Only pressure from below can bring Egypt democracy

The decapitation of the regime was just the start. The revolution will have to go further if it's going to deliver what people want

A VERY GOOD COMMENT

Seumas Milne
The Guardian, Thursday 17 February 2011

"Anyone who imagined that the Egyptian revolution would be settled with the ousting of Hosni Mubarak has already been sorely disabused. The dictator may have been bundled out of the presidential palace and demonstrators temporarily cleared from Tahrir Square. But the social and political upheaval shows every sign of spreading.

It's not just that the protests are now fanning out across north Africa and the Middle East: to Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Iran, Libya and now Bahrain – home of the US navy's fifth fleet. In Egypt itself, as in Tunisia, where the uprisings began, pressure for more far-reaching change is if anything growing, as setpiece street demonstrations have morphed into a wave of strikes.

Industrial action played a central role in the final push to drive Mubarak from power last week – just as it did in sparking resistance to the regime a couple of years ago in the textile production centre of Mahalla.....

The American government is already trying to ride the tiger of democratisation – in a country where 82% of the population has an unfavourable view of the US – and can be expected to use every trick in its playbook to limit the scope of change and prevent Egypt and others dropping out of its orbit.

Far from being a threat to reform, as Egypt's military leaders claim, only relentless pressure in the streets and workplaces can offset such meddling and deliver the change Egyptians want. Wherever this process ends, we can be sure it is only just beginning."

Bahrain crackdown will make citizens more determined

The strategy was to demonstrate peacefully, but attacking Bahraini activists has ruined hopes of a brokered deal

Abdulnabi Alekry
(A member of the Bahraini Society for Human Rights)
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 February 2011

".....Even ambulance workers were attacked, and we hear that so far four people have died, including a medic, and hundreds have been injured. The army has been deployed all over Manama and a security operation has been launched to locate and arrest activists. These events mark a turning point. After what has now happened, it is difficult to imagine the possibility of negotiations. Pearl Square has been cleared, but the funerals of those who were murdered will be full of shocked citizens even more determined to confront the regime. The British foreign minister visited Bahrain last week and did not call openly for serious reforms. The UK has much influence in the country and a great deal of leverage over its rulers. It should use this opportunity and stand with the Bahraini people."

Libya cracks down on protesters after violent clashes in Benghazi

Reports of 38 injured in rioting after water cannon and teargas were used against estimated 6,000 people in Libya's second city

Ian Black, Middle East editor
The Guardian, Thursday 17 February 2011

"Hundreds of anti-government protesters clashed with police and government supporters in Libya's second city yesterday as unrest spread across the Arab world.

Reports from the city of Benghazi said 38 people were injured in rioting after a human rights lawyer was arrested on Tuesday. Film footage captured screams and the sounds of gunfire as crowds scattered. Water cannon and teargas were used against an estimated 6,000 people. Some protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs had set fire to vehicles and fought with police in the city's Shajara Square.

Opposition supporters accused the authorities of deliberately provoking trouble to spoil plans for a nationwide "day of rage" that had been called for .....

Libya's experience of the "Arab spring" could be different from that of its north African neighbours for several reasons. Its enormous oil and gas reserves and small population (6.5 million) mean it is relatively wealthy – four times as rich as Egypt – and can afford to buy off dissent.

It is also far less free than either of its neighbours, with a pervasive secret police and little in the way of a free media or independent institutions."

Yemen violence mounts in bid to remove President Saleh

.......More of Saleh's Thugs (Baltagis)......

Police shoot dead protester in Aden, while students lead anti-government rally in Sana'a

Tom Finn in Sana'a
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011

"Anti-government protests flared in Yemen for the sixth consecutive day, turning violent as protests sprang up across the country, spurred on by the resignation last week of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

In Yemen's main southern city of Aden, security forces chased hundreds of people who took to the streets of Al-Mansura neighbourhood demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdallah Saleh. At least one protestor was shot dead by police as demonstrators hurled stones at police, set tyres and vehicles on fire and stormed a municipal building....."

Bahrain protests: Four killed as riot police storm Pearl Square

Security forces descend on Pearl Square firing birdshot and teargas in crackdown on anti-government protesters
Martin Chulov in Manama
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 February 2011


"At least four people have been killed in an early-morning raid by security forces on Pearl Square, the focal point of anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain, sparking street battles with riot police.

Armoured trucks have been seen in central Manama and key roads are blocked by security forces. The crackdown follows a dramatic and violent turn in three days of protests calling for widespread reform within Bahrain's ruling minority. Dozens of wounded protesters were being taken to hospitals across the city on Thursday morning.

Riot police stormed the rallying point for the demonstrations, a landmark known as Pearl roundabout, at around 3.15am, firing teargas and birdshot, and wielding clubs and knives, which they used to cut through tents set up by demonstrators.

"We were asleep and they started slicing through our tent," said Nabeel Ebrahim, who was sleeping alongside two trauma surgeons from Salmaniya hospital. "They started firing gas from the overpass and attacking us from all directions."

One of the doctors, Sadiq al-Ikri, is receiving treatment in the critical care unit of the hospital he works in. "He was handcuffed and then kicked repeatedly in the head, face and body," one of his colleagues said. "We have nine other seriously wounded patients."....."

انهيار العمق العربي لإسرائيل

الأبعاد الإستراتيجية لقوة إسرائيل
تطور العمق العربي لإسرائيل
تكوين العمق العربي لإسرائيل
أمن النظام أم أمن الأمة؟
عمق عربي يتهاوى
ورطة إسرائيل

"....
انفرط العقد في عهد السادات، وأخذت إسرائيل تشهد عصرها الذهبي في علاقاتها السرية وغير السرية مع الأنظمة العربية بمن فيها منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية التي أدخلت الفلسطينيين في متاهات الدبلوماسية
.....
لكن الأهم هو أن الشعوب العربية بقيت أبية رافضة التطويع والتطبيع والامتطاء، وهي ما زالت تصر على الحرية والاستقلال، والسير في درب العزة والإباء. عمل قادة وأنظمة كثر على تذليل الشعوب وإخضاعها، لكنها أبت، وأطلت برأسها العظيم في تونس لتطيح بطاغية سمسر على شعبه، وتبع شعب مصر العظيم الذي أعاد الأنفاس إلى صدور الأمة العربية. والخير قادم بإذن الله.

ورطة إسرائيل
ستستمر إسرائيل بمراكمة القوة، لكن ذلك الضعف العربي الذي حماها وراهنت عليه قد أفل، أو أن طريق أفوله ليس طويلا. لقد واجهت إسرائيل مقاومة عربية شديدة في لبنان وفلسطين غزة، وبدت عليها الحيرة والتخبط، فماذا هي فاعلة إذا كانت الخيانة العربية في طريقها إلى التقلص والزوال؟ عهد الضعف العربي قد ولى، ومعه انهار العمق العربي الإستراتيجي لإسرائيل.
"

Abbas and Fayyad must resign too

Seen as corrupt and impotent, Abbas and Fayyad should handover power before public anger erupts.

Fadi Elsalameen
Al-Jazeera

"After two decades of failed political moves, the Palestinian Authority represented by its top leadership are hoping to avoid the inevitable: paying a heavy price for corruption of all kinds, alienating the Palestinian people, and failing to negotiate an end to Israel’s occupation.

Threatened and undermined by the Al Jazeera-Guardian Palestine Papers leak, and dismayed by wrongly siding with Egypt’s ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak, the Palestinian Authority is employing desperate political maneuvers.

Palestinian President Abbas has asked his Chief Negotiator and cabinet in the West Bank to submit their resignation. He has also called for Parliamentarian and Presidential elections in September and deliberately avoided giving a specific date.

Will Abbas and Fayyad succeed in soaking the Palestinian anger by these desperate maneuvers? No. Nothing short of Abbas and Fayyad handing in their own resignations and accepting responsibility for their failures will satisfy the Palestinian streets....."

Anonymous and the global correction

A loosely organised group of hackers has been targeting oppressive regimes and has said this is just the beginning.

Anonymous
Al-Jazeera

".....When a release by WikiLeaks revealed the depravity of just how corrupt and horrid the Tunisian government really was, it prompted Tunisians to step up active dissent and take to the streets en masse for the first time.

In response, a loose network of participants within the international Anonymous protest organisation attacked non-essential government websites - those not providing direct services to Tunisians - at the prompting of our contacts.

Several such sites were replaced with a message of support to the Tunisian people, while others were pushed offline via distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, involving thousands of computer users who request large amounts of data from a website simultaneously, overwhelming it.

Other assistance programmes followed, even after the deposed Ben Ali fled the nation that reviled him, with Anonymous and other parties working with Tunisians - both in-country and abroad - to provide the nation's people with the tools and information resources they needed to begin building up new, reasonable political institutions capable of ensuring a freer civic life.

Our "Guide to Protecting the Tunisian Revolution" series - a collaboration between hundreds of veterans of traditional revolutionary movements as well as practitioners of "new activism" - were disseminated both online and in print; aside from tips on safety during confrontation and the like, these also explain how to establish secure yet accessible networks and communications for Tunisians, as well as instructions on establishing neighbourhood syndicates capable of uniting in common cause.

Already, such organisations are being established across Tunisia, just as they will be established elsewhere as the movement proceeds.

The seeds of cyber revolution

Anonymous is a means by which people across the globe can assist in the hard work being performed by the Tunisian people ......

Although we have made great progress in convincing individuals from across the world to join our efforts in Tunisia, other campaigns, such as those taking place in Algeria and Egypt - both of which have seen government websites taken down and/or replaced by Anonymous, more must be done before the movement takes the next step towards a worldwide network capable of perpetual engagement against those who are comfortable with tyranny.

The revolution will be broadcast

Whatever effort is required, such a goal is not only possible, but rather unambitious.

There is a reason, after all, that those of us who have seen the movement up close have dedicated our lives to what it stands for, and have even violated the modern Western taboo of believing in something.

I have been involved with Anonymous in some capacity or another for about six years.

Looking back at my writing over that time, I have found that my predictions, while always enthusiastic, nonetheless turned out to have been conservative; when Australia became the first state to come under attack by this remarkable force, I proposed that we would someday see such allegedly inevitable institutions begin to crumble in the face of their growing irrelevance.

Someday turned out to be this year.

Today, I predict that Anonymous and entities like it will become far more significant over the next few years than is expected by most of our similarly irrelevant pundits - and this will, no doubt, turn out to be just as much of an understatement as anything else that has been written on the subject.

The fact is that the technological infrastructure that allows these movements has been in place for well under a decade - but phenomena such as WikiLeaks and Anonymous have already appeared, expanded, and even become players within the geopolitical environment; others have come about since.

This is the future, whether one approves or not, and the failure on the part of governments and media alike to understand, and contend with the rapid change now afoot, ought to remind everyone concerned why it is that this movement is necessary in the first place."

Live Blog - Bahrain

Al-Jazeera

13:31pm Anonymous is an online Hackers news organisation, and they issued the statment below:

Clashes spread in Bahraini capital

Armoured vehicles seen on the streets of Manama after police storm protest site in roundabout, killing at least three.

Al-Jazeera




"Sporadic clashes have broken out in the Bahraini capital of Manama, hours after riot police attacked a makeshift encampment of pro-reform protesters in the centre of the city, killing at least three and injuring dozens of others.

An Al Jazeera correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, said on Thursday that "clashes were no longer limited to one place...they are now spread out in different parts of the city".

Another Al Jazeera online producer said that booms could be heard from different parts of the city, suggesting that "tear-gas is being used to disperse the protesters in several neighbourhoods".

There were also reports of dozens of armoured vehicles moving towards the Pearl Roundabout, the protest site that was raided by the riot police.

Heavily-armed police stormed the traffic circle while the protesters camping overnight were asleep.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Salmaniya hospital, the main medical facility in Manama, Maryama Alkawaka of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said that she saw dozens of injured demonstrators being wheeled into emergency rooms early on Thursday morning.....

An Al Jazeera correspondent in the Pearl Roundabout area, said that he heard loud booms in the square, and felt a strong tear gas in the air.

"The police came in a quick move, using tear gas. It looks like they are trying to move the protesters away from the square, but this is no small protest," he said.

"Authorities are acting because they see clearly how big this is getting."

Matar Ibrahim, an opposition member of the parliament, said that women and children were among the injured.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Salmaniya hospital, he also said that at least that many of the wounded were in critical condition.....

But Alkwaka, the human rights activist, said that the fresh crackdown on peaceful protesters cast a doubt on the king's pledge for investigation and calm.

"People are now asking: is this the investigation that the king promised?" she asked.

A key ally of the US in the region, Bahrain houses a major military base for Washington."

Bahraini Police Launches Violent Crackdown on Protesters, Killing Seven

Al-Manar

"At least seven pro-reform protesters have been martyred and dozens more injured early Thursday after hundreds of Bahraini riot police, armed with tear gas, rubber bullets and clubs, stormed their makeshift encampment in a violent crackdown in the main traffic circle in the capital, Manama, while they slept. Police refused to let in ambulances to take casualties.

Up to 95 protesters were wounded when police launched the operation in the iconic Pearl Square without warning at around 3.00 am (midnight GMT), sending protesters fleeing in panic. Relatives of the victims gathered outside the hospital, angry and weeping.

During the operation, explosions and ambulance sirens could be heard a few hundred meters (yards) from the central square, which had been sealed off. Demonstrators fled pursued by security forces, as a helicopter flew overhead, AFP reported.

The head of Bahrain's main opposition bloc has described the riot police attack as “real terrorism.”.....

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been occupying the Pearl Square since Wednesday, after days of clashes that resulted in two deaths and an apology from Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The crowd chanted: "Down with Al-Khalifa", in reference to the country's ruling family and vowed that the blood of the victims will not be in vein.....

The magnitude of the pro-democracy protests in Bahrain is unprecedented in the history of the kingdom and the authorities' efforts to quell them have so far been ineffective. "

Bahrain authorities launch surprise attack on protesters

Security forces in tiny but strategic Bahrain launched a brutal assault early Thursday against at least 1,000 defiant anti-government protesters, including women and children, camped out in tents in the capital's Pearl Square.

A barrage of tear gas canisters thundered across the square about 3 a.m. as dozens of police cars, armored security vehicles and ambulances converged on a makeshift tent city in the center of Manama that was beginning to resemble a smaller version of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters this month were successful in overthrowing their president.

Most of the protesters in Pearl Square were asleep when the assault began, witnesses said, noting that no steps had been taken to guard the area against the security forces, even though two people had been killed in earlier clashes with them.

Yemeni Police shoot and kill 2 protesters in Aden

قتيلان باليمن وتوسع رقعة الاحتجاج

Thugs (Baltagis) of the Dictator.....
Yemeni Style.

Egypt: Social Movements, the CIA and the Mossad

A VERY GOOD ANALYSIS

By James Petras
Palestine Chronicle

"The mass movements which forced the removal of Mubarak reveal both the strength and weaknesses of spontaneous uprisings. On the one hand, the social movements demonstrated their capacity to mobilize hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in a successful sustained struggle culminating in the overthrow of the dictator in a way that pre-existent opposition parties and personalities were unable or unwilling to do.

On the other hand, lacking any national political leadership, the movements were not able to take political power and realize their demands, allowing the Mubarak military high command to seize power and define the “post-Mubarak” process, ensuring the continuation of Egypt’s subordination to the US, the protection of the illicit wealth of the Mubarak clan ($70 billion), and the military elite’s numerous corporations and the protection of the upper class. The millions mobilized by the social movements to overthrow the dictatorship were effectively excluded by the new self-styled “revolutionary” military junta in defining the political institutions and policies, let along the socio-economic reforms needed to address their basic needs of the population.....

....In the case of Egypt the main strategic ally of US imperialism was not Mubarak, it is the military, with whom Washington was in constant collaboration before, during and after the ouster of Mubarak, ensuring that the “transition” to democracy (sic) guarantees the continued subordination of Egypt to US and Israeli Middle East policy and interests.

The intelligence failure complicated Washington and Tel Aviv’s efforts to sacrifice the dictatorial regime to save the state: the CIA ad MOSSAD did not develop ties to any of the new emerging leaders. The Israeli’s could not find any ‘new face’ with a popular following willing to serve as a crass collaborator to colonial oppression. The CIA had been entirely engaged in using the Egyptian secret police for torturing terror suspects (“exceptional rendition”) and in policing neighboring Arab countries. As a result both Washington and Israel looked to and promoted the military takeover to preempt further radicalization.

Ultimately the failure of the CIA and MOSSAD to detect and prevent the rise of the popular democratic movement reveals the precarious bases of imperial and colonial power. Over the long-run it is not arms, billions of dollars, secret police and torture chambers that decide history. Democratic revolutions occur when the vast majority of a people arise and say “enough”, take the streets, paralyze the economy, dismantle the authoritarian state and demand freedom and democratic institutions without imperial tutelage and colonial subservience."

Sayyed Nasrallah: Resistance Might Occupy Galilee in Future War

Al-Manar

"Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah called on the Resistance fighters to stand ready to occupy the Galilee area in the occupied territories should another war "be imposed on Lebanon," in a response to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s threats to invade Lebanon once again.

Sayyed Nasrallah also threatened to target Israeli officials and military leaders to avenge the martyrdom of Islamic Resistance top commander Imad Mughniyeh (Hajj Redwan), reiterating that Hezbollah’s decision to avenge Martyr Mughniyeh’s assassination still stands and will be executed at the right time and the right place.

His eminence, meanwhile, denied remarks that Lebanon's new cabinet will be "Hezbollah’s government." He also thanked the people of Egypt and their revolution that resulted in freeing ‘brother’ Mohamad Mansour, known as Sami Shehab, who was charged with silly accusations of seeking to overthrow tyrant Husni Mubarak’s regime....."

Obama reassures Jordan king of U.S. support

----------------The Clown King---------------

The president made a weekend call to Jordanian King Abdullah II to assure him of U.S. support, but also to say that Washington wants Jordan to move toward reform.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

"......The interior minister this week acquiesced to another demand of the protesters: Marches will no longer need government permission.

The most alarming element of the political pressure, from the monarchy's viewpoint, has been an attack by some tribal leaders on Queen Rania, breaching long prohibitions against criticism of the royal family.

Last week, 36 leaders of Jordan's tribes, traditionally key supporters of the government, posted a letter on a Jordanian website demanding basic freedoms, condemning corruption and complaining about Jordan's huge debt. The kingdom has taken an economic battering from the global recession.

For the monarchy, the tribal leaders' letter cut too close to home by criticizing Rania for alleged excess in a country suffering dire water shortages and a stressed economy.

It singled out her 40th birthday party, held last September in a luxurious oasis called Wadi Rum. The letter provided no details of the event, but news accounts have recounted that 600 guests were fed fresh lobster in desert tents with no fear of sandstorms because water trucks "had been brought to douse potentially pesky sands," according to a former U.S. official who has been an advisor on the region....."

As Mideast "Rolling Revolution" Grows, U.S. Denounces Iranian Crackdown — But Stays Silent on Key Ally Bahrain

"2011 is shaping up to be a historic year in the Middle East and North Africa with the populist uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and the massive street protests across the region. Libya, Bahrain and Iran are the latest countries to be hit by a wave of popular protests. While President Obama has openly criticized Iran’s crackdown on protesters, he has said nothing critical about Bahrain, a close U.S. ally, where two protesters have been killed since Monday. We speak with Human Rights Watch researcher Faraz Sanei...."

"The Regime is Running Scared": Algerian Forces Crack Down on Pro-Democracy Protests

"Algeria has also seen a recent wave of protests. Witnesses say riot police have blocked a planned march in the capital Algiers and arrested hundreds of demonstrators. "The regime is running scared," says Algerian blogger and activist Elias Filali. "I have never seen a heavier police presence in my entire life."...."

Defying Gov’t Repression, Yemeni Protests Continue for 6th Day

"Anti-government demonstrations in Yemen have entered their sixth day as student demonstrators were beaten by pro-government supporters armed with batons, stones and daggers. The protesters are calling for the immediate resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled the country for three decades. The protests have forced President Saleh to cancel a trip to Washington, D.C., scheduled for next month. Yemen is a key ally of the United States in the region and President Obama is proposing to bolster strategic ties. We speak with Iona Craig, a journalist based in the Yemeni capital Sana’a...."

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

With Revolution in the Background, The Question is.....
Whose Turn is Next?

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - Can Egyptians forgive and forget?

Al-Jazeera Video: Riz Khan - The Egypt effect

Egypt: Free Detainees, Lift Emergency, End Torture

Military Should Commit to Complete Break With Mubarak Era Abuses

"(Cairo) - Egypt's Higher Military Council should take immediate steps to free those detained during the recent unrest, lift emergency laws, and make a clear commitment to end torture and police abuse, Human Rights Watch said today. On February 13, 2011, the council ordered the suspension of the constitution and the dissolution of parliament.

"The first priority of Egypt's military authorities should be to create a government that respects human rights and establishes the rule of law," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "A good place to begin would be for the Higher Military Council to end the state of emergency and demonstrate zero tolerance for the abusive practices of the past." ....."

Bahrain: Stop Attacks on Peaceful Protesters

Two Dead, Scores Wounded

"Washington DC) - Bahraini authorities should order security forces to halt attacks on peaceful protesters and investigate the shooting deaths of February 14 and 15, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Riot police reportedly used teargas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition rounds against pro-democracy demonstrators on February 14, causing numerous injuries and one death. On February 15 police reportedly shot to death a second protester when they fired on a burial procession for the protester killed on Monday.

Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima, 27, died on February 14 as a result of injuries medical personnel said were from live ammunition rounds. Riot police reportedly shot Mushaima during a protest in the village of Daih, near Manama. Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Human Rights Center, told Human Rights Watch that hospital officials said Mushaima was shot with live ammunition, not rubber bullets. Police shot to death Fadhel Ali Matrook, 31, who participated in a funeral procession for Mushaima, on February 15. The Associated Press reported that Matrook died of injuries from "birdshot" fired during a scuffle in the parking lot of Salmaniya hospital in Manama, but Human Rights Watch was not independently able to verify the circumstances of Mushaima or Matrook's deaths. Images from a video of the funeral procession viewed by Human Rights Watch show demonstrators gathering peacefully and chanting anti-government slogans when riot police fired teargas.......

As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Bahrain must protect and promote freedom of expression and association, and the right to assemble peacefully. Bahrain should also abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, which state that lethal force may only be used when strictly unavoidable to protect life, and must be exercised with restraint and proportionality. The Principles also require governments to "ensure that arbitrary or abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offence under their law.""

Deposing dictators is just the start of a Middle East transformation

Protest won't fade away in Egypt and Tunisia, whatever the old order and its allies in the US think

A GOOD COMMENT
Soumaya Ghannoushi
The Guardian, Wednesday 16 February 2011

"........These developments serve as important indicators of what could lie ahead for Egypt, its heavyweight Arab sister, now that Mubarak has gone. The containment policy that has been pursued in Tunis is already under way in Cairo. There is a stubborn will, internal and external, to salvage a system that has failed to preserve its figurehead. That is precisely what Barack Obama means by "managed change", and what Cameron intends by "orderly transition". The US is seeking to avert the mistakes of 1979 – when it positioned itself in open confrontation with the Iranian masses – by using unusually reserved, non-provocative language. But beyond the rhetoric, its strategy consists in emptying change of its essence and confining it instead to a rearrangement of the existing power centres.

Reality may, however, turn out to be too complex for this strategy to succeed. The US could find itself powerless to control the rhythm and direction of events on the ground. Just as Tunisia's protest movement did not end with the ousting of Ben Ali, the millions who have filled Tahrir Square for over two weeks are unlikely to consider their mission accomplished with Mubarak's departure. The forces unleashed by revolution will not fade into the background overnight – but are set to occupy the centre stage of politics in Egypt, as in Tunisia, for the foreseeable future.

The attempt to contain events in these countries hinges on the hope that they are simply transient waves of anger that will recede with the passing of Ben Ali or Mubarak. The truth, however, is that what is under way are revolutions originating from society's depths: political earthquakes that will transform the entire region. What we are witnessing is nothing short of the birth of the new Middle East."

Egypt and the global economic order

An Earlier Photo of Philip Rizk Protesting the Closure of the Rafah Crossing and the Siege of Gaza.

Egypt's protests were a denunciation of neo-liberalism and the political suppression required to impose it.

A VERY GOOD PIECE
By Philip Rizk
Al-Jazeera

".......Denouncing capitalism

What started with workers in El-Mahalla El-Kobra soon expanded to include students, health workers and lawyers across the country. The protesters' grievances included economic exploitation, corruption and police impunity - the latter again coming to the fore in June 2010, when police officers beat 28-year-old Khaled Said to death in Alexandria.

During one period in early 2010, sit-ins around the parliament in downtown Cairo lasted for weeks. At first the government used these to highlight widespread freedom of speech, only to later have the police violently clamp down on the protesters and ban any further show of public dissent at the site.

Whether or not it has been directly articulated, the recent demonstrations on Egypt's streets are in large part a protest against crony-capitalism driven by the agenda of neo-colonial economic institutions. The protests are a denunciation of capitalism and the political suppression required to impose it.

But as the Supreme Military Council seeks to re-impose "stability" by, for example, banning labour strikes, Egyptians must be alert to the alarm bells that are ringing. The military, which has played its hand with great care throughout the protests - winning the trust and respect of many of the demonstrators - receives an annual $1.3bn in aid from the US, the same country that has been pushing the implementation of the economic model that has been so damaging to Egyptians.

The demonstrators must not now be fooled into believing that overthrowing the face of a corrupt and repressive regime is sufficient. They must prevent the military from propping up an economic order that only benefits the few and can be maintained only through iron-fisted rule."

Live Blog - Bahrain

Al-Jazeera

AJE Live Stream

Picture of US-made tear gas that was used against protesters during the past two days. This was taken by Maryam Alkhawaja, head of foreign relations at Bahrain Center for Human Rights.
....
....

Yemenis protest amid crackdown

Violence escalates between government supporters and protesters calling for the president's ouster.

Al-Jazeera

"Protests in Yemen are spiralling out of control as they enter their sixth consecutive day, with pro-democracy protesters and government loyalists clashing in Sanaa, the capital.

Despite thousands of police being deployed across the city, dozens of students demanding the president's ouster clashed with government supporters at Sanaa university on Wednesday.

Demonstrators were set upon by hundreds of loyalists armed with batons, stones and daggers [Yemen's version of the Pharaoh's Baltagis] , shortly after they set off from the university towards al-Sabiine square.

Some protesters fled while others hurled stones, and clashes later spread to the university campus.....

The US is shortly to embark on a $75m project to train Yemen's counterterrorism unit, US officials say.

Saleh became leader of North Yemen in 1978 and has ruled the Republic of Yemen since the north and south merged in 1990."

Protesters occupy Bahrain square

Anti-government protests continue in tiny kingdom, despite apology by king for the deaths of two demonstrators.

Al-Jazeera



"Anti-government protesters are continuing to occupy a square in Bahrain's capital, Manama, after two days of violent clashes left at least two demonstrators dead.

The protesters, pressing for a host of demands including political reforms and better human rights in the kingdom, are refusing to disperse, despite a rare apology from the king over the deaths in police firing.

An Al Jazeera correspondent in Bahrain, who cannot be named for his own safety, said that thousands of protesters were occupying a major landmark on Wednesday.

"They are well organised and say that they will make Manama's Pearl Roundabout Bahrain's version of Egypt's Tahrir Square."

He said that protesters also held a funeral procession for the man who was killed during Tuesday's protest.....

Shias, thought to be in the majority in Bahrain, are ruled by a Sunni royal family.

Poverty, high unemployment and alleged attempts by the state to grant citizenship to Sunni foreigners to change the demographic balance have intensified discontent among the Shias.

Around half of the kingdom's 1.3 million people are Bahraini, with the rest being foreign workers."

Violent protests break out in Libya

Clashes reported in eastern city of Benghazi as security forces and government supporters confront demonstrators.

Al-Jazeera



"Protesters have clashed with police and government supporters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, reports say.

Demonstrators gathered in the early hours of Wednesday morning in front of police headquarters and chanted slogans against the "corrupt rulers of the country", Al Jazeera's sources said.

Police fired tear gas and violently dispersed protesters, the sources said without providing further details.

The online edition of Libya's privately-owned Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi, said the protesters were armed with petrol bombs and threw stones.

According to the newspaper, 14 people were injured in the clashes, including three demonstrators and 10 security officials.

In a telephone interview with Al Jazeera, Idris Al-Mesmari, a Libyan novelist and writer, said that security officials in civilian clothes came and dispersed protesters by using tear gas, batons and hot water.

Al-Mesmari was arrested hours after the interview, unconfirmed reports say.

'Day of rage' called

Anti-government protesters have also called on citizens to observe Thursday as a "Day of Rage". They are hoping to emulate recent popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia to end Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year-old rule......"

Three weeks in Egypt show the power of brutality – and its limits

As he leaves Cairo, our writer reflects on the lessons of an extraordinary uprising for protesters and police alike

Robert Fisk

"After three weeks of watching the greatest Arab nation hurling a preposterous old man from power, I'm struck by something very odd. We have been informing the world that the infection of Tunisia's revolution spread to Egypt – and that near-identical democracy protests have broken out in Yemen, Bahrain and in Algeria – but we've all missed the most salient contamination of all: that the state security police who prop up the power of the Arab world's autocrats have used the same hopeless tactics of savagery to crush demonstrators in Sanaa, Bahrain and Algiers as the Tunisian and Egyptian dictators tried so vainly to employ against their own pro-democracy protestors.

Just as the non-violent millions in Cairo learnt from Al-Jazeera and from their opposite numbers in Tunis – even down to the emails from Tunisia urging Egyptians to cut lemons in half and eat them to avoid the effects of tear-gas – so the state security thugs in Egypt, presumably watching the same programmes, have used precisely the same brutality against the crowds as their colleagues in Tunis. Incredible, when you come to think about it. The cops in Cairo saw the cops in Tunis bludgeoning government opponents to a bloody mess and – totally ignoring the fact that this led to Ben Ali's downfall – went into copy-cat mode.....

.....Mubarak really thought on Thursday night that the people would suffer another five months of his rule. Ben Ali apparently thought much the same.

What all this proves is that the dictators of the Middle East are infinitely more stupid, more vicious, more vain, more arrogant, more ridiculous than even their own people realised. Ghengis Khan and Lord Blair of Isfahan rolled into one."

Palestinian Intifada

The Tunisians......The Egyptians......The Algerians......The Bahrainis......The Libyans......The Yemenis......

And Now: The Palestinians!

Just Kidding; I Got You There.
The Palestinians Are Last to Revolt Because:

They Have Not Just One, But Two Democracies!
They Have a Strong, Prosperous and Secure State.
Their Army, Air Force and Navy Should be the Models for the Arab World.
They Have No Dreadful Mukhabarat Like Most Arab Regimes.
Their Police is Servant of the Public.
Their President and Prime Minister are Model Democrats.

Go to Sleep Now and Your Checks from the NGOs are in the Mail.

Benghazi, Libya 'rocked by protests'

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that the unrest had been triggered by the arrest of a lawyer who is an outspoken critic of the government.

The lawyer was later said to have been released, but the demonstrations reportedly continued.

Pro-democracy protests have swept through several Arab countries in recent weeks, forcing the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt from power.

There is no independent confirmation of the protests in Benghazi, but eyewitnesses say that at one stage some 2,000 people were involved.

They say stones were thrown at police who are said to have responded with water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets.

Carlos Latuff: Om Kamel

Egyptian army hijacking revolution, activists fear

Military ruling council begins to roll out reform plans while civilian groups struggle to form united front

Jack Shenker in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 February 2011

"Egypt's revolution is in danger of being hijacked by the army, key political activists have warned, as concrete details of the country's democratic transition period were revealed for the first time.....

"The military are talking to one or two 'faces of the revolution' that have no actual negotiating experience and have not been mandated by anyone to speak on the people's behalf," claimed one person involved with the new coalition. "It's all very well for them to be apparently implementing our demands, but why are we being given no say in the process?

"They are talking about constitutional amendments, but most people here want a completely new constitution that limits the power of the presidency. They are talking about elections in a few months, and yet our political culture is still full of division and corruption.

"Many of us are now realising that a very well thought-out plan is unfolding step by step from the military, who of course have done very well out of the political and economic status quo. These guys are expert strategic planners after all, and with the help of some elements of the old regime and some small elements of the co-opted opposition, they're trying to develop a system that looks vaguely democratic but in reality just entrenches their own privileges.""

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

This new poll asks:

Do you see the current conditions as being favorable for change in the Arab World?

With over 1,200 responding so far, 95% said yes.

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - Arab anger

With Lamis Andoni

Al-Jazeera Video: Update: Clashes in Bahrain

Al-Jazeera Video: Egypt tensions persist

Real News Video with Transcript: Will Democracy Movement Challenge Military After Mubarak

Achcar: Military rule at core of social and economic inequality in Egypt

Is the revolution being co-opted?

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"......The role of the Egyptian army so far has been ambiguous - to say the least; and that includes documented cases of torture by military intelligence. Not to mention their latest - banning national and foreign media from broadcasting from Tahrir Square. Moreover al-Arabiyyah TV - a mouthpiece of the House of Saud - reported that they have offered the Ministry of Information to Imad Ad-Din Adib, someone who helped launch former president Hosni Mubarak's last presidential campaign and who is also close to the House of Saud.

It's too early to tell whether the military junta now in power will really deliver on this new local remix of the Washington mantra - "orderly transition" - or will run rings around the street and perpetuate itself in power by wearing better suits, dividing the opposition and receiving lavish "gifts" from the usual suspects, Washington, Tel Aviv and Riyadh.


As Dr Aida Seif El-Dawla, from the Nadeem Center for Victims of Torture in Cairo has told the US-based Institute for Public Accuracy, "We still have the same cabinet appointed by Mubarak. The emergency state is still enforced. Old detainees are still in detention and new ones since the 25th of January remain missing. There is no public apology for the killings."

Everyone should be on maximum alert. Otherwise one of these days even Nosferatu - Omar "Sheikh al-Torture" Suleiman - may rise again from the dead. "

Egyptian History, by Mike Luckovich

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Fear Not the Muslim Brotherhood Boogeyman

By Juan Cole
TruthDig

"The hysteria in American media about Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is not only ignorant and demagogic, it is hypocritical. The United States has actively promoted Muslim Brotherhood branches in other countries when it suited its purposes, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, the Turkish and Indonesian cases of democratic transition in the Muslim world should have taught us something about how Muslim fundamentalist parties are themselves transformed in a democratic setting....."

NASSER’S GHOST

By Eric Margolis

"“The king is dead!,” as the French say, “long live the king!” Will this be the case in Egypt, where one monarch, the ousted Husni Mubarak, will be replaced by another general or military junta led by Field Marshall Mohammed Tantawi?....

If Egyptians feel cheated by the change of power in Cairo, as many will, and violent demonstrations begin, what will happen if the junta orders a battalion commanded by a colonel to open fire on protestors?

The first young officer who refuses and orders his men to join the demonstrators will be Egypt’s new hero. Nasser’s ghost haunts Cairo."

Live Video: Protesters in bahrain live from pearl roundabout

Contributed by W.

Barak: "See, I Trained Him Well.....Besides I Hold His $1.4 Billion Leash!"

Ice queens of the Arab world

As protests hot up across the Middle East, the lavish lives of aloof Arab royal wives are in the spotlight

Nesrine Malik
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 February 2011

"It started with Leila Trabelsi, the wife of President Ben Ali – the Arab world's answer to Imelda Marcos, the Lady Macbeth of Tunisia, who allegedly made off with copious amounts of gold after the uprising that ousted her husband.

Attention then shifted to Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt's ex-first lady, who shares her husband's estimated $70bn fortune.

In the wake of King Abdullah's dismissal of the government in Jordan this month, the latest Arab Wag in the spotlight is Queen Rania. Last week she was the subject of an unprecedented attack by a group of Jordanian tribal figures complaining about the ruling family and widespread corruption. According to the statement, the queen and "her sycophants and the power centres that surround her" are dividing Jordanians and "stealing from the country and the people".

As the wave of dissent sweeping the region puts Arab presidents and monarchs under the spotlight, their wives are also being scrutinised for their lavish lifestyles and "interference" in politics......"

The Arab world is dead, but the Egyptians may revive it

Egypt's revolution has not just deposed a dictator, it has breathed life into an exhausted idea: Arab self-determination

Hussein Agha and Robert Malley
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 February 2011

"The protesters on the streets of Cairo who, in just 18 days, ended the three-decade rule of Hosni Mubarak were not merely demanding the end of an unjust, corrupt and oppressive regime. They did not merely decry privation, unemployment or the disdain with which their leaders treated them. They had long suffered such indignities. What they fought for was something more elusive and more visceral.

The Arab world is dead. Egypt's revolution is trying to revive it.

From the 1950s onwards, Arabs took pride in their anti-colonial struggle, in their leaders' standing and in the sense that the Arab world stood for something, that it had a mission: to build independent nation-states and resist foreign domination.....

For decades, the Arab world has been drained of its sovereignty, its freedom, its pride. It has been drained of politics. Today marks politics' revenge."

Egypt's army calls for end to strikes as workers grow in confidence

Ruling military council also appeals for end to political protests while seeking to reassure youth leaders

Chris McGreal in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 February 2011

"Egypt's new military government has appealed for an end to the strikes sweeping the country as workers use their new-found freedom to demand pay increases after years of rising food prices.

Transport, bank and tourism employees were joined by steel, oil and gas workers in stoppages that undermined the army's attempts to return Egypt to normality after the three weeks of unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The ruling military council called on Egyptians to go back to work, saying that strikes "damage the security of the country". [Same old slogans; nothing changes with the military!]

"Noble Egyptians, see that these strikes, at this delicate time, lead to negative results," it said in a statement read on state television.

Reuters reported that the army was considering using martial law to ban work stoppages [Same old, same old!], although that may prove difficult to square with its promises of democratic liberalisation.

In the statement, the army also called for an end to political protests, having forced out the last few hundred remaining demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square, who had refused to leave until the military stepped aside in favour of an interim civilian administration. Soldiers barred foreign television cameras from filming the operation......

But Egypt's new military government faces workers who are no longer so afraid of authority."

Three questions: Egypt's transition

Al Jazeera's senior political analyst evaluates the speed and efficacy of the transition to democracy.

Marwan Bishara


".....How will the revolution attain its goals?

If the foremost winners from the revolution, peoples' power and democracy, are to succeed, the revolutionaries must stay steadfast and continue to apply pressure for change.

Future praise of the military should be conditional on its performance.

The revolution has accomplished so much, but serious challenges lie ahead. It's no picnic reversing decades of stagnation, corruption and nepotism.

They need to convince the military that they seek not merely cosmetic reform that encourages passivity and defuse the revolutionary spirit for change, nor mere change of faces and titles. Rather, they seek to wipe the table clean of the old ways and means......"

The toxic residue of colonialism

The overt age of grand empires gave way to the age of covert imperial hegemony, but now the edifice is crumbling.

By Richard Falk
Al-Jazeera

"At least, overtly, there has been no talk from either Washington or Tel Aviv - the governments with most to lose as the Egyptian revolution unfolds - of military intervention. Such restraint is more expressive of geopolitical sanity than postcolonial morality, but still it enables some measure of change to take place that unsettles, temporarily at least, the established political order.

And yet, by means seen and unseen, external actors, especially the United States, with a distinct American blend of presumed imperial and paternal prerogatives are seeking to shape and limit the outcome of this extraordinary uprising of the Egyptian people, long held in subsidised bondage by the cruel and corrupt Mubarak dictatorship. What is the most defining feature of this American-led diplomacy-from-without is the seeming propriety of managing the turmoil, so that the regime survives and the demonstrators return to what is perversely being called "normalcy".

I find most astonishing that President Obama so openly claimed the authority to instruct the Mubarak regime about how it was supposed to respond to the revolutionary uprising. I am not surprised at the effort, and would be surprised by its absence - but merely by the lack of any sign of imperial shyness in a world order that is supposedly built around the legitimacy of self-determination, national sovereignty, and democracy.....

There are few instances of revolutionary victory, and in those few instances, it is rarer still to carry forward the revolutionary mission without disruption. The challenge is to sustain the revolution in the face of almost inevitable counter-revolutionary projects, some launched by those who were part of the earlier movement unified against the old order, but now determined to hijack the victory for its own ends. The complexities of the revolutionary moment require utmost vigilance on the part of those who view emancipation, justice, and democracy as their animating ideals, because there will be enemies who seek to seize power at the expense of humane politics......"

Yemen protests enter fifth day

Regime loyalists and plainclothes policemen attack protesters, mainly students, in Sanaa.[A rerun of what the regime's thugs did in Egypt!]

Al-Jazeera

"Thousands of people are protesting in Yemen for a fifth consecutive day to demand political reforms and the ouster of the country's US-allied president.

However, pro-regime supporters on Tuesday waded into the anti-government protest in the capital Sanaa with batons, sparking violent clashes in which three people were hurt, according to AFP news agency.

The loyalists were joined by plainclothes police wielding electric tasers, who sent the crowd of around 3,000 protesters, mostly students and rights activists, fleeing, witnesses said.

"What we are seeing is thousands of pro-government protesters, armed with batons, attacking the pro-democracy protesters and dispersing the crowd using violence," Hashem Ahelbarra, Al Jazeera's correspondent, reporting from Sanaa, said.

The demonstrators chanted slogans against Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, including "down with the president's thugs".......

Military ties between the US and Saleh's administration have grown stronger in recent months, as the country struggles with the increasing militancy of a secessionist movement in the south, as well as unrest provoked by rising food prices, unemployment reaching 40 per cent - and demands for human rights to be recognised.

The US is shortly to embark on a $75m project to train Yemen's counterterrorism unit, US officials say.

Saleh became leader of North Yemen in 1978 and has ruled the Republic of Yemen since the north and south merged in 1990."