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An Egyptian panel rushed through a draft constitution seen as undermining basic freedoms on Friday, resulting in mass protests in Cairo. AFP reported that tens of thousands of protesters rallied as the opposition piled pressure on President Mohammed Morsi. "Down with the constitutional assembly," vast crowds armed with megaphones chanted as they filed into Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak in early 2011. Banners condemned "dictatorial Morsi" while protesters shouted "down with the rule of the Guide," a reference to the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, through whose ranks Morsi rose before becoming president....

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has agreed to pull back decrees announced last Thursday granting himself sweeping new powers. The Islamist leader originally told a panel of Egypt's top judges that he would not change his stance on the edicts, insisting that he was acting within his rights. But according to a report by a television network allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, an agreement worked out with top judicial authorities was reached late Monday. The decrees had barred the judiciary from disbanding the Constitutional Assembly or the Upper House of the Parliament, placing the presidency and the committee writing the new Constitution...

As clashes between Egyptian police forces led by Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi and Egyptian protesters angry at Morsi’s power grab escalated, the US embassy in Cairo weighed in. You may remember the embassy’s last embarrassing tweeting escapade on 9/11, when embassy staff tweeted apologies for a YouTube video even as the embassy was stormed. Today, as the embassy fell under assault, they tweeted:

Egypt's highest judicial body, the Supreme Judicial Council, is condemning the decrees granting President Mohamed Morsi sweeping powers, branding them an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary. And a broad spectrum of Egypt's judiciary is expressing support for the country's outgoing judicial head, Abdel Mejid Mahmoud, who was fired by the president Thursday. Mahmoud received a standing ovation by members of Egypt's Judge's Club, after telling them that he will appeal the president's decision to the judiciary. Mahmoud said he will insist on the application of all legal articles, including those that deal with the powers of the...

ISMAILIA (EGYPT): Militants bombed security bases being built in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, injuring three people, authorities said, as the state tries to reassert control over territory that slipped from its grip after the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. A massive explosion partly destroyed the wall of a security base being built for border guards in the town of Rafah at the border with the Gaza Strip overnight, but without causing injuries. Further south, three workers were injured by a separate blast that damaged a compound being built in Quseima for a different security agency responsible for guarding a pipeline that...

CAIRO: An angry mob of around 300 men near Egypt’s Tahrir Square attacked and ripped three women’s clothes off and chased them near one of the field hospitals by the square. The state-run al-Ahram newspaper reported that the women, of an unknown age, had their clothes torn from their bodies by the mob, assaulted and were then chased near the frontlines of the ongoing clashes with police on Sunday early afternoon. The report said that protesters nearby who saw the incident intervened and rescued the women from further assault. On Friday, as tens of thousands converged on the main Egyptian...

Morsi now wields total control over Parliament, the Judiciary, and the military to a degree Mubarak in his jail cell can only marvel at. Old CIA wisdom: He may be an SOB but he's our SOB. New post-Arab Spring CIA wisdom: He may be an SOB but at least he's not our SOB.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire for halting the eight-day Israeli Gaza operation Wednesday night, Nov. 21, after President Barack Obama personally pledged to start deploying US troops in Egyptian Sinai next week, debkafile reports. The conversation, which finally tipped the scales for a ceasefire, took place on a secure line Wednesday morning,�just hours before it was announced in Cairo. The US and Israeli leaders spoke at around the time that a terrorist was blowing up a Tel Aviv bus, injuring 27 people.

Now that a cease-fire has been declared between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, there are several concerns that still must be addressed: Who was behind this escalation in the first place and why did it occur at this particular moment in time? Egyptians have been turning against the Muslim Brotherhood in recent weeks, which could help explain the situation in neighboring Gaza. This is mainly because of the deteriorating economic situation in Egypt since the Brotherhood came to power. … It was not difficult for the MB to request—and probably help their sister Hamas organization—in flooding Israel with rocket attacks...

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire for halting the eight-day Israeli Gaza operation Wednesday night, Nov. 21, after President Barack Obama personally pledged to start deploying US troops in Egyptian Sinai next week, DEBKAfile reports. The conversation, which finally tipped the scales for a ceasefire, took place on a secure line Wednesday morning, just hours before it was announced in Cairo. Clinton was sympathetic to this argument. Soon after, President Obama was on the phone to Netanyahu with an assurance that US troops would be in place in Sinai next week, after he had obtained President Morsi’s...

Israel decided to refrain from a ground invasion of Gaza after it was warned that such a move could spell the end of the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, Channel 2 reported Thursday. According to the report, Mossad Head Tamir Pardo, who went to Cairo as Israel's representative in the contacts that preceded the ceasefire, was told in messages from Cairo and from Washington that the peaceful relations between Israel, Jordan and Egypt were at risk. .....

Israel decided to refrain from a ground invasion of Gaza after it was warned that such a move could spell the end of the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, Channel 2 reported Thursday. According to the report, Mossad Head Tamir Pardo, who went to Cairo as Israel's representative in the contacts that preceded the ceasefire, was told in messages from Cairo and from Washington that the peaceful relations between Israel, Jordan and Egypt were at risk.

PM: Israel is giving the cease-fire with Hamas a chance; Barak: Truce is not an agreement but a set of understandings between Israel and Egypt, Hamas and Egypt; IDF official: Hamas will be shocked by level of damage in Gaza. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel is prepared to act if Hamas breaks the Egypt-mediated truce. "The operation's goals were met," Netanyahu said. "I know there are citizens that expect a harsher stand in Gaza - and we are prepared to make one. We choose when to act, against who to act and how to act," Netanyahu...

Mr. Morsi says his diktat will merely last as long as it takes the country to adopt a new constitution, which is what authoritarians always say. They claim to be a necessary step on the way to democracy, but democracy never arrives. Mr. Morsi's rationalization is that he must have this power to "protect the revolution," as if the demonstrators who deposed Hosni Mubarak in 2011 merely wanted another Mubarak with a beard and prayer rug. Mr. Morsi is claiming more power than Mr. Mubarak ever had. Egyptians took to the street on Friday in protest, sometimes violently, and nearly...

Egypt's president on Thursday issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight and ordered the retrial of Hosni Mubarak for the killing of protesters in last year's uprising. Mohammed Morsi also decreed immunity for the Islamist-dominated panel drafting a new constitution from any possible court decisions to dissolve it, a threat that had been hanging over the controversial assembly. Liberal and Christian members withdrew from the assembly during the past week to protest what they say is the hijacking of the process by Morsi's allies, who they saw are trying to push through a document that will have an...

A day after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, he widely expanded his own powers. It’s been met with both approval and anger, with accusations that he cares only about his followers, not all Egyptians. Clashes between Morsi's supporters and opponents swept the nation on Friday, with police firing tear gas at demonstrators in Cairo. Rallies sprung up in several different cities, after Morsi signed a controversial decree expanding his powers – a move that has divided the country on whether the leader has the right to do so. And as the controversy around Morsi...

Hamas fires 275 rockets at Israel and is rewarded with de facto acceptance as a legitimate negotiating partner in the Middle East peace process, as well as with a relaxation of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza coast. Israel is prevented from exacting a price for Hamas’ actions sufficient to deter future attacks or degrade Hamas’ capabilities. In one stroke, the Obama administration has overturned thirty years of American policy, which rejected negotiations with Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Secretary of State Clinton, to be sure, did not negotiate directly with Hamas, but rather with Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, who...

The Egyptian revolution took another bad turn Thursday, as President Mohamed Morsi gave himself dictatorial powers over the legislature and courts. The world has feared that the Muslim Brotherhood would favor one-man, one-vote, once, and the Morsi coup is an ominous sign. "The people wanted me to be the guardian of these steps in this phase," Reuters quoted Mr. Morsi as saying on Friday. "I don't like and don't want—and there is no need—to use exceptional measures. But those who are trying to gnaw the bones of the nation" must be "held accountable." Mr. Morsi says his diktat will merely...

According to reports from Egypt, the Constitutional Court is seeking to impeach new Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi after Morsi seized quasi-dictatorial power, sparking protests around the country. Morsi waited for the Obama administration’s praise over the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to make the move. Local media reports a courts spokesperson stating, “the judges are prepared to exercise the right to shift the head of state after he flouted the laws and the constitution.” The problem is that there is no operating constitution in Egypt; the constitution was suspended in March 2011, after the revolution, and no new constitution has been approved....

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's decree exempting all his decisions from legal challenge until a new parliament was elected caused fury amongst his opponents on Friday who accused him of being the new Hosni Mubarak and hijacking the revolution.