Egyptian court orders Mubarak released from prison

[Weeks after the military coup in Egypt–which the US declared a non-coup and a move toward democracy, and which the Wall Street Journal (echoing the imperialist Kissinger) urged to take the role of Chile’s Pinochet–the Egyptian military launched a reign of murderous terror against both the Muslim and other opposition sectors.  Campaigns to urge the US and EU countries to stop financing the blood-soaked Egyptian military were denounced by Israel, and Saudi Arabia announced that if any Western powers reduce their aid to Egypt, Saudi petrodollars will make up the difference.  And now, these counter-revolutionary and counter-democratic moves takes another step, with the release of the butcher Mubarak from jail.  The challenge for the democratic and revolutionary people in Egypt has never been higher.  —  Frontlines ed.]

By Abigail Hauslohner, Washington Post, Wednesday, August 21, 2013

CAIRO —Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak could leave prison as early as Wednesday night, government officials and legal experts said, after a Cairo court ordered the release of the deposed autocrat who ruled Egypt for three decades.Mubarak’s release would constitute a dramatic blow to the broad protest movement that forced his removal from office in February 2011. It would also lend credibility to the Islamist opposition’s claims that the old regime is reasserting itself following a July 3 military coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president. Egyptian security services in recent weeks have launched a deadly crackdown against Morsi’s allies.

Egypt: US Urges Opposition to Join Morsi in ‘Electoral Path’–but Opponents Say, ‘Stop Meddling’

Egypt: Opposition Group Denounces U.S. Intervention in Egypt Affairs

Aswat Masriya, 27 February 2013

Egypt’s National Association for change condemned on Wednesday the “outright intervention of the United States in Egypt’s internal affairs” which was expressed in the U.S. State Department call to the opposition to participate in the parliamentary elections.

Spokesperson of the U.S. State Department, Edgar Vasquez, has urged all the Political Parties to participate in the upcoming elections, saying, “Elections give the Egyptians a chance to have their voices heard.”

“It is crucial for all Egyptian parties to be involved,” said Vasquez, as reported by the American Network, Fox News.

In response to Vasquez’s remarks, the National Association for Change issued a statement saying, “Neither America, nor any other country, has the right to provide advice to Egyptians, or interfere in any way in the internal affairs of Egypt.”

“The successive governments of the United States have supported Hosni Mubarak’s regime unconditionally, which sponsored corruption and tyranny. They continue to disgracefully support the Muslim Brotherhood’s repressive regime,” said the statement.

The statement added that according to U.S. reports, Barack Obama’s administration has provided financial aid of one billion and a half dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood to enable it to take over the revolution and the government.

Egyptians protest against a year of army rule

Afrasian.com: “Egyptians rally against defiant military rulers”

Egyptian military policement lined up behind barbed wire

Thousands of people rallied outside Egypt’s defence ministry Friday calling for the military rulers’ ouster a day before a civil disobedience campaign marking Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow a year ago.

The military responded by saying it would not bow to threats or plots against the state, official television reported.

During the day, several groups of protesters converged near the ministry as the security forces blocked off access with barbed wire and tanks.

Military music blared from behind the barrier, while the activists chanted slogans such as: “The people want the execution of the Field Marshal” — Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling military council since Mubarak’s ouster.

The activists set off from several points across Cairo and snaked through residential areas to bypass military cordons several kilometres (miles) from the military headquarters.

The protesters plan a day of strikes and sit-ins to mark the anniversary on Saturday.

Egypt: Before the ‘Arab Spring’, a determined underground media exposed and discredited Mubarak

Egypt: How We Did It When the Media Would Not

May 19, 2011

On February 11, 2011 Egyptians toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak. Blogger and viral video producer Aalam Wassef was one of the many people who worked for years to make it happen. This is first in a series on the daily life of
Egypt’s revolution. It’s a manual on how a civil resistance was built to win.

Egypt: The revolution continues after Mubarak’s fall

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 12 February 2011

Egyptians protest at Tahrir Square on the day Mubarak left office, 11 February. (Matthew Cassel)

Yesterday evening, after it was announced that Hosni Mubarak had met the first demand of the revolution and left office, I headed toward the Egyptian embassy in Amman. The joy on the streets was something I had never experienced before.

From all directions people came, pouring out of cars stuck in gridlocked traffic on Zahran Street and into the side street where the embassy sits. They were young and old and families with children. Egyptian laborers — the unacknowledged back bone of much of the Jordanian economy — sang, carried each other on their shoulders and played drums. Egyptian flags waved and signs were held high.

Egypt’s Defiant Dictator Mubarak: speech sparks renewed anger

President Hosni Mubarak speaking on state TV on 10 February 2011

© Egypt state TV/afrol News

10 February – President Hosni Mubarak just does not want to go, his televised speech revealed, sparking new anger among the millions of Egyptians protesting in the streets of Cairo and other cities. The anger could spark revolt.

“He must leave, he must leave!” was the uniform shouting of millions in the streets of Cairo as it became clear that President Mubarak would not step down before the September elections.

President Mubarak only made minor concessions in his speech, which he started by calling himself the “father” of Egyptians, being his “children”. While not stepping down, he would transfer some of the executive powers to Vice-President Omar Suleiman, himself not a popular figure among Egyptian protesters.

He further promised constitutional changes that would make it easier for presidential candidates to stand forward and elections to be held in a freer ambient. However, the amendments had been proposed by a committee appointed by the President himself and had been approved by him alone. Protesters had completely different demands for a constitutional reform.

President Mubarak further said that the constitutional amendments would lead to the lifting of the decades-old state of emergency, but did not name a timetable for this. Finally, he emphasised on his compassion with the protesting youths, mourning for the “martyrs” of Tahrir Square.

Mubarak won’t seek new term; go now, crowds shout

Women demonstrate in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011. Tens of thousands of people flooded into the heart of Cairo Tuesday, filling the city's main square as a call for a million protesters was answered by the largest demonstration in a week of unceasing demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave.

February 01. 2011

Sarah El Deeb and Hadeel Al-Shalchi / Associated Press

Cairo— President Hosni Mubarak defied a quarter-million protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing Tuesday he would serve out the last months of his term and “die on Egyptian soil.” He promised not to seek re-election, but that did not calm public fury as clashes erupted between his opponents and supporters.

The protesters, whose numbers multiplied more than tenfold in a single day Tuesday for their biggest rally yet, have insisted they will not end their unprecedented week-old wave of unrest until their ruler for nearly three decades goes.

Mubarak’s halfway concession — an end to his rule seven months down the road — threatened to inflame frustration and anger among protesters, who have been peaceful in recent days.

In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, clashes erupted between several hundred protesters and government supporters soon afterward, according to footage by Al-Jazeera television. The protesters threw stones at their rivals, who wielded knives and sticks, until soldiers fired in the air and stepped in between them, said a local journalist, Hossam el-Wakil.

The speech was immediately derided by protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Watching on a giant TV, protesters booed and waved their shoes over their heads at his image in a sign of contempt. “Go, go, go! We are not leaving until he leaves,” they chanted. One man screamed, “He doesn’t want to say it, he doesn’t want to say it.”