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Egypt anti-government protests grow

elbows said:
As for Ahmed Douma, he was given a suspended jail sentence in June for insulting Morsi, so would hardly have expected him to be in Morsi's fan club.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22758415

And very shortly after Morsi's ouster he and others were acquitted of inciting violence at a March clash outside MB party headquarters.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/egypt-court-acquits-morsi-critics-of-inciting-violence/404876-2.html

Out of the frying pan into the fire.
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Now given life.
 
Useful update; "Sisi's Way" (Egypt's prisons) by Tom Stevenson in last week's LRB

It’s no secret that Hosni Mubarak’s regime was repressive. Yet although in its treatment of prisoners and many other ways besides, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s is worse, statesmen around the world praise its role in Egypt’s ‘democratic transition’. When John Kerry visited Cairo last year he reported that Sisi had given him ‘a very strong sense of his commitment to human rights’. These issues, he said, were ‘very much’ on Sisi’s mind. For more than thirty years it was US policy to support autocratic government in Egypt as a route to ‘regional security’. The US backed Mubarak’s regime until its very last days; even during the mass protests of January 2011, the US hoped Mubarak could survive if he made political concessions. Mubarak is gone, but the US Defense Department’s links with the Egyptian military – long-standing and solid – have remained. Officials are steadily restoring the flow of aid and equipment that was temporarily suspended in the wake of the coup: there is no serious ‘human rights’ issue for Washington.
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Protest, and you will be jailed. Alaa Abdel Fattah given 5 years by the regime.

Abdel Fattah, 33, was a leading secular figure in the revolt that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.The Cairo court said on Monday that the prominent blogger and software engineer had violated the country's protest law.

After the verdict was read out, chants of "Down, down with military rule!" rang out from supporters of Abdel Fattah who crowded the courtroom.
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butchersapron said:
How Egypt’s Rebel Movement Helped Pave The Way For A Sisi Presidency

For the first time, one of the five founders of the Tamarod, the movement that led the protests that ousted the Muslim Brotherhood last year, admits his movement was taking orders from the army. “We were naive, we were not responsible.”





Much much more - depressing stuff - at the link.
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Leaked tapes of what is claimed to be Sisi's office and others setting up funding for tamarod from UAE - and other things (Blair involvement, libya etc

Fresh leaks, claiming to feature close allies of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi speaking about the penetrating political role of the United Arab Emirates in managing Egypt’s internal affairs, were aired on Sunday evening.

The 70-minute leak claims to reveal conversations in which the Egyptian presidential office was coordinating with UAE officials about the delivery of weapons to Libya and the funnelling of funds to Tamarod – a movement that was established to gather popular support against ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.

The leaks also purport to reveal secret meetings between Egyptian officials, UAE leaders and Quartet special envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair.
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butchersapron said:
Leaked tapes of what is claimed to be Sisi's office and others setting up funding for tamarod from UAE - and other things (Blair involvement, libya etc
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Not surprising I suppose, a little more detail here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/w...an-military-pushed-ousting-of-morsi.html?_r=0

At the time I doubt I got as far as thinking about Tamarod funding. I probably initially got pissed off with their petition signature blatant exaggeration, and then the alignment with Sisi that quickly became clear once he showed his initial hand.

The leaks are one of the only obvious things that have been going well for Islamists in Egypt. There is no sign so far that the leakers still have access to fresh material, but they clearly have a bunch from some point in 2013 before the coup to some point in 2014. And they are dripping it out rather slowly, since at least last December if not earlier. Some earlier stories were potentially embarrassing for their international relations.
 
Keep an eye on this:

Car bomb attack kills Egypt's top public prosecutor

Egypt's top public prosecutor died on Monday of wounds sustained in a car bomb attack on his convoy as it was leaving his Cairo home on Monday in a marked escalation of Islamist militant attacks on the judiciary.

Judges and other state officials have increasingly been targeted by radical Islamists opposed to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and angered by hefty prison sentences imposed on members of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
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Blimey that looks almost Operación Ogro size.
 
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Concerning the opening of the new Suez canal

Thou shalt celebrate



11846579_10155896016950504_8403122474656388296_n.jpg


Even the Interior Ministry has joined the celebrations, as the entrance to fortress-like Basateen police station in Maadi has been decorated with an inflatable fluorescent bear/rabbit hybrid balloon. ...
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Just wtf basically. It's all a bit Stephen King to my mind.
 
http://t.co/kpFUWM8elx

Article here which is really worth the read about the evolution of the muslim brotherhood and the growing influence of jihadism in its ranks following the coup and the evisceration of its leadership.
 
Important meeting with Putin today. http://allafrica.com/stories/201508261735.html

Particularly on Russian aid for nuclear facilities, and Egypt joining Russia's alternative-to-EU common market thing.

I suspect that if Egypt does swing into the Russian orbit, human rights abuses that have been forgotten over the past years will suddenly be remembered.
 
I don't think its about gravitating towards a single orbit at the moment. And we are firmly in sucking-up mode at the moment, as we have been for years, a great example of which came earlier this month:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...nt-sisis-controversial-position-10444392.html

Also in attendance was the British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, who had earlier praised the “modern wonder” of the project, as well as Egypt’s “vision of a more prosperous, more democratic society”, in an editorial for the Egyptian newspaperAl-Ahram.
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Ah well its not actual democracy, its a vision of democracy, a vision that presumably doesn't need to be fulfilled until all the people with incompatible ideas have been murdered or locked up.
 
elbows said:
I don't think its about gravitating towards a single orbit at the moment. And we are firmly in sucking-up mode at the moment, as we have been for years, a great example of which came earlier this month:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...nt-sisis-controversial-position-10444392.html
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No of course it's not, Egypt is sensibly from the regime point of view in both at the same time.
If Egypt fills in the gap EU sanctions were meant to squeeze Russia on then the EU might become unhappy:

"Egyptian exporters successfully use the opportunities offered by our market which have additionally opened after certain restrictive measures have been adopted in response to EU sanctions," Putin said.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCon...establish-industrial-zone-in-Egypt,-Puti.aspx

Egypt's president El-Sisi, who is on a three-day visit to Moscow, said both countries "look forward to taking the first steps towards a Russian industrial zone in the Suez Canal area," and expressed gratitude for the level of Russian representation at the recent inauguration of the New Suez Canal, which Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev attended.

Also the level of militarisation in Russia's "industrial zone" in the Suez waterway could invite a reproach from the 'west'.
Here's the full Fallon op-ed in al Ahram, so no, it's not doing that at the moment.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCon...elebrates-the-new-Suez-Canal,-Britain-st.aspx

Firstly, through our military-to-military relationships. We have provided aviation security training and life-saving counter-IED training to Egyptian security officials. The UK and Egypt are both central members of the global coalition to counter Da’esh. In Iraq, the UK armed forces have been providing 70 per cent of the coalition’s tactical reconnaissance capability. The coalition's efforts are having a real impact. Da’esh in Iraq and Syria are already losing ground. They have surrendered a quarter of their territory in Iraq since the Global Coalition began operations in autumn 2014.

However, as our Prime Minister has made clear, we're determined to do even more. That means not just targetting Da’esh in Iraq but in Syria - where their command and control lies - and in Libya. We’re already working closely with the Egyptian government to co-ordinate our efforts on the UN peace process in Libya. We are also ramping up our cooperation on security channels with Egypt and across the region so that together we can defeat Da’esh in Libya.

...

Critically, we see Egypt’s religious institutions Al-Azhar and Dar Al-Iftaa as partners in our counter-extremism strategy. These institutions have the authority to set out the correct interpretation of Islam. We will draw on their knowledge, learning, and wisdom in order to counter the distorted narrative peddled by the extremists.
 
On a related note, deals to create the 'Arab Defense Force' continue:

http://www.thecairopost.com/news/16...-to-ratify-joint-arab-force-protocol-in-cairo

CAIRO: Foreign and defense ministers from Arab states are to meet in the Arab League (AL) headquarters in Cairo Thursday to ratify a draft protocol for a joint-Arab force, Al-Ahram reported.

The Arab states participating in the proposed joint force remain unknown; meanwhile Iraq has expressed reservations to the notion.

Besides Egypt, six Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait and Yemen) have already agreed to participate in the proposed force, Al-Ahram reported, citing diplomatic source within the AL.
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kissinger be all 'this upsart? I remember when you had to earn your trophy with the blood of east timorese children ffs'
 
J Ed said:
He's knocked off less peeps that Obama and they are almost all in the country he is the dictator of so why not
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An unknown number of people detained and tortured without trial and being the leader of a military coup for starters, I'm sure if you put your mind to it you can think of one or two other things.
 
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