As far as we know he isn't dead yet.
"51 Islamists killed during predawn rally in Cairo; Egypt’s army defends shooting, but Morsi’s allies decry use of force, threaten to expand protests" by David D. Kirkpatrick and Kareen Fahim | New York Times, July 09, 2013
CAIRO — The mass shooting of Islamist protesters by security forces on Monday at a sit-in for Mohammed Morsi, the ousted president, injected new outrage into the standoff over his removal by Egypt’s top generals, darkening hopes that they might reconcile the polarizing forces that have torn the fabric of the country.
Reading this stuff from the NYT has become a very unfunny joke.
It was by far the deadliest day of violence since the revolt that overthrew former president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011. Within a few hours around dawn, advancing soldiers and police officers killed at least 51 people and wounded more than 400, almost all hit by gunfire, health officials said.
People in peaceful prayer, government snipers on rooftops.
Army and police spokesmen said that one soldier and two policemen had also been killed. But according to witnesses and video footage, one of the policemen appeared to have been shot by soldiers, and the military provided little evidence to back its claim that the fighting had been instigated by the Islamists.
There has to be some irony of karma there, and look, another lying military.
The scale and nature of the killings drove a deeper wedge between Morsi’s Islamist backers and their opponents and diminished the chances that his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood might soon be coaxed back into a political process that they deem illegitimate after the military overthrew the elected president.
The empire-builders and globe-kickers really are totally delusional.
At the same time, the bloodshed sharpened a fierce debate about whether the new military-led interim government that replaced Morsi last week was moving toward a democracy or away from it.
Where is there debate about that? The very act itself was a move away.
Two and a half years after the overthrow of Mubarak, the institutions, tactics, and dynamics of the decades-old secular authoritarian government seemed, at least for the moment, to snap back into place.
Yeah, it's called a coup.
Some who vehemently denounced Mubarak’s use of brute force to silence critics were far more tepid about criticizing the killings of Morsi’s supporters, calling only for an inquiry to determine the root cause. The United States, which has conspicuously not condemned Morsi’s ouster, was also mild, calling on security forces to exercise restraint.
That type of statement is a signal that they approve of the coup.
Related:
Yeah, not taking that IMF loan was the last straw.
“Violence begets violence and should be strongly condemned,” Mohammed ElBaradei, the former diplomat and liberal leader, said in a statement on Twitter. “Independent investigation is a must.”
I view him as a carpet-bagging usurper. He will forever be known as the man who allowed the Iraq invasion to proceed. He could have stopped it by telling the truth we all knew before the war: there were no WMD there. To hell with you, sir.
By contrast, Essam el-Erian, a senior Brotherhood leader, called the killings “an outright massacre” by “a fascist coup government.”
He's right, and imagine the U.S. reaction if this had happened in Syria and government troops had done this to peaceful protesters.
Leaders of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist group and best-organized political force, said the generals had now shown their authoritarian colors, using lethal weapons to crush dissent while holding the freely elected president captive. They called for a national “uprising” against the return of a military dictatorship.
Well, they showed they work for the U.S.
Al-Nour, the only Islamist party that had backed the military’s takeover, suspended its participation in the interim government, accelerating the disintegration of Egyptian politics toward a culture war between Islamists and their foes.
Wow, and who would like that most?
The armed forces, on the other hand, claimed that Morsi’s supporters had attacked them first with rocks, gunfire and army-issued tear gas bombs, though dozens of witnesses — including some of Morsi’s opponents — disputed that account.
At a news conference, Ahmed Ali, a military spokesman, said the security forces had responded with rubber bullets and gas bombs after coming under attack by heavy gunfire. He addressed a pointed question about human rights to Western critics: “What human rights are there for an armed person who terrorizes citizens and attacks military establishments?”
The police, who had never fully accepted Morsi’s authority, reveled in the day and sought to revise history: A spokesman contended that the Muslim Brotherhood — and not the police — had been responsible for killing protesters during the revolt against Mubarak. “Policemen never thought that history would speak so quickly to prove the complete innocence of the policemen in the events of the January 2011 revolution,” said the spokesman, Hany Abdel Lateef.
Of course, that was all Morsi's fault and why he was ousted.
Some also suggested that Morsi’s supporters might be to blame for the fighting.
“We expect violent actions from the side of the Muslim Brotherhood, and we cannot accept that armed gatherings be labeled as peaceful protests or sit-ins,” Khalid Talima, a representative of the coalition formed around the anti-Morsi protests that preceded his ouster, said at a news conference under the banner “Muslim Brotherhood-American conspiracy against the revolution.”
(Blog editor doesn't want to read this anymore)
Seeking to capitalize on the killings to rally supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed that the soldiers had killed women and children. But hospitals and morgues reported no such casualties.
Yeah, those lying Muslims, 'eh, JYT?
The violence began around 4 a.m., as hundreds of Islamists were observing dawn prayers at a vigil for Morsi outside the presidential guard facility where he was believed to be detained. What set off the violence could not be determined.
In addition to the official statements from the army and the police, one neighbor cited by the Associated Press said in an account posted online that she had run to a window when she heard gunfire and had seen men shooting at security forces from a mosque roof. But that neighbor, identified as Mirna al-Hikbawy, wrote that she had not seen the start of the fighting.
After all the distortion, deception, lying, and outright fakery regarding the AmeriKan media, they think that is to be believed?
Hey, you believe what you want, readers. If it makes you feel better to believe JYT bulls***, fine. I've been doing this too long and seen too much for this horse s***.
Others, including both supporters and opponents of Morsi, said the military and the police had fired with little or no provocation, unloading tear gas, birdshot, and bullets.
Now that I believe!
“They opened fire on us while we were praying,” Moataz Abu al-Shakra, 25, an electrical engineer, said, huddled behind a sheet of corrugated metal that Morsi’s supporters had sought to use as a shield. The metal was riddled with bullet holes, and he pointed to two pools of blood on the ground.
“It is like they were fighting a war between two countries, not like our army or police,” he said. “They are criminals.”
Sit-in participants said gunmen had fired on them from atop the military buildings surrounding their camp. Video footage captured by the Islamists showed a soldier firing down from a roof while another calmly filmed the mayhem below.
What is the implication, you pos propaganda organ?
Sandbagged gun turrets were still visible hours later on some rooftops, and the angles of scores of bullet holes in cars, lampposts, and the Islamists’ makeshift metal barriers indicated that gunfire hit at an angle from above.
If only the AmeriKan media had been so diligent regarding the shots that killed the Kennedy brothers.
Many witnesses said the fighting lasted for hours, with hundreds of heavily armed soldiers chasing mostly unarmed protesters through the streets for blocks while continuing to shoot. Bullet holes, bullet casings, and pools of blood dotted the ground hundreds of yards from the presidential guard house where the fighting had begun.
All U.S.-approved.
The pro-Morsi demonstrators tried to fight back by throwing rocks, and they tried to build barricades against the bullets. Two witnesses said they had seen at least two of Morsi’s supporters armed with what the witnesses described as primitive shotguns. Egyptian state television showed footage of what it described as a pro-Morsi fighter firing a primitive shotgun at advancing soldiers about 250 yards from the initial shooting.
Just so you see the scale of disproportion.
In another video clip on state television, a man in a black mask was seen walking with a similar weapon.
That the infamous Israeli Black Bloc?
At the Nasr City hospital, a few minutes’ drive from the initial shooting, Dr. Bassem al-Sayed, a surgeon, said he had seen a similar scene in the hospital only once before, around Jan. 25, 2011, when Egyptians began their revolt against Mubarak. “This is worse,” he said.
At the news conference, the military spokesman showed video footage of handguns, tear gas grenades, and bottles of whiskey he said the soldiers had found in the Islamists’ tents.
I don't believe them.
Ali, the military spokesman, raised alarms about the Arab Spring itself — heresy here just a few months ago.
He called Islamist charges the military had massacred demonstrators a new kind of “information warfare” that “runs through the Middle East region and we see since the breaking of the Arab Spring revolutions.”
I'm fighting the battle, too!
--more--"
"Egypt’s leaders face criticism for transition plan; Road map is called rushed, authoritarian" by David D. Kirkpatrick | New York Times, July 10, 2013
CAIRO — Egypt’s new military-led government enlisted internationally recognized figures to serve as its public face and promised swift elections on Tuesday, but introduced a transitional plan that was widely criticized as muddled, authoritarian, and rushed.
The so-called road map, in the form of a “constitutional declaration” by the military-appointed president, elicited immediate opposition from civilian leaders across the political spectrum — including the liberals and activists who sought the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, the faction of ultraconservative Islamists who joined them, and the many thousands protesting to demand his reinstatement.
Well, at least they brought Egyptians together again, although I feel no sympathy for those who supported a coup and are now unhappy.
The declaration, however, made clear that the government drew its authority only from the military commander who executed the takeover, General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
See: Slow Saturday Special: New Egyptian General a-Sissy
I see why Israel is happy now!
The interim president, Adly Mansour, a senior judge, cited the general’s brief statement as the basis of his own authority, and in confirmation the general’s words were printed as law in the official Gazette.
“It is now officially a coup,” Nathan Brown, a political scientist specializing in Egyptian law at George Washington University, wrote in assessing the text.
Not according to the U.S. government.
The military-led government widened its crackdown on Morsi’s Islamist supporters a day after security forces shot hundreds of them and killed more than 50 at a sit-in to demand his reinstatement. Security officials blamed the Islamists for instigating the lopsided clashes, and as part of its investigation of the episode ordered the arrests of 650 leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist movement, and of Gamaa Islamiyya, a more conservative and once-violent group.
The officials said they had also arrested more of the former president’s top advisers....
At the same time, Egypt received a crucial financial lifeline from two oil-rich Arab monarchies that have made no secret of their fears of both Arab Spring democracy movements and the Muslim Brotherhood. The United Arab Emirates said it would provide a grant of $1 billion and an interest-free loan of $2 billion, while Saudi Arabia was reportedly working on providing an additional $5 billion.
It's called propping up a regime.
The new appointments, including a liberal economist as prime minister and the diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei as a vice president for foreign relations, appeared intended to reassure the Western allies and donors Egypt must depend on....
Nice to know they did this for the Egyptian people.
During the interim period, the declaration puts almost unchecked power in the hands of the president, who can issue legislation, constitutional declarations, and ill-defined states of emergency. The declaration includes negligible protections for basic rights.
Isn't that why they allegedly dumped Morsi?
It grants the military autonomy outside the president’s control. It appears to preserve provisions grounding the constitution in specifically Sunni Islamic law — said to be the priority of the ultraconservative Islamists who backed the military takeover. And the declaration vests much of the power to shape Egypt’s next permanent charter in the highly conservative judges left in place after decades of authoritarianism.
Translation: Mubarak's men will write the new Constitution.
The Muslim Brotherhood denounced the declaration as a crime against democracy.
It is, but no one is listening.
--more--"
"Egyptian officials order arrests of Islamist leaders" by David D. Kirkpatrick and Rick Gladstone | New York Times, July 11, 2013
CAIRO — Egypt’s new military-led government took further steps Wednesday to cripple the Muslim Brotherhood in the week since the country’s Islamist president was deposed and detained, issuing formal arrest warrants for the group’s top spiritual leader and at least nine other senior figures accused of inciting deadly protests.
The general prosecutor’s office said Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood’s supreme guide, along with top officials in the group’s Freedom and Justice Party and allied Islamist political parties, were wanted for “planning, inciting, and aiding criminal acts” outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo where Mohammed Morsi, the ousted president, was believed to be held in military custody.
Soldiers and police officers killed at least 51 people and wounded hundreds early Monday near the headquarters, most of them unarmed demonstrators who had been demanding the release and reinstatement of Morsi, the first freely-elected president in Egypt....
Those cops and soldiers been arrested yet?
The Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates have called Morsi’s ouster a military coup that has reinvigorated the security apparatus of the Mubarak era. They have rejected as lies the military’s claims that it wants to return quickly to full civilian control and create an inclusive government.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that they had also ordered 200 people held in custody for at least 15 days pending further investigation into their suspected role in Monday’s mayhem and released 446 others on bail, according to Ahram Online, the website of Egypt’s leading newspaper.
At the same time, the new interim government appeared to be gaining more credibility — and generous offers of financial aid — from its autocratic Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf, who were happy to see the Brotherhood’s political ascendance blunted in Egypt. Kuwait said it would provide an aid package worth $4 billion, adding to the $8 billion in grants, loans, and fuel promised Tuesday by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Well, at least you know who is behind and $upportive of the coup.
The donations are needed urgently because the turmoil surrounding Morsi’s overthrow has pushed the teetering Egyptian economy closer to the brink of collapse.
The United States also sent further signals of cautious approval, even as some members of Congress question whether US aid to Egypt’s military should be cut for its role in ousting Morsi. Pentagon officials said Wednesday that the administration would proceed with sending four F-16 warplanes to Egypt this summer under a 2009 commitment to deliver 20 of the aircraft during 2013. An initial batch was sent in January.
Confirmation of coup support.
Of course, if Russia fulfills existing contracts to Syria, well, you know....
Egypt receives about $1.5 billion annually in US military and economic assistance, but the Obama administration would be required to halt that assistance if it determined that the Egyptian military had participated in a coup against a democratically elected government. Administration officials have said they are watching the actions of the Egyptian military during the chaotic transition to new political leadership.
Can't call it a coup 'cuz it would cut off aid to a lynchpin ally in the region.
--more--"
"2011 Morsi case revived for new investigation; Ousted ruler had escaped from jail during uprising" by Ben Hubbard | New York Times, July 12, 2013
CAIRO — The arrest of many Muslim Brotherhood members have been criticized by rights groups and the Obama administration, which spent Thursday walking back remarks made early in the day by a State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, seeming to criticize Morsi as undemocratic and in so doing seeming to validate the military’s move to oust him.
It's an open secret they backed this thing! They weren't happy when he won the election!
Reuters reported that Psaki’s counterpart at Egypt’s foreign ministry, Badr Abdelatty, interpreted her remarks as a welcome signal that the United States understood “the political developments that Egypt is witnessing in recent days as embodying the will of the millions of Egyptians who took to the streets starting on June 30 to ask for their legitimate rights and call for early elections.”
The Muslim Brotherhood denounced her remarks as hypocritical and further proof of what it has called US endorsement of the military takeover in Egypt....
The ouster of Morsi and the subsequent suppression of the Brotherhood has enraged the group’s members and led to a spate of scapegoating attacks by Muslim extremists against Christians they accuse of supporting his fall, rights activists said.
Oh, sorry, no longer buying the false flag, diversionary, Zionist narrative of sectarianism, sorry, but I'm copping out.
While tensions between the Christian minority and extremist elements in the Muslim majority are not new, attacks have been reported across the country — in the northern Sinai Peninsula, in a resort town on the Mediterranean Coast, in Port Said along the Suez Canal, and in isolated villages in upper Egypt.
A priest has been shot dead in the street, Islamists have painted black X’s on Christian shops to mark them for arson and mobs have attacked churches and besieged Christians in their homes. Four Christians were reported killed with knives and machetes in one village last week.
Do your own research on the Lavon Affair and the Black Bloc Israeli front, and then tell me I should believe sectarianism sold by a self-serving Zionist war organ?
--more--"
Yeah, that's them.
"Supporters demand ousted Egyptian leader’s return" by Ben Hubbard and Rick Gladstone | New York Times, July 13, 2013
CAIRO — Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian Islamists and other supporters of Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president who was ousted and detained by the military last week, filled public squares in Cairo and other cities Friday in an intensified campaign aimed at returning him to power. The United States also dialed up its criticism, calling on Egypt’s interim authorities to release Morsi.
Pfffffft!
The size of the protests underlined both the large section of society that has rejected the military intervention on July 3 that deposed Morsi after millions protested against him, and the continued split over the country’s direction.
In Washington a State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said the United States concurred with an assertion made earlier in the day by Germany that Morsi should be released. Asked about Germany’s position at a daily briefing, she said, “We do agree.”
Maybe she should just keep her mouth shut.
Psaki declined to specify whether the United States still recognized Morsi as the president of Egypt. But her response about his detention appeared to reflect growing concern by the Obama administration over the interim government’s promises to move toward new elections and an inclusive democratic system.
They are worried about the instability, not the Egyptian people.
Morsi has been held in an undisclosed location since Egypt’s generals ordered him removed from power. They have said he is in custody for his own safety. But the interim government has also signaled that it may prosecute him.
If Orwell had been buried in an Egyptian tomb he would be ricocheting off the walls right now.
--more--"
Gee, no story about Egypt this Sunday.
"Military chief in Egypt says Morsi violated his mandate; ElBaradei takes oath as nation’s vice president" by Sarah El Deeb | Associated Press, July 15, 2013
CAIRO — Facing unrelenting pressure from Muslim Brotherhood protesters, Egypt’s military chief sought to justify his decision to remove Mohammed Morsi from office, saying Sunday in a televised speech that the Islamist leader had violated his popular mandate and antagonized state institutions.
The comments by General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi — his first since the president’s ouster nearly two weeks ago — came as the designated interim prime minister pushed ahead with talks to form a new Cabinet this week.
Reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei was sworn in as Egypt’s interim vice president for international relations on Sunday.
The move reinforces the role of liberals in the new leadership who are strongly opposed to the Brotherhood.
They have always been CIA tools.
Several secular-minded candidates also have been approached to lead the foreign, finance, culture, and information ministries, among others. Nabil Fahmy, who served as Egypt’s former ambassador to the United States for over a decade under Hosni Mubarak, was tapped to be foreign minister, according to state media.
Continuing the country’s crackdown on the Brotherhood leadership, Egypt’s new chief prosecutor ordered frozen the assets of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and at least 13 other senior members of the group pending investigations into deadly violence outside the organization’s headquarters in Cairo and the Republic Guard forces club.
The United States sent its No. 2 diplomat in the State Department, William Burns, to Cairo to meet with interim government officials as well as with civil society and business leaders during his two-day visit. Burns is the first high-level American official to visit since Morsi’s ouster.
A SEAL of APPROVAL if I ever saw one!
Many in the international community fear the ouster of Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, would undermine Egypt’s transition to democracy.
The State Department said Burns would underscore US support for the Egyptian people and a transition leading to an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government. The United States has called for Morsi’s release. Since his ouster, Morsi has been held incommunicado at an undisclosed location.
(Blog editor just shakes his head)
Sissi said the armed forces acted to remove Morsi on July 3 according to the will of the people as the country was sliding toward deeper polarization and more violence. The Islamist leader was the country’s first democratically chosen leader after a narrow victory in elections last year.
‘‘The armed forces sincerely accepted the choice of the people, but then political decision-making began stumbling,’’ Sissi said. ‘‘The armed forces remained committed to what it considered the legitimacy of the ballot box, even though that very legitimacy began to do as it pleased and in a way that contradicted the basis and the origin of this legitimacy.’’
Orwell is going to break out of the damn thing in a minute!
Morsi’s election came after months of turmoil following the 2011 revolution that removed autocratic leader Mubarak from office, in a rocky transition that was marred by persistent protests, political disagreements, and an economy teetering on bankruptcy.
His supporters say the military staged a coup in a bid to undermine the rising influence of Islamists, and thousands have camped out for days near a mosque in eastern Cairo to demand he be reinstated.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Morsi to power, has called for massive protests Monday to escalate pressure on the military. Some Muslim Brotherhood leaders have called for Sissi to be removed and put on trial, accusing him of treason.
Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad responded to Sissi’s remarks, saying that the military had no right to act on behalf of the people of Egypt except through ‘‘orders of their elected commander in chief,’’ meaning Morsi. In comments posted on Twitter, he said the military also has no right to decide which protest is worthy enough to represent the people.
Morsi was ousted by the military after four days of protests by millions of his opponents.
Sissi said Morsi ‘‘entered into a conflict with the judiciary, the media, the police, and the public opinion. Then [he] also entered into a conflict with the armed forces.’’ He did not elaborate on the nature of the conflict with the military, but said that comments about the military offended ‘‘and were considered a stab to the national pride.’’
Oh, so this was over PERSONAL SQUABBLES and SPATS?!?
Sissi, speaking to an auditorium filled with military officers, said the armed forces could no longer stand on the sidelines as millions of Egyptians took to the streets to call for the Islamist leader to step down over allegations he was abusing his power.
The exact mandate for ElBaradei, a 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize recipient, was not clear.
Oh, another winner rendering that prize worthless. And what mandate(?) does he have?
The former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, returned home to assume a role in the anti-Mubarak uprising and became one of the most visible leaders in the badly fractured liberal and secular opposition to Morsi’s government.
Designated prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi met with a number of candidates for his new Cabinet, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday.
Others expected on the roster are Mohammed Mukhtar Gomaa — who works in the office of the head of the top learning institute in the Muslim Sunni world, Al-Azhar University — as head of the religious endowment ministry. Gomaa, who also heads the faculty of Islamic and Arabic studies at Al-Azhar, was seen as a nod to moderate Islam.
--more--"
"US discourages crackdown on Morsi supporters; Egypt’s generals risk jeopardizing ‘second chance’" by David D. Kirkpatrick | New York Times, July 16, 2013
CAIRO — In the clearest statement yet of the US position on the Egyptian military’s ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, a senior US diplomat warned Monday that the generals would jeopardize Egypt’s “second chance” at a democratic transition if a crackdown on Morsi’s Islamist supporters continued.
“If representatives of some of the largest parties in Egypt are detained or excluded, how are dialogue and participation possible?” the diplomat, Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns, said, speaking briefly to journalists after a meeting Monday with Egyptian military officials and the interim government they have appointed.
“It is hard to picture how Egypt will be able to emerge from this crisis unless its people come together to find a nonviolent and inclusive path forward,” Burns said.
(Blog editor shaking his head; he didn't really say that, did he?)
His visit to Cairo was the first by a senior US official since the takeover.
Burns spoke against the backdrop of a standoff between the interim government and tens of thousands of Islamists who have staged a sit-in protest against the ouster of Morsi.
His supporters have been holding demonstrations outside an east Cairo mosque since his ouster, demanding that he be reinstated.
Burns urged both sides to take steps toward reconciliation....
Kind of hard with 50 dead people gunned down.
He did not mention Morsi by name, nor the Islamist movement behind him, the Muslim Brotherhood. When an Egyptian journalist asked how the new government responded to US calls for Morsi’s release from detention, Burns said only: “We have made our views clear on that issue.”
Speaking at a moment when anti-American sentiment is running high on all sides, Burns said he had “no illusions” about the number of Egyptians who have deep suspicions of the United States.
Morsi’s supporters accuse Washington of giving its blessing to the military’s removal of Morsi, the country’s first elected president.
Egyptians aren't dumb!
His opponents say the Obama administration wrongly supported Morsi’s Islamist government.
That is looking more and more like a lie.
Banners in Tahrir Square — the frequent focal point of protest — and elsewhere denounce President Obama as an enabler of the Brotherhood and depict the US ambassador to Egypt, Anne W. Patterson, with a large X over her face.
Smells like a controlled-opposition protest to me, although I'm sure Patterson was involved.
Burns emphasized repeatedly that the United States did not back any individuals or parties in Egypt, only the principle of an open and inclusive transition to a democracy. He said Washington hoped the “ongoing transition” would be “a chance to learn some of the lessons and correct some of the mistakes of the past two years.”
(Blog editor shaking his head)
He expressed hope that the military-led government’s plan for constitutional amendments and elections would “hasten Egypt’s return to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible.”
That plan, known as the road map, calls for a small panel of chosen judges and jurists to draft amendments that would be reviewed by a 50-person assembly for two months, followed by a national referendum.
But the broader political process in Egypt has all but shut down, with the government locking up Islamist leaders and silencing their satellite television networks, while the Islamists — who took almost 75 percent of the seats in the last parliamentary elections — refuse to participate in what they consider an antidemocratic process.
In a further sign of the country’s divisions, Islamist militants in Sinai used rocket-propelled grenades to attack a bus early Monday, killing three people and injuring 17, state media reported.
Related: A Second For the Sinai
The assault on the bus is part of a sharp increase in violence in the relatively lawless Sinai region since Morsi’s ouster.
That's ostensibly the reason Egypt moved a bunch of tanks and troops there, but everyone knows it is to guard against an Israeli incursion.
--more--"
"Egypt Cabinet includes women and Christians, but no Islamists" by Hamza Hendawi | Associated Press, July 17, 2013
CAIRO — Egypt’s interim leader swore in a Cabinet on Tuesday that included women and Christians but no Islamists as the military-backed administration moved swiftly to formalize the new political order and present a more liberal face that is markedly at odds with the deposed president and his supporters.
And MORSI was DUMPED for NOT being INCLUSIVE?
The changes came at a time of deep polarization and violence in Egypt, including new clashes that killed seven people as part of the continuing bloodshed that has marked the days following the armed forces coup that swept President Mohammed Morsi from office and cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt’s military already wields great influence behind the scenes, and the army chief, General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who ousted Morsi on July 3, was given a promotion in the Cabinet. He became a first deputy prime minister in addition to keeping his post as defense minister.
Not behind the scenes lately, and are you frikkin' kidding?
For most of the two years since the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, the country has been split into two camps — one led by Morsi, his Muslim Brotherhood, and its Islamist allies, and another led by secular Egyptians, liberals, Christians, and moderate Muslims.
Who benefits from that narrative, huh?
The interim president’s spokesman had earlier said posts would be offered to the Muslim Brotherhood, but the group promptly refused, saying it would not take part in the military-backed political process and would continue protests until the legitimately elected Morsi is reinstated.
The example is Chavez, God rest his soul, after he was removed in 2002.
As for participating, the coupsters can't be serious.
‘‘We refuse to even discuss it,’’ a senior official of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, told the Associated Press. ‘‘What is built on illegitimacy is illegal,’’ he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media before the party issued a formal statement on the formation of the Cabinet.
Good point.
The only Islamist party that supported Morsi’s ouster — the ultraconservative Salafi el-Nour party — was not represented and criticized the leadership as ‘‘biased,’’ lacking inclusion and repeating ‘‘the same mistake the last government was blamed for.’’
???? Why did you sell in?
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he had talked with el-Sissi about 10 times in the past week.
‘‘We have encouraged publicly and privately the leaders of Egypt, including the interim president, the interim vice president, and the prime minister in particular, to be inclusive, to bring all political parties in, to allow them to participate in the writing of the constitution and the elections,’’ Hagel told reporters in Florida. ‘‘That’s the only way it will work. We’ve been very clear on that.’’
I sometimes think he means well (Israel not liking him helps), but he's still a part of the political and economic elite carrying out the New World Order. Stole his way into the Senate, unless you think the machines from his company counted the votes correctly in a decades-long Democrats seat -- despite the polls days before the race showing a defeat for Chuck.
Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, an economist in his 70s, leads the government of 33 other ministers. Sworn in by interim President Adly Mansour, it reflected the largely liberal, secular bent of the factions who brought millions into the streets at the end of June calling for Morsi to step down and backed el-Sissi’s removal of the president.
Women have a somewhat higher profile in the government, with three ministries — including the powerful information and health ministries. Most past governments for decades have had at most only two women.
Oh, one or two more women in the Cabinet with powerful posts. Wow! Let's hope they don't get harassed, an Egyptian epidemic -- or so my jewsmedia has told me!
The Cabinet also includes three Christians, including one of the three women, Environment Minister Laila Rashed Iskander. That is also a first, since successive governments had no more than one or two Christians.
You like your token posts? You know who is running the show, right?
--more--"
Related: Egyptian Enigma
Gee, I'm just waiting on the edge of my seat to see how this is going to end!
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: Egyptian Epilogue
Not over yet, although maybe it is if you read a Globe.
