It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:04 pm

All times are UTC




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Let...Egypt Shake?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:00 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:44 pm
Posts: 1121
Location: Sussex, England
Excellent Mondoweiss on what's going on in Egypt. Amazing times:

http://mondoweiss.net/

The Independent's Robert Fisk:

'Interestingly, there seems no animosity towards foreigners. Many journalists have been protected by the crowds and – despite America's lamentable support for the Middle East's dictators – there has not so far been a single US flag burned. That shows you what's new. Perhaps a people have grown up – only to discover that their ageing government are all children.'

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 96751.html

_________________
Wiggins is so superbly unassuming, he looks like he's about to say 'Pop the gold medal in the post, I'm nipping out for some biscuits'

Mark Steel


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Let...Egypt Shake?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:31 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:19 am
Posts: 121
is nice this landscape for "let england shake" release, is even "magical" lol. not just egypt but many countries in the north africa are rebelling after the tunisia protests. however, looks like USA and China will shake more than middle east about what they will lose :)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Let...Egypt Shake?
PostPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:46 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:44 pm
Posts: 1121
Location: Sussex, England
head's_bullet wrote:
is nice this landscape for "let england shake" release, is even "magical" lol. not just egypt but many countries in the north africa are rebelling after the tunisia protests. however, looks like USA and China will shake more than middle east about what they will lose :)


Yes! China is investing a lot in Africa.
The US government wants Mubarak to stay because he looks after their interests but not the interests of the Egyptian people!

Absolute must read from Robert Fisk:

US envoy's business link to Egypt

Obama scrambles to limit damage after Frank Wisner makes robust call for Mubarak to remain in place as leader.

By Robert Fisk in Cairo

Monday, 7 February 2011

Frank Wisner, President Barack Obama's envoy to Cairo who infuriated the White House this weekend by urging Hosni Mubarak to remain President of Egypt, works for a New York and Washington law firm which works for the dictator's own Egyptian government.

Mr Wisner's astonishing remarks – "President Mubarak's continued leadership is critical: it's his opportunity to write his own legacy" – shocked the democratic opposition in Egypt and called into question Mr Obama's judgement, as well as that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The US State Department and Mr Wisner himself have now both claimed that his remarks were made in a "personal capacity". But there is nothing "personal" about Mr Wisner's connections with the litigation firm Patton Boggs, which openly boasts that it advises "the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and has handled arbitrations and litigation on the [Mubarak] government's behalf in Europe and the US". Oddly, not a single journalist raised this extraordinary connection with US government officials – nor the blatant conflict of interest it appears to represent.

Mr Wisner is a retired State Department 36-year career diplomat – he served as US ambassador to Egypt, Zambia, the Philippines and India under eight American presidents. In other words, he was not a political appointee. But it is inconceivable Hillary Clinton did not know of his employment by a company that works for the very dictator which Mr Wisner now defends in the face of a massive democratic opposition in Egypt.

So why on earth was he sent to talk to Mubarak, who is in effect a client of Mr Wisner's current employers?

Patton Boggs states that its attorneys "represent some of the leading Egyptian commercial families and their companies" and "have been involved in oil and gas and telecommunications infrastructure projects on their behalf". One of its partners served as chairman of the US-Egyptian Chamber of Commerce promoting foreign investment in the Egyptian economy. The company has also managed contractor disputes in military-sales agreements arising under the US Foreign Military Sales Act. Washington gives around $1.3bn (£800m) a year to the Egyptian military.

Mr Wisner joined Patton Boggs almost two years ago – more than enough time for both the White House and the State Department to learn of his company's intimate connections with the Mubarak regime. The New York Times ran a glowing profile of Mr Wisner in its pages two weeks ago – but mysteriously did not mention his ties to Egypt.

Nicholas Noe, an American political researcher now based in Beirut, has spent weeks investigating Mr Wisner's links to Patton Boggs. Mr Noe is also a former researcher for Hillary Clinton and questions the implications of his discoveries.

"The key problem with Wisner being sent to Cairo at the behest of Hillary," he says, "is the conflict-of-interest aspect... More than this, the idea that the US is now subcontracting or 'privatising' crisis management is another problem. Do the US lack diplomats?

"Even in past examples where presidents have sent someone 'respected' or 'close' to a foreign leader in order to lubricate an exit," Mr Noe adds, "the envoys in question were not actually paid by the leader they were supposed to squeeze out!"

Patton Boggs maintains an "affiliate relationship" with Zaki Hashem, one of Egypt's most prominent legal firms. It was founded in 1953 and Zaki Hashem himself was a cabinet minister under Mubarak's predecessor, President Anwar Sadat, and later became head of the Egyptian Society for International Law.

By a further remarkable irony, one of Zaki Hashem's senior advisers was Nabil al-Araby, one of the 25 leading Egyptian personalities just chosen by the protesters in Tahrir Square to demand the overthrow of Mubarak. Nabil al-Araby, a former member of the UN's International Law Commission, told me yesterday that he ended his connection with Zaki Hashem three years ago and had "no idea" why Mr Wisner had come out in support of Mubarak's continued rule. He himself believed it was essential Mubarak make a dignified but immediate exit. "The head must go," he said.

When Frank Wisner joined Patton Boggs in March 2009, the company described him as "one of the nation's most respected diplomats" who would provide clients with "strategic global advice concerning business, politics and international law". The firm stated specifically that "it looks to Ambassador Wisner to use his expertise in the Middle East and India to assist its American and international clients."

Stuart Pape, managing partner at Patton Boggs, said at the time that "it is a real coup for the firm to have Ambassador Wisner – one of the most experienced and highly regarded diplomats – join our ranks... His in-depth knowledge of global politics and the international financial world is a huge asset for our clients."

We still do not know exactly what kind of "expertise" he has bestowed upon the dictator of Egypt. But his remarks at the weekend leave no room to doubt he advised the old man to cling on to power for a few more months. The vast network of companies with family connections to Mubarak's regime is, of course, one of the targets of the pro-democracy demonstrators in Egypt.

A spokesman for the State Department said he "presumed" Mrs Clinton knew of Mr Wisner's employment by Patton Boggs and the firm's links with the Mubarak government, but refused to comment on any conflict of interest for the envoy. A spokesman for Patton Boggs could not be reached yesterday.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 06329.html

_________________
Wiggins is so superbly unassuming, he looks like he's about to say 'Pop the gold medal in the post, I'm nipping out for some biscuits'

Mark Steel


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Let...Egypt Shake?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 12:23 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:44 pm
Posts: 1121
Location: Sussex, England
Something that didn't get the attention it deserved: After the bomb attack on the coptic church in Cairo, last December, many muslims went to act as 'human shields' to protect the Christian worshippers when they wanted to go back to worshipping there.

While the muslim protesters were praying in Tahrir Square, last Friday, Christians stood guard to protect them from Mubarak's thugs. The Egyptian people are far too sophisticated - than those with a colonial attitude give them credit for - to let extremists gain influence.

Let's hope there aren't any more 'Lavon affairs' or False Flag events! Reading 'between the lines' I got the impression Fisk was implying, in an article this week, that the bomb attack on the coptic church may not have been the usual suspects that we were led to believe.

The US government and Israeli Government would like Mubarak to stay. Here's why he should go now:

http://unsilentgeneration.com/2011/02/0 ... r-mubarak/

If he does go they would like Suleiman to take over. Here's why he shouldn't:

http://unsilentgeneration.com/2011/02/0 ... r-another/

Clashes on bridge.

Protesters wanting to reach Tahrir Square blocked by police:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLWWFi5L ... r_embedded

Great footage of the bridge clashes.

Just after 3 minutes in the protesters stop to pray, the police fire water cannons at them, but they don't back down. Best part is from 8.35 to the end. Amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBtYLBQPRGQ

_________________
Wiggins is so superbly unassuming, he looks like he's about to say 'Pop the gold medal in the post, I'm nipping out for some biscuits'

Mark Steel


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Let...Egypt Shake?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:50 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:44 pm
Posts: 1121
Location: Sussex, England
After the incredible day yesterday I wanted to post Fisk's commentary.

'Arabs, maligned, cursed, racially abused in the West, treated as backward by many of the Israelis who wanted to maintain Mubarak's often savage rule, had stood up, abandoned their fear, and tossed away the man whom the West loved as a "moderate" leader who would do their bidding at the price of $1.5bn a year. It's not only East Europeans who can stand up to brutality.'

[...]

'In many countries, they would have burned government buildings after a presidential speech of such hubris; in Tahrir Square, they staged poetry readings.'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 12487.html

_________________
Wiggins is so superbly unassuming, he looks like he's about to say 'Pop the gold medal in the post, I'm nipping out for some biscuits'

Mark Steel


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Let...Egypt Shake?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:47 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:50 am
Posts: 588
Location: at the end of this burning world
Very glad about the outcome. I hope what comes next is a democratic government as they've idealized it, and that it sets a long-lasting precedent for other people who live under autocratic regimes to fight for democracy. It gives me a naive hopeful feeling about the world. :)

_________________
Contact The Garden Staff at gardensupport@gmail.com

Find us at
Twitter
MySpace
Facebook


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 

All times are UTC


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: