Posted on 12/06/2012 12:52:33 AM PST by bruinbirdman
Egypt’s army deployed tanks outside Cairo’s presidential palace on Thursday following overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, which killed at least three people, according to the Interior Ministry.
Overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo killed at least three people and wounded more than 270, the Interior Ministry said Thursday, deepening the political crisis over expanded presidential powers and a controversial draft constitution.
Pitched battles erupted Wednesday afternoon outside Cairo’s Heliopolis presidential palace and continued into the early morning Thursday in the first civilian clashes between the rival camps since last year’s ousting of former leader Hosni Mubarak.
By early Thursday the violence had spread to other cities, including Ismailia, east of Cairo, where protesters stormed and set alight the headquarters of Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
At least four tanks were deployed outside the presidential palace Thursday morning, according to Reuters, as traffic moved through the rocks and shattered glass-strewn streets. Hundreds of Morsi supporters were still in the area, many wrapped in blankets and some reading the Koran.
The latest violence underscored the divisions in the world’s most populous Arab nation as the country heads for a December 15 referendum on a new constitution that the opposition considers deeply flawed.
Leaders of both camps have accused the other side for the latest clashes that have pitted Egypt’s Islamists – including Brotherhood supporters and Salafists – against a largely liberal, secular opposition.
The clashes in Cairo erupted Wednesday after the vice-president, Mahmoud Mekki, spoke to the press to say that there would be no backing down by Morsi. Shortly after, the president’s supporters descended on the area around the palace where opponents were staging a sit-in.
Morsi 'responsible for the violence'
As clashes raged for hours, with rocks and petrol bombs flying between the two sides and the occasional sounds of gunshots, leading opposition activists held a press conference Wednesday evening.
In his remarks to the press, Mohamed ElBaradei, a former diplomat and now a leading opposition advocate of reform, said Morsi was “completely responsible for the violence that is happening in Egypt today”.
The duelling demonstrations are part of a political crisis that came to the forefront after Morsi issued a series of decrees on November 22 granting himself unprecedented powers that placed him beyond the reach of the judiciary.
In a bid to quell public anger, Morsi stressed that the new presidential decrees would only hold until a new constitution was approved. But the political crisis worsened after Morsi pushed through the approval of a draft constitution that was drawn up by an Islamist-led constituent assembly.
Despite widespread protests, the Egyptian president has refused to back down on the December 15 referendum.
The opposition National Salvation Front, which ElBaradei is part of, is demanding Morsi rescind the controversial presidential decrees and scrap the draft constitution which they say curtails freedom and leans the country towards Islamism.
Within the Islamist camp, there have been signs of divisions, with three members of Morsi’s advisory team resigning Wednesday over the crisis, according to presidential sources. Seif Abdel Fattah, Ayman al-Sayyad and Amr al-Leithy have tendered their resignations, bringing to six the number of presidential staff who have quit in the row over the decree.
Gee whiz! Take that darned video off of Youtube already.
Waiting for Zero to applaud the Egyptian protesters fighting against a tyrannical regime and denounce the use of tanks against citizens . . .
Still waiting . . .
Bottom line, Zero consistently acts to bring radical Islamists to power and then to keep them in power. I don’t know if it is self-hatred, America-hatred, or if he thinks radical Islamists are the cool guys on the block. But it’s pretty weird.
Some radical Islamists have already resigned first while you wait for Obama to show any common sense.
“What stops the Islamists Obama armed in Libya and Syria from going to Egypt if they want to?”
A strong ethical commitment to doing the moral thing in all circumstances??
POTUS considering sending USMC to support Morsi and US Army to support rebels...says we need to make it a fair fight. /s
obama supports morsi. This could get much more ugly than we even realize...as le bam and hillary watch their dream of a world without Israel go up in a hail of bullets...which they supplied. Irony of ironies.
ModelBreaker~:” A strong ethical commitment to doing the moral thing in all circumstances?? “
Unfortunately , for a leader who displays a strong ethical commtiment to doing the moral thing in all circumstances , President Obama never entered my mind .
This is all about establishing the Caliphate .
The only thing that would limit their arrival in Egypt would be lack of timely transportation .
ModelBreaker~:” A strong ethical commitment to doing the moral thing in all circumstances?? “
Unfortunately , for a leader who displays a strong ethical commtiment to doing the moral thing in all circumstances , President Obama never entered my mind .
This is all about establishing the Caliphate .
The only thing that would limit their arrival in Egypt would be lack of timely transportation .
This could occur in DC if our bonehead O and his bunch of marrymen plays their cards wrong.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we pratice to deceive.
I wonder if those tanks, armored cars and riot control materials were supplied by Obama? Obama clearly stands with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian useful idiot liberals can now go under the bus.
But..but..Arab Spring! Bin Laden Dead! Al Qaeda on the run!
Based on the Egyptian elections and occasional public opinion polls, it’s pretty clear that the Islamist and even more fundamanetalists Salafists have about 2/3 support among the population. Now, whatever real pro-democracy and pro-individual freedom elements there might be in Egypt are probabably among the current protestors. But Obama has already given his blessing to Morsi and his gang of MBH thugs.
When will we be hearing from Obama and/or Hillary on these latest developments?
No, almost certainly not. The pictures show M60A1 or M60A3 tanks and M113 armored personnel carriers. Those were either supplied about 10 years back or were built under license in Egypt.
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