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| Africa North |
| US presses Mubarak to act now |
| 2011-02-05 |
| [Arab News] Tens of thousands packed central Cairo for the 11th day Friday, which they called the "Day of Departure" for geriatric President Hosni Mubarak as the United States pressed Egypt for a swift start toward greater democracy, including a proposal for Mubarak to step down immediately. At a summit in Brussels, the European Union's 27 leaders said Egypt's "transition process must start now" and condemned this week's violence while issuing a veiled threat of suspending aid. Thousands including families with children flowed over bridges across the Nile into Tahrir Square, a sign the movement was not intimidated after fending off storms of hurled concrete, metal bars and Molotov cocktails, fighters on horses and camels and automatic gunfire barrages. In the wake of the violence, more details were beginning to emerge for a transition to democratic rule after Mubarak's nearly 30-year reign. The B.O. regime said it was discussing several possibilities with Cairo, including one for Mubarak to leave office now and hand over power to a military-backed transitional government. Around 200,000 protesters demonstrated in the square in the largest gathering since the quarter-million who rallied Tuesday, holding up signs reading "Now!" The crowd attended Friday prayers, followed by funeral prayers for the hundreds who fell to police bullets and attacks by pro-government agents. Prayers over, they chanted their message to Mubarak: "Leave! Leave! Leave!" Mohammed Rafat Al-Tahtawi, the front man of state-run Al-Azhar Mosque, the country's pre-eminent Islamic institution, announced on Al Jizz that he had resigned from his position to join the protesters. In the afternoon, a group of Mubarak supporters gathered in a square several blocks away and tried to move on Tahrir, banging with sticks on metal fences to raise an intimidating clamor. But protesters throwing rocks pushed them back. The Arabic news network Al Jizz said a "gang of thugs" stormed its offices in continuation of attacks on journalists by regime supporters that erupted Thursday. It said the attackers burned the office and damaged equipment. The editor of the Mohammedan Brotherhood's website, Abdel-Galil El-Sharnoubi, told the AP that coppers stormed its office Friday morning and nabbed 10 to 15 of its journalists. Also festivities with sticks and fists between pro- and anti-government demonstrators erupted in two towns in southern Egypt. Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi -- regarded by Washington as a key plank of any post-Mubarak administration -- visited the square to appeal to demonstrators to give up their protest in the light of Mubarak's pledge earlier this week not to seek re-election. "The man (Mubarak) told you he won't stand again," Tantawi told the protesters flanked by troops. He urged opposition leaders, including the supreme guide of the powerful Mohammedan Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, to join talks with the government on political transition. Various proposals for a post-Mubarak transition floated by the Americans, the regime and the protesters share some common ground, but with one elephant-sized difference: The protesters say nothing can be done before Mubarak leaves. The 82-year-old president insists he will serve out the remaining seven months of his term to ensure a stable process. "You don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now," Mubarak said he told President Barack B.O.Obama. He warned in an interview with ABC News that chaos would ensue. But the B.O. regime was in talks with top Egyptian officials about the possibility of Mubarak immediately resigning and handing over a military-backed transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman. Such a government would prepare the country for free and fair elections later this year, according to US officials speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... . The officials stressed that the United States is not seeking to impose a solution on Egypt but said the administration had made a judgment that Mubarak has to go soon if there is to be a peaceful resolution. Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed El-Baradei, one of the leaders of the protest movement, laid out his scenario on Friday: a transitional government headed by a presidential council of two or three figures, including a military representative. El-Baradei said he respects Suleiman as someone to negotiate with over the transition, but did not address whether he should have any presidential role. The Egyptian Football Association said the country's football league has been suspended until a "return of stability" to the country. Egypt told the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society it is unhappy with Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon's public criticism of the government and his calls for change, according to a spokeswoman for Egypt's UN mission. Ban this week urged Mubarak and his government to take "bold measures" to address the concerns of people demonstrating for change. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 CNN this Guam AM > GUEST ME PERT > acknowledged that the Muslim Brotherhood = Radicalists should not be underestimated as per exploiting + "hijacking" the claims or sentiments of the pro-Reform/Democratic Protestors in order to get elected but then usurp Political Power at a later time, once anti-Islamist elements are effectively cowed or eliminated??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-02-05 22:30 |
| #6 Betcha the panty waist academics and bureaucrats in the Beltway forget that. Along with virtually everyone else commenting on this issue. 'The Arab street' -- weren't they the same ones who were dancing & celebrating mass murder on 9/11/2001? Aren't they the ones always itching for jihad, lynching for blasphemy, and the whole panoply of traditional Islamic abuse of humanity? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-02-05 16:53 |
| #5 Since when does Bummer get to say who rules Egypt? And I wonder how those 27 European Union leaders would like it if Mubarak started making pronouncements on their internal affairs? Bummer's plan to set up a US puppet smacks of the worst kind of jingoistic meddling. It sounds like the best possible way to make damn sure that Suleiman is seen as a tool of the West and is thoroughly despised on the Arab street. I don't see how that helps. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2011-02-05 12:51 |
| #4 It's quite possible that Omar Suleiman is the one making all the decisions---including involving Mubarak's person---right now, P2k. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-02-05 11:20 |
| #3 Murbarak was VP and standing in the same reviewing box with Anwar Sadat when the assassins killed the President, 10 others, and wounded 28 to include Murbarak. Betcha the panty waist academics and bureaucrats in the Beltway forget that. Issue another sternly worded paper warning to the man. Yep, that's the ticket. /sarc off |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-02-05 09:38 |
| #2 Because of this, Egypt is no longer an American Allie. Hold Obama accountable. |
| Posted by: Shaving Poodle7392 2011-02-05 09:29 |
| #1 Appeasing one's enemies at the expense of one's friends (such as they are). Genius, pure genius. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-02-05 05:44 |