Rashid Khalid on Egypt's protests economist.com/video

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US envoy's business link to Egypt

Frank Wisner, President Barack Obama's envoy to Cairo who infuriated the White House this weekend by urging Hosni Mubarak to remain President of Egypt, works for a New York and Washington law firm which works for the dictator's own Egyptian government.

Mr Wisner's astonishing remarks – "President Mubarak's continued leadership is critical: it's his opportunity to write his own legacy" – shocked the democratic opposition in Egypt and called into question Mr Obama's judgement, as well as that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The US State Department and Mr Wisner himself have now both claimed that his remarks were made in a "personal capacity". But there is nothing "personal" about Mr Wisner's connections with the litigation firm Patton Boggs, which openly boasts that it advises "the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and has handled arbitrations and litigation on the [Mubarak] government's behalf in Europe and the US".

US envoy's business link to Egypt - Americas, World - The Independent

 

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Egyptian army don't want to go up against Israel again...

Egypt army commits to power transfer, Israel peace
12 Feb.`11 — On Egypt's first day in nearly 30 years without Hosni Mubarak as president, its new military rulers pledged Saturday to eventually hand power to an elected civilian government and outlined its first cautious steps in a promised transition to democracy. It reassured the world that it will abide by its peace deal with Israel.

The protesters who drove Mubarak out with an unprecedented 18-day popular uprising were still riding high on jubilation at their success. But they also began to press their vision for how to bring reform to a country where autocracy has pervaded the system from top to bottom for decades. They also had an immediate question to resolve: Whether to continue their demonstrations.

A coalition of the movement's youth organizers called for their massive protest camp entrenched for nearly three weeks in Cairo's central Tahrir Square to end, as a gesture to the military. Still, they called for large-scale demonstrations every Friday to keep up pressure for change. Others in Tahrir, however, insisted the constant protests should continue. With thousands still celebrating in the square, shooting fireworks in the air, there was no sign of significant numbers leaving.

At the same time, the coalition put forward their first cohesive list of demands for the next stage, focused on ensuring they — not just the military or members of Mubarak's regime — have a voice in shaping a new democratic system. Among their demands: lifting of emergency law; creation of a presidential council, made up of a military representative and two "trusted personalities"; the dissolving of the ruling party-dominated parliament; and the forming of a broad-based unity government and a committee to either amend or rewrite completely the constitution.

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Uncertain future for U.S. policy as Egypt shifts
12 Feb.`11 WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States faces an intensely uncertain future in Egypt, a stalwart ally of decades in the volatile Middle East, where key tenets of American foreign policy are now thrown into doubt.

Behind President Barack Obama's praise for Egypt's protesters and the outcome they achieved lie major unanswered questions about what will come next now that President Hosni Mubarak has been overthrown after 30 years of authoritarian rule. For many people in Egypt, they were years of oppression, corruption and poverty; but for the U.S., Mubarak was an anchor of stability at the helm of the world's largest Arab nation, enforcing a peace treaty with Israel and protecting vital U.S. interests, including passage for oil through the Suez Canal.

For now, the military is in charge, but whether, when or how a transition will be made to the kind of democratic society that meets the protesters' demands remains unknown. Speaking at the White House on Friday, Obama acknowledged difficult days ahead and unanswered questions but expressed confidence that the answers will be found.

Most tellingly, as the U.S. warily eyes the days ahead, Obama singled out the Egyptian military for praise in the restraint it showed through more than two weeks of largely peaceful protests. But the president emphasized the military's role as a "caretaker" leading up to elections now set for September and said it must now "ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people." He said that means lifting Egypt's hated 30-year-old "emergency" police powers laws, protecting the rights of citizens, revising the country's law and constitution "to make this change irreversible and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free."

But just as the U.S. had limited influence during the uprising that seemed to spring almost out of nowhere to overtake Egypt, it has limited influence over what happens next. The U.S. provides some $1.5 billion a year in aid to Egypt, the vast majority of it to the military, and has a good relationship with the Egyptian military, which often sends officers here for training. That doesn't guarantee a commanding U.S. role. "Do we have leverage or influence?" asked Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast adviser to six U.S. secretaries of state. "Well, did we have leverage and influence over the past few weeks? That's highly arguable."

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Egypt and Tunisia becoming the blueprint for democracy...

Egypt revolt becomes global case study
Feb 19,`11 -- It seems naive to hope the fallout from cataclysmic events in the Middle East and North Africa can spill beyond the region and stir distant, repressed populations with no cultural or historical affinity. Yet successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have captivated dissidents and activists around the world who have campaigned in vain for radical change, in some cases for decades.

This week, South Korean activists even hoisted helium balloons into the air and watched them drift into North Korea with a message attached: discard your leaders, just as the Egyptians did. "The Egyptian people rose up in a revolution to topple a 30-year dictatorship," said one of the leaflets coasting over the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. "The North Koreans too must revolt against a 60-year-old dictatorship."

The strain of poverty and inefficient government in North Korea, which has been targeted by international sanctions, matches or exceeds that of Arab autocracies currently buffeted by street protests. Its human rights record, along with those of Myanmar and Zimbabwe, is routinely condemned in international forums.

But there are no clear signs that these countries will face the same kind of upheaval sweeping Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere. "Everything depends on local conditions," said Charles Ries, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based RAND Corp. who recently oversaw economic issues while stationed at the American Embassy in Baghdad.

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Tunisia’s long-hidden poor seize public land
Sun, Feb 20, 2011 - Near an olive grove on the outskirts of Tunisia’s seaside capital, men stack walls of bricks on muddy earth, and fasten roofs of tin and plastic against the wind-blown rain.

They are a few of the Mediterranean country’s many poor who have become squatters since an uprising toppled the president — making use of post-revolution confusion to build on public land and move into vacant or half-completed buildings. “[Former Tunisian president Zine El-Abidine] Ben Ali’s regime stole everything. They had no heart and ignored us poor,” said one of the men, who identified himself only as Khaled, 57. “Now we are here for all to see and we hope the new government will help us.”

The caretaker government has warned the growing number of squatters they could be prosecuted, though there has been little police presence in this once-popular tourist destination since Ben Ali was ousted last month. North Africa’s smallest nation descended into turmoil last month after the suicide of a poor vegetable seller sparked a wave of demonstrations that led Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia and encouraged a similar revolution in Egypt. Protests have also sprung up elsewhere in the Arab world, including Libya, Yemen and Bahrain.

“We are worried the police will come, but we hope they will help us, instead of taking all that we have,” said a woman at the encampment in Tunis’ Mnihla neighborhood, who asked not to be named. She said she had sold most of her possessions for the bricks and cement for her shelter. “I have five children and I want to keep them off the streets,” she said. “We are Tunisian, this is our country. Where do they think we should go?”

Ben Ali took power more than 13 years ago and, despite presenting an image of stability to the outside world, was seen by Tunisians as an oppressive ruler who raided public funds, and allowed poverty and unemployment to fester.

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