Egyptian Judges set to Boycott Morsi’s Referendum

December 3, 2012 Leave a comment

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | DECEMBER 3, 2012

After a special meeting in Cairo, Judges from the Egyptian Court, announced their resignation to oversee the referendum which is intended to ratify the Constitution adopted early Friday. The vote to approve the latest version of the Egyptian Constitution, which is composed mainly by Islamic law, will take place on December 15.

Public protest were added to the Judges’ concern after the  latest decisions of the Islamist government, especially the decree that grants almost absolute powers to Mohamed Morsi. Morsi himself signed the decree which also shields the Constituent Assembly, abandoned by liberal and secular representatives.

“We have decided to boycott the supervision of the Constitutional referendum scheduled for December 15. The protest is a response to what has been called a constitutional declaration. And we will keep it until the decree is removed, “said Ahmed al-Zend, the president of the association and famous scourge of Islamists. The Judges’ decision was taken by a majority, but it is not binding on its members, so that each judge shall endorse or not the call of Al-Zend.

The Judges’ Club, a legal association in Egypt has been organizing the judiciary so that it shows greater hostility to the decree signed by Morsi right from the first moment, urging its members to strike indefinitely until the head of state removes the controversial text. Although there are no official figures, some local media have estimated the strike track by about 100% for the courts, and 75% for appeals.

According to current legislation, judges are responsible for overseeing both elections and referendums. If we consider that in Egypt there are about 12,000 judges, and a similar number of polling stations, it is easy to conclude that the boycott organized by the Club requires only moderate support to prevent the successful holding of the referendum.

However, vice-president Mahmoud Mekki, a judge himself, is confident that his colleagues will end up doing their duty. Sources close to the Muslim Brotherhood suggested to the newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm that university professors or government officials could replace striking judges.

However, this would cast the shadow of doubt on the legitimacy of the referendum and would probably lead to the opposition to boycott. Currently, secular parties and movements are torn between not campaigning or participating in the referendum, hoping that a low turnout will delegitimize the entire constitutional process.

The Judges Club announcement came hours after the Constitutional Court defined Sunday as “the blackest day in the history of the judiciary in Egypt”, after hundreds of Islamist militants encircled their building to bar entry to judges. The Court, which would issue a symbolic verdict on the legality of the Constituent Assembly, suspended its work indefinitely.

The conflict with the judiciary is one of two open fronts that president Morsi is facing at the moment and which have made the Egyptian transition more difficult than expected. The other is the political front. Morsi’s “constitutional declaration” and his decision to accelerate the adoption of the new constitution without reaching a consensus with secular forces set the fragmented opposition up in arms. But what is worse for Morsi, is that he is beginning to show signs of incapacity to create the unity needed to move forward.

Many opposition groups that work under the umbrella of the National Salvation Front are preparing the next mobilization. Such mobilization will take place Tuesday at the gates of the presidential palace. “The National Salvation Front condemns the irresponsible act of the President to convene a referendum on a constitution which we consider to be illegitimate and that is rejected by a large portion of our supporters,” said the statement issued by the coalition.

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Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi shows his Teeth

November 29, 2012 Leave a comment

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | NOVEMBER 29, 2012

After a modest attempt to bring opponents together, the Egyptian president turned dictator, Mohamed Morsi and his political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, have opted to shield themselves again against the political crisis gripping the country after he granted himself almost absolute power.

On Wednesday night it emerged that the Brotherhood will accelerate the process of drafting the new constitution to finish on Thursday, a move that will deteriorate even more the relations between Islamist and secular.

As we reported last week, one of the most controversial provisions in the constitutional declaration was Morsi’s shielding of the Constituent Assembly against a possible dissolution by the Constitutional Court. The Court was expected to rule on the legality of the committee, now dominated by Islamists, beginning next December 2. Secular forces had withdrawn from the Assembly, hoping that it could lead to a new more balanced committee.

The process of drafting the new constitution began almost six months ago, and had entered its final phase in October. In fact, several drafts have already been published, and the time has come to decide the content of several of the most sensitive items. The President of the Assembly, Hossan al Geriany reported Wednesday that the next day there would be a final vote of each of the 200 items.

“The decision to accelerate the vote will only serve to add fuel to the fire,” said Mohamed Abdel-Alim Dawoud to the Al Ahram newspaper. Dawoud is a member of the historic Wafd party, and one of the representatives of the Constituent Assembly that was removed. The sudden decision is directly related to the political crisis in the country.

For the Muslim Brotherhood the decision to accelerate the process is a way to double its bet on his game with the opposition, presenting some stark choices: accept the exceptional powers or a constitution that is not to their liking. Geriany was very clear: “If you are angry about the decree, nothing better than an approved constitution to solve the problem”.

Under current legislation, the majority needed to approve the Constitution is 57 of the 100 members of the Constituent Assembly. Subsequently, the voted version must be approved in a popular referendum in order to take effect. Despite the withdrawal of the representatives of the secular parties and some civil entities, experts believe that the Islamists possess a quorum to approve a new constitution

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court reacted to Morsi’s accusations about the the Court’s leaks regarding its decisions. The Court accused Morsi of launching a “campaign of relentless attacks” against the institution. In a statement, the Constitutional denies the assertion that it has politicized the political game.

Most political analysts insist that there is a need to seek a negotiated solution to the conflict and the process of drafting the new constitution. Failure to reach an agreement will certainly cause another period of confrontations, both on the media and on the streets.

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Egypt: A dictator’s best friend is always a crisis

November 23, 2012 Leave a comment

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | NOVEMBER 23, 2012

Taking advantage of its renewed popularity thanks to the diplomatic success in the Gaza crisis, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, signed on Thursday four decrees that set him above the law, subjecting the judiciary branch of government to his authority. The sudden decision represents quite a dramatic effect in the long conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and a section of the judiciary, in the context of a democratic transition.

According to the new legal package, which has the status of a constitutional declaration in the absence of a constitution, none of the decisions, decrees or laws approved by the president since his inauguration may be revoked by another state institution, and that includes the capacities of the judiciary branch. Not even Hosni Mubarak get such a position of prominence, at least from a legal standpoint.

In addition, the rais ceases the rebel state prosecutor, Abdel Magid Mahmud, and appointed in his place Talat Abdullah. Mahmud was a problem to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. As one of the lat vestiges of the Mubarak era, the former Prosecutor General is responsible for the acquittal of important figures of the former regime. The president ceased Mahmud last month, and sent him as ambassador to the Vatican. However, the attorney general, a lifetime appointment under current regulations, clung to his post and succeeded in making Morsi give up in his attempt to unseat him. Apparently, only temporarily.

In a nod to the revolutionary forces, one of the decrees ordered by Morsi says that all those acquitted on the murders and abuses committed during the 18 days of the Egyptian revolution last year will have to be retried. With few exceptions, including Mubarak and his interior minister at the time, the trials of senior officials and officers of the security forces have resulted in acquittals for lack of evidence. Indeed, this was one of the main demands of the revolutionaries which Morsi promised to meet during the election campaign.

Morsi also shields the Constituent Assembly and the Senate, both threatened with dissolution by three applications being considered by the Constitutional Court. Furthermore, in two months Morsi gave the constituent committee two more months to write the new draft of the constitution, that was due to expire in early December. The Assembly is facing a serious crisis after the recent withdrawal of the secular parties arguing that the body is dominated by Islamists.

So, with his legal package, Morsi tries to bring water to his mill in several conflicts between the Muslim Brotherhood with some strata and sectors of Egyptian society. The rais repeats the move that allowed him to relieve the army leadership last August, and shows that he or his puppet masters understand the dynamics of power and the windows of political opportunity to reassert presidential authority. What a better time than a regional crisis to assert himself as a ‘leader’?

Undoubtedly, the main target of Morsi’s move is a judiciary sector led by the Constitutional Court. The row with the highest levels of the judiciary starts with the dissolution of the first Constituent Assembly and Parliament, both bodies dominated by Islamists.

Since its inception, the Egyptian transition has been a struggle between various political movements and power centers. The absence of any consensus, not even among the revolutionary forces, caused the politicization of the judiciary. And especially its upper echelons, plagued by judges loyal to Mubarak and hostile to Islamist ideology.

However, we have to see if Morsi achieves his goals with this bold move, or rather galvanizes and unites his detractors. Since his inauguration last June, the popular manifestations of rejection of his government have been rather limited in scope, but the frequency of those manifestations has increased. A questions that needs to be asked is whether the order to retry those allegedly responsible for crimes during the Mubarak regime will bring together the revolutionaries or if that move will install fears of a new theocracy.

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The Revolution the Globalists Yearned For

February 5, 2011

How the main stream media sell lies, the people are co-opted and the globalists tighten up their grip

By Luis R. Miranda
The Real Agenda
February 5, 2010

Let me go straight to the point. Glenn Beck is not a patriot or anything close to it. Beck is a PR machine used to sell advertising on Fox News. Like him, there are many other ones in the main stream media, just as there are many pundits who bend the truth as they see fit. So why is Glenn Beck speaking somehow truthfully and precisely about what’s happening in Egypt?

Many people in the world have woken up to reality, and during that awakening they turned down the lies and disinformation the main stream media offers. So the dinosaur media employs a ‘new tactic’. Such ‘new tactic’ involves seeming patriotic and telling viewers, readers and listeners some truths, which they then surround with lots of false or partly false information. This is done in an attempt to rescue themselves from the hole they have fallen into since people no longer trust them.

In the reporting or discussion of any issue, the main stream media tell people 10 percent of the truth and the other 90 percent are filled with lies. That is where the trap is. It is a psychological operation to gain back the trust of the audience, but most people don’t see it or understand it that way. The media know who the audience is, how they think and how to reach out to them. They employ the sweetest combinations of words to attract and maintain their usual followers and try to get new ones everyday.

This is why Glenn Beck and others sometimes tell people the whole truth, only to tell them the complete opposite a day or two later. Examples of this are needless as anyone can see it not only on Fox, but also on CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and popular newspapers and magazines that mask their agenda with cute faces, smart looking hosts and slick studios. But the overall goal is to sell lies. Make no mistake about it.

Exactly as Glenn Beck presented it on his show, the situation in Egypt today is a carbon copy of what happened in Iran in 1979. But no one seems to understand it fully well, because no one cares enough. No one remembers Iran in 1979. Unrest in the middle east is endless and older than my grandparents. But it is important to learn what sparks such unrest, violence, persecution and destruction. Let’s just cite a few reasons why unrest takes place: economic sanctions, commercial tariffs, austerity measures, hunger, war, oppression, corruption, slavery, you name it.

The world is not about to be dominated by a few hands like Beck pointed out in one of his shows. It has been in the hands of a handful of people for at least a century. The media does not get it, says Beck. Another lie. The media gets it well, they just don’t tell you. Beck as well as other talking heads know that if the media told the masses how things really work, we would see Egypt’s situation repeating itself not only in the middle east, but everywhere else. Indeed, Egypt’s revolution may have started as a righteous movement to dethrone a dictator, but it certainly hasn’t evolved as such.

Beck is right to say that the conflict in the Middle East is about destroying the West, but hasn’t it been always about that? Haven’t the western military and economic powers through their military industrial complex always fired up conflict in the East to have an excuse to fill their pockets with money and amass control of the resources and the people? Nothing new here then.

Why does the East allegedly hates the West?

The East doesn’t hate the West. That is another lie Glenn Beck managed to sneak in. The globalists hate both the East and the West, and they want to set them both on fire so they achieve full control of both hemispheres, as they planned originally. The conflict between civilizations has always been spurred by small groups of people seeking to advance empires and amass control while oppressing the people. So the citizens of the East do not hate the citizens of the West. The puppet dictators of the East hate their eastern folks, because they sell their lives to the controllers in the West. The puppets of the West also hate their folks, because they also sell their people to the globalists. All the religious and cultural conflict is caused by the introduction of fallacies people happen to believe, such as social justice, multiculturalism and religious radicalism and by phrases like “you are either with us, or you are with the enemy”.

Beck has the boldness to blame the progressives for this disaster that has been going on for longer that what any progressive could imagine. Tyranny and corruption is not a progressive feature, it’s a historical goal of the globalists. In order to achieve it, they employ different names, policies and more important than that, they employ different social groups, religions and puppets who follow different ideologies. This way they can always tie all the knots. The same policies Beck describes as originated in the progressive movement, were also produced and executed by alleged conservatives. Both of these groups produced them and executed them, because they are both controlled and co-opted by globalists and globalist organizations and foundations.

Glenn Beck correctly asserts that much of the hatred from the East is caused by western hypocrisy, especially American hypocrisy. In part this is true. The only BUT is that it has not been American or Western hypocrisy. The United States as well as other G-8 and G-20 nations are all directed by puppet governments that carry out the plans of the globalists. Therefore, the people responsible for such hypocrisy are the globalists in control, not the Americans, French, British, Germans or Greek people. This is the difference between Beck’s way of assigning blame and actually seeing behind the curtain and recognizing the puppet masters.

Credit is due to the main stream media because they have been able to maintain the puppet masters hidden behind that curtain. Just as Glenn Beck tried to do on his show on January 31, the corporate media specializes in lying with a straight face. And no one can have more of a straight face than Beck himself when he lies. While detailing what he called the coming insurrection, Beck criticized Mubarak for torturing, kidnapping, spying on, oppressing and abusing the Egyptian people. He did not speak up, though when George W. Bush -another puppet president- did exactly the same during his

eight-year reign of terror. However, the sham is over. Many people learned to see through the lies and disinformation to recognize that their oppressors do not live in their countries. They also learnt that the economic and political agendas that have caused their misery and pain along with the death of thousands or millions of their people are ordered from abroad. They don’t want another puppet, they want to take it upon themselves to build the country they want for themselves and their families. But the only way to achieve this is liberating themselves from the chains that have kept them from being free.

As Ron Paul has pointed out, it is the American occupation of the Middle East what has served as a great excuse for the formation of radical groups, many of them supported by the very same western powers that claim to be heading the fight against terrorism. Among them, the Muslim Brotherhood, a creation of British intelligence agencies.

Civilization wars are not due to the fact some are free and prosperous and others aren’t. The bloodiest wars in history were not due to religious diversity, but how religious differences and religious movements have been used to create hatred among the people.

The military industrial complex, has created and propelled dictators of all colors and shapes into power for centuries and its members and pundits have done everything but confess it in public. Zbigniew Brzezinski, not only showed his concern about the rise of the people worldwide against the globalist agenda, but also admitted he personally was responsible for the creation of eastern dictators. Mao Tse Tung was taken to power by globalists and so was Adolf Hitler. The number of deaths due to the policies and persecution these two tyrants carried out are conservatively counted today by the tens of millions.

Currently, the globalist-controlled United States supports dictators in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen, and puppet presidents in all of Latin America, Europe and other regions of the world. Support to these dictators and puppet presidents are given in a diversity of ways. Egypt receives billions of dollars a year, much of it in military aid. Yemen gets a big chunk of USAID’s budget, too. A lot of it, says the organization, is for programs related to ‘peace and security’. And when the aid does not go in the form of cash, as in Saudi Arabia’s case, it is planned and delivered through arms treaties.

Egypt 2011 is Iran in 1979

Let’s explain this as clearly as possible. Egypt’s revolution going on today is a copy of what happened in Iran in the late 1970′s. Hosni Mubarack is a puppet of the international crime syndicate known as the globalists. The globalists are a group of corporate corrupt personalities who control almost every aspect of our lives today. They have achieved this by creating and imposing a scheme to have a planned controlled economy, with planned controlled development, growth, education -or should I say planned training- among other things. This planned scheme allowed them to maintain and tighten control over politics, economics, monetary and fiscal policy, research and use of natural resources, birth control, entertainment, and of course news media.

Just as it wasn’t in Iran in 1979, the conflict developing all over the Middle East is not about democracy. It is the same scenario that played out in Iran, where students were cheated into supporting a revolution, but not the people’s revolution. The Iranian revolution wasn’t about freedom either, and its current state is a faithful example of that. Before looking the way it does today, Iran was one the United States strongest allies, just like Egypt is today. Jimmy Carter even spent time toasting with the Shah of Iran in a photo-op that represented how prosperous Iran was. The Shah was a dictator and a puppet, just as Mubarak is today. He tortured and oppressed thousands of people. Just as it happens in Egypt today, student groups lifted the revolution and established a so called moderate regime.

So let’s see… In both cases, the revolution was led by co-opted students. In both cases they wanted to end the reign of a brutal dictator and in both cases they achieved none. In fact, they ended being more oppressed the ever before. In the case of Iran, a month after the revolution for ‘freedom’ was completed, the U.S. decided the Shah wasn’t working out and islamist religious extremists took over power with the Ayatollah Komeni at the head. From that revolution emerged the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy, where at least 60 people were held for over a year.

Back to 2011 now. The solution the U.S. has been cooking for a couple of years is to install Mohammed ElBaradei as the saviour of Egypt. The new puppet who will do the due diligence of the globalists, just as Mubarak did. Likewise the puppets in Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan do today. Just as Barack Obama does it in the United States and Inacio Da Silva did it up until January in Brazil.

Today, along with Egypt, countries like Algeria, Morocco, Libia, Sudan, Jordan, Syria and Pakistan exhibit popular revolutions. All of them are governed by dictators, who puppet U.S. governments have sponsored through the years. Why is then the very same U.S. now trying to end those regimes? Because globalists are the least trustworthy people that exist out there. They stop at nothing to advance their agenda. They will take out whoever they need to in order to increase their control and their wealth.

The very same people in power are the ones causing and co-opting the so called insurrection in Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other countries around the world. They have always used popular movements to bamboozle people into bringing about ‘change’. This is clearer in areas of the world where people are tired of being slaves, but do not know how to pursue real change. That change is not understood by the masses, who simply go along with the sham. Ideas like social justice and equality are only lies that are planted to attract people’s attention. In reality, the goal is to establish a communist system based on wealth re-distribution. But that wealth will not end in the hands of those who need it most. Quite the opposite. It will end in the hands of the globalists themselves. These globalists control it all from abroad, where they can never be seen or held accountable. Until now.

Late in 2010, people in France, Greece, Ireland and Italy had expressed their anger on the streets regarding their goverments’ austerity plans, job and salary cuts as well as the confiscation of public and private pension funds.

What does the globalists’ hatred entail?

It is the globalist hatred towards the people, real capitalism and free markets which has destroyed a system that although imperfect, could have been improved to enhance living conditions for many more millions of people. But the deregulation policies allowed the globalists to do as they pleased and their greed grew out of control. So why would the globalists want to effectively collapse the world by ‘setting fires’ all over Africa, the Middle East, Europe and perhaps Asia? That is not the right question to ask. The right question is, why wouldn’t they? It would give them the perfect excuse to launch their long awaited military assault on the populations and the imposition of martial law, curfews, militarization of basically every single corner of the planet under the pretext of national security or international security. They could ban traveling, commerce and in fact halt all economic activity. All in the name of peace and security, of course. Under the START Treaty, the world’s army could finally be shipped out to carry on with their mission to maintain ‘peace and security’ wherever it’s needed, and through the emergency clause make every single nation hand out their weapons to the United Nations.

Additionally, they could ram through their new regulations regarding food production, energy usage -with smart grid technology-, global warming laws, an official ban on certain speech, the establishment of free speech zones, further regulation and control of the main stream media, censorship of alternative media, and so on. As things stand now, food prices have increased -only in the last year- up to 3.4 percent in many countries of the western world. Food of course is one of the globalists’ favorite tool to enslave people. Hunger is one of the reasons why many poor and middle class citizens have risen up. Whoever controls food production and distribution holds the rest hostage. The push for a centralized harmonized set of standards under Codex Alimentarius give almost complete control to governments when it comes to producing food, while banning small farm production, use of supplements and alternative medicine.

Under recently approved energy laws, countries whose governments support the carbon emissions scam, mandate that people use a certain amount of energy, impose restrictions on several kinds of energy production, charge taxes and fees on small and mid-size businesses according to the type of energy they use, and in other cases obligate them to purchase carbon credits. With the new system being pushed now, governments will use smart greed technology to regulate how much energy citizens and small businesses use, while exempting large corporations. Government grants will facilitate the purchase and installation of smart meters governments will remotely control to decide who can use energy, how much of it and when. Security professionals have questioned the use of these meters, but the bureaucracy has found a way around criticism to carry out the imposition of the meters.

If you happen to be one of those who hates government intervention, or simply prefer to maintain your privacy intact, you’re out of luck, too. Protesting against government control of everything will get harder by the day. Free speech is another of our rights that may turn into a luxury. As we have witnessed in North America, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, dictators and globalists don’t like public opposition. They, therefore, have established the so called ‘free speech zones’ at colleges and universities as well as on city streets. These are areas mostly out of everyone else’s sight and mind, turning public protesting innocuous. Those who dare not abide by the illegal new speech rules are immediately quiet down by pepper spray, police dogs or sound canyons.

Free speech wouldn’t be curtailed completely unless the government controlled the main stream media. How do they do that? Not by sending a pack of goons to take over the broadcasts, radio waves or printing presses. Simply by bailing them out with taxpayer money. And when it comes to the alternative media such as blogs, news websites, small production companies and anyone else for that matter, they’ve been working on the famous internet ‘kill switch’. As early as last September, engineers as well as security and privacy advocates warned about a bill circulating in the U.S. Congress that would effectively impose internet censorship. The bill known as the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act was sponsored by members of both the Republican and Democratic parties. “If this bill had been law five or 10 years ago, there’s a good chance that YouTube would no longer be around,” said Peter Eckersley, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The bill has nothing to do with copyright infringement, of course, but with government control of the internet and censorship of anyone the bureaucrats deem ‘dangerous’. This bill, approved by the Senate’s Judiciary Committee with a vote of 19-0 never received a full vote, but it will eventually come back around, just as the Cybersecurity Act did.

So what can we take out of all this?

First, be prepared. Be self-sufficient. Don’t expect your government to come to your aid when you need food to eat, water to drink and energy to survive a chaotic situation. The bureaucrats simply won’t come. Governments, especially big governments, are unable to help everyone when disasters, chaos, violence and unrest spark. In many cases, governments themselves -at the behest of the globalists- cause all that unrest and chaos and more often than not, they don’t even intend to help the people in need. Being prepared is key to surviving any difficult situation. Being proactive, not reactive, is the solution. So, be self-sufficient. Don’t wait until grocery stores run out of food to start storing non-perishable goods. Some stores are already out of food due to skyrocketing oil prices, artificial scarcity and artificial currency instability. Be independent. Have your own or a communal water well. Organize small neighborhood groups to support each other. Your family’s chances of making it through a crisis and to successfully deal with food and water scarcity are yours to improve. It takes only weeks for hungry people to become violent when food and water are scarce or absent. It takes only months for desperate people to kill others in order to survive. Finally, by no means think that what is going on in the Middle East today cannot happen where you live tomorrow. That would be the biggest mistake you could ever make.

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“Dictators” do not Dictate, They Obey Orders

February 2, 2011

The Mubarak regime could collapse in the a face of a nationwide protest movement… What prospects for Egypt and the Arab World?

By Michel Chossudovsky

“Dictators” do not dictate, they obey orders. This is true in Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.

Puppets like Hosni Mubarak listen and execute the orders of their Masters

Dictators are invariably political puppets. Dictators do not decide.

President Hosni Mubarak was a faithful servant of Western economic interests and so was Ben Ali.

The national government is the object of the protest movement.

The objective is to unseat the puppet rather than the puppet-master.

The slogans in Egypt are “Down with Mubarak, Down with the Regime”. No anti-American posters have been reported… The overriding and destructive influence of the USA in Egypt and throughout the Middle East remains unheralded.

The foreign powers which operate behind the scenes are shielded from the protest movement.

No significant political change will occur unless the issue of foreign interference is meaningfully addressed by the protest movement.

The US embassy in Cairo is an important political entity, invariably overshadowing the national government. The Embassy is not a target of the protest movement.In Egypt, a devastating IMF program was imposed in 1991 at the height of the Gulf War. It was negotiated in exchange for the annulment of Egypt’s multibillion dollar military debt to the US as well as its participation in the war. The resulting deregulation of food prices, sweeping privatisation and massive austerity measures led to the impoverishment of the Egyptian population and the destabilization of its economy. The Mubarak government was praised as a model “IMF pupil”.

The role of Ben Ali’s government in Tunisia was to enforce the IMF’s deadly economic medicine, which over a period of more than twenty years served to destabilize the national economy and impoverish the Tunisian population. Over the last 23 years, economic and social policy in Tunisia has been dictated by the Washington Consensus.

Both Hosni Mubarak and Ben Ali stayed in power because their governments obeyed and effectively enforced the diktats of the IMF.

From Pinochet and Videla to Baby Doc, Ben Ali and Mubarak, dictators have been installed by Washington. Historically in Latin America, dictators were instated through a series of US sponsored military coups. In todays World, they are installed through “free and fair elections” under the surveillance of the “international community”.

Our message to the protest movement:

Actual decisions are taken in Washington DC,  at the US State Department, at the Pentagon,  at Langley, headquarters of the CIA. at H Street NW, the headquarters of the World Bank and the IMF.

The relationship of “the dictator” to foreign interests must be addressed. Unseat the political puppets but do not forget to target the “real dictators”.

The protest movement should focus on the real seat of political authority; it should target (in a peaceful, orderly and nonviolent fashion) the US embassy, the delegation of the European Union, the national missions of the IMF and the World Bank.

Meaningful political change can only be ensured if the neoliberal economic policy agenda is thrown out.

Regime Replacement

If the protest movement fails to address the role of foreign powers including pressures exerted by “investors”, external creditors and international financial institutions, the objective of national sovereignty will not be achieved. In which case, what will occur is a narrow process of “regime replacement”, which ensures political continuity.

“Dictators” are seated and unseated. When they are politically discredited and no longer serve the interests of their US sponsors, they are replaced by a new leader, often recruited from within the ranks of the political opposition.

In Tunisia, the Obama administration has already positioned itself. It intends to play a key role in the “democratization program” (i.e. the holding of so-called fair elections). It also intends to use the political crisis as a means to weaken the role of France and consolidate its position in North Africa:
“The United States, which was quick to size up the groundswell of protest on the streets of Tunisia, is trying to press its advantage to push for democratic reforms in the country and further afield.

The top-ranking US envoy for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, was the first foreign official to arrive in the country after president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted on January 14 and swiftly called for reforms. He said on Tuesday only free and fair elections would strengthen and give credibility to the north African state’s embattled leadership.

“I certainly expect that we’ll be using the Tunisian example” in talks with other Arab governments, Assistant Secretary of State Feltman added.

He was dispatched to the north African country to offer US help in the turbulent transition of power, and met with Tunisian ministers and civil society figures.

Feltman travels to Paris on Wednesday to discuss the crisis with French leaders, boosting the impression that the US is leading international support for a new Tunisia, to the detriment of its former colonial power, France. …

Western nations had long supported Tunisia’s ousted leadership, seeing it as a bulwark against Islamic militants in the north Africa region.

In 2006, the then US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking in Tunis, praised the country’s evolution.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton nimbly stepped in with a speech in Doha on January 13 warning Arab leaders to allow their citizens greater freedoms or risk extremists exploiting the situation.

“There is no doubt that the United States is trying to position itself very quickly on the good side,…” ” AFP: US helping shape outcome of Tunisian uprising emphasis added
Will Washington be successful in instating a new puppet regime?

This very much depends on the ability of the protest movement to address the insidious role of the US in the country’s internal affairs.

The overriding powers of empire are not mentioned. In a bitter irony, president Obama has expressed his support for the protest movement.

Many people within the protest movement are led to believe that president Obama is committed to democracy and human rights, and is supportive of the opposition’s resolve to unseat a dictator, which was installed by the US in the first place.

Cooptation of Opposition Leaders

The cooptation of the leaders of major opposition parties and civil society organizations in anticipation of the collapse of an authoritarian puppet government is part of Washington’s design, applied in different regions of the World.

The process of cooptation is implemented and financed by US based foundations including the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and  Freedom House (FH). Both FH and the NED have links to the US Congress. the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and the US business establishment. Both the NED and FH are known to have ties to the CIA.

The NED is actively involved in Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. Freedom House supports several civil society organizations in Egypt.
“The NED was established by the Reagan administration after the CIA’s role in covertly funding efforts to overthrow foreign governments was brought to light, leading to the discrediting of the parties, movements, journals, books, newspapers and individuals that received CIA funding. … As a bipartisan endowment, with participation from the two major parties, as well as the AFL-CIO and US Chamber of Commerce, the NED took over the financing of foreign overthrow movements, but overtly and under the rubric of “democracy promotion.” (Stephen Gowans, January « 2011 “What’s left” .

While the US has supported the Mubarak government for the last thirty years, US foundations with ties to the US State department and the Pentagon have actively supported the political opposition including the civil society movement.  According to Freedom House: “Egyptian civil society is both vibrant and constrained. There are hundreds of non-governmental organizations devoted to expanding civil and political rights in the country, operating in a highly regulated environment.” (Freedom House Press Releases).

In a bitter irony, Washington supports the Mubarak dictatorship, including its atrocities, while also backing and financing its detractors, through the activities of FH, the NED, among others.

Under the auspices of Freedom House, Egyptian dissidents and opponents of Hosni Mubarak were received in May 2008 by Condoleezza Rice at the State Department and the US Congress. They also met White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, who was “the principal White House foreign policy adviser” during George W. Bush’s second term.

Freedom House’s effort to empower a new generation of advocates has yielded tangible results and the New Generation program in Egypt has gained prominence both locally and internationally. Egyptian visiting fellows from all civil society groups received [May 2008] unprecedented attention and recognition, including meetings in Washington with US Secretary of State, the National Security Advisor, and prominent members of Congress. In the words of Condoleezza Rice, the fellows represent the “hope for the future of Egypt.”

Political Double Talk: Chatting with “Dictators”, Mingling with “Dissidents”

The Egyptian pro-democracy delegation to the State Department was described by Condoleezza Rice as “The Hope for the Future of Egypt”.

In May 2009, Hillary Clinton met a delegation of Egyptian dissidents, several of which had met Condoleezza Rice a year earlier. These high level meetings were held a week prior to Obama’s visit to Egypt:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the work of a group of Egyptian civil society activists she met with today and said it was in Egypt’s interest to move toward democracy and to exhibit more respect for human rights.

The 16 activists met with Clinton and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman in Washington at the end of a two-month fellowship organized by Freedom House’s New Generation program.

The fellows raised concern about what they perceived as the United States government distancing itself from Egyptian civil society and called on President Obama to meet with young independent civil society activists when he visits Cairo next week. They also urged the Obama administration to continue to provide political and financial support to Egyptian civil society and to help open the space for nongovernmental organizations which is tightly restricted under Egypt’s longstanding emergency law.

The fellows told Clinton that momentum was already building in Egypt for increased civil and human rights and that U.S. support at this time was urgently needed. They stressed that civil society represents a moderate and peaceful “third way” in Egypt, an alternative to authoritarian elements in the government and those that espouse theocratic rule. (Freedom House, May 2009)

During their fellowship, the activists spent a week in Washington receiving training in advocacy and getting an inside look at the way U.S. democracy works. After their training, the fellows were matched with civil society organizations throughout the country where they shared experiences with U.S. counterparts. The activists will wrap up their program … by visiting U.S. government officials, members of Congress, media outlets and think tanks.” (Freedom House, May 2009, emphasis added)
These opposition civil society groups –which are currently playing an important role in the protest movement– are supported and funded by the US. They indelibly serve US interests.

The invitation of Egyptian dissidents to the State Department and the US Congress also purports to instil a feeling of commitment and allegiance to American democratic values. America is presented as a model of Freedom and Justice. Obama is upheld as a “Role Model”.

The Puppet Masters Support the Protest Movement against their own PuppetsThe puppet masters support dissent against their own puppets?

Its called “political leveraging”, “manufacturing dissent”.  Support the dictator as well as the opponents of the dictator as a means of controlling the political opposition.

These actions on the part of Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy, on behalf of the Bush and Obama administrations, ensure that the US funded civil society opposition will not direct their energies against the puppet masters behind the Mubarak regime, namely the US government.

These US funded civil society organizations act as a “Trojan Horse” which becomes embedded within the protest movement. They protect the interests of the puppet masters. They ensure that the grassroots protest movement will not address the broader issue of foreign interference in the affairs of sovereign states.

The Facebook Twitter Bloggers Supported and Financed by Washington

In relation to the protest movement in Egypt, several civil society groups funded by US based foundations have led the protest on Twitter and Facebook:
“Activists from Egypt’s Kifaya (Enough) movement – a coalition of government opponents – and the 6th of April Youth Movement organized the protests on the Facebook and Twitter social networking websites. Western news reports said Twitter appeared to be blocked in Egypt later Tuesday.” (See Voice of America, ,Egypt Rocked by Deadly Anti-Government Protests

The Kifaya movement, which organized one of the first protests directed against the Mubarak regime in late 2004, is supported by the US based International Center for Non-Violent Conflict. Kifaya is a broad-based movement which has also taken a stance on Palestine and US interventionism in the region.

In turn, Freedom House has been involved in promoting and training the Middle East North Africa Facebook and Twitter blogs:

Freedom House fellows acquired skills in civic mobilization, leadership, and strategic planning, and benefit from networking opportunities through interaction with Washington-based donors, international organizations and the media. After returning to Egypt, the fellows received small grants to implement innovative initiatives such as advocating for political reform through Facebook and SMS messaging. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=66&program=84 (emphasis added)

From February 27 to March 13 [2010], Freedom House hosted 11 bloggers from the Middle East and North Africa [from different civil society organizations] for a two-week Advanced New Media Study Tour in Washington, D.C. The Study Tour provided the bloggers with training in digital security, digital video making, message development and digital mapping. While in D.C., the Fellows also participated in a Senate briefing, and met with high-level officials at USAID, State [Department] and Congress as well as international media including Al-Jazeera and the Washington Post.http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=115&program=84&item=87 emphasis added

One can easily apprehend the importance attached by the US administration to this bloggers’ “training program”, which is coupled with high level meetings at the US Senate,  the  Congress, the  State Department, etc.

The role of the Facebook Twitter social media as an expression of dissent, must be carefully evaluated: the civil society bloggers are supported by Freedom House (FH), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the US State Department.

BBC News World (broadcast in the Middle East) quoting Egyptian internet messages has reported that “the US has been sending money to pro-democracy groups.” (BBC News World, January 29, 2010). The April 6 Youth Movement is supported covertly by Washington. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, quoting a secret US embassy document (Jan 29, 2011):

“The protests in Egypt are being driven by the April 6 youth movement, a group on Facebook that has attracted mainly young and educated members opposed to Mr Mubarak. The group has about 70,000 members and uses social networking sites to orchestrate protests and report on their activities.

The documents released by WikiLeaks reveal US Embassy officials [in Cairo] were in regular contact with the activist throughout 2008 and 2009, considering him one of their most reliable sources for information about human rights abuses.” (emphasis added)

The Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt constitutes the largest segment of the opposition to president Mubarak. According to reports, The Muslim Brotherhood dominates the protest movement.

While there is a constitutional ban against religious political parties Brotherhood members elected to Egypt’s parliament as “independents” constitute the largest parliamentary block.

The Brotherhood, however, does not constitute a direct threat to Washington’s economic and strategic interests in the region. Western intelligence agencies have a longstanding history of collaboration with the Brotherhood. Britain’s support of the Brotherhood instrumented  through the British Secret Service dates back to the 1940s. Starting in the 1950s, according to former intelligence official William Baer, “The CIA [funnelled] support to the Muslim Brotherhood because of “the Brotherhood’s commendable capability to overthrow Nasser.”1954-1970: CIA and the Muslim Brotherhood Ally to Oppose Egyptian President Nasser, These covert  links to the CIA were maintained in the post-Nasser era.

Concluding Remarks

The removal of Hosni Mubarak has, for several years, been on the drawing board of US foreign policy.

Regime replacement serves to ensure continuity, while providing the illusion that meaningful political change has occurred.

Washington’s agenda for Egypt has been to “hijack the protest movement” and replace president Hosni Mubarak with a new compliant puppet head of state. Washington’s objective is to sustain the interests of foreign powers, to uphold the neoliberal economic agenda which has served to impoverish the Egyptian population.

From Washington’s standpoint, regime replacement no longer requires the installation of an authoritarian  military regime as in the heyday of US imperialism, It can be implemented by co-opting political parties, including the Left, financing civil society groups, infiltrating the protest movement and manipulating national elections.

With reference to the protest movement in Egypt, President Obama stated in a January 28 video broadcast on Youtube: “The Government Should Not Resort to Violence”. The more fundamental question is what is the source of that violence? Egypt is the largest recipient of US military aid after Israel. The Egyptian military is considered to be the power base of the Mubarak regime:

“The country’s army and police forces are geared to the teeth thanks to more than $1 billion in military aid a year from Washington. … When the US officially describes Egypt as “an important ally” it is inadvertently referring to Mubarak’s role as a garrison outpost for US military operations and dirty war tactics in the Middle East and beyond. There is clear evidence from international human rights groups that countless “suspects” rendered by US forces in their various territories of (criminal) operations are secretly dumped in Egypt for “deep interrogation”. The country serves as a giant “Guantanamo” of the Middle East, conveniently obscured from US public interest and relieved of legal niceties over human rights.” (Finian Cunningham, Egypt: US-Backed Repression is Insight for American Public, Global Research, January 28, 2010).

America is no “Role Model” of Democratization for the Middle East. US military presence imposed on Egypt and the Arab World for more than 20 years, coupled with “free market” reforms are the root cause of State violence.

America’s intent is to use the protest movement to install a new regime.

The People’s Movement should redirect its energies: Identify the relationship between America and “the dictator”. Unseat America’s political puppet but do not forget to target the “real dictators”.

Shunt the process of regime change.

Dismantle the neoliberal reforms.

Close down US military bases in the Arab World.

Establish a truly sovereign government.

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