. But we must begin to disinvest from security intelligence apparatuses which don‘t make us secure and reinvest in civic governance, and in economic development which Egypt as it emerges from this extraordinary moment will need desperately. SCHULTZ: Katrina, what do you make of some of the comments that are coming from conservatives in America? Almost endorsing Hosni Mubarak. And now, it‘s being reported that obviously labor has played a big role in these uprisings around the country. I mean, does labor‘s role in this suggest why some Republicans are supporting Mubarak? VANDEN HEUVEL: No, I think conservatives—I think these neocons have a very hard time with democracies that emerge from within a country. The great failure of this last decade was the belief you could bring democracy at the tip of a bayonet, with bombs in President Bush‘s case. That is a disastrous fraud. So, I think neoconservatives are very uncomfortable when they see real democracy in the streets and, of course, labor is something they wish to repress at home. And they don‘t love dissidents at home and they don‘t love dissidents abroad. So, to me, it‘s a kind of coherent whole I‘m witnessing.
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The top of the pop charts has become a low, low, place indeed. Just last summer, the singer Cee-Lo took popular culture one rung lower into the sewer with the release of his song titled “F— You.” After a few weeks, it was mainstreamed into “Forget You,” but why bother? While both versions sold well, the vulgar one clearly had its intended effect. The pop star Pink now has her own version with her new single titled “F—in' Perfect.” How creative. That’s reaching for the stars. Once again, there are two versions, with the words “less than” replacing the profanity. Again, why bother pretending to be concerned about standards? The original song contains seven F-bombs. She asks “don't you ever ever feel / Like you're less than f—in' perfect,” and then insists “you're f—in' perfect to me!” It's topped the charts at iTunes – deliberately putting profanity smack dab into children's iPods from coast to coast. (You can thank LaFace Records and its Japanese parent company Sony Music, the second-largest global provider of recorded music.) Like Cee-Lo's “F— You,” the F-bomb is utterly unnecessary. It's only there for naughty “buzz.” The video for “Perfect”
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Reaction from across the Muslim world to the resignation of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak
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In a special compilation programme, Sir David Frost looks back at the highlights of the past few months, including an exclusive interview with Julian Assange and Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister.
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Egyptians wake to a new political landscape after 30 years of autocratic rule under President Hosni Mubarak
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On this episode of Counting the Cost we look at Egypt’s options post uprising and ask if it should look north to Turkey’s successful model of politics, economics and democracy for inspiration.
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Egypt is beginning a new political era after mass protests forced President Hosni Mubrak to stand down following 30 years in power. Follow live updates 11.47am: Egyptian airport officials have announced that current or former officials from Mubarak’s government are banned from traveling without permission. 11.44am: Egypt’s state television says the country’s night time curfew has been relaxed. It will now start at midnight and ends at 6am, instead of running from 8pm to 6am. 11.04am: There are protests today in Yemen and Algeria, inspired by the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. Thousands of demonstrators in the Yemeni capital Sana have clashed with government supporters. The protesters chanted: “The people want the fall of the government. A Yemeni revolution after the Egyptian revolution.” Human Rights Watch said the authorities detained 10 anti-government protesters amid celebrations over Mubarak’s departure last night. The group said the protest turned violent when hundreds of men armed with knives, sticks, and assault rifles attacked the protesters as security forces stood by. “The Yemeni security forces have a duty to protect peaceful protesters,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “In this case, security forces seem to have organized armed men to attack the protesters.” Meanhile in Algeria, thousands of riot police have been deployed in the capital, Algiers, to stop an anti-government demonstration from gathering momentum . Organisers of the anti-government march say several thousand people have gathered in the city centre. About 50 protesters managed to reach the square where the protest was due to take place but they were surrounded by hundreds of police and some were arrested, Reuters reported. 10.39am: The repercussions of Mubarak’s fall are being felt across the Middle East as other countries in the region assess what regime change could mean. Syria, which had strained relations with Egypt due to its position as a key US ally in the Arab world and its peace treaty with Israel, has welcomed Mubarak’s fall. His departure will change the “face of Egypt, the region and the entire world,” reported the al Ba’ath daily of Syria’s ruling Ba’ath Party. The state-run Tishrin newspaper said the protests “brought down the Camp-David regime” – a reference to the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Meanwhile Yemen, which has seen spreading anti-government protests in recent months, said it would support the Egyptian people in their search for progress and development. The official news agency Saba said the Yemeni government was confident Egypt’s higher military council would be able to manage the country’s affairs in the transition period. The country’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, arranged an unexpected meeting with military and political leaders late yesterday following Mubarak’s departure. Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 32 years and is a key US ally against al Qaida, last week promised to step down at the end of his term in 2013 in a bid to stave off political unrest. Turkey has urged Egypt’s military to press on with elections. “We hope that Egypt’s military high council will act with common sense and hand over its duty to the new governemnt to be formed as a result of a free and fair election process, and eventually Egypt will proceed to a constitutional democracy,” said a statement issued by prime pinister Tayyip Erdogan’s office today. Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu added that Mubarak’s resignation was an historic development for the Arab world and the region. “Firstly, continuity of the state and public order should be secured. Secondly, people’s demands should be met and a stable and lasting democracy should be built in Egypt through evolution. Thirdly, a transparent road map that the people can follow closely together with the international community should be announced,” he said. 10.39am: Protesters camped out in Cairo are divided about whether to stay or go amid the uncertainty over their country’s future, AP reports. Shopkeeper Gomaa Abdel-Maqsoud says he’s been in Tahrir Square since the protests began on Jan. 25 and is ready to go. He says “I have never seen such happiness in peoples’ faces before; what else do I want?” Nadal Saqr, a university professor, says protesters should stay until the army issues a promised statement with “clear assurances” that their demands for democracy are met. 10.36am: Good morning, this is David Batty with today’s live coverage of Egypt – the day after Hosni Mubarak finally stood down as president after 30 years in power. Here’s a roundup of the current situation following the revolution. • Although thousands are celebrating Mubarak’s departure, what happens next remains unclear. The Egyptian army is now in control and has pledged not to get in the way of legitimate government but world leaders have called for a swift transition to civilian rule. • Thousands of people remained in Tahrir Square in central Cairo overnight to celebrate Mubarak’s departure and more are returning today , waving flags and cheering. •Following the 18 days of protests that toppled the Egyptian government, world attention is turning towards other Arab states, with planned anti-government protests in Algeria facing a clampdown by thousands of riot police . Egypt Protest Middle East Hosni Mubarak David Batty guardian.co.uk
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Mark LeVine, an Al Jazeera English commentator, was with the mother of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian who died in police custody on a street in Alexandria last year, when the news came in that Hosni Mubarak had resigned.
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