Muslim Brotherhood to form party; Egypt's generals reach out to protest leaders

CAIRO - The once-banned Muslim Brotherhood said Tuesday that it would form a political party and assist in rewriting Egypt's constitution, positioning itself to play a key role in the country's political future.

The Brotherhood, an archenemy of former president Hosni Mubarak, said it would move quickly to organize a political wing - something it was prohibited from doing under the old regime.

"The Muslim Brotherhood group believes in the freedom of the formation of political parties," a leader of the movement, Mohammed al-Mursi, said in a statement.

Egypt's military rulers, who like Mubarak have traditionally seen the fundamentalist Brotherhood as a threat to the country's secular establishment, indicated that they are coming to terms with the idea of the movement becoming active in politics.

Fie ld Marshal Mohammed Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Military Council that has imposed martial law, met Tuesday with eight legal experts whom the military has asked to draft changes to the constitution. One of the scholars is Sobhi Saleh, a member of the Brotherhood.

In Washington, President Obama said Tuesday, "Obviously there's still a lot of work to be done in Egypt . . . but what we've seen so far is positive." He noted that Egypt's Supreme Military Council has met with the opposition and reaffirmed its commitment to treaties, including a peace treaty with Israel.

"Egypt is going to require help in building democratic institutions and strengthening the economy ," Obama told a White House news conference. "So far at least, we're seeing the right signals coming out of Egypt."

The Supreme Military Council has said it wants the legal experts to recommend a constitutional overhaul within 10 days, so that the proposals can be submitted to a popular vote in a referendum in two months.

Changing the constitution is a crucial first step in Egypt's efforts to transform itself into a full-fledged democracy. The old constitution, which has been suspended by the military chiefs, essentially prohibited the formation of new political parties and prevented any candidates from running against Mubarak.

The military chiefs tried to contain growing labor unrest Monday and to reach out to youthful revolutionaries as the formidable task of governing the politically unstable and impoverished country became apparent.

Police officers, ambulance drivers, bankers, journalists and archaeologists marched through the streets of Cairo in separate protests Monday. Emboldened by a sudden burst of freedom that has flowered since Mubarak's departure Friday, the demonstrators demanded higher wages and other benefits.

"This is our ideal chance to make our voices heard," said Ahmed Mahmoud, a manager at a state-owned bank. "You would never see these kind of protests before, not when we had a dictator."

The military council responded with a communique in which it urged Egyptians to go back to work, saying the stoppages were harming the country's security and economy. The council imposed martial law Sunday, and officials hinted that they would ban strikes if things did not improve.

"Honorable Egyptians regard these demonstrations, which are taking place at a critical moment, as leading to negative consequences," read the communique, the fifth handed down by the military council since last week.

Meanwhile, leaders of the pro-democracy demonstrations that ended Mubarak's nearly three-decade rule said Monday that they had begun direct talks with the military chiefs for the first time.

The negotiations, described as exploratory, were held Sunday at military intelligence headquarters in Cairo, said Khaled al-Sayed, a protest organizer who attended. Another round is scheduled for Wednesday.

Representing the Supreme Military Council at the meeting were Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hegazy, an army commander, and Maj. Gen. Mohammed Abdel Fattah, head of military intelligence, according to the protesters.

At the Sunday meeting, according to the protest leaders, the generals said an early priority for the military council is to quickly overhaul Egypt's constitution, which was designed to stifle political opposition to Mubarak.

In an interview, Sayed said the generals expressed sympathy toward the demonstrators' cause and their desire to return to civilian rule as soon as possible. But he said they gave few other specifics. They also refused, he said, demands to release political prisoners and overturn Egypt's state-of-emergency law, a legal measure Mubarak relied on for three decades to arrest dissidents.

"They told us that they agree with us, but they were reserved when we raised our specific issues," Sayed said. He said he also was skeptical of the generals' assertion that they would hand over power to a civilian government in less than six months. "That's also just talk," he said.

Wael Ghonim, a Google marketing executive who was one of eight protest organizers at the meeting, said in a Facebook posting that he was more optimistic.

"I felt like we were all one and that we all want what's best for Egypt," wrote Ghonim, who had been detained by Mubarak's security forces for 12 days and was released last week. "As an individual I feel that Egypt is in honest hands and that we are truly on the right path to achieve democracy."

For now, Egypt's head of state is Tantawi, leader of the Supreme Military Council and the defense minister under Mubarak. He has made no public statements since taking over from Mubarak on Friday. Instead, the military council has been communicating to the public solely via the communiques. They have been read on state television by Maj. Gen. Mohsen el-Fangari, a member of the council and a deputy to Tantawi.

The Obama administration has been in regular contact with Tantawi since the protests erupted Jan. 25 and has praised him for ordering the armed forces to assume a neutral role and not crack down on the demonstrators.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates spoke by telephone with Tantawi the day after Mubarak's resignation. It was the sixth conversation between the two men since the protests began, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.

The Supreme Military Council has said that it will remain in control of Egypt for six months, or until new elections can be held. It has not specified when the elections might occur, leaving the door open to indefinite military rule.

Analysts and diplomats in Cairo, however, said it appears that Tantawi is eager to make changes quickly rather than have the armed forces assume long-term responsibility for running Egypt - and addressing its many social and economic problems.

"My own sense of the field marshal is that he's not really comfortable being the governor of Egypt," said a Western diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing the military chiefs. Meanwhile, rumors continued to swirl about the fate of Mubarak, who departed Cairo on Friday on a plane with his wife and has not been seen since.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Monday that the European Union will discuss a request from Egypt's military rulers to freeze assets held by members of Mubarak's regime, the Associated Press reported. Hague did not specify whether Mubarak's assets would be targeted, the AP said.

Sameh Shoukry, Egypt's ambassador to the United States, said Monday that he had heard through personal, unofficial channels that Mubarak was "possibly in somewhat of bad health." Shoukry, who was interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, said he did not have specifics.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq has said that Mubarak is in Sharm el-Sheikh, a Red Sea resort where he maintains a villa. A senior U.S. administration official said the White House also thinks that Mubarak is staying in Sharm el-Sheikh.

His vice president, Omar Suleiman, also has disappeared from view since going on state television Friday to announce Mubarak's resignation.

Some Egyptian military officials have told diplomats that Suleiman has formally retired, while others said his position was abolished when Mubarak handed over power to the armed forces.

On Sunday, Shafiq said it was possible that the military council would ask Suleiman, Egypt's longtime spy chief, to assume another position.

Hosam Sowilan, a retired major general who knows Suleiman, said his future remained up in the air."Right now, he's no longer in authority," Sowilan said. "But he's very honest, and he could play a very active role if the Supreme Military Council asks him to do that."

Sources : washingtonpost

Iranian security forces in place ahead of opposition rallies

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- The Iranian government kept a heavy security presence across central portions of the capital Monday, and blocked the homes of opposition leaders after they called for rallies in support of the uprising in Egypt.

Last week, the Iranian government rounded up activists after opposition leaders Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Moussavi called for supporters to gather at Tehran's Azadi Square -- the site of mass protests by Iran's opposition movement after the disputed 2009 presidential elections.

Security forces on Monday blocked roads leading to Moussavi's home, his opposition website Kaleme reported. The website also said phone lines and cell phone service to the area have been cut off.

Plain-clothes security forces blocked Moussavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, from leaving their home Monday, said Kaleme and another opposition website, Saham News.

"This is what we've been told do," security forces said when Rahnavard asked why she couldn't leave, Sahan reported. "We're sorry."

Surveillance cameras, installed outside Karrubi's home have been stolen and destroyed, Kalame reported.

About 50 riot police on motorcycles were seen heading toward Azadi Square, while 100 more were stationed at Ferdowsi Square in the city center.

Iranian authorities had warned against holding the rally, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

"We definitely see them as enemies of the revolution and spies, and we will confront them with force," Revolutionary Guard Cmdr. Hossein Hamedani told IRNA.

The government's stance on the rally was in stark contrast to its position in the days following the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The head of Iran's National Security Council and other Iranian authorities had lauded this development, comparing "the Egyptian Revolution with the victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution," according to Iran's state-run media.

The White House says such threats to stifle dissent and mass communication suggest that Iran's government is not willing to let its people voice their views and embrace freedom.

"They are scared," then-press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday, hours after Mubarak stepped down.

"That's why they threatened to kill anybody that tries to do this," Gibbs of the Iranian government. "That's why they have shut off all measure of communication."

Over the weekend, Iranian authorities blocked the word "Bahman" -- the 11th month of the Persian calendar -- from Internet searches within the country, according to an opposition website.

The measure appears to be an effort by Iranian authorities to obstruct access to several websites that are promoting the rally -- the 25th day of Bahman, Saham News reported Saturday.

Sources : cnn

Uncertain Fate For Egypt's U.S.-Supplied Weapons Systems by Thalif Deen

Besieged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a former air force officer whose 30-year old authoritarian regime is under attack, presides over a country described as one of the major military powers in the region, ranking next to Israel and Turkey.

Since it signed the U.S.-brokered Camp David Peace Treaty with Israel back in September 1978, Egypt has been the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. military equipment, including state-of-the art fighter planes, warships, missiles, battle tanks and electronic equipment.

If the Mubarak regime collapses, will all this U.S. equipment fall into the 'wrong hands'?

Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, told IPS the pro-democracy protests are primarily led by young people who are not only alienated from the ruling regime, but also from the traditional Islamist opposition and the aging Muslim Brotherhood leadership as well.

As a result, he said, the United States probably shouldn't worry about a radical Islamist regime coming to power.

'It should also be noted, however, that a truly democratic government in Egypt would not likely be as willing as Mubarak to do the bidding of Washington or the International Monetary Fund (IMF),' said Zunes, who has written extensively on Middle Eastern politics.

The weapons in the Egyptian military arsenal include F-16 fighter planes, attack helicopters, frigates, advanced Sidewinder and Hellfire missiles and Abrams battle tanks - purchased mostly with U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF).

The billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Egypt via FMF has remained gratis, says Dan Darling, Europe & Middle East Military Markets Analyst at Forecast International Inc., a U.S.-based defence market research firm.

Egypt was designated a major non-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) ally by the United States in 1989 under the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

Among other things, Darling told IPS, this status allows Cairo access to more sophisticated U.S. weaponry and opens the door for entry into cooperative research and development projects alongside the United States.

Since then, there have been attempts by the U.S. Congress to curtail levels of military aid to Egypt for reasons of emphasising democratic reforms or stifling the flow of weapons-smuggling by Hamas via tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, he pointed out.

'These attempts have largely come to nothing,' said Darling. Instead, the tap has been maintained as Egypt has stuck to the parametres of the Camp David Accords.

From 2004 through 2010, the level of annual FMF has remained consistent at 1.3 billion dollars or just slightly below, and the Pentagon request for 2011 maintains this level.

This figure is likely to remain intact through the medium- term future - barring extreme political shocks, such as a Muslim Brotherhood/Islamist takeover in Cairo or an abrogation of the Camp David Accords by Egypt, he added.

Zunes told IPS there has never been a legitimate defence rationale for U.S. military aid to Egypt.

'This security assistance is largely designed for internal repression to prevent democratic change and to keep the Mubarak dictatorship in power,' he declared.

Prior to the Camp David peace treaty, Egypt was a longtime recipient of Soviet weaponry under a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Moscow. The Aswan Dam, a major economic showpiece, was built with financial assistance from the then Soviet Union.

But with the Camp David accord, Egypt switched its political and military loyalties from the Soviet Union to the United States.

Still, Egypt remains in the process of steadily weaning itself off former Soviet legacy hardware; prior to 1978 the Egyptian Army was largely equipped with Soviet weaponry.

Darling said the Egyptian military still has healthy amounts of Soviet-/Russian-designed hardware, but its last orders came during the 2001-05 period when it agreed to purchase 400 million dollars in Russian arms.

Currently, the United States is the overwhelming arms supplier to Egypt, providing it with 85 percent of its weaponry between 2001 and 2008, and 86 percent from 2002 to 2009, he added.

In terms of conventional size and capabilities, said Darling, Egypt has one of the strongest militaries in the Middle East, behind Israel and Turkey and ahead of Iran in terms of advanced firepower - air and sea power, armoured/mechanised capabilities.

However, it remains a relatively static heavy military force focused on defence of the Sinai and matching the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), rather reforming itself into the type of flexible, quick reaction forces being emphasised by NATO militaries - the type which can undertake multiple tasks and combat multiple threats, be they non-state actors (Hamas), sub-state actors (Hezbollah), transnational terrorist groups, crisis relief efforts, or combating piracy on the high seas or littoral areas, declared Darling.

Sources : globalissues

Egyptians Pay Heavily For Uprising

The massive economic toll of Egypt’s popular uprising appears to be motivating the government to take extraordinary and often brutal measures to put an end to massive demonstrations calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

'Mubarak feels confident he’s still in control, but he wants a swift end to the demonstrations for economical reasons as much as political ones,' says political analyst Amr Hashem Rabie. 'I think the aim is to extinguish all demonstrations and be back in business by (the start of the work week on) Sunday.'

The popular uprising, now in its 12th consecutive day, shows no sign of letting up. Police and armed thugs have attacked anti-government demonstrators with rocks, swords, teargas and, at times, live ammunition. UN officials estimate that over 300 Egyptians have been killed, and thousands injured in clashes since the uprising began Jan. 25.

Yet Friday’s turnout of anti-regime protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square may have exceeded the record crowds during last Tuesday’s ‘March of the Million’. Enormous anti-Mubarak demonstrations have also been reported in major cities across the country.

Egyptians are divided over their desired outcome, with some activists looking to topple the Mubarak regime overnight, others seeking to shorten the transition, and some groups calling for the president to serve his remaining term. But all agree that the longer the crisis lasts the more poor — at the heart of the uprising — are likely to suffer from its economic fallout.

'I am not pro-Mubarak, but I want the protests to end so we can get back to our lives,' says Gabr Mohsen, owner of a boarded up electronics shop in Cairo’s Mohandiseen district. 'The crisis is only worsening our economic situation - the reason people are protesting in the first place.'

Egypt’s uprising is costing the country at least 310 million dollars a day, according to economists at French bank Credit Agricole.

The country’s financial system is reeling. The government halted all bank and stock market activity Jan. 27 as Egyptians and foreign investors reacting to the unrest raced to pull out their savings and investments. Egypt’s stock market shed 12 billion dollars, or about 16 percent of its value, in two days before trading was halted.

Cabinet sources say the Egyptian government is determined to resolve the crisis and restore financial markets within the next 48 hours. Whether Mubarak will accomplish this through a heavy crackdown to suppress anti- government demonstrations, or by negotiating a political solution with activists and opposition groups, remains to be seen.

'Investors would like to see things open sooner rather than later, and not follow the Tunisia example, where the stock exchange took a long time to reopen,' says Simon Kitchen, a senior economist at investment bank EFG- Hermes. 'They also want a clear indication from authorities on what the exchange rate policy will be.'

The Egyptian pound has fallen to six-year lows, and some economists forecast it could shed up to 20 percent of its value as investors retreat to more stable economies.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has said it would reopen selected branches of banks on Sunday with limited operating hours and certain restrictions in place. It has also pledged to honour all financial commitments, including 3.6 billion dollars worth of treasury bills that must be redeemed next week.

One major concern for international investors watching events unfold in Egypt is the Suez Canal, a vital shipping route and major conduit for oil shipments. Officials say the canal, which generated 4.7 billion dollars in revenues for Egypt in 2010, has remained open during the crisis.

While half a million barrels of oil pass through the canal each day, of greater significance to energy markets is the nearby SUMED pipeline, which runs from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The 350-kilometre pipeline carries about 1.1 million barrels of oil a day and is more vulnerable to attack.

Last week, the price of Brent crude oil topped 100 dollars a barrel for the first time in two years on fears the Egyptian uprising could disrupt supplies.

More critical to Egypt’s national economy is the long-term effect on the country’s key revenue earner, tourism. In 2010, over 15 million tourists visited Egypt, generating about 12 billion dollars. The sector employs about 12.6 percent of Egypt’s workforce, and represents about 11 percent of the country’s economic output.

Vice-President Omar Suleiman said in an interview on state television on Thursday that Egypt’s tourism sector had lost at least one billion dollars since Jan. 25 and that the protests had chased a million tourists out of the country.

'I haven’t sold even a postcard since the protests began,' complains souvenir shop owner Hassan Ibrahim.

The economy is also going to have to bear the brunt of Mubarak’s decision to cut off all Internet services for five days last week. Officials hit the kill switch in an effort to prevent online activists from mobilising anti-government protesters on the streets. They also temporarily halted mobile phone and messaging services.

The self-imposed Internet exile cost the country 90 million dollars, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

'Shutting off the Internet to stop the protests proved totally ineffective,' says Diaa Abdel Hamid, a media rights researcher. 'The protesters were already in the streets, and online businesses and call centres took a big hit.'

Adel Beshai, professor of economics at the American University in Cairo, says the economic fallout will put more pressure on the poor, but Egypt’s economy has historically demonstrated it can weather turmoil.

'If the dust settles soon, investors will look and find opportunities,' he says. 'There will be an adjustment period during which the economy will limp, but economists are continually surprised by the speed at which Egypt’s economy recovers for crises.'

Sources : © Inter Press Service (2011)

US Military ‘Watching Egypt Closely’

On Jan. 29, Adm. Jim Stavridis, commander of U.S. European Command, tweeted: "Watching Egypt closely. Talking with Gen. Jim Mattis of U.S. Central Command about it."

But despite the chaos of the ongoing anti-government protests, so far all the American military has had to do is watch as the State Department directs the effort to secure and evacuate U.S. citizens.

While an undisclosed number of Marines and diplomatic security service personnel were sent to Cairo in recent days to augment the embassy's existing guard detachment, top State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the security situation doesn't demand a military response.

"Obviously, it's an uncertain situation on the ground," Crowley said at a Jan. 31 briefing. "That said, we have no information to suggest that American citizens have been targets. No American citizens have been killed or injured."

But if the threat grows suddenly, there are American forces in position to respond.

According to the Pentagon, the Enterprise carrier strike group sailed into the Mediterranean Jan. 31, including a cruiser, two destroyers and a carrier air group. The Marine Corps has less of a presence, with the Kearsarge amphibious assault ship in the Indian Ocean and most of its 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit troops ashore in Afghanistan.

Marine spokesman Capt. Brian Block said the MEU still has most of its aircraft, including MV-22 Ospreys and CH-53E Super Stallions that could be used in an evacuation if things go downhill in Egypt. But he declined to comment on potential Marine role in an evacuation.

An Air Force spokesman said the service is standing by to assist in any evacuation efforts but has not received orders. The Air Force has mobility aircraft, including C-17 Globemaster IIIs, operating out of several bases with relatively short flight times to Cairo. The nearest is Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, which is about two hours away.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said non-combatant evacuations typically are last-resort operations. Planners look at various scenarios to accomplish the mission, factoring in distance, available aircraft, flight times, weight and possible refueling requirements, he said.

"You'd like to be close enough to fly helos in and out without refueling if you can. But if circumstances don't permit, you find other options," he told reporters at the Pentagon.

Regarding U.S. military assets in the region, he said, "I wouldn't describe any of it as increased because we have a robust military presence in that region normally, both in the Mediterranean and the [Persian] Gulf."

Lapan refused to speculate on when the Enterprise CSG would reach the Egyptian coast or continue through the Suez Canal on the way to the Persian Gulf.

"It all depends on the schedule that it gets according to circumstances," he said. "They don't put out a schedule that says on this day we go here and this day we go here, and so it'll all be circumstantial."

According to the State Department, so far around six charter flights per day have managed to get a total of just over 1,500 Americans out of Egypt. There are about 50,000 Americans registered with the embassy in Cairo.

"We have used a couple of military flights that happened to transit Cairo so the military is modestly supplementing the flow so far," State Department spokesman Crowley said in an e-mail to Military.com. "If things got ugly, we would use all transportation means at our disposal, helping to move people by commercial air, overland and even cruise ships that dock in Egyptian ports. If we had to tap into military assets in the area, the use of military cargo aircraft could be expanded as needed. But at this point there is a sufficiently permissive environment that the use of military assets is not needed."

But regardless of the situation on the ground, an evacuation mission by the American military would be met with significant pushback from the Egyptians. "It is exceedingly unlikely that the Egyptian government or any successor would request U.S. presence, since that would tend to delegitimize whoever made the request," said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer at the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute.

And Thompson doubts how effective American forces could be in the event things got beyond the control of the locals. "The Egyptian military is highly professional and capable of controlling any disturbance so long as it remains unified," he said. "If the military divides into factions ... that could lead to violent chaos -- not the sort of situation where inserting U.S. forces would make sense."

Crowley had a similar view regarding the role and ability of local troops: "The important thing to focus on right now is the performance of the Egyptian military which has turned out and is a stabilizing force. It is a professional military and has trained extensively with the U.S. military."

-- Military.com editor Ward Carroll, associate editor Bryant Jordan and DoD Buzz editor Colin Clark contributed to this report.

Egyptian Army Moves to Stop Violence

CAIRO -- Egyptian army tanks and soldiers moved to end violence between anti-government protesters and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's central square on Thursday after standing by for nearly a day as the two sides battled with rocks, sticks, bottles and firebombs.

Hours after automatic gunfire hit the anti-government protest camp at Tahrir Square, killing at least three protesters, soldiers carrying rifles could be seen lining up between the two sides around 11 a.m. Several hundred other soldiers were moving toward the front line.

Four tanks cleared a highway overpass from where Mubarak supporters had hurled rocks and firebombs onto the protesters.

The pre-dawn firing escalated what appeared to be a well-orchestrated series of assaults on the demonstrators that began when Mubarak supporters charged into the square on horses and camels on Wednesday afternoon, lashing people with whips, while others rained firebombs and rocks from rooftops.

Anti-Mubarak demonstrators traded showers of rocks and other projectiles in a counter-assault that drove their assailants out of the square within hours. Anti-government protesters took army trucks and set up an ad-hoc front line on the northern edge of the square, near the famed Egyptian Museum. The two sides traded volleys of rocks and Molotov cocktails for much of the night, until sustained bursts of automatic gunfire and powerful single shots rained into the square starting at around 4 a.m. and continuing for more than two hours.

The protesters accused Mubarak's regime of unleashing a force of paid thugs and plainclothes police to crush their unprecedented nine-day-old movement, a day after the 82-year-old president refused to step down. They showed off police ID badges they said were wrested from their attackers. Some government workers said their employers ordered them into the streets.

The anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests to force him out by Friday.

The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, who had kept a peaceful vigil in Tahrir Square for five days, prompted a sharp rebuke from Washington, which has considered Egypt its most important Arab ally for decades, and sends it $1.5 billion a year in aid.

"If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Egypt's Interior Ministry denied sending plainclothes policemen to join the crowds attacking protesters.

Protest organizer Mustafa el-Naggar said he saw the bodies of three dead protesters being carried toward an ambulance before dawn Thursday. He said the gunfire came from at least three locations in the distance and that the Egyptian military, which has ringed the square with tank squads for days to try to keep some order, did not intervene.

Footage from AP Television News appeared to show two more dead bodies being dragged along the highway overpass where the Mubarak supporters were massed.

At one point, a tank spread a thick smoke screen along the overpass, just to the north of the square, in an apparent attempt to deprive attackers of a high vantage point. Farther back in the square, around 4,000 protesters were holding out. A man with a microphone called out the names of the missing -- most of them children -- from the hours of clashes.

At an open-air clinic in the middle of the square, doctors treated the injured. Dr. Amr el-Yamani said most had suffered head injuries from hurled rocks.

Mustafa el-Fiqqi, a senior official from the ruling National Democratic Party, told The Associated Press that businessmen connected to the ruling party were responsible for Wednesday's attacks on the protesters.

Egyptian Health Minister Ahmed Sameh Farid said three people died and at least 611 were injured in Tahrir Square on Wednesday. One of those killed fell from a bridge near the square; Farid said the man was in civilian clothes but may have been a member of the security forces.

Farid did not say how the other two victims, both young men, were killed. It was not clear whether they were government supporters or anti-Mubarak demonstrators.

After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by the uprising in Tunisia took to the streets of Cairo and other cities on Jan. 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable series of demonstrations across this nation of 80 million.

State TV said Vice President Omar Suleiman called "on the youth to heed the armed forces' call and return home to restore order." From the other side, senior anti-Mubarak figure Mohamed ElBaradei demanded the military "intervene immediately and decisively to stop this massacre."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke with Suleiman to condemn the violence and urge Egypt's government to hold those responsible for it accountable, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

The United States and European allies including Britain, France and Germany have been pressing Mubarak to begin a political transition immediately. Mubarak promised Tuesday not to run for re-election in September, named a new government and appointed a vice president for the first time, widely considered his designated successor.

A joint statement from five European leaders Tuesday said they are watching the unrest in Egypt with "utmost concern" and condemned "all those who use or encourage violence, which will only aggravate the political crisis in Egypt."

Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hossam Zaki, said the government considered the calls unwelcome interference.

"It is very regrettable to find that countries such as the United States, Britain and France want to benefit from the current circumstances to achieve political goals and benefits," Zaki said.


© Copyright 2011 Associated Press

Sources : www.military.com

Fear/Don't fear the Muslim Brotherhood

The country of Egypt is poised to adopt some form of democracy, that seems fairly certain. Many fear that the Muslim Brotherhood will be part of this process and attempt to dominate it. Well of course they will. They are Egyptians and while their group has been illegal, and rightfully so, do we really think there is any way that the only real, organized opposition party would not be part of a post-Mubarak system? Excluding them from the process is not even an option, at all, period. So why is it the main reason given for not engaging the protesters? Here is a quick bit from Stanley Kurtz at NRO.

"Now Egypt, the keystone of American policy in the Middle East, has become unstable. Obama has no choice but to take controversial and high-risk action of some sort. Apparently, he has chosen to go with the “Don’t Fear the Brotherhood” crowd. In other words, when push comes to shove, Obama goes with the dovish multiculturalism that is his default political stance. If the administration sticks with this policy, it will mean the return of foreign policy as a major partisan dividing line in American politics. Had Obama kept the Muslim Brotherhood out, or had he at least visibly tried to do so, he might have avoided a campaign battle over “Who lost Egypt?” But having moved so visibly and so early to bring the Muslim Brotherhood in, Obama may soon be facing a return of the classic right/left battle lines over foreign policy"

OK, I'm pretty sure that my lack of respect for Obama and his gutless, politically-driven foreign policy is well established, and I don't think anyone could say that dovish multiculturalism is my default stance. Yet I may worry about the Muslim Brotherhood and believe they are the same evil, bearded bastards trying to subjugate the world to spread their barbaric system of religious submission. Yep, solid on that. But so what? We used Mubarak to minimize them for as long as possible, and apparently that is right now. We have used our strong ties with the Egyptian military to ensure that the proto-revolutionaries don't become track grease for tanks like the Tianamen Square folks. But absent some sort of pogrom-like appraoch, the MB will play some role in the formation and operation of the next government.

So let's act like it and help the fledging democrats there minimize the influence of the MB. Now is the time to deploy the left's alinskyite minions to demonize the religious zealots and remind the Egyptians not to trade a secular tyrant for a religious one. We cannot win over the haters, but we can sure work on the other 80% of the population, who are more concerned about dinner. Reuel Marc Gerecht on the messy initial stages of Arab democracy.

“I fully expect the Muslim Brotherhood to do well in any election,” Gerecht tells me. “They have a fairly substantial following.” He has no illusions about the group’s Islamist agenda, or about its virulent anti-Americanism, or about its hatred of Israel. In his view, calling for U.S. “engagement” with the Brotherhood is like calling for engagement with Ayatollah Khamenei. But Gerecht insists that allowing Brotherhood members to participate in a democratic process is the sine qua non of Egyptian political maturation. The country will never achieve real progress, he says, without first creating the political space necessary for a momentous debate over God and man. Indeed, Egypt’s secular liberals must defeat the Islamists in the public square, rather than through military repression. They must win the battle of ideas.

If your argument is that the society as a whole is not ready for western democracy, then let's have the military caretake them for a short bit. This will allow time for alternatives to the MB to form and grow and if they end up w/ some sort of parliamentary system, then a bloc could form without the MB and leave them in the minority.There is no way, short of a brutal anti-Islamic oppression which isn't going to happen, that the MB will be completely sidelined. So the best bet is to help those who can beat them in the democracy game. Anyone heard from MoveOn?

Sources : blackfive

Calling for Restraint, Pentagon Faces Test of Influence With Ally

The officer corps of Egypt’s powerful military has been educated at defense colleges in the United States for 30 years. The Egyptian armed forces have about 1,000 American M1A1 Abrams tanks, which the United States allows to be built on Egyptian soil. Egypt permits the American military to stage major operations from its bases, and has always guaranteed the Americans passage through the Suez Canal.
The relationship between the Egyptian and American militaries is, in fact, so close that it was no surprise on Friday to find two dozen senior Egyptian military officials at the Pentagon, halfway through an annual week of meetings, lunches and dinners with their American counterparts.

By the afternoon, the Egyptians had cut short the talks to return to Cairo, but not before a top Defense Department official, Alexander Vershbow, had urged them to exercise “restraint,” the Pentagon said.

It remained unclear on Saturday, as the Egyptian Army was deployed on the streets of Cairo for the first time in decades, to what degree the military would remain loyal to the embattled president, Hosni Mubarak.

The crisis has left the Obama administration to try to navigate a peaceful outcome and remain close to an important ally, and the military relationship could be crucial in that effort.

One fear was the possibility that, despite the Egyptian Army’s seemingly passive stance on Saturday, the soldiers would begin firing on the protesters — an action that would probably be seen as leading to an end to the army’s legitimacy.

“If they shoot on the crowd, they could win tomorrow, and then there will be a revolt that will sweep them away,” said Bruce O. Riedel, an expert on the Middle East and Asia at the Brookings Institution, who predicted that in any event Mr. Mubarak would step down.

A possible successor — and a sign of how closely the military is intertwined with the ruling party — is Omar Suleiman, the intelligence chief and a former general, who was sworn in as the new vice president. Mr. Suleiman is considered Mr. Mubarak’s closest confidant and a hard-liner, although Obama administration officials say they consider him someone they can work with. In meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, they say, he has shown substance and an ability to deliver on promises.

Mr. Riedel, who was an Egypt analyst at the C.I.A. when President Anwar el-Sadat was assassinated in 1981 and has since tracked the rise of Islamic extremism in that country, said that the Egyptian military would be a critical player in any deal to remove Mr. Mubarak from power.

Unlike the feared Egyptian police forces, which had mostly withdrawn from central Cairo on Saturday, the army is considered professional and a stable force in the country’s politics. Egyptian men all serve in the army, which for the most part enjoys popular support.

Mr. Obama met Saturday afternoon with his national security team at the White House about the uprising, but the officials would not say what, if any, decisions had been reached or whether the administration was trying to negotiate a safe exit for Mr. Mubarak.

One former United States official who is close to the Obama administration, Martin S. Indyk, said that it was time for Mr. Mubarak to go, and that the Egyptian military could serve as a crucial transition power.

“What we have to focus on now is getting the military into a position where they can hold the ring for a moderate and legitimate political leadership to emerge,” said Mr. Indyk, a Middle East peace negotiator in the Clinton administration.


Mr. Suleiman could announce that he would take control as president and hold elections within six months, Mr. Indyk said.

At the Pentagon on Saturday morning, American military officials said that the Egyptian Army was acting professionally and that they had no indications that it was swinging over en masse to the side of the uprising. At the same time, the officials noted, the army had not cracked down on the protests.

“They certainly haven’t inflicted any harm on protesters,” said Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “They’re focused mainly on protecting the institutions of government, as they should be.”

United States military officials said there was no formal line of communication between the Joint Chiefs and the Egyptian military, although they held out that possibility if the crisis deepened. Admiral Mullen had been scheduled to meet on Monday with Lt. Gen. Sami Hafez Enan, who is Egypt’s defense chief and chief of staff of the Egyptian Army. But General Enan was the leader of the delegation of senior Egyptian officials that left abruptly for Cairo on Friday night.

For the Pentagon, the question is how much a military that the United States in large part pays for will be receptive to American influence. Since the 1978 Camp David accords, the United States has given Egypt $35 billion in military aid, making it the largest recipient of conventional American military and economic aid after Israel.

“Is it a force that will listen to us if there is a military takeover and we want them to move to a democratically elected government as soon as possible?” said Anthony H. Cordesman, an expert on the Egyptian military at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They will listen. But this is a very proud group of people. The fact that they will listen doesn’t mean we can in any way leverage them.”

American military officials said on Friday that they had had no formal discussions with their Egyptian counterparts at the Pentagon about how to handle the uprising. “In other words,” said Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “we didn’t say anything to them about how they should handle it, and they didn’t tell us about how they were going to handle it.”

But, General Cartwright said, “hallway” discussions did take place, and American military officials said contingency plans had been made should the American Embassy have to be evacuated.

SOURCES : nytimes

Egypt general cuts short talks with Pentagon

WASHINGTON — Egypt’s military chief of staff is cutting short annual talks in the Pentagon to deal with growing anti-government protests at home.

U.S. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright told a Pentagon press conference Friday that Egypt’s Lt. Gen. Sami Hafez Anan is flying home, just two days into a planned week of meetings in Washington.

Anan was in the U.S. for the highest level strategic talks each year between Washington and Cairo.

Repeating the Obama administration’s position on upheaval in Egypt, Cartwright urged the Egyptian government to show restraint in how it deals with protesters.