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Saturday, January 29, 2011

TERRORISTPLANET


 

 
What Is The Muslim Brotherhood?

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, a 22-year-old elementary school teacher. The brotherhood was to be an Islamic revivalist movement following the banning of the caliphate system of government that had ruled the Muslims for centuries until the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The organization was created to promote a return to fundamental Islamic beliefs and practices and to fight Western colonialism in the Islamic world and an opposition movement to the British-backed Egyptian monarchy. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt more than seven decades ago, is among the most powerful political forces in the Islamic world today. Today there are Brotherhood franchises throughout the Middle East and in many Western countries, including the United States. The founder, Hassan al Banna, has been dead since February 1949 when he was killed by Egyptian government agents in Cairo.

Al-Banna persuaded that Islam was not just a religion, but a way of complete life. Many core beliefs are based on the tenets of the Wahhabism sect of Islam that is very popular in Saudi Arabia. He expanded the criteria within education to include training pupils in the ways of Jihad. Banna felt that this was crucial for protecting fundamental Islam in the future. 

Separation of church and state is a core principle within American democracy, while the Muslim Brotherhood preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should all become Islamic. The group also champions martyrdom and jihad, or holy war, as a means of self-defense and has provided the ideology for Muslim militants groups that have included Hamas and al Qaeda 

In the late 1930s The Muslim Brotherhood formed affiliated chapters in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria and strengthened their resolve to institute Islamic rule in Egypt. By the 1960's The Muslim Brotherhood had reached America and has remained ever since. 

Today, a very complex financial network connects the operations of over seventy branches of the Muslim Brothers worldwide. During the Muslim Brothers' seventy-plus years of existence, there have been cycles of growth, followed by divisions, including clandestine financial networks, and violent jihad groups, such as al-Jihad and al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya in Egypt, HAMAS in Palestine and mujahideen groups in Afghanistan. The Brotherhood as a collection of national groups have differing visions on how to best accomplish the missions and ultimate goals of the organization. Their ultimate goal is one so controversial that it is a key reason they have operated in secrecy. It is: to create Muslim states overseas in Europe and some day even in America. A world wide Caliphate. 
The Muslim Brotherhood In Egypt and the Middle East The Muslim Brotherhood very quickly began to apply pressure on the Egyptian government. The organization gained notoriety for repeatedly attempting to overthrow the Egyptian and Syrian governments and for spawning violent groups, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian group Hamas. The Brotherhood blamed the Egyptian government for being weak in dealing with Israel and the West and joined the Palestinian side in the war against Israel and began performing terrorist attacks inside of Egypt. These attacks which resulted in many civilian deaths led to a ban on the movement by the Egyptian government. A Muslim Brother assassinated the Prime Minister of Egypt, Mahmud Nuqrashi, on December 28, 1948. The tensions between the Egyptian government and the Muslim Brotherhood after this assassination resulted in the government killing the founder of the Brotherhood, Hasan al-Banna, three months later.

In 1954 Muslim Brotherhood member Abdul Rauf failed in his assassination attempt of Egyptian President Gamal Nasser. Over four thousand Muslim Brotherhood members were rounded up and imprisoned. The crackdown led to thousands of members fleeing from Egypt and seeking refuge for their operations in Syria where there was already a Brotherhood presence. The Brotherhood also began to migrate to other Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon. Even though the members left Egypt they still remained active in the Brotherhood within Egypt and began to further the scope and span of the growing influence that the Brotherhood possessed. 

The Muslim Brotherhood continued to clash with the Egyptian government on many issues including implementing Islamic Sharia law within Egypt. The goals were clear for the Brotherhood and were the creation of an Islamic government in Egypt and more support for the Palestinians in their fight for regaining Palestine. It is important to understand that Egypt was having many problems including off and on armed conflicts with Israel that demoralized the Muslim world in their defeats.. 

When Egypt imprisoned and executed numerous Muslim Brothers in the 1950s, other members fled the country and helped spread the philosophy throughout the Arab world. The group's ideological voice became philosopher Sayyid Qutb, who detested Western values and believed that the Koran justified violence to overthrow un-Islamic governments wherever Muslims lived. 

In 1964, Egyptian President Gamel Nasser granted amnesty to imprisoned Brothers; the result was three more assassination attempts by the Brothers on Nasser’s life. The top leaders of the Brotherhood were executed in 1966, and many others that failed to flee the country were once again imprisoned 

In 1966 Sayyid Qutb a very vocal and influential Muslim Brotherhood member was put to death by the Egyptian Government. Qutb is given credit for the ideology that has sparked many violent Islamic fundamental groups. He urged Muslims to take up arms against non Islamic governments. He spent time in the United States in 1949 studying education and became a very vocal spokesperson about the evil within American Culture. Qutb became a leader of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood on his return to Egypt. After the overthrow of the monarchy in 1953, he was once considered for a Cabinet post. But he was later accused of plotting against the government and executed in 1966. However his writings have sparked a fire within groups like al Qaeda.
"Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."
                              —Muslim Brotherhood"



The Muslim Brotherhood In America
Many American Commentators have labeled the Muslim Brotherhood as "radical Islamists" deeply hostile to America. Hostile to any government that is unwilling to convert to Islamic Law and governing.   So why in the 1960's did the organization establish a chapter in the United States?  After all America is a democracy.  There was not a strong Muslim presence in the United States. America is friend and ally to Israel the arch enemy of fundamental Islam.  Well the answer is complex but we will do our best to shed light on this very secretive movement that has changed the face of American Islam. During the 1960's an influx of Muslims arrived in the United States to study at American Universities.  Some of the students were members of the Muslim Brotherhood in their homelands and decided the best way to create  unity among Muslims in America and to recruit from this pool of possible candidates for the Muslim Brotherhood was to create the Muslim Students Association in 1963.  The main concentration was in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan schools. They hoped to spread the Brotherhood's ideology with other Muslims in America and provide support for the new Muslims arriving yearly to take advantage of the American education system and to gain life experience.  To many the transition from the Muslim world to American culture was too dramatic and they felt too isolated due to their beliefs.  The purpose of creating these types of organizations in America was to make the transition for Middle Eastern Muslims easier.
There was not a lot of attention paid by Americans to the influx of the Muslim students arriving more and more frequently as each year passed.  Many believed it was an educational and a cultural exchange.  To many Muslim students this was exactly what it was. However much light was revealed on the organization at the university level of the Muslim Brotherhood Chapter in the United States.  In government exhibits presented in the United States of America vs. Holy Land Foundation it presented the following information:
Even though  Sayyid Qutb a very influential Muslim Brotherhood member detested American culture and believed that America was no place for Muslims, persecution of the Brotherhood members in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries still forced many to flee their native countries for America.  Qutb ideology preached that America was an evil culture and a threat to the Islamic world based on his experience living in America during 1949 while at an American college..  His writings have been very influential to many militant Islamic groups including al Qaeda.  Inside American mosques and in the student unions at the higher education institutions of higher learning there has been a growing issue of fundamental Islam that preaches and practices disdain for American culture and politics.  An atmosphere of conservative leadership working within the American framework is creating small cells of possible terrorist minded individuals that are capable of acting out the next 911.  American born citizens have converted to Islam and some are gravitating toward the conservative styles of groups like the Taliban and al Qaeda.  It is unfair to label all Muslims in America as possible terrorists and it would be an unacceptable practice.  However, for one to say that this type of  recruitment and secrecy coupled with a goal of creating a worldwide Muslim government as proposed by the driving force of the Islamification of America within the Muslim Brotherhood would be dangerous and irresponsible.  In the future it is certain that we will see more and more American born individuals associated with terrorism organizations.  At the current time the creation of this dilemma is in it's infancy.  Over time it would not be surprising to see more John Walkers (American Taliban) and Adam Gadahn   (American al Qaeda).  The reason this is stated is because The Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi government has made it no secret that they are eager to build as many mosques in North America as possible as a place for worship for the future converts to Islam.  According to the Mapping Sharia in America Project we do know there are approximately 6 million Muslims in the US. This number is growing exponentially. David Gaubatz, the director of counterintelligence and counterterrorism for the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE) told Insight Magazine, "Our initial investigation has concluded there are between 400 to 500 radical Islamic centers in the U.S. In those places, they preach an extreme version of Islam that says America and the West are the enemy. They espouse violence, hatred and the need for terrorism." Many of the Islamic centers are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt. For more information check out our article: Terrorist Sleeper Cells in America
According to a leader in the organization involved in the case The United States of America vs. Holy Land Foundation, during the 1970's a new era began for the Muslim Brotherhood in America.  The first bylaws of the organization began to place more emphasis on Ikhwan's (Muslim Brotherhood) influence and organization.  A steady flow of Saudi and other Gulf states Muslims arrived in America to attend the Universities.  In 1972, the Muslim Kuwaiti Youths Association was founded which was later converted in 1976 into the Muslim Arab Youths Association and its work centered around the Muslim students coming to America from all the Arab countries. In 1980, the Muslim Students Union was developed into the Islamic Society in North America (ISNA) to include all the Muslim congregation from immigrants and citizens, and to be a nucleus for the Islamic Movement in North America. Over the last 40 years, small groups of devout Muslim men have gathered in homes and Universities in U.S. cities to pray, memorize the Koran and discuss events of the day.  These collection of diverse groups wanting to expand on the bonding of fellow Muslims arriving in America created entities with the support and assistance of members of the  Muslim Brotherhood organization such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), all three listed by the Department of Justice as co-conspirators in terrorism.
Since the Early days of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States a code of secrecy was developed that would keep the members and positions of the organization in the dark. A group aiming to create Islamic states worldwide has established roots here, in large part under the guidance of Egypt-born Ahmed Elkadi. Elkadi, an Egyptian-born surgeon and a former personal physician to Saudi Arabia's King Faisal headed the group from 1984 to1994 but abruptly lost his leadership position.  Many moderate Muslims in America are uncomfortable with the views preached at mosques influenced by the Brotherhood, scholars say. Those experts point to a 2001 study sponsored by four Muslim advocacy and religious groups that found that only a third of U.S. Muslims attend mosques. The majority of mosques built in America over the past twenty years were sponsored by the Muslim brotherhood along with the Saudi government. According to a story in the Chicago Tribune in suburban Bridgeview, Ill., some moderates say they quit attending the Mosque Foundation because the leadership became too conservative and dominated by Brotherhood members.  The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States claim their organization has broken no laws in America.  They also claim that they have no intentions on ever overthrowing the democratic government here either.  The Brotherhood's plan is to build as many mosques as possible and to convert as many Americans as possible to Islam.  After a few generations they hope that America will choose to impose Islamic law on itself through a democratic process controlled by a Muslim society that America will become. As mentioned earlier the brotherhood is extremely secretive and operate like many fraternal organizations or other forms of secret societies.  . Even today, few outside the Islamic inner circles from which it recruits know when, how often or where the Brothers meet to discuss the organization's goal: the creation of Islamic states throughout the world, including the U.S.
Not anyone can join the Brotherhood. The group had a detailed procedure on how to find and evaluate potential members, according to a Brotherhood instructional booklet for recruiters
Leaders would scout mosques, Islamic classes and Muslim organizations for those with orthodox religious beliefs consistent with Brotherhood views. The leaders then would invite them to join a small prayer group, or usra, Arabic for "family." The prayer groups were a defining feature of the Brotherhood and one created by al-Banna in Egypt. When the time was right and the members agreed the candidate would then be asked to officially join. according to the Tribune article a former member says he found out that the U.S. Brotherhood had a plan for achieving Islamic rule in America: It would convert Americans to Islam and elect like-minded Muslims to political office.

In recent years it is commonplace for visitors at Muslim bookstores located in the American mosques to be able to pick up books by anti-West writers and other conservative Muslim Brotherhood members such as Sayyid Qutb that teach a deep hatred of Western culture.  The Muslim Brotherhood in America has been a mixed bag of good and potentially harmful activities.  It is the clandestine small groups that spring from such a secret organization that attempt to work outside the box of the more recent moderate stance the group has taken.  These Clandestine cells tend to raise money for terrorist organizations throughout the world and recruit members. It is hard to prove who is a member of the brotherhood and who is not, this makes it tough for federal law enforcement agencies to connect the dots. It is tough to grasp a religion based organization that has no tolerance for other religions converting Muslims away from Islam attempting to create a world wide Islamic state through conversion of non-religious and other religions group members.  In America the Brotherhood has this freedom to operate and as long as it is not implicated directly to violating U.S. laws will continue to do so working slowly toward the goal of an Islamic state in America.  The reality is that in the future as the connections are made by law enforcement through a better understanding and education on the operations of the group will be better able to realize the clandestine groups as part of the whole and put an end to the secrecy that protects the Muslim Brotherhood from being banned as they have in other countries in the Middle East.

Thousands demand Mubarak's ouster in new Egyptian protests


 

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Tens of thousands of Egyptians broke curfew Saturday to march in Cairo and other major cities in a clear message to U.S.-allied president Hosni Mubarak that nothing short of his resignation would end anti-government protests.
The police, who were the targets of much of Friday's violence, had vanished from the streets and were replaced by the more popular Egyptian army, which was welcomed by protesters who hugged soldiers and snapped souvenir photos of their tanks.
But the absence of the police also created an opening for gangs of thugs who looted private homes and shops and prompted some neighborhoods to form vigilante groups that intercepted cars and kept non-residents out.
Throughout the day, the military showed extraordinary restraint, even allowing some protesters to write graffiti on some tanks: "Down with Mubarak!" But Egyptians were bracing for a showdown. The question was, will the army stand with the people or with the Mubarak regime?
"This is the nation's army, not Mubarak's army," said Nabil Abdel Fattah, deputy director of the Cairo-based Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "I think the army will take the side of the Egyptian national movement."
By 10 p.m. Saturday, most of the protesters had gone home, though criminal elements continued their looting.
The military sent reinforcements to vulnerable Cairo districts and to affluent suburbs, where private homes reportedly came under attack by marauding youths. Egyptian families grabbed homemade weapons and stood together outside their doorsteps to fight off gangs in neighborhoods across Cairo.
More than 100 people have died in the unrest of the past week, including at least 25 in Cairo, 38 in Suez and 36 in Alexandria, according to tallies on local TV stations. The Al Jazeera satellite television network broadcast footage of at least 20 dead Egyptians in morgues, along with images of their distraught relatives clamoring outside hospitals.
Later, the same network aired video showing the aftermath of looting of antiquities at Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum - damaged mummies, statues knocked off their pedestals and empty cases that once held 4,000-year-old jewelry.
The Egyptian army sent troops into the museum, and they were patrolling around mummies, statues and displays. Until the army secured the site, people fended off the looters with human chains. There was some concern Saturday that the museum could be damaged by a still-smoldering fire next door at the ruling party headquarters.
Mubarak, who's never named a vice president during his 30-year rule, appointed his intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, to be his second-in-command. He also named Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force chief of staff, the new prime minister.
To protesters, however, the president's overhaul of his Cabinet was too little, too late.
"What Cabinet? Since when does the government rule? All of the power is in the hands of the president," said Ahmed Salah, 45, as he joined thousands of protesters at a downtown Cairo rally.
In Washington on Saturday, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley used Twitter to caution the Egyptian government that it "can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat."
"President Mubarak's words pledging reform must be followed by action," he wrote.
Crowley also said that the U.S. remains "concerned about the potential for violence and again urges restraint on all sides."
President Barack Obama, who spoke to Mubarak on Friday, met for an hour Saturday afternoon with Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and other top advisers, the White House said. Donilon earlier in the day had a two-hour meeting at the White House that included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other high-level administration officials.
The president "reiterated our focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint; supporting universal rights; and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform within Egypt," the White House said in a statement.
The message was much the same from European leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, who called Mubarak Saturday evening to express "grave concern" about violence against anti-government protesters.
Cameron issued a joint statement with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"The Egyptian people have legitimate grievances and a longing for a just and better future," they said. "We urge President Mubarak to embark on a process of transformation which should be reflected in a broad-based government and in free and fair elections."
Mubarak dissolved his cabinet overnight Friday, promising to start anew with a focus on the public's chief complaints of unemployment, poverty and a lack of basic services. By late Saturday, only the vice president and the prime minister had been announced.
Suleiman is a shadowy and powerful former general and has served as an important negotiator for Egypt in Palestinian-Israeli talks. Shafiq served as civil aviation minister and is credited with revamping Cairo's busy airport, which is vital for the lucrative tourism industry. While both men are close associates of Mubarak, they are generally viewed as less corrupt than other members of the ruling party.
Political analysts said Egypt's leaderless revolutionaries wouldn't accept a mere reshuffling of the same old faces and would continue their rallies until Mubarak is forced out.
"Anything short of these demands and people will not be pacified," said Amr Hamzawy, research director at the Carnegie Endowment's Middle East branch in Beirut, who witnessed the unrest firsthand.
"Traditionally, the state was strong and the people were weak," he said. "Now it's a reversed equation. The people are in a strong position and the state weak."
Mubarak appeared to be running out of options, faced with unprecedented rallies against him, a military of uncertain loyalty and growing international pressure to restore order. He held crisis discussions with his close advisers.
Nearly two hours past the 4 p.m. curfew, streets in Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities were clogged with anti-government protesters. But the demonstrations remained peaceful, in contrast to Friday's orgy of violence that saw mobs set fire to government buildings, sack police stations, and beat police officers they had pulled from their motorbikes. In the crowded mayhem of Cairo Friday night, young protesters proudly displayed helmets they'd captured from riot police during the day's melees.
On Saturday in Cairo and the port city of Alexandria, looters emptied major department stores and ransacked rows of shops. Local news reports were filled with stories of attempted bank robberies. With no sign of government authority, ordinary Egyptians formed neighborhood watch parties to fight off looters, who cleaned out shops and had begun targeting homes.
Outside McClatchy's Cairo Bureau, for example, men from the block sealed off the street and kept roaming youths at bay. This ad hoc force patrolled the streets with pistols, machetes, chains and kitchen knives strapped to the ends of broomsticks. "Get back, get back," the men called to strangers who approached their unofficial checkpoint.
Shots were fired on the street as the looters encroached on the shops.
Even as they hunkered down, families on the fifth floor of an apartment in the Cairo neighborhood of Giza reported hearing the crashing and destruction of looters ransacking shops below.
In Menya, about four hours south of Cairo along the Nile, there have been protests and looting in the hometown of Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak.
Throughout the country, protesters took over police stations, which have long been centers for torture and open-ended detentions, in some cases sacking and burning them down, but in others allowing police to escape. In Cairo, rioters ransacked and set ablaze the headquarters of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party, a scene repeated in several other cities.
In Alexandria, witnesses said rioters had torched every police precinct and several government offices. Tanks surrounded the main courthouse and some shopping centers.
For the most part, however, Alexandrians were in charge of their own security. "People are actually restoring order on the streets themselves. I saw civilians directing traffic and forming a human fence around private property, like car dealerships and gas stations," said Karim Mossaad, 29, who drove from Alexandria to Cairo early Saturday after being stranded there overnight in the violence.
On the road to the capital, he said, the people had taken over even the tollbooths. "I don't know who they were, but I paid it," Mossaad said. "I was just happy they were there, and things were kind of orderly. Everything can't just stop."
(Miret El Naggar is a McClatchy special correspondent. Hannah Allam and Naggar reported from Cairo; Erika Bolstad reported from Washington. Nancy Youssef of the Washington Bureau also contributed.)


Obama to Review Mideast Policy After Egyptian Protests

Friday, January 28, 2011
(Adds State Department comment in sixth paragraph. For more news on unrest in Egypt, see EXTRA .)
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- After decades of backing authoritarian regimes in the Mideast and North Africa as bulwarks against Muslim extremism, the U.S. faces an urgent challenge as popular uprisings sweep the region: how to defend U.S. economic and security interests while supporting democratic values.
President Barack Obama urged non-violence on all sides as Egyptian protesters faced off against police and tanks. In televised remarks from the White House, Obama said he told President Hosni Mubarak that he must take "concrete steps and actions that deliver" political, social and economic change.
"The future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people," Obama said. "Governments have an obligation to respond to their citizens."
While the U.S. president was careful not to side with the demonstrators over the Egyptian government, the White House also announced it would review assistance to Egypt, the fourth- largest recipient of U.S. aid in 2011. It was the strongest sign yet that a popular uprising may cause the U.S. to distance itself from a longtime ally.
While the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif resigned today at Mubarak's request, Mubarak, 82, has ignored demands that he resign. Today he appointed a new vice president, Omar Suleiman, the head of Egypt's intelligence services.
"The Egyptian government can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat," State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said in a message on Twitter. "President Mubarak's words pledging reform must be followed by action."
Stocks Plunge
Stocks worldwide plunged yesterday the most since November, while crude oil posted the biggest jump since 2009.
Protests against poverty and lack of government accountability have spread through the region this month. The ouster of longtime Tunisian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has inspired knock-on protests in Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Jordan.
Egypt, along with all Arab countries except Lebanon and Iraq, is classified as an authoritarian regime in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2010 Democracy Index.
Peace With Israel
Still, from making peace with Israel in 1979 to serving as a powerful counterweight to the influence of Iran and anti-U.S. militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, Egypt "has been so supportive of U.S. interests" that the U.S. cannot "suddenly walk away" from Mubarak, said Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator during several U.S. administrations. "At the same time, we do have a stake in encouraging progressive, centrist moderate forces."
Obama is wise, he said, to "stay on the sidelines and keep American fingerprints off too much support of the regime on one hand and too much support for protesters on the other."
Miller, now a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said even if the Obama administration does "find the right set of talking points, at the end will it matter? Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen all have something in common: the U.S. is not driving the train on any of these" revolts. "It's driven by local factors."
Internet Access
The Egyptian government has restricted Internet and mobile- phone access in the nation of about 87 million people and detained senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, a main opposition group.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday the U.S. will review its assistance to Egypt in light of the protests.
More than 80 percent of U.S. aid to Egypt, or $1.3 billion, is military assistance, according to the U.S. State Department. Aid to Egypt is exceeded only by Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel in the State Department's 2011 budget.
Farah Pandith, Obama's special representative to Muslim communities, said the administration has tried to reach out to the street as well as the rulers in the Middle East.
"Our relationship with Egypt is multifaceted; it isn't just around one thing or another," Pandith said yesterday at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. "We have a relationship with both the government and with the people of Egypt,"
Too Little, Too Late
Some democracy advocates in the region say Obama has recognized the movement too little, too late.
Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian opposition figure and former United Nations official and Nobel laureate who returned to Cairo Jan. 27 to join the protests, accused the U.S. of "pushing Egypt and pushing the whole Arab world into radicalization with this inept policy of supporting repression."
In a Jan. 26 critique posted on The Daily Beast website, ElBaradei said he was "flabbergasted" by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments the previous day that Mubarak's government was stable and should try to respond to the people's needs. "If you would like to know why the United States does not have credibility in the Middle East, that is precisely the answer," he wrote.
The Obama administration's calls for reform in Egypt now are hopelessly behind the curve and may be interpreted in the region as "implicit American endorsement" of the regime, said Steven Cook, fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Catching Up
The U.S. has been scrambling to play catch up with fast- changing events, said Robert Danin, a former official with the so-called Quartet for Middle East Peace, which includes the U.S., the European Union, the UN and Russia.
"On one hand, it's tried to affirm its continued support for Hosni Mubarak, a regime that has advanced American interests in the region, and at the same time articulate principles of what the protesters are calling for - short of regime change. The problem with this is it comes pretty late in the day."
"The worse it gets in Egypt," added Danin, also a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, the harder it will be to reconcile those two approaches.
Shibley Telhami, a former adviser to the U.S. Mission to the UN and the Iraq Study Group, said it's critical that the U.S. not attempt to insert itself in the events, lest that be perceived as meddling.
Muslim Extremists
If the popular movement is seen as masterminded by Washington, "it could backfire" and Muslim extremists may exploit the situation for their own benefit, said Telhami, a Middle East fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "We've lost the ability to control events on the ground."
Egypt has been the anchor for U.S. foreign policy in the Arab world since the 1970s, and under Mubarak, has remained a strong defender of U.S. interests in the region on a host of issues, from countering Iran's nuclear aspirations to preventing weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza, as recent U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks show.
"Any major change in Egyptian foreign policy" under a potential new government "has huge consequences for the U.S.," Telhami added.
The White House must be ready to seize the moment to overhaul U.S. policy for the entire region, many observers say.
"The events in Egypt as well as in Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, and Algeria should spark a broader rethink in America's approach to the entire region," Brian Katulis, a fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, wrote yesterday. "Currently, the Obama administration is largely stuck in a reactive and tactical crisis management mode on many key fronts."
--With assistance from Peter S. Green in New York, Flavia Krause-Jackson, Nicholas Johnston, Kate Andersen Brower, and Roger Runningen in Washington. Editors: Steven Komarow, Ann Hughey.

Two Pharaonic mummies destroyed in Egyptian protests


The Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo is guarded by an army tank. The smoke seen behind is coming from the headquarters of President Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
LOOTERS MANAGED to break into the Egyptial Museum in downtown Cairo and destroy two mummies before the Army was able to secure the building, reports suggest.
Reuters says the country’s top archaeologist told Egypt’s state broadcaster that the museum had been raided by people taking advantage of the country’s anti-government protests, before the Army – and students – surrounded the building in a human chain to ensure that no more of the country’s treasures could be damaged.
“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,” Zahi Hawass said.
Egyptian citizens tried to prevent them and were joined by the tourism police, but some [ransackers] managed to enter from above and they destroyed two of the mummies.  
The museum building stands next to the office block housing the national headquarters of the National Democratic Party of president Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, which was set alight by demonstrators as part of the upheaval in Cairo.
The museum also houses the majority of the collection of King Tutankhamen, as well as tens of thousands of other artefacts from ancient Egypt. AP reports that the building attracts millions of tourists from overseas every year – one of the reasons why so many civilians tried to protect it.
“I’m standing here to defend and to protect our national treasure,” said one. Referring to the looting of Iraq’s National Museum after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, another said: “We are not like Baghdad.”
AFP further adds that many residents of the impoverished al Sabtia neighbourhood that houses the museum took to the streets with knives and home-made weapons in order to pry back stolen goods from other looters.
They left some of the recovered items in a nearby mosque for safekeeping, where they will remain until they can be safely returned to the museum.

  • Sunil Lala3 hours ago #

     
    My Egyptian friends – PLEASE PROTECT YOUR PHARAOHS! I am heartbroken to learn that two Mummies were destroyed yesterday. I still don’t know exactly which two Kings were desecrated, but your Pharaohs – all of them – belong not just to you but to the entire world!
    Reply
  • Thosj Carroll3 hours ago #

     
    O my God……if this is true then I am very disappointed. It’s like Egyptian protesters shot their own feet!
    Reply
  • Sara3 hours ago #
     
    I doubt it was protesters doing this: more likely looters who wanted to sell things on the antiquities market.
    The article isn’t quite clear enough though.
    I am happy that people protected things. They are right about the “National Treasure” part. I would love to visit Egypt someday. You have some incredibly unique items, and must be a fascinating place.
    Good luck with the whole freedom thing, shutting off the internet sure doesn’t make those in power look good.
    Reply
  • Isabella D'Angelo2 hours ago #
    Although I agree with what has already been posted, I would argue these are not National Treasures but treasures of the entire world.
    Reply
  • David Yoffe57 mins ago #

    Mohamed Mustafa ElBaradei the Iranian Traitor , the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran want to rule Egypt.
    They want Repression of women, prohibition of education, high unemployment, radical Islam as Iran, Somalia and under Taliban rule…
    OBAMA == James Earl Carter 2011
    Sources in Egypt and West: US secretly backed protest
    DEBKAfile Special Report January 29, 2011, 3:49 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Mubarak US backing Egypt uprising
    “Egyptian people and army are one”
    Persistent claims were heard Saturday, Jan. 29 in various Egyptian and informed western circles that the popular uprising against president Hosni Mubarak, still going strong on its fifth day, was secretly prepared three years ago in Washington during the Bush administration.
    Saturday morning, people rage across Egypt gathered steam from Mubarak’s speech after midnight, in which he declined to step down. After defying the night curfew, tens of thousands of protesters, estimated at 50,000, crowded into central Cairo’s Tahrir Square and began marching on the state TV building, calling on the soldiers in tanks ranged quietly around the square to oust the president. They shouted that the people and army were one.
    Law and order is breaking down in Egypt’s cities. In Cairo looters are roaming through shops and smoldering public buildings and seizing empty residences. Rioting inmates are confronting armed warders and getting shot in Egypt’s biggest prisons. Political prisoners are escaping.
    In defiance of the extended nationwide curfew, fierce clashes also erupted in Alexandria, Suez, Ismailia, Rafah and El Arish, with security forces firing live ammunition on surging protesters. By the afternoon, 100 people were dead and 2,000 injured across the country. The death toll Friday was estimated at 74 and more than a thousand wounded.
    In Cairo, the hated Mahabharat security forces vanished off the main streets after failing to quell four days of protests. The military tanks and infantry units posted at strategic points in the capital have so far not fired a shot or interfered in the clashes. But the Interior Ministry’s elite security force fired live ammo on demonstrators attempting to storm the building.
    The London Daily Telegraph headlined a story Saturday, apparently confirming confidential US documents released by WikiLeaks, which claimed that since 2008, the American government had secretly backed leading figures behind the uprising for “regime change.”
    The US embassy in Cairo reportedly helped a young Egyptian dissident secretly attend a US-Sponsored summit for activists in New York. “On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and Install a democratic government in 2011,” the Telegraph reported.
    The activist whose identity the paper is protecting is already under arrest.
    DEBKAfile: If this is true, the Western observers who have concluded that the protesters have no leaders and are propelled into the streets purely by rage against the regime may not have the full story. The movement does have a leader whose identity is known to Washington and the demonstrations’ ringleaders – but not to Mubarak or his security services. They show every sign of being cut off from the prevailing currents in the street. It would also explain the steadfast insistence of President Barack Obama and all his spokesmen on forcing Mubarak to do the virtually impossible, i.e. to refrain from force against the opposition movement and introduce immediate reforms by means of national dialogue. His successors would be waiting in the wings to move in when they could expect to be embraced by the opposition.
    Saturday, as the violence on the streets of Egypt mounted, the Muslim Brotherhood called for the peaceful transfer of power, thereby offering a bridge to span Obama’s call for national dialogue and the people’s demand for change.
    * As James Earl Carter supported Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979, so does today Barack Hussein Obama II…