Monday, February 07, 2011

"Egypt's cyber-crackdown aided by US company" AlJazeera & Replacing Tyrant Mubarak With His Torturer-In-Chief Omar Suleiman

UPDATE: 5:15 PM, Feb. 7, 2011.

America supports the violent pro-Mubarak anti-democracy thugs.
(the thugs sort of remind one of America's own Tea Party movement thugs. )
The Obama administration refuses to accept that Mubarak and his government were and are a ruthless brutal police state.
Hillary Clinton and Obama want us to believe that President Mubarak is the only cruel and brutal person in the whole regime when in fact the whole regime is corrupt and doesn't give a fig about human rights or democracy .

Meanwhile the thugs are beating and killing people in the square in Cairo.
And Glenn Beck Hillary Clinton and Obama want the state's Torture in chief Suleiman to replace Mubarak as if such a change would lead to a meaningful systemic change in Egypt's brutal and corrupt regime. It would be a mere changing of the guard and it matters little to those being incarcerated, beaten tortured and killed whom their torturers actually work for whether it is Mubarak or Suleiman and whether they call themselves Muslims or Christians or atheists.

Bloodshed in Egypt: Mubarak Supporters Riding on Horses/Camels Violently Attack Protesters in
Via Democracy Now! Amy Goodman




As the journalists at the Electronic Intifada point out the USA Wants To Replace The Tyrant Mubarak With His Notorious Torture-In-Chief head of intelligence Omar Suleiman as many journalists and pundits and Middle East experts are pointing out.

The greatest danger to the Egyptian revolution and the prospects for a free and independent Egypt emanates not from the "baltagiyya" -- the mercenaries and thugs the regime sent to beat, stone, stab, shoot and kill protestors in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities last week -- but from Washington.

Ever since the Egyptian uprising began on 25 January, the United States government and the Washington establishment that rationalizes its policies have been scared to death of "losing Egypt." What they fear losing is a regime that has consistently ignored the rights and well-being of its people in order to plunder the country and enrich the few who control it, and that has done America's bidding, especially supporting Israel in its oppression and wars against the Palestinians and other Arabs.


and as for Omar Suleiman :
Suleiman, long the powerful chief of Egypt's intelligence services, has served -- perhaps even more so than Mubarak -- as the guarantor of Egypt's regional role in maintaining the American- and Israeli-dominated order. As author Jane Mayer has documented, Suleiman played a key role in the US "rendition" program, working closely with the CIA which kidnapped "terror suspects" from around the world and delivered them into Suleiman's hands for interrogation, and almost certainly torture

Above Quotefrom :The danger to Egypt's revolution comes from Washington Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 6 February 2011 for more see below.

For more on US response to Egyptian Uprising and US hypocrisy and DoubleSpeak see:

"It Ain't Just Mubarak -- 7 of the Worst Dictators the U.S. Is Backing to the Hilt
From Saudi Arabia to Uzbekistan to Chad, the U.S. keeps some very bad autocrats in power." by Joshua Holland via Alternet.org, Feb. 5, 2011


" Egyptian Revolution: Protesters Not Settling for Concessions, U.S. Envoy to Egypt Had Business Ties to Mubarak Gov't" by Lauren Kelly via Alternet.org, Feb. 7, 2011

and another reminder of the War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity which were committed under the Bush/Cheney Regime and Obama's failure to prosecute these criminals. Instead Obam has vowed to protect all who took part in these crimes because the US owes no allegiance to International Law-the US is a law unto itself.

" Bush Forced to Cancel Europe Trip After Human Rights Groups Threaten to Prosecute Him for Torture " by Lauren Kelly via Alternet.org, Feb. 7, 2011

Neocon Bill Kristol Slams Conservative ‘Hysteria’ On Egypt, Calls Out Beck’s Delusional ‘Caliphate’ Theory by Alex Seitz-Wald via ThinkProgress.org, Feb. 6, 2011

So which side is Obama on Egypt
AlJazeera Investigates Link between US Company and US Gov't Helping Mubarak to spy and block internet traffic of those who oppose him.
So next will they claim that the opposition are all Islamic terrorists or being controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.
If Mubarak can stay on or those who favor him they can do a lot of damage to the opposition who have now openly and publicly revealed themselves.
And most of those who didn't can be traced on blogs , websites , Twitter and so on.
Will the USA help track them all down and put the El Salvadore solution into action that is using "Death Squads" to get rid of most of the opposition's leaders .
This would be the strategy the US has often followed as they did in Iraq butchering anyone against the "Occupation".

Egypt's cyber-crackdown aided by US company



Video from RT: Russian Television
The country's braced for more trouble as it enters its tenth day of unrest.
The Egyptian army has started arresting anti-government protesters in the centre of Cairo. It marks a change of approach by the military, which previously wasn't intervening in clashes between supporters of President Mubarak and anti-government demonstrators. Five people are reported to have been killed in a morning gunfight in Cairo's Tahrir Square. That follows a day of heavy violence in which hundreds were injured.

Mubarak supporters demonstrate with camels, whips, swords and police ID

RT on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
RT on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RT_com



What has taken place in Tunisia and Egypt is, partly, a cyber-uprising, a bloggers’ revolt. Tools that the West trusts in, namely information, the right to association, and the ease of communication, have proved to be deadly weapons against the dictators. And yet these were the kinds of leaders who in the past had been backed as useful clients. Ben Ali was closing in on the goal of making Tunisia a preferred neighborhood partner of the European Union, a candidacy backed by France, Italy and, to a lesser extent, Spain. In the name of Middle East stability, Mubarak’s price for being able to rule the most populous Arab nation in an absolute manner during three decades was to preserve the peace with Israel.

Ben Ali often stressed his importance as a bulwark against Islamism, even as he permitted a web of corruption to be spun around his entourage, with his network of police muscle and hired thugs to ensure that complaints were rarely audible. On the last night of his rule before flying out of Tunis, Ben Ali’s goons reportedly opened fire on inmates in the country’s jails, part of a savage score-settling session across the country that claimed as-yet-unknown numbers of lives.

Similarly, the man whom U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said he “would not refer to as a dictator” just a few days before he fled Tunisia, allowed his country’s dungeons to fill with opponents of all kinds. Torture was commonplace and abuses went unpunished. As for Mubarak’s Egypt, one way to end up behind bars was to stand in a presidential election against the incumbent. That was the fate of Ayman Nour after he had the impertinence to run for the presidency in 2005

Qoute from article "For the West, act of contrition time" by
James Badcock via Alarabiya.net Feb. 4, 2011


and other critics believe that the USA is not really interested in reform of the whole system of governance in Egypt which is corrupt and undemocratic and has no regard for human rights , freedoms and liberty.
Americans like to make pretty speeches about democracy and human rights but are in fact only interested in protecting its own interests economic, strategical and politically and militarily.
The USA always gets upset when one of its client /puppet states is faced with a popular uprising or is chided by human rights groups for their lack of regard for human rights.

And these days it is unbelievable that the US after all that's taken place since 9/11 has the gall the chutzpah to claim the moral high ground which it lost years ago when it began renditions and abuse and torture of POWs.

So America give the rest of the world a break and know that even non-Americans have rights and have the right to dissent and to protest and insist on fair and free elections.

It is odd how the US government is harshly criticizing the Iranian regime and its treatment of protesters while chastising the protesters in Egypt for not being patient while refusing to come to terms with America's complicity in the crimes committed by Mubarak and his brutal anti-Democratic regime.

So should for example Martin Luther King Jr. have been more patient and waited another 3 or 4 decades for human rights legislation giving black Americans the same rights as White Americans.

In America there are right wingers who still claim racial segregation was not all that bad and that in the end the US feds should not have interfered with state rights to maintain segregation and the Jim Crow Laws.
So we ask again Hey Obama where's the change.

"The danger to Egypt's revolution comes from Washington" Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 6 February 2011

Protesters stand in front of grafitti calling on the US government to stay out of Egypt's affairs, 2 February. (Matthew Cassel)

The greatest danger to the Egyptian revolution and the prospects for a free and independent Egypt emanates not from the "baltagiyya" -- the mercenaries and thugs the regime sent to beat, stone, stab, shoot and kill protestors in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities last week -- but from Washington.

Ever since the Egyptian uprising began on 25 January, the United States government and the Washington establishment that rationalizes its policies have been scared to death of "losing Egypt." What they fear losing is a regime that has consistently ignored the rights and well-being of its people in order to plunder the country and enrich the few who control it, and that has done America's bidding, especially supporting Israel in its oppression and wars against the Palestinians and other Arabs.

The Obama Administration quickly dissociated itself from its envoy to Egypt, Frank Wisner, after the latter candidly told the BBC on 5 February that he thought President Hosni Mubarak "must stay in office in order to steer" any transition to a post-Mubarak order ("US special envoy: 'Mubarak must stay for now'," 5 February 2011).

But one suspects that Wisner was inadvertently speaking in his master's voice. US President Barack Obama and his national security establishment may be willing to give up Mubarak the person, but they are not willing to give up Mubarak's regime. It is notable that the US has never supported the Egyptian protestors' demand that Mubarak must go now. Nor has the United States suspended its $1.5 billion annual aid package to Egypt, much of which goes to the state security forces that are oppressing protestors and beating up and arresting journalists.

As The New York Times -- always a reliable barometer of official thinking -- reported, "The United States and leading European nations on Saturday threw their weight behind Egypt's vice president, Omar Suleiman, backing his attempt to defuse a popular uprising without immediately removing President Hosni Mubarak from power." Obama administration officials, the newspaper added, "said Mr. Suleiman had promised them an 'orderly transition' that would include constitutional reform and outreach to opposition groups" ("West Backs Gradual Egyptian Transition," 5 February 2011).

Moreoever, the Times reported, the United States has already managed to persuade two of its major European clients -- the United Kingdom and Germany -- to back continuing the existing regime with only a change of figurehead.

Suleiman, long the powerful chief of Egypt's intelligence services, has served -- perhaps even more so than Mubarak -- as the guarantor of Egypt's regional role in maintaining the American- and Israeli-dominated order. As author Jane Mayer has documented, Suleiman played a key role in the US "rendition" program, working closely with the CIA which kidnapped "terror suspects" from around the world and delivered them into Suleiman's hands for interrogation, and almost certainly torture ("Who is Omar Suleiman?," The New Yorker, 29 January 2011).

High praise for Suleiman's work has also come from top Israeli military brass. "I always believed in the abilities of the Egyptian Intelligence service [GIS]," Israeli General Amos Gilad told American, Palestinian Authority and Egyptian officials during a secret April 2007 meeting whose leaked minutes were recently released by Al Jazeera as part of the Palestine Papers. "It keeps order and security among 70 millions -- 20 millions in one city [a reference to the population of Egypt, actually closer to 83 million, and to Cairo] -- this is a great achievement, for which you deserve a medal. It is the best asset for the Middle East," Gilad said.

The notion that anyone, let alone US officials, could believe that Suleiman would lead an "orderly transition" to democracy would be laughable if it were not so sinister. Much more likely, the strategy is to try to ride out the protests and wear out and split the opposition, consolidate the regime under Suleiman's ruthless grip with the backing of the Egyptian army, and then enact cosmetic "reforms" to keep the Egyptian people politically divided and busy while business carries on as usual. Under any Suleiman "transition" political activists, journalists and anyone suspected of being part of the current uprising would be in grave danger.

" Violence seen as attempt to intimidate opposition: Cairo attack shows fear of change if Mubarak goes" Friday, 04 February 2011 CAIRO (Reuters)

A cavalry charge in downtown Cairo, when men wielding whips and iron bars burst into Tahrir Square on camels and horseback to lash out at unarmed demonstrators, shocked millions watching on live television around the world.

For many Egyptians, though, it was only another chilling reminder of an ugly brutality they have faced for 30 years under President Hosni Mubarak, whenever ordinary folk have tried to speak up for themselves against the interests of the powerful.

The violence, which led to 10 deaths and over 1,000 wounded since Wednesday, seems intended by the elite to cow dissenters -- few believe the government's denials of involvement. But it may backfire if it reverses a tide of sympathy for Mubarak following his announcement he will step down in September.

It seems also to have galvanized international opinion, as a chorus of world leaders has condemned the bloodshed.

"This regime doesn't represent the Egyptian people. The Egyptian people are civilized. This regime is from a barbaric era," said novelist Alaa al-Aswany, whose bestseller "The Yacoubian Building" portrayed the slow suffocation of Egyptian society over the past three decades to a global readership.


"Prominent actors, directors join demonstrations & Famous faces lend voice to Egypt's protests" Alarabiya.net Feb. 5,2011


Egypt's cultural glitterati have joined thousands of protesters from all walks of life calling for an immediate end to President Hosni Mubarak 30-year-rule.

Khalid Abdalla, a British-Egyptian actor known for his lead role in the 2007 adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner", was among the crowd on Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) square on Saturday.
I think with or without Mubarak, the next six months will be complicated, and I think we're better off without him
Khalid Abdalla, a British-Egyptian actor

"I'm here because I'm asking for Mubarak to step down," Abdalla, 30, told Reuters. "I've been here since Friday before last."

Mubarak has pledged to stay on until the end of his term in September, but protesters mounted pressure on him to leave now as they gathered on the square for a 12th day of protests.

As demonstrations continued, an Egyptian army commander was shouted down when he tried to persuade thousands of demonstrators to stop the protest that has stalled economic life in the capital.

Khaled Youssef, director of films critical of the government, was another prominent face among the protesters.

"The Brotherhood are here in Tahrir, so what?" he said of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood group.

"They are part of this nation -- everyone is here. When citizens desire life, fate must respond."

The celebrated blind Egyptian composer Ammar El Shrei, who was guided by supporters through the throngs of demonstrators, was also among those who rallied on the square.

Abdalla denounced what he said was the intimidation of the international media and "brazen lies" by state media channels trying to weaken the protest movements.

"I think with or without Mubarak, the next six months will be complicated, and I think we're better off without him," he said. "The popular will here for social justice, political freedoms and political reform is now unstoppable whether it's here in Tahrir Square or it's moved out for other reasons."
----------------
Various people have commented that the USA at the very least should apologize for supporting the brutal autocratic regime of Mubarak. But an apology is not enough it must be a heartfelt act of contrition. This can be accomplished if President Obama takes the side of the Egyptian people as opposed to the elite who support Mubarak.
But don't hold your breath since Obama was running for the presidency he has been making nice with the elite in the US and those around the globe.
Has Obama sold out or would he rationalize what he is doing as that most immoral of American traits "Real Politik " as Henry Kissinger did in his support of various brutal savage dictators who were staunch allies of the USA such as Pinochet et al.


" For the West, act of contrition time" James Badcock via Alarabiya.net Feb. 4, 2011

With Tunisian President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali gone and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak apparently on his way out, it is time for the West to consider what its role has been in maintaining these and other Arab dictators in power.

So intoxicating have the various rationales been to support these figures – “It’s either him or the Islamists” or “regional stability allows for no other choice” – that it is shocking even for seasoned observers to discover just how much hatred these despots inspired in their own people. Now, after these truly jaw-dropping events, it’s time for Europe and the United States to regain some composure and draw up some face-saving plans which have a different, democratic Arab world as their guiding light.

Aside from promoting genuinely “stable” democratic regimes in the region, what about helping to bring renegade ex-tyrants to justice? Wouldn’t that be a step on the road toward redemption, and a way to establish a working relationship with a new generation of Arab revolutionaries? This revolution, it is to be hoped, is one in which the rule of law is to replace the strongman’s charisma and the logic of the elite clan. At Tunisia’s request, the Ben Ali family’s assets are starting to be seized in Europe. Canada has said it is seeking to arrest the ex-dictator’s son-in-law, after he sought exile there.

When the euphoria and fury die down, time will tell what ideological slant will dominate, if indeed there are practicable democratic institutions within which Arabs can paint a true political portrait of themselves. But all the indications in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere have so far been that Islamism is by no means the dominant force in what seems to be genuinely popular and necessarily pluralistic movements. In Tunisia a labor union provided the organizational know-how to channel the popular desire to claim the streets; the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is adding its not-inconsiderable weight to the protests in Cairo and other cities, but it does not appear to be guiding the change.

What has taken place in Tunisia and Egypt is, partly, a cyber-uprising, a bloggers’ revolt. Tools that the West trusts in, namely information, the right to association, and the ease of communication, have proved to be deadly weapons against the dictators. And yet these were the kinds of leaders who in the past had been backed as useful clients. Ben Ali was closing in on the goal of making Tunisia a preferred neighborhood partner of the European Union, a candidacy backed by France, Italy and, to a lesser extent, Spain. In the name of Middle East stability, Mubarak’s price for being able to rule the most populous Arab nation in an absolute manner during three decades was to preserve the peace with Israel.

Ben Ali often stressed his importance as a bulwark against Islamism, even as he permitted a web of corruption to be spun around his entourage, with his network of police muscle and hired thugs to ensure that complaints were rarely audible. On the last night of his rule before flying out of Tunis, Ben Ali’s goons reportedly opened fire on inmates in the country’s jails, part of a savage score-settling session across the country that claimed as-yet-unknown numbers of lives.

Similarly, the man whom U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said he “would not refer to as a dictator” just a few days before he fled Tunisia, allowed his country’s dungeons to fill with opponents of all kinds. Torture was commonplace and abuses went unpunished. As for Mubarak’s Egypt, one way to end up behind bars was to stand in a presidential election against the incumbent. That was the fate of Ayman Nour after he had the impertinence to run for the presidency in 2005.

Such siding of the forces of liberty with the unscrupulous and the savage has a precedent in the choices that the United States made during the Cold War, particularly when it allied itself with regimes in Latin America. Then the threat was communism; now it is Islamism or anti-Israeli sentiment. But former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is now in a prison serving multiple sentences for human rights violations, murder and corruption. He is a potent symbol of all that was wrong in a generation of undemocratic caudillos across Latin America, from the U.S.-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile to the likes of Ephraim Rios Montt in Gautemala and Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragaua.

Who is to say that Arab despots may not one day fall foul of independent legal systems under democratic law – where previously all such organs of the state were mere extensions of their own personalized rule? Now these men no longer conjure up the heady mix of economic and security interests with which they managed to seduce so many foreign governments. A contrite West bears a duty to aid the cause of justice.

and so it goes,
GORD.

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