Egyptian actor Omar Sharif , urges president Mubarak to adhere to people’s demands in Egypt.
Continue reading …A Google exec has gone missing amid the chaos reigning in Egypt, the Wall Street Journal reports. Family and friends have been unable to reach Wael Ghonim, head of Google’s marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, since 6pm on Friday. While spotty Internet access is making routine communication…
Continue reading …
• One million to march on critical day for rebellion • Vice-president says he will talk to opposition • White House hardens stance over transition Egypt’s army gave a powerful boost to the country’s opposition tonight by announcing it would not use force to silence “legitimate” demands for democratic reforms in the Arab world’s largest country. On the eve of a million-strong protest planned for tomorrow and amid multiplying signs that the US is moving steadily closer towards ditching its long-standing ally, Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak now has few options left. Tonight, the Egyptian vice-president, Omar Suleiman, said Mubarak had asked him to start a dialogue with all the country’s political parties. According to state TV, Suleiman said it would involve constitutional and legislative reforms. The White House warned in a statement that the crisis should be settled by “meaningful talks,” while the EU called for an “orderly transition” to democracy via “free and fair” elections. Mubarak has shown no sign of accepting either. The veteran Egyptian leader formed a new cabinet today, after appointing his intelligence chief as his vice-president, but there was no indication that popular pressure for him to quit was abating. The military’s statement, reported by the state-run Mena news agency, said: “The presence of the army in the streets is for your sake and to ensure your safety and wellbeing. The armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people.” It referred to the “legitimate demands of honourable citizens”. It was not clear whether the pledge not to use force was intended to draw the sting from protests or signal a weakening of support for the president, who relies on the armed forces as the guarantor of the regime and its stability. On the seventh consecutive day of unrest tens of thousands of people again rallied in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square chanting “Get out … we want you out” and singing Egypt’s national anthem emphasising the patriotic motives of the unprecedented mass unrest. “We have spoken. When the citizens speak, we can not go back,” said Ahmed Mustafa. “I came here to fight the fear inside me. People have lost their fear”. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said he feared Egypt could end up with a regime as radical as Iran. “Our real fear is of a situation that could develop … and which has already developed in several countries including Iran itself, repressive regimes of radical Islam,” he told reporters after meeting the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. In Washington Barack Obama met Middle East experts as his administration attempts to find a path to a post-Mubarak era that continues to serve its interests, including ensuring that Egypt maintains its 30-year peace treaty with Israel. Administration hopes are solidifying around the Egyptian dissident Mohamed ElBaradei, despite his difficult relationship with the US after he undermined Washington’s claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when he was head of the IAEA and his criticism of Obama’s failure to ask Mubarak to resign. But there remain concerns in Washington that ElBaradei may be used by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s leading Islamist political party, to help topple Mubarak and then be pushed aside. ElBaradei has been mandated by opposition parties, including the Brotherhood, to talk to the army about forming a “national salvation government”. The US administration’s message to Mubarak was initially a call for reform but has hardened to the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, saying there has to be a transition of power. But Clinton still suggested that Mubarak could stay to oversee free elections, a view that is viewed with distrust by the Egyptian opposition. The Egyptian head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said there must be a peaceful transition “from one era to another”. Tony Blair, envoy of the Middle East Quartet, stopped short of calling for Mubarak to step down: “Change will happen,” he said. “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle now.” William Hague, the foreign secretary, said after meeting EU colleagues: “We are setting down what should happen [in Egypt] in terms of values, process and institutions, but not trying to dictate precise timetable of elections.” Analysts believe that a likely outcome of the crisis is that Mubarak will eventually be persuaded to stand down by his closest advisers, including the army top brass and Suleiman. The US has close links to the Egyptian military. Reuters news agency reported that 138 people have been killed in the protests, according to a tally of reports from medical sources, hospitals and witnesses. No official figure has been given. In Alexandria, Egypt’s second city, thousands of protesters gathered in the square outside the main railway station chanting “Come on, go away, show some shame”. Witnesses said they had brought blankets and food, intending to stay the night and take part in tomorrow’s million-strong march. Egypt Protest Middle East US foreign policy United States Ian Black Jack Shenker Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Muslim Brotherhood the main opposition party has vowed to ‘respect the will of the people’ if Mubarak’s regime falls Egypt’s Islamist opposition has vowed to “respect the will of the Egyptian people” if Hosni Mubarak’s regime falls, amid concern from western leaders that religious extremism might proliferate following the anti-government uprising. Tony Blair, the Middle East peace envoy, warned that Egypt might take a backward step “into a very reactionary form of religious autocracy”. But his words carried limited resonance in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood – the country’s largest opposition force – has played little more than a walk-on role in the unprecedented protests that have shaken one of the Middle East’s oldest and most entrenched dictatorships. “There is widespread exaggeration about the role of the Brotherhood in Egyptian society, and I think these demonstrations have exposed that,” said Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Egypt’s political Islamists at Durham University. “At first the movement showed little interest in the protests and announced they weren’t going to participate; later they were overtaken by events and forced to get involved or risk losing all credibility.” Egypt’s ongoing intifada or uprising has been largely leaderless, planned initially by secular online activist groups and quickly gathering a momentum of its own, as protesters managed to beat riot police off the streets and inspire belief that Mubarak’s security forces could be overcome. Even on Friday, when the Brotherhood finally threw its weight behind efforts to bring down the government – a stance its leadership initially held back from – Islamist slogans were noticeable by their absence, and the formal contribution of the movement remained limited. “Like many others, I participated in these protests not as a Brotherhood member but as an Egyptian, even though both labels apply to me,” said Mohamed al-Assas, a 35-year-old media production worker in Cairo. “Many of the older political leaders, not just of the Brotherhood, but of other formal parties as well, were not so enthusiastic about the demonstrations. But that doesn’t matter because this is a youth revolution – we don’t need leaders to tell us what to do.” The group was formed in 1928 and is still officially outlawed. Hundreds of Brotherhood members have been jailed in periodic crackdowns, yet it is from the existence of the Brotherhood, and the regime’s perceived ability to suppress its influence, that Mubarak has derived much of his legitimacy in international circles. This, combined with the fact that the Brotherhood’s current leadership has often devoted more of its energies to “dawa”, or social evangelism, than overtly political projects, has led many analysts to accuse it of a symbiotic relationship with the government it claims to resist. At crucial moments of popular public tension with the Mubarak regime in recent years, such as the killing of three people in the Delta town of El Mahalla El Kubra in April 2008, and during an attempted general strike one year later, the Brotherhood has opted to take a relatively non-combative stand towards the authorities. “The Mubarak regime was adept at inflating the influence of the Brotherhood and painting them as a threat to Egyptian society and to the west,” said Anani. “It was the pretext for Mubarak’s rule, and it was a lie. I think that if Egypt held free and fair elections tomorrow the Brotherhood would not get a majority; it would enjoy a significant presence in parliament, but the overall makeup of seats would be pluralistic.” Mindful of the limitations of their popular support, and the danger of their involvement in protests being used as an excuse for the west to maintain support for Mubarak, the leadership of the Brotherhood therefore stood back as the past week’s revolt unfolded. Only in the past two days have senior figures begun publicly taking part in the jockeying for position in a post-Mubarak Egypt, and they have done so as unobtrusively as possible, mandating the non-Islamist Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei to help lead any transitional government and promising a “populist stance” in the future. “The Brotherhood realises the sensitivities, especially in the west, towards the Islamists, and we’re not keen to be at the forefront,” announced Mohamed el-Beltagui, a senior Brotherhood leader, on Monday. “We’re trying to build a democratic arena before we start playing in it,” said Essam El Arian, a reformist leader, and one of dozens of Brotherhood members who have escaped from jail in recent days following the disappearance of the country’s police force. “The Brotherhood does not take decisions on its own,” he insisted. The Brotherhood’s leadership continues to claim it does not aim to take control. “We are not for governing, we have no ambitions in this area,” media coordinator Waleed Shalabi told the Guardian today. “What the Brotherhood really want to get out of this revolution is official recognition, the end of legal prohibition,” said Anani. “That’s its minimum demand, but beyond that, if a post-Mubarak Egypt offers genuine avenues of political participation and a fair electoral system, then the movement will be happy.” But amid all the discussion about the impact the Muslim Brotherhood is having on Egypt’s uprising, another story of these remarkable few days might be about the impact the uprising is having on the Brotherhood. Anani believes the protests have shifted the balance of power within the organisation, boosting the influence of younger reformists and weakening the more conservative old guard. “Egypt is witnessing the creation of a new regime, and is reconfiguring all its internal political structures – obviously the Muslim Brotherhood will not be immune to that process,” Anani said. “The revolution has brought us into much closer contact with other secular protest groups with whom we’re working now on a regular basis. The elder leadership respects those new links, because they have to,” confirmed Assas, the 35 year olde Brotherhood member. Indeed many believe the triumphant surge of youth activism seen in Egypt this past week could have as significant effecti on the Brotherhood as on Mubarak’s beleaguered National Democratic Party. “Ongoing internal debate within the MB leadership oddly mirrors claims of an old-guard/new-guard clash within the ruling NDP,” observed the US ambassador to Cairo, Margaret Scobey, in a secret cable in 2009. “The concern expressed by the current leadership of both the NDP and the MB about the impact of rapid or aggressive reform is a common thread. “All of Egypt is changing, and of course the Brotherhood is part of that,” said Assas. “The youth is leading the way, and leaders are heeding our call.” Egypt Middle East Islam Religion Jack Shenker guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Demonstrators in Cairo’s main plaza suffused with optimism about end of Hosni Mubarak’s regime Some brought paint and brushes to express themselves, some prayed, some yelled political slogans, some picnicked on eggs and bread, underneath the clattering helicopters. But all came to demand the end of the Mubarak regime – and on the seventh straight day of protests, many believed they were on the home stretch. “We have spoken. When the citizens speak, we cannot go back,” said Ahmed Mustafa. “I came here to fight the fear inside me. Now people have lost their fear.” “For the first time I am proud to be an Egyptian,” said Susanne Saleh, a 38-year-old mother of three. “People are exploding. Mubarak is facing the pressure of his people and there is no way he can stay.” “This is the end,” said Ala’adin al Sahabi simply, a view echoed in many of the handwritten signs. “Game over, Mubarak,” said one. About 10,000 people streamed into Tahrir Square, paying no heed to the curfew which was today brought forward to 3pm. Indeed at two minutes to the hour, a large contingent of chanting protesters appeared, to cheers, from a side street in a bold demonstration of defiance. In contrast to the violence meted out in Friday’s protest, there was no sign of the police or army inside the square although it was ringed a block back by tanks and armed soldiers. They did not attempt to prevent access to the square but were instead polite and helpful. “The army will take the people’s side,” predicted Adel, one of the protesters. “The lower ranks all hate Mubarak too.” The mood among protesters was heady; most feel victory is within their grasp. A call for a million Egyptians to join the Cairo protest tomorrow will be easily surpassed, many said. “If people leave this square the regime will survive and Mubarak will have his revenge,” said Ahmed Muhammad. “Tomorrow we will be stronger, there will be millions.” They were scathing about the new government announced by the president. “This is all nonsense,” said protester Omar el-Demerdash, 24, a research executive. “The demand is clear: We want Mubarak and his men to get out. Anything other than that is just not enough.” Israa Abdel-Fattah, a founder of the 6 April Group, a movement of young people pushing for democratic reform, added: “We don’t want life to go back to normal until Mubarak leaves.” Demonstrators climbed lampposts to hang Egyptian flags and signs proclaiming “Leave, Mubarak!” One poster featured Mubarak’s face plastered with a Hitler moustache. Few had a clear idea of what might happen following the departure of Mubarak, other than talking in passionate, if ill-defined, terms about democracy and freedom. The crowd included both supporters and critics of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist organisation which the west fears will step into any vacuum left by the fall of Mubarak. “Ninety-five percent of the people do not support any party,” said al-Sahabi. On the battered and increasingly sparse grass in the centre of the square, someone had pitched a tent with a sign saying, in Arabic and English, “Freedom Motel”. A few metres away, Ramy Hussein, 26, had already set his sights beyond the end of the Mubarak regime. “Without what happened in Tunis, this wouldn’t have happened here,” he said. “I think it will happen in Syria as well because Assad is also a dictator. And maybe Jordan, too.” Egypt Protest Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Egypt’s internet cutoff has failed in its central aim, but there may yet be further harms As recently as a week ago, Egypt ‘s internet was extraordinary in the Arab world for its freedom. For more than a decade, the regime has adhered to a hands-off policy, leaving unblocked everything from rumours about President Hosni Mubarak’s health to videos of police beatings. Unlike most of its regional neighbours and other authoritarian regimes, Egypt’s government never built or required sophisticated technical infrastructures of censorship. (Of course, the country has hardly been a paradise of free expression: the state security forces have vigorously suppressed dissent through surveillance, arbitrary detentions and relentless intimidation of writers and editors.) Partly as a result of its liberal policies, Egypt became a hub for internet and mobile network investment, home to a thriving and competitive communications sector that pioneered free dial-up services, achieved impressive rates of access and use, and offered speedy wireless and broadband networks at relatively low prices. Indeed, Egypt is today one of the major crossing points for the underwater fibre-optic cables that interconnect the regions of the globe. But last Thursday, the Mubarak regime shattered a decade’s worth of accomplishment by issuing the order to shut down the mobile networks and internet links. Since the internet age dawned in the early 90s, no widely connected country had disconnected itself entirely. The starkness and suddenness of Egypt’s reversal – from unrestricted to unreachable – marks one of the many tragedies of the Mubarak regime’s brutal and hamfisted response to last week’s emergence of citizen protests. The internet cutoff shows how the details of infrastructure matter. Despite having no large-scale or centralised censorship apparatus, Egypt was still able to shut down its communications in a matter of minutes. This was possible because Egypt permitted only three wireless carriers to operate, and required all internet service providers (ISPs) to funnel their traffic through a handful of international links. Confronted with mass demonstrations and fearful about a populace able to organise itself, the government had to order fewer than a dozen companies to shut down their networks and disconnect their routers from the global internet. The blackout has proved increasingly ineffective. A handful of networks have remained connected, including one independent ISP, the country’s academic and research network, and a few major banks, businesses and government institutions. Whether these reflect deliberate defiance, privileged connections, or tactical exceptions –one might imagine, for example, that members of Mubarak’s family and inner circle would want to have Internet access to move money, buy tickets, or make hotel reservations abroad — is as yet unknown. Moreover, innovative Egyptians are finding ways to overcome the block. They are relaying information by voice, exploiting small and unnoticed openings in the digital firewall, and dusting off old modems to tap foreign dial-up services. For democracies, one lesson here is clear: diversity and complexity in our network architectures is a very good thing. Likewise, enforcement of public policies such as network neutrality – the
Continue reading …The challenge for the US this week is to raise the temperature delicately, rather than seeking to call the global shots On an emotional level, everyone wants Barack Obama to thunder that Hosni Mubarak must go. And there are bad reasons why the US
Continue reading …Kabul Bank might be on the brink of collapse. It’s lost as much as $900 million in its fraud and mismanagement scandal , three times more than investigators originally expected, the New York Times reports. Investors and businessmen believe most of that cash wound up in the hands of elite Afghan…
Continue reading …A federal judge in Florida says the Obama administration’s health overhaul is unconstitutional, siding with 26 states that had sued to block it. US District Judge Roger Vinson today accepted without trial the states’ argument that the new law violates people’s rights by forcing them to buy health insurance by…
Continue reading …
What is the likelihood of the current unrest in Egypt spreading to other countries in the region? Syria Syria’s small private media sector has featured the story prominently. State media have found it too big a deal to ignore. Surprising many, Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to President Bashar al-Assad, dedicated her newspaper column to the streets of Cairo, Tunis, Amman and Sana’a, saying the west did not know how to respond to collective Arab anger. Syria seems as perplexed. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Assad said circumstances in his country would not stir the rage of the masses. However, he did pledge reform. Over the past week, government ministers have announced subsidies and aid for the poor. Today teachers were granted interest-free loans for laptops, and some public officials were charged with corruption in the city of Aleppo. Syria last faced serious unrest in 1982 in the city of Hama, when many thousands were killed in an abortive revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood. Jordan A prime candidate for catching the Egyptian contagion. Protests over poverty, inflation, unemployment, corruption and a lack of democracy have been going on for weeks. King Abdullah II is less popular than his late father, King Hussein, and Queen Rania’s global fame is not matched by enthusiasm in the country itself. Samir al-Rifa’i, the prime minister, has become a lightning rod for discontent, though he recently found $550m in subsidies for fuel and staples such as sugar, rice and gas. The package included pay rises for civil servants and security personnel. An active opposition role is now being played by the country’s Islamic Action Front, which is calling for political reform, but still treading carefully. “There is no comparison between Egypt and Jordan,” IAF leader Hamzeh Mansur said on Monday. “The people there demand a regime change, but here we ask for political reforms and an elected government.” Abdullah has promised reforms, particularly on an election law. But it is unlikely that he will surrender his right to appoint the prime minister and cabinet officials. Unemployment is officially around 14% in the country of six million people, 70% of them under 30. The minimum wage is $211 a month. Poverty levels are 25%, while the capital, Amman, is the most expensive city in the Arab world. Like Egypt, Jordan is a close ally of the US, and is the only other Arab country (apart from distant Mauritania) to have a peace treaty with Israel. But it has efficient security forces, the Mukhabarat secret service, and a tame media. Libya Sandwiched between momentous events in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya has so far escaped any large-scale unrest. Muammar Gaddafi, whose 41 years in power outstrips Hosni Mubarak’s 29, presides over a tightly controlled regime that is changing very slowly and is wealthy enough to do it in a way that relieves rather than worsens tensions. The still-tribal nature of Libyan society means Gaddafi controls not only the army and security forces, which would almost certainly step in if there was serious political upheaval, but also other key constituencies. Recent protests in Benghazi and Derna over housing shortages were seized upon as evidence of spreading trouble, but local grievances have not coalesced into opposition at the national level, Libyan opposition figures admit. Like Egypt and Tunisia, Libya has a young population and high unemployment but its oil resources mean it is far wealthier. The Gulf If all eyes in the Arab world are on Egypt, nowhere in the region seems less likely to see similar events than Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah rushed to telephone Hosni Mubarak to express his support, after welcoming Tunisia’s exiled leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to a gilded exile in Jeddah. Impoverished Yemen apart, all the Gulf states are hereditary monarchies with either no political parties or little in the way of representative government. Expectations are correspondingly low. Saudi municipal elections in 2005 were a limited exercise that has not been repeated. The Saudis control the world’s largest known reserves of oil and are a strategic US ally. Tiny Qatar, the richest of them all, leads the region in using wealth to provide subsidised education and food to buy the acquiescence if not the loyalty of their people – who in several countries are outnumbered by expatriate foreigners. Algeria Algeria has banned all marches “for security reasons” amid fears that the wave of unrest spreading through north Africa could destabilise the country. But a senior ally of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said Algeria would escape an uprising because protesters were not demanding political reform. Abdelaziz Belkhadem, head of the ruling FLN party and a cabinet minster, said the government could be doing more but added: “Protesters in Algeria want better social and economic conditions. They have not made political demands as is the case in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan.” Street protests have been banned in Algeria since 2001 when one descended into a riot, leaving eight people dead and hundreds injured. Security forces in Algiers have been reinforced to combat a feared attack by Islamist extremists after a series of suicide attacks in 2007. A march to demand the “departure of the regime” is planned for Saturday 12 February in Algiers by the newly-formed National Co-ordination for Change and Democracy group, which includes opposition movements and other civil organisations. Yemen The opposition coalition, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), has called for nationwide protests on Thursday after talks with President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s ruling party failed to materialise. Opposition members were in discussions with EU officials yesterday in Sana’a to try and find a way of resuming a dialogue with Saleh’s ruling GPC. The biggest obstacle is a proposed constitutional change that would abolish presidential term limits and the timing of the upcoming parliamentary election. A JMP spokesman said: “These protests will be bigger than last week’s; tens of thousands will be demonstrating across Yemen calling for Saleh to leave.” Saleh has taken steps to defuse tensions, raising salaries for the army and civil servants and rebutting claims that he plans to install his son, Ahmed, as his successor. Yesterday he announced plans to expand Yemen’s limited social security system Egypt Middle East Jordan Syria Saudi Arabia Algeria Yemen Ian Black guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …