Posted on 01/29/2011 8:05:30 AM PST by gandalftb
Omar Suleiman assumes position vacant for 30 years after cabinet forced to resign, while Muslim Brotherhood demands transfer of power.
Embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appointed his intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as his Vice-President in efforts to stem popular rage against his autocratic regime. Egyptian state television reports that Suleiman has already been sworn into office.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition movement in Egypt called for Mubarak to relinquish power in a peaceful manner.
Suleiman is the first vice-president of Egypt to be appointed since Mubarak first took power almost thirty years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
It started many years before that, even before the Egyptian islamist's assassination of Sadat.
Oh its getting worse, its regime thugs deliberately looting and attacking people, caught with ID’s.
All over Al Jazeera : This will cause trouble. Complete collapse.
STOP with the comparisons of the Muslim Brotherhood to the Knights of Columbus!!
Well, you know, once radical islamists get rid of the christians and Jews they are instantly “mainstream.” Mainstream just like our media & the Democratic Party whose socialist members finally purged their outlets of any alternative voices... now socialism is “mainstream” because it’s the only thing left standing.
That is one of the most foolish statements ever made on FR.
A Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian government would be virulently anti-US, pro-Iran, quickly push for the fall of Saudi and Jordan, and help further spread terrorism around the world!
Mubarak may be a dictator, but he is OUR dictator.
The appointment of Mukhabarat chief Omar Suleyman as Vice President is very prescient. If the whole thing doesn’t collapse into the hands of the radicals, who only now seem to be organizing, Suleyman will win power. It is interesting to speculate as to whether Suleyman is the driving force behind what’s going on now.
Omar Suleiman is OK, he is one of the few that can fill the power vacuum at present. How is the situation at the Gaza border? What about the tribes trying to take over the border?
You’re posts sound thoughtful & informed to me although I admit I don’t have enough knowledge to know. I agree that O has dropped the ball on this one with his approach, or lack of one, toward pushing for freedom in the ME. Whatever the answer is to this situation I trust we can count on him to do just the opposite.
??? Lynn Stewart and Sheikh Omar have nothing to do with the MB or the Egyptian unrest. Obama has always been behind the MB? Since the 20’s? Voting member?
January 29: The following is a report from a STRATFOR source in Hamas. Hamas, which formed in Gaza as an outgrowth of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), has an interest in exaggerating its role and coordination with the MB in this crisis. The following information has not been confirmed. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of concern building in Israel and the United States in particular over the role of the MB in the demonstrations and whether a political opening will be made for the Islamist organization in Egypt.
The Egyptian police are no longer patrolling the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. Hamas armed men are entering into Egypt and are closely collaborating with the MB. The MB has fully engaged itself in the demonstrations, and they are unsatisfied with the dismissal of the Cabinet. They are insisting on a new Cabinet that does not include members of the ruling National Democratic Party.
Security forces in plain clothes are engaged in destroying public property in order to give the impression that many protesters represent a public menace. The MB is meanwhile forming people’s committees to protect public property and also to coordinate demonstrators’ activities, including supplying them with food, beverages and first aid.
Let's simplify this issue. If we want to understand what the Egyptians are doing, we better understand what the Egyptians are thinking. Our perceptions of the MB are hardly as important as what Egyptians think of the MB.
That is the basis for my comparisons, that the MB, within the context of the Egyptian society, is similar to the K of C within the context of American society.
Within their own fields of influence, and none other, they have similar interests. That is not bigoted, just honest and objective.
Please, offer something other than quibbling over semantics. How do you feel about the unrest? What do you think we should do?
Good point. You’re right, democracy is capable of electing Hitler’s and Chavez’s.
You stay ‘objective’, I’ll stay looking out for WESTERN interests.
The majority of protestors seem to be young, tech-savvy and Western leaning. The MB, as I understand it, came on board late in the game and is seeking to gain control of a populist movement.
I agree with gandalf that we need to be on the 'right side of history' by supporting the pro-democracy forces in Egypt while at the same time disagree because I believe we need to be strongly repudiating and stopping the Islamist extremists in the MB.
There is a distinction here. It's not as black and white and simplistic as some are making it.
That’s assuming that Zero actually works for us, or for democracy for that matter. :’) I agree though that Mubarak is probably finished:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2665350/posts?page=10#10
The MB is a danger to us, we have much to lose because Obama dithered while popular unrest grew.
I am not Isolationist, just don't want American blood and treasure wasted, I support out intervention in Iraq, it was worth it and the benefit to our sacrifices are being shown by democratic revolution in the ME.
I merely pointed out that the previous article was not posted to Foreign Affairs where it belonged and where I would have spotted it. That's the point of FR having separate topics. Riiiight. :):)
/bingo
STOP with your quibbling, START with your analysis of the unrest.
Watch, as I magically make this a ‘foriegn affairs’ article...
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