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In the irony of ironies, the first democratically elected president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown on July 3 by the Egyptian military, ostensibly to save Egypt's fledgling "democracy." Doubtlessly, Morsi's organization, the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin), was in the process of dismantling any vestiges of democracy and installing an Islamic dictatorship. Yet the intervention of Egypt's military has produced a situation in which the Ikhwan claim to be the victims of a coup. Simultaneously, the disparate -- and desperate -- secular opposition have aligned themselves with the very military that only two years ago they...

For purposes of withholding funding, it should not be so characterized.There have been many Coups d'état and other more or less related events have been given that label. Generally, coups have involved the military (1) taking over and (2) then running a country (3) indefinitely. Here's a definition from Wikipedia: A coup d'état (/ˌkuːdeɪˈtɑː/; plural: coups d'état), also known as a coup, a putsch, or an overthrow, is the sudden deposition of a government,[1][2][3][4] usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to depose the extant government and replace it with another body, civil or military. A coup d'état is considered successful when the usurpers establish their dominance....

Exclusive: US bankrolled anti-Morsi activists Documents reveal US money trail to Egyptian groups that pressed for president's removal. Al Jazeera 10 July 2013 President Barack Obama recently stated the United States was not taking sides as Egypt's crisis came to a head with the military overthrow of the democratically elected president. But a review of dozens of US federal government documents shows Washington has quietly funded senior Egyptian opposition figures who called for toppling of the country's now-deposed president Mohamed Morsi. Activists bankrolled by the programme include an exiled Egyptian police officer who plotted the violent overthrow of the Morsi...

In a dazzling display of monetary muscle, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates poured $8 billion in a single day into the coffers of Egypt’s army rulers in cash, grants, loans without interest and gifts of gas, a dizzying life-saving infusion into its tottering economy. Forking out sums on this scale in a single day – or even month - is beyond the capacity of almost every world power – even the US and Russia - in this age of economic distress. The Arab oil colossuses managed to dwarf Iran’s pretensions to the standing of regional power. Tuesday, July...

"Islamic Awakening" was the Iranian establishment's term of choice for the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that began in late 2010. Tehran described the unrest as a sign of the defeat of U.S. influence and of people's desire to embrace Islam. Now, the crisis in Egypt has posed a fresh challenge for Iran, sending it scrambling to explain how Egypt's "Islamic Awakening" went wrong. Tehran has so far said little about the crisis, with the Foreign Ministry calling simply for the Egyptian people's "legitimate demands" to be fulfilled and warning of "foreign and enemy opportunism." Iran’s...

It seems as though everyone has an opinion on what the Egyptians should do with their country and government. Iran wants the Muslim Brotherhood restored to power; Russia is worried about civil war; most of the West wants new elections and an end to military rule. The US is currently debating on whether to call the coup a coup at all, as that designation would force a suspension of American aid to the Egyptian military. The Obama administration demanded the restoration of “a democratically elected civilian government” rather than “the democratically elected civilian government,” a nuance that was not lost...

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday criticized the Egyptian military’s toppling of the nation’s Islamist president, calling the move improper in its first official reaction. “We do not consider proper the intervention by military forces in politics to replace a democratically elected administration,” said ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi, according to the official news agency IRNA. Egypt’s military ousted Mohammed Morsi Wednesday after four days of mass protests against him. …

CAIRO — As President Mohamed Morsi huddled in his guard’s quarters during his last hours as Egypt’s first elected leader, he received a call from an Arab foreign minister with a final offer to end a standoff with the country’s top generals, senior advisers with the president said. The foreign minister said he was acting as an emissary of Washington, the advisers said, and he asked if Mr. Morsi would accept the appointment of a new prime minister and cabinet, one that would take over all legislative powers and replace his chosen provincial governors....

World leaders weigh in after Egypt's army commander announces that president had been removed The Egyptian army's suspension of the constitution and removal of President Mohamed Morsi has drawn mixed responses from world leaders: European Union The EU has called for a rapid return to democracy in Egypt. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said: "I urge all sides to rapidly return to the democratic process, including the holding of free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections and the approval of a constitution, to be done in a fully inclusive manner, so as to permit the country to resume and...

Since 1952, Egypt's identity has been in a tug of war between Islamists and a secular military state. CAIRO — The passions fueling Egypt's political turbulence arose directly from the "Arab Spring" of 2011, but they have deeper roots in a decades-long struggle over the nation's identity between two authoritarian forces — Islamists and a secular military state. Egypt won its independence from Britain after a 1952 revolution by army officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. From the start, the military was set against the Muslim Brotherhood, a growing and at times violent underground Islamist movement. Strong in the...

Kerry and Co. have been insisting that we have to keep plowing money into Morsi’s Brotherhood regime because it’s in America’s national security interests. Those claims never held much water and they hold even less water now that unnamed Obama officials are warning the military that if it takes power, it will face a loss of that same military aid. U.S. officials said Washington has suggested to Morsi that he call early elections, though they underlined they were demanding specific steps — and they said they had underlined to Egypt’s military that a coup would have consequences for U.S. aid....

The State Department is denying reports that the U.S. is calling on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to schedule early elections. "The reports that we have been urging early elections are inaccurate," State spokesman Jen Psake said at her briefing on Tuesday. She said the U.S. has called for Egypt to allow protests and to respect democracy, both publicly and in private, but that the U.S. had not called for early elections, The Hill reported. Psaki's statement follows a report by CNN that the U.S. had called on Morsi to hold early elections. "We are saying to him, 'Figure out a...

The demonstrations that began Sunday in Cairo, Egypt against the Muslim Brotherhood government of President Mohamed Morsi have attracted "millions" of supporters and many counter-demonstrators as well, making the protest the largest political event in the history of the world, according to the BBC. The protests in Tahrir Square and throughout Egypt exceed those that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 in the key event of the Arab Spring. Two years later, after constitutional reforms and elections that saw Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood move to aggrandize their power, the public backlash is immense.

[snip] Egyptian Chief of Staff Sedki Sobhi announced the military would prevent the regime from violently dispersing the protesters. "The Egyptian army will be in the streets" if there are millions of people to protect, he was quoted as saying. Egypt’s military has warned the Muslim Brotherhood not to allow armed security personnel to get involved in the demonstrations or try to disperse them, the source said, because "the army will violently intervene." [/snip]

Democracies sometimes reject freedom. It's MY constitution.Egypt has a new new democratically elected dictator and Venezuela still has her old one. Since they were elected by majorities of the voters they must be good democratic rulers who give the majority what they want. Suppose the majority want to have blasphemers' heads removed? Suppose the majority want to have money taken from the rich because they have been told that will help the poor? Giving the majority what they want is democratic and an effective way to get elected again. Individual freedom? Freedom is unnecessary in some democracies and may even...

Protesters battled police in several Egyptian cities on Saturday, with at least eight people reported injured, after rallies to mark the anniversary of a key opposition movement turned violent. In central Cairo, police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters outside the Superior Court, which also houses the offices of the public prosecutor who had opened investigations against several dissidents. Protesters were chanting "The people want to topple the regime. Down, down with Morsi!” "We are Muslims but we want a civilian state," said a protester on the Cairo march. Live television showed footage of protesters chanting, throwing stones at...

CAIRO: Struggling to subdue continuing street protests, the government of PresidentMohamed Morsi has approved legislation reimposing martial law by calling on the armed forces to keep order and authorizing soldiers to arrest civilians, Egypt's state media reported on Saturday. Morsi has not yet issued the order, the flagship state newspaper Al Ahram reported. But even if merely a threat, the preparation of the measure suggested an escalation in the political battle between Egypt's new Islamist leaders and their secular opponents over an Islamist-backed draft constitution. The standoff has already threatened to derail the culmination of Egypt's promised transition to a...

It is not only the anti-government protesters in Egypt's Tahrir Square who should be concerned about President Mohammed Morsi's audacious power grab. Mr Morsi's claim at the weekend that "God's will and elections made me the captain of this ship" has echoes of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's claim during the 1979 Iranian revolution that his mission to overthrow the Shah enjoyed divine guidance. Since his announcement that he was granting himself sweeping new powers, Mr Morsi has been trying to reassure sceptical Egyptian voters that he has no ambition to become Egypt's new Pharaoh. But you only have to look at...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Egypt's new President Mohammed Morsi assigned himself the heavyweight's role in the Middle East on Wednesday, declaring in his first speech to the United Nations that the civil war raging in Syria is the "tragedy of the age" and must be brought to an end. In a wide-ranging address that touched on all major issues confronting the region, Morsi also decried Israeli settlement-building on territory Palestinians claim for a future state and condemned a film produced in the United States that denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammad. He urged all U.N. member nations to join in an effort...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Morsi’s Egypt Eyes NukesPosted By P. David Hornik On September 18, 2012 @ 12:45 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 2 Comments There are certain obvious parallels between the 1979 rise of the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran and the 2012 rise of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt. In both cases, the political takeover was enabled by a Democratic U.S. president who had some degree of sympathy for it. In both cases, a moderate U.S. ally—Reza Shah Pahlavi and Hosni Mubarak respectively—was abandoned in favor of the radicals.In Iran’s case, it took another ten years...