Egypt protesters set fire to Muslim Brotherhood offices

[Glensather]

"The offices of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, were torched in the canal cities of Ismailiya and Port Said, state television said."

SOURCE: MIDEAST - Morsi says Egypt on path to "freedom and democracy"

Oh, look, people don't like the Muslim Brotherhood in charge.
SHOCKING.

 

[waltky]

How ya gonna keep `em down onna farm when dey seen gay Tahrir Square?...

A look at powers decreed by Egypt's president
Nov 23,`12 Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi issued decrees giving himself broad powers and effectively neutering the judiciary. Morsi, an Islamist hailing from the Muslim Brotherhood, defends the step as necessary to clear obstacles holding up Egypt's transition, particularly from judges who could have disbanded a controversial assembly writing the constitution or overturned his decisions. Critics say Morsi, who already holds both executive and legislative powers, is setting himself up as a new dictator.

Here is a look at the main points of his decrees:

- All laws and decisions by the president are final, cannot be appealed, overturned or halted by the courts or other bodies. This applies to decisions he has made since taking office in June and any he makes until a new constitution is approved and a new parliament is elected, expected in the spring at the earliest.

- No judicial body can dissolve the upper house of parliament or the assembly writing the new constitution. Both are dominated by the Brotherhood and other Islamists and several cases demanding their disbanding were before the courts, which previously dissolved the lower house of parliament.

- The president can take any steps or measures necessary to prevent threats to "the revolution, the life of the nation or national unity and security" or to the functioning of state institutions.

- A new judiciary body of "protection of the revolution" is created to reopen investigations, prosecutions and trials of former regime officials, including ousted President Hosni Mubarak, for the killing of protesters during last year's uprising. Other police officers accused of killings, however, will not be retried.

- The controversial prosecutor general, a Mubarak appointee seen by many as lax in pursuing former regime figures, was removed from his post.

Source

Granny says, "Yea, dat's what we need to do - neuter dem Supreme Court judges."

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat Morsi, he ain't budgin'...

Egypt's president stands by his decrees
Nov 26,`12 -- Egypt's president told the country's top judges Monday that he did not infringe on their authority when he seized near absolute powers, setting up a prolonged showdown on the eve of a mass protest planned by opponents of the Islamist leader.

An aide to President Mohammed Morsi said the decree was limited to "sovereignty-related issues," but that did not satisfy his critics. The uncompromising stance came during a meeting between Morsi and members of the Supreme Judiciary Council in a bid to resolve a four-day crisis that has plunged the country into a new round of turmoil with clashes between the two sides that have left one protester dead and hundreds wounded.

The judiciary, the main target of Morsi's edicts, also has pushed back, calling the decrees a power grab and an "assault" on the branch's independence. Judges and prosecutors stayed away from many courts in Cairo and other cities on Sunday and Monday. A spokesman said Morsi told the judges that he acted within his right as the nation's sole source of legislation when he issued decrees putting himself above judicial oversight. The president also extended the same immunity to two bodies dominated by his Islamist allies - a panel drafting a new constitution and parliament's mostly toothless upper chamber.

The spokesman, Yasser Ali, also told reporters that Morsi assured the judges that the decrees did not in any way "infringe" on the judiciary and that they were "temporary" and limited only to "sovereignty-related issues." Two prominent rights lawyers - Gamal Eid and Ahmed Ragheb - dismissed Ali's remarks. Eid said they were designed to keep "Morsi above the law," while Ragheb said they amounted to "playing with words." "This is not what Egyptians are objecting to and protesting about. If the president wanted to resolve the crisis, there should be an amendment to his constitutional declaration."

Ali's comments signaled Morsi's resolve not to back down or compromise on the constitutional amendments he announced last week, raising the likelihood of more violence. Both sides had planned competing rallies in Cairo on Tuesday, but the Brotherhood cancelled its rally late Monday, saying it wanted to reduce tension and congestion in the city. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Monday by telephone with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr to "register American concerns about Egypt's political situation," according to spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Clinton, she said, stressed that the U.S. wanted to "see the constitutional process move forward in a way that does not overly concentrate power in one set of hands, that ensures that rule of law, checks and balances, protection of the rights of all groups in Egypt are upheld," Nuland said.

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See also:

McCain threatens to end aid to Egypt
Sunday, November 25, 2012 - Power grab stirs protest in Cairo

As U.S. political leaders rebuked Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Sunday for his decree to assume sweeping new powers, police in central Cairo fired tear gas at protesters who accused him of a blatant power grab. Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said that while the U.S. is thankful for Mr. Morsi’s help facilitating a cease-fire between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers, he criticized Mr. Morsi’s decision to give himself near-absolute power, which has prompted days of violent street protests in Egypt. “To assume this kind of power is unacceptable to the United States of America,” Mr. McCain said on “Fox News Sunday.”

The senator warned that Egypt risks a “repeat of the Iranian experience in the 1970s,” referring to the 1979 Iranian revolution in which street demonstrations overthrew the regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, a pro-American dictator, only to put into power a repressive Islamist theocracy. Mr. McCain, who is the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the U.S. should threaten to withhold billions of dollars in aid to Egypt unless Mr. Morsi returns to a more democratic path. “This is not what the United States and American taxpayers expect and our dollars will be directly related to the progress towards democracy, which you promised the people of Egypt, when your party and you were elected president,” he said.

Mr. McCain also blamed Iran for escalating violence in the Middle East, saying it’s time “to start facing up to what is one of the prime reasons why there is the kind of unrest.” “Where did the missiles come from that were being fired [by Hamas on Israel]? Iran. Where are the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on the ground? In Syria. The [nuclear] centrifuges continue to spin in Tehran,” he said.

Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged Mr. Morsi “to point out that behind all of this is Iran” and to take a defiant stance against Tehran and its growing influence in the Middle East. “Iran’s support of Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and the way that is then filtered into weaponry that goes through Egypt into Gaza — if that could be stopped by Egypt … [then that] is going to take leverage away from Iran,” Mr. Levin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If Egypt will take a strong role here to stop the tunnels from being used for weaponry getting to Gaza, this could lead to a real plus.”

Read more: McCain threatens to end aid to Egypt - Washington Times McCain threatens to end aid to Egypt - Washington Times

 

[BecauseIKnow]

That's some people, and the minority.

 

[Missourian]

Never fear, President Obama will give these protestors 100 times the support he gave the Iranian protestors.

What's 100 times zero again?

 

[skye]

This is what the Obama policies of backing the so called "Arab Spring" turned into ... a total fiasco a total failure!

He served the Middle East to Islamic fundamentalists on a silver plate!

How short sighted can an American President be?

 

[waltky]

Why don't dey call Jimmy Carter in to supervise it?...

Senior Egyptian Judges to Supervise Morsi's Constitutional Referendum
December 03, 2012 - Egypt's most senior judges have agreed to supervise a December 15 referendum on a new constitution drafted primarily by Islamists, giving a boost to President Mohammed Morsi, who called the vote.

The Supreme Judicial Council Monday said it will delegate officials to oversee the referendum, rejecting a call by lower-ranked judges with the influential Judges Club for a boycott. The Judges Club issued a statement Sunday urging a boycott as a protest against Mr. Morsi's November 22 decree that bars any courts from challenging his decisions. President Morsi needs judicial supervision of the referendum to legitimize it and the constitution drafted by his allies in a constituent assembly, which handed him the document on Saturday. Officials said they were moving ahead with referendum plans, including arrangements for Egyptian expatriates to cast their ballots at diplomatic missions abroad.

Morsi's liberal and secular opponents, including many junior judges, want to delegitimize the constitutional referendum by refusing to participate. They accuse the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly of drafting a charter that would threaten civil liberties by imposing a stricter interpretation of Islam. Liberals and Christians boycotted the constitution-drafting process. An opposition coalition is planning a march to President Morsi's Cairo office Tuesday to denounce his planned referendum and demand that he scrap the decree that granted him what they see as near-dictatorial powers. Mr. Morsi has promised to lift the decree once the public approves a new constitution in a referendum. Several independent Egyptian newspapers said they will join the protest by refusing to print their Tuesday editions.

Adding to the sense of crisis, Egypt's top court began an indefinite strike on Sunday, joining other courts that stopped work in recent days due to what they see as Mr. Morsi's assault on the judiciary. The judges of the Supreme Constitutional Court said they were afraid to approach their offices because thousands of Islamists had massed outside. The top court had been due to issue rulings that could have dissolved the constituent assembly and the upper house of parliament, also controlled by Islamists. The court's Islamist critics say it is biased against them because its judges were appointed by Hosni Mubarak, a longtime anti-Islamist president who was ousted last year in a popular uprising.

Senior Egyptian Judges to Supervise Morsi's Constitutional Referendum

See also:

Egypt's crisis widens with planned march, strikes
Dec 3,`12 -- Egypt's political crisis is widening, with plans for a huge march and a general strike Tuesday to protest the hurried drafting of a new constitution and decrees by President Mohammed Morsi that gave him nearly unrestricted powers.

Morsi also faces the prospect of wider civil disobedience as media, the tourism industry and law professors pondered moves that would build on a strike by the nation's judges. The planned strikes and march raise new fears of unrest, threatening to derail the country's transition to democratic rule. "Egypt is a big ship in high seas, and no one should stop its captain from taking it to the shore," said Morsi's legal adviser, Mohammed Gaballah, defending his boss. "The ship must keep moving under any conditions," he told The Associated Press on Monday.

The country's judges have already gone on strike over Morsi's Nov. 22 decrees that placed him above oversight of any kind, including the courts. Following those decrees, a panel dominated by the president's Islamist supporters rushed through a draft constitution without the participation of representatives of liberals and Christians. Only four women, all Islamists, attended the marathon, all-night session. Morsi has called for a Dec. 15 national referendum to approve the constitution.

An opposition coalition dominated by the liberal and leftist groups that led last year's uprising had already called for a general strike Tuesday and a large demonstration against the constitutional process and Morsi's decrees. Newspapers plan to suspend publication, and privately owned TV networks will blacken their screens all day. Monday's front pages of Egypt's most prominent newspapers said, "No to dictatorship" on a black background, with a picture of a man wrapped in newspaper and with his feet shackled while he squatted in a prison cell.

Hotels and restaurants are considering turning off their lights for a half-hour to protest against Morsi, according to the Supporting Tourism Coalition, an independent body representing industry employees. Cairo University law professors petitioned their dean to let them stop teaching. "The professors believe they must not teach law under a regime that doesn't respect the law," said one of the professors, Khaled Abu Bakr.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Granny says all hell breakin' loose in Egypt...

Egypt: military warns of 'disastrous consequences'
8 Dec.`12 — Egypt's military warned on Saturday of "disastrous consequences" if the crisis that sent tens of thousands of protesters back into the streets is not resolved, signaling the army's return to an increasingly polarized and violent political scene.

The military said serious dialogue is the "best and only" way to overcome the nation's deepening conflict over a disputed draft constitution hurriedly adopted by Islamist allies of President Mohammed Morsi, and recent decrees granting himself near-absolute powers. "Anything other than that (dialogue) will force us into a dark tunnel with disastrous consequences; something which we won't allow," the statement said. It was read by an unnamed military official on state television. Morsi had called for a dialogue Saturday to discuss how to resolve the disagreement as his vice president suggested that a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum could be delayed.

But the main opposition leaders declined to attend, saying talks can only take place if Morsi rescinds his decrees and cancels the referendum. Most of the public figures at the meeting were Islamists, with the exception of liberal opposition politician Ayman Nour. And at least three members left the talks soon after they started. Ahmed Mahran, a lawyer who was among them, said: "It was a one-way conversation," accusing presidential advisers of refusing to listen. Egypt's once all-powerful military, which temporarily took over governing the country after the revolution that ousted autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak, was largely sidelined weeks after Morsi was elected.

Weeks after he was sworn in, Morsi ordered the two top generals to retire and gave himself legislative powers that the military had assumed in the absence of a parliament, which had been dissolved by the courts. The current crisis was sparked Nov. 22 when Morsi granted himself authority free of judicial oversight, alleging that judges loyal to the former regime were threatening the constitutional drafting process and the transition to democracy. But the move touched off a new wave of opposition and unprecedented clashes between the president's Islamist supporters led by the Muslim Brotherhood and protesters accusing him of becoming a new strongman.

At least six civilians have been killed and several offices of the president's Muslim Brotherhood torched in the unrest. The two sides also have staged a number of sit-ins around state institutions, including the presidential palace where some of the most violent clashes occurred. With the increasing polarization and the specter of internal fighting looming, the military began reasserting itself, with soldiers sealing off the presidential palace with tanks and barbed wire. Its warning on Saturday marked the first time the military returned to the political fray. Failing to reach a consensus, "is in the interest of neither side. The nation as a whole will pay the price," the military said, adding it "realizes its national responsibility in protecting the nation's higher interests" and state institutions.

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Egypt's Morsi offers nothing to defuse crisis
December 6, 2012 - In a speech following a night of violent protests, Egyptian President Morsi invited opposition leaders to begin a dialogue on Saturday. However, he did not give any indication that he is prepared to make concessions to his opponents.

An angry Mohammed Morsi refused Thursday to call off a referendum on a disputed constitution that has sparked Egypt's worst political crisis in two years, drawing chants of "topple the regime!" from protesters who waved their shoes in contempt. The Egyptian president's uncompromising stand came a night after thousands of his supporters and opponents fought pitched battles outside his Cairo palace, leaving at least six dead and 700 injured. Speaking in a nationally televised address, Morsi accused some in the opposition of serving remnants of Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime and vowed he would never tolerate anyone working for the overthrow of his "legitimate" government.

That brought shouts of "the people want to topple the regime!" from the crowd of 30,000 Morsi opponents — the same chant used in the protests that brought down Mubarak. Morsi also invited the opposition to a "comprehensive and productive" dialogue starting Saturday at his presidential palace, but gave no sign that he might offer any meaningful concessions. The opposition has already refused to engage Morsi unless he first rescinds decrees giving him nearly unrestricted powers and shelves the draft constitution hurriedly adopted by his Islamist allies in a marathon session last week. Morsi said the referendum on the disputed charter would go ahead as scheduled on Dec. 15. He also refused to rescind the Nov. 22 decrees. Reading from prepared notes, Morsi frequently broke off to improvise. He wore a black tie in mourning for the six people killed in Wednesday's clashes.

From Washington, President Barack Obama called Morsi to express "deep concern" about the deaths and injuries of protesters in Egypt, according to a White House statement. The statement Thursday night said that Obama told Morsi that he and other political leaders in Egypt must make clear to their supporters that violence is unacceptable. Obama welcomed Morsi's call for a dialogue with opposition leaders in Egypt but stressed that such a dialogue should occur without preconditions. The United States also has urged opposition leaders to join in talks without preconditions.

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[waltky]

Referendum boycott likely to cast further doubt on the legitimacy of the disputed charter...

Egypt judges say most will boycott referendum
Dec 11,`12 -- Most Egyptian judges rejected any role Tuesday in overseeing the country's constitutional referendum, a move likely to cast further doubt on the legitimacy of the disputed charter.

The nation's worst crisis since Hosni Mubarak's ouster nearly two years ago also forced the government to put off a crucial deal with the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan, shattering any hope for recovery of the country's ailing economy anytime soon. On one side of the divide is President Mohammed Morsi, his Muslim Brotherhood and their ultra-conservative Islamist allies, against an opposition camp of liberals, leftists and Christians who contend the draft charter restricts freedoms and gives Islamists vast influence over the running of the country.

An unexpected twist came when the defense minister, a Morsi appointee, invited the opposition, along with judges, media leaders and Muslim and Christian clerics to an informal gathering Wednesday, saying he was doing so in his personal - not an official - capacity. It was the second time this week that the nation's powerful military has addressed the crisis, signaling its return to the political fray after handing over power in June to Morsi, Egypt's first civilian president.

The military sees itself as the guarantor of Egypt's interests and secular traditions. Earlier this week, it warned of disastrous consequences if the crisis over the country's draft constitution is not resolved. "We will only sit together ... For the sake of every Egyptian, come and disagree. But we won't be cross with one another or clash," Defense Minister Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, said on state television. "We are not concerned with politics. We want to reassure the people that we can sit together," added Maj. Gen. Mohammed el-Assar, el-Sissi's deputy, speaking on a private TV network.

The opposition said it would not participate in any meeting that was nothing more than an informal gathering. The Brotherhood said it would attend. Egypt's political crisis began on Nov. 22 when Morsi issued a decree granting himself - and the Islamist-dominated panel that drafted the constitution - immunity from judicial oversight or challenge, sparking mass demonstrations. The constituent assembly then hurriedly approved the draft constitution in a marathon overnight session, prompting hundreds of thousands of the president's opponents to take to the streets in massive rallies - the largest since the uprising that toppled Mubarak in February 2011.

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Morsi Declares Martial Law in Egypt 1 Year After Obama Praised Arab Spring’s ‘Moral Force of Non-Violence’
December 10, 2012 - On Sunday, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree that allows the military to arrest civilians until the vote on a new constitution is over – just a little more than one year after President Barack Obama praised the Arab Spring as the “moral force of non-violence.”

In September 2011, Obama spoke at the United Nations in New York City, praising the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. “One year ago, Egypt had known one president for nearly 30 years,” Obama said. “But for 18 days, the eyes of the world were glued to Tahrir Square, where Egyptians from all walks of life – men and women, young and old, Muslim and Christian – demanded their universal rights. “In those protestors, we saw in those protestors the moral force of non-violence that has lit the world from Deli to Warsaw, from Selma and South Africa,” Obama said. “And we knew that change had come to Egypt and to the Arab world.”

In recent days, Morsi supporters and his opponents have battled outside his Cairo palace, resulting in at least six deaths and some 700 wounded, according to the Associated Press.

On Dec. 6, the White House issued a “readout” of Obama’s call to Morsi about the “deaths and injuries of protestors.” “The President emphasized that all political leaders in Egypt should make clear to their supporters that violence is unacceptable. He welcomed President Morsi’s call for a dialogue with the opposition but stressed that such a dialogue should occur without preconditions.”

The readout also said that the “United States’ continued support for the Egyptian people and their transition to a democracy that respects the rights of all Egyptians.”

Source

 

[R.C. Christian]

Apparently, Barack never read "Nation Building For Retards".

He was probably too busy reading Alinsky.

 

[Politico]

That's how they roll. They'll burn the next guys' offices too.

 

[konradv]

Democracy can be messy. Their revolution is still in its infancy. I can't believe who's crying over the Muslim Brotherhood now! Maybe the Egyptians needed a lesson in who they really are.