Egypt Is Burning: Incredible Photos
From the LA Times. The link to see all of them is on the bottom left of the photo.
Here's the Telegraph story about the U.S. allegedly secretly backing those behind the uprising. Tim Ross, Matthew Moore and Steven Swinford write:
The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.
...The disclosures, contained in previously secret US diplomatic dispatches released by the WikiLeaks website, show American officials pressed the Egyptian government to release other dissidents who had been detained by the police.
...In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for "regime change" to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year.
The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked "confidential" and headed: "April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt."
It said the activist claimed "several opposition forces" had "agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections". The embassy's source said the plan was "so sensitive it cannot be written down".
Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an "unrealistic" plot could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The embassy helped the campaigner attend a "summit" for youth activists in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.
LAT via LAObserved
This is the first I've heard of any rumors of America behind the uprising. What most are saying is that Iran is pulling the strings. The big question is: What happens next? Will Egypt somehow evolve into a peaceful democracy or will it devolve into a totalitarian theocracy/thugocracy?
Only time will tell.
Robert W. (Vancouver) at January 29, 2011 8:27 AM
Why do I get the feeling this is going to come back and bite us in the ass?
Eric at January 29, 2011 8:41 AM
Here's the Telegraph story about the U.S. allegedly secretly backing those behind the uprising.
Oh, that's great. The Won wouldn't lift a finger to assist the Iranian democratic movement. But now? removing a stable autocrat and replacing him with...what exactly? perhaps the Muslim Brotherhood?
How soon before there is war between Egypt and Israel?
I R A Darth Aggie at January 29, 2011 3:27 PM
Didn't the Iranian revolution in 1979 start as a "democratic" ideal, but got hijacked by the islamists?
biff at January 29, 2011 5:00 PM
Mubarak is the lesser of two evils,the other evil being the Muslim brotherhood ,they will take over. Bad bad bad for everyone everywhere IMHO.
Mbruce at January 29, 2011 5:43 PM
The only hope is that Mubarak can concede enough, for long enough, to allow a "peaceful" overthrow.
The other helpful thing is if Mubarak has the intelligence services that can selectively and surgically castrate the Muslim Brotherhood.
While I don't normally advocate such tactics -- hopefully it can be controlled enough that we don't have a Khomeini II situation.
Jim P. at January 29, 2011 7:03 PM
Oh, that's great. The Won wouldn't lift a finger to assist the Iranian democratic movement. But now? removing a stable autocrat and replacing him with...what exactly? perhaps the Muslim Brotherhood?
It sounds like the support for the pro-democracy movement written about in the Telegraph amounting to bringing one teenager to a conference sponsored by Whoopi Goldberg in 2008:
http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/29/dubious-claim-suggests-american-involvement-in-egyptian-protests/
Not a lot of support, and before Obama took office.
The U.S. should stay out of supporting pro-democracy movements in the Middle East, period. Our support is likely to hurt, not help these movements. And to be clear, there was no likelihood that the tiny group of protesters in Iran would ever succeed, given that most of the country and all of the security forces and quasi-security forces supported Ahmadinejad. But our president speaking out in favor of these movements or against them, is likely to have exactly the opposite effect, given that people over there do not like us.
And really, after the twin debacles of Iraq and Afghanistan, do we really want to get more deeply involved over there?
Christopher at January 30, 2011 10:35 AM
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