Tag Archives: America

An Interview With Lowkey on the ‘Manipulative’ Joseph Kony 2012 Campaign

It has been over a week since the Kony 2012 video went viral. The video, by Invisible Children, is now nearing 80 million views on YouTube. One of the most vociferous critics of the campaign is musician and political activist, Lowkey.

I spoke to Lowkey about the video.

What did you think of the video?

“I think the Kony 2012 campaign has had a manipulative and negative affect on the younger generation. But it has made the older generation question this level of emotional manipulation. That the answer to everything is the US military and has made people question what Africom actually is. And why the US feels the need to expand its military presence in Africa. It then leads people to the idea that the US is essentially trying to have a counter weight to Chinese elevation in the region.”

Why are you against US military intervention?

“I think Africom was founded by George Bush in 2006 and it clearly sets out its aim to increase US military prescence in Africa. However, the majority of African countries rejected Africom which means it had to have its Headquarters in Germany, imagine that.

However Nigeria was one government which welcomed Africom and Uganda is another  government that is now welcoming US military expansion. Now unless you are those specific people within those governments, you will not view the presence of the US military on your land as something positive. We also need to remember that these countries welcoming US military presence have very, very, very questionable human rights records and very questionable histories, with regards to democracy – this word that we band about, if you ask Kony what his objective is, he says democracy – now it’s amazing how we have someone in Africa saying his objective is democracy and he is the number one enemy. Yet we have people in other parts of the world, like in the Middle East, who have not said explicitly that their aim is democracy and we are, without question, supporting them.

Do you feel there is hypocrisy taking place?

If you are a US citizen and your first point of call for war criminals is not your own government, then you do not really have the wider interests of humanity at heart. The US is accused of far more heinous crimes than Joseph Kony. Essentially, this video is encouraging youth to look at things in a very simplistic and damaging way. If you use Joseph Kony 2012 by Invisible Children as the pretext, you can take anyone to any point of the world and say there is a bad person doing something bad to these people – that’s the only explanation you need to give. And then you say the only solution is US military involvement in the land. My God. You can justify anything, absolutely anything. That was the whole idea of the video. It was him explaining to his son the situation in this very simplistic way. There was no intention to explain the wider context of the situation.

It’s not saying this bad thing is happening we need your money to make it better, which is one thing. It is saying we need your money and your voice to expand what is a stated aim of US policy. It’s not as if Africom didn’t happen. That’s what they’ve been trying for years, and it hasn’t been working very well. And this is what the Nato campaign in Libya was largely about: the expansion of Africom. What’s so manipulative and horrible about it, is that they use genuine emotions that people have that are natural. How could you not feel for somebody whose brother has died? People are not made of stone.

What should happen to Joseph Kony?

Kony himself is utterly irrelevant. That’s why it’s so strange. They put Hitler and Bin Laden there [on the poster] and Kony there. Well you know which ideological perspective they are coming from. And you know who they are talking to and who they are talking for, most importantly. Most people who are worried about human life are not going to view the solution as being the US military. The solution has never been US military because it has never worked way, never.

And, finally, why did you delete Twitter?

I find it’s a distraction. Twitter is different to Facebook in that any little thing that people think they just Tweet it, and I would rather not know. I would prefer to concentrate on my music. Saying that, music hasn’t been the number one thing on my mind at the moment, rather than being a good musician or good artist – I’ve been reading a lot – and I would rather be a good and more all round person.

You can find Lowkey on Facebook here

His latest album, Soundtrack to the Struggle can be found on iTunes

Follow me @omar_shahid

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Iran & Syria protest outside US Embassy 28 January

Today outside the US Embassy there was a rally against military intervention in Iran and Syria, here are a selection of photos from the protest.

The police threatened to arrest this man (below) for the offensive remarks he was holding. One of them stated: “9/11 Jewish Satan bomb”.

He repeated: “Jewish, Satan bomb in Westminster.”

Tony Benn, former MP, said: “America, France, Britain, Israel are looking to attack Iran for their nuclear energy when there is no proof that it will lead, or is intending to lead, to nuclear weapons. Everyone country in the west is now making massive public cuts in expenditure and every bomb is coming out of cuts.” He further said that we don’t need another “imperialist” war under the folly to “safeguard the interests of the west”.

John Rees, a political activist and from the Stop the War Coalition, said: Everybody must be concerned about the military preparations. We have seen how disastrous this action is in Iraq and we don’t want a repeat in Iran.”

Roger Lloyd Pack, former actor, said: ” It’s as if the war in Iraq never happened, as if  we’ve forgotten the lies we were told. I’m appalled.”

“Don’t Attack Iran!”

This guy (below) wearing a moustache caused a lot of trouble, as you can see as he squares up with another individual. He interrupted Abbas Edalat, founder of the campaign against sanctions and military intervention in Iran, and was shouting “Down with [Ayatullah] Khamenei”, “Down with Hezbollah”. Some claimed he was “paid” to be there and cause trouble.

The guy below was pulled away by police after he pushed moustache man to the ground.

Here is moustache man, again.

And again.

And again.

Yep, and again.

And for a final time.

I lied, this is the final time. 

Here are his “boys”. 

And the rest of his crew. 

The Guy Fawkes mask which has become a symbol of protest in the past 12 months.

This lady was getting a tad excited, too.

“Has anything really changed?”

Well, erm…

The Souls of The Lost: American Photojournalist Explores London

American writer and photojournalist, Brian Leli, has spent the past four months photographing his exploration of London, presenting a unique cross-section of the capital city.

In a year that has seen youth unemployment reach a record high, growing discontent about the rising disparity between rich and poor, an attack on the financial system in the form of the St Paul’s occupation and the worst riots since the 1980’s – Leli’s photography appears to capture the day to day mood of ordinary Londoners in 2011.

By August 2012, Leli hopes to have finished London and a Year, a book comprised of still images and writings, presenting the author’s experiences over the course of his stay.

Noticeably, recent events seem to have shaped Leli’s work – and the Chicago born photographer says thatLondonoften “feels somewhat cold and sad”. Much of Leli’s photography reflects this and echoes William Yeates description of the London people: “I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.”

However, his work does not only portray a tale of doom and gloom. Shots of the Notting Hill Carnival depict a more colourful and optimistic picture. Leli says his intention is to portray reality “without artifice”. The result of this is not, therefore, an extension of an inherited view, but instead depicts the experiences of an outsider’s standpoint.

“I’ve photographed and spoken with a barber shop owner whose shop was destroyed in the riots, which happened right before I moved here. I was there at the beginning of the Occupy London protests. And I’ll be here when the Olympics kick-off. So I think those juxtapositions in themselves will be very telling.”

Leli first moved to London from Chicago in August to study a Masters in International Journalism, desperate for a change in scenery. He likens his interest in journalism to his interest in photography, he says his course has “taken the romance out of the idea of being an international journalist and made it more real”.

Despite London being one of the most popular destinations in the world, Leli says: “I honestly haven’t fallen in love with the city” adding: “I’m sure a lot of that is just me and my nature, I’m sure that as the days go by and I keep working at it, I will crack the surface and find something special.”

You can see more of Brian Leli’s work in London here

by Omar Shahid and John Houghton-Brown

Will We See World War III In 2012?

For the past decade, the public has heard vociferous rhetoric from the White House and the Israeli government about Iran and their nuclear capabilities. In November 2002, the then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon said “the day after” the Iraq war ends, full attention should be given to Iran.

The Iraq invasion officially ended this month, so we must now ask: what now? According to Gerald Celente, who has accurately forecasted major political events for 30 years and is the founder of The Trends Research Institute, not only are we going to see “economic martial law” in 2012, because we cannot “salvage” the “collapsing financial system” but we could see “World War III”. Celente believes with the “Israeli issue heating up”, the problems in Syria continuing (Syria, of course, being best friends with Iran) and the West wanting the fall of both of these regimes, we are seeing it “all come together”.

The Guardian asserted in November: “Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran.” And, with the US presidential elections nearing, President Barack Obama’s main hope will be to reverse the state of his country’s economy. If he fails to do this, he will look for ways to divert people’s attention and thus bolster his chances for re-election. According to political analyst Edward Spannaus, the Obama Administration’s strategy for re-election is to start wars, but if the US were to “attack Iran,” it would “end up in a World War III.”

The investigative journalist John Pilger said in this New Statesman article: “The Pentagon has no plans to occupy all of Iran, it has in its sights a strip of land that runs along the border with Iraq. This is Khuzestan, home to 90 percent of Iran’s oil.” Celente, however, believes the reason for a potential attack on Iran would be because of economic reasons. He said: “The entire financial system is collapsing…and when all else fails, they take you to war. And they [the west] are going to do it again.”

According to this Al Jazeera article by M.J. Rosenberg, Robert Baer — a former CIA officer who was primarily assigned to the Middle East – forecasted in 2011 that Israel would attack Iran and drag the US into another major war.  Baer, however, predicted that Israel would attack Iran before September 2011 and turned out to be wrong – but, according to Rosenberg, Baer has named Israeli security figures that have said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are hell-bent on going to war. If this is the case, perhaps it is only a matter of time before Israel initiates an attack.

Former Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, said earlier this year that a strike on Iran’s nuclear instillations would be “stupid” and could lead to “a war”. He added: “It is the kind of thing where we know how it starts, but not how it will end.”

What would happen if Iran was attacked? ”We would make them regret such a mistake and would severely punish them [Israel and the US],” said Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Bruce Reidel, formerly special assistant to Obama and former CIA analyst, said: “The Iranians have the capacity to retaliate against America not only in the Middle East and the Persian gulf – but in Afghanistan where we have 90,000 troops and where the Iranians have well-established links to the Taliban.”

Afghanistan and Pakistan have both suffered since 9/11 and the relationship between the US and Pakistan has deteriorated so much that, according to Mirza Aslam Baig, former Pakistani Chief of Army Staff, the two countries could go to war in the near future.

Pakistan is the only Islamic country in the world to possess nuclear weapons and with its weakening infrastructure, increasing instability and swelling relations with the US – Iran is not the only country the Obama administration could face problems with – Pakistan is too.

2011 has been one of the most historic and turbulent years in living memory. From the Japan earthquake; to the Arab revolutions, leading to demise of vicious dictators; and the killing of Osama Bin Laden – we have seen a paradigm shift across the world. The ramifications of the shift in geo-politics are still unclear and what 2012 will produce is anyone’s guess. What is blindingly obvious though, is 2012 will be inexorably determined by the action or inaction, of the Obama administration. Whenever the US interfere around the world, it normally ends in disaster. Let’s hope if they do again, it doesn’t end in the biggest disaster of all.

Ex Director General of Al Jazeera Wadah Khanfar speaks at City University

Ex Director General of Al Jazeera, Wadah Khanfar, came to City University this evening for the annual memorial of the late James Cameron (journalist).

Khanfar resigned from his post at Al Jazeera on September 20 after eight years in charge.

Here is a summary of what he said:

  • With speculation that Al Jazeera could lose its impartiality now that it is being taken over by a member of the Qatari royal family, Khanfar said (I’m paraphrasing): ‘People aren’t stupid, if the coverage changes they will know and complain – maybe even stop watching the channel. What Al Jazeera have achieved in 15 years could be wiped out in 15 days.’
  • He also spoke of the importance of the next generation of journalists. He said they should do everything to protect themselves from being ‘hijacked from corporations and politicians.’
  • He also criticised America for their failings in Iraq. He said America have failed to understand the culture and history in Iraq. ‘They’ve [America] made so many mistakes  because of their ignorance and their inability to understand Iraq.’ He talked about the country’s rich history and how centuries ago, it thrived in a time that the West was lagging behind in terms of prosperity and development.
  • Khanfar was asked about Al Jazeera’s alleged lack of coverage in Bahrain. He said: ‘We were the first to report in Bahraini streets. We followed the story until the Bahraini rulers kicked us out.’ He also said: ‘The story of Bahrain was never as important as as other Arab countries.’ He cited that whereas in Libya where there was military interference and it became a international conflict, Bahrain never had the same sort of urgency. Furthermore, the demonstrations weren’t continuous but stopped and started.
  • One of the more interesting things he said was that: ‘there are people who don’t want the Arab spring to reach its destination.’ Meaning that those who have protested across the Middle East and North Africa have done so to achieve freedom and democracy. But democracy in some countries, of course, wouldn’t suit the interests of certain countries.
Omar Shahid
Follow me on Twitter: omar_shahid

Britain & America Have Failed in Afghanistan: It’s Time To Pull Out

It’s all to obvious to most of us, apart from David Cameron and Barack Obama perhaps, that the war in Afghanistan has been a failure. Well, to be honest, most of the wars our country and the U.S. goes into ends in failure. Strategically, when the US, the world’s greatest military power, and NATO, the world’s strongest military alliance, can’t win against a poorly armed insurgency after a decade long war, then they have lost in terms of deterrence and prestige. Now is the time to pull out, unless of course, our leaders want our soldiers to continue being killed. And killed for what? 

We are told the war was initiated to quell the terrorism emerging from Afghanistan, and to help the country become a more stable state. But as long as the country is occupied by foreigners, especially imperialistic foreigners, the status quo will never change for the better. The feelings of the Taliban towards its western occupiers, and that of the western countries towards the Taliban is mutual: they both see each other as a threat. The Taliban believe their country has been illegally invaded and is under constant attack by the ‘kuffar’ (disbelievers) who are sending drones into their country-killing scores of civilians in the process in the guise of ‘collateral damage.’ The Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan also see their respective governments as the enemy who are working in conjunction with the ‘kuffar.’ And so their suicide bombings and indiscriminate killings of their own countrymen are aimed attacks on their on government in an attempt to further destabilise the establishment.

It’s simple. America and Britain have invaded Afghanistan to counter the terrorism in the country. But what our leaders fail to realise is that the very reason why much of this terrorism exists is because they continue to stupidly invade countries and kill civilians. So we invade countries, to fight terrorism, which we have caused in the first place. It doesn’t make sense. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad summed it up nicely when he said: “They [America] created terrorism, and now all they want to do is fight it.” 

Afghanistan has been an unstable country for decades with rival armed groups fighting for sectarian power. By the mid 1990′s, Afghanistan became divided into spheres of control. The Mujahideen, who fought the Soviet Union, and who later became the Taliban in 1996, have had their fair share of support from the USA, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The U.S. backed the Mujahideen for obvious reasons. Saudi Arabia condone and encourage the Wahabi-like approach endorsed by the Taliban with their extremist version of Islam. And Pakistan, obsessed with their neighbours India, have often protected and aided the Taliban to counter India’s influence in Afghanistan.

Pakistan and America have a complicated relationship and the two countries often betray each other. Although Pakistan has received billions of dollars to help fight terrorism, they, in effect, abuse the role America have given them and often help to sustain and shape the Afghan taliban- undermining America’s mission.

The Taliban get recruits from ordinary afghans who want to avenge the killings of loved ones and who are fed up of the poverty, occupation and corruption endemic in their country- all exascerbated, of course, by the west. Britain and America are fighting a war they cannot win. Efforts would be better spent in the Arab countries, where the people are tiresomely fighting the tyranny of their oligarchic dictators. The $1million dollars to keep a single soldier in Afghanistan for a year is a waste of money. Bring the soldiers home! Although most of them will come back injured, mentally ill and suicidal…

by Omar Shahid

pictures from the Telegraph & Daily Mail

The Insane, Power Hungry Arab dictators & America

The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, talked to Libyan state TV today, blaming the recent uprisings in his country on Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s former President, also blamed the Egyptian revolution on foreign forces. What has made these leaders become so detached from reality? Couldn’t have the protests have arisen because of the decades of repression and dictatorships? It is these sort of pugnacious, arrogant, egotistical gangsters who have ruled the Arab world for too long. But why have they been allowed to stay in power all this time?

According to Psychology today magazine, there are two types of power. There is socialised power and individualised power. The first type, is used to benefit others, whereas, the second, is using power for personal gain. It seems as if it is individualised power that most of the governments in the Arab world seem to have today. Many of the Arab countries have puppet governments, who far too often, sell themselves at the expense of their own nation. These rulers are the reason why their people live on less than $2 a day.

Many leaders delude themselves into thinking that they are using socialised power, when, in fact, they use their power only for personal gain. It is obvious that it is not just Arab leaders who deceive their people, Western leaders do too. English journalist Robert Fisk, believes the Iraq war was about oil- but more interestingly- America and England not only lied to their people, but also lied to themselves in order to justify what they were about to do.

I do not believe, though, that all the corrupt leaders in the world went into politics to repress their people and steal from their country. But what I do believe is that, ‘power corrupts’ and once a leader realises that the country’s affairs and resources are at his/her disposal, they become power hungry and want more and more. There is a saying in Arabic which says “If the son of Adam (humankind) had a mountain of gold, they would only want another one.”  The quest for materialism in order to attain happiness leaves an individual empty, as wealth and power do not lead to spiritual satisfaction. And this is why many of the Arab leaders refuse to give up power-they are never satisfied as they continue their quest for materialism.

Power is a very dangerous thing, and if abused, can lead to the hardening of the heart and corruption of the soul. If the heart and soul are not sound, a human being becomes totally detached from reality, and, in effect, will lose their mind. An Egyptian retired army general, Mahmoud Zahir, called Hosni Mubarak ‘mentally and psychologically ill.’

Algeria’s General Mohamed ‘Toufik’ Mediène, is the world’s longest serving intelligence chief, having been head of Algeria’s intelligence for almost 20 years. General Toufik once described himself as the ‘God of Algeria’- a man cleary suffering from illusions of grandeur.

The German President Christian Wullf called Gaddafi today a ‘psychopath.’ And, well, anybody who has seen Gaddafi’s recent speeches, has vague knowledge about his personality, or has even looked at his face, will probably question his sanity too.

It is these types of Arab dictators which America have funded with both wealth and military support. But these autocrats are now being threatened with the recent uprisings, and the prospect of a new dawn and civilisation in the Middle East beckons.

What many of us don’t know though, is what is happening behind the scenes. What actually caused these uprisings? Was it merely inevitable? Do regions always end up imploding after years of repression? Or has the CIA had a hand in what has happened in the Arab world in a canny attempt to overthrow the old Arab dictators and replace them with newer ones who will serve America’s interests to a greater degree than ever before? President Obama, however, rejected the claim that America has had anything to do with the uprisings in his speech about Libya yesterday.

Realistically, although President Obama called the violence in Libya ‘outrageous’ and condemned what was happening in the country, America has no real strategic interests in the Libya. Furthermore, 80% of the oil from Libya goes to Europe, so if anything, the protests in Libya will concern Europe much more than America. The same cannot be said about Bahrain, where both President Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have been reluctant to blame the Bahraini regime who – like the Libyan regime – have ordered the indiscriminate killings of protestors. Bahrain, for America, is a completely different ball game. Bahrain has 6,000 American military personnel, the country is also home to the US Fifth Fleet, a major logistics hub for US Navy ships, and is therefore a base for American warships.

What is still unclear for the time being is whether the uprisings across the Arab world will change the region for the better, or whether new puppet regimes will emerge as a result who will be just as brutal as their predecessors.

Muammar Gaddafi seems like the next Arab leader to be ousted from power after losing much support from his government; and as his support weakens both in his country and in the International community, it doesn’t seem as if he will be able to retain power for much longer.

I pose one last question. If America have been supporting dictators for decades and have treated them as allies, what does this tell us about the rulers and leaders America oppose and call ‘terrorists’? Does this make them the ‘good guys’ –  the ones who have not been corrupted by their power, maybe?

Omar Shahid

Why Egypt’s Revolution Could Change The World

I was in the gym when I received a text saying ‘The khanzeer has gone’ (khanzeer is an Arabic word meaning pig)- I knew exactly what it meant. Hosni Mubarak had gone. Having followed what was transpiring in Egypt over the past two and a half weeks-somewhat devoutly-I couldn’t help but rejoice, I hadn’t felt so happy for a long time. It was the end of a dictator who had caused misery upon his people for 30 years. But also the start of something amazing.

Among the Arab League’s 22 countries, only three can call themselves democracies, all three, however, are flawed. Iraq, with a democracy enforced by America, is troubled with suicide bombings, extremism as well as sectarianism and is in an utter mess. The Palestinian territories, lacks sovereignty and is under military occupation. And, Lebanon, a country marred with sectarian conflict. The other Arab countries, vary between the most extreme dictatorships-Algeria, Libya & Syria (a country where the government is unlikely to be toppled), to the more kind and caring autocracies like Qatar, and then there’s the more oligarchic ones which are in between- like Morocco- which is run by a monarchy.

What makes the revolution in Egypt so important, is the wider, rippling effect it can cause throughout the Arab world- which is plagued with despotism. It was the Egyptian revolution in 1952 which saw the military become an extremely powerful force which backed the authoritarian Gamal Abdel Nasser, and was, of course, the same military Hosni Mubarak emerged from. This, in turn, inspired similar army backed regimes to ensue, from Algeria, to Iraq to Yemen. Egypt, being arguably one of the most powerful Arab countries, could be a catalyst in the toppling of the other regimes. Algeria’s people have too begun to protest despite the brutality of the police force, and there have been protests in Yemen, Jordan, Libya and Sudan. Reverberations of the toppling of Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Mubarak have already begun to be felt as- Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh has promised not to seek re-election, and Jordan’s king Abdullah has sacked his government.

The most intriguing prospect of the whole situation, is that the effects of the potential collapse of despotism into democracy in the Arab world could-or will-affect the rest of the world. If Egypt becomes a democratic country, run by a coalition of party’s including the Muslim Brotherhood, this could change the dynamic of the Middle East. Israel, who have enjoyed the support of Egypt for over 30 years- even from former Egyptian President Anwar Saddat- who signed the peace treaty with them in 1979, would become vulnerable to being attacked by the Arab countries which surround them. This, of course, would be America’s worst nightmare. And this is why America also have it in their interest to help facilitate-not democratic elections-but elections which will, ultimately, end up with a leader similar to Hosni Mubarak. Indeed, with Syria and Iran being ever hostile to Israel, the last thing America would want is Israel’s strongest ally (Egypt) also becoming an enemy-and maybe, even, becoming an ally to Palestine’s resistance party Hamas instead.

However, although the army in Egypt have promised free and democratic elections in the near future, the army generals who now run the country, are part of the same clan which supported Mubarak throughout his dictatorship. If the army were to assume power permanently, there would be no change in Egypt, and maybe, who knows-Mubarak would be still be able to run things from behind the scenes. The future of Egypt, although seemingly bright, is not yet perfect-and wont be until free elections are held.

In the 1970s, the authoritarian regimes in southern Europe collapsed, this was followed later by Latin America where juntas fell rapidly, and it now seems the Arab countries are to follow in a similar manner. You might think I may be getting a bit ahead of myself- but hope is necessary for human society. It was this hope, though, which caused an end of the Pharaoism of Hosni Mubarak.

Omar Shahid

 

Hosni Mubarak’s Time Is Up…Or Is It?

Hosni Mubarak and his family are reportedly worth 70 billion dollars. At the same time, however, many of the Egyptian population consisting of over 82 million- are living in poverty- while 70% of under 25′s are unemployed. It is this disparity between the government and the people (who they are suppose to be looking after) that have caused the riots. America have supported Mubarak for the last 30 years, but with the uprisings in Egypt, America have called for a “transition”, knowing that their puppet is now redundant and has to go. But what is this “transition” they want? Is it a free, democratic country with a President who has the interests of the people at heart? Or is it another dictator that has the interests of America and Israel at heart? No doubt the latter.

It would be crazy to dismiss claims that the CIA are currently in Egypt trying to put in another puppet regime, who would, in turn, serve America’s interests. But if a political party like the Muslim Brotherhood were to come into power, who would advocate Shariah Law, and a free and peaceful Middle East- what good would this be to America?

On January 29th, Omar Suleiman (described as “ruthless” by Robert Fisc) was appointed vice President by Hosni Mubarak in an attempt to shake up the cabinet and appease the masses. Suleiman, though, has long been the CIA’s main man in Egypt . He has been “favoured by the US government for his ardent anti islamism, and his willingness to talk and act tough on Iran.” If Mubarak, miraculously, was to abandon his role as President-Suleiman would take over. A man who is widely believed to be a torturer-far from the right person to bring democracy.

Middle East analysts believed that Mubarak would be ousted from power in very shortly, but that was almost two weeks ago-they thought wrong. It now seems that Mubarak will remain in power for the next 6 months until the next Egyptian elections, unless, of course, something drastic happens. The reason why Mubarak refuses to leave is not because he fears the country will descend into “chaos”, as he put it, but because he does not want to be humiliated. 

The Army may say that they are on the side of the people, but if they truly were, they would too demand the resignation of their President. The army is the key factor in this entire issue. And as I said in my previous post about Mubarak, the army will be the deciding factor. Once they turn on Mubarak he will have to go. Until then, it seems that he will be staying put.

Omar Shahid

Hosni Mubarak’s Time Is Up

  Today Egyptian TV, controlled by the government, showed Tahrir square (a central point in Cairo) as completely empty. The reality of the situation couldn’t have been more different. 50,000 protesters came to the streets, as they have done for a week now, demanding the end of Hosni Mubarak and his corrupt government. Videos on Al Jazeera show military tanks attempting to run over innocent protestors and police physically assaulting men and women. Egyptian TV, meanwhile, warned it’s people not to watch Al Jazeera-be patriotic they said and watch Egyptian TV, foreign news channels like Al Jazeera are liars they told the people.

The Egyptian people have been repressed for the last 30 years, since Mubarak came to power. They are still scared to come to the streets in case they are fired upon by police. An Aljazeera crew found 23 bodies in the Alexandria mortuary, apparently shot by police-several had mutilated faces. The Egyptian military yesterday tried to scare protestors by flying F-15 fighter jets over Cairo in attempt to make protestors so scared that they would stop marching. It didn’t work. And today a coalition of opposition groups called for 1 million Egyptians to go to the streets tomorrow to demand the removal of their oppressive tyrant. All that is needed is two or three days of protests numbering two or three million to end the reign of Mubarak. The government are scared. So scared in fact that they have cut off all internet services in Egypt.

Probably more important, though, is the military’s stance in the next few days. If a few powerful yet honourable army generals stand up to a few corrupt powerful army generals, this will create the required discord and disunity needed topple Mubarak’s government and the despot himself. 

Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu said today according to the BBC that he is keeping a careful eye on what is transpiring in Egypt. The Israeli PM is scared that a “radical Islamic party could come to power like in Iran.” And rightly so should Israel  be scared. Egypt is one of the most powerful Islamic countries in the world, and if they were to withdraw their support of Israel, the Zionist state would become extremely vulnerable in an area surrounded by Islamic countries. If a repeat of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war which saw Egypt, Jordan and Syria fight Israel come about again in the future, Israel would be severely damaged-perhaps irreparably. Israel, however, seem to be ignorant of the fact that the main opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, are far from radical-in fact, their leader Mohammed El Baradei has won the Nobel peace prize. Egypt was the first Islamic country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979, but once Mubarak goes, Israel will lose support from its main Arab ally.

What is interesting is America’s reaction to the protests. The Egyptian army receives $1.3billion annually from Washington, but I presume a large amount of this will be taken away once Mubarak leaves. America made a deal with Mubarak when he first came to power. Be our ally and support Israel and we will keep you in power-America once said. But now that Mubarak is at the end of his leadership, they will, of course, dump him-just like they have done to every other dictator they have supported and served their purpose. Most recently, the likes of Saddam Hussein and Tunisia’s ex President Ben Ali come to mind, but it has happend throughout history. And Mubarak too will be forgotten about by Washington once he is ousted. What Mubarak fears however, isn’t that he will lose the support of the Americans. No. It is the inescapable possibility that he will be brought to justice once he is out of power. This is what the Egyptians want, and what the whole world want too. Mubarak will soon be gone.

Omar Shahid