The day part of the Internet died: Egypt goes dark

[SpencerH]

I'm surprised by the lack of discussion about Saudi Arabia. If any people are rife for a "democracy movement", it's the Saudi's.

[Wezil]

What sort of precautions? Short of shutting down the internet and cell phone networks (which they did do last summer) I'm not sure what else they could do. I suppose they could have infiltrated student groups with with secret policy by now but since they've already arrested most of the student leadership and fired sympathetic teachers I just don't see another uprising starting in Iran soon.

They offer no specifics but I found this in a CNN article.

Iran, on the other hand, is actively trying to prevent protests called for Monday in support of the Egyptian uprising, while simultaneously saluting Mubarak's overthrow.

For what it's worth.

[Dinner]

I don't think real democracy has been won for Egypt. The new President is a 30 year Mubarak crony and head of the secret policy which tortured and executed dissidents so it isn't like he can be trusted to develop a true democratic system.

[Wezil]

What President?

As of 11 February, 2011, the position of President of Egypt is officially vacant. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, led by Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, currently act in the capacity as Head of State and Head of Government.[2] Elections for a new president are expected to be held in September of 2011.

[Wezil]

I'm surprised by the lack of discussion about Saudi Arabia. If any people are rife for a "democracy movement", it's the Saudi's.

Looks like Algeria is next up.

[germanos]

I don't think real democracy has been won for Egypt. The new President is a 30 year Mubarak crony and head of the secret policy which tortured and executed dissidents so it isn't like he can be trusted to develop a true democratic system.

Yes, it remains to be seen how it all plays out. Encouraging is that it was a 'revolution' with remarkably little violence and victims. That there is a window of opportunity that the state of emergency will finally be lifted is another. What's worrying is that the elections for september appear to be cancelled as the regime wants to change the constitution before that. That sounds nice, but may well be a Trojan horse.

[Docfeelgood]

Egypt's Military Rulers Dissolve Parliament, Suspend Constitution

CAIRO -- Egypt's military rulers took sweeping action to dismantle the autocratic legacy of former President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday, dissolving parliament, suspending the constitution and promising elections in moves cautiously welcomed by pro-democracy protesters.

The caretaker government, backed by the military, said restoring security after the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak was a top priority even as labor unrest reflected one of the many challenges of steering the Arab world's biggest nation toward stability and democracy.

Egypt's upheaval was also splintering into a host of smaller grievances, the inevitable outcome of emboldened citizens feeling free to speak up, most of them for the first time.

They even included about 2,000 police, widely hated for brutality and corruption under Mubarak, who marched to the Interior Ministry to demand better pay and conditions. They passed through the protest camp at Tahrir Square, where demonstrators hurled insults at them, calling them "pigs" and "dogs."

Egypt's state news agency said banks will be closed Monday due to strikes and Tuesday for a public holiday. Dozens of employees protested against alleged corruption at the state television building, which broadcast pro-Mubarak messages during the massive demonstrations against his rule.

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The caretaker government met for the first time, and employees removed a huge picture of Mubarak in the meeting room before they convened.

The crowds in the protest encampment that became a symbol of defiance against the government thinned out Sunday -- the first working day since the regime fell. Traffic flowed through the downtown crossroads for the first time in weeks. Troops cleared most of the makeshift tents and scuffled with holdout activists.

The protesters have been pressing the ruling military council, led by Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi, to immediately move forward with the transition by appointing a presidential council, dissolving the parliament and releasing political prisoners. Thousands have remained in Tahrir Square and some want to keep up the pressure for immediate steps by the council such as the repeal of repressive emergency laws that give police broad power.

As Egypt embarked on its new path -- one of great hope but also deep uncertainty -- the impact of its historic revolt as well as an earlier uprising in Tunisia was evident in a region where democratic reform has made few inroads.

Yemeni police on Sunday clashed with protesters seeking the ouster of the U.S.-backed president, and opposition groups planned a rally in Bahrain on Monday. Demonstrators have also pushed for change in Jordan and Algeria, inspired by the popular revolt centered in downtown Cairo.

Protesters said they are willing to give the ruling council a chance to fulfill pledges to move the nation toward democracy, and now, the first tentative attempts at communication are taking place between their movement and the military.

According to Bassem Kamel, a member of a youth coalition formed during the protests, several protest organizers met with the council Sunday. While he didn't attend the meeting himself, he had been told by those there that the results had been encouraging.

The 18-member Supreme Council of the Armed Forces allayed many people's concerns by moving swiftly to dismiss the legislature, packed with Mubarak loyalists, and sidelining the constitution, used by Mubarak to buttress his rule. Activists said they would closely watch the military to ensure it does not abuse its unchecked power -- something that is clearly starting to make some uneasy.

The council "believes that human freedom, the rule of law, support for the value of equality, pluralistic democracy, social justice, and the uprooting of corruption are the bases for the legitimacy of any system of governance that will lead the country in the upcoming period," the Council said in a statement.

"They have definitely started to offer us what we wanted," said activist Sally Touma, who also wants the release of political prisoners and repeal of an emergency law that grants wide powers to police.

The military council, which has issued a stream of communiques since taking power, said parliamentary and presidential elections will be held but did not set a timetable. It said it will run the country for six months, or until those elections can be held.

It said it will represent Egypt in all internal and external affairs and proclaimed the right to set temporary laws. It was expected to clarify the scope of its legal authority as the complex transition unfolds and the role of the judiciary remains unclear.

It said it was forming a committee to amend the constitution and set rules for a popular referendum to endorse the amendments.

Protesters are demanding that the constitution be amended to impose term limits on the president, open up competition for the presidency, and remove restrictions on creating political parties. Others want an entirely new constitution.

Judge Hisham Bastawisi, a reformist judge, said the military measures "should open the door for free formation of political parties and open the way for any Egyptian to run for presidential elections."

Hossam Bahgat, director of the non-governmental Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the steps were positive but warned that Egypt was on uncharted legal ground.

"In the absence of a constitution, we have entered a sort of 'twilight zone' in terms of rules, so we are concerned," he said. "We are clearly monitoring the situation and will attempt to influence the transitional phase so as to respect human rights."

Both the lower and upper houses of parliament are being dissolved. The last parliamentary elections in November and December were marked by accusations of fraud by the ruling party, virtually shutting out the opposition.

The military council includes the chief of staff and commanders of each branch of the armed forces. It took power after protesters' pleas, and promised reform. The institution, however, was tightly bound to Mubarak's ruling system, and it has substantial economic interests that it will likely seek to preserve.

The caretaker Cabinet, appointed by Mubarak shortly after the pro-democracy protests began on Jan. 25, will remain in place until a new Cabinet is formed -- a step expected to happen after elections.

"Our concern now in the Cabinet is security, to bring security back to the Egyptian citizen," Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said Sunday after the Cabinet met for the first time since Mubarak was ousted.

Security remains thin in Cairo, more than two weeks after police withdrew following clashes with protesters. Some have returned, but many say they might quit, citing humiliation and ill-treatment from people in the street. Others are on leave. Military police are directing traffic and filling in some of the gaps.

Shafiq said the military would decide whether Omar Suleiman, who was appointed vice president by Mubarak in a failed attempt to appease protesters, would play some role in Egypt's transition.

"He might fill an important position in the coming era," the prime minister said.

He also denied reports that Mubarak had fled to Germany or the United Arab Emirates, saying the former president remained in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. He went there soon after stepping down.

Egyptians became accustomed to scenes of police beating protesters in the early days of the uprising, but on Sunday it was the police who were demonstrating. A large group marched through Tahrir Square to demand higher wages, and sought to absolve themselves of responsibility for the attempted crackdown in the early days of the Egyptian uprising.

"You have done this inhuman act," a protester said.

Said Abdul-Rahim, a low-ranking officer, broke into tears.

"I didn't do it. I didn't do it," he implored. "All these orders were coming from senior leaders. This is not our fault. "

The police scuffled with soldiers outside the Interior Ministry, and some troops fired gunshots in the air.

"This is our ministry," the police shouted. "The people and the police are one hand," they chanted, using an expression for unity. They said they get paid 500-600 Egyptian pounds ($85-$100), and that soldiers are far better compensated.

The minister, Mahmoud Wagdy, emerged from the building to talk to the police through a megaphone.

"Give me a chance," he said. Later, the ministry said it was doubling the pay of low-ranking police.

Some police had been accused of stripping off their uniforms and joining gangs of thugs who attacked protesters at the height of the uprising.

There were also protests by workers at a ceramic factory, a textile factory and a port on the Mediterranean coast as Egyptians sought to improve their lot in a country where poverty and other challenges will take years or decades to address.

Outside the headquarters one of Egypt's major public banks, several hundred bank employees protested against alleged corruption by the bank manager, a government-appointed official. Protester Yasmine Haidar said newly appointed advisers to the manager had salaries nearly 70 times higher than her monthly $190.

"After the president left, we need the rest to leave behind him," she said. "The heads of all the rotten fish should be cut."

The five top officials at the bank left the building because employees had stopped working.

In Tahrir, soldiers sought to convince the few remaining protesters to clear their tents and blankets.

An army vehicle drove through the square, broadcasting the military's announcement that it would dissolve parliament and suspend the constitution. Soldiers got out of the car to converse with protesters about the ruling council's plans. Some people clapped and cheered.

Some protesters were unsatisfied, and gathered with a wooden cross and a copy of the Quran.

"The government is still in place. The corruption is still here. Emergency laws are still here," said Mohammed Ahmed, an accountant. "When it is a civil state and we have a parliamentary system and political detainees are released, then we go."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/13/egypts-military-rulers-dissolve-parliament-suspend-constitution-protests/#ixzz1Dt1hpEWL

[HalfLotus]

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

[Docfeelgood]

Iranian Leaders Vow to Crush March

Iranian Leaders Vow to Crush March
By WILLIAM YONG
Published: February 13, 2011



*
Egypt’s Military Dissolves Parliament and Calls for Vote (February 14, 2011)
*
News Analysis: Egypt’s Path After Uprising Does Not Have to Follow Iran’s (February 13, 2011)
*
Ahmadinejad Cheers Exit Of Mubarak (February 12, 2011)
*
Times Topic: Egypt News — The Protests

“These elements are fully aware of the illegal nature of the request,” Mehdi Alikhani Sadr, an Interior Ministry official, said of the permit request for the march in comments published Sunday by the semiofficial Fars news agency. “They know they will not be granted permission for riots.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was blunt.

“The conspirators are nothing but corpses,” Hossein Hamadani, a top commander of the corps, said Wednesday in comments published by the official IRNA news agency. “Any incitement will be dealt with severely.”

But opposition supporters, hoping the democratic uprisings sweeping the region will rejuvenate their own movement, insisted the march would go forward. “There are no plans to cancel it,” Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, senior political adviser to the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi, said in a statement published Sunday on opposition Web sites.

The opposition also hopes to capitalize on the contradiction between Iran’s embrace of democracy movements abroad — Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi referred Friday to “the brave and justice-seeking movement in Egypt” — and its crackdown on a kindred movement at home.

“If they are not going to allow their own people to protest, it goes against everything they are saying, and all they are doing to welcome the protests in Egypt is fake,” another opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi, said in an interview last week.

The United States has also seized on the apparent hypocrisy, issuing a statement on Sunday that seemed intended to encourage a revival of the protests in Iran. “By announcing that they will not allow opposition protests, the Iranian government has declared illegal for Iranians what it claimed was noble for Egyptians,” the statement, from the White House, said. “We call on the government of Iran to allow the Iranian people the universal right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate and communicate that’s being exercised in Cairo.”

Even as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was welcoming the emergence of what he called a “new Middle East” on Friday, his government had already taken steps to quash the protest planned here.

In the week since opposition leaders filed the request for the march, the government has imposed restrictions on the communications and movements of Mr. Karroubi and detained at least 30 journalists, student activists and family members of figures close to the opposition leadership, according to opposition Web sites. There was also a vigilante attack on a senior reformist figure.

While the pro-democracy movement here professes similar political goals to those elsewhere, the differences are critical. The so-called Green movement here is, as the government points out, inherently counterrevolutionary; while democracy movements toppled secular dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt, Iran’s Islamic Revolution did that here in 1979. The Iranian leaders praising the revolts of recent weeks claim them as their political progeny.

The democracy movement here has also been shaped, and battered, by recent experience. After the disputed election of June 2009, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets in protest, deploying their own social networks in what was then called “the Twitter revolution.” By the end of the year, a government crackdown characterized by killings and mass arrests had largely curtailed the movement’s public actions.

With those memories still fresh, opposition supporters are caught between fear and hopelessness on one hand, and the urge to seize what feels like a historic opportunity on the other.

“Things are far more complicated in Iran than Egypt,” said an online activist using the pseudonym Zahra Meysami. “People need to believe that things are possible. We desperately need hope. People need to see, not just believe, that the movement is alive.”

In the background has been a steady drumbeat of executions. International rights groups say 66 prisoners have been hanged this year, at least three of them arrested during the 2009 protests.

Mr. Moussavi and Mr. Karroubi have condemned the executions for creating an atmosphere of “terror in society.” Some activists have called them a deliberate ploy to neutralize dissent.

Still, opposition Web sites have announced protest routes for more than 30 cities.

“The victory of the freedom-seeking movement in Egypt and Tunisia can open the way for Iran,” read a statement from an association of Tehran University student political groups. “Without a doubt, the starting point of these protests was the peaceful freedom-seeking movement of Iran in 2009.”

But some of the movement’s foot soldiers learned other lessons from 2009.

“Many people suffered in the 2009 unrest,” Leyla, 27, said. “They don’t want one martyr to become two.

“This is my souvenir from the protests,” she said, pushing aside her hair to reveal a scar in the center of her forehead, etched by a police baton two summers ago.

“My parents will be locking me in the house tomorrow.”

[Docfeelgood]

Report: Palestinian cabinet to resign in wake of Mideast turmoil

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...rmoil-1.343218

this is really getting interesting!!

[Dinner]

Algerians and Yemenese tried to copy Tunisia and Egypt but their dictators were smarter then the other dictators and they just had the secret police beat the crap out of and then arrest everyone.

[Dinner]

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...rmoil-1.343218

this is really getting interesting!!

To bad there won't be any change in Gaza. Hamas likes to throw opposition members off of the top of buildings so there aren't too many people willing to stand up to them.

[Docfeelgood]

I hope the situation in Iran today does not turn into a blood bath.
They came out strong today protesting wanting a new government.
I hope them the best.

[Docfeelgood]

Deaths are being reported in Iran now.
sad

[DaShi]

You write a lot like how my Chinese students used to.