Breaking News & LIVE THREAD- Egypt and Middle East

Various on the internet | 28 January 2011

[SE Mom]

From FOX:

DEVELOPING: Loud explosions and gunfire were heard in the Egyptian capital of Cairo Friday, as protesters demanding the removal of President Hosni Mubarak defied a curfew, Al Jazeera reported. Egyptian television reports the ruling party headquarters in Cairo are on fire.

From TWITTER:

WashingtonPost: Clinton: We urge #Egypt authorities to allow peaceful protest, reverse unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications less than 20 seconds ago

[publana]

I’ve read the country is 90% muslim which is still less than 95%. I get what you’re saying, though.

[Electric Graffiti]

CNBC is streaming Al Jeezera live.

Ticker is saying at least 20 dead.....a 1000 wounded

[Fred Nerks]

Watching Lehrer...it’s all ‘democray in action’ the right of free assembly blah blah blah...no one mentions that the riots started after ‘prayers’ on Friday night...wonder if the instruction leaflets were issued at the mosques?

[Electric Graffiti]

To take over important government buildings......obviously the governemnt got the pamphlet early. They’re guarding most of the important buildings.

AlJezeera saying things are quiet Saturday morning.

[publana]

litfreak Nora
by r7aal
9 am in #Egypt. Reports of small riots starting to form again. No one knows what the army will do to the people today. Pray for us. #Jan25

[Fred Nerks]

...AlJezeera saying things are quiet Saturday morning.

Hope that's true. A population of 80 million, most of them muslim, their primary income - tourism.

CIA FACTBOOK:

Occupying the northeast corner of the African continent, Egypt is bisected by the highly fertile Nile valley, where most economic activity takes place. Egypt's economy was highly centralized during the rule of former President Gamal Abdel NASSER but has opened up considerably under former President Anwar EL-SADAT and current President Mohamed Hosni MUBARAK. Cairo from 2004 to 2008 aggressively pursued economic reforms to attract foreign investment and facilitate GDP growth. The global financial crisis has slowed the reform efforts. The budget deficit climbed to over 8% of GDP and Egypt's GDP growth slowed to 4.6% in 2009, predominately due to reduced growth in export-oriented sectors, including manufacturing and tourism, and Suez Canal revenues. In 2010, the government spent more on infrastructure and public projects, and exports drove GDP growth to more than 5%, but GDP growth in 2011 is unlikely to bounce back to pre-global financial recession levels, when it stood at 7%. Despite the relatively high levels of economic growth over the past few years, living conditions for the average Egyptian remain poor.

Source

[publana]

Giving it up and going to bed. Goodnight all.

[Smogger]

So what do we do?

[John W]

Egyptian police reportedly fire shots near demonstrators in Cairo, witness says; not clear whether gunfire or rubber bullets - Reuters

[Smogger]

95% of Egyptians think it good for Islam to play a large roll in politics.

Well Hell. Murbarak was elected with 96% of the electorate in the last election so pardon my suspicion of polls in Egypt.

[VeniVidiVici]

Well, any time in the last, say, 20 years, after the collapse of the Soviet empire, would have been a good point to tell him, "Either you hold free and fair elections, or we're cutting off the billions of dollars in annual aid we give you."

There's a difference between cutting off aid and getting rid of him at the point of a gun. Though there seems to be plenty here willing to get rid of him at the point of a gun. Folks seem to think that Mubarak will be deposed by unicorns and fuzzy bears. Meanwhile we have the most secular state in the ME, Turkey, sliding into Islamofascism. But no chance that will happen to Egypt, eh? Nah.

Sure, cut off his aid. Nature abhors a vacuum. China will just step in and take over where we left off. But that's OK too. Fortress America has worked so well in the past.

[John W]

Gives Obama something to aspire to since CBS News polling only indicated 90% approval of his SOTU proposals.

[Smogger]

With that said, in hindsight that is always 50/50, I wish we'd left him there. Hussein knew the only way to deal with extremists was fear. He managed to keep them in line for 20 years.

I don't know how to say this politely so I guess I can't/won't. F Sadam and the horse he road in on. A huge mistake in foreign policy was reversed when W destroyed his evil regime. Evil is always evil no matter how expedient it appears to be at the time. And it frankly saddens me to see the revisionist history of Iraq presented here as though expediency is the the goal of the righteous.

[emax]

The thing is, a lot of people seem to forget what the situation was like when Mubarak took power in the early 80s hardline Islamic anger was at a huge all time peak. The msot recent pres, (not counting interim one), Anwar Sadat, had been viewed by many as deserving of assasination. Anwar Sadat was perceived as having genuinely friendly relations with the Zionist entity, as purist Muslims would call it and thus sentiment was that Egypt’s leaders had betrayed the Egyptian people and crushed their dreams in the absolute worst way possible. That was the most opportune time ever for a militant islamic takeover but that didnt happen. Which makes it likely that asucceeding govt will simply be another ina string of dictators from Nasser to Sadat to Mubarak. Which for the Copts is probably a good thing.

[FARS]

With Obama apparently behind the Egyptian mess, it is time for all of us to remember, with him in charge, we may end up facing a similar situation here as he imposes or tries to impose his will on us - on we the people!

So watch this REMINDER and feel free to pass it around. Even if you have seen it before:

http://noiri.blogspot.com/2011/01/reminder.html

[sunmars]

so if Obama and his stupidity is behind this mess, then 1 : weare screwed...2: This is not going to end well.....3 : say goodbye to any ally we have.

[sunmars]

and 4 : if Mubarak survives then we are in for one hell of a payback.

[Straight Vermonter]

People are saying on twitter that the Copts were guarding the Mosques during Friday prayers. They made sure that the worshipers would be disturbed by the security forces. That’s really something if true.

[Eye of Unk]

I really hate it when the darn friggin MSM rolls up its sidewalks when the other half of the world is out in turmoil.

Like the Olympics, pre-recorded and stuffed with commercials.

[Straight Vermonter]

It’s nice to have the BBC or other foreign stations. They still know what news coverage means.