Revolutionaries unbowed and other less important headlines

Notes 49

The revolutionaries are unbowed

Egypt's Brotherhood to hold talks with government…

By Maggie Michael And Salah Nasrawi, Associated Press –
CAIRO – Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said it would begin talks Sunday with the government to try to end the country's nearly 2-week-old political crisis but made clear it would insist on President Hosni Mubarak's immediate ouster.
The decision by the fundamentalist Islamic group, which has been outlawed since 1954 but fields candidates as independents, comes as Egypt's leadership seeks to defuse mass demonstrations — now in their 13th day — by proposing reforms but stopping short of the protesters' key demand that Mubarak step down.

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State Department Approved Export of US-Made Tear Gas to Egyptian Government

Marian Wang, ProPublica: "The American-made tear gas used to disperse pro-democracy protestors in Egypt earlier this week was sold to the country after government review, a State Department spokeswoman told us. The tear gas canisters used by Egyptian police against the protesters bore the label 'Made in U.S.A.,' stirring controversy and bolstering the impression among Egyptians that the U.S. has propped up a dictatorship at the expense of its citizens."

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In a nutshell

For the US in Egypt, Blowback is a Bitch
Michael Winship, Truthout: "As far as the United States and Egypt are concerned, one thing is certain: blowback - the unforeseen consequence of our policies abroad - is a bitch... in the words of a 2009 American embassy cable, part of the WikiLeaks document dump, ‘The tangible benefits to our ... relationship are clear: Egypt remains at peace with Israel, and the US military enjoys priority access to the Suez Canal and Egyptian airspace’. In exchange, we willfully paid little or no heed to the Egyptian dictatorship's abuse of human rights, despite its role in radicalizing such terrorists as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's operational and strategic commander. In fact, our strategy of rendition in the wake of 9/11 - sending terror suspects to other countries for interrogation - took advantage of Egypt's torture cells."

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Where America went wrong, not left. When America was supreme and had no serious opposition after the end of the Cold War, Sam Nunn formulated the two front war theory and sold it as protection from America’s enemies rather than power to subdue opposition. America not about self governance anymore but about power to enforce its will.

Fri Feb 4
Time for Mubarak to go? Why Obama hedges
By Zachary Ro

"President Obama cannot wave a magic wand and get Mubarak onto a plane or into a retirement home," Daniel Levy, co-director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation. said. "America has leverage, but it's not decisive leverage."
It's possible that Mubarak will hang on until September. "Right now, it looks like the regime is trying to play a game of digging in and sitting this thing out," he said.
That means a call by Obama for Mubarak to leave office could prove unsuccessful—which would be disastrous for America's negotiating power going forward. "If you play that card unsuccessfully, there's not a lot more you can do," Levy said. "You are very limited in your next escalatory move."
It would also do further damage to America's already diminished reputation on the world stage. "The more assertive America is, but fails to carry the day, the more exposed the limitations of its power become," Levy said. "The reality today is diminished American power. How much do you want to prove it?"

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Iron fist is crumbling. This is one regime change or series of changes the U.S has not orchestrated and will not be able to orchestrate if the revolutionaries in the Middle East hang together and purge themselves of all the dictators we have maintained to protect the flow of oil. Nothing orderly about it. Maybe we have found a certified power we can’t buy off or corrupt--people power. WE have damaged our own almost beyond recognition.

US backs Egypt reform moves, seeks global support
AP – US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers her speech during the Conference on Security Policy …
By Matthew Lee, Associated Press –
MUNICH – "We have to send a consistent message supporting the orderly transition that has begun," Clinton told government officials, politicians, security experts and policy analysts
A "perfect storm" of economic woes, repression and popular discontent could destabilize the Middle East, said Clinton, lending strong backing for Vice President Omar Suleiman's efforts.

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Regime change without American push
Eye on unrest, Iraq PM says he won't seek 3rd term

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Lara Jakes, Associated Press – 1 hr 15 mins ago
BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not run for a third term in 2014, an adviser said Saturday, limiting himself in the name of democracy while keeping a wary eye on the popular anger at governments across the Middle East.

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The times they are a changing. More change in Algeria
Algeria To Lift 19-Year-Old State Of Emergency Soon
2/3/2011 7:28 PM ET

(RTTNews) - Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced Thursday that the 19-year-long state of emergency enforced in the North African country would soon be lifted, and promised to provide more political freedom in response to a wave of uprisings sweeping across the Arab world.
According to state-run news agency Algerie Presse Service, Bouteflika made the announcement at a meeting with government ministers in the capital Algiers.

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Tipping point for change

Mass anti-government rally held in Serbia
By Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press
BELGRADE, Serbia – Tens of thousands of nationalist supporters rallied against Serbia's pro-Western government on Saturday, demanding early elections amid the Balkan country's deepening economic crisis.
"For 10 years, Serbia has lived under a corrupt and incapable government," Serbian Progressive Party leader Tomislav Nikolic told the rally, as the crowd chanted "Thieves! Thieves!" and "Changes! Changes!"
"We will save Serbia when we take over," he said. "No one can stop us."
Opposition leaders addressing the crowd — estimated by police at about 55,000 — threatened to blockade the capital if their demands to move parliamentary elections forward from 2012 are not met within the next two months.

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Kucinich would have been transformational. Not what the American voter really wanted.
They’d been pacified, neutered by La Dolce Vita

Kucinich Requests to See Bradley Manning, Soldier in Solitary Confinement for Alleged Leaks
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "Last May, the military arrested Private First Class Bradley Manning, a military intelligence officer who had served overseas in Iraq, over charges that he was involved in leaking numerous classified documents and videos to the Wikileaks whistleblowing group, including a video of a U.S. attack helicopter killing numerous unarmed journalists. Since his arrests, numerous civil liberties groups and investigative journalists have protested the conditions under which Manning is being held, noting that he has been kept in solitary confinement and is denied even access to a pillow or bed sheets. This is particularly shocking in light of new information revealed that Manning was suspected of having poor mental health before he was deployed to Iraq, with some superiors even requesting that he not be given firearms.... Now, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates inquiring about Manning’s condition, protesting the Army’s treatment of him, and requesting a visit with the imprisoned solider."

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Huzzah for Paul

Fri Feb 4
Sen. Rand Paul out of his shell, raising eyebrows
By Rachel Rose Hartman


On Wednesday, freshman GOP Sen. Rand Paul, a tea party sensation in the 2010 election cycle, made his first speech on the Senate floor. He used the occasion to proclaim his deep aversion to compromise.
"Those activists who didn't compromise—[abolitionists William Lloyd] Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, and Cassius Clay—are heroes because they said slavery was wrong and they would not compromise," Paul said.
And so far in the recently convened session of Congress, Rand appears to be taking his "no compromise" speech to heart. Paul cast the sole "nay" vote in a measure proposing to outlaw pointing laser pointers at planes, suggested his own party isn't "brave enough" to tackle the deficit, and loudly repeated his call for ending aid to Israel.

With Democracy or Against It - There’s No In Between
David Sirota, Truthout: "In America, politicians are rarely compelled to turn rhetoric into action. Presidents make public commitments to support legislation while quietly instructing their congressional allies to kill the corresponding bills. Congresspeople then campaign on policy proposals only to make sure their respective presidents veto the initiatives. We all know this game -- we know its rigged rules ensure plausible deniability and prevent follow through. But as the Mideast showed this week, just because those are our rules doesn't mean everyone plays by them. That's what the Egyptian protests against U.S.-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak really represent for us: a poignant demand that we actually embody our democratic creed -- a demand whose response shows an American government desperate to avoid walking its talk."

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Like Pinochet, the chickens will eventually come home to roost even if AG Holder won’t tke the first step

Bush visit to Geneva canceled after protest threat
By Frank Jordans, Associated Press – 1 hr 24 mins ago
GENEVA – A visit former U.S. President George W. Bush planned to make to Switzerland next week has been canceled because of security concerns, after left-wing groups called for mass protests and rights activists proposed legal action against him for allegedly ordering the torture of terrorism suspects.
Bush's spokesman David Sherzer said the two-term president was informed Friday by the United Israel Appeal that his Feb. 12 dinner speech in Geneva had been called off.

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A call to Patriotism from the corporate block amidst tax relief and other “get money free“ coupons from government. “Ask no what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

Obama calls on business to do more to boost U.S.
By Patricia Zengerle – Sat Feb 5
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama called on U.S. businesses on Saturday to do more to boost the economy by hiring more workers and making investments.
The government has an obligation to make the United States the best place to do business, by providing the best schools, incentives to innovate and the best infrastructure, he said, but added that businesses also have to do their part.

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