Israel Matzav

Oh my: Morsy under house arrest - LIVE TV FROM EGYPT

Reports indicate that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy was placed under house arrest by Egypt's powerful military after Wednesday's deadline for him to accept protester demands expired (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is reportedly under house arrest after the military ultimatum expired Wednesday, reports Al Hayat TV.

Morsi's spokesman denied the report, according to ABC News, but word of the house arrest provoked cheers in Tahrir Square.

This comes as Egypt's military moved to tighten its control on key institutions before their afternoon ultimatum expired.

The military stationed officers in the newsroom of state television on the banks of the Nile River in central Cairo. Troops were deployed in news-production areas.

Officers from the army's media department moved inside the newsroom and were monitoring output, though not yet interfering, staffers said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the arrangements.

This move shows the military's preparation for an almost certain push to remove the country's Islamist president when an afternoon ultimatum expires.

The military has to tread a fine line.

Experts watching the situation feel that Morsi lost the trust of the people early on when he and the Muslim Brotherhood took power and made changes to the country's constitution.

"It is not the economy. It is the quest for freedom and feeling that they have been betrayed and the resenting to replace a dictatorship of Mubarak by a theocracy dictatorship, where it will be the dictator is ruling but garbing himself in religion," said Dr. Maher Hathout with the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is urging Morsi to address the people's grievances and the White House is also warning Egypt's military that a coup could jeopardize relations with the United States.

It will be interesting to see whether other Arab spring countries (Tunisia, Libya, Syria), which have been or are in the process of being taken over by Islamist rulers will have similar reactions to the reaction in Egypt. And while Dr. Hathout is dismissive of the role the economy is playing in this, the Egyptian economy is a complete and total basket case, and there's no way that isn't (and won't in the future) playing a role here.

As to Obama, he is continuing to stand by Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood, and that could yet have serious backlash against the United States.

Here's live television from Egypt (sorry, Arabic only).

Let's go to the videotape.

Labels: Cairo, Christian Copts, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian regime change, Egyptian Revolution, Mohamed ElBaradei, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:36 PM