Escalation in Egypt

[karim0028]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

Berlusconi had some kind words for Mubarak today. Was reminded that he apparently sprung "Ruby" - his underage girlfriend - from jail by claiming she was a close relative of Mubarak. I guess the cops found this plausible because they let her go. I guess Berlusconi's trying to make ammends. Hahahahahah.

funny thing is that no one figured out that chick was morrocan and mubarak just happens to be egyptian ;) Perhaps someone on the italian police force needs to go back and read the history of mark anthony and cleopatra....

[don]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

Whose turn is it?

[flintlock]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

No barf emoticon? What is this?

[oddlots]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

The problem of inertia...the Tunisian case...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...ervists-unrest

"The government has called on retired members of the army, navy and air force to report for duty and warned police they would be fired for skipping work in an attempt to restore order after the regime's former ruling RCD party was accused by the prime minister of deliberately stirring up chaos and violence in provincial towns that has left at least five dead.

Warning against the dangers of the regime's old-guard provoking further unrest, the caretaker government has won the backing of MPs for the interim president to rule by decree.

This will allow him to bypass the sitting parliament, which is 80% dominated by the RCD. The party, the backbone of the old regime, has been suspended and will be dissolved. In a country of 10 million people, the RCD counts 2 million card-carrying members, with much of civil society forced to bow to party officials for the country's scarce jobs."

The corruption of the old regimes in countries like Egypt and Tunisia happened over decades. It means hundreds of thousands of people are reliant on the state security apparatus and party / government bureaucracy for their - in many cases I'm sure - quite meager existence, especially compared to their masters' take. The paradox is that if you do something less than shattering their power they will wait you out. If you shatter them they will sow disorder and mayhem with all the abandon of those with nothing less to lose.

It's akin to the trick of picking yourself up in the chair you're sitting in.

I think we've seen the happiest days in this revolution somehow

[mfyahya]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

Some recent news from the UAE: (Google translated)
http://aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/99470...GoogleStatID=9

The situation in the emirates is nowhere like Egypt, but there is growing discontentment among the citizens especially since the death of Sheikh Zayed who was widely respected. There are a few favored merchant families who are controlling ever increasing part of the economy and and wealth disparities among UAE citizens is growing. Not everyone is pleased with the social impact of the large inflow of expats in recent years either.

[flintlock]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

I think we've seen the happiest days in this revolution somehow

I think you are correct. The "Euphoria stage" of revolution usually doesn't last long. Babies must still be fed, life goes on. Hard to do with bullets flying.

[GRG55]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

Very similar situation to Egypt. Main difference is that instead of the USA pouring money into the country, it is leading the sanctions effort to restrict the money, which makes things even worse in that country. More than half the population of Iran know about the Shah's regime only through history books, because it was before they were born. All they know is the mullahs, the rampant corruption of the Revolutionary Guard, and there's the same simmering resentment just under the surface. In 1999 a major opposition movement, that started with the students in the universities, erupted. That time the authorities managed to quell the public unrest. It flared up again about 6 years ago, same outcome.

But how many more times will they be able to do that? The way the last elections were rigged has not gone down well with the people of Iran. The West has moved on and mostly forgotten the death of Neda Agha-Soltan. Many, many Iranians have not.

Iran is not an Arab nation, so discerning exactly what inspiration its citizens may take from events in North Africa and elsewhere in the Arab world is difficult. But just as I pointed out two years ago that Egypt was a hot spot that warranted close watching, I think today Iran fits the same profile.

By the way, I was living in the Arab part of the Persian Gulf on September 11 2001. For those Americans who may still not know this, while the widespread reaction on the Arab side of the Gulf was one of satisfaction and joy [which I observed first hand], something quite different was happening on the other side of the Gulf in Iran - unique in the Middle East. There's a big, big gap between the people of Iran and the government of Iran... http://www.time.com/time/europe/photoessays/vigil/

The underground communications here in the Gulf are indicating things are heating up very fast in Iran now...more so than is being reported officially in the global media such as this items below:

Security forces quell opposition protests in Tehran


Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 21, 2011


TEHRAN - Thousands of Iranian security forces dispersed anti-government demonstrators who tried to gather Sunday in Tehran's main squares to commemorate the deaths of two men killed during a protest Monday, witnesses reported...


...After anti-government rallies last Monday, which appeared to catch authorities by surprise, two prominent opposition leaders were placed under house arrest.

On Saturday, authorities installed a metal door in front of the home of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, effectively imprisoning him. The move follows calls from religious leaders and paramilitary organizations, as well as a majority of parliament, that he and Mehdi Karroubi, another opposition leader, be executed.

Karroubi, a former speaker of parliament, said Saturday that he welcomed any court case against him. "In a just and open trial session, the public will discover the truth," he said in a statement smuggled out of his house, Sahamnews reported...


Khamenei Praises Arab Revolts As Iran Crushes Its Own Protests

February 21, 2011

Iran's Islamic regime and the opposition Green Movement have embarked on a tug-of-war to voice solidarity with the antigovernment demonstrations convulsing Arab countries, as Iran's own long-dormant protest organizations shows signs of reviving

The latest phase in an ideological struggle to claim spiritual kinship with the Arab wave of revolt took place on February 20, when Iranian protesters were met with a brutal crackdown from security forces after taking to the streets for the second time in a week.

Although international media were barred from covering the gatherings, a video obtained and published by Reuters showed demonstrators chanting slogans sympathetic to the movements that recently toppled the long-serving presidents of Egypt and Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "Mubarak, Ben Ali, now it's time for Sayed Ali," protesters chanted in a slogan demanding the removal of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei...

...Green Movement leaders have been particularly incensed by the government's perceived double standards in condemning the Mubarak regime's violent suppression of protests when Iranian security forces used equally brutal tactics to quell mass demonstrations against Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in 2009, which Musavi and Karrubi say was stolen...

...But the Green Movement accuses Iranian forces in responding in identical fashion to protests it staged on February 14 and 20. Last week, two protesting students, Sanah Jaleh, 26, and Mohammad Mokhtari, 22, were shot dead when security forces fired into a crowd...

Iranian Diplomat Resigns To Join Green Movement


February 21, 2011

Ahmad Maleki, the head of Iran's consular office in Milan, has resigned his post to protest the Iranian government's "barbaric actions against the Iranian nation," RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

Maleki told RFE/RL in an exclusive interview on February 20 that he had joined the opposition Green Movement. He became the fourth Iranian diplomat in the past year to resign over disagreements with how Tehran has handled the Green Movement and its supporters.

In January 2010, Mohammad Reza Heidari, a counselor in the Iranian Embassy in Norway, was the first diplomat to resign. He had condemned the deaths of protesters on the Shi'ite Islamic holiday of Ashura and then later established the "Green Embassy Campaign" in Oslo with the goal of encouraging other Iranian diplomats to support the opposition...

[metalman]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

to put it in simple terms... iran's persian people are the usa's friends, iran's oppressive islamic gov't is the usa's enemy... but in the arab world, the oppressive gov'ts of egypt/lybia/yemen/etc (influding israel from the palastinian pov) are the usa's friends & the islamic groups they govern/control/oppress are the usa's enemies.

so... when the lybia/egypt/yemen/etc gov'ts warn the west of civil war out of revolution, they warn the usa that the usa's enemies may win ala iran.

btw, gold to $1408... silver to $34...

[GRG55]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

Iran.

Shirin Ebadi won a Nobel Peace Prize back when it still meant something...and you actually had to do something to earn it...



Ebadi says Arab-style revolt certain soon in Iran

Wed Mar 9, 2011 1:00pm GMT

GENEVA, March 9 (Reuters) - Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi said on Wednesday an Arab-style popular revolt would come soon to her country, driven by poverty and the fierce oppression of critics by its Islamic rulers.

But Ebadi, a defence lawyer for Iranian dissidents who has lived outside Iran since 2009 but has close family still there, said human rights campaigners wanted the transition to happen peacefully and avoid a Libyan-style bloodbath...

[don]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

Shirin Ebadi won a Nobel Peace Prize back when it still meant something...and you actually had to do something to earn it...

Before or After Kissinger

[touchring]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

to put it in simple terms... iran's persian people are the usa's friends, iran's oppressive islamic gov't is the usa's enemy... but in the arab world, the oppressive gov'ts of egypt/lybia/yemen/etc (influding israel from the palastinian pov) are the usa's friends & the islamic groups they govern/control/oppress are the usa's enemies.

so... when the lybia/egypt/yemen/etc gov'ts warn the west of civil war out of revolution, they warn the usa that the usa's enemies may win ala iran.

btw, gold to $1408... silver to $34...

As far as i can see, Iran is on the winning side. The US is losing influence and control over natural resources all over the world, it is so obvious.

[c1ue]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

Shirin Ebadi won a Nobel Peace Prize back when it still meant something...and you actually had to do something to earn it...

You mean do something like try to sell the nuclear bomb (which you don't officially have) to South Africa?

Shimon Peres: 1994

What about the 'realpolitik' man behind dictators Suharto and Pinochet, as well as notable support for 'anticommunist' activities in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh?

Kissinger: 1973

And let's not forget the next most recent winner:

http://nuclear-news.net/2010/10/14/o...eapons-tester/

Victims of atomic bombings expressed their disappointment at U.S. President Barack Obama after his administration carried out its first subcritical nuclear test last month.“In a word, we feel betrayed. We strongly object to any kind of nuclear testing by any government for any cause, and it was unacceptable,” said Sunao Tsuboi, 85, chairman of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations.

It seems the primary rationale for receiving the Peace Prize is carrying the banner for US interests around the world.

[metalman]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

And let's not forget the next most recent winner:

http://nuclear-news.net/2010/10/14/o...eapons-tester/

It seems the primary rationale for receiving the Peace Prize is carrying the banner for US interests around the world.

Sunao Tsubo... the last remaining man on earth to feel betrayed by the obama admin.

[GRG55]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

...And let's not forget the next most recent winner:

http://nuclear-news.net/2010/10/14/o...eapons-tester/

...

It would appear you got my point...

[c1ue]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

Looks like the 'democratic revolution' in Egypt isn't going quite the way the Tahrir Square protesters were hoping for...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1J2NxiNWW

Demonstrators burned cars and barricaded themselves with barbed wire inside a central Cairo square demanding the resignation of the military's head after troops violently dispersed an overnight protest killing one and injuring 71.
Hundreds of soldiers beat protesters with clubs and fired into the air in the pre-dawn raid on Cairo's central Tahrir Square in a sign of the rising tensions between Egypt's ruling military and protesters.
Armed with sticks and other makeshift weapons, the protesters vowed not to leave until the defense minister, the titular head of state, has resigned.
The soldiers swept into the square around 3 a.m. and waded into a tent camp in the center where protesters had formed a human cordon to protect several army officers who had joined their demonstration in defiance of their superiors.
Ali Mustafa, a car mechanic who was guarding the "free soldiers" tent, said that he saw the army stab one of the officers with his bayonet, pointing to a section of pavement stained with blood under a small pile of garbage and food remains.
Another protester was shot dead, said Ahmed Gamal, who was there overnight. He added that he saw at least two others severely injured by live ammunition. The deaths could not be confirmed.
State television cited the Health Ministry saying just one person had been killed and 71 wounded.
The troops dragged an unknown number of protesters away, throwing them into police trucks, eyewitnesses said.
The military issued a statement afterward blaming "outlaws" for rioting and violating the country's 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, and asserted that no one was harmed or arrested.
"The armed forces stress that they will not tolerate any acts of rioting or any act that harms the interest of the country and the people," it said.
Black smoke rose in the sky as the sun came up in Cairo, after three vehicles, including two troop carriers, were set on fire.
The square was filled with shattered glass, stones and debris from the fighting, in a scene reminiscent of the protests in January that brought down the regime of Hosni Mubarak. The glass storefront of a KFC on the square was also smashed.
"We are staging a sit-in until the field marshal is prosecuted," said Anas Esmat, a 22-year-old university student in the square as protesters dragged debris and barbed wire to seal off the streets leading into the square.
"The people want the fall of the field marshal," chanted protesters, in a variation on the chant that has become famous across the Middle East with protests calling for regime change. "Tantawi is Mubarak and Mubarak is Tantawi," went another chant, explicitly equating Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the defense minister, with the president who once appointed him.
The clashes came hours after hundreds of thousands massed in Tahrir Square on Friday in one of the biggest protests in weeks, demanding that the military prosecute ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family for alleged corruption.
The rally was a show of the increasing impatience and mistrust that many Egyptians feel toward the military, which took over when Mubarak was forced out of office on Feb. 11. Some protesters accuse the military leadership of protecting Mubarak — a former military man himself — and more broadly, many are unclear on the army's intentions in the country's transition.

...