Robert Gibbs calls on President Hosni Mubarak to address ‘legitimate grievances’ of protesters Barack Obama has warned the Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, that he must reform his regime and refrain from violence against protesters. But the US president’s message suggested that Washington will go on supporting its longstanding ally for now. Obama said that he spoke to Mubarak and asked him to turn “a moment of volatility in to a moment of promise,” after the Egyptian leader addressed his nation to say he would replace his government but not tolerate what he called a continued threat to the security of the country from protesters demanding his resignation. “When President Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people tonight he pledged a better democracy and greater economic opportunity,” said Obama. “I told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words. To take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise. Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people and suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. “What’s needed right now are concrete steps that advance the rights of the Egyptian people; a meaningful dialogue between the government and its citizens and a path of political change that leads to a future of greater freedom and greater opportunity and justice for the Egyptian people.” Obama demanded an end to violence against the protesters after a day of clashes on the streets of Cairo, Suez and other cities left 25 people dead and hundreds wounded. The US president also called on the Egyptian government to restore mobile phone and internet connections it has severed apparently in an attempt to hinder the protesters from organising. But Obama, while pressing for political reform, held back from a call for legitimate elections amid fears in the US and among its allies in other parts of the Middle East, including Israel and Jordan, of political power shifting to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Instead, the White House appears to be looking for reform that will keep the present power structure in place. But it has added to the pressure on Mubarak by saying it is reviewing its $1.5bn (£946m) in annual aid to Egypt, most of it military. The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said continued assistance would in part depend on how the military behaves in the face of the protests. “We will be reviewing our assistance posture based on the outcome of events, now and in the coming days,” he said. Asked if the US government had condemned the placing of the opposition activist, Mohamed ElBaradei, under house arrest, Gibbs said: “Obviously, this goes in to our concern about expression, association and assembly.” Gibbs was also asked about reports that the British company, Vodafone, was responsible for cutting mobile phone access in Egypt on government orders. He said repeated a call for mobile and internet services to be restored but would not be drawn on whether the US would pressure Vodafone directly. “I don’t want to speak about the specific company because I want a little more information,” he said. Egypt US foreign policy Protest Middle East United States Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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Egyptian army appears on streets of Cairo in attempt to quell uprising after curfew imposed by Hosni Mubarak is ignored
Continue reading …Mohamed ElBaradei must be free to give political leadership It was the day on which Egyptians lost their fear: of green armoured personnel carriers, which swayed and toppled before the unstoppable tide of human wrath; of plainclothes thugs who had plagued their lives; of the ruling party’s headquarters, from where elections were rigged and parliamentary seats managed – it too went up in flames; of military curfews; of the entire apparatus of a regime which had crushed all political dissent for nearly three decades. “Even if the dogs could speak,” one of the hundreds of thousands who flocked the streets told our reporter, “they would tell you that they are fed up with [Hosni] Mubarak. We have to have change.” This was a transformative day. The Arab world’s largest power had just lost control of the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, Suez. The regime shut down the internet and unplugged the mobile phone network, a desperate move to stop the protests. It only propelled thousands more on to the streets. As darkness fell, shots were heard in Cairo and tanks were seen in Suez. And still the roar of protest continued. The revolution threatens not only Hosni Mubarak’s regime but the strategy the US and Britain have constructed in the Middle East. The hesitancy with which President Mubarak reacted last night was matched only by the perceptible shift in the emphasis of the statements by the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Only two days ago she said the US assessment was that the Egyptian government was stable and was looking for ways to respond to the legitimate interests of the Egyptian people. The primary importance of keeping a key Arab ally and Middle East interlocutor stable was also emphasised yesterday by Tony Blair, the Quartet’s envoy. Faced with the conflicting needs to keep an Arab partner of Israel afloat and to respond to demands for democratic reform, the US would choose the first every time. After yesterday’s events, Ms Clinton’s calls to lift internet controls and respond to the grievances of Egyptians became more strident. But it was too little, too late. Ms Clinton’s initial support for the Mubarak regime had not been lost on Egyptians battling for their freedoms. This is not to say that a post-Mubarak regime would tear up Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel or in the short term be any less cordial in its official relations with its neighbour. But in the longer term a government which reflected the popular will of the people of Egypt would surely open the country’s land border with Gaza and not block unity talks between Fatah and Hamas. If Mubarak’s regime fell, the Palestinian Authority would also lose a vital backer and ally. The domino that toppled Egypt could also topple less secure regimes like Jordan and Yemen, in which smaller but no less significant demonstrations were taking place yesterday. As Mr Mubarak last night imposed a nationwide curfew, the biggest question hung over what role, if any, the army would play. Compared to the interior ministry, it is popular. Protesters initially cheered the arrival of troops on the streets, in the hope that they would be protected from the police. This is the world’s 10th largest army, from which all four Egyptian presidents since the fall of the monarchy have come. It has formed the core of the elite that has sustained the president’s rule. Will it enforce an increasingly bloody security crackdown or act as an invaluable mediator between the people and a regime they are demanding must go? It is impossible to predict. What the president has to do now is to announce that he will release the people he has locked up. Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, who was briefly detained yesterday, must be free to give political leadership. Mr Mubarak must rule out a sixth term as president, and set up a council to rewrite the constitution. Even those measures might not be sufficient to stop the crowds. This revolt has a momentum of its own. Egypt Middle East Protest US foreign policy Foreign policy guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Not that you’d know it from our corporate news cartel or anything, but there’s an uprising in Egypt . A rather large one, threatening to destabilize the country and possibly the region. I use the term “threatening” guardedly, because I would definitely like to see Egypt transition to an open and true democracy. And wouldn’t you know, the Egyptian arm of the US Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Egypt) has gone to bat for the Mubarak regime . Think Progress: However, there is at least one powerful, multinational entity that has continually stood by Mubarak and the Egyptian elite and has continually fought efforts to democratize the country. As ThinkProgress previously reported, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce maintains a network of foreign affiliates known as Amchams, “which are foreign chambers of the Chamber composed of American and foreign companies.” In Egypt, this foreign affiliate is known as the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt , known in short as AmCham Egypt. AmCham Egypt’s relation to the Mubarak dictatorship stretches back decades. In fact, the Egyptian dictator even personally intervened to create the organization. In 1981, Mubarak issued an order to allow for the creation of the AmCham by giving it an exemption from Egypt’s strict NGO laws — which help limit the influence human rights and democracy promotion organizations. Since then, the chamber has grown to have hundreds of members. While roughly 75 percent of the organization’s members are Egyptian businesses, many of them are also large Western multinational corporations , like Coca Cola and BP. The Chamber’s member companies account for nearly 20 percent of Egypt’s GDP. ThinkProgress goes on to detail how AmCham Egypt intervened to scuttle Russ Feingold’s bill calling for an end to crackdowns on pro-democracy advocates, and how just recently, John Negroponte was sent to discourage any uprising or nasty pro-democracy talk. During a brief question-and-answer session at the conclusion of his address, Negroponte said he was surprised by the unrest in Tunisia that ended the 23-year presidency of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He said that what happened in Tunisia is “not necessarily transferable” to other countries. He blamed the news media for sensational coverage of self-immolation protests in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania, and urged “a little bit of patience.” “Let’s hope the country doesn’t descend into chaos,” he said. “Chaos is in no one’s interest.” The protest in Egypt has been going on for three days now. The Mubarak government has shut down Egyptians’ access to the internet so protesters cannot get any news out. There’s been almost a complete news blackout in the US about it, but BBC, AlJazeera, and other international outlets are reporting almost continuously. Whether this protest ends with a vicious Iran-style crackdown or an overthrow of Mubarak remains to be seen. Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed El Baradei has joined the protesters’ call for Mubarak to step down and make way for a democratically-elected leader. Mr ElBaradei, a campaigner for reform in Egypt who won the peace prize for his earlier work as head of the UN nuclear agency, says it is time for Mr Mubarak to step aside. “He has served the country for 30 years and it is about time for him to retire,” he said. “Tomorrow is going to be, I think, a major demonstration all over Egypt and I will be there with them.” His arrival could spur protesters who have no figurehead, although many activists resent his absences in recent months. Egyptians torched a police post in Suez early on Thursday in response to the killing of three demonstrators earlier in the week. “Our government is a dictatorship. A total dictatorship,” said Mohamed Fahim, a 29-year-old glass factory worker, as he stood near the charred skeleton of a car. “It’s our right to choose our government ourselves. We have been living 29 years, my whole life, without being able to choose a president.” One thing you can be sure of, though, is that the US Chamber of Commerce will do whatever is within their power to protect their corporate masters at the expense of the people standing up for their rights. On Twitter, you can follow hashtag #Jan25 for information on the protests. This is not any “official” reporting outlet, but only snippets of what people on the ground are able to get out via whatever means are still available to them. Also, this article on Al Jazeera from January 14th got my attention, not because I didn’t understand this to be the case, but because I wonder why similar protests are not being undertaken across this country over the same issues. From Tunisia and Algeria in the Maghreb to Jordan and Egypt in the Arab east, the real terror that eats at self-worth, sabotages community and communal rites of passage, including marriage, is the terror of socio-economic marginalisation. The armies of ‘khobzistes’ (the unemployed of the Maghreb) – now marching for bread in the streets and slums of Algiers and Kasserine and who tomorrow may be in Amman, Rabat, San’aa, Ramallah, Cairo and southern Beirut – are not fighting the terror of unemployment with ideology. They do not need one. Unemployment is their ideology. The periphery is their geography. And for now, spontaneous peaceful protest and self-harm is their weaponry. They are ‘les misérables’ of the modern world. Update 2:48 PM 1/28 : As you may have heard, the protesters are out in force . There are rumors that elites are fleeing Egypt in private jets, and Mubarak has just made a statement blaming the protesters, firing the government (except him) and affirming his stubborn delusion that he has nothing to do with current unrest. The military is remaining neutral at this time. Mubarak claims these protests would not have taken place if citizens did not have the freedoms they have. It was a remarkable end play, but I’m not sure it will hold.
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When “Left, Right & Center” aired Friday it was still unclear whether Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak would stay in power as mass protests persisted in the Mideast nation, but show regulars Robert Scheer and Tony Blankley … Related Entries January 28, 2011 Watch the Egyptian Revolt in Real Time January 28, 2011 Egypt Declares Curfew, Corrals ElBaradei
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US secretary of state says Egyptian government needs to engage with the Egyptian people in implementing reforms
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enlarge Credit: www.good.is We talk about the trillions of dollars added to the deficit because of our occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan…but how can you monetize this very real and very painful cost ? For the second year in a row , more American soldiers—both enlisted men and women and veterans—committed suicide than were killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Excluding accidents and illness, 462 soldiers died in combat, while 468 committed suicide. A difference of six isn’t vast by any means, but the symbolism is significant and troubling. In 2009, there were 381 suicides by military personnel, a number that also exceeded the number of combat deaths. Earlier this month , military authorities announced that suicides amongst active-duty soldiers had slowed in 2010, while suicides amongst reservists and people in the National Guard had increased. It was proof, they said, that the frequent psychological screenings active-duty personnel receive were working, and that reservists and guardsmen, who are more removed from the military’s medical bureaucracy, simply need to begin undergoing more health checks. This new data, that American soldiers are now more dangerous to themselves than the insurgents, flies right in the face of any suggestion that things are “working.” Even if something’s working, the system is still very, very broken. One of the problems hindering the military’s attempt to address soldier suicides is that there’s no real rhyme or reason to what kind of soldier is killing himself. While many suicide victims are indeed afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after facing heavy combat in the Middle East, many more have never even been deployed. Of the 112 guardsmen who committed suicide last year, more than half had never even left American soil. It sickens me. Every week as I do the In Memoriam post, I read so many of the service members official cause of death as “non-combat related” and my heart grieves, because I know that’s likely a suicide. All those months of separation, the unrelenting stress of being under fire, the inability to adjust back to a non-combat life. It’s all a vicious cycle. But there are people trying to be part of the solution
Continue reading …Arabs are rebelling not just against decrepit autocrats but the foreign backers who kept them in power We are witnessing the breakdown of the Arab state after decades of failure and mounting crises. The Arab political establishment has never looked weaker than it does today. It is either dying a protracted silent death, corroded from within, or collapsing in thunderous explosions. Tunisia, which toppled its dictator through popular revolution two weeks ago, is by no means an exception. The symptoms are evident throughout the region, from the accelerating movement of protest in Egypt , Algeria and Jordan, or the increasing polarisation of Lebanon’s sectarian politics, to the near-collapse of the state in Yemen and Sudan, and its complete disintegration in Somalia. The postcolonial Arab state has always carried deficiency as part of its genetic make-up. It had emerged as a substitute for the complex network of local elites, tribal chieftains and religious groupings through which the imperial authorities had maintained their grip; and its mission was the regulation of the indigenous population. This system of indirect control over the region, which assumed its present shape in the aftermath of the first world war, specifically required a “state” that is capable of keeping the local populations under check and maintaining “stability” at home, but too weak to disrupt foreign influence or disturb the regional balance of powers. The first generation of post-colonial Arab leaders, the likes of Egypt’s Nasser and Tunisia’s Bourguiba , had been able to soften the repressive nature of the Arab state by virtue of their personal charisma, and promises of progress. With their exit from the stage, and the entry of a new class of colourless autocrats and crude generals, the Arab state lost any cover of legitimacy, and became synonymous with violence and oppression. Much of the turmoil plaguing the region today is traceable to its diseased political order. Its degeneration has wrought havoc on the social sphere too. It has led to weaker national identities, and to individuals reverting to their narrower sectarian affiliations, sparking conflicts between Sunnis and Shias, Arabs and Kurds, Copts and Muslims. The result has been a growth in extremism, self-insulation, and what the French Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf calls “killer identities”. Beyond the Arab state’s aura of physical might – embodied in its terrifying coercion apparatus – lurks a moral vulnerability and an abysmal dearth of popular allegiance. This paradox has been laid bare by protesters in Tunisia and is in the process of being exposed in Egypt today. These demonstrators are discovering the extreme frailty of the instruments of repression that have long crushed and suffocated them simultaneously, with the staggering power of their collective action on the street. The ousting of Tunisia’s tyrant after no more than a month of perpetual protests has handed millions of Arabs the magical key out of the prison of fear behind whose walls they have been incarcerated for decades. Events in Tunisia, Egypt and – to a lesser extent – Algeria are harbingers of a change long impeded and postponed. Were it not for the international will to maintain the worn out status quo, what happened in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s could have occurred in the Arab region too. Its decrepit autocrats were allowed to stagger on, shedding their old skins and riding on the wave of rampant economic liberalism, which benefited the narrow interests of ruling families and their associates alone, and thrust the rest into a bottomless pit of poverty and marginalisation. Arab rulers – aided by their foreign allies – have been able to steal over two decades of their societies’ political life. Today they face the hour of truth: either radically transform the structure of authoritarian Arab rule, or depart for ever. The trouble is that an entity that has made coercion its raison d’etre and violence its sole means of survival has left itself no option but to sink deeper in the quagmire of tyranny. And the trouble for its sponsors, who have made its preservation the cornerstone of their “stability” strategy in the region, is that they have now tied their own hands, with no choice but to blindly stick with their “friends” to the last breath. That is why those demonstrating on Arab streets today feel that they are not only rebelling against a band of corrupt local despots, but against their foreign backers too. And though we cannot predict the future, the likelihood is that just as Latin Americans had seen the fall of many Pinochets in the 1980s, Arabs will witness more Ben Alis before the close of this decade. Egypt Tunisia Protest Yemen Algeria Middle East Soumaya Ghannoushi guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …While liberal media bias is often easy to spot, it's rare to see veteran journalists come clean on the biases of their own news outlets. But when one does, it's hard to dispute the first hand account of the newsroom's consistently leftist politics. In his new memoirs, veteran BBC news anchor Peter Sissons details the startling depths of leftist politics that pervade coverage at Britain's state-owned broadcaster. Leftism is “in its very DNA,” Sissions claims of the BBC. In excerpts from the memoirs , titled “When One Door Closes”, published in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, Sissons details the groupthink mentality at the BBC: At any given time there is a BBC line on everything of importance, a line usually adopted in the light of which way its senior echelons believe the political wind is
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