Just when you thought you’d just about heard it all —
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2667485/posts
PA launches pro-Mubarak demonstration in Ramallah
Jerusalem Post ^ | 02/02/2011 20:59 | KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Posted on Wednesday, February 02, 2011 12:40:29 PM by FourPeas
Dozens of Fatah supporters demonstrated in Ramallah on Wednesday in support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The demonstration is the first of its kind in the West Bank since the beginning of the uprising in Egypt.
RELATED:
For Palestinians, Egyptian unrest is bittersweet
The demonstration coincided with the attack that was launched by Mubarak’s supporters against anti-government protesters in Cairo.
Sources in Ramallah said that the demonstration was initiated by the PA leadership, which has banned anti-Mubarak protests in the West Bank.
The demonstrators shouted slogans condemning Egyptian opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei as a “CIA agent” and warned against foreign intervention in Egypt’s internal affairs.
Fatah-controlled media outlets on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on ElBaradei, dubbing him a “war criminal” and holding him responsible for the Iraq war.
The PA leadership had until Wednesday refrained from making public comments on the events in Egypt. However, the pro-Mubarak demonstration and the criticism of ElBaradei in Fatah’s media show that PA President Mahmoud Abbas has opted to side with the embattled Egyptian leader.
Abbas was one of few Arab leaders who earlier this week phoned Mubarak to express his solidarity with him against the uprising.
Palestinians, as usual, are their own worst enemy.
El Baradei’s attempt to come off as a Shakespearean Tragic Figure....
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2667484/posts
EGYPT: Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei says he fears coming ‘bloodbath’
latimes.com ^ | Feb. 2, 2011
Posted on Wednesday, February 02, 2011 12:39:23 PM by Free ThinkerNY
Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate emerging as Egypt’s paramount opposition leader, told the Al Jazeera news agency that he feared Wednesday’s violent confrontation in Cairo could escalate into a “bloodbath.”
“I’m extremely concerned, I mean this is yet another symptom, or another indication, of a criminal regime using criminal acts,” ElBaradei, former head of the U.N. nuclear agency, said of the provocative charging of demonstrators by loyalists of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “My fear is that it will turn into a bloodbath.”
ElBaradei said Mubarak’s regime “does not want to listen to the people, does not want to understand that they need to go,” adding that the president’s insistence on staying in office through fall elections only strengthens the resolve of Egyptians that he must resign “immediately, before the country goes down the drain.”
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
UnfreakinBELIEVABLE.
Meanwhile:
A dozen or more ambulances just drove down the Corniche toward Kasr al-Aini hospital, another dozen or so are in Tahrir http://aje.me/dKyIQt
half a minute ago via web
And then there’s this:
1904: The BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says: “Heliopolis is not like the rest of Cairo. It has grand houses and leafy boulevards. Here the police are still welcomed on the streets. This is the home of Egypt’s ruling elite - people like Dr Magid Boutros - a close adviser to Mr Mubarak. He says the president is now determined to stand and fight: ‘He’s an army man. Military commanders, if they abandon their posts, they are shot.’ Outside on the street I was confronted by members of Egypt’s ruling class - educated, articulate and angry. As we returned from Heliopolis our car was forced of the road by another group of angry men. They handed us over to the dreaded Mukhabarat - the secret police in their brown leather jackets. We were handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to an interrogation cell. Three hours later we were released onto a remote backstreet. The regime is hardening its attitude to the protestors and to the foreign media. Egypt’s ruling class is fighting back.”
1900: A close adviser to President Hosni Mubarak has told the BBC that the president is determined to “tough it out”, and will not give in to demands that he step down immediately. He was speaking to our correspondent, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, who went to the wealthy Cairo suburb of Heliopolis to meet him - and was then detained by Egypt’s secret police.
Puts me in the strange predicament of leaning more toward Abbas's reaction, because it isn't BHO's.