Category Archives: Egypt

Al Arabiya News Picks the Most Ridiculous Fatwas of 2011

Obama’s Arab Spring: ‘One Day We Shall Kill All The Jews’

Am I To Be the Next Dead American Enemy Combatant? My Kids Too?

by The Rebel

“I’LL TELL YA WHAT:  I’LL TRADE JA SECURITY FOR YOUR FREEDOMS, OK?

The day that I agree with the ACLU is the day that confirms my belief that the world has truly turned upside down.  That day is today.  The ACLU is demanding transparency & legal justification for the killing of American born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, his teen age son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen who was born in Denver in 1995, and his 17-year-old Yemeni cousin that were killed in a U.S. military drone strike that left nine people dead in southeastern Yemen. Read the rest of this entry

Are We Supposed to CELEBRATE?

Gas Chambers and Swastikas: Is it Still Spring in Egypt?

THE NEW “MODERATE” EGYPT: “THE GAS CHAMBERS ARE READY.”

“Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day. It was the moral force of nonviolence — not terrorism and mindless killing — that bent the arc of history toward justice once more.”

These were the flowery words Barack Obama read from his teleprompter in February as he commented on the fall of the Mubarak government in Egypt. In a January article entitled Obama Secretly Backs Egypt Uprising, I wrote that the Obama administration had been secretly providing support to Egypt dissidents while publicly praising Mubarak as an important ally in the Middle East.

Not to mention the knucklehead comments made by Crazy Joe Biden along the way…

Continue Reading…

THOSE PEACE-LOVING MUSLIMS ARE AT IT AGAIN

ElBaradei says if Israel attacks Gaza Egypt will counterattack: website

Is this a power-play on the part of Mohamed ElBaradei? Is he looking to cast his lot in with the Muslim Brotherhood? If so, his true colors are showing. He behaved despicably during the Iraq engagement, and has been a thorn to both American and Israeli interests for some time. Egypt’s fortunes are slowly slipping away, and it will become a state along the lines of Iran if the brave Egyptian populace doesn’t do away with their refuse quickly.

The Egyptian Military Takes Sides. Not Ours.

Those who were pessimistic about the role Egypt’s military played in the Cairo uprising can now feel justified.  The Egyptian Military just allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to allow extremist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi back into the country. Qaradawi is a noted intellectual inside of Al-Ikhwān, as the Muslim Brotherhood is known in Egypt. That the military have provided a guard for this cretin’s return shows that they are not on the side of democracy, but will be part of aiding the development of a new Islamist state. Woe to Miṣr. Thanks to Dave Reaboi who posted the article at Big Peace.

Where should our focus lie?

Iran sending warships through Suez Canal

It looks like Iran wants to test the resolve of the new Egyptian government, as well as Israel’s, by sending a group of ships to move through the Suez Canal.  They risk war by doing so, but Iran seems to be willing to take this calculated risk.  Surprisingly, no one is reporting on it much here in the United States.

The problem of sexual violence in Egypt

This is an addendum to the story of the reporter who was sexually assaulted in Cairo during the revolution. One needs to see what kind of culture is being vaunted as ‘revolutionary’. In other news, a douchebag by the name of Nir Rosen lost his job for making some incredibly stupid comments against the reporter in question, Lara Logan, who probably has more balls than this loser. HT: National Review.

President Obama and Egypt: why he failed

The speculation regarding President Obama’s handling of the recent fall of Egypt’s long standing regime is an ever growing amalgam of bigotry, conspiracy theories, and apologetics. And that’s just from the Left!

Now that we have the obligatory dig at liberals out of the way, it’s time to look at why President Obama is an abject failure in his handling of the recent so-called revolution of Egypt. The comparisons to former President Jimmy Carter have been made ad nauseum, parallels between the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Tehran are clearly drawn, and the idea that President Obama is a Muslim or Muslim sympathizer has been thoroughly explored. What has not been sufficiently examined, however, is the fundamental, foundational factor of this administration’s failure. Why is it this foreign policy flub a failure, rather than a simple gaffe? It is important that this question is explored, even if it is not currently possible to offer a definitive answer. Remember, this is about why it is a failure, rather than how the President failed.

It is reasonable to assume that anyone engaged in discourse of this nature is familiar with the Constitution of the United States, so a lecture on the authority and responsibility granted to the Executive Branch is not necessary. Considering this authority and responsibility, examine the manner in which our sitting President addressed the issue of revolution in an allied nation. Through all the flowery words, clever rhetoric, and silver tongued double-speak, President Obama instructed a foreign head of state to abdicate his office. Disregard the fact that President Obama was very critical of what he claimed was the ill conceived interference of the Bush Administration. The issue is not the president’s hypocrisy. It is his complete and unquestionable disregard for the welfare of the nation he represents. His manner of address was, and is, in violation of the responsibility of the office.

President Hosni Mubarak was a dictator, and by no means was he a pious icon of virtue. He was, however, the head of a government with which the United States was allied. Pay attention, that past tense will be important in days to come. A peace treaty with Israel was honored by the Mubarak regime, and United States military and intelligence was enabled by the aid of the standing regime. What is important is that we had a fairly reliable understanding of who and what we were dealing with. The only fact we can rely on in a post-Mubarak Egypt is that there is no way to know what will happen to United States interests there. Is it not the job, the duty, perhaps the obligation of the President, to ceaselessly pursue the interests of the United States? Personal preferences are irrelevant. The only interest a sitting president is authorized to pursue is that of the nation, not his own desires. By undermining President Mubarak, our own Commander in Chief has caused immeasurable damage to United States interests abroad. In short, a president does not abandon the known asset for the unknown. This is not Texas Hold “em. This is foreign policy and national security.

The Founding Fathers of the United States did not wage war or shed blood for the freedom of all people. Their struggle was to secure liberty for the people of this land, of the United States. That our federal government, an institution tasked with the sole purpose of defending our lives and way of life, would subvert our own nation’s welfare in the pursuit of a potential fledgling democracy, however strong that potential, is simply unthinkable. That bears repeating: it is unacceptable that our own liberty and safety is put at risk for the benefit of any foreign entity. As the uncertainty of Egypt after Mubarak looms on the horizon, the future of United States global welfare is precariously balanced upon a razor’s edge.

Ignore the fact that President Obama appears to have supported the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that has openly expressed the goal of subjugating the western world beneath a world-wide caliphate. Pay no mind to the apparent aiding and abetting of an enemy. All the appearances and claims in the world do not change the reality that we do not have all the facts, and cannot make a definitive judgment on the matter. What we do know, without a shadow of a doubt, is that President Obama sent the clear message to all allies and potential allies that he is unreliable and cannot be expected to maintain alliances. He has reduced the steadfast reliability of the United States to little more than a flighty, fleeting relationship that stands no more chance of enduring strain than a high school romance.

The one job, the singular task of the president, is to ensure that the United States remains a strong and viable player on the world stage. Through execution of domestic and foreign policy, the President of the United States is charged with maintaining United States supremacy in the world.  That requires setting aside personal feelings and desires in favor of the needs of the country. It means making decisions that keep our nation at the top of the food chain. It is not the job of the President of the United States to make our country equal with any other. It is the president’s obligation to ensure our country is better off, superior to all other countries. Jimmy Carter based his foreign policy on human rights and it was a disaster. Barack Obama is not only repeating that mistake, he is knowingly diminishing our power on the international stage. If he were working for a private company and acting to equalize the market in favor of competitors, he would soon find himself standing in the unemployment line. How is it that the American people allow their employee- that is what he is- to act in this manner without so much as a social sanction? Worse, the vocal minority that controls the media is reveling in this weakening of American superiority, applauding it and promoting the ridiculous notion that this is somehow worthy of praise.

Do not forget the things President Obama has said. Remember that he has openly insulted peaceful protesters in the country that gave him the privilege of the presidency. He has used slurs such as “teabagger,” he has mocked the legitimate concerns of American citizens, he has called his fellow Americans the enemy. Yet he commends the revolutionaries of a foreign nation for their actions, some of which led to destruction of property and death, calling them inspirational. He openly speaks against a foreign leader which acts in favor of the United States, all the while ignoring the same attempts of a country under the iron thumb of the Iranian Islamic Theocracy. He makes no demands of abdication by dictators in countries such as Cuba or Venezuela. Those who pose a threat, minor or great, are free from his criticism. He reserves that for a man who provided assets to the United States.

All the theories and speculation mean nothing unless we are willing to stand firm on the unyielding fact that President Barack Obama has actively subverted the standing of the United States. If we cannot stand united in calling him to carpet for this failure, a concern based on clear and present fact rather than conspiracy, our ideas of his motivation are meaningless.

Speculation is the only viable response to the question of why President Obama chose the course he did, but we can answer why his response is a failure. The United States has been weakened and our future made less certain. He has failed in the one pursuit with which he has been tasked, the pursuit of American superiority and security, and that is why we cannot accept his foreign policy.

Consider this an invitation to discourse, a call to community examination of what makes this a foreign policy failure. If we cannot address that concern, no other issue is within our means. You have the floor.

Red Alert: Mubarak Resigns, Military is in Charge

Things are about to get VERY interesting now that Hosni Mubarak has been ousted via military coup.

Muddling Through in Egypt

Egypt, dusty with history, is facing change once again. My fear is a fundamentalist takeover reminiscent of Iran, or the success of Hez’bollah in Lebanon, or of Hamas in Gaza. I don’t want a ruling military junta, or a strong man who can seize control and throttle dissent. My transcendant hope is to see the rise of the business class, with the full support of the Army, as a free-trading, Parliamentarian form of government. Elise Cooper describes some of the Egyptian political interplay in the American Thinker.

I believe the best thing now for Egypt is patience. Our founders met in a tavern, and drank ale. Find your own way. Agree that you treasure free speech.Start your political campaigning now, form your parties and have some public meetings. Hold elections on schedule in September. Free trade is a lot better for the economy than a war, so choose a peaceful path forward.

History is on the march through the Middle East. This didn’t begin in Egypt, and it won’t be contained in Egypt. Jordan, Yemen, Syria and others may all be on the stage quite soon. When Ronald Reagan was sworn into office in January of 1981, and the hostages were finally released after their long captivity, who was forecasting that Democracy would be sweeping through Eastern Europe in a decade? Eastern Europe was largely able to transform itself into freer and more open nations, but Yugoslavia was a different story. It probably will take on some slightly different forms in neighboring states, but even while we fear for the worst of possible outcomes, it is practical to assume that something less than a dire, extremist shift will occur in Egypt. Egypt will continue, regardless of the actions of our President or his Secretary of State, or our obviously inadequate spy network in the Middle East.

Egypt’s Uprising May Reignite Iran’s Green Movement

As grave as the situation might be in Egypt, and God willing it will normalize soon, there is a possible side-effect developing from the revolution; Iran’s Green Movement might reignite, tiring of the Mad Mullahs, awful Ayatollahs and the rats ruling the roost in Tehran.

Hosni Mubarak as Nicolae Ceauşescu

Hosni Mubarak may be an evil thug, but in the real world, one has to admit he was “our” evil thug, meaning America’s. That he was shows what a mistake we made. We should have been fostering ties with real democrats in order for them to develop leaders who would have been able to assist in making a smoother transition. The only ones who would resist would be the sort of people we rightly call our enemies. Most Egyptians are not keen on seeing the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood. Why would they? At least under Mubarak’s less-than-democratic (by a long shot) rule, the poor were at least able to eat bread made with subsidized wheat. Jihadis and MB members need to eat, too, so who do you think will feel the brunt of this overturning in Egypt? It won’t be the troublemakers.

As for Mubarak, I had heard a man mention a rather interesting scenario. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was faced with a somewhat similar situation. Rather than leaving gracefully, his security services, obviously loyal to him, decided to go hard-line against the population, and it turned out that the army switched sides at the opportune moment. He would be executed for crimes against his state. The Egyptian Army is in a similar quandary. Does one really think that Mubarak has enough sway at this point to get the army to attack citizens? If Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, is delusional enough to think that the army will attack protesters, he’ll be in for a disappointment (and maybe end his days via a rope around his neck). The best scenario I see would be for Mubarak to feign illness and leave with his estimated $70 billion robbed from Egyptian coffers. He’s too arrogant, too much of a pharaoh to do that. He will have his security forces attack the citizens, the army will intervene, martial law will ensue, and Hosni Mubarak will be shot in the back of the head.

Then the fun really begins.

Egypt & Mubarak Coming To An End Tonight

I cannot wait to hear the news tonight. The suspense is killing me… And, I sure hope it lasts!  It seems the Vice-President will take control.  But, let’s not hold our breath…

Coptic Mass in Tahrir Square

http://online.wsj.com/media/swf/VideoPlayerMain.swf

What more can one add to this?  God bless the Copts and those Muslims who love their neighbors more than the murderous swine who share their religion hate them.

Cross-posted at Apocatastasis.

Liberty, Not the Brotherhood

Stephen F. Hayes at The Weekly Standard comments that, while some Conservatives may not want to admit it, the Obama Administration is indeed aware of the trouble the Muslim Brotherhood could cause if they seize power in Egypt, and are doing what they can to guide democracy in.

I’m far more skeptical, as the Obama Administration has been slow to respond to the events occurring all over the Middle East.  Perhaps now it’s time for them to save face and start looking for serious democracy-minded groups to collaborate with, rather than relying on placating terrorists or supporting knuckle-dragging thugs.

Disappearances up the ante in Tahrir Square

We in the West rarely stop to think of the human toll riots and revolutions cause.  Take the case of Mohammed Said Ali, whose son went missing.  Laura King covers this tragedy for the New York Times.

Egypt crisis: Mubarak’s son Gamal among party leaders to resign, state TV says

Hosni Mubarak has seen pretty much everyone resigning, even his own son and heir-apparent, Gamal (don’t be stupid enough to believe Hosni when he says he never intended for Gamal to take over, as the man is a liar of the worst order).  Hosni’s day is done.

We simply await the next chapter: democracy, a real one, or the Muslim Brotherhood and their fellow travelers?

The Battle Continues to Rage in Cairo

Pro-government demonstrators, bottom, watch as cars burn during clashes with anti-government demonstrators, behind barriers at top, in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, early Thursday, Feb. 3. Hundreds of people were injured in the clashes in which the two sides rained stones, bottles and firebombs on each other as soldiers stood by without intervening. The demonstrations began as an effort to force President Hosni Mubarak from power. (Lefteris Pitarakis / AP)

It was almost surreal to watch a titanic battle with thousands of participants being waged in the streets of Cairo. And until tonight it was fought without guns but instead like some sort of medieval battle with rocks, clubs, and machetes. A fifteen hour plus battle that waged fiercely throughout the day. When was the last time you saw fifty or sixty men mounted on horses and camels charge a crowd? Quite the sight. Several people have been killed and probably well over one thousand wounded in the melee. It is escalating even as I type this post as guns come into play and people are torched by Molotov cocktails.

And the Egyptian army? It pretty much (literally) closed down the hatches and watched it all play out. Various elements seemed to help first one side and then the other at times and otherwise they would briefly emerge to douse a fire or fire off a few tear gas canisters before the soldiers once again retreated to the safety of their tanks and APCs.

I predicted that Mubarak was no pushover and Egypt no Tunisia. How long he can hold on is anyone’s guess. Friday is set to be another ‘day of rage’ and it will be interesting to see if the government can hold together its impromptu gang of thugs in the face of very large numbers of anti-Mubarak crowds over the next couple of days. We are approaching the critical mass here. The next forty-eight to seventy-two hours will probably be decisive one way or another for one side or the other. If the army fractures we may see a more serious type of civil war erupt. If one side or the other triumphs in the streets we may see a low-level civil conflict continue between the sides for some time to come. Very hard to predict what will unfold.

The Obama administration and Western intelligent agencies have shown themselves to once again be woefully inept in seeing this coming. Do we not have one person on the ground in either country? Absolutely shameful. And what, pray tell, can we expect if the Muslim Brotherhood was to seize control of the Egyptian government you ask? Well, they’ve made that very clear already. Already the Left is assuring us that we have nothing to fear if they come out on top. Makes you wonder why progressives continue their de facto alliance with Islamists the world over. It makes no sense except they share the same deep-seated hatred of Judeo-Christian values, Western Civilization, and Israel I guess.

Muslim Brotherhood: Suez Canal Must be Closed, Egypt Should be Ready for War with Israel

Muhammad Ghannem told an Iranian news network that if he and the Muslim Brotherhood had his way, the Suez Canal would be closed immediately.  This would not only hurt capital coming in for the Mubarak government, but it would have further repercussions, as one-third of the world’s oil is transported through the canal.  This could increase the price of oil and gas substantially.

Continuing, Ghannem stated that gas flowing from Egypt to Israel should stop immediately, “in order to bring about the downfall of the Mubarak regime.”  Once again, this would hurt the Mubarak regime and would also hurt the Israeli economy in the process.

However, Ghannem’s most provocative statements came about war with Israel.  Talking about what the Muslim Brotherhood is prepared to do, Ghannem stated that “the people should be prepared for war against Israel.”  This implies that a war with Israel could be inevitable if the group takes substantial power in Egypt.

A good number of videos showing the extent of the chaos can be found here.

A man watches a burning APC

Egypt and Gun Control

A friend and I recently engaged in a brief discussion about a change (if any) in the dynamics of Egypt’s current revolt situation considering one difference… guns in the hands of the people. It makes one wonder. A proponent of individual gun rights, I find myself somewhat impressed at the results over there. Not only do the protesters not have arms, but the military is refraining from firing their weapons, other than “soft” ammunition when needed. Are the Egyptians just that much more civilized?

Sizing up ElBaradei

It appears that ElBaradei may be a Obama-worshipping, Iran-backing, anti-Israel, UN loving kind of guy. And he’s considered the ‘good option’ out of the various political figures and forces already jockeying for power in a potential post-Mubarak Egypt.

U.S. scrambles to size up ElBaradei

“I could not have thought of any other person that is more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama,” Mohamed ElBaradei, then the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a videotaped statement. He went on to praise Mr. Obama’s commitment “to restore moral decency” to the lives of people around the world.

A democratic Egypt or a state of hate?

You know things are pretty bad when liberal pundits like Richard Cohen of the Washington Post call the situation in the Middle East in general and Egypt in particular “chaos.”  From Mr. Cohen:

Things are about to go from bad to worse in the Middle East. An Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is nowhere in sight. Lebanon just became a Hezbollah state, which is to say that Iran has become an even more important regional power, and Egypt, once stable if tenuously so, has been pitched into chaos. This is the most dire prospect of them all. The dream of a democratic Egypt is sure to produce a nightmare.

More STRATFOR analysis on Egypt

Here’s more analysis as we observe the fall of Hosni Mubarak: The Egypt Crisis in a Global Context: A Special Report
Egyptian Police Redeploying

Working Group on Egypt Calls for Suspension of U.S. Aid

Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard offers some suggestions for Egyptian foreign aid. Namely, ‘cut it off’.

The Egyptian Unrest: A Special Report

STRATFOR provides its usual excellent analysis on what is happening in Egypt. Though I rarely side with Zazu or Andre on anything (except perhaps music), they are right to point out that we have supported trash in order for them to hold off even worse trash. That has to end. We do need to support dissident groups who are more amenable to American concerns. Here is another concern: Hamas is able to cross the border from the Palestinian Territories into Egypt pretty much unhindered thanks to the chaos ensuing at the moment. This means they are wilfully trying to help the Muslim Brotherhood take over the reins of power in Egypt. If they do, that will almost assuredly mean war in the Middle East, and if that happens, it’ll spread out quickly throughout the Maghred, the Arabian Peninsula, and possibly into Turkey and Southern Europe. Attach that with the headaches in Chechnya, and you have a recipe for a very hot summer, war-wise.

Axelrod: President Obama Has “On Several Occasions Directly Confronted” Mubarak on Human Rights for the Past 2 Years “To Get Ahead of This”

If there were ever a moment to utterly loathe David Axelrod for being a lying, worthless tool, now would be it. He had the audacity (of hope no one would pay attention to what he said) to tell ABC’s Jake Tapper the quote above. I hope this douche-bag gets rolled for this.

Protests in Egypt and unrest in Middle East – as it happened

The Guardian reports on the utter madness occurring in the Middle East.  Other blogs have called Cairo a “war zone,” as people have finally had it with decrepit monsters running (and ruining) their countries.  Arab now have a choice to make: democracy, in whatever fashion would work in the Arab world which would allow them to maintain friendly relations with the rest of the world, or leadership by those who will ensure their own Armageddon.

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