Who was right? Barack Hussein Obama or Omar Suleiman?
Former Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman passed away this week while in the United States for treatment.
Here's an interview he did with a gushing Christiane Amanpour on ABC in early 2011. Amanpour is spouting the Obama line that the Egyptian revolutionaries who just wanted their rights and their freedom. Suleiman has a different view. Watch from about the 3:30 mark.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Sunlight).
Who do you think was right? Anyone know where Wael Ghonim is today?
Do I need to say anymore except to tell you that the man in the picture is former Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is a candidate for President of Egypt?
This is rich: Salafist candidate for Egyptian President out because his mother was an American citizen
This is rich. The Salafist candidate for President of Egypt, Hazem Abu Ismail, is going to be barred from running because his mother held an American passport (Israel Radio is reporting that he has been barred).
Egypt's electoral commission has confirmed that the mother of a self described Islamist candidate holds a US passport, a status that will likely disqualify Hazem Abu Ismail from the country's presidential race.
A commission statement on Saturday said the foreign ministry had confirmed that Abu Ismail's mother, Nawal Abdel Aziz Nur, obtained US citizenship in October 2006.
Egypt's constitution prohibits candidates whose parents hold dual nationality from participating in the poll.
Abu Ismail, a leader of the Salafi party and one of the election frontrunners, has become a familiar sight in Cairo, with his posters adorning many cars and buses.
Thousands of people rallied in central Cairo in support of his candidacy on Friday.
"The people want Hazem Abu Ismail! No to manipulation!" the demonstrators shouted after making their way through central Cairo to Tahrir Square, epicentre of last year's revolt which toppled president Hosni Mubarak.
The protesters carried portraits of Abu Ismail and waved their fists, angrily condemning any attempt to disqualify their candidate.
This came after election commission chief Hatem Degato said on Thursday that the agency had received information according to which Abu Ismail's mother had "used an American passport for travel to and from Egypt" before her death.
Degato told the Reuters news agency that the commission would give a verdict on Abu Ismail's elegibility after this Sunday's deadline for all presidential candidates to submit their applications to run.
The 'good' news is that Omar Suleiman, who was briefly appointed Vice President by Hosni Mubarak, and who has negotiated with Israel in the past as intelligence chief, has announced that he will run for President.
Sorry for the long silence this evening. I had to drive someone to the airport and because our internet connection was down for a few hours, I could not line up enough posts in advance.
I'm sure a lot of you were as surprised as the White House was last Thursday night when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak did not resign (of course, he eventually did resign on Friday). What happened on Thursday night? Why didn't he resign then? Here's the inside story.
Insiders in Egypt have given The Associated Press an initial picture of what happened in the hours before Egypt's "unoustable" leader of nearly 30 years fell. Some of them spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Their account portrayed Mubarak as unable, or unwilling, to grasp that nothing less than his immediate departure would save the country from the chaos generated by the protests that began January 25. A senior government official said Mubarak lacked the political machinery that could give him sound advice about what was happening in the country.
"He did not look beyond what Gamal was telling him, so he was isolated politically," said the official. "Every incremental move (by Mubarak) was too little too late."
The military, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly impatient with the failure of Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, his newly appointed vice president, to end the protests. The unrest spiraled out of control late last week, with demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins and even gunbattles engulfing almost the entire nation.
Insiders spoke of fighting among Cabinet ministers over how great a threat the demonstrators posed, and of deliberate attempts by close aides, including Gamal Mubarak, to conceal from the president the full extent of what was happening on the streets.
The insiders who spoke to the AP include a senior Egyptian official, editors and journalists from state newspapers close to the regime who have spent years covering Mubarak's presidency, retired army generals in contact with top active duty officers, senior members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party and analysts familiar with the machinations of Mubarak's inner circle.
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Insiders said Mubarak's address Thursday night was meant to be his resignation announcement. Instead, he made one last desperate attempt to stay in office after being encouraged to do so by close aides and especially by his family, long the subject of rumours of corruption, abuse of power and extensive wealth.
One insider said Gamal, his banker-turned-politician son, rewrote the speech several times before the recording. It was aired at 11pm, several hours after state TV said Mubarak was about to address the nation. It showed brief footage of him meeting with Suleiman and his Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
The address was clearly prepared in a rush. It had rough cuts, and Mubarak was caught at least once acting like he was between takes, fixing his tie and looking away from the camera.
Information Minister Anas al-Fiqqi was there at the studio alongside Gamal Mubarak, according to two of the insiders. State TV quoted him in the hours before the broadcast saying that Mubarak would not resign. On Saturday, al-Fiqqi announced his own resignation.
Mubarak said in the address that he was handing over most of his powers to Suleiman but again rejected calls for his resignation. He vowed to introduce genuine reforms, prosecute those behind the violence that left scores of protesters dead and offered his condolences to the victims' families. He said he was hurting over calls for his removal and, in his defence, recounted his record in public service. He was not going anywhere until his term ended in September, he said.
He had hoped that putting Suleiman in charge would end the protests and allow him to remain in office as a symbolic figure, a scenario that would have seen him make a dignified exit.
The address betrayed what many Egyptians suspected for years - Mubarak was out of touch with the people.
The real question here is whether Mubarak was the only one who was 'out of touch.' Did those around him think they could impose his rule on Egyptians for another several months to allow him a dignified exit? Did they still think there was a chance that his son Gamal would succeed him? Someday, we will find out.
Now that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is gone, power in Egypt is being wielded by the former Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi. How much different is he than Mubarak? From this report, it seems that he's like Mubarak but less corrupt.
"He's the defense minister. He's a career officer... Anyone that serves the ministry for that long is part of the regime," Nathan Brown of George Washington University's Elliot School of International Affairs told ABC News. "I would be surprised if he kept that job that long without being loyal [to Mubarak]."
However, John Sifton, a former investigator with Human Rights Watch and author of two major reports on Egypt, said that as far as abuses, "in comparison with the civilian institutions, the military -- let's just say we have a lot more faith and optimism about what's going to happen" now that the military is in charge.
Egypt's recently appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, made the announcement today that a military council, with Tantawi at its head, would wield power in the nation in Mubarak's place, even though several U.S. and Egyptian officials assumed Suleiman would inherit control.
Suleiman, formerly the country's intelligence chief and who oversaw the torture of an Al Qaeda suspect, would have represented little of the change the protestors were hoping for, experts said.
"Mubarak and Suleiman are the same person," said Emile Nakhleh, a former top Middle East analyst for the CIA. "They are not two different people in terms of ideology and reform."
Though they erupted in applause at the announcement Mubarak was leaving and Suleiman would not assume control, some protestors said Tantawi may not be much different.
"He's corrupt... He's not favored in the military. He's there because he stayed loyal to Honsi Mubarak," 26-year-old Abdelaziz Abdel Nabi told ABC News. "We're scared one of the military people steps up and controls us, like Mubarak did."
A leaked U.S. State Department cable posted on the website Wikileaks, which cited "academics and civilian analysts," called Tantawi "Mubarak's poodle" and said mid-level officers in the Egyptian military were infuriated by his incompetence and blind loyalty to Mubarak. Tantawi has served Egypt's military for years and fought alongside the U.S. and its allies in the 1991 Gulf War.
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Despite being a long-time member of the regime and close ally of Mubarak's through his presidency, Brown said Tantawi has a major advantage in the simple fact that the military is, for the most part, independent of the state's despised police and intelligence forces.
"They're completely separate," Brown said. "That intelligence, police state -- this was run in kind of a rough manner [and] the police and security service were untouchable... The military's task was defense of the homeland, not maintaining internal security."
As I am sure you have all heard by now, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak addressed his nation on Thursday night and stunned everyone by announcing that he would not step down. The White House has issued a statement in response.
The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient. Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to speak clearly to the Egyptian people and the world. The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity.
As we have said from the beginning of this unrest, the future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people. But the United States has also been clear that we stand for a set of core principles. We believe that the universal rights of the Egyptian people must be respected, and their aspirations must be met. We believe that this transition must immediately demonstrate irreversible political change, and a negotiated path to democracy. To that end, we believe that the emergency law should be lifted. We believe that meaningful negotiations with the broad opposition and Egyptian civil society should address the key questions confronting Egypt’s future: protecting the fundamental rights of all citizens; revising the Constitution and other laws to demonstrate irreversible change; and jointly developing a clear roadmap to elections that are free and fair.
We therefore urge the Egyptian government to move swiftly to explain the changes that have been made, and to spell out in clear and unambiguous language the step by step process that will lead to democracy and the representative government that the Egyptian people seek. Going forward, it will be essential that the universal rights of the Egyptian people be respected. There must be restraint by all parties. Violence must be forsaken. It is imperative that the government not respond to the aspirations of their people with repression or brutality. The voices of the Egyptian people must be heard.
The Egyptian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were: Egypt has changed, and its future is in the hands of the people. Those who have exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the Egyptian people, and are broadly representative of Egyptian society. We have seen young and old, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian join together, and earn the respect of the world through their non-violent calls for change. In that effort, young people have been at the forefront, and a new generation has emerged. They have made it clear that Egypt must reflect their hopes, fulfill their highest aspirations, and tap their boundless potential. In these difficult times, I know that the Egyptian people will persevere, and they must know that they will continue to have a friend in the United States of America.
A senior adviser from Israel's Ministry of Defense told U.S. diplomats in Tel Aviv in August 2008 that Suleiman was viewed as the most likely interim president if Mubarak died or was incapacitated.
U.S. diplomat Luis Moreno wrote that "there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of" Suleiman, according to the cable released Monday night by WikiLeaks and published by the Daily Telegraph on its website.
In 2008, Mubarak's son Gamal was seen as his father's likely successor. Suleiman, who was head of the foreign intelligence service, at the time was Israel's main contact in the Egyptian government. The cable notes that a hot-line set up between Israel's Defense Ministry and the Suleiman-led Egyptian General Intelligence Service was in "daily use."
The leaked cable reveals that Suleiman, angry at Israeli criticism of Egypt's ineffectiveness in stopping arms smuggling to Gaza, suggested that Israel send troops to Egypt's Philadelphi Corridor and stop the smuggling by itself.
The cables also quote Suleiman as saying that Hamas should be isolated and that Gaza could "go hungry but not starve."
I wonder if the average Egyptian would agree with those statements by Suleiman. If so, we are in good shape. Take that, Erdogan.
Wikileaks: Omar Suleiman promised 'Palestinian' 2006 election would never take place
With the United States telling everyone who will listen that there is no need to worry about an Egyptian election because the Muslim Brotherhood won't win anyway, perhaps this is the time to look back at the last time the US sponsored an election in an Arab polity and told us not to worry about a terror organization winning: The 'Palestinian Authority' in January 2006. A recently released Wikileaks cable shows that the United States wasn't as stupid as we all thought they were when they agreed to that election: The US had been promised by current Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman that the election would never take place.
They may have thought the election itself wouldn’t happen.
In fact, they were warned by Israeli Defense Official Amos Gilad that if elections were held, “it will destroy everything” with attempts to foster stability (in the name of “peace”) in the Middle East. But Gilad also told them Omar Suleiman promised to see to it that there were no elections.
Gilad said he warned Suleiman that if Hamas participates in the January 2006 Palestinian elections “it will destroy everything, as Hamas will take over and start a new process.” According to Gilad, Suleiman and his deputy told him, “There will be no elections in January. We will take care of it.” Gilad requested that the USG closely hold this information and strictly protect the sources. He clarified that neither Suleiman nor his deputy explained how Egypt would stop the elections or elaborated further on the subject. Gilad admitted that he does not know how the Egyptians could prevent the elections from taking place, but said, “The only people the Palestinians can trust now are the Egyptians.”
So why didn't Suleiman rig the election or make sure that it wouldn't take place? (Or did he rig it?). And could it happen again?
Greta van Sustern interviews three Egyptian protesters
Here's a fascinating interview that Fox News' Greta van Sustern conducted via Skype with three Egyptian protesters.
Let's go to the videotape.
I don't know about the rest of you but I was kind of surprised about the extent to which they seemed willing to accept putting Omar Suleiman in charge - at least temporarily.
Christiane Amanpour interviews Hosni Mubarak; Son Gamal is in Egypt
ABC News' Christiane Amanpour interviewed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday. Here's a brief summary of the interview with Amanpour and Diane Sawyer discussing it.
Let's go to the videotape.
The full interview will air as part of a one-hour special at 11:35 pm US Eastern time on Thursday night (that's 6:35 am Friday morning here in Israel). And you will note that Amanpour says that Gamal Mubarak is in the palace.
Here's another video with Amanpour. Let's go to the videotape.
Here's Amanpour on the streets of Cairo earlier in the day. Let's go to the videotape.
Finally, here's Wednesday night's report, which some of you may have missed.
Israel Radio reports that things are relatively 'quiet' in Egypt, that there is a curfew in Egypt, so there are very few cars and people in the streets, and that Foreign Minister Omar Suleiman has been appointed Vice President. That is apparently not enough for the demonstrators.
The BBC reported that Gamal and his wife were both in London, but al-Jazeera is reporting that both of Hosni Mubarak's sons are in Cairo, although both have left their homes.
The pictures in this post are of vandalism in the Cairo Museum - those broken artifacts that you see are priceless. They were posted originally by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, a columnist for The National (an Emirati newspaper) and posted to YFrog by Blake Hounshell (one of the editors of Foreign Policy Magazine).
Unfortunately, looters have destroyed many of these priceless artifacts.
Looters broke into the Egyptian Museum during anti-government protests late on Friday and destroyed two Pharaonic mummies, Egypt's top archaeologist told state television.
The museum in central Cairo, which has the world's biggest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party that protesters had earlier set ablaze. Flames were seen still pouring out of the party headquarters early on Saturday.
"I felt deeply sorry today when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night," Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Saturday.
"Egyptian citizens tried to prevent them and were joined by the tourism police, but some [looters] managed to enter from above and they destroyed two of the mummies," he said.
He added looters had also ransacked the ticket office.
The two-storey museum, built in 1902, houses tens of thousands of objects in its galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen collection.
Meantime, Egyptian intelligence chief Gen. Omar Suleiman was named vice president Saturday -- the first to hold that post in Egypt since 1981, Egypt state television reported.
The appointment of the veteran Egyptian security official who has dealt extensively with Washington on the peace process, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation talks, counter-terrorism, and other security matters, came hours after embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced overnight that he would dissolve his cabinet and implement political and economic reforms.
President Barack Obama said he called Mubarak after his speech last night and pressed him to make good on his pledges for reform, and said violence is not the way to deal with the grievances that have built up in Egyptian society.
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The appointment of Suleiman, a more technocratic figure (and non Mubarak relative) who has developed a strong working rapport with Washington and other Middle Eastern capitals, to the Vice Presidential post, suggests a potential transition figure and bulwark against instability as Mubarak's exit is envisioned, from Washington's perspective.
"The message [of Suleiman's appointment] is intended to be, even if Mubarak goes, the system remains," Jon Alterman, an Egypt expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Saturday.
"I don't think Suleiman seeks the presidency," Alterman continued. "That being said, it's hard to imagine Mubarak is president in a year."
Foreign policy scholar Robert Kagan, who co-chairs a bipartisan Egypt working group that has been urging the Obama administration to prepare for the post-Mubarak era and press for reforms, writes that he thinks Obama's statement last night after his conversation with the Egyptian ruler was pretty good.
"They're not as on the fence as people think," Kagan, of the Brookings Institution, said by e-mail Saturday, referring to the U.S. administration. "I think the administration knows there has to be some kind of transition soon."
Kagan envisions a possible transition scenario under which Mubarak would agree to move now to allow free and fair, internationally monitored presidential elections in September, open up the press, etc. that would make way for Mubarak's peaceful departure in the next six months.
"The only way out for Mubarak is to allow free and fair, competitive elections, including inviting international monitors to come in," Kagain said. "And right away, because they have to monitor months of campaigning leading up to the elections." It also requires, he said, "changes to constitution to allow candidates not currently approved to run ... [a] completely free press, etc."
"If Mubarak announced this right away, it could prevent him from being toppled," Kagan said. "It is possible that Egyptians would still want Mubarak out even if he made these concessions, but I think it could work."
From Washington's perspective, CSIS's Alterman said, "peaceful change is most likely to lead to a more inclusive government, and violence is likely to lead to an extended period of tension and instability and radicalize both sides. The clear U.S. interest is in avoiding a bloodbath in the streets."
Great news: Hamas and Fatah to try reconciliation again
Hamas 'Prime Minister' Ismail Haniyeh told a group of Kuwaiti journalists on Sunday that Hamas and Fatah will soon try to reconcile again.
Haniyeh said he was notified by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that the parties would be invited to Cairo in the near future, according to the report.
The announcement comes after Haniyeh had instructed his security forces last week to enforce the ceasefire and calm along the Gaza-Israeli border. The Hamas prime minister also phoned Suleiman in Cairo to reiterate the Gaza Strip's ruling faction's intention to maintain the unofficial truce with Israel.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
