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Today's Top News
Clashes Break Out in Tahrir Square
More than 100 injured as pro-Mubarak supporters attack protesters seeking president's ouster in Egyptian capital.
Clashes have broken out between pro- and anti-government demonstrators in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Protesters from both sides threw stones at each other in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of ongoing opposition demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak for the past nine days.
Al Jazeera correspondents, reporting from the scene, said that more than 500 people had been injured in Wednesday's clashes that are still continuing.
Earlier, witnesses said the military allowed thousands of pro-Mubarak supporters, armed with sticks and knives, to enter the square. Opposition groups said Mubarak had sent in thugs to suppress anti-government protests.
One of our correspondents said the army seemed to be standing by and facilitating the clashes. Latest reports suggest that the centre of the square is still in control of the protesters, despite the pro-Mubarak supporters gaining ground.
'Absolute mayhem'
Witnesses also said that pro-Mubarak supporters were dragging away protesters they had managed to grab and handing them over to security forces.
Salma Eltarzi, an anti-government protester, told Al Jazeera there were hundreds of wounded people.
"There are no ambulances in sight, and all we are using is Dettol," she said. "We are all so scared."
Aisha Hussein, a nurse, said dozens of people were being treated at a makeshift clinic in a mosque near the square.
She described a scene of "absolute mayhem", as protesters first began to flood into the clinic.
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| Al Jazeera's special coverage on Egypt |
"People are coming in with multiple wounds. All kinds of contusions. We had one guy who needed stitches in two places on his face. Some have broken bones."
Meanwhile, another Al Jazeera correspondent said men on horseback and camels had ploughed into the crowds, as army personnel stood by.
At least six riders were dragged from their beasts, beaten with sticks by the protesters and taken away with blood streaming down their faces.
One of them was dragged away unconscious, with large blood stains on the ground at the site of the clash.
The worst of the fighting was just outside the world famous Egyptian Museum, which was targeted by looters last week.
Al Jazeera's correspondent added that several a group of pro-government protesters took over army vehicles. They also took control of a nearby building and used the rooftop to throw concrete blocks, stones, and other objects.
Soldiers surrounding the square took cover from flying stones, and the windows of at least one army truck were broken. Some troops stood on tanks and appealed for calm but did not otherwise intervene.
Many of the pro-Mubarak supporters raised slogans like "Thirty Years of Stability, Nine Days of Anarchy".
Al Jazeera's online producer in Cairo said rocks were continously being thrown from both sides. He said that though the army had put up barricades around the square, they let the pro-Mubarak supporters through.
"The people on horses are pro-Mubarak supporters, they are a very angry crowd looking for anyone working for Al Jazeera and for Americans. They are trying to get on the other side of the army tanks to get to the anti-Mubarak supporters. More and more pro-Mubarak supporters are coming in."
Violence
Al Jazeera's Jane Dutton, also in Cairo, said that security guards have also been seen amongst the pro-Mubarak supporters, and it may be a precursor to the feared riot police arriving on the scene.
Dutton added that a journalist with the Al-Arabiya channel was stabbed during the clashes.
Fighting took place around army tanks deployed around the square, with stones bouncing off the armoured vehicles.
Several groups were involved in fist fights, and some were using clubs. The opposition also said many among the pro-Mubarak crowd were policemen in plain clothes.
"Members of security forces dressed in plain clothes and a number of thugs have stormed Tahrir Square," three opposition groups said in a statement.
Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition figure, accused Mubarak of resorting to scare tactics. Opposition groups have reportedly also seized police identification cards amongst the pro-Mubarak demonstrators.
"I'm extremely concerned, I mean this is yet another symptom, or another indication, of a criminal regime using criminal acts," ElBaradei said.
"My fear is that it will turn into a bloodbath," he added, calling the pro-Mubarak supporters a "bunch of thugs".
But according to state television, the minister of interior denied that plain clothes police had joined pro-Mubarak demonstrations.
Elbaradei has also urged the army to intervene.
"I ask the army to intervene to protect Egyptian lives," he told Al Jazeera, adding he said it should intervene "today" and not remain neutral.
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director for Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme, told Al Jazeera that the clashes look to be orchestrated.
"It is not the first time the Mubarak government has provoked clashes to quell protests, but if it truly is orchestrated, this is a cynical and bloody approach," she said.
"The army look to be not intervening at all, and the question remains as to whether they have been ordered not to step in."
The army has told state television that citizens should arrest those who have stolen military clothing, and to hand them over.
Determined protesters
Despite the clashes, anti-government protesters seeking Mubarak's immediate resignation said they would not give up until Mubarak steps down.
Khalil, in his 60s and holding a stick, blamed Mubarak supporters and undercover security for the clashes.
"But we will not leave," he told Reuters. "Everybody stay put."
Mohammed el-Belgaty, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Al Jazeera the "peaceful demonstrations in Tahrir Square have been turned into chaos".
"The speech delivered by President Mubarak was very provocative as he used very sentimental words.
"Since morning, hundreds of these paid thugs started to demonstrate pretending to be supporting the President. Now they came to charge inside Tahrir Square armed with batons, sticks and some knives.
"Mubarak is asking the people to choose between him or chaos."
Ahead of Wednesday's clashes, supporters of the president staged a number of rallies around Cairo, saying Mubarak represented stability amid growing insecurity, and calling those who want his departure "traitors."
"Yes to Mubarak, to protect stability," read one banner in a crowd of 500 gathered near state television headquarters, about 1km from Tahrir Square.
A witness said organisers were paying people $17, to take part in the pro-Mubarak rally, a claim that could not be confirmed.
Other pro-Mubarak demonstrations occurred in the Mohandeseen district, as well as near Ramses Square.
Comments
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64 Comments so far
Show AllA Moslem Brotherhood speaker on AlJazeera live stream characterized it this way - my words: The security forces (Mubarek's thugs) have been allowed to infiltrate the demonstration and are now wilding. The army is no longer protecting the demonstrators.
The public is being given the ostensible choice - chaos or Mubarek. This is a classic tactic. It must be difficult for the people after a week with little food in stores and all the transportation and communication shut down
I hope the rank and file army disobeys the orders by the officers and protects the protesters. I hope the employees of transportation and telecommunications companies take over and bring everything back on line. I hope somebody clever figures out a way to put Mubarek on a boat or plane immediately. I hope every person thinks of ways, large and small, to sustain the rebellion.
In short, I hope the rebellion spreads rather than fizzles out from fatigue. If I were a praying person, I would be praying for the Egyptian people right now.
And by the way, New York City and New York State could use the several billions of military assistance we give to Mubarek every year. Our schools are in crisis for lack of funding. Here is our choice - support our own children or prop up torturing despots? You decide. It's not hard.
Joe
jclientelle, the ONLY way that all the laudable "hopes" you expressed for the Egyptian people will ever happen is not to get the EMPIRE's thug Mubarak on a boat, but for American citizens to wake-up and confront the ruling-elite global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE hiding here in the US, and to put the Empire's big thugs, smooth talking thugs, facades of Empire; Obama, Hillary, Gates, McConnell, and this entire charade of democracy in the US on a boat, and to establish in place of this veiled Empire posing as democracy a real democracy in the US center of what is now provably a disguised global, ruthless, violent, murderous EMPIRE.
That's the the job of Americans not the brave Egyptians, who will certainly be re-oppressed by the global Empire's minor functionary Mubarak in the Egyptian territory of the Empire that you and I are living in and continue to allow to survive by hiding as a "faux-democracy" facade.
[Boy I'm still surprised that the Hillary 'war goddess' Clinton actually used the terms that I have been using to describe this charade of Empire, this "Empire of Illusion" (as Hedges rightly calls it)]
Best luck to you, jclientelle,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
"Democracy over Empire" party headquarters
That's a big order, Allan. Meanwhile, there's what's right in front of us-namely what's happening in a large and very important country called Egypt.The American empire doesn't have much control over the outcome there. The Egyptian people do.Mubarak is a tough old bastard-think Franco-and I supect he means it when he says he "will die in this land." What's happening now, dramatic as it is, is just the opening round.We can expect some setbacks in a revolutionaty situation, but the momentum is on the side of the people.
Duplicate deleted
"The public is being given the ostensible choice - chaos or Mubarek."
And you can be sure that Mubarak got the green light from our own Nobel Peace Laureate before he unleashed his dogs on the Egyptian public.
The Nobel Committee's credibility gap is growing as fast as the US credibility gap.
This is truly sickening. What a fraud this corporate fascist lapdog president is.
Bullshit.Mubarak is fighting for his life. He would do that anyway without a "green light" from Obama.
No, we can't be sure Mubarak got a green light from Obama before unleashing the thugs. I don't think we can be sure of that. I'm no fan of either Mubarak or Obama but I don't see how such certainty is arrived at.
Obama needed to publicly call for Mubarak to step down. Anything short of that is a green light. Anyone with a modest political IQ knew this.
publicly calling for mubarak's immediate resignation, all the while privately promising "everything, including military invasion, for the security of israel and for the interest of wall street," can be done. give it some time, "hard evidence" will be leaked to back it up.
You lost me. He didn't publicly call for his resignation, it doesn't look like he will. The corporate fascists and their zionist quislings obviously view the occupation and genocide in Gaza as strategic territory.
Anyone with a modest political IQ knows that Obama was not going to do this. I expect he's squirming under a barrage of contradictory advice.The poor guy just doesn't know what to do, and that's alright with me.He'll sit this out, until the situation becomes a little clearer, then he'll side with the winners. Interesting, isn't it, that the anti-american rhetoric seems to be mostly coming from Mubarak's supporters.
I thought I was naive. The poor guy. Woe is him.
He could have had Mubarak packing at the drop of a hat. Anyone who doesn't realize that Mubarak is a corporate fascist zionist puppet is really not paying attention.
If you're saying we can't be infinitely sure, you're right --
then again, what can you be infinitely sure of?
Meanwhile, we know Obama -- we know the US and it's history -- and it is
beyond likely that the US which has financed and propped up Mubarak and
dominated Egypt -- and armed Egypt with the very tanks, bullets, and tear
gas we've beening seeing used these past days -- is what has been keeping
Mubarak propped up these last days. NEVER has Obama directly called up on
Mubarak to LEAVE -- "ambiguous" is the closest Obama has come to telling
Mubark to step down. So -- it is pretty much certain and beyond certainty
that these two thug nations -- US/Israel -- so closely intertwined in
weapons making that you almost can't tell them apart -- are responsible for
this boosting of Mubarak and giving him the time to raise brutal forces to
retaliate against those who want democracy with violence.
What underlies all of this corruption is capitalism and its evils and those
who keep it in place!
.
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
I think Obama and the US government is pretty much irrelevant in all of this.The US government can wish it could control the outcome of events, but it's far from being in charge.This is a country of 80 million we're talking about, not a small Central American republic.We're not about to send in the Marines either, so our options are severely limited-just as limited (and perhaps more so ) as when the Shah fell.I say that because our power on the global stage has declined a lot since 1979. History will play out regardless of what the US does or doesn't do. And what form that history will take in the weeks and months ahead, nobody knows. Don't trust any one who claims to have a crystal ball, either.
Memory_Hole, I was watching "Democracy Now" this morning [Thur 23] and noticed that in their reporting on this rebellion in Egypt, they were referring to the two sides in Tahrir Square as the "pro-democracy demonstrators", and the "Mubarak thugs".
Apparently, the Free Speech TV network and "Democracy Now" did not receive the memo, which all the other media in the US, starting with CNN, must have received from Hillary 'war goddess' Clinton, Barack 'Goebbels' Obama, and Joe 'he's not a dictator' Biden, which they sent to the corporatist propaganda organs of the disguised Empire still insisting on calling itself the country named America.
That propaganda directive memo, which may well have been constructed by the same Frank Luntz, who is better known for his propaganda word-smithing for the Republican label of the hidden Empire, but working also for the "Vichy" Democrat side, apparently included the imperative that both sides of the Egyptian clash should always be described on post-1984 'telescreens' (as Orwell called them) in a moderate, centrist, "fair and balanced" way, and with "bipartisan civility".
Goebbels', oops, I mean Luntz's, memo, with the force of the Nazi, oops again, I mean American Empire, instructed the fascist, oops, very sorry, I mean corporatist media to always refer to the two "chaotic clashing" sets of "un-controlled" "protesters" as; the "anti-government protesters" and the "pro-government protesters" --- thus quietly, subtly, sublimitally (as the telescreen should always) covey fear, confusion, and dependence to the proles, oops a final time, I mean citizens of the brave, free, democratic United States of America.
The fascist propaganda directive sent to the mainscam-media force was, of course, merely a concrete statement of the prevaricating and obfuscating that the leading political pawns of this hidden corporate/financial/militarist Empire have all previously voiced more coyly already:
Joe Biden, "Mubarak is not a dictator".
Barack Obama, "Mubarak (the non-dictator) has been a 'good partner' to the United States and peace in the Middle East for many years".
Hillary Clinton, "Mubarak has now received the message that all administrations have been sending for thirty years, and is pledged to move toward real democracy, not 'faux democracy'"
[I have to personally applaud her use of the term 'faux democracy', since I have myself been using that precise term consistently to accurately refer to the corporate/financial/militarist Empire which has fully 'captured' our previous country, by hiding behind the facade of its 'bought and owned' TWO-Party "Vichy" sham of 'faux-democratic' government, ironically for the last 30 years also.]
So, what do we have?
What we actually have is a situation in which the country previously known, and still patriotically referred to, as the United States is the only power in this 21st century world which, because it is a hidden and subtle 21st century Empire, has perfected the ability and effected its populace control mechanisms in a manner that Hitler and Goebbels only dreamed of with their crude and thinly veiled single-party "Vichy" facade of 'faux democracy' in the conquered territory of France.
Yes, the global Empire, which is effectively posing as the US, is the only power to have so anesthetized its own 'homeland' populace that it can control the entire global 'battle-space' of the human mind, in which the very concepts and meaning of "anti-government", "pro-democracy", "freedom agenda", "axis of evil", "democracy project", "peaceful resolution", "freedom", "liberty", "family of nations", and all other means of talking and even thinking about political-economic constructs are 'owned and controlled' by the global Empire, but thought of as reflecting a strongly felt, but totally false 'Illusion" of what America is.
The concept of America is protected by this unassailable illusion dropped as nukular think-bombs by the global Empire's absolutely dominant media, and thus is the perfect weapon to fully hide Empire's control, and even existence.
So what we have in this little disturbance in Egypt is the "anti-government" and "pro-government" forces fighting.
"Keep moving." "Keep moving", says the global cop, "there's nothing to see here. We can handle it"
"There's certainly no crucial conflict involving any such thing as a global Empire and anti-democracy ---- hell, no sane American needs to, or should even think about such a ridiculous idea, why that would be radical --- like only a terrorist would suggest, and you know what terrorists are, and what we do to them."
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
"Democracy over Empire"
"The security forces (Mubarek's thugs) have been allowed to infiltrate the demonstration and are now wilding. The army is no longer protecting the demonstrators."
Joe
I guess we all expected this...We have seen this movie played out many times in the past....
Great comments (As usual) Joe.
Thomas Gilbert
"New York City and New York State could use the several billions of military assistance we give to Mubarek every year. Our schools are in crisis for lack of funding. Here is our choice - support our own children or prop up torturing despots? You decide. It's not hard."
go ask the charitable wall street folks. they have their philanthropist foundations for such "needy occasions" you state.
I'm watching Al Jazeera Arabic live on LiveStation right now. I've been gradually studying Arabic over the last few years, so I am able to understand about half of what they are saying.
OK, I just switched over to Al Jazeera English. My one complaint is that I wish there was a channel that simply translated Al Jazeera Arabic "as is". The English language channel is also good, but the programs are generally different, so unless you know Arabic you don't know what the Arab speaking audience is hearing.
At any rate, shots have just been reported, and now Al Jazeera English just went off the air...now I get the message "Stream unavailable"...Christ... is anybody else getting the stream right now? I happen to be in the Czech Republic near Prague.
Is anybody in the US getting Al Jazeera at all at this instant?
Over!
I'm a regular Al Jazeera reader. (http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage) But it's hard to get Al Jazeera TV here in the U.S.
An article on that website (http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/201121121041735816.html) says "We are on the air and on the major cable system in the nation's capital, and some of America's leading policymakers in Washington, DC, have told us that Al Jazeera English is their channel of choice for understanding global issues. But we are not available in the majority of the 50 states for much of the general public."
I am reminded of Brave New World, which I read recently. In it, the world leaders still had access to history books, while the population was kept in a state of narcotized ignorance by a drug, soma, and a wide range of entertainments.
yes, we are getting it online, and sporadically on broadcast television. Although there are sometimes very slow connections due to heavy traffic. Reports of server crash in Mountain View due to the heavy volume of traffic seeking al Jazeera online.
This is extremely maddening as Mubarak has now clearly demonstrated that he will do anything to stay in power. His actions today clearly prove this. Sending in paid thugs and trucking in camel and horse riding poor people with whips is another extremely cynical attempt to hold onto power.
The pro-democracy supporters / protesters should know that we support them in every way toward a free, fully liberated Egypt.
IRHAL MUBARAK!
OUT MUBARAK! Go now, or your people will burn you alive.
yes, we are getting it online, and sporadically on broadcast television. Although there are sometimes very slow connections due to heavy traffic. Reports of server crash in Mountain View due to the heavy volume of traffic seeking al Jazeera online.
This is extremely maddening as Mubarak has now clearly demonstrated that he will do anything to stay in power. His actions today clearly prove this. Sending in paid thugs and trucking in camel and horse riding poor people with whips is another extremely cynical attempt to hold onto power.
The pro-democracy supporters / protesters should know that we support them in every way toward a free, fully liberated Egypt.
IRHAL MUBARAK!
OUT MUBARAK! Go now, or your people will burn you alive.
Also been watching a lot of AlJazeera -- and think that's an excellent
suggestion -- why have two programs?
Is there anything on the Arabic version that wouldn't be of interest to
Americans?
And, on the English version, I noticed last night a kind of odd softening
and fuding of reporting/comments for a while. Seemed related to one of
the female "reporters" and one or two commentators being interviewed.
Hope I'm wrong, but CIA and their MOCKINGBIRD is still with us!
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
Now the reactionary, nay fascist, US corporate media has started referring to the two groups in the square as the "anti-government" side and the "pro-government" side.
The US based ruling-elite's global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE, which is hiding behind the facade of its TWO-PARTY 'Vichy' sham of faux democratic government, is thus using the highly fascist and for the first time OVERT propaganda terms in their control of US corporatist media whores as saying on US national TV for the whole US populace and lying that this confrontation is between the "pro-government protesters" and the "anti-government protesters".
This is a huge revelation of overt fascism in the US!
This is propaganda from a now clearly fascist EMPIRE which is exactly akin to the Nazi Empire's behavior --- so we have now hit a new and very revealing low in the public behavior of the US centered EMPIRE!.
Of course, the two groups in the Egyptian square could easily, accurately, and HONESTLY be called the "pro-dictator side" and the "anti-dictator side" or the "pro-Empire" and the "pro-democracy side", but this of course, would show the absurdity of the US Empire's Vice Emperor-president, Joe Biden's detestable description of Mubarak as "not a dictator".
Of course, Uncle Joe's lying comment just last week, also on the US Empire's corporatist propaganda TV network, actually REVEALED for the first time, and even for normally non-political US citizens, that they clearly, very clearly live in a disguised EMPIRE and not any normal government, but only a faux-democratic sham --- which is the term that Secretary of Empire, Hillary Clinton used this Sunday on 'Meet the Press' as a description of something which is not really a democracy.
Yes, the average people of America are now learning a great deal about the reality of the disguised EMPIRE that they inhabit here in America.
And with the unleashing of those criminally mis-named, so-called "pro-government" thugs by the global EMPIRE's territorial thug Mubarak, the seminal lesson available for American's caught in the belly of this EMPIRE to learn, if they are thinking at all, it is this:
While Mubarak may have unleashed those truly "pro-dictator", "anti-democratic" and most importantly "PRO-EMPIRE" thugs and violence, it was really the 'anti-democratic' and "pro-Empire" OBAMA PAWN and CLINTON PAWN of the hidden global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE centered right here in River City that is ultimately responsible for giving the orders to their Mubarak pawn to "UNLEASH the dogs of violence and war"!!!
IN other words the real lesson of Egypt for American's, as I have been saying on CD since this started, is the real lesson, and possibly salvation of reality for all of us here in America is not that Mubarak must go, but that Hillary must go, Obama must go, McConnell must go, Gates must go, Cantor must go, Pence must go, and that all the thugs of the real center of this global Empire must go --- for any last chance of democracy over Empire to live!
Best chance and luck to all the world's people,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
"Democracy over Empire" party headquarters
first, it was a "crisis", and then the "mob" started "looting" and now it's simply "partisan clash", according to MSM zionists and their hired guns like hennety.
It's always been heartbreaking to me when I see how easy it is for the rich to turn common folk against each other. Just pay them a little money, pat them on the head and they'll loyally break heads for you all day.
I first saw this at the Chicago police riot in 1968. Those poor cops who exulted in their triumph over unarmed hippies never realized that those hairy people were fighting for their rights also. After all it was mostly their sons who were thrown into the meatgrinder of Vietnam...and came back broken, maimed and disillusioned.
Divide and conquer. It's a formula that worked for the Brits for centuries and it works for our elite. I guess most folks will never wake up and recognize who the real enemy is...
"That's the the job of Americans " I agree with you, Alan McDonald. I realize that it is our job. But I cannot help but be heartened and moved by the Egyptian people.
We have to link up the "sacrifices" we are asked to make at home with the savagery we are asked to support abroad. I think that by organizing people here to demand the return of money that supports tyrants and invasions, and to use it for specific things like education and infrastructure projects, we help both US citizens and all people of the world.
It seems to me to be both a principled and an understandable way to organize people here. And that is our main job.
Joe
A faintish journey do I make
As through this frazzled world I wind,
With heavy heart and weary steps,
But with determined mind.
Beseech I for a flicker of
The faith than can a mountain move,
And hold that tenet close to me,
Believing where I cannot prove.
The pow'r that comes when sinking low
To man who grasps for straw or rope,
Will clutch til has he breath no more
For where there's life, there's hope.
If my good turn be given to
My fellow man's deficiency,
I'll try to share my lowly gifts
Of Faith and Hope and Charity.
- anne shannon demarest -
What we are seeing is the result of Obama's utter failure as a president and a leader. While he isn't in direct control of events in Egypt, his dithering platitudes and mixed messages over the last several days have given Mubarak the breathing space he needed to regroup. Egypt was at the tipping point and Obama let it slip by.
It appears that Obama lost the initiative because he dithered for a whole week. If he had come down early against Mubarak, there could have been a clean break between Mubarak and his die-hards. The pro-Mubarak thugs are, after all, opportunistic bullies who could easily have been bought off. Such a bold move would have become Obama's Berlin Wall moment, his administration's defining act of foreign policy and the worthy follow up to his Cairo speech that the Egyptians have been expecting all week.
If you are wondering why Obama would sit with his thumb up his butt while events passed him by, look no further than Israel, and perhaps Saudi Arabia. It's worth noting that Israel has been a vocal supporter of Mubarak during this whole crisis and in Washington DC, Israel calls the shots. Obama is Bibi's bitch, unable to act on his own while he waits by the phone for instructions from AIPAC.
Obama is a coward who is unfit to hold any job higher than middle management. The job of president is defined by times that require the office holder to step out in front, take risks and to stay ahead of events. Since his first day in office, he has done nothing but suck up to the powerful and cave in to the bullies. Unfortunately, this time the people of Egypt are paying the price.
Obama is a "coward"? That would be the nicest scenario available. That supposes that obama really wants to do the right thing....I never drank that koolaid. I don't think he is a coward - at least not in this context. I think he is doing exactly what he was supposed to do and i wouldn't expect anything different here.
A difference of opinion. But hair splitting, really. The result is the same.
Agree -- Obama is by no means a "failure" -- Obama has been highly successful
at doing what he was put in place to do -- move the Democratic Party further
to the right -- destroy what's left of our safety nets -- pass taxpayer money
onto Wall Street -- and continue the wars, torture and rendition -- and
wiretapping which Bush, btw, began 6 months before 9/11!!
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
chaokoh, I would only add, and differ somewhat with your otherwise good analysis, that Obama is not "dithering" with "platitudes and mixed messages over the last several days" that gave "Mubarak the breathing space he needed to regroup."
Obama is the actor, not Mubarack --- and his fine job of acting is precisely what the Empire that he fronts for has ordered Obama to do --- so far.
Also to correct, "Obama is (definately NOT) Bibi's bitch, unable to act on his own while he waits by the phone for instructions from AIPAC."
Obama works for the global Empire that AIPAC lobbies to.
The EMPIRE needs no lobbying power --- it has the power itself. Only suplecants to power need to lobby.
Best,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
"Democracy over Empire" party headquarters
PS. it would be more correct, chaokoh, if you referred to AIPAC by its effective name, the American-style Imperialism Political Action Committee, for while Israel is certainly a part of the ruling-elite's global corporate/financial/militarist Empire (as is the UK and many formerly independent countries) the headquarters (at least currently), and the center of the Empire that does not need to lobby at all, is right here in River City.
You may be right. I might be giving Obama too much credit by saying that his faults are due to human weakness. That is speculation on my part. Maybe he is, in Ralph Nader's phrase "a corporation digused as a human being". But isn't being a tool a type of moral cowardice?
Well, do you actually think that Cheney or W -- or Scalia or Roberts
have a conscience? They're certainly all serving tools --
What of Mubarak's hired thugs -- do they have a conscience?
What of the 50% of the Dallas Police force which was KKK when the coup
on JFK occurred in Dallas?
I think there are different motivations -- If Obama is CIA, that may
have been the beginning of thinking that "from a higher perspective,"
perhaps/? he knew better than anyone else what would keep America safe?
Who knows the various delusions -- certainly we don't -- but we do know
the financial rewards of being on the side of power. What we don't know
is if they can sleep at night -- and we would still ask "HOW could they?"
We might also ask that of the Vatican and it's all male hierarchy in regard
to thousands of years of sexual abuse of children. Even for its Mission
schools here -- paid for by our government -- which so abused and destroyed
Native Americans for the US government. And they claim moral leadership for
the world?
Patriarcy, itself, is an insult to all conscience and morality -- !!
.
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
"Obama is a coward who is unfit to hold any job higher than middle management."
This is exactly the position he holds in this country.
"Since his first day in office, he has done nothing but suck up to the powerful and cave in to the bullies."
This is exactly what he is paid to do, along with every other president since JFK.
Barack sent support to Mubarak?
Barack is the current political pawn and mouthpiece of the global Empire.
Mubarak is merely a territorial thug of the same/only global Empire.
Mubarak is easily replaceable by the Empire through their front-man Obama.
Obama, of course, is also replaceable by the global corporate/financial/militarist Empire, which fully controls the country formerly known as the US, and hides behind the facade of its 'bought and owned' TWO-Party "Vichy" sham of faux-democratic government, and equally 'Vichy' corporatist media.
However, if the big, smooth-talking thug, Obama, fails, when ordered, to 'pull the trigger' on the small territorial thug, Mubarak, then the replacement of the Empire's front-man in America becomes more problematic for the Empire.
Having picked the right front-man today, and considering Obama's gutlessness and complicity so far demonstrated both in foreign and domestic affairs, the Empire should not have the difficulties they experienced in 1963.
Best,
Alan MacDonald
All of the tanks, the bullets, and the tear gas are "MADE IN AMERICA" --
And there's a report from NGO's that on Saturday 3 airplanes from Israel
came in with fresh supplies of "crowd control" supplies.
Additionally, the new VP is the murderous Suleiman who coordinated US's
torture/rendition programs in Egypt for us!!
In other words, the dictator has put a torturer in the line of succession --
someone who is obviously favorable to US's murderous programs!
.
.
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
I saw where some protestors had gotten police IDs away from the violence instigators. This is not going to be pretty and Amerika...wakeup and support the Eygptian people any way you can. We're next. Why do you think they built all those prisons, why is US army stationed on OUR side of the borders to Canada, why are they grand jurying peace people?
I hate this country's government as much as the rest of you. We were duped by that "black guy" who was heavily trained in whorporate speak long before the election. He got everything he needed to make people believe his bull shit...and now we know...it was all bull shit. The right wingers may have been right when they called him the anti-Christ...dear god.
Great comments, all of you!
Mostly, stay tuned to Al Jazeera; however, they are not covering the breaking news involving Lindsay Lohan.
So much for the non-violent revolution. As much as I hoped a transition would occur with minimal violence, it appear the corporate fascists and their zionist lapdogs will not relinquish the levers of power without a vicious fight. Any comments from the commander-in-thief yet?
right on, VP.
honduras on a much bigger scale. the tired old scenario being played again.
the whole world is watching and need to learn fast. obomber and his massers in DC, on wall street, in UK and most of europe, and in Israel have run out of their options, just like Mubarak, except blunt force. the people of the world need to act quick and rise up together. otherwise, we'll be dealt with through their brute force, one by one.
Pro-Dictator supporters attack protesters seeking democracy. Alas, it's the American way.
that applies to every country, every tribe and every region. in varying degrees, in different names, through different tactics, of course.
there's no way around a clash. after watching the way the egyptian uprising unfolds closely, people will learn to appreciate what russians, chinese, cubans, koreans, vietnamese, iranians, etc were up against. the price of revolution is steep.
not many want to pay the steep price, until there are no other options.
To the People of Egypt:
I so love the way you stood in PEACE; I so loved the way you stood against the looters and protected your heritage. I so loved how the People came together to protect their communities.
I so hate the thugs, and we have them too; whether they are in suits, in Congress, or in corporate and govermental offices.
This war of the thugs is everywhere; it will not stop, and neither should you. You can't go back now, because the past is thugs; the present is thugs, but there is a future and that is what you must hold.
This is a battle, but, remember, you are the future. Violence comes when thugs have no answers except brutality. I hate violence, but the future is yours and you must fight for it every way that you can.
The real Egypt has been coming into being for the last 30 years.It will not be easy, but keeping freedom never is. if you lose a battle, regroup. In fact, you may even appear to be docile, but that does not mean that you truly are. NO thug, NO army can take what you as a people have already built. YOU are bigger than Mubarak, bigger than the police , and you have begun a movement that will not stop, unless YOU will it. Do not will it; you have seen the future and you have changed the world. Keep changing it, because the world needs you.
Perhaps no one will come to your aid, but you have already shown the world that you know how to rule your own country. It will be long and hard, but it can be done.
You have already built the future in your help to each other and in guarding your neighborhoods and protecting each other's religions, and the very hetitage of your past, which the looters would even seek to destroy.
YOU already know that YOU can come together, because you have done it in a PEACEFUL way and that is what makes a country; you have already made one. Do not back down because the future is yours, and it is here NOW!
If anybody is really surprised by this then you need to get your head examined and you need to stop reading your positive thinking BS.
The freedom train has left the station, and the leaders of the so-called "free world", who crow about democracy and human rights as they install, fund, and protect these vicious dictators, are not aboard.
Obama and the heads of state in Europe have made it very clear to all of us that their allegiance is not to the people of any country, but to the maintenance of economic and military hegemony wherever there are resources they covet and seek to control.
Obama and our leaders will only support human rights and freedom so long as the demands of the people for justice and self-determination do not interfere with their "bottom line".
It is very clear to the people of the world now that our government has no use for democracy unless it comes out of the barrels of our guns and the bellies of our drones, with a guarantee that they will only elect the leaders we choose for them.
So much for change we can believe in.
Kousdous warned us of this "ominous" development in his reporting for rachel maddow last night. he looked so tired and worried....
a former mubarak cabinet member said on aljazeera "there's no honest man left in the country who can defend mubarak so, out of options, mubarak had to resort to hiring criminal elements for the dirty attack on his people." he refused to call mubarak president.