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As reported by Neal Ungerleider at True/Slant, rumors are spreading across the Arab-speaking internet that Egyption Prisdent Hosni Mubarak has died after surgery in Germany. The talk of the Egyptian blogosphere right now is a fast-spreading rumor that President Hosni Mubarak has died. Hundreds of Egyptian and Arabic-speaking Twitter users are posting news of the 81-year-old leader’s death. The reports occurred after reports of Mubarak dying in a German hospital were broadcast on Ru

US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is to sell 24 F-16 jet fighters to Egypt in a 3.2 billion dollar deal, a company spokesman said Tuesday. "We understand that the governements of the United States and Egypt have reached an agreement over a contract for military sale to provide 24 F-16s to Egypt," Lockheed spokesman Joe Stout told AFP. The company hoped to get the contract signed "early next year," he said, adding that the 3.2 billion dollars "was the amount in the agreement between the two countries." The F-16 is flown by 25 nations, according to the company. More than...

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will not be among 3,000 people to attend U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic speech shortly after noon Thursday, a possible bad omen for the American leader trying to win respect in the Muslim world. The official reason for his absence is the death of his 12-year-old grandson, but the child died in mid-May after health complications. Mubarak’s eldest son Jamal will stand in for his father, according to the independent Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm. Jamal is viewed as the future heir to take over as president of Egypt.

Did Clinton nod to Mubarak overthrow? Book suggests foreign policy goof led to Luxor terror massacre © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com A secret deal between the Clinton administration and terrorists linked with Osama bin Laden led directly to the senseless slaughter of some 70 West European tourists and the wounding of hundreds, according to a book written by a former congressional terrorism expert. According to Yossef Bodansky, author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America," a Central Intelligence Agency operative dealing with Islamic terrorists on matters of security for the U.S. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina led them to believe President Clinton ...

CAIRO -- In Washington this month, George Bush met with Gamal Mubarak, heir apparent to the Egyptian throne, and sent regards to Mr. Mubarak's father, President Hosni Mubarak. The House Appropriations Committee turned back an effort by Wisconsin Democrat David Obey to withhold a fraction of Egypt's $1.7 billion annual aid allocation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that any cuts would damage a "strategic partnership" that is "a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East." Also this month, in Cairo, pro-democracy activists such as 39-year-old Ahmed Salah of the Egyptian Movement for Change and dozens of his colleagues...

In the fall of 2002 Iraq crossed an unacceptable threshold, supplying operational weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to bin Laden's terrorists. These developments were confirmed to the Western intelligence services after several terrorists -- graduates of WMD training programs -- were captured in Israel, Chechnya, Turkey, and France, along with documents related to their activities. On the basis of pure threat analysis, the United States should have gone to war against Iraq, as well as its partners Syria and Iran, in fall 2002. By then there was already unambiguous evidence indicating the urgency of defusing the imminent danger posed by...

Oct. 25, 2005 20:43 Mofaz off to Cairo to meet Mubarak By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz flies to Cairo Wednesday for a one-day meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss border crossing arrangements with the Gaza Strip. The sudden invitation to Cairo came following Mubarak's meeting on Monday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who stopped in Egypt to brief Mubarak on his talks with US President Bush in Washington last week. It also comes amid criticism by a top Mideast envoy for dragging its feet over opening the Gaza border. Mofaz's visit will also include a meeting...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Officials counted ballots Thursday after Egypt's first ever contested presidential election, a landmark vote that was seen as a test of the government's commitment to reform and the United States' push for greater democracy across the Middle East. Leaks from the electoral authorities confirmed the widely-held view that President Hosni Mubarak would win another six years in power. One electoral commission official said counting had finished in half the country's polling stations, and Mubarak had taken at least 70 percent of the vote. The remaining votes were shared between the two principal challengers, Ayman Nour of...

Two days after the official beginning of President Hosni Mubarak's re-election campaign—the first in which he is not the only candidate—security forces sent a chilling message to anyone thinking of running against him. Thousands of uniformed police surrounded anti-Mubarak protesters on the evening of 30 July as gangs of plain-clothed agents pounded them with foot-long truncheons. The pre-dusk melee left three protestors hospitalized in critical condition, according to Kifaya leaders, and 23 behind bars. The gruesome spectacle unfolded shortly after 6pm, when small groups of demonstrators assembled on Talaat Harb Street after being turned away from Midan Tahrir, where they...

Italy probes possible CIA role in abduction By John Crewdson (Chicago) Tribune senior correspondent An Italian prosecutor investigating the apparent kidnapping of a suspected Islamic militant in the streets of Milan served military authorities this week with a demand for records of flights into and out of a joint U.S.-Italian air base in northern Italy. Italian newspapers have reported that the prosecutor, Armando Spataro, is investigating the possible role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the disappearance of Osama Nasr Mostafa Hassan, better known as Abu Omar, a popular figure in Milan's Islamic community who vanished Feb. 17, 2003....

SARANDO, EGYPT – Before dawn on March 4, police trucks rumbled into this hamlet and rousted seven men from their beds. They were jailed for allegedly stealing crops and illegally occupying the land of Salah Nawar. A few hours later, Mr. Nawar, a hereditary landlord, arrived with dozens of supporters, some armed, from southern Egypt. What happened next depends on whom you believe. Reporters on the Job The Monitor gives the story behind the story. In the Monitor Friday, 05/06/05 Americans face stricter ID checks Could bigger Sunni role stop attacks? Washington, activists argue a 'new' energy In Chicago, a...

CAIRO, Egypt - In a surprise and dramatic reversal, President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) took a first significant step Saturday toward democratic reform in the world's most populous Arab country, ordering the constitution changed to allow presidential challengers on the ballot this fall. An open election has long been a demand of the opposition but was repeatedly rejected by the ruling party, with Mubarak only last month dismissing calls for reform as "futile." The sudden shift was the first sign from the key U.S. ally that it was ready to participate in the democratic evolution in the Middle...

CAIRO, Feb. 26 - President Hosni Mubarak asked Egypt's Parliament on Saturday to amend the Constitution to allow for direct, multiparty presidential elections this year for the first time in the nation's history. On the face of it, the unexpected proposal from Mr. Mubarak, a former Air Force general who has ruled Egypt unchallenged since 1981, represents a sea change in a country with a 50-year history of one-party governments. "The president will be elected through direct, secret balloting, opening the opportunity for political parties to run in the presidential elections and providing guarantees that allow more than one candidate...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Several hundred Egyptians protested in central Cairo on Monday in the largest street demonstration since the launch last year of a campaign against continued rule by the Mubarak family. Liberals, leftists and Islamists chanted: "Enough, shame, have mercy" and "Down, down with (President) Hosni Mubarak" in a public square outside the gates of Cairo University, as tens of thousands of mostly bemused commuters drove past. Many of them carried yellow flags or stickers saying "Enough" -- the slogan of an informal movement dedicated to stopping Mubarak from obtaining a fifth six-year term in office or arranging for...

About 100 people have taken part in a rare anti-government demonstration in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, demanding free elections for the presidency. Reports say thousands of policemen were deployed near the Cairo international book fair, where the protest occurred. Protesters carried placards calling for an end to the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who may run for a sixth term. In a related development, Human Rights Watch has called on Egypt to release a number of recent detainees. The US-based group says the detentions result from what it describes as politically motivated charges. In a letter to Mr Mubarak, Human...

’No to the Renewal of Mubarak's mandate,’ shout some demonstrators during protest in Cairo. CAIRO - Several dozen Egyptians waving banners and chanting slogans against President Hosni Mubarak joined a protest in Cairo on Friday to call for political reforms, watched by several thousand police. "Enough!" said one banner, in an apparent reference to Mubarak's 24-year rule in Egypt and his expected decision to run for a sixth term in a vote later this year. "No to the Renewal of Mubarak's mandate," shouted some demonstrators near a mosque during a book fair in the Egyptian capital. "No to heredity," referring...

Ahmad Al-Baghdadi, a professor of political science at the University of Kuwait, recently published an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa and later in the Egyptian government weekly Akhbar Al-Yaum in which he called for outlawing and disbanding the Muslim Brotherhood organization, and confiscating its sources of funding. He also criticized U.S. policy on this subject, claiming that it is too lenient with organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood. The following are excerpts from the article: [1] 'What is Preventing the U.S. from Adding the Muslim Brotherhood to the Terrorist List?' "Three senior Arab political leaders accused the Muslim Brotherhood organization...

Al Hayat: Arab country assisting Israel against Hamas London based Arab daily claims Arab intelligence service providing the Mossad with vital information.Itamar Inbari and Maariv International According to the report, the Mossad requested the assistance, as it was unable to obtain the required information by itself, and has had little luck in penetrating Hams and other Islamic terror organizations, due to their effective counter-intelligence operational capabilities. The information provided to the Mossad has given it detailed information on Hamas leaders, especially its leader Haled Mashal, who Israel attempted to assassinate in Jordan several years ago, and his deputy Mussa abu...

The war we're losing Posted: June 30, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. June 28, the day in 2004 that the Americans transferred sovereignty to Iraqis and proconsul Paul Bremer hastily departed Baghdad, is a day freighted with historic significance. On June 28, 1914, 90 years before, Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip fired the shots that killed the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and led, five weeks later, to World War I. On June 28, 1919, German representatives, their country under an Allied starvation blockade, prostrate before a threat by Marshal Foch to march on Berlin, signed the Versailles...

Cheerleaders for TerrorismBy Erick StakelbeckFrontPageMagazine.com | June 17, 2003 Two groups whom Islamic terrorists can count on for sympathy and support are radical lawyers and their counterparts in American law schools. Lynne Stewart is a hero of the National Lawyers Guild and a sought-after campus lecturer. While out on bail under indictment for colluding with a terrorist leader, she has been a sought-after speaker for law school audiences who relish her attacks on Attorney General John Ashcroft as a modern-day fascist and on her country for its imperialist and racist policies. Stewart made national headlines in April 2002 when she...