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Egypt has enough foreign exchange on hand to cover six weeks’ of its imports (US$7.8 billion in liquid reserves, against a $5.5 billion monthly import bill). It would have run out of cash in June except for emergency loans from Saudi Arabia, which backs the Egyptian military but abhors the Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi won Egypt’s presidential election last month. Total reserves are listed at $15 billion, but this includes gold, International Monetary Fund (IMF) drawing rights and other non-liquid items. The economic context is necessary to make sense of Egypt’s politics: it points to an important conclusion,...

It was encouraging to see five sitting US Congressmen – led by Rep. Michele Bachmann – send a letter to the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department recently; it made reference to the familial relationships Huma Abedin – Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff and closest advisor – has to the Muslim Brotherhood. Abedin has much fewer than six degrees of separation (1 or 2 depending on your interpretation) from Egypt’s newly elected Muslim Brotherhood president – Mohammed Mursi. One year ago, when Walid discovered the names of 63 leaders who make up the Muslim Sisterhood –...

(MEMRI) — Yassir Al-Burhami: Appointing infidels to positions of authority over Muslims is prohibited. Allah said: “Never will Allah grant the infidels a way [to triumph] over the Believers.” We are not afraid of losing the elections or of not getting votes. We are not trying to ingratiate ourselves before the people. Can the Christians of Egypt be compared to the Jews of Al-Medina? The case of the Jews of Al-Medina is one example of the relations between the Muslims and the infidels. The Muslims can implement any form of conduct used by the Prophet Muhammad. When the Prophet Muhammad...

It is profoundly disconcerting to read media reports of the unseemly competition between the US and Western governments to curry favor with the Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of its electoral victory in Egypt. There are chilling parallels between such behavior and the disastrous European policy of appeasing the Nazis which paved the way for World War II. What those attempting to embrace the Muslim Brotherhood fail to comprehend is that this organization represents one of the most fanatical and dangerous of the radical Islamist groups in the region, with a dark record of violence and terrorism imbedded in its...

Zvi Mazel, who served as Israel's ambassador to Cairo between 1996 and 2001, expressed his concerns on Sunday over the events that took place in the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on Friday night. An angry Egyptian mob tore down the security wall that had been built around the embassy, and then proceeded to enter the embassy, where they nearly broke into a room where six Israeli security men were holed up. Egyptian commandos eventually rescued the guards who disguised themselves in keffiyas, Arab head gear, and in Muslim clothes. The guards, along with the Israeli Ambassador to Egypt and other...

Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian TV presenter Sayyed Ali, which aired on Mehwar TV on August 20, 2011. Sayyed Ali: The Egypt of today is very different from the Egypt of before January 25. Egypt, the Egyptian people, the Egyptian fighters, the Egyptian spirit, and many other things are not the same as before. This is a message directed outward, not inward. Today, if you asked 86 million Egyptians if they would be willing to fight and be martyred for the sake of their honor, not one would hesitate. If some pin their hopes on the divisions...

This isn’t just another terrorist attack — it’s a major escalation, a new phase in the Arab-Israeli conflict in two ways. First, it is the bitter fruit of the U.S-backed downfall of the government of President Husni Mubarak in Egypt, opening the Egypt-Israel border as a new front in the war. Second, it is probably the first successful al-Qaida attack on Israel. (The Palestinian Popular Committees, a Gaza-based al-Qaida affiliate is the prime suspect.) A group of up to 20 terrorists from the Gaza Strip travelled through Egypt using vehicles, then went through the Egyptian border area without any apparent...

"I am leaving because of a variety of important reasons. The first reason is that, during the Revolution of January 25th, the Egyptian Army protected our heritage sites and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. However, in the last 10 days the army has left these posts because it has other tasks to do. The group now in charge of the protection of these sites is the Tourist Police, but there are no Tourist Police to do this either. Therefore, what happens? Egyptian criminals, thieves (you know, in every revolution bad people always appear…), have begun to destroy tombs. They damaged...

A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities. The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the March 9 protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks. At that time, Maj. Amr Imam said 17 women had been arrested but denied allegations of torture or "virginity tests."

Hordes of Gaza Arabs rushed through into Sinai Saturday morning, as Egyptian authorities opened the Rafiah crossing, this time on a permanent basis, they said. Egyptian officials said that the crossing operated smoothly on its first day, and Gaza Arabs interviewed by reporters praised the opening, calling Egypt “very brave” for the move. The crossing is set to be open every day, except Fridays and holidays, between 10 AM and 5 PM. Women, and individuals under age 18 and over age 40 will be permitted to enter Egypt without a specific permit, while others will have to receive a visa....

Western leaders must invest not in military hardware, but in Egypt’s nascent civil society, which is clearly under threat. It’s all over but the shouting. The Muslim Brotherhood is going to dominate the political life of Egypt at least for the next few years. That’s the result of the referendum vote that took place on March 19. Voters approved by a wide margin — 77 percent — a plan for the country to elect a new parliament and a new president by September. Aside from the largely discredited National Democratic Party (NDP) associated with the Mubarak regime (whose headquarters were...

Representatives of several  Arab communist parties met in Beirut on the 18th and 19th of February  in an Arab Left Forum meeting  organized by the Lebanese Communist Party. Arab Left Forum, February 2011 The urgent meeting was called to coordinate communist response to the wave of revolutions sweeping much of the Arab World. If successfully implemented, the decisions laid out at this meeting, will affect not just the Middle East, but the entire planet. Some excerpts from the statement issued by the Exceptional Meeting of the Arab Left Forum, with emphasis added. These two revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have...

Events in Egypt with Mubarak resigning and thousands of jubilant Egyptians in the streets have brought joy and hopefulness to people in Egypt and around the world. We hear the siren words of freedom, liberty and justice from the Egyptians in the streets, while the media portray these events as joyous blessings and the end of a tyranny. Perhaps. We seem to be, again, without any history context. With more of this important context, the need for caution would be obvious. For these words of freedom, liberty, justice (a supremely vague term) have all been heard before, and they did...

The overthrow of the Egyptian government is being led by the hard-corps Islamics, and there is video to prove it. We are repeating history. In 1962, a group of senior enlisted USAF photo interpreters was secretly slipped into the back door at the White House. They were there to brief President Kennedy. There had been unconfirmed rumors of a significant Russian military presence in Cuba, but the CIA agents on the ground were supplying conflicting information, and no proof of anything. In addition, no one had reported the missile crates being unloaded from Russian ships in Cuban harbors. The crates...

Niall Ferguson, Harvard professor and Newsweek columnist, rained on the Morning Joe parade this morning by arguing President Obama blew it in Egypt and has now left the country in a fragile state potentially susceptible to domination by the Muslim Brotherhood. Prior to hearing Ferguson, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough thought Obama did pretty well with the situation, however Ferguson passionately attempted to convince them otherwise. Brzezinski claimed “looking at all the different reports coming in, and the pictures, and the peacefulness on the streets of Cairo, so far so good it actually seems like it went pretty damn well.”...

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate and Egyptian opposition leader, said this morning that the Egyptian military needs to reach out to the civilian opposition groups to begin planning a road map for a transition government -- and that if that doesn’t happen by Friday, street protests may begin anew. ElBaradei is uncertain about what will come next for his country after Egypt’s Supreme Military Council suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament, and announced in a communiqué that it will run a transitional government before overseeing the process of the next presidential and parliamentary election. “I have frankly started to get worried,...

President Obama celebrated the resignation of Hosni Mubarak on Friday, declaring that the president of Egypt “responded to the Egyptian people’s hunger for change.” “Egypt will never be the same,” Obama said in a statement, optimistically. “But this is not the end of Egypt's transition. It's a beginning. I'm sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many questions remain unanswered.” Obama called on the Egyptian military, which is now in charge in Cairo, to oversee a transition to power peacefully by protecting the people, lifting an emergency law and revising the constitution. Referring to the Berlin Wall and to...

More revelations from Code Pink. Medea Benjamin, leader of the left-wing, pro-Islamist-terrorist group Code Pink said in an interview Wednesday the group had previously worked with organizers of the campaign to overthrow the Egyptian government when Code Pink agitated in Cairo the year before.  Code Pink worked on behalf of the terrorist group Hamas against the government's blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza. At the time, Code Pink said their safety in Gaza was guaranteed by Hamas. Code Pink has acted as a go-between from Hamas to President Barack Obama. In 2009, Hamas gave Code Pink a letter for Obama. Code Pink...

Update: Army will “act” if protesters reject Suleiman Question mark in the headline because Egypt’s information minister insists it’s not a done deal. As I write this, though, Mubarak’s preparing to speak on state TV (which has gradually turned against him) and Fox News is citing a senior Egyptian official as saying he’s ready to quit.Gird your loins. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak is to step down tonight, two sources told NBC News, amid widespread protests against his 30-year rule that have gripped the country.Following an all-day meeting of the country’s supreme military council, the army said all the protesters’...

From Stratfor, citing BBC Arabic. EGYPT: MUBARAK HAS ALREADY LEFT COUNTRY - REPORT Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has reportedly already left the country, and his speech scheduled for the night of Feb. 10 has been pre-recorded, BBC Arabic reported. Some reports indicate Mubarak will speak within two hours, while other unconfirmed reports say he left the country as early as yesterday.