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Africa North
Morsi makes himself supreme ruler of Egypt
2012-11-23
CAIRO — With a constitutional assembly on the brink of collapse and protesters battling the police in the streets over the slow pace of change, President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree on Thursday granting himself broad powers above any court as the guardian of Egypt’s revolution, and used his new authority to order the retrial of Hosni Mubarak.

Mr. Morsi, an Islamist and EgyptÂ’s first elected president, portrayed his decree as an attempt to fulfill popular demands for justice and protect the transition to a constitutional democracy. But the unexpected breadth of the powers he seized raised immediate fears that he might become a new strongman. Seldom in history has a postrevolutionary leader amassed so much personal power only to relinquish it swiftly.

“An absolute presidential tyranny,” Amr Hamzawy, a liberal member of the dissolved Parliament and prominent political scientist, wrote in an online commentary. “Egypt is facing a horrifying coup against legitimacy and the rule of law and a complete assassination of the democratic transition.”

Mr. Morsi issued the decree at a high point in his five-month-old presidency, when he was basking in praise from the White House and around the world for his central role in negotiating a cease-fire that the previous night had stopped the fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.

But his political opponents immediately called for demonstrations on Friday to protest his new powers. “Passing a revolutionary demand within a package of autocratic decisions is a setback for the revolution,” Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a more liberal former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a former presidential candidate, wrote online. And the chief of the Supreme Constitutional Court indicated that it did not accept the decree.

In Washington, a senior State Department official said, “We are seeking more information about President Morsi’s decisions and declarations today, which have raised concerns.”
A little late to be concerned after Champ has endorsed everything Morsi has done, isn't it?
Mr. MorsiÂ’s advisers portrayed the decree as an attempt to cut through the deadlock that has stalled EgyptÂ’s convoluted political transition more than 20 months after President MubarakÂ’s ouster. Mr. MorsiÂ’s more political opponents and the holdover judicial system, they argued, were sabotaging the transition to thwart the Islamist majority.
Might give Champ ideas...
The liberal and secular opposition has repeatedly threatened to boycott the Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly, led by Mr. MorsiÂ’s allies in the Muslim BrotherhoodÂ’s Freedom and Justice Party. And as the assembly nears a deadline set under an earlier interim transition plan, most secular members and the representatives of the Coptic Church have walked out, costing it up to a quarter of its 100 members and much of its legitimacy.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Constitutional Court — which Mr. Mubarak had tried to stack with loyalists and where a few judges openly fear Islamists — is poised to issue a decision that could dissolve the current assembly and require a new one. The same court already dissolved an earlier assembly and, on the eve of Mr. Morsi’s election in June, also dissolved Parliament, in each case citing technical issues of eligibility.

After the dissolution of Parliament, leaders of the council of generals who had ruled since Mr. MubarakÂ’s ouster seized all legislative power and control of the budget. But in August, Mr. Morsi won the backing of many other generals and officers for a decree that returned the army to its barracks and left him in sole control of the government, with executive and legislative authority.

ThursdayÂ’s decree frees Mr. Morsi, his decrees and the constitutional assembly from judicial oversight as well.
Most importantly, it frees him...
In a television interview, Mr. Morsi’s spokesman, Yasser Ali, stressed that the expanded powers would last only until the ratification of a new constitution in a few months, calling the decree “an attempt to end the transitional period as soon as possible.”
"I plan to be absolute ruler and do as I please. But only for now. Trust me."
“Going around in a vicious circle in a transitional period has to end,” he said, apparently referring to the deadlocked constitutional assembly. In some respects, Mr. Morsi’s decree fulfills opposition demands. Secular representatives in the constitutional assembly had walked out in part over their accusation that the Islamists were unfairly rushing the work. But the decree pushes the deadline back two months from the end of the year.

Mr. Morsi also replaced the public prosecutor, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, a Mubarak appointee widely criticized for failing to win stronger sentences against Mr. Mubarak and his associates, and against abusive police officers. (Mr. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for overseeing the killing of protesters, but the verdict found no direct evidence of his involvement, paving the way for an appeal.)

Mr. MahmoudÂ’s replacement is Talaat Ibrahim Abdullah, former leader of the movement for judicial independence under Mr. Mubarak.

Mr. Morsi ordered retrials for Mr. Mubarak and others accused of responsibility for killing civilian protesters during the uprising. He stripped the accused of protections against being tried twice for the same crime and issued a law setting up a new transitional legal system to handle the retrials.

Another decree provision granted the president the “power to take all necessary measures and procedures” against any potential threat to the revolution.

On the Web site of the state newspaper Al Ahram, a prominent jurist, Salah Eissa, urged citizens “to take to the street and die, because Egypt is lost,” adding, “immunizing the decisions of the president with a constitutional declaration is a forgery and a fraud.”

Nathan J. Brown, a scholar of the Egyptian legal system at George Washington University, summed up the overall message: “I, Morsi, am all powerful. And in my first act as being all powerful, I declare myself more powerful still. But don’t worry — it’s just for a little while.”
Posted by:Steve White

#18  DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > MORSY REASSURES EGYPTIANS AS PROTESTS GROW.

Protection of Freedom-n-Democracy = "the Revolution".
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2012-11-23 21:08  

#17  HHHHMMMM, HHHMMMMM, MORSI as YUL BRYNNER as "RAMESSES" = "SO LET IT BE WRITTEN, SO LET IT BE DONE"???

Morsi's gotta know already that iff some of the Islamist Ultra-Radics get their way, THE PHAROAHS + THAT PART OF PRE-ISLAMIC ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HISTOIRE', CIVILIZATION, SCHOLARSHIP, WORLD HERITAGE, ETC. WILL BE PERMAMENTLY REMOVED FROM RECORD + HUMAN MEMORY.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2012-11-23 19:20  

#16  Well at least it was nice of him to wait until Champ was re-elected. Though I think Morsi has severely under-estimated the lengths the non-islamists will go. They have nothing to lose and have already seen themselves not only come out on top of Mubarak, but seen what is happened Libya and is happening in Syria.

Well see how it goes, but there's a miniscule chance this could get entertaining in a very twisted and bloody way. Black Friday deals on popcorn, must find...
Posted by: Elmash Slomoter6781   2012-11-23 18:36  

#15  That thing that just flew out the window ... was the illusion of a moderate Muslim government.
Posted by: Raider   2012-11-23 16:59  

#14  They're working on it Excalibur. Massive voter fraud is one step of many.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2012-11-23 13:44  

#13  This is what the Left was celebrating with the Arab Spring. If they had their way, Obama would do the same thing.
Posted by: Excalibur   2012-11-23 13:08  

#12  I'm gobsmacked! I certainly didn't see that comming.
(Yes I did)
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2012-11-23 10:11  

#11  Might give Champ ideas...

#ell, Champ probably gave HIM the ideas in the first place. It's always been obvious that Champ wants to rule by decree.
Posted by: AlanC   2012-11-23 09:36  

#10  Mubarak part deux ... or is that Naser part deux ... or wait, Sadat ... Nope, I think a bit more like Naser.
Posted by: Squinty Chaith8856   2012-11-23 09:05  

#9  update
Decree by Egypt's Mursi raises rights concerns: UN
Posted by: tipper   2012-11-23 08:23  

#8  An Iranian-style socialist state without oil. This cannot end well.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2012-11-23 07:46  

#7  He takes more power over his failing state, so in the end----he owns the result.
Agree AP. fact is Egypt is destitute, if he gets the US, the EU and the IMF off side, he is in diabolical trouble. Israel needs a failed state in Egypt ala Syria like it needs a hole in the head.
The only solution is to put the Mamluks back in charge again and forget the mirage of an "Arab Spring" nonsense.
Posted by: tipper   2012-11-23 07:22  

#6  Holy Hubris, Batman!

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

He takes more power over his failing state, so in the end----he owns the result.

I may be out on a limb here, but I think that Bibi may see the failing state of Egypt, and that a cease fire with Hamas buys Israel the time to have Egypt fail rather than be united under Morsi fighting or backing Hamas over the conflict in Gaza. Just ramblings.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2012-11-23 04:43  

#5  The Jesse Jackson of the Arab world.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2012-11-23 04:21  

#4  a quote from the Arabist (a secular bitterly anti Israel, anti US guy),

“I, Morsi, am all powerful. And in my first act as being all powerful, I declare myself more powerful still. But don’t worry—it’s just for a little while.”
Posted by: lord garth   2012-11-23 03:17  

#3  Likee springee.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2012-11-23 01:43  

#2  Arabic democracy: one man, one vote, one time.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2012-11-23 00:19  

#1  Own it. Just don't be surprised how undesirable that winds up being...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2012-11-23 00:13  

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