Uprising in Egypt  - For What? 

DR. ABDUL RUFF

Now Egypt is burning! Egyptians have been taking to the streets since Tuesday, demanding Mubarak's ouster. Amid a tide of anger at Mubarak, who has held power for nearly 30 years, Friday's violence brings the death toll in this week's unrest to 27, including three officers from security forces. The unrest in Egypt follows an uprising in Tunisia two weeks ago, in which President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled after 23 years in power. The Tunisian upheaval began with anger over rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption - problems which have also left many people Egypt feeling frustrated and resentful of their leadership. Significant demonstrations have spread to other countries in the region, including Yemen, Jordan and Algeria.

Friday saw tens of thousands on the streets of Cairo, Suez, Alexandria and other cities in protests that continued into the night, defying a curfew. Protests are continuing in central Cairo, and shots have been heard. Mobile phone services have been restored in the capital, but the internet remains down. The military, called out to reinforce police, continued to patrol the streets with tanks and armoured vehicles as demonstrators defied the overnight curfew, ordered by Mubarak for Cairo, Suez and Alexandria but later extended nationwide.  In Cairo, troops in armoured vehicles were deployed in support of riot police as protesters set fire to the headquarters of the governing NDP party and surrounded state TV and the foreign ministry. The army secured the Egyptian Museum which is home to such treasures as the gold mask of King Tutankhamen. In Cairo, protesters torched several police vehicles and stormed the foreign and information ministries. The headquarters of Mubarak's National Democratic Party were looted and set ablaze.

The unrest in Egypt came after weeks of turmoil across the Arab world that toppled one leader in Tunisia and encouraged protesters to overcome deep-rooted fears of their autocratic leaders and take to the streets. But Egypt is a special case - a heavyweight in Middle East diplomacy, in part because of its peace treaty with Israel, and a key ally of the unipolar USA and partly because of its terror power as one of the largest and most sophisticated security forces in the Middle East. In joint operations with Israel, Egypt has caused difficulties for the defenseless Palestinians by its own blockages to cripple Palestinian economy, The demonstrations, on what protesters called a "day of wrath," were on a scale far beyond anything in the memory of most people.

The protest in Alexandria turned into a block-by-block battle. The riot police managed to push the demonstrators one block back from the mosque, sealing it off from both sides and slowly advancing behind the tear-gas truck. In a stunning turn of events, one pitched battle in that city ended with protesters and police shaking hands and sharing water bottles on the same street corner where minutes before they were exchanging hails of stones and tear-gas canisters were arcing through the sky. Thousands stood on the six-lane coastal road then sank to their knees and prayed. Near Tahrir Square, protesters set fire to a police truck as police lobbed tear gas to try to block access to a key bridge across the River Nile from the island of Zamalek. Some demonstrators stamped on photographs of the president and others chanted "Down, down with Mubarak." The acrid stench of tear gas spread across the capital reaching up the windows of high-rise buildings. Television images showed plainclothes security policemen beating protesters. 'Down with Mubarak,' protestors have chanted nationwide.

After a day of increasingly violent protests throughout Egypt, state media reported that President Hosni Mubarak ordered the military into the streets to back up police struggling to contain one of the most serious challenges to his long and autocratic rule. Hosny Mubarak's televised address on Friday evening - his first statement since the protests began - followed a day of violence and anarchy. Mubarak announced the sacking of his government and said he would give the new cabinet clear instructions to deal with "the priorities of the current phase". There was both a carrot and a stick - Mubarak acknowledged that the demands of the protesters were legitimate, but blamed the protesters for abusing the freedoms he said he had given them, and accused them of resorting to violence, destabilizing Egypt. Mubarak said that he 'regrets innocent victims on both sides'. BBC reports that Mubarak looked composed and determined to survive his worst crisis since coming to power 30 years ago. Mubarak defended his record in government, the very thing that is in doubt in the eyes of the hundreds of thousands who have taken to the streets in the past four days. He promised to continue with democratic reforms, but as far as the opposition is concerned, they have heard it all before. He did make however one big concession: he sacked his entire cabinet. In the hours following Mubarak's speech, demonstrators remained on the streets early Saturday. Firing of tear-gas canisters could still be heard after midnight. Security forces had tried to no avail to prevent rallies by blocking access to many mosques and potential demonstration sites.

However, Mubarak refused calls to step down, instead calling late Friday for his cabinet to resign amid nationwide protests. Thousands of demonstrators, who were in the streets all day and remained past midnight in central Cairo, demanded that Mubarak step down. The president also imposed an overnight curfew, but fighting continued on the streets of Cairo, the capital, and smoke from fires blanketed one of the city's main streets along the Nile. The ruling party's building was in flames at nightfall, and dramatic video footage on Al Jazeera showed a crowd pushing what they identified as a burning police car off a bridge.

Friday's protests are the biggest in Egypt since bread riots and the demonstrations had been planned to start after weekly prayers at mosques across the country. Internet and mobile communications were cut since Friday across Egypt, after social-networking websites used to organize protests were blocked earlier in the week.

World governments have weighed in heavily on the ongoing violence, urging peace and calm and calling on the Egyptian government to respect protesters' freedoms of speech and assembly. The US threatened to withhold aid to Egypt if President Hosny Mubarak's regime does not immediately halt violence against protesters and move toward introducing reforms.

The NATO terror syndicate members Britain, US and France are all advising against non-essential travel to Egypt. US President Barack Obama Obama spoke as if he were an innocent observer.and has put his embattled Egyptian counterpart leader, Hosni Mubarak, on notice that he should not use his soldiers and police in a bloody crackdown on opposition protesters and declaring that the protesters have universal rights, Obama asked him to turn a "moment of volatility" into a moment of promise. Obama said that Mubarak's promise of expanding democracy and economic opportunity needed to be enforced with meaning and responsibility. He called on Mubarak to open a dialogue with the demonstrators, though he did not go as far as to urge free and fair elections.

Obama has not asked Mubarak to step down. USA shields its terror allies, like Israel and Egypt. From the beginning of the unrest, the Obama administration has made clear its support for Mubarak and the Egyptian regime, a critical US ally.President Obama devoted his remarks Friday evening to defending Mubarak in the face of the mass popular revolt. Obama's new version of remarks came as a blunt reply to Mubarak, who spoke to his own people just one hour before and mixed conciliation with defiance as he dismissed his government, but vowed to stay in office to stabilize Egypt. The USA, according to New York Times and Obama, will continue to stand up for the rights of the Egyptian people", but they cunningly refuse the same rights to peoples of Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan under terror occupation by the NATO terror syndicates.  US special drone have killed hundreds of innocent Pakistanis while the regime and its core pro-terror media try to promote NATO terrorism in the region. American state terrorists are on the rampage in Islamabad which has been converted into anti-Islamic terror zone for nefarious operations by western state terrorists in democracy uniforms. Today, a US consular employee admits shooting dead two motorcyclists on a busy street in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

The Obama administration has moved from tentative support to distancing itself from Mubarak, its staunchest Arab ally, saying it would review the 1.5 billion dollar in American aid and warning him that he must confront the grievances of his people. Egypt is the fourth-largest recipient of American foreign aid, after Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel, and just ahead of Iraq. It is also a critical partner of USA on issues like the Israel-Palestinian peace process and a bulwark against Islamic faith in the Arab world. Obviously,  a strategic partner of the USA cannot be pro-Islamic at the same time!

The unilateral US has worked systematically to undermine any government that posed a potential challenge to its interests any where so that none could deal a major blow to US geo-strategic interests.Over the past ten years alone the USA has launched bloody colonialist wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq even with support from some  stupid Muslim nations. . Through covert and overt military operations,USA has now dominated the world. Since Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David accords with Israel in 1978, Egypt has played a critical role in the maintaining US domination, particularly . Since 1979, when the US lost a key ally with the downfall of the Shah in Iran, the Egyptian military and intelligence apparatus has worked closely with both the US and Israel in the suppression of the masses throughout the region.

Meanwhile, ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency whom the USA misused for troubling Iran on nuclear issue returned to Cairo on the largely leaderless protests that have so far been propelled by young people.

An Observation

True, the demonstrations, on what protesters called a "day of wrath," were on a scale far beyond anything in the memory of most people and analysts.The largely leaderless protests in Egypt have so far been propelled by young people without any alternative program for the nation. More than 1,000 people have been arrested this week, with many more reportedly missing. Citing the Health Ministry, satellite broadcaster al-Arabiya reported that more than 1,000 people had been injured in Friday's clashes. The Mubarak government has banned unauthorized protests and warned protesters that they would be dealt with swiftly.


The unrest in Egypt came after weeks of turmoil across the Arab world that toppled one leader in Tunisia and encouraged protesters to overcome deep-rooted fears of their autocratic leaders and take to the streets. But Egypt is a special case - a heavyweight in Middle East diplomacy, in part because of its peace treaty with Israel, and a key ally of the unipolar USA and partly because of its terror power as one of the largest and most sophisticated security forces in the Middle East. In joint operations with Israel, Egypt has caused difficulties for the defenseless Palestinians by its own blockages to cripple Palestinian economy.


One focus of the demonstrations has been corruption, which Mubarak vowed to curb in his speech. Mubarak warned that other protests around the world have resulted in less stability. The government has long used stability as a rallying cry against calls for reform or change. 'I stand by the protection of Egypt's safety and stability,' Mubarak said. The liberal Wafd opposition party is demanding a transitional government and changes to the Egyptian constitution.

Yes, after the uprising against Tunisian misrule, darkness has begun to fall on Egyptian misrule. It looks a better season has arrived for the African and Mideast peoples with a series of uprisings have upset the regimes, almost permanently ruling the nations in Tunisia and Egypt. However, the uprising, in a possible absence of credible, better governance replacing the present corrupt regimes n Islamic world, including Pakistan, should not ruin the life of people in any manner.

It appears the unipolar America is at its old democracy-cum-regime change tricks, engineering uprisings in Africa that would eventually catch hold of energy rich Mideastern regimes. After success in Tunisia, now Jordan and Egypt are on uprising fire. Spontaneous uprisings in these countries without a credible alternative plan give rise to suspicions if external, US led forces are behind the turmoil. It looks Egypt is targeted for refusing to supply gas to Israel. Just like Mullah Omar was toppled and demonized for refusing to give UNOCAL permission of a pipeline through Afghanistan.

Any successful revolution or uprising should e for a change in governance progressively from bad to good , better and best and not just for regime change sake where one ruler set is replaced by another while the same rotten governance continues under some other banner or color. Otherwise, the so-called elected governments are replaced by similar corrupt parties with criminal records. Aimless uprisings can be extremely dangerous as foreign forces could interfere and exploit the tensed situation to their own capitalist, colonist an imperialist advantages. 

Any resolution of the struggles of the Egyptian or any other masses is not possible without the defeat of US led imperialism itself.

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Dr. Abdul Ruff, Specialist on State Terrorism; Chancellor-Founder of Centor for International Affairs(CIA); Chronicler of Freedom movements (Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang, Chechnya, etc); Former university Teacher, Columnist, Analyst in International Affairs;