Sisi's Egypt coup - US Nazi Frank Wisner pulls strings?

[TonyGosling]

Four journalists have been killed in violent clashes which swept Egypt on Wednesday, with a number of the press core suffering serious injuries in the clashes. At least 235 civilians died in total as security forces brutally broke up pro-Morsi rallies.

Egypt has been swept by horrific street violence, showers of gunfire, blazing fires and tear gas as relentless clashes have shaken cities in government attempts to break up the demonstrations.

Among the 235 protesters killed were children, including the 17-year old daughter of a Muslim Brotherhood official. Police stations were torched or stormed by pro-Morsi groups amid the ruthless government suppression.

The violence also took the lives of Sky News cameraman Mick Deane and Dubai-based XPRESS journalist Habeeba Abdelaziz. Both had been covering the pro-Morsi protests in Egypt’s capital which security forces began to ‘disperse’ earlier in the day.

Deane, 61, was shot as he was documenting the turmoil in Cairo. Despite receiving medical treatment for his injuries he died shortly afterwards, according to a statement from Sky.

“He was an astonishingly good cameraman, took some brilliant pictures,” said John Ryley, head of Sky News.
Habeeba Abdelaziz was a 26 year old Egyptian reporter from Dubai, who worked for XPRESS – a ‘sister’ publication to the country’s Gulf News.

“It’s hard to believe she’s gone. She was passionate about her work and had a promising career ahead,” XPRESS Deputy Editor Mazhar Farooqui told Gulf News, commenting that the entire team was in a state of shock.

Abdelaziz had been covering protests near Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque, which has been the site of one of the largest protests for over a month, and a subsequently heavy-handed crackdown by governmental security forces. They reclaimed the area late on Wednesday.

The third journalist killed was Egyptian Ahmed Abdel Gawad of Al Akhbar newspaper. He died while covering the clashes at Rabaah al-Adawiya. The Egyptian Press Syndicate, a journalist union, confirmed Gawad's death, but did not provide any details.

The fourth reporter to have been confirmed killed is photojournalist Mosab El-Shami Rassd of the news website (RNN), an alternative pro-Islamist media network, Ahram online reports. The agency wrote that he “was killed by the hand of betrayal while covering the Rabaa massacre at the hands of those who executed the coup,” wrote the network on its Facebook page.

Reuters photojournalist Asmaa Waguih also suffered serious injuries after being shot in the leg during protests. Shortly afterwards, she was moved to the international medical center to receive treatment. The Committee to Protect Journalists has released a statement on the issue, saying that the group condemned the killing of Sky News cameraman Mick Deane, prior to hearing of the second death.

http://rt.com/news/journalists-dead-egypt-protests-498/

[TonyGosling]

Netanyahu and Kerry MUST have given a green light for this
Our old friend son of Operation Paperclip CIA Nazi Frank Wisner as much as says so here explaining the army crackdown on the MB camps was 'inevitable'.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has called the situation in Egypt “deplorable” and appealed for calm.
“The United States strongly condemns today’s bloodshed and violence across Egypt,” he said.
Host Marco Werman talks with former US Ambassador to Egypt, Frank Wisner, about his view of the events, and how the United States should respond.
http://www.theworld.org/2013/08/washington-egypt-deplorable/

Killings mark return of security state
“Those who remain silent [or are just talk like Hague, Kerry] in the face of this massacre are as guilty as those who carried it out. The UN Security Council must convene quickly,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister, told a news conference in Ankara early on Thursday.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e2a3e220-04ab-11e3-9ffd-00144feab7de.html

Rather makes the Nazis 1938 Kristallnacht, where Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria were attacked on 9–10 November 1938, look tame.

Violent crackdown leaves at least 421 dead and 3,572 injured, but opposition says it will march on Egyptian capital today
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/muslim-brotherhood-will -march-today-as-egypt-wakes-under-a-state-of-emergency-after-violence- that-left-421-dead-8762731.html

[insidejob]

I don't buy the media line that this was a planned army massacre. Seems to be that this is part of a destablisation psy-ops campaign.

Either the massacre was planned or it wasn't. If it was then there would have been a state of emergency before not after. Reporters would have been banned. THe Brotherhood would have been outlawed. The action would have taken place at night. And Morsi would be dead.

FOr instance, the Channel 4 News images of a makeshift morgue is strange. We were told that while a war was going on people were picking up dead bodies and bringing them to a morgue. WHat sense does that make, unless you wanted good pictures of dead, but totally covered up, bodies.

I think Egypt is being targeted for civil war.

[TonyGosling]

Are you saying the army did not kill those 650 people? and injure those 4,500?
If not who did?
Evidence please.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Tour De Force tonight by Martin Summers breaking this evil Egypt horror game down
Also covering Bahrain, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Libya & Saudi Arabia comprehensively
www.thisweek.org.uk
http://www.bcfmradio.com/2013/08/16/17/friday-drivetime-135/31702

[insidejob]

As usual, we are getting propaganda from the media that is successfully fooling people into supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. They allow Muslim Brotherhood liars to claim they are peaceful. The Egyptian people on the other hand regard the Brotherhood as terrorists. Increasingly, they are seeing them as Western-backed terrorists who are seeking to destablise the Egyptian state. They are organising 'militias' against them.

Even the UN is tentatively acknowledging (Today Programme, 17 Aug.) the Brotherhood used violence to provoke an army response.

Here’s what an Egyptian is saying
http://www.emannabih.com/videos-egypt-under-brotherhood-militias-terro r-attacks-14-aug-2013/

Videos Egypt Under Brotherhood Militias Terror Attacks 14 Aug 2013
Posted on August 14, 2013 by Eman Nabih 84 Comments
At this defining moment in The Egyptian History, we say to the whole world like the Usa once said, You are either with us or with Terrorism…

…On the 14th of August 2013, The Egyptians Authorities with the presence of Human Rights civil organizations and the press as eye witnesses, started at 7 O’clock in the morning to issue warning to Pro Morsi to leave Rabaa and Alnahda Squares and go home safely and confirmed to those who want to leave the squares, the security forces won’t trace any of them, as long as there is no warning arrest against them and they are not wanted for justice. They escorted them to the way out of the squares. Some did comply to the warning and they left safely, others who were heavily armed started to fire at the police forces and randomly at civilians, burned private properties like cars, and Brotherhood snipers seeing on the top of the buildings roofs using machine Guns, Gas Pipelines and Molotov, as the videos in this article are showing…

A comment about the article:
mahmoud feteh on August 16, 2013 at 1:38 pm said:
What is happening in Egypt is now an internal matter and we are the people of Egypt Judges commissioned Egypt army and police the elimination of the terrorist group will not allow any State whatever to intervene in this matter Egypt is Her sovereign state

[outsider]

[quote="insidejob"]As usual, we are getting propaganda from the media that is successfully fooling people into supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. They allow Muslim Brotherhood liars to claim they are peaceful. The Egyptian people on the other hand regard the Brotherhood as terrorists. Increasingly, they are seeing them as Western-backed terrorists who are seeking to destablise the Egyptian state. They are organising 'militias' against them.

Even the UN is tentatively acknowledging (Today Programme, 17 Aug.) the Brotherhood used violence to provoke an army response.

Here’s what an Egyptian is saying...'


I find it diffiicult to believe you put the above comment.
'Here's what an Egyptian is saying...'
Have we all heard that kind of thing before? Oh, yes, I remember...'an Iraqi says Saddam has mobile chemical weapon labs, tons of WMD's...';
an Iranian says: 'Iran is on the brink of nuke breakout...'(made that one up); a Saudi says 'Assaad raping, torturing and murdering women and children, left right and centre, and using chemical weapons..' (paraphrased that one).

'Even the UN is tentatively acknowledging (Today Programme, 17 Aug.) the Brotherhood used violence to provoke an army response...'

What? The UN? Since when has the UN been anything other than a US 'Poxy' (sorry, 'Proxy')? Or at least, for a long, long time (originally it did start to act independently, but US machinations put a stop to it).
Sure, Russia and China have a 'veto', but the US (and it's 'allies') mostly just does what it wants anyhow.

Why on earth should the MSM glorify the Muslim Brotherhood? They covered the bloodbath because it was impossible to ignore, even Western journalists targetted. The Egyptian Army takes it's orders from the US; Ford has been sent in as Ambassador, his 'forte' being death squads and fomenting so-called 'Civil Wars'.

Far better than your choice of 'an Egyptian says..' is this article by
Melkulangara Bhadrakumar in the Strategic Culture Foundation and reprinted in ICH: 'Egypt's Junta Has Nothing to Lose':
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35880.htm

'The appointment of Robert Ford as the new American ambassador to Egypt was indeed an ominous sign that the Obama administration expected civil war conditions to arise in Egypt. Ford’s forte during his hugely successful “diplomatic’ assignment in Baghdad in the middle of the last decade was to organize the notorious death squads, which tore Mesopotamia apart and destroyed Iraq almost irreparably.

Equally, Ford played a seminal role in his subsequent ambassadorial assignment in Damascus in 2011 in successfully triggering the Syrian civil war. Ford is the living embodiment of the stunning reality that between the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, there has been no real shift in the United States’ policies in the Middle East aimed at perpetuating its regional hegemony.

Make no mistake about it that the US game plan is to destabilize and destroy Egypt just the same way Iraq and Syria have been destroyed so that Israel’s absolute security is assured in the region for the conceivable future.

This is the conclusion that can be safely drawn as the Egyptian junta launched the mass murder of hundreds of Egyptian protestors on Wednesday. A bloodbath of horrendous proportions has commenced in Egypt.

The Egyptian military is literally the creation of the US. The American military aid is the vital lifeline for the Egyptian junta. The real agenda behind the overthrow of the elected government of President Mohamed Morsi cannot any longer be hidden. America’s apologists spread the story far and wide that Morsi paid a price for political intransigence and for shutting the doors on “inclusive’ democracy.

But the bloodbath that has begun in Egypt exposes that the real American agenda tells a different story, which is that a process began pushing that country into the abyss of a civil war from which it may never return as the throbbing heart of ‘Arabism.’

The military junta has no intentions to transfer power to a democratically elected government. The Americans have been going through the motions of cajoling the junta to go back to the barracks in a calibrated fashion with a view to create the impression that Washington is on the ‘right side of history’ in the Middle East.

But in reality, Washington counts on the junta to pursue security policies that serve Israel’s interests. That is the bottom line for the Obama administration and the junta knows it, too. The quibbling over the word ‘coup’, the dispatch of senior envoys to meet Morsi in prison, Senator John McCain’s appearance in Cairo – all these are mere charades to hoodwink international opinion.

The heart of the matter is that the US is immensely pleased that the Egyptian junta is turning the screws on Hamas and helping to reimpose the blockade of Gaza. On the other hand, Cairo has again become the watering hole for the Palestine president Mahmoud Abbas – as it used to be in the Hosni Mubarak era – who is a puppet on a string willing to dance to the tune of Washington and Tel Aviv, which in turn serves to create the illusion of a Middle East peace process under American mediation, where none really exists....'

Just a 'Reality Check'; think 'Cui bono?'

[insidejob]

Images of Egyptians linking terrorism, the Brotherhood and Obama,

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=anti-obama+anti-morsi&client=safari&r ls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=KcIPUtyKOcqJ0AWw6oDgDA&ved=0CAkQ_AU oAQ&biw=1273&bih=700#bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&fp=1a16e14e808d74dc&q=anti-obam a+anti-morsi%2BEgypt&rls=en&sa=1&tbm=isch


History: How the US Installed a Proxy “Brotherhood” Government in Egypt [url] http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-struggles-to-install-proxy-brotherhood -in-egypt/31552[/url]
From Egypt to Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood does the West's bidding
By Tony Cartalucci

Who do you support, the Egyptian people or the Brotherhood as a tool of Western imperialism?

[outsider]

Was Washington behind Egypt’s coup d’etat?:
http://rt.com/op-edge/us-egypt-muslim-brotherhood-704/

'The overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian Armed forces was not carried out against US interests, it was instigated to ensure “continuity” on behalf of Washington.

“[US Defense Secretary] Hagel and [US Chief of Staff General] Dempsey were walking a fine line … expressing concern while attempting to avoid the impression that the U.S. was manipulating events behind the scenes.” (Military.com, July 3, 2013)

The protest movement is directed against the US and its proxy Muslim Brotherhood regime.

The Muslim Brotherhood had been spearheaded into the government with the support of Washington as a “replacement” rather than an “alternative” to Hosni Mubarak, who had faithfully obeyed the orders of the Washington Consensus from the outset of his presidency.

While the Armed Forces have cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood, the Coup d’Etat is ultimately intended to manipulate the protest movement and prevent the accession of a “real people’s government”. The overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian Armed forces was not carried out against US interests, it was instigated to ensure “continuity” on behalf of Washington.

“Demonstrators carried hand-made posters denouncing Obama and his pro-Muslim Brotherhood Cairo Ambassador, Anne Patterson.” (F. William Engdahl, Global Research, July 4, 2013)...'
(This explains your pictures)


'The Role of the Armed Forces: “Green Light” from the Pentagon?

The media has portrayed the Egyptian armed forces as broadly “supportive” of the protest movement, without addressing the close relationship between the leaders behind the military coup and their US counterparts.

The fact that segments of the mass movement called for the armed forces to play a “supportive role”, is an obvious ploy:

This is the message that the armed forces received from all over urban Egypt, its cities, and its villages; it (the military) recognized the invitation, understood its intentions, appreciated its necessity and got closer to the national scene hoping, willing and abiding by all limits of duty, responsibility and honesty.

Known and documented, the mass movement has been infiltrated. Sectors of the opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood government are supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Freedom House. The Kifaya civil society movement, is supported by the US based International Center for Non-Violent Conflict.

The role of the armed forces is not to protect a grassroots movement. Quite the opposite: the objective is to manipulate the uprising and quell dissent on behalf of Washington.

The objective of the military takeover is to ensure that the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood government does not result in a political transition which undermines US control over the Egyptian State and military.

Let us be under no illusions. While there are important divisions within the military, Egypt’s top brass ultimately take their orders from the Pentagon.

General Al Sisi was in permanent liaison by telephone with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (right together with Al Sisi) from the very outset of the protest movement. Press reports confirm that he consulted him several times in the days leading up to the Coup d’Etat. It is highly unlikely that General Al Sisi would have acted without a "green light” from the Pentagon...'

'Egypt’s military coup supported by Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE,and AIPAC :
http://warincontext.org/2013/08/17/egypts-military-coup-supported-by-i sraeli-saudi-arabia-uaeand-aipac/

'The Israelis, whose military had close ties to General Sisi from his former post as head of military intelligence, were supporting the takeover as well. Western diplomats say that General Sisi and his circle appeared to be in heavy communication with Israeli colleagues, and the diplomats believed the Israelis were also undercutting the Western message by reassuring the Egyptians not to worry about American threats to cut off aid. When Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, proposed an amendment halting military aid to Egypt, the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee sent a letter to senators on July 31 opposing it, saying it “could increase instability in Egypt and undermine important U.S. interests and negatively impact our Israeli ally.” Statements from influential lawmakers echoed the letter, and the Senate defeated the measure, 86 to 13, later that day...'

[insidejob]

[TonyGosling]

amazing all encompassing article by George Butler
http://www.thesecrettruth.com/mainpage.htm

THE EGYPTIAN PLANTATION (lots of links/references on original page)
http://www.thesecrettruth.com/mainpage.htm
By George Greenville Butler

Today the Egyptian Economy seems to be in shambles. Due to several major upheavals the society has entered into chaos and several factors such as a rising foreign debt service, decline in tourism, trade deficits, consumer inflation and other factors have diminished economic viability. Since the large demonstrations and overturn of Former President Hosni Mubarak (while Mubarak was in power Egypt participated in America's rendition flights) who had violated the basic freedoms of many Egyptians using The Emergency Law. Egypt has been in turmoil and when societies are in turmoil economies suffer. President Morsi was removed on July 3, 2013 by the military suspending the constitution, which is a demonstration of similar tactics of the past.
Economic Problems Article – US Today

Economic Statistics

The Plantation Prior to 1952
The Overseer of The Egyptian Plantation prior to 1952 was King Farouk I of Egypt who had the support of the landed rich, the secret societies and the wealthy. King Farouk led a life of excess and opulence that his subjects resented. The land ownership before 1952 was concentrated in few hands. The reference information below sets out the major problems with land ownership in Egypt prior to Nasser's reforms.

Problems prior to 1952
Prior to the 1952 coup that installed Naguib as President, less than six percent of Egypt's population owned more than 65% of the land in Egypt, and less than 0.5% of Egyptians owned more than one-third of all fertile land. These major owners had almost autocratic control over the land they owned and charged high rents which averaged 75% of the income generated by the rented land. These high rents coupled with the high interest rates charged by banks plunged many smallfarmers and peasants into debt. Furthermore, peasants who worked as laborers on farms also suffered, receiving average wages of only eight to fifteen piastres a day. The combination of these circumstances led historian Anouar Abdel Malek to call the pre-reform Egyptian peasantry "an exploited mass surrounded by hunger, disease and death". Another historian, Robert Stephens has compared the state of Egyptian peasants before land reform to that of French peasants before the French Revolution.............wikipedia

Nasser For The People
The deposing of King Farouk by The Free Officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein - in 1952 set a pattern through present times of the military acting through coup d'états to install or remove political leaders from power. The Egyptian military has always portrayed itself as carrying out the will of the people in protecting Egypt. During the 1950s Nasser acting through President Naguib as his Deputy enacted land reforms that lasted up to the mid 1980s and were finally abolished under Anwar Sadat. The land reform laws brought about by Nasser were as follows:

Law Number 178
On September 11, 1952, Law Number 178 began the process of land reform in Egypt. The law had numerous provisions that attempted to remedy the Egyptian land problems:
Land owners were prohibited to possess more than 200 feddansof land. However, fathers with more than 2 children were allowed to own 300 feddans.
A limit on the rental rate for land was set at seven times the land tax value of the plot of land.
All land leases were given a minimum duration of three years.
The government established cooperatives for farmers holding less than five feddans. The members of these cooperatives worked together to obtain supplies such as fertilizers, pesticides, andseeds as well as cooperating to transport their products to market.
A minimum wage for agricultural workers was set at 18 piastresper day.
Additionally, the law provided for the redistribution of any land that owners held over the limits it established:
Each affected owner would receive compensation for his excess land in government bonds worth a total of ten times the rental value of the land. These bonds would pay three percent interest and mature in thirty years.
All land bought by the government would be sold to peasants though no person could obtain more than five feddans from the government. Peasants who bought land would pay the government the cost of the land and a 15% surcharge over a period of thirty years.
Law 178 initially met opposition from Prime Minister Ali Maher Pashawho supported a limit of 500 feddans for land ownership. However, theRevolutionary Command Council demonstrated its power by forcing him to resign, replacing him with Muhammad Naguib and passing the law.

Modifications to Land Reform
In 1958, three provisions of the land reform law were revised:
The interest on the bonds the government used to repay owners of seized land was lowered to 1.5%.
People who purchased land from the government were given forty years (in place of thirty) to complete repayment.
The government surcharge to be paid by purchasers was lowered to 10%.
In 1961, the government again revised the land reform program by lowering the land ownership maximum to one hundred feddans.

Results
Initially, land reform essentially abolished the political influence of major land owners. However, land reform only resulted in the redistribution of about 15% of Egypt's land under cultivation, and by the early 1980s, the effects of land reform in Egypt drew to a halt as the population of Egypt moved away from agriculture. The Egyptian land reform laws were greatly curtailed under Anwar Sadat and eventually abolished........wikipedia

The Infitah
Anwar Sadat during his presidency tried to reform the economy calling this reform “The Infitah”. International bankers such as David Rockefeller and William Simon encouraged him to expand needed reforms more quickly. These reforms such as cutting subsidies and devaluing the Egyptian Pound ended in food riots losing Sadat much past support.

The Politics of Economic Strategy
“Once infitah was established as Egypt's economic strategy, intraelite conflicts centered on its proper scope and management. These conflicts typically pitted liberalizing economists, who were convinced that a fully capitalist economy would be more efficient than an economy incorporating a public sector, against more statist-minded bureaucrats and state managers, who wanted to reform, rather than to dismantle, the public sector. The latter were often allied with politicians fearful of public reaction to the rollback of populist measures such as subsidies and public- sector employment. One major episode in this conflict came in 1976 over pressures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF-- see Glossary) and foreign banks to cut subsidies and devalue the Egyptian pound (for value of the Egyptian pound--see Glossary) as necessary steps in the liberalization of the economy. Sadat's minister of economy, Zaki Shafii, and his minister of finance, Ahmad Abu Ismail, fearful of the consequences on the mass standard of living, urged him to resist pressures for rapid reform. But other economists, chief among them Abdul Munim Qaysuni, argued that Egypt could not afford costly welfare programs if it were to revitalize its productive bases. Top Western bankers, such as David Rockefeller and William Simon, urged Sadat to go beyond half measures if he wanted to make the infitah a success. Sadat overruled his own ministers and replaced them with a new team headed by Qaysuni, who began to cut the subsidies. But decision makers had misjudged their political environment. The subsidy cuts triggered the 1977 food riots, which shattered much of the support Sadat had carefully built up. The government backed down and did not again attempt such a radical cut in the social safety net for the poor.

Managing infitah remained the major problem of public policy under Mubarak. Rather than producing a dynamic capitalist alternative to Nasserite statism, infitah had stimulated a consumption boom that put Egypt in debt and made it heavily dependent on external revenues, which declined in the mid-1980s, plunging the country into economic crisis. Mubarak insisted that infitah would be reformed, not reversed, but the government's freedom of action was limited by conflicting domestic constraints. The interests created under Nasser remained obstacles to capitalist rationalization and belt-tightening. The public sector was still the main engine of investment, and public sector managers and unionized labor tenaciously defended it. The bureaucracy, employing a large portion of the middle class, was a formidable constituency. Meanwhile, Egypt's huge army had not been demobilized, and, indeed, Sadat had bought its acquiescence to his policy by replacing weapons from the Soviet Union with more expensive arms from the United States, for which the military showed a voracious appetite. Marshal Abu Ghazala rejected demands by Prime Minister Ali Lutfi that he pay off Egypt's military debts from revenues of arms sales overseas; instead he plowed funds into subsidized apartments, shops, and sports clubs for the officer corps. Populist "rights" acquired under Nasser had grown into a tacit social contract by which the government provided subsidized food to the masses in return for their tolerance of growing inequality. The contrast between the conspicuous new wealth and the mass poverty generated a moral malaise, making Egypt's debt a political issue. "We're asked to pay the debt," chanted demonstrators in 1986, "while they live in palaces and villas." Thus, attacking populist policies seemed likely to fuel Islamist political activism......excerpt from “The Politics of Political Strategy”

Mubarak inherited this reform called “The Infitah but was unable to effective develop this economic reform so he instead grew the Armed Forces dominance of the economy. This not only left the huge public sector in place but didn't threatened the giant bureaucracy. It must be noted before his death Nasser became aware of the problem of this large bureaucracy but died before he could solve this problem.

Today Egypt cannot feed itself and 50% of the wheat needed for bread is imported. In addition there is a subsidy that lowers flat bread to less than 1 cent a piece.

Food price rises put restive Egypt on edge


Imported Wheat Stocks Dwindle Amid Egypt's Currency Crisis

Egypt faces struggle to maintain cheap bread programme
Govt: Wheat reserve enough for 81 days
Farmers say Egypt's wheat crop hopes are "a dream
Higher prices and lower incomes burden Egyptian families
Armed Forces Owns Economy – Secret Budget - Egypt’s junta keeps budget secret
Products produced by military - Arab Organization for Industrialization

During Nasser's Presidency he instituted many reforms, these reforms resulted in many industries and businesses being nationalized which later provided to subsequent regimes a greater ownership and control by the government. The government has always been dominated by the Armed Forces of which power and control has over decades since 1952 migrated to the military resulting in an increased ownership over the economy by the military. Thus the Armed Forces of Egypt owns a major portion of the economy. Like stated before starting in the 1950s the nationalizing of industries and businesses by Nasser laid a foundation that later the Armed Forces built upon. The peace treaty in 1979 between Egypt and Israel led to the Egyptian Armed Forces being reoriented to establishing business and industries. The cash flow set up future retirement and income benefits available to the top military leadership. In addition many associates and friends of the military leadership benefited. Once again in this latest crisis the armed forces is demonstrating their dominance and control, for its a life and death struggle for their continued ownership of their portion of the economy.

The Army and The Economy in Egypt
The Role of the Egyptian Military in Domestic Society - LTC Stephen H. Gotowicki, U.S. Army
Inside The Egyptian Military's Brutal Hold on Power
Egyptian military industry
Egypt military economic empire
Egypt's Generals and Transnational Capital
President Morsi's First Year – Now History
President Morsi assumed office on June 30, 2012 and on July 3, 2013 - Egypt’s Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisidismissed President Morsi and leader of The Muslim Brotherhood.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's – speech in dismissing President Morsi
“The Egyptian Armed Forces first declared, is still declaring and will always declare that it stands distant from political forces. The Armed Forces, based on its insightfulness, has been called by the Egyptian people for help, not to hold the reins of power, yet to discharge its civil responsibility and answer demands of responsibility. This is the message received by the EAF and heard in all of the country.
In turn this call was heeded by the EAF, and it has understood the essence of this message. Before it has come close to the political scene adhering to its responsibility, the EAF over the past month has inserted efforts, direct and indirect to contain the situation within and achieve national reconciliation among all institutions, including the presidency.
Since the past, the army has called for national dialogue, yet it was rejected by the presidency in the last moment. Many calls, initiatives followed until to date. The EAF similarly on more than one occasion presented a strategic assessment domestically and internationally, which contained the most eminent (this part unclear).
The EAF as a patriotic institution to contain division and confront challenges and perils to exit the current crisis. As we closely monitored the current crisis, the command of EAF met with the president on June 2nd where it presented the opinion of the AF on the state of (the country) and (relayed) the cause of masses and Egyptian people. Hopes were all pinned on national conciliation. Yet, the address of the president yesterday and before the expiry of the 48-hour ultimatum did not meet the demands of the people.
As a result, it was necessary for the EAF to act on its patriotic and historic responsibility without sidelining, marginalising any party, where during the meeting a road map was agreed upon which includes the following:
Suspending the constitution provisionally; The chief justice of the constitutional court will declare the early presidential elections; Interim period until president elected. Chief Justice will have presidential powers; A technocrat, capable national government will be formed; The committee will offer all its expertise to review the new constitution; The Supreme Constitutional Law will address the draft law and prepare for parliamentary elections;
Securing and guaranteeing freedom of expression, freedom of media. All necessary measures will be taken to empower youth so they can take part in decision making processes. The EAF appeal to the Egyptian people with all its spectrum to steer away from violence and remain peaceful. The Armed Forced warn it will stand up firmly and strictly to any act deviating from peacefulness based on its patriotic and historic responsibility.
May God save Egypt and the honorable, defiant people of Egypt.”.......provided by El Jazerra

General Sisi also announced on state television that the armed forces had suspended the country’s constitution provisionally. President Morsi's removal from office on July 3, 2013 is being disputed by President Morsi. He was criticized by many for concentrating on, the consolidation of his power centered around Islamic Politics. Additional criticizes are that he was not being inclusive enough, ignoring economic issues and he really failed when he announced his Presidential Decrees last November 22, 2012 which were ill advised. The decrees were well enumerated in this article “Egypt President Morsi grants himself far-reaching powers”.

Power Grabs
The single biggest mistake by President Morsi were his actions by decrees to consolidate a greater power unto himself and The Presidency. The reference and article below spells it out!

Nov. 22, 2012 - “Egypt's president on Thursday issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight and ordered the retrial of Hosni Mubarak for the killing of protesters in last year's uprising.

Mohammed Morsi also decreed immunity for the Islamist-dominated panel drafting a new constitution from any possible court decisions to dissolve it, a threat that had been hanging over the controversial assembly.

Liberal and Christian members withdrew from the assembly during the past week to protest what they say is the hijacking of the process by Morsi's allies, who they saw are trying to push through a document that will have an Islamist slant marginalizing women and minority Christians and infringing on personal liberties. Several courts have been looking into cases demanding the dissolution of the panel.

The Egyptian leader also decreed that all decisions he has made since taking office in June and until a new constitution is adopted and a new parliament is elected -- which is not expected before next spring -- are not subject to appeal in court or by any other authority. He also barred any court from dissolving the Islamist-led upper house of parliament, a largely toothless body that has also faced court cases”............Read More Fox News coverage

These Presidential decrees set off very strong and virulent demonstrations which eroded President Morsi's influence especially with the opposition. They considered his decrees to be a power grab not inclusive and downright unconstitutional. He eventually had to back off from seeking those new powers. On Thursday July 4, 2013 it was announced that President Morsi was arrested on charges of ‘insulting the judiciary'.

Was Washington Behind Egypt’s Coup d’Etat? - Did the Pentagon give the "Green Light"

Adly Mansour – was appointed interim president at the Supreme Constitutional Court building on July 4, 2013 in Cairo. Mansour had been head of the Supreme Constitutional Court for only two days before the army named him interim president. Mansour suggested during his swearing in ceremony that all parties including the Muslim Brotherhood would be welcome in joining the political process but the Muslim Brotherhood has announced that they would be boycotting the process.

Court upholds verdict sacking Morsi's PM Qandil, sentencing him to prison

Mohamed ELBaradei not confirmed for Prime Minister Yet!

Prominent Egyptian Liberal Says He Sought West’s Support for Uprising - "In tandem with the military’s ouster of Mr. Morsi, the judicial authorities replaced the attorney general he had appointed, reinstating the prosecutor installed by Hosni Mubarak, the autocratic president ousted in Egypt’s 2011 revolution." The Mubarak appointee, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, spent years in office prosecuting Islamists. But Mr. ElBaradei said the generals had assured him that this time would be different because they intended to operate as an institution in a civilian democracy, with respect for due process and the rule of law.”..............N.Y. Times

Mohamed ElBaradei has been lobbying for the I.M.F. Loans and helped the Neoliberals to carry out change in Egypt. So now the neoliberal economic plan placed into effect under Hosni Mubarak will be re-instituted in Egypt. In 2011 before Morsi's rise to power, Hasan Malek of The Muslim Brotherhood had this to say about the neoliberal policies placed into effect by Mubarak in the 80s "Manufacturing, a trained labor force and enabling the private sector are the solution to Egypt's economic slump," said Hasan Malek, one of the Muslim Brotherhood's leading businessmen.

One of the main financiers and business strategists of the Brotherhood, Malek said “the economic policies in force during Hosni Mubarak's rule were on the right track, but were overshadowed by blatant corruption and a culture of favoritism.”................Reuters

“What has happened to the country in his (Morsi's) first year of power?
Egypt has moved up the list of failed states from 45th to 34th place (the higher up the list, the worse the degree of failure). Police have essentially stopped doing their job ­ significantly, they were nowhere to be seen when protesters torched the Muslim Brotherhoods’ headquarters in Cairo on the weekend. In 2012, murders were up 130%, robberies 350% and kidnappings 145%, writes opposition leader Mohammed El Baradei in Foreign Policy magazine. “You see people being lynched in public, while others take pictures of the scene. Mind you, this is the 21st century ­ not the French Revolution!”

What about the economy?
That’s also been a continuing disaster. Youth unemployment is at 25% and job creation is almost non-existent. Prices have soared and there are continuing shortages of gasoline, leading to long lineups at the pumps. Power cuts are frequent and farmers (the heart of Morsi’s support) can’t afford fuel for their tractors to cultivate their land. Investors and tourists are staying away in droves, the Egyptian stock market has hit new lows, along with the currency”........Read More - National Post


The President's Adversaries – July 2013 Demonstrations

There was a plethora of different kinds of adversaries during the latest demonstrations and protests. There were young people, city people, liberals, secularists of all kinds and the Nour Party also gave support to President Morsi's adversaries. This motley group has found it increasingly more difficult to live and feed their families and President Morsi should have addressed Egypt's economic problems first. This rising secular power group with ties to military and bureaucratic institutions on the streets were the military's excuse to dismiss President Morsi.

911 Conspiracy Advocate

One of the main reasons that the military might have dismissed President Morsi is his advocacy of 911 Truth theories. Writing in The Washington Post By Robert Satloff and Eric Trager, had this to say “Getting Egypt’s Morsi to give up his 9/11 ‘truther’ talk”

Washington is worried that if enough of the American Public wakes up to 911 Truth then their little charade of myths and lies about 911 will unravel their control and domineering mechanism of 'The War on Terrorism”. In other words the American public is being used by the myth of 911 being an attack from foreign terrorists which is manifesting in a martial law and National Security lock down of America resulting in our liberties and freedoms being destroyed.

The Hijacked Revolution

Has this seemingly revolution of reform since 2011 been high jacked by certain players?

Neoliberal Egypt: The hijacked revolution

Chaos is Breaking out in Egypt

The Daily Mirror in an article released a video (caution graphic violent video) opposing groups fighting in the north-east city of Alexandria and in one segment of the video young men are seen being thrown off a high pedestal onto a concrete roof top where their bodies are further abused with machetes. On top of the roof is milling around a roving marauder with large beard carrying an al Qaeda flag sticking from out of his back pocket.

“The head of al Qaeda ordered its supporters to strike back after Islamist leader President Morsi was ousted in a military coup and arrested along with more than 200 Islamist leaders. And in a worrying development, a new Islamist group was formed in the country after what it called a ‘declaration of war’ on its faith. Ansar Al Sharia, a terrorist group linked to the death of the American ambassador to Libya in an attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, said it would gather arms and start training its members to use violence in imposing Islamic law.”...........Daily Mirror

Conclusion: Army in Control

Since Nasser's days the Egyptian Army has portrayed itself as the people's army. Once again in this latest crisis, the armed forces is demonstrating their dominance and control. During the 1950s the Free Officers lead by Nasser reformed the economy and instituted a change of politics, so too today did the modern Armed Forces of Egypt exert their power. Today's Egyptian economy is an extension of Nasser's revolution which was a milestone in the transformation of Egypt from being dominated by a rich monarch to a people's army. Nasser demonstrated leadership when King Farouk and his family were allowed to leaved Egypt unmolested. The Armed Forces of Egypt has been a major owner of the economy so it resists any threat to its economic dominance. King Farouk was the overseer to an Agricultural Plantation and now the Armed Forces of Egypt are overseers to an Industrial Plantation. We have just witnessed in Egypt a strong military whose business interests have never been audited, disregarding a large part of the voters (The Muslim Brotherhood) of Egypt and the will of these people, suspending the constitution in overthrowing President Morsi and appointing an interim President. Politics as usual in Egypt. Than did not President Morsi and The Muslim Brotherhood over reach in their ambitions, finding in the end that they had become disconnected from the mainstream Egyptian public and threatened the foundations of the opposing power groups.

How Morsi, Brotherhood Lost Egypt

Did Uncle Sam Funded Programs - oust Morsi?

1984 War is Peace

The military at this time present tense is placing back into office Abdel Meguid Mahmond as Attorney General and they assured Mohamed ElBaradei as follows:

The Mubarak appointee, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, spent years in office prosecuting Islamists. But Mr. ElBaradei said the generals had assured him that this time would be different because they intended to operate as an institution in a civilian democracy, with respect for due process and the rule of law.”..............N.Y. Times

“A few contradicts after having ignored due process and the rule of law just recently in dismissing President Morsi”................

IT'S 1984 IN EGYPT!



Solutions:

The subsidies must be adjusted

The Too Large Bureaucracy must be decreased

Farm Land – provide additional ownership to more farmers

Care not to increase foreign loans

Increase the small businesses numbers

Audit The Armed Forces – bring their ownership of the economy under control

No Secret Budgets

The Armed Forces still have a monopoly of force so I'm not optimistic about real reform in Egypt occurring!

Resources and Notes

"The doctrine and culture of the Armed Forces do not allow the adoption of any 'military-coup-based' policies. The Egyptian military always stands by the will and aspirations of the glorious Egyptian people for change and reform

1 feddan = 24 kirat = 60 metre x 70 meter = 4200 square metres (m²) = 0.42 hectares = 1.038 acres

In Syria, the feddan ranges from 2295 square metres (m²) to 3443 square metres (m²).

If the U.S. describes this as coup than us aid to Egypt cannot to be extended.

Today's Egyptian economy is an extension of Nasser's revolution which was a milestone in the transformation of Egypt from being dominated by a rich monarch to a people's army. King Farouk and family were allowed to leaved Egypt unmolested.

[outsider]

Egypt's mass govt resignations choreographed:
By Konye Obaji Ori
http://www.theafricareport.com/North-Africa/egypts-mass-govt-resignati ons-choreographed.html?utm_source=The+Africa+Report+newsletter&utm_cam paign=54e708c91f-TAR_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e5e1f5491 -54e708c91f-337616861

'Egypt's military and the interim government it backs are forging an alliance under the leadership of army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, critics have said.

Al-Sisis had planned to resign as defense minister and pursue his presidential ambitions.

However, mass resignations of members of the military-backed government caught many by surprise this week.

According to an Egyptian official who wanted to remain anonymous, the mass resignations were choreographed so it did not appear as if al-Sisi was acting alone.

"This was done as a step that was needed ahead of Sisi's announcement that he will run for president," Reuters quoted the anonymous Egyptian official....'



Suits the US & Israel, no?
Nothing beats a Military Dictatorship to do 'business' with...And the Rafah Crossing stays closed most of the time, and the tunnels are destroyed...

[outsider]

Everything 'Tickety-Boo' for the NWO Egyptian 'Regime Change':

Egypt: Investors, businesses to support Al-Sisi's presidency bid:
http://www.theafricareport.com/North-Africa/egypt-investors-businesses -to-support-al-sisis-presidency-bid.html?

'"I think most investors would say it doesn't appear all that democratic, but it's more stable, so my investment will be safer," Exotix spokesperson, Gabriel Sterne told reporters.

Al-Sisi has grown in popularity and is widely expected to run and win.

Exotix, the London-based frontier market bank said al-Sisi would need to deliver on the economy, which he has acknowledged presents huge challenges.

"He does seem to have support that has been absent from any single politician.

"Whatever it is, it's a sign of stability," Sterne added.

The faith in al-Sisi is based on his ability to make bold and decisive decisions. Analysts say these qualities would help the field marshall to provide economic and political calm.

"Yes, Egypt needs a strongman but it needs a lot more than just a strongman, it needs to correct its investment policy," Moheb Malak, Cairo-based economist at Prime Securities told reporters.

Egyptians agree that law and order is essential for investment and to stabilise the economy...'

So this is the 'Democracy' Soros, NED et al. 'enabled'?
Anybody surprised? The US just LOVES doing business with military regimes (think Latin American Juntas, Indonesia's Suharto).

[TonyGosling]

Yes Israel is the US & Britain's crusader state - we really have gone back that far

[nrmis]

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_mass_execution_loc/?bWnOudb&v=37972

Egypt: Stop the Mass Execution

197,168 have signed. Let's get to 250,000

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Egypt's pain: Paralysis vs. people power in the land of the Pyramids
Frank Wisner Jr. sets the Arab 'spring trap'
Mohammed Morsi takes on the old Gods
http://rt.com/op-edge/192580-egypt-court-mubarak-justice-politics/

[TonyGosling]

Egyptian Court Overturns Last Remaining Conviction against Mubarak

By Johannes Stern
Global Research, January 14, 2015
World Socialist Web Site
http://www.globalresearch.ca/egyptian-court-overturns-last-remaining-c onviction-against-mubarak/5424706

On Tuesday, Egypt’s high court overturned the last remaining conviction against former dictator Hosni Mubarak, paving the way for his possible release, four years after the mass revolutionary struggles of the Egyptian working class that overthrew him.

Mubarak had been sentenced to three years in prison last May for embezzlement. His two sons, Alaa and Gamal, had received four-year sentences in the same case. They will be retried after the court accepted their appeal. Following the verdict, Mubarak’s lawyer Farid El-Deeb filed a request and a complaint to the General Prosecution to take into account the three men’s pre-trial detention time, claiming that Mubarak had already served the maximum detention period and must be freed.

For the time being Mubarak remained in the military hospital in Maadi—an upscale neighborhood in Cairo—where he is held allegedly due to ill health. However, there are increasing signs of an impending release.

Egyptian media reported that Mubarak had been expected to be released on January 17, even if the conviction had been upheld, because of the time he already spent in custody. According to a judiciary source, the latest verdict means that Mubarak will be released because there is no other remaining case against him.

Tuesday’s decision follows a verdict in November, when an Egyptian court dropped charges against Mubarak for state murder, i.e., the killing of 846 people and the wounding of 6,000 protesters during the 18 days of revolutionary struggles in early 2011 that ended his 30-year rule.

The acquittal of Mubarak shortly before the fourth anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution is a provocation and a statement by the regime of General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The Egyptian military, with the backing of the imperialist powers, is signaling that it will continue to carry through the counterrevolution and crush any resistance by the working class.

Since the 2013 July 3 military coup, the al-Sisi regime has been aiming to restore the old regime through massive bloodshed. The Egyptian military and security forces killed at least 3,000 people, most of them supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who opposed the coup against Islamist president Mohamed Mursi. In the past year, Egyptian courts condemned a total of 1,397 political prisoners to death. The regime has also issued a law banning unauthorized demonstrations or strikes and passed a new constitution, basically enshrining permanent military rule.

According to official numbers, the al-Sisi regime has imprisoned nearly 10,000 people in 2014 alone. Human rights groups however estimate that over 40,000 people have been detained under al-Sisi’s rule, many of them without charges and tortured by the notorious Egyptian security forces in secret prisons.

Mubarak’s release and the whitewashing of his crimes highlights the reactionary role of the entire affluent middle class milieu in Egypt. Its liberal and pseudo left parties initially claimed to oppose Mubarak, but then lined up behind al-Sisi’s coup as part of organizations such as the National Salvation Front and Tamarod in order to pre-empt and suppress the growing political movement of the Egyptian working class against then Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.

Now the very same parties are either indifferent to Mubarak’s acquittal or are even seeking to integrate themselves more directly into the regime – despite the fact that it is prosecuting some of their members.

Khaled Dawoud, spokesman for the liberal Constitution Party, ten of whose members are currently imprisoned for violating the anti-protest law, commented: “After the release of police officers charged with killing demonstrators and of Mubarak aides, and his acquittal over the killing of protesters, this is not shocking news.” He added cynically: “I don’t think Mubarak is the issue any more. The Egyptian people gave their verdict against him four years ago.”

At the same time, the “liberal” party founded by Mohamed El Baradei in 2012 attended a joint meeting with de facto dictator al-Sisi. The party talks held on Monday and Tuesday also included leaders of the liberal Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Wafd Party, the Salafist Nour-Party, the Free Egyptians Party of Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris, the National Movement Party of Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, and the Tagammu Party, a melting pot of old Nasserites and Stalinists.

According to media reports, al-Sisi announced that he would favour a “national party list” for the upcoming parliamentary elections and promised to back it if the political forces unite. According to the chairman of Tagammu, Sayyed Abdel Aal, al-Sisi warned the assembled parties that the people could revolt again if the next parliament fails to confront the tasks it faces.

Behind the regime’s violence and calls for “unity” hides the fear of Egypt’s ruling elite of a renewed social explosion. After Mubarak’s ouster, none of the contradictions which led to the mass upheaval in 2011 have been resolved. On the contrary, poverty and unemployment have increased only further, and amidst a deepening economic crisis, living conditions for millions of people have become unbearable. At the beginning of this week, Egyptian minister for urban development Leila Iskander admitted that half of Egypt’s population lives in informal slum areas.

Huge class tensions are once again building up under the surface of military rule. According to a report by the Mahrousa Forum for Researches and Public Policy Studies, Egypt witnessed 2,274 labor protests in the past year. While the first quarter of 2014 saw 1,420, the highest number of protests, the last quarter including October, November and December came in second with 318 protests.

Throughout the year, the capital, Cairo, witnessed the most protests (429), followed by Alexandria (185) and Sharqiya (150). Industrial workers were most active staging 558 or 25 percent of all protests. Civil servants came in second with 426 protests (19 percent), followed by the medical sector (323 protests), the educational sector (137) and the textile sector (117).

The report counted different forms of protests such as strikes, vigils, marches, demonstrations, sit-ins, hunger strikes, blocking roads, detaining officials, gathering signatures, and even committing suicide. The main factors triggering the protests were social and economic, the report said, referring to demands such as a minimum wage, higher salaries and better working conditions, opposition to layoffs and calls for the release of detained colleagues.

[TonyGosling]

BBC News
Egypt's US puppet dictator Al-Sisi warns of 'long battle' with freedom fighters & Mossad provocateurs
http://t.co/RgfU8yabTc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31074002

[TonyGosling]

Egypt carries out first death sentence after mass trials of Morsi supporters
Mahmoud Ramadan is executed in Cairo, with security forces describing him as a radical Islamist who was not officially a member of Muslim Brotherhood
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/07/egypt-death-sentence-mors i-supporters-mahmoud-ramadan-cairo-muslim-brotherhood

Saturday 7 March 2015 13.14 GMT
Egypt has carried out the first death sentence handed down over the violence that erupted after the army’s 2013 overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been sentenced to death after speedy mass trials, which the UN has described as “unprecedented in recent history”.

Mahmoud Ramadan, who was hanged in Cairo at 5am London time, was the “first to be executed of those involved in violent clashes”, said interior ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif.

The execution came a month after Egypt’s high court upheld the death sentence against Ramadan. Security sources have described him as a radical Islamist who was not officially a member of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Last year a court in Alexandria sentenced Ramadan and another Morsi supporter to death after convicting them of throwing youths off an apartment block, killing one. An al-Qaida flag was seen tucked into the back of Ramadan’s trousers during the incident.

They were among dozens of people put on trial over deadly violence in the city’s Sidi Gaber neighbourhood on 5 July 2013 – two days after Morsi was forced from office by then army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who is now the president.

The violence came as supporters and opponents of Morsi held rival demonstrations across the city. A government crackdown has left hundreds dead and thousands detained and put on trial.

Hundreds were killed on 14 August 2013, when police stormed two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo.

The ousted president is himself facing multiple trials on charges that carry the death penalty. Mohamed Badie, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, has already been sentenced to death in one trial.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

EXCLUSIVE: Sisi insisted on $12bn commitment from Gulf states before launching coup #Egypt
http://ow.ly/MUhzJ
http://pic.twitter.com/oXLFX075cG

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/does-sisi-retain-support-his-top- generals-1452666191

Does Sisi retain the support of his top generals?
#EgyptTurmoil

David Hearst
Tuesday 12 May 2015 12:09

The taping of Sisi’s inner circle was an inside job. Someone wanted King Salman to hear first-hand what Sisi says and thinks about his Gulf donors
Follow the money. Actually, ‘Deep Throat’ or W Mark Felt Jr of the FBI, as he revealed himself to be, never uttered those words to the Washington Post reporter Carl Woodward. Yet, this has not stopped the best line from the Watergate scandal becoming a leitmotiv for political scandals since. Today, if you want to fathom the curious tensions between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, donor and supplicant, you should also follow the money.

We can now drop the qualification of “alleged” around the contents of hours of secretly-recorded conversations between Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his inner circle. Sisi’s voice on the tapes has been authenticated by British forensic acoustic experts, who had previously confirmed the voice of Mamdouh Shahin, his military legal advisor.

Among other things, Sisi and his office manager Abbas Kamel revealed the real amount of Gulf money that has been poured into the Egypt army’s bottomless coffers. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait gave Egypt $39.5bn in cash, loans and oil derivatives between July 2013 (the date of the coup) and January - February 2014. Since then, more money has gone in. Some calculate the up-to-date sum is closer to $50bn.

If you have just inherited the Saudi throne, you might inquire what has happened to all that money, before doling out more. But that is not what has happened. Instead, Sisi has gone on the offensive by putting it about that he is asking the Saudi monarch for more. That is what he told a meeting of high-ranking Egyptian military officers at al-Mazzeh military air force base, east of Cairo. Sisi told them he had “reminded the Saudis of their responsibilities”.

It is also the line one of Sisi’s pet TV anchors was instructed to put out. Amani al-Khayyat broadcast that Sisi had told Salman in his latest meeting: “you will pay the price for your choices”.

This public spat between client state and paymaster is revealing.

Since Salman arrived on the throne, Egypt has received $6bn from the three Gulf States - but I understand that this money is not in cash. It’s a loan to be repaid at 2.5 percent - a rate higher than the International Monetary Fund would charge.

From the word go, Sisi made his decision to oust Mohamed Morsi contingent on the financial support he could extract from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States. In the months before June 2013, Sisi wavered, and it was only after he got a cast iron commitment from former Saudi King Abdullah that the military coup would get $12bn that Sisi decided to put his plan into action. The coup was many things. But one element of it was a financial proposition. If that is now ending, the bet looks very different for Sisi. Follow the money.

Salman’s attitude to Sisi could be glimpsed in a long session the Saudi monarch had with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan had three conditions before he would agree to a public reconciliation with Sisi, who was in Saudi Arabia at the time: that political detainees be released; that the death sentences be annulled; and that Sisi would allow freedom of association, ie the right to demonstrate. As this would undo the three pillars of the military coup, it was obvious that Erdogan’s demands could not be met.

There was in Erdogan’s own public account of the meeting, no meeting of minds on Egypt. Salman said Egypt had always been run by a military dictator. If not Sisi, them whom, he asked the Turkish side at the talks. Saudi Arabia sought only one thing from Egypt and that had nothing to do with the Arab Spring, Tahrir Square, or democracy – they wanted stability. And how could you guarantee stability without the army in charge?

That was Salman’s argument. But this is not the rock solid 100 percent support for Sisi that it appears to be. There is a difference between saying that Riyadh supports stability in Egypt and saying that it supports Sisi. What if another general with the backing of the military were to come forward with a viable plan to normalise the country? How long would Sisi remain the man to support? What if the country became more unstable, not less?

Franklin D Roosevelt replied to the proposition by Sumner Welles, his secretary of state, that the brutal Nicaraguan dictator Somoza was a b****** by saying: “Yes, but he's our b******." This does not apply to Sisi. The Egyptian dictator is not Salman’s man. Rather, he is one of the many mistakes his half-brother Abdullah made in the twilight years of his reign. Salman should not, and does not, feel responsible for Sisi’s fate, only Egypt’s.

To continue with the logic of the Saudi argument, Sisi’s future depends on proving that he can stabilise Egypt. All the evidence is to the contrary. As the Egyptian political scientist Emad Shahin argues in his recent paper, Sisi’s rule is becoming increasingly personalised in the absence of an elected parliament. He has issued 263 decrees since coming to power. He has not succeeded in forming a political base behind him. Nor can he remove the current defence minister, thanks to the constitution which secured his own former position in that post.

Now that he has taken off his army uniform, Sisi as a civilian president is caught in a web of his own making. The security situation inside Egypt is worsening. The number of recorded acts of political violence in the first three months of this year was 1,641, or one incident every 90 minutes.

Some highly placed figures in the Egyptian military establishment have expressed alarm at this and have spoken of their unease to colleagues in parallel institutions outside the country. They were never happy about the coup in the first place and supported it because they felt there was no other option, and now they increasingly question the path that Sisi is taking them on.

I have been told that one of them reportedly said: “It has never been as bad as this in Egypt.” The conclusion drawn by those listening to them is that cracks are starting to appear in the military.

One can see these generals’ point of view. They don’t think the army can cope with the demands made on them, as it has now become the primary domestic security agency. And they don’t want the army to be held responsible for the social chaos. Possibly this is one of the motivations for taping the conversations of Sisi’s kitchen cabinet and releasing it only two weeks after Salman came to power. As Abbas Kamel’s mobile is provided by the General Intelligence Service, the taping of Sisi’s inner circle was an inside job. Someone wanted Salman to hear first-hand what Sisi is saying and thinking about the Gulf donors on whom he depends.

Of particular concern is the possibility, some say probability, that the insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula could migrate to mainland Egypt. To suppress it, the Egyptian army has resorted to brutal tactics - demolishing the Egyptian half of Rafah, the city that straddles the border with Gaza, imposing curfews, shooting up villages and destroying an estimated 10,000 homes. Sinai has a sparse population - about half a million. What if the same thing starting happening in Upper Egypt which has a population of 30 million?

The region is religiously conservative, it voted overwhelmingly for the Muslim Brotherhood, and it is economically marginalised. It is here that Wilayet Sinai, a franchise of the Islamic State, intends to set up shop. Abu Safyan al-Masri, an IS member from Wilayet Sinai, announced that a branch would soon be opening. Asyut and al-Fayoum, both in Upper Egypt, were noted for harbouring anti-state militancy during the 1990s. An Upper Egypt IS supporter said “violence can be faced only with violence - these organisations cannot sit with their hands tied without responding”.

The announcement was dismissed as “a media event of no value” by General Mohammed Mahfouz, an Egyptian military expert.

“We are different from Syria, Libya and Iraq - our army is still an effective actor, and no [non-state] organisation has control over limited areas as is the case in Syria.”

Mahfouz said that “unfortunately, Egypt’s borders to the east, the west and the south are all linked to states that support the political Salafist tide, or that contain large areas dominated by that tide. Groups exploit gaps in the border to push their agents [into Egypt]”.

We shall see. The Western powers supporting Sisi, and the European Union in particular, cannot afford to see a crisis developing in Egypt and only attempt to step in once it has exploded. It waited for Libya to unravel, Syria to become a civil war, Yemen to do likewise.

If Egypt followed the same path, the explosion would not be on a conventional scale. It would be a nuclear one. Egyptians fleeing it would only have one direction to travel. They would take to the boats northwards to Europe. For how much longer can Europe afford itself the luxury of watching Egypt destabilise?

- David Hearst is editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He was chief foreign leader writer of The Guardian, former Associate Foreign Editor, European Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief, European Correspondent, and Ireland Correspondent. He joined The Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.


- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/does-sisi-retain-support-his-top- generals-1452666191

[TonyGosling]

Egypt's Sisi tells former PM Shafiq to stay in exile
#EgyptTurmoil
Egypt's government is reportedly accusing Shafiq of seeking to undermine Sisi's presidency, but a source close to Shafiq denies this
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypts-president-sisi-tells-former-p m-shafiq-stay-exile-1937848337

Mamoon Alabbasi
Tuesday 26 May 2015 21:25 BST

Simmering tensions among Egypt’s ruling elite broke out into the open on Monday when former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq was warned by the government not to return from exile in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and consider any future role in Egyptian politics.

Shafiq belongs to the same military political camp, which has ruled Egypt since 1952, as the current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Now Sisi appears to view Shafiq as a rival who is conspiring to undermine his presidency.

Shafiq, who lost presidential elections to Mohamed Morsi in 2012, fled the country in the same year after Egypt's prosecutor-general opened an investigation into allegations of corruption when he was an official under former president Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled following the 2011 uprising.

He has remained in the UAE, despite a military coup that overthrew Morsi on 3 July 2013 and in spite of being acquitted of corruption charges in December that year, which paved the way for his return free from legal questioning.

Shafiq had cited "security reasons" for his continued residence in the UAE, despite heading a political party, the Egyptian National Movement Party, from exile.

However, Egypt's al-Shurouk broadsheet newspaper quoted on Monday a government source telling Shafiq to "forget about" playing any role in politics, and accusing him of seeking to destabilise the "legitimacy of elected president Sisi".

"The former presidential candidate is communicating with important sides, who are still backing him and continue to hope that he would have a role in politics," the source told the daily, adding that these people "are mistaken in thinking that major political changes will take place in Egypt".

Government 'message' to Shafiq's supporters

The source warned that the government is monitoring the activities of Shafiq's supporters, some of whom still work in important positions in the state, adding that the article's content is meant to serve as a "message" to them.

The source also accused Shafiq of being in contact with Egyptian businessmen, Saudi and Emirati officials, and figures in research centres in the US State Department and Pentagon – all in search of "various scenarios for the future of Egypt".

The government, according to the source, is aware of a conspiracy that involves businessmen and former security and political figures who are seeking to make changes in the political makeup in the country for their own gains.

The Egyptian newspaper also quoted a source close to Shafiq, who denied that the former presidential candidate was involved in an attempt to destabilise the current government, as "both (Sisi and Shafiq) are on the same ship and both served together in the army". He blamed instead security officials who are eager to impress Sisi by faking such reports.

Shafiq, who was Mubarak's last appointed prime minister in 2011, had served as a senior commander in the Egyptian Air Force. Sisi had been the country's head of the armed forces as well as a defence minister before running for presidency in 2014.

Meanwhile, prominent Egyptian TV anchor Amr Adib, who is a vocal supporter of Sisi, viewed the newspaper's front page splash as a serious message of warning from the government towards Shafiq's supporters.

Adib, however, did admit that he was confused about what is happening: "Weren't Shafiq's people standing by Sisi's side in the (2014 presidential) elections?" But no one in the government appears to respond.

Possible divisions?

Some analysts have reported the occurrence of divisions within Egypt's military institution.

"Some highly placed figures in the Egyptian military establishment have expressed alarm at [the worsening security situation] and have spoken of their unease to colleagues in parallel institutions outside the country," wrote David Hearst in a column for Middle East Eye.

"The conclusion drawn by those listening to them is that cracks are starting to appear in the military," he added.

Meanwhile, al-Araby al-Jadid cited on Sunday an unnamed leader in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, saying that there are those in the Arab Gulf who are contemplating a role for Shafiq or Sami Annan, the former chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, in the event of Sisi's departure from power.

In the short term, however, such a scenario appears to be highly unlikely, as opposition to Sisi remains under control in Egypt, despite rising criticism from many political camps who have aided the overthrow of Morsi but have now found their freedoms squeezed in post-coup Egypt.

In addition, Gulf states have continued to send financial aid to Cairo despite signs of unease surfacing in Egyptian-Saudi ties and in spite of leaks damaging to Sisi's image in front of his Arab backers.

However, the leaks, which are suspected of being carried out by members of Egypt's security forces, and the government's confirmation that Shafiq's supporters are in important positions do reveal that unhappiness with Sisi's rule is no longer confined to those outside the powerful military institution.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypts-president-sisi-tells-former-p m-shafiq-stay-exile-1937848337#sthash.9DIl5PkF.dpuf

[TonyGosling]

The story
wonderful stuff

David Barsamian - Current Events in Egypt, KGNU Interview

Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFvwc09gDO0

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Mexican tourists killed in 'anti terror operation' by Egyptian security forces
1 hour ago
From the section Middle East
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34241680

The news has been greeted with shock in Mexico, as Katy Watson reports
Security forces in Egypt have mistakenly killed 12 people, including Mexican tourists, during an anti-terror operation, the interior ministry says.
The tourists were travelling in four vehicles that entered a restricted zone in the Wahat area of the Western Desert, a ministry statement said.
Ten Mexicans and Egyptians were also injured and are being treated in a local hospital.
The ministry said it had formed a team to investigate the incident.
Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto condemned the incident and said he had "demanded an exhaustive investigation by the Egyptian government".
The Mexican foreign ministry confirmed that at least two of its nationals had been killed and said it was working to confirm the identities of the other victims.
In a statement, it said Mexico's ambassador in Egypt, Jorge Alvarez Fuentes, had visited the local hospital and spoken to five Mexicans who were in a stable condition.
'Mistakenly dealt with'
The statement (in Arabic) from Egypt's interior ministry said the four vehicles the tourists were travelling in were "mistakenly dealt with" during a joint military police and armed forces operation.
It said the incident happened on Sunday in an area that "was off limits to foreign tourists", but it did not give an exact location.
The group of tourists was preparing to camp out in the vast Western Desert when they came under fire.
According to the interior ministry's statement, the security forces were pursuing Islamic militants in the desert, and targeted the four vehicles which were away from the main road with an Apache helicopter, which shot and hit the four vehicles.
The tour company transporting the tourists "did not have permits and did not inform authorities", tourism ministry spokesman Rasha Azaz told the Associated Press news agency.
But a local source - who claims to have spoken to one of the drivers for the tour group - told the BBC that they had liaised with the authorities and even had a police escort.
The vast Western Desert area is popular with foreign sightseers, but is also attractive to militants, reports the BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo.
Last month, a Croatian engineer was beheaded there by the so-called Islamic State (IS).
The area - which borders Libya - is a gateway to the long border and weapons are available on the other side, our correspondent adds.
On Sunday, IS in Egypt claimed it had "resisted a military operation" in the desert.
A group claiming to be affiliated with IS also said on Sunday that it was present in Farafra.
Map of Egypt showing Farafra in the Western Desert
The insurgency in Egypt gathered momentum after the army overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013 following protests against his rule.
The government says hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed, many of them in attacks claimed by IS's Sinai Province affiliate.
Up until recently most of the fighting has taken place in the Sinai Peninsula with occasional attacks taking place in Cairo and other cities.
In July, Egypt vowed to rid the Sinai Peninsula of militants after major clashes with IS fighters there killed more than 100 people.
It said that operations will not stop until the area is cleared of militants.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Egypt executions: Figures show dramatic rise in death sentences and mass trials under presidency of Abdel Fatah al-Sisi Europe accused of ‘turning a blind eye’ to repression by the former military chief, as 600 are sentenced to death this year

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/egypt-executions-figure s-show-dramatic-rise-in-death-sentences-and-mass-trials-under-presiden cy-of-a6733996.html

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Wow! Mubarak's former defence chief Sisi who's now in charge instituting TOTAL clampdown in Egypt
This is the last vestige of free expression getting a bullet in the head! Unreported of course :'(

Egypt Shuts Arts Venues Amid Signs of Clampdown
The Egyptian authorities have shut down a pioneering art gallery and raided an independent publishing house in what activists say is a move to muffle dissent ahead of the January 25 anniversary of.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/world/middleeast/egypt-shuts-arts-ve nues-amid-signs-of-clampdown.html

CAIRO — Over the past two days, the Egyptian authorities have shut down an internationally respected art gallery and raided an independent publishing house in what free-speech advocates said Tuesday were the latest moves in an expanding crackdown on dissent that now includes cultural spaces popular with activists and artists. In the first raid, on Monday, government agents seized papers and computers at the Townhouse Gallery and the affiliated Rawabet Theater before suspending the organization’s activities, according to Fatima Serag, the legal director for the Association of Free Thought and Expression, a group that monitors free speech in Egypt .
On Tuesday, officials and police officers raided Merit, the publishing house, arresting an employee and confiscating equipment, said
Mohamed Hashem , the founder, who wrote about the episode on Facebook.
The episodes were the most recent enforcement actions directed against cultural institutions. Human rights advocates said the institutions may have been seen as threatening by the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, which has been suspicious of any group that might receive foreign funding as well as any gathering spaces for the government’s opponents.
In recent weeks, Mr. Sisi’s government has spoken nervously about the possibility of protests on the fifth anniversary of the 2011 uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak. The government banned unauthorized protests more than two years ago, and Mr. Sisi recently referred to calls for demonstrations on the anniversary as an effort to “destroy” the country.
Ms. Serag and others said the raids on the cultural institutions were directly related to the government’s fear of unrest: among other possible motives, both Merit and Townhouse are in downtown Cairo, near Tahrir Square, the center of the 2011 protests. Both facilities are also among a dwindling number of venues for performances, films and talks, and are magnets for politically active young people.
“They are scared of Jan. 25,” Ms. Serag said, referring to the date considered to be the beginning of the 2011 uprising. Ayman Helmy, an Interior Ministry spokesman, declined to comment on the raids.
The closing of the Townhouse Gallery, a pioneering contemporary art space established in 1998, was seen by curators, artists and free-speech advocates as an especially worrying loss. The gallery, which included a library and the theater, was an anchor of the downtown cultural scene and a proving ground for artists who have gone on to international acclaim. Writing about the closing on Twitter, Shiva Balaghi, a curator focused on the Middle East and a visiting scholar at Brown University, called it a “critically important space.”
“Many of the Middle Eastern artists that you see at the Tate, Guggenheim, Met, Brit Museum, Frieze, Art Basel were first shown at #Townhouse,” she wrote.
Mr. Hashem suggested that the raid on Merit might have been related to coming events at the publishing house — including a reading in solidarity with Ashraf Fayadh , a poet and artist who was recently sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. “We will continue to dream of a nation of freedom, bread and social justice,” Mr. Hashem wrote on his Facebook page.
“You will not terrorize us.”

[outsider]

Cairo court sentences 4-year-old boy to life in jail for murder:
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Cairo-court-sentences-4-year-old-boy- to-life-in-jail-for-murder-among-charges-445406

'Child was listed as "wanted" for murder, disturbance of the peace and damaging state property in an indictment together with 115 other defendants sentenced to life imprisonment.

In a bizarre move, a court in western Cairo this week sentenced a four-year-old boy to life in prison on various heinous charges, including murder.

The child, Ahmed Mansour Karni, received the lengthy prison term Tuesday after being convicted in absentia of offenses that allegedly occurred two years ago, when he was a mere two-years-old.

The boy was listed as "wanted" for murder, disturbance of the peace and damaging state property in an indictment that listed 115 other defendants sentenced to life imprisonment.

According to the indictment, the exorbitant charges against the youngster include four counts of murder, eight counts of attempted murder, vandalizing property belonging to the Egyptian Health Administration in his home province of el-Fayoum (located some 70 kilometers southwest of Cairo), threatening soldiers and police officers and damaging vehicles belonging to security forces.

One defense attorney added that he had presented the child's birth certificate to the court, however "it appeared that the court did not transfer the material."

Lawyer Faisal a-Sayd charged that the presiding judge had not reviewed the case.

"The child Ahmed Mansour Karni's birth certificate was presented after state security forces added his name to the list of accused, but then the case was transferred to the military court and the child was sentenced in absentia in an ensuing court hearing," said the defense attorney.

"This proves that the judge did not read the case," he added.

Another Egyptian lawyer Mohammed Abu Hurira issued a fiery response, writing: "On the eve of injustice and madness in Egypt, a four-year-old child was sentenced to life imprisonment. He is accused of disturbance, damage to property and murder. The Egyptian scales of justice are not reversible. There is no justice in Egypt. No reason. Logic committed suicide a while ago. Egypt went crazy. Egypt is ruled by a bunch of lunatics."

The sentencing also caused a firestorm on social media networks, with users blasting the Egyptian legal system and government of corruption and injustice.

The blogger and wife of Egyptian human rights activist Nibin Melek wrote in a post that the sentencing "was a blind decision."

The court order came less than a year after a blind man in Egypt received a 15-year prison sentence for the shooting of a police officer.'

And STILL European tourists go to Egypt, and indeed to Turkey (which along with Saudi Arabia is trying, with Western collusion, to drag NATO into a fight with Russia in Syria).

[insidejob]

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Why-is-President-Morsi-helping -Israel-not-Hamas-307157

[TonyGosling]

Israel Admits Role in Overthrow of Mohamed Morsi and Installation of President Al-Sisi, Planned in Cooperation with Egypt’s Military
By Seif al-Din Abdel-Fattah
Global Research, March 19, 2016
Middle East Monitor 18 March 2016
Region: Middle East & North Africa
In-depth Report: ARAB PROTEST MOVEMENT
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-admits-role-in-overthrow-of-mohame d-morsi-and-installation-of-president-al-sisi-planned-in-cooperation-w ith-egypts-military/5515195

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon admitted in his speech at the annual AIPAC conference, the largest Zionist lobby supporting Israel in the US, that the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi and the installation of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi was planned, in cooperation with generals in the Egyptian and Gulf armies and intelligence agencies. He also said that Israel’s interests will always be served by having military regimes in the Arab world, especially in Egypt.

He apologised that the military regimes usually disregard democracy in Egypt but called on the lobby to provide more support for Al-Sisi. Ya’alon also explicitly said: “We decided to allow General Al-Sisi, who was the defence minister at the time, to take over power by mobilising the army in order to become a president. The West should consider this of strategic interest for them as well.”
This is not the first testimony made by the Israeli occupation’s generals and rabbis regarding the need to keep Al-Sisi as president of Egypt in order to serve Israel’s interests. The archive of relations between the two countries is full of flattery and statements of complete support for this government, which Israel has dreamed about for years, according to Wael Qandil. The coup was an opportunity for Israel to practice its extortion in order to continue its normalisation strategy.
Moshe Yaalon, Defense Minister of Israel
Moshe Yaalon, Defense Minister of Israel. [File photo]
With regards to relations between Arab countries and Israel, normalisation means that these countries, or their institutions or figures carrying out cooperative projects, have economic and trade exchanges and spread the culture of acceptance of the enemy in a context of political poisoning and cultural normalisation while the occupation continues. Normalisation in this case not only means allowing for natural relations to develop between the oppressor and the oppressed in the absence of justice and continued occupation and settlement activity. It also means that those who normalise relations with Israel are voluntarily stripping Israel of its label as an enemy and instead accuses those resisting the Israeli occupation of hostility.
One of the ironic things we are hearing today, despite the crimes committed by Israel, are dangerous statements made by Arab leaders and PA officials, as well as a chorus of Arab writers and intellectuals who have become “Zionised”. They are trying to change the label of “enemy” given to Israel into other attributes associated with partnership or friendship. Normalisation and lifting the boycott is an old Israeli dream since the establishment of their state in occupied Palestine. This vision consists of establishing normal and ordinary relations between the two sides, just like any relation between two sides during a time of peace, bonded together by respect and love, without any form of contradiction or hostility.
We can all see the magnitude of the normalisation of Egyptian and Israeli relations since the 3 July 2013 coup, on the political, economic, security and defence levels, as well as on the cultural level, as many Egyptian intellectuals, media personalities and sports figures have publicly called for normalisation on all levels.
The normalisation operations have reached an extraordinary level where relations between the two countries have surpassed the normal relations between most nations. Frankly, it has reached a level closer to dependency on the enemy and nothing proves this more than the almost regular official and unofficial statements made by Israeli officials gloating about this.
In the past, we used to criticise the Egyptian and Arab media for its lack of interest in the boycott campaign against Israel and the multi-national companies supporting Israel, which are located in all Arab countries. Now, we have different media platforms through which we can activate this campaign in an organised manner and on a long term basis by means of various media mechanisms.
For example, we can start by adopting one united campaign that is coordinated through these platforms. It will involve regular programmes to oppose the normalisation operations occurring on various levels. Each programme can address one of the levels, including the political, economic, security, defence, cultural and sports level.
We can also start by organising specialised programmes that aim to reactivate the means of resistance in the nation, including the economic boycott of Israel and the countries supporting Israel or the multi-national companies located in all Arab and Muslim countries.
We base all of our activities on the fact that Israel is a Zionist colonial enemy entity that has seized the land of another nation. It is not a friend or neighbour, as the coup-led government treats it or how some Egyptian and Arab intellectuals claim. Israel is a colonial entity represented by an armed gang that established a state by force, murder, expulsion, confiscation, displacement and other means of colonisation.
There is no difference in our eyes between the companies that provide services to the Israeli masses and the companies that provide services to the Israeli army or Israeli settlements. Equally, there is no difference between the gang that seizes land and kills children and the armed settlers in civilian and military clothing. We must remember that the recruitment system in Israel is based on the idea of the “People’s Army” in which everyone participates and is mobilised during times of danger.
Shame on any Arab, Christian or Muslim, who allows companies that provide services to Israelis to exist in their country, especially companies working in the food, drink and telecommunications sector, which are all matters the Arabs can find alternatives for. In fact, the alternatives are already present and all the Arabs need is the will to take effective action towards boycott.
In addition to this, we can also talk about Israel’s continued adoption of the settlement policy which violates all international laws, including the laws that recognise the reality of colonialism. Companies such as Orange provide services to Israeli settlements that are illegally established based on international law and are internationally condemned.
There is a universal disapproval of Israel’s expansionist settlement policies exercised on Palestinian land. This disapproval is being expressed by the international public opinion, not the governments, and therefore we can coordinate with the leaders of the campaigns launched in Europe and across the world in this regard, making it a joint campaign launched from the inside and the outside.
The triangle of normalisation is represented by the coup, its “Zionised” supporters and the normalisation tools, and therefore, resisting normalisation is part of resisting the coup.
Translated from Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, 18 March 2016.

The original source of this article is Middle East Monitor
Seif al-Din Abdel-Fattah, Middle East Monitor, 2016

[TonyGosling]

Final verdict in Morsi’s ‘espionage’ trial postponed
April 23, 2016 at 1:00 pm | Published in: Africa, Egypt, News
Pro-Morsi anti-coup protestors with a Morsi posterMohammed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected leader, was ousted in a 2013 military coup, following protests against his presidency
April 23, 2016 at 1:00 pm
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160423-final-verdict-in-morsis-esp ionage-trial-postponed/

An Egyptian court on Saturday postponed the final verdict in former President Mohamed Morsi’s “Qatar espionage” trial to May 7.

Egypt’s army-backed authorities have accused Morsi and 10 co-defendants of spying for Qatar and leaking classified documents to the small Gulf state during his single year as president.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, was ousted in a 2013 military coup, following protests against his presidency.

He has since been slapped with life-in-prison and death sentences for “conspiring against Egypt” with Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah and for breaking out of jail in 2011.

Morsi and his co-defendants, along with many independent observers, say the charges are politically driven.

Since Morsi’s ouster and imprisonment, Egyptian authorities have cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood group, killing hundreds and jailing tens of thousands.

[TonyGosling]

Thousands of Egyptian civilians tried in military courts: HRW
#EgyptTurmoil
Human Rights Watch said it is a violation of international law for Egyptian civilians to be tried in military courts

Egyptian military tanks are positioned outside the police institute near Cairo's Turah prison (AFP)
Wednesday 13 April 2016 07:02 UTC

Thousands of Egyptian civilians have been tried in military courts since President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi passed a law expanding military court jurisdiction in October 2014, Human Rights Watch reported on Wednesday.

The New York-based watchdog reported that at least 7,420 Egyptian civilians have faced trial in military courts over the past 18 months.

Human Rights Watch said they had documented 324 of the cases, with many of them involving huge numbers of defendants, including one that saw 327 people put on trial at the same time.

The list of cases, which was provided to Human Rights Watch by the local group the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms, was described as documenting “for the first time the extent to which al-Sisi’s administration has used the military justice system to expedite its harsh crackdown on opponents”.

The list did not reveal the charges in each case. However, Human Rights Watch said a survey of approximately 50 Egyptian media reports since October 2014 showed “that most of those charged in military courts were transferred there because the broad provisions of al-Sisi’s law essentially put all public property under military jurisdiction, not because they committed crimes involving the armed forces”.

A significant number of those tried were charged with participating in illegal protests, as well as membership or support of the now banned Muslim Brotherhood group, which President Sisi unseated from power when he led a popularly backed military coup against Brotherhood leader and Egypt’s first elected president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

Among those tried in military courts have been 86 children, Human Rights Watch said, adding that students, professors and activists have also been swept up by authorities and put in front of military judges.

Many of those who have been tried and convicted in military courts claim to have been tortured, including the relatives of seven detainees who spoke to Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch said the mass trial of civilians in military courts “have violated due process guarantees and failed to establish individual guilt”.

“Apparently unsatisfied with tens of thousands already detained and speedy mass trials that discarded due process in the name of national security, al-Sisi essentially gave free rein to military prosecutors,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “He has handed back to the military judiciary the powerful role it enjoyed in the months after Egypt’s uprising, when the nation was governed by a council of generals.”

Egypt has come under increasing criticism for its widespread crackdown against government opponents since President Sisi came to power nearly three years ago. Tens of thousands of people have been detained by authorities, and many of the country’s most prominent civil society activists have either been arrested or convicted of crimes resulting in lengthy prison terms.

The military courts which are trying thousands of civilians are run by the country’s Defence Ministry. The judges are all serving military officers and Human Rights Watch said “military court proceedings typically do not protect basic due process rights or satisfy the requirements of independence and impartiality of courts of law”.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/thousands-egyptian-civilians-tried-m ilitary-courts-hrw-282011242#sthash.0eenaToz.dpuf