By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Jamal Halaby, Associated Press – Sat Jan 29, 1:10 pm ET
AMMAN, Jordan – The leader of Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood warned Saturday that unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States.
Hammam Saeed's comments were made at a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman, inspired by massive rallies in neighboring Egypt demanding the downfall of the country's longtime president, Hosni Mubarak.
About 100 members of the fundamentalist group and activists from other leftist organizations and trade unions chanted "Mubarak, step down" and "the decision is made, the people's revolt will remain."
Elsewhere, a separate group of 300 protesters gathered in front of the office of Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai, demanding his ouster. "Rifai, it's time for you to go," chanted the group.
Jordan's protests have been relatively small in size, but they underline a rising tension with Jordan's King Abdullah II, a key U.S. ally who has been making promises of reform in recent days in an apparent attempt to quell domestic discontent over economic degradation and lack of political freedoms.
But as a monarch with deep support from the Bedouin-dominated military, Jordan's ruler is not seen as vulnerable as Mubarak or Tunisia's deposed leader. Even the Brotherhood — a fiery critic of Jordan's moderate government — has remained largely loyal to the king, who claims ancestry to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Many believe it's unlikely King Abdullah will bow to demands for popular election of the prime minister and Cabinet officials, traditionally appointed by the king.
Saeed said Arabs have grown disgruntled with U.S. domination of their oil wealth, military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and its support for "totalitarian" leaders in the region.
"The Americans and (President Barack) Obama must be losing sleep over the popular revolt in Egypt," he said. "Now, Obama must understand that the people have woken up and are ready to unseat the tyrant leaders who remained in power because of U.S. backing."
Saeed did not specifically name King Abdullah. But he said Jordan's prime minister "must draw lessons from Tunisia and Egypt and must swiftly implement political reforms."
"We tell the Americans 'enough is enough'," he said.
Rifai has in the last two weeks announced a $550 million package of new subsidies for fuel and staple products like rice, sugar, livestock and liquefied gas used for heating and cooking. It includes a raise for civil servants and security personnel.
Still, Jordan's economy struggles, weighed down by a record deficit of $2 billion this year, rising inflation and rampant unemployment and poverty.
January 30th, 2011, 12:20
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Re: Muslim Brotherhood warns Arabs will topple their "tyrant" leaders allied with US
A Tunisian riot police officer searched through belongings of protesters after security forces stormed a protest camp outside the prime minister’s office in Tunis yesterday.
(Zohra Bensemra/ Reuters)
Associated Press / January 29, 2011
AMMAN, Jordan — Unrest rippling across the Arab world is putting pressure on Jordan’s King Abdullah II, a key US ally who has been making promises of reform in recent days in an apparent attempt to quell domestic discontent over economic degradation and lack of political freedoms
But his pledges did not satisfy thousands of angry Jordanian opposition protesters who took to the streets again yesterday, pressing demands for the prime minister to step down and the government to halt rising prices, inflation, and unemployment.
More than 3,500 opposition activists from the main Islamist opposition group, trade unions, and leftist organizations gathered in the capital, shouting for the premier’s resignation. Another 2,000 protesters in the northern and western cities of Irbid and Karak made similar calls.
The rallies marked the third consecutive Friday of protests after Muslim prayers inspired by unrest in Tunisia and Egypt.
Abdullah has promised reforms in meetings with members of Parliament, former prime ministers, civil society institutions, and even Jordan’s largest opposition group, the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood Movement.
Prime Minister Samir Rifai announced a $550 million package of new subsidies in the past two weeks for fuel and staple products such as rice, livestock, and liquefied gas for heating and cooking. It also includes a raise for civil servants and an increase in pensions for retired military and civilian personnel.
“We will continue our protests until our demands are met,’’ said Brotherhood spokesman Jamil Abu Bakr, referring to their calls for electing a prime minister and Cabinet officials; amending a controversial election law they claim had reduced votes in their favor; and implementing reforms that would eradicate corruption and introduce a transparent government policy.
Abdullah has been working to create a more open-market economy that would see a greater flow of foreign capital into a resource-barren country, heavily dependent on US and other foreign aid and whose debt is estimated at $15 billion, about double the amount reported three years ago.
“The government buys cars and spends lavishly on its parties and travel, while many Jordanians are jobless or can barely put food on their tables to feed their hungry children,’’ said civil servant Mahmoud Thiabat, 31, a father of three who earns $395 a month.
Such complaints mirror those that ultimately led to the downfall of Tunisia’s president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, though as a monarch with deep support from the Bedouin-dominated military, Jordan’s ruler is not seen as vulnerable as Tunisia’s deposed leader.
In Tunis yesterday, police fired tear gas to clear about 1,000 protesters from a square where they have been camped for days, even as many Tunisians welcomed the new interim government that dropped most ministers from the former ruling party.
It was a sign that its concessions may calm down the daily demonstrations that have disrupted life for weeks. In a chaotic scene, police used tear gas to clear the protesters from the front of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi’s office, and later from Bourguiba Avenue, the capital’s main thoroughfare.
The North African nation was celebrating a full two weeks free of the iron-fisted rule of its longtime strongman.
Ghannouchi’s appointment on Thursday of independents to three key posts in the country’s new interim Cabinet, removing ministers from the former ruling party, was a major concession to the demonstrators.
January 30th, 2011, 12:22
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Re: Muslim Brotherhood warns Arabs will topple their "tyrant" leaders allied with US
Tens of thousands of Palestinians participated in angry marches in the Gaza Strip at noon Friday in protest at the reported concessions made by the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA).
GAZA (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Tens of thousands of Palestinians participated in angry marches in the Gaza Strip at noon Friday in protest at the reported concessions made by the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA).
The protesters chanted slogans calling for de facto president Mahmoud Abbas and his authority to step down and stop claiming they represent the Palestinian people.
During a massive rally held in northern Gaza, member of Hamas's political bureau Khalil Hayya condemned the PA in Ramallah city for waiving the Palestinian people's rights and constants.
"We will never cede our land, the Aqsa Mosque, and the rights of refugees and prisoners, so on behalf of whom you waive and make concessions," Hayya said addressing Abbas and his negotiation team in Ramallah city.
Hayya in his speech asked the Arab countries and their League to stop supporting the PA and wash their hands of its negotiators.
He noted that the marches in support of Abbas in the West Bank are organized by his security apparatuses to cover the widespread public anger at the PA negotiators.
In a related context, Dr. Abelsatter Qassem, a professor of political science in Nablus city, described the limited marches organized in support of Abbas and his authority in the West Bank as faked and unreal.
"These demonstrations are not real and take place exactly as the Arab intelligence agencies often do through making the state institutions and their civil servants show their loyalty to the ruler under the pressure of threats and salary extortion, Dr. Qassem underlined in a press statement on Friday to the Palestinian information center (PIC).
He stressed that if there was a free will in the West Bank, no one would go out, but what happened in the last few days were demonstrations held by members of the security apparatuses, PA civil servants, and some students in order to serve a particular goal.
January 30th, 2011, 12:26
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Re: Muslim Brotherhood warns Arabs will topple their "tyrant" leaders allied with US
The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
As prophesied in the Book of Isaiah, the unrest in Egypt is accelerating and morphing into a state of civil war. To anyone seeking clarity about the events in Egypt (and elsewhere in the Middle East), and to grasp an understanding of what will be taking place, one has to look no farther than the book of Isaiah. The events we are seeing today on the cable news channels are setting the stage for future war as prophesied in Psalm 83.
Recall Barack Hussein Obama’s Cairo speech on 4 June 2009. Look closely at Obama’s handling, or lack thereof, of this crisis of epic and soon to be biblical proportions. Watch and listen to the words of Obama as he metaphorically bows to the growing fundamental Islamic movement and describes the new relationship as “a new beginning.”
Understand what we are witnessing is not a mere uprising – it is the takeover of a dictatorship by a ruthless Islamic theocratic movement (the Muslim Brotherhood) that has a vast presence and support here in the U.S. I have little doubt that Egypt will be fully destabilized. If not now, soon.
Very soon. The domino effect will result in the formation of an Islamic crescent that will set the stage for the Psalm 83 war.
But first, the current geopolitical structure and landscape must be altered.
The prophesy of Isaiah chapter 19 appears to be on its way to fulfillment.
The following from Isaiah chapter 19 is taken from the King James version of the Christian bible. Please read and reread the following passages. It is my personal belief that we are witnessing history in the making – history that is steeped in prophecy. Events that will usher in a larger war.
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbor; city against city, [and] kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; [and] the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and everything sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no [more].
8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices [and] ponds for fish.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan [are] fools, the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I [am] the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
12 Where [are] they? where [are] thy wise [men]? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, [even they that are] the stay of the tribes thereof.
January 30th, 2011, 12:31
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Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
The following is a report from a STRATFOR source in Hamas. Hamas, which formed in Gaza as an outgrowth of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), has an interest in exaggerating its role and coordination with the MB in this crisis. The following information has not been confirmed. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of concern building in Israel and the United States in particular over the role of the MB in the demonstrations and whether a political opening will be made for the Islamist organization in Egypt.
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The Egyptian police are no longer patrolling the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. Hamas armed men are entering into Egypt and are closely collaborating with the MB. The MB has fully engaged itself in the demonstrations, and they are unsatisfied with the dismissal of the Cabinet.
They are insisting on a new Cabinet that does not include members of the ruling National Democratic Party.
Security forces in plainclothes are engaged in destroying public property in order to give the impression that many protesters represent a public menace. The MB is meanwhile forming people’s committees to protect public property and also to coordinate demonstrators’ activities, including supplying them with food, beverages and first aid.
JERUSALEM — Behind an official wall of silence, Israel watched nervously Saturday as anti-government unrest worsened in Egypt, fearful that the violent and growing street protests could topple Israel's most important ally in the Arab world.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his government to remain silent about the situation in Egypt. But in a clear reflection of Israel's concerns, Sun D'Or, a subsidiary of Israel's national airline, El Al, whisked dozens of Israelis, including diplomats' families, out of Egypt on an emergency flight. The government also urged Israelis to avoid travel to Egypt.
The stability of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's regime is a key interest for Israel.
Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, and since succeeding the assassinated Anwar Sadat in the wake of that historic peace treaty three decades ago, Mubarak has steadfastly honored the deal.
While relations have often been cool, Mubarak has remained a key bridge to the Arab world, frequently mediating between Israel and the Palestinians. Mubarak also has cooperated with Israel in containing the militant Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip, a volatile coastal strip that borders both Israel and Egypt.
Israeli officials, ordered to speak on condition of anonymity, expressed grave concerns about Mubarak's tenuous grip on power. Some said they feared the violence could spread to neighboring Jordan, the only other Arab country with a peace deal with Israel, or to the Palestinian territories.
There were also concerns that anti-Israel opposition groups, including the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, might gain a larger voice in Egyptian decision-making.
"A stable Egypt with a peace treaty with Israel means a quiet border," one Israeli official told The Associated Press. "If there is a regime change Israel will have to reassess its strategy to protect its border from one of the most modern militaries in the region."
Early Saturday evening, the Sun D'Or International Airlines plane touched down in Israel with about 40 Israelis who were in Egypt on private business plus an undisclosed number of diplomats' spouses and children on board, officials said. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said its diplomats would remain in Egypt for the time being.
The Egyptian unrest dominated Israeli media. Israeli TV news channels provided nonstop updates throughout the day. State-funded Israel Radio reported extensively on developments and dubbed its broadcasts "Fire on the Nile."
Writing in the Haaretz daily Saturday, columnist Aluf Benn speculated that Mubarak's "fading power" leaves Israel with few friends in the Middle East.
Mubarak has faced days of massive anti-government protests, with tens of thousands of people filling the streets of Cairo and other major cities demanding his resignation after nearly 30 years in power. The protesters have said they are fed up with the massive unemployment, lack of opportunities and corruption that plague the country.
On Saturday, Mubarak named Omar Suleiman, his powerful intelligence chief, as vice president, the first time someone has held that position since he became president in 1981. It was unclear whether the move, which followed promises of reform and a new government, would be enough to calm the unrest.
There was no immediate reaction from Israel, but the appointment was likely to calm nerves in Israel, where Suleiman is a frequent visitor and has good working relations with his Israeli counterparts.
Israeli officials said it was unclear if Mubarak would survive the protests, and they fear that ties could be damaged if Egypt's popular opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, makes gains.
Israeli lawmaker Benyamin Ben-Eliezer, who has maintained a friendship with Mubarak, broke ranks with other Israeli officials who remained silent about events in Egypt.
He told Israeli Channel 10 TV that he had spoken with Mubarak in the past few days, and that the Egyptian leader sounded optimistic, saying he had known that riots would break out and that he had prepared for it.
Still, Ben-Eliezer said he was concerned about Egypt's future. "This could lead to a completely different regime, one that is a lot more radical Islamic."
Eli Shaked, a former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt, offered similar speculation on Channel 10. "It's good that Israel is keeping quiet, but there is no doubt that what is happening in Egypt is not good for Israeli interests," Shaked said. "It will only be a matter of time before a leader of the revolution arises and he will come from the Muslim Brotherhood.
A stronger Muslim Brotherhood could also affect the balance of power between the rival Palestinian camps, the government of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and the rival Hamas regime in Gaza.
Abbas is backed by the West, while his Islamic militant rivals draw their support from Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. Hamas is the Gaza branch of the Muslim brotherhood and could gain strength if their Egyptian brethren rise to power.
Abbas on Saturday called Mubarak, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Abbas told the Egyptian leader that he is eager to see Egypt stable and secure, the agency said.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
In Gaza, Palestinian residents rushed to buy extra gasoline, concerned that fuel supplies would run out. In the past few years, the majority of Gaza's fuel has come from Egypt through underground smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border.
Palestinian smugglers who work in the tunnels said Saturday that there were fewer fuel supplies available from Egypt, but that they were continuing to smuggle Egyptian fuel into Gaza. The Hamas-run National Economic Ministry, which oversees fuel supplies, said there were currently no fuel shortages in Gaza.
Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab Ghussein said there were no infiltrations on the Gaza-Egypt border.
"The southern border with the Gaza Strip is quiet. There is no security breach on that border," Ghussein said.
January 31st, 2011, 01:29
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Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
Opposition group says will exclude reigning President's National Democratic Party from talks; Mohammed ElBaradei: I have been mandated by the people.
By News Agencies Tags: Egypt protestsIsrael news The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group,is in talks with other anti-government figures to form a national unity government without President Hosni Mubarak, a group official told DPA on Sunday.
Although the Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned from running for elections for parliament, some movement members have presented candidacy for parliament as independents.
Gamal Nasser, a spokesman for the Brotherhood, told DPA that his group was in talks with Mohammed ElBaradei - the former UN nuclear watchdog chief - to form a national unity government without the National Democratic Party of Mubarak.
The group is also demanding an end to the draconian Emergency Laws, which grant police wide-ranging powers The laws have been used often to arrest and harass the Islamist group.
Nasser said his group would not accept any new government with Mubarak.
On Saturday the Brotherhood called on President Mubarak to relinquish power in a peaceful manner following the resignation of the Egyptian cabinet.
Speaking to CNN later Sunday, ElBaradei said he had a popular and political mandate to negotiate the creation of a national unity government.
"I have been authorized -- mandated -- by the people who organized these demonstrations and many other parties to agree on a national unity government," he told CNN.
"I hope that I should be in touch soon with the army and we need to work together. The army is part of Egypt," the opposition leader added.
Opposition figure Mustafa el-Naggar stated that ElBaradei "will be joining protesters in Tahrir," adding he would come to the square later on Sunday, his first visit to the hub of the protest since returning to Egypt on Thursday.
The Egyptian cabinet formally resigned Saturday at the command of Mubarak, following violent anti-government protests that have now reached their sixth day unabated.
Mubarak has yet to comment on the cabinet's resignation. The embattled president addressed the country on Saturday for the fist time since the riots began, saying that he had no intention to resign.
The protests are the most serious challenge to Mubarak's 30-year authoritarian rule. The embattled president defended the security forces' crackdown on protesters, but said that he will press ahead with social, economic and political reforms in the country.
Mubarak has not said yet whether he will stand for another six-year term as president in elections this year. He has never appointed a deputy and is thought to be grooming his son Gamal to succeed him despite popular opposition.
January 31st, 2011, 01:34
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Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
Posted on January 30, 2011 at 4:43pm by Scott Baker
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A good number of sage individuals watching the unrest in Egypt are concerned about the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and what a surge of their influence or control could portend. Here’s Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI):
“The Egyptian demonstrations are not the equivalent of Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution. The Egyptian demonstrations are the reprise of Iran’s 1979 radical revolution.
“Thus, America must stand with her ally Egypt to preserve an imperfect government capable of reform; and prevent a tyrannical government capable of harm.
“For if Egypt is radicalized, all of the reforms sought by the Egyptian people and supported by the United States with them – including consensual and constitutional government; free elections; open and unbridled media; and Egyptian control of their natural resources – will be lost. Nascent democratic movements in the region will be co-opted and radicalized. The world‘s free and open access to the Suez Canal’s vital commercial shipping lanes will be choked. And the Sinai Accord between Egypt and Israel – which must be protected as the foundation and principal example for Mideast peace – will be shredded.
But to those who are suggesting that the fall of Mubarak would lead to the rise of a government dominated by Muslim Brotherhood thinking, the primary opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei has a simple answer — no way. But he is reaching out to include the, along with Egyptian Marxists, in a future government:
ZAKARIA: Mohamed, one of the visions that haunts Americans is of the Iranian revolution, where a dictator, pro-American dictator, was replaced by an even worse regime that was even more anti-American and more threatening to the region. People worry about the Muslim Brotherhood. Are you confident that a post-Mubarak Egypt will not give rise to some kind of Islamic fundamentalist force that will undermine the democracy of Egypt?
ELBARADEI: I’m quite confident of that, Fareed. This is a myth that was sold by the Mubarak regime, that it’s either us, the ruthless dictators, or above (ph) them the al Qaida types.
You know, the Muslim Brotherhood has nothing to do with the Iranian model, has nothing to do with extremism, as we have seen it in Afghanistan and other places. The Muslim Brotherhood is a religiously conservative group. They are a minority in Egypt. They are not a majority of the Egyptian people, but they have a lot of credibility because all the other liberal parties have been smothered for 30 years.
They are in favor of a federalist (ph) state. They are in favor of a wording on the base of constitution that has red lines (ph) that every Egyptian has the same rights, same obligation, that the state in no way will be a state based on religion. And I have been reaching out to them. We need to include them. They are part of the Egyptian society, as much as the Marxist party here. I think this myth that has been perpetuated and sold by the regime has no – has no iota of reality.
As you know, Fareed, I’ve worked with Iranians, I’ve worked here. There is 100 percent difference between the two societies. ZAKARIA: If there were a democratic government with Muslim Brotherhood participation, do you believe that Egypt would still be at peace with Israel? ELBARADEI: Of course. I mean, I – again, the whole issue of peace in the Middle East is an issue which everybody – nobody wants to go to war, Fareed.
Here’s the full interview on CNN:
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January 31st, 2011, 17:24
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Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
The Obama administration continues to turn up the heat on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, after two years of quietly monitoring human rights abuses by his regime and doing nothing.
The rapid response of the White House to the protests in Egypt contrasts starkly with the Obama administration’s total silence during the first two weeks of the Green Movement protests in Iran in June 2009, even though the Iranian protesters openly called for U.S. support in their struggle to over-turn the re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
At the time, Obama said the United States did not want to give the impression of interfering in Iran’s domestic politics.
"It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be,” Obama said after millions of Iranians defied the government for more than four days in massive street protests demanding that their votes be counted. “We respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran.”
The administration displayed no such restraint in responding to the massive street protests in Egypt this past week, and even seemed to time its statements in such a way as to spark additional protests.
“I’ve always said to him that making sure that they are moving forward on reform — political reform, economic reform — is absolutely critical to the long-term well-being of Egypt,” Obama said in a YouTube forum. “And you can see these pent-up frustrations that are being displayed on the streets.”
The very next day, millions of Egyptians received their marching orders during Friday prayers at mosques in Cairo and other major cities, and poured out into the streets in massive demonstrations that have rocked the Egyptian regime.
On Saturday, Mubarak announced that he was promoting his long-time intelligence chief Gen. Omar Suleiman as his vice-president, a move that was coordinated between the White House and top Egyptian military officers who met with President Obama the day before in an effort to manage a peaceful hand-over of power.
Just hours later, the State Department dismissed Mubarak’s efforts, undercutting the very officers who thought they had struck a deal with the White House.
“The Egyptian government can’t reshuffle the deck and then stand pat,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowly said in a Twitter message. “President Mubarak’s words pledging reform must be followed by action.”
The flurry of U.S. government statements against Mubarak and in favor of the protesters in Egypt have been described by some commentators as a clever attempt to convince the Egyptian people that the United States supports their struggle for civil and political rights, easing the transition to a pro-Mubarak government while retaining Egypt as an ally.
But even some of the administration’s strongest supporters have warned that Obama is playing with fire.
The administration’s support for the protesters “is a slide toward the unknown,” former New York Times editor Leslie H. Gelb wrote in Newsweek on Sunday. “Senior officials have no idea of exactly who these street protesters are, whether the protesters are simply a mob force incapable of organized political action and rule, or if more sinister groups hover in the shadows, waiting to grab power and turn Egypt into an anti-Western, anti-Israeli bastion.”
Most observers fear that the U.S. efforts to encourage the protest movement will lead to a behind-the-scenes takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood, the long-outlawed Islamist movement responsible for the assassination of Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, and that spawned Ayman al-Zawahri, No. 2 of al-Qaida.
Such a takeover in fact may be Obama’s intention, just as his intention during the post-election protests in Iran was to support the regime in place because he saw it as a potential partner in resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis.
The Obama administration has taken numerous steps over the past two years to convince the Muslim Brotherhood that this White House no longer views them as an enemy.
Two months before Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo, where he offered a “new beginning” to Muslims in their relations to the United States, he welcomed two members of the Egyptian group to the White House for quiet political consultations, according to the Egyptian army newspaper, Al Masry al-Ayoum.
He also lifted a ban on travel to the United States on Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Islamist scholar who is the grandson of the founder of the Brotherhood, and went out of his way to invite Muslim Brotherhood members of Egypt’s parliament to attend his Cairo speech.
During the April 2009 White House meeting, the unnamed Muslim Brotherhood leaders reassured Obama that a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt would “abide by all agreements Egypt has signed with foreign countries,” according to the Egyptian newspaper account. They also said they favored democracy and would support the U.S.-led war on terror.
But similar statements by Muslim Brotherhood in the past have regularly been parsed to mean the exact opposite of what they appeared to mean on the surface.
For example, the Muslim Brotherhood does not recognize Israel as a country, so their pledge to abide by Egypt’s agreements with “foreign countries” does not apply to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
Similarly, the Muslim Brotherhood does not consider groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah to be terrorist organizations, and calls al-Qaida attacks on U.S. servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan acts of legitimate resistance against a foreign occupier.
Statements in favor of free elections do not transform the Muslim Brotherhood into a democratic group, says a former top Israeli military intelligence analyst, Dr. Mordechai Hadar.
“Democracy is not just about elections,” Hadar told congressional staffers last week in Washington. “It’s also about rights — women’s rights, minority rights, freedom for gays and lesbians."
Hadar had warnings for the Israeli Embassy: “If the Muslim Brotherhood takes over in Egypt, it means the end of the peace treaty [with Israel], and the life expectancy of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo will be calculated in minutes."
Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, the former secretary general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that he is working hand in glove with the Muslim Brotherhood on CNN’s “GPS” program with Fareed Zakaria on Sunday.
“I have been reaching out to them, that we need to include them, that they are a part of Egyptian society,” ElBaradei said.
ElBaradei tried to downplay the Brotherhood’s radical agenda, and dismissed any hint that Egypt would go the way of Iran in 1979, when the former shah’s regime was replaced by an Islamic dictatorship.
Even if the Egyptian army agrees to allow ElBaradei to head some form of transition government, “he is likely at best to be an interim figure — putting a face acceptable to the West on a government he doesn’t control — until either the army or the Brotherhood takes over,” says Shoshana Bryen, senior director for security policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs in Washington, D.C.
A quiet, unremarkable-looking man with a beard and prayer bump on his forehead, Badie had seemed satisfied with keeping a low profile in the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). His election as the eighth general guide of Egypt’s largest and best-organised opposition group caused a stir in January 2010, but suggestions that this marked a dramatic shift to conservatism and a less active role in politics have proved to be exaggerated.
Badie, a professor of veterinary pathology, was born in 1943 in the Nile Delta industrial town of El-Mahalla El-Kubra. He joined the MB, which is officially banned but largely tolerated, as a young man, rising through its ranks to become the head of ideological education.
In the 1960s, Badie was jailed for nine years. A follower of Sayyid Qutb, who advocated armed struggle to impose Islamic law, he was accused of belonging to a paramilitary cell plotting to overthrow the government.
His appointment as leader of the MB came after a dispute between conservatives and reformists. Moving to bridge the divisions, he stated his commitment to established policies, affirming the equality of women and the rights of Egypt’s Christian minority. “We believe in gradual reform that can only be achieved through a peaceful and constitutional struggle based on persuasion and dialogue,” he said.
Badie said members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which took 20% of seats in parliamentary elections in 2005, would participate in the 2010 local elections. The MB support ensured that opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei’s petition for constitutional changes before the 2011 presidential election reached its benchmark of 1m signatures.
February 1st, 2011, 00:06
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Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
(Reuters) - If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday.
Political commentators expressed shock at how the United States as well as its major European allies appeared to be ready to dump a staunch strategic ally of three decades, simply to conform to the current ideology of political correctness.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told ministers of the Jewish state to make no comment on the political cliffhanger in Cairo, to avoid inflaming an already explosive situation. But Israel's President Shimon Peres is not a minister.
"We always have had and still have great respect for President Mubarak," he said on Monday. He then switched to the past tense. "I don't say everything that he did was right, but he did one thing which all of us are thankful to him for: he kept the peace in the Middle East."
Newspaper columnists were far more blunt.
One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was entitled "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam." It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks.
Who is advising them, he asked, "to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president ... an almost lone voice of sanity in a Middle East?"
"The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations ... is painfully naive."
Obama on Sunday called for an "orderly transition" to democracy in Egypt, stopping short of calling on Mubarak to step down, but signaling that his days may be numbered.
"AMERICA HAS LOST IT"
Netanyahu instructed Israeli ambassadors in a dozen key capitals over the weekend to impress on host governments that Egypt's stability is paramount, official sources said.
"Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the reactions in the West, how everyone is abandoning Mubarak, and this will have very serious implications," Haaretz daily quoted one official as saying.
Egypt, Israel's most powerful neighbor, was the first Arab country to make peace with the Jewish state, in 1979. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed the treaty, was assassinated two years later by an Egyptian fanatic.
It took another 13 years before King Hussein of Jordan broke Arab ranks to made a second peace with the Israelis. That treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated one year later, in 1995, by an Israeli fanatic.
There have been no peace treaties since. Lebanon and Syria are still technically at war with Israel. Conservative Gulf Arab regimes have failed to advance their peace ideas. A hostile Iran has greatly increased its influence in the Middle East conflict.
"The question is, do we think Obama is reliable or not," said an Israeli official, who declined to be named.
"Right now it doesn't look so. That is a question resonating across the region not just in Israel."
Writing in Haaretz, Ari Shavit said Obama had betrayed "a moderate Egyptian president who remained loyal to the United States, promoted stability and encouraged moderation."
To win popular Arab opinion, Obama was risking America's status as a superpower and reliable ally.
"Throughout Asia, Africa and South America, leaders are now looking at what is going on between Washington and Cairo. Everyone grasps the message: "America's word is worthless ... America has lost it."
February 2nd, 2011, 03:10
vector7
Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
You've heard a lot about The Muslim Brotherhood lately, but just who are they and what are their plans...specifically for America? Tonight, learn about a document that lays out the Brotherhood’s proposed plans for North America, including expanding the Muslim base and presenting a “civilization alternative”, as well as the support for a global Islamic state. It details a plan to conquer and Islamize the United States- not as an ultimate objective, but as a stepping stone toward the larger goal of creating a global Islamic state. Plus, why caliphates are scary. What is a caliphate? Find out tonight.
February 2nd, 2011, 19:12
vector7
Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
Almost immediately after angry Egyptians took to the streets last week, oil jumped to over $100 a barrel. It was the first time oil hit triple digits since the record spike to $147 two years ago. Clearly, investors were spooked at even the thought of a disruption in energy production and shipping.
On Monday, we got a glimpse at one important reason why. A leading Muslim Brotherhood member said the Suez Canal should be immediately shut down.
Muhammad Ghannem made the provocative statement to an Arabic-language Iranian news network. He also said Egyptians should “be prepared for war against Israel.”
It was a chilling peek at what might happen once the dust settles from these popular protests sweeping Egypt. Western optimism notwithstanding, the Muslim Brotherhood will likely end up in power—which means the Middle East’s most populous and influential Arab country is about to lurch from relatively stable, moderate ally to volatile, radical enemy.
The shock waves will be massive. This will revolutionize the landscape in the most combustible part of the world. It will embolden extremists like nothing since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and place formidable levers of power in their hands.
Control over the Suez Canal is definitely one of those levers. It’s a prime example of why Europe is watching events in Egypt so intently.
The Suez Canal is one of the engineering marvels of the modern world. It cuts through 118 miles of Egyptian countryside, connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, thus linking Europe with East Africa and Asia.
Initially completed over 140 years ago—after 1.5 million laborers moved more than 1.2 billion cubic feet of soil with picks and shovels—to this day it remains a conduit for roughly 8 percent of global seaborne trade.
Of particular concern is oil. Though Egypt exports none itself, the U.S. Energy Department still classifies it as one of the few World Oil Transit Chokepoints. Every day, 3 million barrels of oil and fuel products pass through the canal and the Suez-Mediterranean Pipeline, which also traverses Egypt. That amounts to 2.5 percent of global oil production.
About two thirds of that energy is traveling north toward Europe. It accounts for 5 to 7 percent of Europe’s oil consumption.
Disrupt these shipments, and European supply—and global prices—would be “affected tremendously,” Dalton Garis, an associate professor at an Abu Dhabi energy-research center, told the Wall Street Journal.
The New York Times reported on the same possibility: “While [oil] prices are set globally, the immediate impact of any interruption would be felt primarily in Europe, which relies heavily on jet fuel, heating oil and other distillates refined in the Middle East and shipped via the canal and pipeline” (emphasis mine). Already this past week, European oil prices have soared—even higher than those in America.
Investors are concerned that Egypt’s instability makes ships passing through the canal more susceptible to attack. Worse, though, is the prospect of a radical, anti-West government taking over Cairo and shutting the canal down altogether, a likelihood Barclays Capital warned of this week. Oil tankers transporting Middle East oil westward would have to travel the extra 6,000 miles around Africa, delaying delivery times and markedly increasing costs. That’s the last thing a continent mired in economic problems wants.
One could be forgiven for thinking that Ghannem’s call to close the canal was calculated to panic Europeans.
“People talking about the closure of the Suez Canal are talking about a collapse of the state, which it is in our interest to avoid at all costs,” Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said Monday. “This is one of the reasons why Egypt’s stability is fundamental for the economy too, as a result of trade in the Mediterranean and therefore with Europe.”
Remember, the Suez Canal was once before at the heart of a war. In fact, current conditions resound with echoes of that history.
On one side was an Egyptian leader with a vision of militant pan-Arabism that put him at odds with European colonial powers. Colonel Gamal Nasser had taken part in a coup against the Egyptian monarchy in 1952 and then overthrown the president two years later. In July 1956, in a purposeful display of Arab strength, he seized control of the Suez Canal.
On the other side were the canal’s European owners. The canal was the West’s most prominent asset in the Middle East: At the time, a full four fifths of Western Europe’s oil was passing through it. France, Britain and Israel responded to Nasser’s provocation by combining forces to invade.
In what has proven to be a terrible blunder, the United States broke from its British ally and came out firmly against the action. The United Nations, beholden to Third World opinion, also dissented. In the end, a ceasefire was imposed, and control of the vital Suez Canal was yielded up to Egypt. It was a massive defeat for Britain in particular, marking its unmistakable loss of status as a great power—and the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy that it would lose control of its sea gates.
Since that event, Europe has significantly reduced its dependence on Suez.
Nevertheless, in these economically strained, extremely oil-dependent times, the Suez Canal remains very significant strategically.
The prospect of a Muslim Brotherhood government gaining control over this asset—punctuated by the explicit call for its closure by a prominent member—makes it easy to imagine a militant Egyptian government again using the canal to provoke a European power.
This time, however, the players would be somewhat different. On one side would be the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization sure to prove even more aggressive than Nasser was (at one time, it actually tried to assassinate Nasser). And on the other, rather than a fading Britain, would be a surging, unified Europe. These differences would result in a far different outcome than the war in 1956.
~snip~
Today, the ideological similarities and informal ties between the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran are well known. This is a major reason why we have been saying for two decades that the Brotherhood was destined to come to power in Egypt. Daniel’s prophecy reveals that this Arab state would experience exactly the sort of lurch toward extremism that we see unfolding before our eyes today.
How much might the Brotherhood’s use of the Suez Canal as a weapon factor in to the king of the south’s “push”—and the king of the north’s violent response? We know that Egypt will not escape the European whirlwind. Perhaps today’s $100 oil and a threat to close the canal give us a clue as to why. •
February 3rd, 2011, 23:47
vector7
Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
On Wednesday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity hosted controversial Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary to discuss the continuing turbulence in Egypt and who will fill the power vacuum when President Hosni Mubarak steps down.
Choudary supports implementing sharia law in the UK and has praised the 9/11 terrorists as “magnificent martyrs.” He has been an active figure in Islam4UK, a group banned under UK anti-terror proscription laws last year.
Over the course of their discussion, Choudary suggests the situation in Egypt offers a real opportunity for an Islamic uprising and a chance for the Muslim Brotherhood — a group banned under Mubarak — to reinsert itself into the country’s politics. According to Choudary, the people of Egypt do not oppose sharia law and instead would rather be free of Western customs:
When Hannity presses the cleric on his views of sharia law and, specifically, stoning individuals for offenses such as adultery, Choudary unapologetically insists that stoning men and women is acceptable after implementing shariah law, the “education system of Islam” and the “social and economic justice.”
Islam Times: Saudi Arabia's 86-year-old King Abdullah was discharged from a New York City hospital in good health after going through two back operations in December 2010.
The king delegated the management of the affairs of the world’s largest oil supplier to his half-brother, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, during his absence.
King Abdullah talked with Obama about the situation in Egypt over the phone yesterday. Obama and the King got into a heated debate about their opinions of what Hosni Mubarak should do. After the phone call sources stated that King Abdullah was furious and then suffered a sudden heart attack.
Doctors ran to his rescue but were unable to save him.
He was pronounced dead, but his death was not reported due to the sensative conditions that exist in the region.
The Saudi Arabian government will reject this claim; but the ball is in their court to prove that he is alive.
February 14th, 2011, 16:51
American Patriot
Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
Sounds true.
Hmmmm
Life as the world knew it is about to change. Welcome to "Hope and Change".
lol
February 21st, 2011, 00:55
vector7
Re: Muslim Brotherhood Says Arabs Will Topple Leaders Allied With U.S.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday called on Muslims to "remove" the US from the Islamic world.
"The main problem in the Muslim world is the presence of the United States. It is the biggest problem. We need to address that," he told a gathering of Shiite and Sunni scholars in Tehran for an international conference on Islam.
"It is necessary to remove the US from the Islamic world," the all-powerful cleric and Islamic republic's commander-in-chief said, adding that the country's arch-foe was currently weak.
Khamenei urged Muslims worldwide to preserve the "people's movement in Egypt," saying it was the duty of both the people and dignitaries of Arab nations and the entire Islamic community.
He reiterated that the Arab revolts were "Islamic" and must be consolidated.
"The enemies try to say that the popular movements in Egypt, Tunisia and other nations are un-Islamic, but certainly these popular movements are Islamic and must be consolidated," he said.
Khamenei also urged that "the conspiracy of enemies to create differences between Sunnis and Shiites" be confronted.
On February 4, in his Friday prayer sermon, Khamenei called for an Islamic regime to be installed in Egypt, a week before that country's strongman Hosni Mubarak was ousted.
Iranian officials expressed support for the uprising in the Arab world's most populous nation. -Sapa-AFP
