Jump to content

Egypt


Coss

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 256
  • Created
  • Last Reply
It's 4:16 in the a.m. here and I'm up with the Gout' date=' and watching the country of Egypt go off.

 

Thousands and thousands of protestors, situation completely crazy, makes the Bangkok stuff look like kindergarten.

 

What with Tunisia, Yemen, a conflagration in wings?

 

Coss[/quote']

Keep safe there :beer:

 

Thank you, but to remove confusion, I am in NZ not the trouble zone, but I gladly trade positions to remove this Gout.

 

I'm watching it on PressTV and RT satellite channels, 1 Iranian and 1 Russian.

 

Cheers

 

Coss

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria....

 

I believe that what ever the stated causes of these disruptions, what we are seeing is the beginning of the global food riots that have been discussed by some as a potential future calamity .

 

"Algerian protests were initially about increases in food prices and were led by young people with no visible leadership. Five people died and more than 800 were injured, but the government quickly cut basic food prices and pledged to continue to subsidize wheat, milk and electricity."

 

I'd have to do more research, but the concept of "global food riots" goes something like: too many people - not enough food for the poor - riots - a lot of dead rich people.

 

It's times like these I am glad that NZ is:

 

a/. food rich

b/. democratic

c/. populated in the main by people with a little bit of land attached to their house, enabling one to grow veges and keep chickens etc, even in the cities.

d/. separated from the world by un-swimmable and large rough seas.

 

I wouldn't live in any arab-like countries without an escape plan.

 

Coss

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's 4:16 in the a.m. here and I'm up with the Gout' date=' and watching the country of Egypt go off.

 

Thousands and thousands of protestors, situation completely crazy, makes the Bangkok stuff look like kindergarten.

 

What with Tunisia, Yemen, a conflagration in wings?

 

Coss[/quote']

Keep safe there :beer:

 

Thank you, but to remove confusion, I am in NZ not the trouble zone, but I gladly trade positions to remove this Gout.

 

I'm watching it on PressTV and RT satellite channels, 1 Iranian and 1 Russian.

 

Cheers

 

Coss

Well, if you fall over the coffee table getting a beer, we shall see what we can do to get you a Thai nurse to mend your wounds :beer:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whom's on first.

 

---------------------

 

 

Iran Sees Rise of Islamic Hard-Liners

 

 

TEHRAN  Hopeful that the protests sweeping Arab lands may create an opening for hard-line Islamic forces, conservatives in Iran are taking deep satisfaction in the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, where secular leaders have faced large-scale uprisings.

 

While the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confronted its own popular uprising two years ago  and successfully suppressed it  conservatives in Iran said they saw little similarity between those events and the Arab revolts, and instead likened the recent upheavals to Iran’s own 1979 Islamic revolution.

 

“In my opinion, the Islamic Republic of Iran should see these events without exception in a positive light,†said Mohammad-Javad Larijani, secretary general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights and one of the most outspoken figures among Iran’s traditional conservatives.

 

[color:red]He made it clear that he hoped that the “anti-Islamic†government of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in Tunisia, would be replaced by a “people’s government,†meaning one in which conservative Islamic forces would gain the upper hand, as they did when Iranian people overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, establishing a quasi theocracy.[/color]

 

[color:red]On the other side are the United States and France, he said, who are “doing everything they can to ride the wave and prevent the people from establishing the regime that they desire.â€Â[/color]

 

“I am more optimistic about Egypt,†Mr. Larijani said in comments published Friday on the Web site Khabar Online, which is closely linked to his brother, Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament.

 

“There, Muslims are more active in political agitation and, God willing, they will establish the regime that they want,†Mohammad-Javad Larijani said.

 

Some here have even echoed the pan-Islamic rhetoric of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

 

“Today, as a result of the gifts of the Islamic revolution in Iran, freedom-loving Islamic people’s such as the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt and nearby Arab countries are standing up to their oppressive governments,†said a leading hard-line cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is believed to have influence with President Ahmadinejad.

 

In comments published Friday on the Web site of the semiofficial news agency ISNA, Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, who favors a political system in which elections merely endorse “divinely chosen†clerical leaders, congratulated the people of Tunisia and Egypt, stating that they had acted “based on the principles†of Iran’s Islamic revolution.

 

Meanwhile, the leaders of Iran’s “green†opposition movement, which spearheaded large street protests here two years ago after a disputed election, have so far issued no statement on the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.

 

While foreign commentators have tried to draw comparisons and assess differences between the overthrow of Mr. Ben Ali’s government in Tunisia, many here have found such comparisons strained and unconvincing.

 

“No one can compare Arab and Iranian society with each other,†said a former reformist journalist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid drawing the attention of the security services.

 

 

 

From a 155 year old "right wing" paper that Lizzie doesn't trust

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising

 

 

 

The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change†for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

 

The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.

 

On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.

 

He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph.

 

The crisis in Egypt follows the toppling of Tunisian president Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, who fled the country after widespread protests forced him from office.

 

[color:red]The disclosures, contained in previously secret US diplomatic dispatches released by the WikiLeaks website, show American officials pressed the Egyptian government to release other dissidents who had been detained by the police.[/color]

 

Mr Mubarak, facing the biggest challenge to his authority in his 31 years in power, ordered the army on to the streets of Cairo yesterday as rioting erupted across Egypt.

 

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in open defiance of a curfew. An explosion rocked the centre of Cairo as thousands defied orders to return to their homes. As the violence escalated, flames could be seen near the headquarters of the governing National Democratic Party.

 

Police fired rubber bullets and used tear gas and water cannon in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

 

At least five people were killed in Cairo alone yesterday and 870 injured, several with bullet wounds. Mohamed ElBaradei, the pro-reform leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was placed under house arrest after returning to Egypt to join the dissidents. Riots also took place in Suez, Alexandria and other major cities across the country.

 

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, urged the Egyptian government to heed the “legitimate demands of protestersâ€Â. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she was “deeply concerned about the use of force†to quell the protests.

 

In an interview for the American news channel CNN, to be broadcast tomorrow, David Cameron said: “I think what we need is reform in Egypt. I mean, we support reform and progress in the greater strengthening of the democracy and civil rights and the rule of law.â€Â

 

The US government has previously been a supporter of Mr Mubarak’s regime. But the leaked documents show the extent to which America was offering support to pro-democracy activists in Egypt while publicly praising Mr Mubarak as an important ally in the Middle East.

 

In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for “regime change†to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year.

 

The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked “confidential†and headed: “April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt.â€Â

 

It said the activist claimed “several opposition forces†had “agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential electionsâ€Â. The embassy’s source said the plan was “so sensitive it cannot be written downâ€Â.

 

Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an “unrealistic†plot could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The embassy helped the campaigner attend a “summit†for youth activists in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.

 

Cairo embassy officials warned Washington that the activist’s identity must be kept secret because he could face “retribution†when he returned to Egypt. He had already allegedly been tortured for three days by Egyptian state security after he was arrested for taking part in a protest some years earlier.

 

The protests in Egypt are being driven by the April 6 youth movement, a group on Facebook that has attracted mainly young and educated members opposed to Mr Mubarak. The group has about 70,000 members and uses social networking sites to orchestrate protests and report on their activities.

 

[color:red]The documents released by WikiLeaks reveal US Embassy officials were in regular contact with the activist throughout 2008 and 2009, considering him one of their most reliable sources for information about human rights abuses.[/color]

 

 

 

From the same disreputable neo-fascist paper ...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Egypt has the Suez Canal, a huge cash cow!

If the canal gets shutdown, there will be plenty of unhappy countries!

 

Looks like a test going on...I can see the USA trying to shutdown the 'net if things were to get hairy in the USA (yes, Tin Hat time) :dunno

 

The day part of the Internet died: Egypt goes dark

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-day-part-of-the-Internet-apf-1092937415.html?x=0

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- About a half-hour past midnight Friday morning in Egypt, the Internet went dead.

 

Almost simultaneously, the handful of companies that pipe the Internet into and out of Egypt went dark as protesters were gearing up for a fresh round of demonstrations calling for the end of President Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30-year rule, experts said.

 

Egypt has apparently done what many technologists thought was unthinkable for any country with a major Internet economy: It unplugged itself entirely from the Internet to try and silence dissent...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...