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Soul Crusher

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #175 on: June 26, 2012, 06:51:51 AM »
So...
what are we talking about here..lol...Wheres you beef this time?
Muslims took over in Egypt?.

Basically - obama, andre, benny, and the rest of the idiot obama cult members got proven dead wrong once again.   

Easiest way to predict the outcome of something is take the opposite view of obama and the leftists.  Works everything. 

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #176 on: June 26, 2012, 07:08:45 AM »

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #177 on: June 26, 2012, 12:34:23 PM »



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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #178 on: June 26, 2012, 02:24:12 PM »
visit http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/hillary-tied-to-new-muslim-brotherhood-president/

 


WND EXCLUSIVE

Hillary tied to new Muslim Brotherhood president

Radical links run through secretary of state's chief of staff

Published: 20 hours ago

 byAaron KleinEmail | Archive
Aaron Klein is WND's senior staff reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief. He also hosts "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on New York's WABC Radio. Follow Aaron on Twitter and Facebook.




Saleha Mahmood Abedin, the mother of Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, reportedly served in the women’s division of the Muslim Brotherhood alongside the wife of Egypt’s new president, the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi.
 
WND previously exposed Abedin represented a Muslim charity known to have spawned terror groups, including one declared by the U.S. government to be an official al-Qaida front.
 
WND also reported Clinton spoke at Abedin’s Saudi women’s college, where she was introduced by Abedin alongside the Islamic activist’s daughter, Huma, who serves as Clinton’s chief of staff. At the speech, Clinton praised Saleha’s “pioneering work.”
 
Saleha Abedin is also the mother-in-law of disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.
 
Now, author Walid Shoebat is reporting that while she acted as one of 63 leaders of the Muslim Sisterhood, the de facto female version of the Muslim Brotherhood, Saleha Abedin served alongside Najla Ali Mahmoud, the wife of Mursi. Both were members of the Sisterhood’s Guidance Bureau, found Shoebat.
 
Get a FREE copy of Aaron Klein’s “Manchurian President” with every purchase of “Red Army: The Radical Network That Must Be Defeated to Save America.”
 
Saleha Mahmood Abedin is an associate professor of sociology at Dar Al-Hekma College in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which she helped to create. She formerly directed the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs in the U.K. and served as a delegate for the Muslim World League, an Islamic fundamentalist group Osama bin Laden reportedly told an associate was one of his most important charity fronts.
 
In February 2010, Clinton spoke at Abedin’s college, where she was first introduced by Abedin and then praised the work of the terror-tied professor:
 
“I have to say a special word about Dr. Saleha Abedin,” Clinton said. “You heard her present the very exciting partnerships that have been pioneered between colleges and universities in the United States and this college. And it is pioneering work to create these kinds of relationships.
 
“But I have to confess something that Dr. Abedin did not,” Clinton continued, “and that is that I have almost a familial bond with this college. Dr. Abedin’s daughter, one of her three daughters, is my deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, who started to work for me when she was a student at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.”
 
As WND was first to report, Abedin once reportedly represented the Muslim World League, or MWL, a Saudi-financed charity that has spawned Islamic groups accused of terror ties. One of the groups was declared by the U.S. government to be an official al-Qaida front.
 
Abedin has been quoted in numerous press accounts as both representing the MWL and serving as a delegate for the charity.
 
In 1995, for example, the Washington Times reported on a United Nations-arranged women’s conference in Beijing that called on governments throughout the world to give women statistical equality with men in the workplace.
 
The report quoted Abedin, who attended the conference as a delegate, as “also representing the Muslim World League based in Saudi Arabia and the Muslim NGO Caucus.”
 
The U.N.’s website references a report in the run-up to the Beijing conference also listing Abedin as representing the MWL at the event.
 
The website posted an article from the now defunct United States Information Agency quoting Abedin and reporting she attended the Beijing conference as “a delegate of the Muslim World League and member of the Muslim Women’s NGO caucus.”
 
In the article, Abedin was listed under a shorter name, “Dr. Saleha Mahmoud, director of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs.”
 
WND has confirmed the individual listed is Huma Abedin’s mother. The reports misspelled part of Abedin’s name. Her full professional name is at times listed as Saleha Mahmood Abedin S.
 
Al-Qaida links
 
The MWL, meanwhile, was founded in Mecca in 1962 and bills itself one of the largest Islamic non-governmental organizations.
 
But according to U.S. government documents and testimony from the charity’s own officials, it is heavily financed by the Saudi government.
 
The MWL has been accused of terror ties, as have its various offshoots, including the International Islamic Relief Organization, or IIRO, and Al Haramain, which was declared by the U.S. and U.N. a terror financing front.
 
Indeed, the Treasury Department, in a September 2004 press release, alleged Al Haramain had “direct links” with Osama bin Laden. The group is now banned worldwide by United Nations Security Council Committee 1267.
 
There long have been reports citing accusations the IIRO and MWL also repeatedly funded al-Qaida.
 
In 1993, bin Laden reportedly told an associate that the MWL was one of his three most important charity fronts.
 
An Anti-Defamation League profile of the MWL accuses the group of promulgating a “fundamentalist interpretation of Islam around the world through a large network of charities and affiliated organizations.”
 
“Its ideological backbone is based on an extremist interpretation of Islam,” the profile states, “and several of its affiliated groups and individuals have been linked to terror-related activity.”
 
In 2003, U.S. News and World Report documented that accompanying the MWL’s donations, invariably, are “a blizzard of Wahhabist literature.”
 
“Critics argue that Wahhabism’s more extreme preachings – mistrust of infidels, branding of rival sects as apostates and emphasis on violent jihad –laid the groundwork for terrorist groups around the world,” the report continued.
 
An Egyptian-American cab driver, Ihab Mohamed Ali Nawawi, was arrested in Florida in 1990 on accusations he was an al-Qaida sleeper agent and a former personal pilot to bin Laden. At the same time he was accused of serving bin Laden, he also reportedly worked for the Pakistani branch of the MWL.
 
The MWL in 1988 founded the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, developing chapters in about 50 countries, including for a time in Oregon until it was designated a terror organization.
 
In the early 1990s, evidence began to grow that the foundation was funding Islamist militants in Somalia and Bosnia, and a 1996 CIA report detailed its Bosnian militant ties.
 
The U.S. Treasury designated Al Haramain’s offices in Kenya and Tanzania as sponsors of terrorism for their role in planning and funding the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa. The Comoros Islands office was also designated because it “was used as a staging area and exfiltration route for the perpetrators of the 1998 bombings.”
 
The New York Times reported in 2003 that Al Haramain had provided funds to the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which was responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. The Indonesia office was later designated a terrorist entity by the Treasury.
 
In February 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department froze all Al Haramain’s financial assets pending an investigation, leading the Saudi government to disband the charity and fold it into another group, the Saudi National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad.
 
In September 2004, the U.S. designated Al-Haramain a terrorist organization.
 
In June 2008, the Treasury Department applied the terrorist designation to the entire Al-Haramain organization worldwide
 
Bin Laden’s brother-in-law
 
In August, 2006, the Treasury Department also designated the Philippine and Indonesian branch offices of the MWL-founded IIRO as terrorist entities “for facilitating fundraising for al-Qaida and affiliated terrorist groups.”
 
The Treasury Department added: “Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil, a high-ranking IIRO official [executive director of its Eastern Province Branch] in Saudi Arabia, has used his position to bankroll the al-Qaida network in Southeast Asia. Al-Mujil has a long record of supporting Islamic militant groups, and he has maintained a cell of regular financial donors in the Middle East who support extremist causes.”
 
In the 1980s, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law, ran the Philippines offices of the IIRO. Khalifa has been linked to Manila-based plots to target the pope and U.S. airlines.
 
The IIRO has also been accused of funding Hamas, Algerian radicals, Afghanistan militant bases and the Egyptian terror group Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya.
 
The New York Post reported the families of the 9/11 victims filed a lawsuit against IIRO and other Muslim organizations for having “played key roles in laundering of funds to the terrorists in the 1998 African embassy bombings,” and for having been involved in the “financing and ‘aiding and abetting’ of terrorists in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.”
 
‘Saudi government front’
 
In a court case in Canada, Arafat El-Asahi, the Canadian director of both the IIRO and the MWL, admitted the charities are near entities of the Saudi government.
 
Stated El-Asahi: “The Muslim World League, which is the mother of IIRO, is a fully government-funded organization. In other words, I work for the Government of Saudi Arabia. I am an employee of that government.
 
“Second, the IIRO is the relief branch of that organization, which means that we are controlled in all our activities and plans by the Government of Saudi Arabia. Keep that in mind, please,” he said.
 
Despite its offshoots being implicated in terror financing, the U.S. government never designated the MWL itself as a terror-financing charity. Many have speculated the U.S. has been trying to not embarrass the Saudi government.
 
With research by Brenda J. Elliott


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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #179 on: June 27, 2012, 05:09:09 AM »
What hath ‘Cairo’ wrought?
Last Updated: 12:42 AM, June 26, 2012


Posted: 10:32 PM, June 25, 2012

Is this the democratic Muslim world President Obama called for in his much-publicized Cairo address three years ago?

Chaos there and a US impotent to do much of anything about it?

With the election this past weekend of Mohammed Morsi as president, Cairo became capital to an Egypt under the banner of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

Obama’s 2009 speech, recall, was a mishmash of moral equivalence — apologizing for US intervention in the Middle East; comparing the CIA’s alleged role in the 1953 Iranian coup to the 1979 Iranian Revolution’s hostage-taking and subsequent state-sponsorship of terror.

Most reasonable people were at least skeptical as Obama stretched out a hand to the Muslim world, urging it to reject extremism and move closer to Washington.

Such skepticism has proved warranted.

Egypt’s Arab Spring democracy movement, for better or for worse, led to longtime US ally Hosni Mubarak being nudged aside — and the rise of the Brotherhood.

In Libya, the US “lead from behind” strategy to push out Moammar Khadafy accomplished that goal — but a dangerous leadership vacuum persists and the future is dark.

And in Syria, a full-blown civil war rages.

In a nutshell, the US has far less influence in Egypt today than at any point during the last four decades — a fact of serious consequence strategically and economically.

Morsi says Egypt will remain steadfast to its international commitments — including the Camp David accords with Israel.

Time will tell; the military — which retains strong strategic relationships with the United States — has a say in that.

But as a popularly elected leader, Morsi could be a focus for continued unrest and protest against military rule.

The White House calls Morsi’s election a milestone in Egypt’s road to democracy.

What else can it say?

But, in truth, Obama has demonstrated that while he had nice words three years ago, he has no clue — no vision — as to what Egypt or the rest of the Middle East should look like years from now.

In 1979, the United States stood helplessly on the sidelines as once-ally Iran slipped into Islamist hands.

Is there cause for optimism today?



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/what_hath_cairo_wrought_pDGTPxwPqkO51xBOEp5BLP#ixzz1yzjXhxwQ


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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #180 on: June 27, 2012, 11:24:11 AM »
Only in America are people interested in spreading democracy around the world, but only when the outcome suits them.

I don't agree with the majority vote of an admitted extremist group, but that is the way the people voted. I would hope going forward that a more secular Egypt can exist. However, any time democracy is exercised over dictatorships that is a step in the right direction.
Abandon every hope...

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #181 on: June 27, 2012, 11:55:57 AM »
Egypt's Islamist President Wants Close Ties with Iran
Monday, 25 Jun 2012 06:05 AM



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inShare inShare1 Egypt's Islamist President-elect Mohammed Morsi has said he wants to restore long-severed ties with Tehran to create a strategic "balance" in the region, in an interview published on Monday with Iran's Fars news agency.
Morsi's comments may unsettle Western powers as they seek to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, which they suspect it is using to build atomic bombs. Tehran denies this.

Diplomatic relations between Egypt and Iran were severed more than 30 years ago, but both countries have signalled a shift in policy since former president Hosni Mubarak was toppled last year in a popular uprising.

"We must restore normal relations with Iran based on shared interests, and expand areas of political coordination and economic cooperation because this will create a balance of pressure in the region," Morsi was quoted as saying in a transcript of the interview.

Rivalry between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite giant Iran has been intensified by "Arab Spring" revolts, which have redrawn the political map of the Middle East and left the powerful Gulf neighbours vying for influence.

Fars said it had spoken to Morsi a few hours before the result of the vote was announced on Sunday.

Asked to comment on reports that, if elected, his first state visit would be to Riyadh, Morsi said: "I didn't say such a thing and until now my first international visits following my victory in the elections have not been determined".

Iran subsequently hailed Morsi's victory over former general Ahmed Shafik in Egypt's first free presidential election as a "splendid vision of democracy" that marked the country's final phase of an "Islamic Awakening".

The West, Gulf states and Israel reacted with caution to the result, welcoming the democratic process that led to Morsi's election, but stressing that Egypt's stability was their main priority.

 

CAMP DAVID REVIEW

In contrast to comments he made in a televised address after his victory was announced on Sunday, Fars news quoted Morsi as saying Egypt's Camp David peace accord with Israel "will be reviewed", without elaborating.

The peace treaty remains a lynchpin of U.S. Middle East policy and, despite its unpopularity with many Egyptians, was staunchly upheld by Mubarak, who also suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood movement to which Morsi belongs.

The Sunni Brotherhood, whose Palestinian offshoot Hamas rules the Gaza Strip, is vehemently critical of Israel, which has watched the rise of Islamists and ongoing political upheaval in neighbouring Egypt with growing concern.

Egypt's formal recognition of Israel and Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution led to the breakdown of diplomatic relations in 1980. The two countries - among the biggest and most influential in the Middle East - still have reciprocal interest sections, but not at ambassadorial level.

Egypt's foreign minister said last year that Cairo was ready to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran, which has hailed most Arab Spring uprisings as anti-Western rebellions inspired by its own Islamic Revolution.

Yet Iran has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Tehran's closest Arab ally, who is grappling with a revolt against his rule, and at home has continued to reject demands for reform, which spilled onto the street following the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

© 2012 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.


Read more on Newsmax.com: Egypt's Islamist President Wants Close Ties with Iran
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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #182 on: June 27, 2012, 01:19:13 PM »
State Dept. Won’t Explain Terrorist WH Visit

Victoria Nuland / AP

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff - June 26, 2012 10:45 am




The U.S. State Department “refuses to explain” how a member of an Egyptian terrorist group was allowed into the White House for a visit. According to a daily briefing transcript published by Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post:
 

QUESTION: . . . .It has to do with the visa for the Gama’a al-Islamiyya member. You said last week that there was a – you were looking into the circumstances of how this was issued. Has – have you determined how this – how it happened? And are you aware that Representative King has asked – formally asked Homeland Security to find out how he was in fact allowed entry, quite apart – separate from the visa issue?
 
MS. NULAND: On the latter, yes, I’ve seen the reporting. As we promised, we did look into it. Unfortunately, you’re not going to be happy with me when I tell you that we are not going to get into the details of confidential visa issuance. He and the rest of that delegation who were here last week have all now returned to Egypt.
 
QUESTION: Do you regard it as a mistake to have issued him a visa, given that he is self-proclaimed a member of Gama’a al-Islamiyya?
 
MS. NULAND: Well, let’s start with the fact that we have an interest in engaging a broad cross-section of Egyptians who are seeking to peacefully shape Egypt’s future.

 This entry was posted in National Security and tagged Egypt, terrorism, Visa, White House. Bookmark the permalink.


http://freebeacon.com/state-dept-wont-explain-terrorist-wh-visit



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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #183 on: July 10, 2012, 05:17:02 AM »
Calls to Destroy Egypt’s Great Pyramids Begin

Posted By Raymond Ibrahim On July 10, 2012 @ 12:35 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 20 Comments



According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those “symbols of paganism,” which Egypt’s Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax.    Most recently, Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not.”
 
This is a reference to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s companion, Amr bin al-As and his Arabian tribesmen, who invaded and conquered Egypt circa 641.  Under al-As and subsequent Muslim rule, many Egyptian antiquities were destroyed as relics of infidelity.  While most Western academics argue otherwise, according to early Muslim writers, the great Library of Alexandria itself—deemed a repository of pagan knowledge contradicting the Koran—was destroyed under bin al-As’s reign and in compliance with Caliph Omar’s command.
 
However, while book-burning was an easy activity in the 7th century, destroying the mountain-like pyramids and their guardian Sphinx was not—even if Egypt’s Medieval Mamluk rulers “de-nosed” the latter during target practice (though popular legend still attributes it to a Westerner, Napoleon).
 
Now, however, as Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sheikhs” observes, and thanks to modern technology, the pyramids can be destroyed.  The only question left is whether the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt is “pious” enough—if he is willing to complete the Islamization process that started under the hands of Egypt’s first Islamic conqueror.
 
Nor is such a course of action implausible.  History is laden with examples of Muslims destroying their own pre-Islamic heritage—starting with Islam’s prophet Muhammad himself, who destroyed Arabia’s Ka‘ba temple, transforming it into a mosque.
 
Asking “What is it about Islam that so often turns its adherents against their own patrimony?” Daniel Pipes provides several examples, from Medieval Muslims in India destroying their forefathers’ temples, to contemporary Muslims destroying their non-Islamic heritage in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Malaysia, and Tunisia.
 
Currently, in what the International Criminal Court is describing as a possible “war crime,” Islamic fanatics are destroying the ancient heritage of the city of Timbuktu in Mali—all to Islam’s triumphant war cry, “Allahu Akbar!”
 
Much of this hate for their own pre-Islamic heritage is tied to the fact that, traditionally, Muslims do not identify with this or that nation, culture, heritage, or language, but only with the Islamic nation—the Umma.
 
Accordingly, while many Egyptians—Muslims and non-Muslims alike—see themselves as Egyptians, Islamists have no national identity, identifying only with Islam’s “culture,” based on the “sunna” of the prophet and Islam’s language, Arabic.  This sentiment was clearly reflected when the former Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Akef, declared “the hell with Egypt,” indicating that the interests of his country are secondary to Islam’s.
 
It is further telling that such calls are being made now—immediately after a Muslim Brotherhood member became Egypt’s president.  In fact, the same reports discussing the call to demolish the last of the Seven Wonders of the Word, also note that Egyptian Salafis are calling on Morsi to banish all Shias and Baha’is from Egypt.
 
In other words, Morsi’s call to release the Blind Sheikh, a terrorist mastermind, may be the tip of the iceberg in coming audacity.  From calls to legalize Islamic sex-slave marriage to calls to institute “morality police” to calls to destroy Egypt’s mountain-like monuments, under Muslim Brotherhood tutelage, the bottle has been uncorked, and the genie unleashed in Egypt.
 
Will all those international institutions, which make it a point to look the other way whenever human rights abuses are committed by Muslims, lest they appear “Islamophobic,” at least take note now that the Great Pyramids appear to be next on Islam’s hit list, or will the fact that Muslims are involved silence them once again—even as those most ancient symbols of human civilization are pummeled to the ground?
 
Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/muslim-brotherhood-destroy-the-pyramids/

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #184 on: July 10, 2012, 07:08:35 AM »

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/world/middleeast/fast-changing-arab-world-is-upending-us-assumptions.html?_r=1&hp



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

July 9, 2012
 

As Islamists Gain Influence, Washington Reassesses Who Its Friends Are
 
By SCOTT SHANE

 

WASHINGTON — In his first major speech last month, Mohamed Morsi, the new Egyptian president, pledged to seek the release of a notorious Egyptian terrorist from a North Carolina prison. Not long before that, a member of a designated terrorist organization, Gamaa al-Islamiyya — who also happens to be a recently elected member of the Egyptian Parliament — was welcomed to Washington as part of an official delegation sponsored by the State Department.

Obama administration officials made no public comment on Mr. Morsi’s promise and struggled to explain why the Egyptian Parliament member, Hani Nour Eldin, got a visa, citing privacy rules and declining to say whether he had been granted a waiver from the ban on such visitors or whether his affiliation simply escaped notice.

Pressed by reporters after the visa quickly became a Congressional controversy, a State Department spokeswoman, Victoria J. Nuland, said Mr. Eldin had been judged to pose no threat to the United States.

“It’s a new day in Egypt,” she added. “It’s a new day in a lot of countries across the Middle East and North Africa.”

For the Obama administration, as it navigates the tumultuous effects of the Arab Spring, it’s a complicated day, as well. Long-held assumptions about who is a friend of the United States and who is not have been upset, leaving many Americans confused.

“Right now, the United States is kind of in a trance when it looks at the Middle East,” said Akbar Ahmed, chairman of Islamic studies at American University. “Everything has changed.”

 The overthrow of dictators across the Arab world and the rise of Islamists to new influence or power is forcing Washington to reassess decades-old judgments. The most important is in Egypt, where Mr. Morsi, representing the region’s most powerful Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, won a close election. His move on Sunday to revive the dissolved Parliament had Western experts scrambling to understand his strategy.

In Tunisia, a once-banned Islamist party, Ennahda, won a plurality of seats in elections last year, and Islamists have won new support in Yemen as well. In Saturday’s voting, Libya appeared to buck the trend, when a coalition led by a moderate political scientist seemed to edge out two Islamist parties.

But in a sign of the political potency of religion, the leader of the winning coalition, Mahmoud Jibril, went out of his way to reject the “secular” label for his National Forces Alliance and reached out to the Islamists. “There are no extremists,” he said.

In the decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans largely viewed the Middle East and Islam through the lens of the terrorism threat. The United States exercised stark judgments, encapsulated by President George W. Bush’s warning to the world nine days after the attacks: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

Foreign Muslim scholars were denied visas because of outspoken views at odds with American policy. American officials did not always carefully distinguish between Islamists, who advocate a leading role for Islam in government, and violent jihadists, who espouse the same goal but advocate terrorism to achieve it.

American hostility to Islamist movements, in fact, long predated Sept. 11, in part because of the United States’ support for secular autocrats in Arab countries. During the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was officially banned, so American diplomats in Cairo kept contacts quiet and informal.

“We have not engaged the Muslim Brotherhood,” Condoleezza Rice, then the secretary of state, declared in a 2005 speech in Cairo, “and we won’t.”

 Experts on the Middle East suggest that the recent controversies over Mr. Morsi’s statement and Mr. Eldin’s visa are only the beginning of a long, contentious process of adjustment for the United States, with implications for American aid and Arab countries’ relations with Israel.

But they suggest that Americans should not assume that the rise of Islamists puts the United States in greater danger from terrorists. The opposite may well be the case, they say.

“I would say people should not be too alarmed by the anti-American rhetoric,” said Stephen McInerney, executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, based in Washington. The end last year of the Mubarak rule in Egypt, he said, “is an important step in combating terrorism in the region and undermining its appeal.”

“People can freely vent their frustrations and go to the polls to vote,” he added.

For some members of Congress, the latest developments are nonetheless disturbing. Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said Mr. Morsi’s call for the release of Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind Egyptian sheik who is serving a life term, was “the kind of talk you hear on the street — not from the president of the country.”

“We have to be concerned,” Mr. King added.

He wrote to Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, demanding an explanation for Mr. Eldin’s visa. “If we’re going to allow someone from a notorious terrorist group into the country, it should be the result of a long, public process of decision-making,” Mr. King said.

There are historical precedents, Mr. King acknowledged, citing one he knows intimately. A longtime supporter of the Irish Republican Army, Mr. King lobbied for years for a visa for Gerry Adams, head of what was the I.R.A.’s political wing, Sinn Fein, before it was granted in 1994.

“But that took years of negotiation, and it was done openly,” Mr. King said, by contrast with the visit by Mr. Eldin, which was not known about publicly until it was reported by The Daily Beast.

An earlier precedent might be the Zionist militants who took part in terrorist acts against the British before the creation of the State of Israel, then became leading politicians who were warmly welcomed in Washington.

Gamaa al-Islamiyya appears to be another case of a terrorist organization gradually changing its tactics. The group carried out a brutal campaign of violence in the 1990s, killing Egyptian soldiers and police officers and foreign tourists. But it renounced violence in 2003, and since then has sought to enter the political mainstream.

The sheik, 74, now in a federal prison for ailing convicts at Butner, N.C., was a leading figure in the group during its violent days. He was sentenced in 1996 for plotting a “war of urban terrorism” against the United States, beginning with the bombings of tunnels and landmarks in New York City.

 But his guilt is questioned by many Egyptians, who see him as the victim of a conspiracy by the United States and Mr. Mubarak.

Michele Dunne, an Egypt expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington research institution, said Mr. Morsi’s mention of the case was a political gesture toward ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis, like Mr. Eldin. It remains to be seen, she said, whether Mr. Morsi will follow up with American officials, who are certain to dismiss any request for the sheik’s release.

The major Egyptian terrorists, including the sheik and the current leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, were shaped by their rage against the Mubarak dictatorship, Ms. Dunne said. The movement of Islamists into mainstream politics should reduce the terrorism threat, she said.

When it appeared last month that the Egyptian military might intervene and block Mr. Morsi from taking power, Ms. Dunne said, that development appeared to hang in the balance.

 “If Islamist groups like the Brotherhood lose faith in democracy,” she said, “that’s when there could be dire consequences.”


David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Cairo.
 


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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #185 on: July 10, 2012, 05:54:59 PM »
The Obama Administration Is Setting up a Bloodbath in Egypt
Posted By David P. Goldman On July 9, 2012 @ 11:34 am In Uncategorized | 23 Comments

The economics of confrontation in Egypt
(Cross-posted from Asia Times Online)
By Spengler

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, that no path exists to stable rule by the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi help has kept Egypt’s economy away from the brink of collapse, but only just. A paralyzing fuel shortage threatens to shut down essential functions, including bread supplies. If the Muslim Brotherhood were to push the military out of power, the Saudis almost certainly would pull the plug and leave Egypt in chaos.

Figure 1: Egypt’s Liquid Reserves Cover Six Weeks of Imports

A situation of dual power, to use the old Bolshevik term, prevails between the Brotherhood and the military. At this writing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had called an emergency meeting to respond to President Morsi’s attempt to revoke the military’s earlier decree dissolving Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament. Morsi announced that the dismissed parliament would meet within hours; some news reports from Cairo expect the military to refuse entry to members of parliament. The speed with which Morsi moved to confront the military surprised most analysts, who expected a few months of regroupment before the Islamists tested the military’s resolve.

There are two likely explanations for the Muslim Brotherhood’s gamble. One is that economic distress requires the Brotherhood to rally its base in a dramatic action; another is that the Brotherhood has been emboldened by the perception that it enjoys the tacit support of the White House against the military. A test of wills between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood, though, would lead to disaster.

A number of observers, for example Ilan Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council, and ex-CIA official Robert Grenier, predict that the military will crush Egypt’s Islamists like Algeria’s military regime two decades ago. By supporting the Muslim Brotherhood against the military, the Obama administration has raised the probability of bloodshed.

It is not clear, moreover, whether Saudi generosity can stabilize Egypt even under the best of circumstances. With its trade deficit running at $3 billion a month, and other sources of revenue much reduced, the country’s annual financing needs probably exceed $20 billion. Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat and depends on imports for half its caloric consumption.

Exhibit 2: Egypt Imports and Exports

Source: Bloomberg

President Morsi will visit Saudi Arabia later this week, presumably to persuade the Saudis to support his regime (and perhaps to threaten them if they do not). It will be a difficult dialogue, after the Muslim Brotherhood staged riots against Saudi diplomatic installations in Egypt late in April (see The horror and the pita, Asia Times Online, May 1, 2012), and a senior Saudi advisor told Egypt’s largest daily al-Ahram June 21 that the Muslim Brotherhood lacks the vision and experience to govern the country. The Saudi-sponsored Islamist party in Egypt, the Salifi Nour Party, has threatened to boycott Morsi’s cabinet on a number of religious grounds that probably express Saudi discontent.

The volume of aid for which Egypt present is negotiating is tiny relative to its financing requirements. On June 2, the Saudis put $1 billion into Egypt’s foreign exchange reserves and bought $500 million in Egyptian government bonds on June 4. And on June 8, the Saudis announced that Egypt could use a $750 million credit line to import fuel “based on the severe oil-products shortage faced by Egypt,” according to an e-mailed statement from the Saudi Embassy in Cairo. In addition, Egypt is expected to receive a US$1 billion loan to finance energy and food imports from the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

Almost as soon as the checks cleared, the Egyptian military dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament.

It appears that the authorities are trying to skimp on foreign exchange by restricting fuel imports. Diesel fuel and gasoline have been in chronic short supply for the past year, and the shortage appears to be getting worse. As the Egypt Independent reported July 3: “This summer season, already hectic with election fever, has only seen worse shortages and longer lines, with diesel, the gasoline 80 that is commonly used by taxis, and other fuels all but disappearing from many pumps. …In the Upper Egypt city of Minya, on the first day of the presidential runoff, gas stations had longer lines than polling stations.”

Egypt is also negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a $3.2 billion loan, which presumably will open up other possible funding sources. The IMF loan is contingent upon the president’s negotiations with the SCAF on a new government.

Evidently the Saudis are keeping Egypt on a short leash. They do not want to let the country slide into financial distress as long as the military remains in charge, but neither do they want to provide resources to a Muslim Brotherhood regime that might subvert the monarchy.

The problem is that Egypt’s economy is a dog that cannot hunt now and cannot be made to hunt in the future. Without the Saudi lifeline, Egypt will stop some essential imports in a matter of weeks.

Why, then, is Mohamed Morsi picking a fight with the military?

As Jackson Diehl put it in the Washington Post July 8, “Last month the administration leaned heavily on the ruling military council to recognize Morsi’s victory in a runoff election. Lobbying by [US Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta may have prevented the council from handing the presidency to its favored candidate, a former prime minister. But it infuriated the generals, Egyptian Christians and some US supporters of Israel, who fear the Islamists more than the old regime.”

With backing from the Obama administration, and enormous pressure from his political base, Morsi has rolled the dice with the military. The result is likely to blow up in his face as well as the Obama administration’s.

At best, international aid will allow the status quo to continue a while longer. But the status quo involves a barely-adequate supply of bread, a dreadfully inadequate supply of fuel, and no outlook for the future except poverty and insecurity. It seems most unlikely that a political or economic equilibrium can be established on such a wobbly base. The uneasy modus vivendi between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military most likely will fail, and probably sooner than later.

Spengler is channeled by David P Goldman. His book How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is Dying, Too) was published by Regnery Press in September 2011. A volume of his essays on culture, religion and economics, It’s Not the End of the World – It’s Just the End of You, also appeared this fall, from Van Praag Press. 

(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Article printed from Spengler: http://pjmedia.com/spengler

URL to article: http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2012/07/09/the-obama-administration-is-setting-up-a-bloodbath-in-egypt/

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #186 on: July 13, 2012, 11:56:34 AM »


July 13, 2012 / 23 Tamuz, 5772

Obama's spectacular failure

By Caroline B. Glick


 
 

 
 


Rather than contend with the bitter consequences of his policy, Obama and his surrogates have opted to simply deny the dangerous reality he has engendered through his actions. Even worse they have come up with explanations for maintaining this policy despite its flagrant failure


JewishWorldReview.com | Two weeks ago, in an unofficial inauguration ceremony at Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt's new Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi took off his mask of moderation. Before a crowd of scores of thousands, Morsi pledge to work for the release from US federal prison of Sheikh Omar al Rahman.

According to the New York Times' account of his speech, Morsi said, "I see signs [being held by members of the crowd] for Omar Abdel Rahman and detainees' pictures. It is my duty and I will make all efforts to have them free, including Omar Abdel Rahman."

Otherwise known as the blind sheikh, Rahman was the mastermind of the jihadist cell in New Jersey that perpetrated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His cell also murdered Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1990. They plotted the assassination of then president Hosni Mubarak. They intended to bomb New York landmarks including the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and the UN headquarters.

Rahman was the leader of Gama'at al-Islamia — the Islamic Group, responsible, among other things for the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. A renowned Sunni Muslim religious authority, Rahman wrote the fatwa, or Islamic ruling permitting Sadat's murder in retribution for his signing the peace treaty with Israel. The Islamic Group is listed by the State Department as a specially designated terrorist organization.

After his conviction in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Rahman issued another fatwa calling for jihad against the US. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Osama bin Laden cited Rahman's fatwa as the religious justification for the attacks.

By calling for Rahman's release, Morsi has aligned himself and his government with the US's worst enemies. By calling for Rahman's release during his unofficial inauguration ceremony, Morsi signaled that he cares more about winning the acclaim of the most violent, America-hating jihadists in the world than with cultivating good relations with America.

And in response to Morsi's supreme act of unfriendliness, US President Barack Obama invited Morsi to visit him at the White House.


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Morsi is not the only Rahman supporter to enjoy the warm hospitality of the White House. His personal terror organization has also been the recipient of administration largesse. Despite the fact that US federal law makes it a felony to assist members of specially designated terrorist organizations, last month the State Department invited group member Hani Nour Eldin, a newly elected member of the Islamist-dominated Egyptian parliament to visit the US and meet with senior US officials at the White House and the State Department, as part of a delegation of Egyptian parliamentarians.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland refused to provide any explanation for the administration's decision to break federal law in order to host Eldin in Washington. Nuland simply claimed, "We have an interest in engaging a broad cross-section of Egyptians who are seeking to peacefully shape Egypt's future. The goal of this delegation� was to have consultations both with think tanks but also with government folks, with a broad spectrum representing all the colors of Egyptian politics."

Morsi is not the only Arab leader who embraces terrorists only to be embraced by the US government. In a seemingly unrelated matter, this week it was reported that in an attempt to satisfy the Obama administration's urgent desire to renew negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, and satisfy the Palestinians' insatiable desire to celebrate terrorists, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered to release 124 Palestinian terrorist murderers from Israeli prisons in exchange for a meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.

Alas, Abbas refused. He didn't think Netanyahu's offer was generous enough.

And how did the Obama administration respond to Abbas's demand for the mass release of terrorists and his continued refusal to resume negotiations with Israel?

By attacking Israel.

The proximate cause of the Obama administration's most recent assault on Israel is the publication of the legal opinion of a panel of expert Israeli jurists regarding the legality of Israeli communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines. Netanyahu commissioned the panel, led by retired Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy to investigate the international legal status of these towns and villages and to provide the government with guidance relating to future construction of Israeli communities beyond the armistice lines.

The committee's findings, published this week concluded that under international law, these communities are completely legal.

There is nothing remotely revolutionary about this finding. This has been Israel's position since 1967, and arguably since 1922.

The international legal basis for the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 was the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. That document gave the Jewish people the legal right to sovereignty over Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, as well as all the land Israel took control over during the 1948-49 War of Independence.

Not only did the Mandate give the Jewish people the legal right to the areas, it enjoined the British Mandatory authorities to "facilitate�close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes."

So not only was Jewish settlement not prohibited. It was required.

Although this has been Israel's position all along, Netanyahu apparently felt the need to have its legitimacy renewed in light of the all-out assault against Israel's legal rights led by the Palestinians, and joined enthusiastically by the Obama administration.

In a previous attempt to appease Obama's rapacious appetite for Israeli concessions, Netanyahu temporarily abrogated Israel's legal rights by banning Jews from exercising their property rights in Judea and Samaria for ten months in 2010. All the legal opinion published this week does is restate what Israel's position has always been.

Whereas the Obama administration opted to embrace Morsi even as he embraces the Omar Rahman, the Obama administration vociferously condemned Israel for having the nerve to ask a panel of senior jurists to opine about its rights. In a press briefing, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell banged the rhetorical hammer.

As he put it, "The US position on settlements is clear. Obviously, we've seen the reports that an Israeli government appointed panel has recommended legalizing dozens of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but we do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, and we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts."

In short then, for the Obama administration, it is all well and fine for the newly elected president of what was until two years ago the US's most important Arab ally to embrace a terror mastermind indirectly responsible for the murder of nearly three thousand Americans. It is okay to invite members of jihadist terror groups to come to Washington and meet with senior US officials in a US taxpayer funded trip. It is even okay for the head of a would-be-state that the US is trying to create to embrace every single Palestinian terrorist, including those that have murdered Americans. But for Israel's elected government to ask an expert panel to determine whether Israel is acting in accordance with international law in permitting Jews to live on land the Palestinians insist must be Jew-free is an affront.

The disparity between the administration's treatment of the Morsi government on the one hand and the Netanyahu government on the other places the nature of its Middle East policy in stark relief.

Obama came into office with a theory on which he based his Middle East policy. His theory was that jihadists hate America because the US supports Israel. By placing what Obama referred to as "daylight" between the US and Israel, he believed he would convince the jihadists to put aside their hatred of America.

Obama has implemented this policy for 3 and a half years. And its record of spectacular failure is unbroken.

Obama's failure is exposed in all its dangerous consequence by a simple fact. Since he entered office, the Americans have dispensed with far fewer jihadists than they have empowered.

Since January 2009, the Muslim world has become vastly more radicalized. No Islamist government in power in 2009 has been overthrown. But several key states — first and foremost Egypt — that were led by pro-Western, US-allied governments when Obama entered office are now ruled by Islamists.

It is true that the election results in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and elsewhere are not Obama's fault. But they still expose the wrongness of his policy. Obama's policy of putting daylight between the US and Israel, and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood against US allies like Mubarak involves being bad to America's friends and good to America's enemies. This policy cannot help but strengthen your enemies against yourself and your friends.

Rather than contend with the bitter consequences of his policy, Obama and his surrogates have opted to simply deny the dangerous reality he has engendered through his actions. Even worse they have come up with explanations for maintaining this policy despite its flagrant failure.

Nowhere was this effort more obvious than in a made-to-order New York Times analysis this week titled, "As Islamists gain influence, Washington reassesses who its friends are."

The analysis embraces the notion that it is possible and reasonable to appease the likes of Morsi and his America-hating jihadist supporters and coalition partners. It quotes Michele Dunne from the Atlantic Council who claimed that on the one hand, if the Muslim Brotherhood and its radical comrades are allowed to take over Egypt, their entry into mainstream politics should reduce the terrorism threat. On the other hand, she warned, "If Islamist groups like the Brotherhood lose faith in democracy, that's when there could be dire consequences."

In other words, the analysis argues that the US should respond to the ascent of its enemies by pretending its enemies are its friends.

Aside from its jaw-dropping irresponsibility, this bit of intellectual sophistry requires a complete denial of reality. The Taliban were in power in Afghanistan in 2001. Their political power didn't stop them from cooperating with al Qaida. Hamas has been in charge of Gaza since 2007. That hasn't stopped them from carrying out terrorism against Israel. The mullahs have been in charge of Iran from 33 years. That hasn't stopped them from serving as the largest terrorism sponsors in the world. Hezbollah has been involved in mainstream politics in Lebanon since 2000 and it has remained one of the most active terrorist organizations in the world.

And so on and so forth.

Back in the 1980s, the Reagan administration happily cooperated with the precursors of al Qaida in America's covert war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It never occurred to the Americans then that the same people working with them to overthrow the Soviets would one day follow the lead of the blind sheikh and attack America.

Unlike the mujahadin in Afghanistan, the Muslim Brotherhood has never fought a common foe with the Americans. The US is supporting them for nothing — while seeking to win their support by turning on America's most stable allies.

Can there be any doubt that this policy will end badly?


Comment by clicking here.

JWR contributor Caroline B. Glick is the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, where her column appears.


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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #187 on: July 15, 2012, 07:01:28 PM »
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Clinton's Calls Fall Flat in Egypt Political Fight
AP via ABC News ^ | CAIRO July 15, 2012 (AP) | BRADLEY KLAPPER and HAMZA HENDAWI Associated Press
Posted on July 15, 2012 7:50:31 PM EDT by Olog-hai

The head of Egypt's military took a tough line Sunday on the Muslim Brotherhood, warning that he won't let the fundamentalist group dominate the country, only hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged him to work with Egypt's elected Islamist leaders.

Clinton's visit to Egypt underscored the difficulty Washington faces in trying to wield its influence amid the country's stormy post-Hosni Mubarak power struggles.

Islamist Mohammed Morsi, a longtime Brotherhood figure, was sworn two weeks ago as Egypt's first democratically elected president. Led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the military handed over power to him June 30 after ruling Egypt for 16 months. The military, however, dissolved the Brotherhood-led parliament and stripped Morsi of significant authorities in the days before his inauguration, while retaining overwhelming powers for itself, including legislative power and control of the writing of a new constitution.

The United States is in a difficult spot when it comes to dealing with post-Mubarak Egypt—eager to be seen as a champion of democracy and human rights after three decades of close ties with the ousted leader despite his abysmal record in advancing either. …

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #188 on: July 16, 2012, 03:10:31 AM »
http://uk.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=UKBRE86E09V20120715


Hillary attacked w tomatoes inEgypt.   


FAIL.

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #189 on: July 16, 2012, 03:11:48 AM »

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was taunted by chants of "Monica, Monica" by tomato-throwing demonstrators as she visited the Egyptian port city of Alexandria on Sunday.

The chants, referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president, were heard outside the US consulate as she visited for its reopening.

An embarrassed Egyptian security official said they were chanting "Monica, Monica" and "Irhal, Clinton" (Get out, Clinton.)

Tomatoes, shoes and a water bottle were thrown at part of Clinton's motorcade as it pulled up, protected by riot police, although a US official said Clinton's own vehicle was not hit.

The protest appears to have been the result of suspicions that Washington had helped the Muslim Brotherhood win elections in Egypt in the wake of last year's ouster of president Hosni Mubarak after 18 days of massive street protests.

"I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which, of course, we cannot," Clinton said at the opening of the consulate.

The consulate was closed in 1993 due to budget cuts but has been reopened to assist the Egyptian economy in a key port city.


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/monica-monica-chants-taunt-clinton-egypt-191217298.html








LMFAO!!!!

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #190 on: July 16, 2012, 03:13:26 AM »
Cairo (CNN) -- Egyptian protesters threw tomatoes and shoes at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade Sunday and shouted, "Monica, Monica, Monica" as she left the newly reopened U.S. Consulate in Alexandria.

Clinton said she was in the city to answer critics who believe Washington has taken sides in Egyptian politics. There were already vocal protesters at the start of her visit to the consulate, forcing the ceremony to be moved inside.

"I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which, of course, we cannot," Clinton said at the ceremony to reopen the consulate, which was closed in 1993 because of budget constraints.

Son of kidnapped American: Dad didn't know of danger

"I have come to Alexandria to reaffirm the strong support of the United States for the Egyptian people and for their democratic future."

The protesters threw the tomatoes, shoes and a water bottle as the staff walked to their vans after the ceremony and riot police had to hold back the crowd. A tomato hit an Egyptian official in the face.
 Clinton urges smooth Egypt transition Clinton meets with Morsy in Egypt
Clinton's van was around the corner from the protesters, and a senior State Department official said her car was not hit.
The chants of "Monica" refer to Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern who had an affair with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Earlier Sunday, Clinton held a closed-door meeting with the head of Egypt's military leadership, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, whose military council is in a political tug of war with new President Mohamed Morsy.
Opinion: Does U.S. matter anymore in Egypt and Israel?
Egypt's military leaders took control of the government after a popular uprising toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, promising to hand over control after elections.
But after this year's elections, the military council issued a decree stripping the presidency of much of its power. And more than two weeks after Morsy took office, the country remains in the throes of domestic political chaos. The president has no Cabinet and the country has no parliament.
Clinton met with Morsy on Saturday and urged him to assert the "full authority" of his office. She stressed that it is up to the Egyptian people to shape the country's political future, but also said the United States would work "to support the military's return to a purely national security role."

Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before a meeting in Cairo.
Clinton and Tantawi, who met for just over an hour Sunday, discussed the political transition and the military ruling council's ongoing dialogue with Morsy, said a senior State Department official, who described the meeting on condition of anonymity.
Later Sunday, in meetings with representatives from civil society groups and Christian leaders, Clinton addressed concerns from some who have been skeptical of the United States' neutrality in Egypt's political transition, another senior State Department official said.
"There has been some suspicion, some assertion, and we heard some of that today, that somehow the U.S. has put its finger on the scale in favor of one side or another in this transition," the official said. "And she wanted in very, very clear terms, particularly with the Christian group this morning, to dispel that notion and to make clear that only Egyptians can choose their leaders, that we have not supported any candidate, any party, and we will not."
As she left the country Sunday night, Clinton said her two days of meetings showed her the Egyptian people "have legitimate concerns, and I will be honest and say they have legitimate fears about their future."
Egypt's fragile economy has been a top item on Clinton's agenda during the trip. The secretary of state also met with business entrepreneurs affiliated with Flat6Labs, an organization that provides seed money, mentoring and work space to small Egyptian companies to help them realize their concepts.
"Thanks to all of you for being willing to take a risk," she said.
Clinton aides said the secretary of state wanted to visit Cairo early after Morsy's swearing-in to show that the Obama administration wants to help the new government improve Egypt's economy.
In meetings with Morsy and Tantawi, Clinton discussed a U.S. economic package that would relieve as much as $1 billion in Egyptian debt and help foster innovation, growth and job creation, officials said. She also said the United States is ready to make available $250 million in loan guarantees to Egyptian businesses.
Tantawi told Clinton that what Egyptians need most now is help getting the economy back on track, one senior State Department official said.

Egypt's military is the foundation of the modern state, having overthrown the country's monarchy in 1952. Tantawi, a 76-year-old career infantry officer, fought in Egypt's 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which Tantawi heads, currently wields legislative power, having ordered the dissolution of parliament after the country's highest court ruled that it had been elected under invalid laws.

Morsy tried to call it back into session after he was sworn in, but the court reaffirmed its decision, so the military council retains lawmaking powers until a new parliament is sworn in near the end of the year.
In the presidential election, Morsy edged out Ahmed Shafik -- the last prime minister under Mubarak -- winning nearly 52% of the votes cast.

He resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party shortly after the results were announced, in an apparent effort to send a message that he will represent all Egyptians.

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #191 on: July 16, 2012, 05:59:42 AM »
 :)

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #192 on: July 16, 2012, 06:53:11 AM »
Christians snub Cairo meeting with Clinton, claim US (Obama) backs Islamists
 msnbc ^ | 7/15/2012 | Charlene Gubash


Posted on Sunday, July 15, 2012


Prominent Christian Egyptians snubbed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday because they feel the U.S. administration favors Islamist parties over secular and liberal forces in society at the expense of Egypt's 8 million Christians.

The critical theme was repeated by others Sunday in Cairo and Alexandria despite Clinton denying U.S. interference in Egyptian elections.

The politicians, businessmen and clerics who snubbed Clinton were supposed to take part in meetings between Clinton and influential members of civil society.

Coptic Christian businessman and politician Naguib Sawiris and three other Coptic politicians said in a statement they were objecting to Clinton's policies in solidarity with the mainstream Egyptian.


(Excerpt) Read more at worldnews.msnbc.msn.com ...

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #193 on: July 16, 2012, 10:28:20 AM »
Egypt Attaches Strings to Peace with Israel - Clinton silent as Egyptian officials
 Washington Free Beacon ^ | 7/16/12 | Adam Kredo

Posted on Monday, July 16, 2012 1:17:02 PM by Nachum

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was silent as a senior Egyptian official stated during a joint press conference that his country would only uphold its peace treaty with Israel if the Jewish state returns to its 1967 borders and gives Palestinians control over portions of Jerusalem.

During a press conference Saturday in Cairo, Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr were asked about Egypt’s longstanding peace treaty with Israel, which has come under scrutiny in recent months by officials of Egypt’s new, Muslim Brotherhood-led government.

“Egypt’s understanding of peace is that it should be comprehensive, exactly as stipulated in the treaty itself,” Amr said, referring to the original 1978 Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt.

“And this also includes the Palestinians, of course, and its right to—their right to have their own state on the land that was—the pre-June 4, 1967, borders with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Clinton remained silent following Amr’s statement. (The Obama administration also backs a return to the pre-1967 borders—a decision that was roundly condemned by Jewish leaders when it was announced by the president in May 2011.)


(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #194 on: July 16, 2012, 11:06:17 AM »
Only in America are people interested in spreading democracy around the world, but only when the outcome suits them.

I don't agree with the majority vote of an admitted extremist group, but that is the way the people voted. I would hope going forward that a more secular Egypt can exist. However, any time democracy is exercised over dictatorships that is a step in the right direction.

+1

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #195 on: July 16, 2012, 04:53:51 PM »
Only in America are people interested in spreading democracy around the world, but only when the outcome suits them.

I don't agree with the majority vote of an admitted extremist group, but that is the way the people voted. I would hope going forward that a more secular Egypt can exist. However, any time democracy is exercised over dictatorships that is a step in the right direction.

great post.....something that the idiots here don't understand......Obama brought democracy to the middle east...something GWB wanted as a goal as well with his invasion of IRAQ....Obama did it without a shot being fired.....places like Egypt, Libya, etc have and their first real elections EVER....and sometimes things don't turn out how you want it to.....

But Obama gave them a gift...what they choose to do with it is on them.....the Palestinians fucked up and elected Hamas...now they are worse off.....

but the alternative would have been worse...had the Muslim Brotherhood taken power without elections, it would have been an Islamic dictatorship..that would have been really disastrous

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #196 on: July 17, 2012, 03:40:27 PM »
Skip to comments.
Hillary Blames Israel for Middle East Woes
 FrontPage Magazine ^ | July 17, 2012 | P. David Hornik

Posted on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 8:04:07 AM by SJackson

Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Israel Monday for her fourth visit as secretary of state; the third, however, was 22 months ago. On the other hand, Clinton’s visit came hard on the heels of one by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, and it was further reported on Monday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta would be coming to Jerusalem at the end of July.

While Donilon’s visit was kept rather hushed-up, clearly part of the motive for Clinton and Panetta’s visits is political with GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney also scheduled to be here at the end of July. With President Obama himself never having stopped by the Holy Land since taking office, and his party nervous about the Jewish vote, visibly dispatching Clinton and Panetta here is intended to offset some of the political capital that Romney hopes to gain with his visit.

Undoubtedly, though, more than mere politicking is at play in this flurry of high-level contacts. Clinton’s previous stop was Egypt, where the election of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi as president has given Israel the jitters while—publicly at least—evoking mainly plaudits and encouragement from Washington.

But while Morsi’s capacity to wreak harm remains uncertain, as Egypt’s Supreme Military Council tries to curb his powers and the country remains mired in a severe economic crisis, two other Middle Eastern flashpoints pose much more imminent threats. In Syria, chaos looms with Islamist elements now spearheading the rebels and the country’s vast chemical and biological weapons stockpiles in danger of falling into radical hands. And in Iran, the race to the bomb continues unimpeded by insufficient sanctions, let alone the ludicrously hollow “negotiations” between Iran and the P5+1 countries.

With war clouds darkening the putative “Arab Spring,” then, one might have expected a much lower profile for the “peace”—that is, Palestinian—issue in Clinton’s visit on Monday compared to her earlier stopovers. A day earlier, Obama, asked by a TV interviewer where he felt he had failed as president, replied that he had “not been able to move the peace process forward in the Middle East the way I wanted.” Reports in the Israeli media on Monday night said Clinton had met only briefly at her Jerusalem hotel with Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad, without making the once-obligatory stop in Ramallah.

On the other hand, hopes that the last three and a half years have sobered the administration on this score had to be tempered by Obama’s added remark that “the truth of the matter is that the parties, they’ve got to want [peace] as well”—an equivalency that indicates an ongoing inability to distinguish between Israel, a democracy that has sometimes made desperate concessions in the hope of peace, and a Palestinian side that systematically instills hatred and rejection of Israel in its population.

Indeed, the Palestinian issue appears to have figured heavily in Clinton’s meeting Monday night with Israel’s prime minister, with the secretary of state reportedly pressuring Binyamin Netanyahu to woo the Authority back to the negotiating table with gifts of small weapons and released prisoners. Clinton was said to have further told Netanyahu that time was of the essence in “achieving peace” with Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas since it’s not known who will be replacing them. The perception, then, that Israel can do something to bribe and entice “peace” out of a Palestinian side that negates its very existence seems an implacable article of faith for the Obama administration.

And it wasn’t only the Palestinian issue. Clinton also urged Netanyahu to mend Israel’s rift with Turkey, seemingly impervious to the fact that it was—among other things—Ankara’s dispatching of the terrorist-laden Mavi Marmara vessel to break Israel’s blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza, and Islamist prime minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s subsequent obsessive excoriation of Israel for its commandos’ having defended themselves against a lynch attempt on the ship, that widened what was already a growing rift. Again, despite professions of commitment to Israel and an undeniable degree of security cooperation, the ability to blame the Jewish state for its troubles in a hostile and unstable Middle East appears embedded in this administration’s DNA.

On the Egyptian issue, Clinton reportedly sought to convey a calming message to Netanyahu and Defense Secretary Ehud Barak, telling them the newly crowned President Morsi is currently preoccupied with domestic issues and not with unraveling the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. And on Iran, the secretary of state told a press conference late Monday evening that the U.S. would “use all elements of American power” to stop Tehran from going nuclear.

One can conjecture that, given this administration’s difficulty grasping Middle Eastern realities and trouble distinguishing friends from foes and moderates from radicals, the Israeli leaders were not necessarily pacified by Clinton’s reassurances about Morsi. And as for Iran, how much stock to put in Obama and his lieutenants’ repeated avowals and tough words is the central and most difficult question now confronting Jerusalem.

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #197 on: August 08, 2012, 05:41:36 AM »
Sinai Descends Towards Chaos
Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian|Aug. 8, 2012, 6:19 AM|750|4

 





 The Sinai has long been an area beyond the writ of Cairo. The vast desert peninsula is inhabited largely by Bedouin tribes, who for decades have been marginalised, neglected and impoverished.
 
But in the 18 months since the Egyptian revolution forced out the former president Hosni Mubarak, the Sinai has become more chaotic and violent. And Israel has become increasingly alarmed by deteriorating security across its southern border.
 
The peninsula is a wild frontier, a "new hotspot with an expanding terrorist infrastructure", according to a report, Sinai: A New Front, by Israeli analyst Ehud Yaari for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, released earlier this year. "Measures are needed to prevent the total collapse of security in and around the peninsula [and] avoid the rise of an armed runaway Bedouin statelet."
 
Israel has urged the Egyptian government to take firm action against Bedouin militants and smugglers, and has enlisted the support of the US in its efforts. During a visit to Cairo last month, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, warned that Sinai could become an "operational base" for jihadists if security was not stepped up.
 
The region has suffered from chronic under-investment in education, health and transport. Its inhabitants are among the poorest in Egypt. Added to the potent mix of poverty, alienation and tribal loyalties is a sizeable Palestinian population in the north of the peninsula, with family, political and economic connections to Gaza.
 
In the south, massive investment since the 1990s in upscale resorts in the former Bedouin fishing village of Sharm el-Sheikh, and a programme to create a "Red Sea Riviera" along the coast, has further alienated the Bedouin. They are routinely excluded from employment in swanky resorts, and consequent resentment may have contributed to a spate of tourist kidnappings and armed robberies in the past year.
 
In the north, there is markedly more violence. A pipeline supplying gas to Israel has been blown up more than a dozen times, disrupting flow and causing millions of dollars worth of damage. Armed gangs are trafficking huge numbers of people fleeing persecution, war or poverty in other parts of Africa, charging thousands of dollars for passage across the Sinai into Israel. Camps have been established, from which emanate horrific stories of rape, torture, extortion, misery and desperation. The smuggling of drugs and arms is also a major industry.
 
And there has been an increase in militant Islamism. Israel says it detects the presence of "global jihad" militants and groups, some loosely connected to al-Qaida. "There is a problem with Bedouin tribes drifting towards a fundamentalist Islamic ideology, making themselves part of the Islamic jihad movement, by which I mean a loose network of small terror organisations trying to fight the current order," Major General Dan Harel, former deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces, said earlier this week.
 
Israel cannot risk jeopardising its 33-year-old peace treaty with Egypt by taking action itself. Under the terms of the treaty, the Sinai is a demilitarised zone. But the overnight military attack by the Egyptian military may be the first step in Cairo's efforts to regain control and impose order.
 


This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-sinai-is-descending-into-chaos-2012-8#ixzz22xS7zny0



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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #198 on: August 12, 2012, 07:31:22 PM »

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Re: Egypt And The Success Of Obama's Reasoned Approach
« Reply #199 on: August 13, 2012, 09:33:22 AM »
Egypt: There Goes the Army; There Goes the Free Media; There Goes Egypt
Pajamas Media ^ | August 11,2012 | Barry Rubin
Posted on Mon Aug 13 2012 12:23:23 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) by Hojczyk

Oh and to put the icing on the cake, Mursi will apparently decide who will be on the commission that writes the new Consttitution.

Behind the scenes note: Would Mursi dared have done this if he thought Obama would come down on him like a ton of bricks? Would the army give up if they thought America was behind it? No on both counts.

This is a coup. Mursi is bound by no constitution. He can do as he pleases unless someone is going to stop him. And the only candidate–the military–is fading fast, far faster than even we pessimists would have predicted.

Muslim Brotherhood President al-Mursi has also just named the editors of the top Egyptian newspaper and other media outlets. They are state-owned, you know, and there are a half-dozen good little independent news pap

But one of them, al-Destour (ironically meaning “The Constitution”), has just had a full issue seized on charges of “fueling sedition” and “harming the president through phrases and wording punishable by law.” We know this through a report in the Middle East News Agency, the state-owned monopoly.

And what was the inflammatory report? That the Brotherhood was going to seize power and that liberals and the army should join together to stop the country from being turned into an Islamist regime.

Seems to me that if it weren’t true there wasn’t any need to confiscate the issue, right? After all, everybody would have seen that it wouldn’t happen and all would have shared a good laugh!

Other columnists are charging that the Brotherhood is trying to turn their newspapers into reliable house organs rather than let them be free.

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...