Egypt Carries Out Airstrikes Against Terrorists Responsible For Sinai Attacks

The Egyptian air force carried out airstrikes against terrorists responsible for the attacks that left 16 Egyptian security forces dead as part of a larger plot to attack Israel in order to kill and/or capture Israelis for ransom.

The airstrikes along the Israeli-Egyptian border came after several Egyptian military checkpoints in the region were attacked overnight and three days after unknown gunmen attacked Egyptian border guards. The incidents have left Egypt lurching to contain the Sinai's growing lawlessness, which has been fostered by the upheaval of post-revolution Egypt and poses an important challenge for the country's new leadership.

An unnamed Egyptian senior military official told Agence France-Presse that “20 terrorists were killed” in the village of Tumah, near the Gaza border, by Apache helicopter strikes. The military source said the operation was ongoing and other airstrikes have been reported in neighboring villages.

It's the first airstrikes carried out by Egypt on Sinai since 1973. Such airstrikes need to be coordinated with Israel as part of the Israel-Egypt peace accord (Camp David). That means that Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas will claim that the Egyptian government is colluding with Israel.

Witnesses in Sheikh Zouaid, about 10 km (six miles) from Gaza, said they saw two military jets and heard sounds of explosions. Other witnesses in a nearby area said they saw three cars hit.

The strikes follow clashes between armed men and security forces at several security checkpoints in the Sinai region.

Armed men opened fire on several checkpoints in Arish and in the nearby town of Rafah on the border with Israel, according to a Reuters reporter and state media.

A Reuters reporter said one policeman and one resident had been confirmed wounded in these attacks.

Lawlessness in the rugged desert region bordering Israel has spread since the fall of autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak in an uprising 18 months ago and the election of an Islamist successor whose commitment to security cooperation with the Jewish state has yet to be tested.

Sinai has quickly fallen into a lawless region that the Egyptian government can barely control. That bodes poorly for Egypt, which needs tourists to feel safe across the country in order to reap the economic benefits. Terrorists have continued to infiltrate into Sinai from Gaza, despite a security cordon by Egyptian forces. Smuggling continues to do tremendous business on both sides of the Gaza-Egypt border.

Yet, the airstrikes show that the Egyptian government is willing to work with Israel on security arrangements and indicates that the Egyptians are more than willing to use force - though it appears that they're willing to do so only when their own security forces are killed. They have a long way to go on securing the Gaza border and the Hamas and other Islamic terror group agitators.

The Curious Un-Death of Hosni Mubarak

Yesterday afternoon, the wire news services began reporting that former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak was clinically dead. Those initial reports were based on unnamed individuals quoted in the Middle East News Agency (MENA), citing medical sources, said he was declared clinically dead shortly after arriving late Tuesday at a military hospital in Cairo, where he had been taken after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest earlier in the day.

Yet, a few hours later, other reports began disputing those claims.

It now turns out that he indeed suffered a serious health issue - a stroke and was in need of a ventilator to breath, but he's now breathing on his own but in a coma.

So, what does this mean for Egypt? For most Egyptians, the news doesn't change their reality. The economic conditions are just as bad as they've been, and the formation of a new pluralistic government is being held up by machinations by the military junta that took over power from Mubarak and included disbanding the parliament and placing curbs on the power of the new president.

That hasn't stopped people from musing about whether the health reports or disputed death were part of a conspiracy to spirit Mubarak out of the country:

The former president’s health has been a source of constant speculation and suspicion since his imprisonment. Mr. Mubarak has had health problems for years, but the flood of reports and scares in recent weeks led many Egyptians to believe that the military rulers, determined to move Mr. Mubarak out of a notorious prison, were using those accounts to prepare the public for such a move.

Low ranking security officers, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, speculated that the previous night’s reports that Mr. Mubarak was on the edge of death were part of a scheme to transport him out of Egypt for care. Indeed, many Egyptians on Wednesday wondered if the state news agency reports of his near death were all a morbid hoax.

While many Egyptians had hoped to see Mubarak executed following his conviction on crimes against the Egyptian people during the crackdown against protests that ultimately led to his ouster, the life sentence means that Mubarak will never again take power.

It's far more troubling that the military junta is not relinquishing power and is working against the ideals of the protesters. In other words, Egyptians rebelled and replaced one bad regime with another. It doesn't have to be like this.

Israel Under Fire From Hamas Day After Sinai-Based Terror Attack

Within hours of the terror attack that left one Israeli Arab dead and several other Israelis injured, the Israeli military carried out airstrikes against targets inside Gaza.

Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets against Israel. At least 11 were fired into Israel, including kassams and Grad rockets along with mortar rounds.

Seven rockets exploded in open areas in Eshkol Regional Council on Tuesday afternoon, after four rockets were fired at Hof Ashkelon and Sha'ar Hanegev regional councils overnight Monday.

There were no reported casualties or damage.

Hamas took responsibility for the rocket fire overnight Monday, and announced on Tuesday afternoon that its military wing had fired 10 Grad rockets toward Israel.

The rocket fire marks an unusual move for the group, which has been avoiding launching rockets toward Israel for many months now.

Following the attack, communities near the Gaza border were put on heightened alert. The residents were given instructions to remain at a close distance to a bomb shelter.

In the past 24 hours, the Israel Air Force carried out several air strikes in the Gaza Strip. Overnight Sunday, Israel attacked a military compound in southern Gaza.

On Sunday morning, a terrorist cell crossed the border from Egypt into Israel and detonated an explosive device which ended up killing an Israeli citizen who was working on the construction of the Israel-Egypt border fence.

While things have been relatively quiet in Gaza, Hamas has not stopped its plans for conflict with Israel. One cannot discount the possibility that Hamas is coordinating with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood over ways to force Israel to attack Gaza and/or Sinai in a way that would allow the Egyptian government to abrogate the Israel-Egypt peace deal (Camp David Accords).

That's one of the reasons why the Israeli military was quick to remove their responding tanks to the Sinai terror attack as quickly as they did. They understand what the terrorists may have been hoping for and didn't want to fall into that trap.

Egypt's Military Moves To Block Impact of Islamist Elected President

Egyptians faced a choice between bad and worse when they had to choose from an Islamist aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and the former foreign minister from Hosni Mubarak's old regime. Turnout was anything but strong, but the Islamist, Mohamed Morsi, won the election.

The military, however, has a different plan. They're now acting to minimize the impact of the election, and are once again acting in their own interests rather than allowing the popular will to decide.

In a two-hour news conference, members of the ruling military council made no reference to the election results that by early morning showed Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood had defeated Ahmed Shafik, a former Air Force general and Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, in the runoff to choose Egypt’s first democratically elected president. The ballots were counted in front of television cameras and party observers in polling places around the country to preclude fraud, and independent observers concluded that Mr. Morsi had won by a margin of about 4 percentage points, or about a million votes.

The election officials will not formally confirm the results until later in the week, however, and Ahmed Sarhan, a spokesman for Mr. Shafik, insisted on Monday that the general was the true winner and the Brotherhood had “terrorized” voters. He offered no evidence, and both the state-run and unofficial media reported that Mr. Morsi had a decisive lead in the vote count.

The ruling generals had stunned Egyptians on the eve of the vote by dissolving the Brotherhood-dominated parliament and claiming all legislative power for themselves in an apparent attempt to foreclose the possibility that Islamists control both the presidency and the legislature.

Though they acted under the veneer of a court ruling rushed out last week by a panel of Mubarak-appointed judges, their power grab erased their promise to turn over all power to elected civilians by the end of this month, and both liberals and Islamists denounced the move as a military coup. The court ruling dispirited Brotherhood supporters, energized Mr. Shafik’s backers, and led many Egyptians to expect that either the psychological effect of the takeover or more direct intervention would push Mr. Shafik to the presidency.

In the aftermath of Mr. Morsi’s victory — - considered an upset by many, despite the Brotherhood’s proven popularity and political clout — - the generals sought Monday to reassure the public that they had no intention to re-establish another military-backed autocracy, although they did not back away from their effective seizure of legislative power.

“Trust the armed forces,” two representatives of the military council, General Mandouh Shahin and General Mohamed el Assar, repeated many times over the course of the news conference. “We don’t want power,” both also said repeatedly, citing the presidential election as proof of their good intentions.

Despite their seizure of the parliament, they promised a grand celebration at the end of the month to mark their formal handover to the new president.

They insisted that the legislative authority they had claimed for themselves was “restricted.” Although they acknowledged that they would have a monopoly on all lawmaking powers and control of the national budget, they said that the new president — presumably Mr. Morsi — would retain a veto over any new laws. The president will also name the prime minister and other cabinet officials.

The generals insisted they regretted shutting down the elected parliament, which they described as one of their proudest achievements since they took power at the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. They were forced to close the legislature because of the court’s ruling, the generals said.

It's a situation that Egypt has seen before. It's how Gamel Nasser came to power and it's how power was retained under both Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak.

Popular election of the government simply isn't tolerated. The military will allow a veneer of democratic institutions, put the ruling junta is seeing to it that power will remain in the hands of the military.

I can understand the apprehension of allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to hold power considering their interests in expanding Islamic law and revisiting social and political decisions ranging from the rights of women to the Egypt-Israel peace accords.

However, the military should be subordinate to the civilian control. As it stands, Egypt's military is acting just as any other junta would do. They're acting to preserve their own power and that actually increases the chances of another round of violence.

The military is doing itself and the Egyptian country a tremendous disservice, even as it acts to minimize the power of the Muslim Brotherhood. The actions to limit the Brotherhood's power will backfire and lend the group legitimacy it is undeserving. It would be far better to allow the group power in the interim, with civilian governmental institutions to protect the rights of all Egyptians than to try and block the group's impact.

At the same time, the military needs to do more to stabilize the security situation in Sinai, from which another deadly attack on Israel was launched. One Israeli Arab who was working on a security fence were killed and several others were injured. Israeli military forces then responded to the attack and engaged terrorists in a gunfight.

A force from Golani immediately arrived at the scene, a gun fight ensued and a bomb carried by one of the terrorists exploded. Two terrorists were killed in the gunfight and the IDF believed that a third terrorist was also involved in the clash, who they believed to be in Sinai.

Following the attack and fearing additional attacks, the IDF moved a number of Merkava tanks up to the border to help protect against additional infiltrations. The tanks were removed immediately after the IDF confirmed that all of the terrorists had been accounted for and none remained inside Israeli territory.

The decision to move the tanks up along the border was done in consideration of Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt which forbids the deployment of Israeli tanks in the area. IDF sources said that the deployment was done as the attack was still unfolding and that it was part of a defensive posture.

The deploymnet of tanks to the border is a technical violation of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, which prohibits tanks in the border zone without consultation, and that was just as likely the goal of the terror attack as the deaths of as many Israelis as possible.

The disintegrating security situation in Sinai is yet another threat to Israel's security as much as it harms Egypt's economy by reducing the tourism dollars that flow to Egypt's coffers.

Egyptian Runoff Election Will Pit Ancien Regime Against Islamists

For most Egyptians, this will be a contest between the old guard versus the Islamists and they will have to choose the lesser of two evils. Hosni Mubarak's former prime minister versus a candidate for a party banned by Mubarak for decades.

It was clear as early as Thursday night that a plurality of votes went to Mohamed Morsi, the American-educated engineer nominated by the Brotherhood, the secretive 84-year-old revival group that became the wellspring of political Islam around the world and already dominates the Parliament.

But only Friday morning did it appear that second place would go to Ahmed Shafik, a former Air Force general who briefly served as Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister. A late entry into the race, Mr. Shafik was a dark horse campaigning on promises to use a firm hand against the protests and lawlessness that have prevailed since Mr. Mubarak’s ouster. He presented himself as a strong check on the rise of the Islamists. Of all the candidates in the race, Mr. Shafik came closest to promising a restoration of the old order and aroused vocal support and threats of a “second revolution” if he should win.

Mr. Shafik’s law-and-order message resonated with voters, helping him to overtake the two candidates previously considered, along with Mr. Morsi, to be the front-runners. One was Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister under Mr. Mubarak and former head of the Arab League, who had offered a softer but similar message. In the final weeks of the race, Mr. Moussa’s support appears to have all but collapsed in favor of Mr. Shafik.

Ahmad Sarhan, a spokesman for Mr. Shafik, said voters had rallied to the candidate because he promised to “save Egypt from the dark forces,” referring to the Brotherhood and more militant Islamists.

The leading candidate with a plurality of the votes was Mohamed Morsi, who was one of the Muslim Brotherhood's candidates. He will face off against Ahmed Shafik.

Do Egyptians want a clean break with the old Mubarak regime and all that baggage or do they want to give power to the Muslim Brotherhood, who had been banned and persecuted by Mubarak for more than 30 years. The Islamists have said that they would not impose strict Islam on the country, but there are many inside the country who have their doubts. These same people have no love for the old regime and its former officials.

So, what will Egyptians do? Hold out hope that Morsi delivers on economic improvements and keeps the promise that the Muslim Brotherhood wont impose Islamist doctrine on Egyptian society, or will they vote for Shafik so as to deny the Muslim Brotherhood that possibility all while giving the old regime a new breath of life by turning over power to the former Prime Minister.

For most Egyptians, this is a no-win scenario considering that they have to choose between the possibility of an Islamist regime or the old regime, which was incapable of dealing with the economic crisis and that attempted to brutally suppress the protests against Mubarak.

Egyptians Mark Anniversary of Uprising Against Mubarak With Demonstrations Against Current Military Regime

Egyptians threw off one totalitarian regime, and found that the military installed itself as the new power brokers. That's the basic change in the year that passed since protesters took to the streets demanding that Hosni Mubarak step down and cede power to the people.

The crowd in the square on Wednesday morning was overwhelmingly male, with very few women in sight.

Youth groups and other activists — including many of the leaders of the original uprising — were determined to make the day a huge demonstration calling for an immediate end to military rule, urging Egyptians to gather at mosques, churches and other strategic locations around the city for marches to the square that would arrive by midafternoon.

The plan resembled the convergence of marches that set off the Tahrir Square protests last January, but this time each was named for a “martyr” killed over the last year by the security forces of the military-led government trying to suppress challenges to its power. More than 80 people have been killed in clashes with security forces since October.

The military rulers have endorsed the calls for an anniversary celebration and have made the day a national holiday. Some activists accuse them of trying to co-opt the occasion.

There was no visible presence of soldiers or the police. But most Egyptians seemed to expect that Brotherhood members, known for their discipline and organization, would keep the peace.

After a year of protests and crackdowns, many note a pattern: the conflicts with security forces never begin on the days when crowds fill the streets but only days later when the authorities move in to clear out the stragglers.

One year after the tumultuous events that marked a watershed in the so-called Arab Spring, Egypt is still under martial law, with the ruling military council acting as the highest authority.

Mr. Mubarak’s ouster came on Feb. 11, after an 18-day-old revolt led largely by young people prevailed over an authoritarian crackdown. On that day, shouts of “God is great” erupted from Tahrir Square at twilight as Mr. Mubarak’s vice president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, announced that Mr. Mubarak had passed all authority to a council of military leaders.

On the eve of Wednesday’s celebrations, the army officer acting as Egypt’s de facto head of state said Tuesday that the military government would limit its use of extrajudicial arrests and detentions to cases of what he called “thuggery.”

The officer, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, made the pledge to curb use of Egypt’s so-called “emergency law” in an apparent effort to mollify those who are discontent with the heavy-handed police tactics of the military-led government.

Considering that thuggery is very broadly defined and the military hasn't ceded power, abuse of their power is widespread and causing significant problems and upheaval at a time when Egyptians' energies should be focused on building a new political system and expanding economic opportunities.

Even among the political parties that are trying to build consensus, there's little hope for expanding and protecting basic human rights and civil rights, including free speech. In one instance, a pro-Israel Egyptian blogger, Maikel Nabil, was finally released from security custody after 10 months of incarceration after calling out the Egyptian military for its ongoing actions (the charges were “insulting the military” and “spreading false information.”, and sentenced to 3 years in prison).

Meanwhile, Israel is strengthening its fencing and security presence along the border with Sinai because of a breakdown in security in Egypt. That includes repeated bombing of a pipeline between Egypt and Israel and a terrorist attack near Eilat.

Egyptians Again Take To Streets To Protest Military Regime

After the military helped depose the regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians warily wondered whether the new military regime would cede power back to the people.

Well, it appears that the military leaders aren't so willing to give up the power they promised would be turned over to the Egyptian people. But those looking for a democratic government are finding that the Muslim Brotherhood is pushing their own agenda as well, and liberal groups are staying away from the new protests:

Although the demonstration was originally called by liberal activists, most stayed away after it became clear that the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist political parties would dominate the day. The Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized political force, asked its members to show up as early as Thursday night to begin camping out in the square, the epicenter of the Arab Spring movement.

Tahrir's center was crowded by 11 p.m. Thursday and by morning Friday it was as packed it had been in the heady days of the revolution that toppled Mr. Mubarak last February. Buses that carried in Islamists from outside Cairo were parked nearby.

The spark for the Islamists’ protests was a recent set of declarations issued by the military-led government as ground rules for the drafting of a new constitution. Many of its provisions sought to enshrine protections of individual liberties and minority rights that liberals have sought, but two other provisions granted the military a long-term political role as guardians of the civil character of the state as well as protection from civilian scrutiny of its budget and veto power over certain foreign policy decisions.

Many of the Islamists who turned out denounced the military rules for attempting to put themselves above the reach of future civilian authorities. They rebuked the military for repeatedly delaying its handover over power, initially promised by September and now scheduled for 2013 or later. Many chanted calls for the overthrew of the ruling military council or the exit of its leader, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. “We will step over you with a shoe!,” some chanted.

Some said they supported the protections of civil liberties in the document but that they should come from the people, while many others argued that the future Egyptian government should be free to implement its version of Islamic law without any constraints.

Liberals who elected to stay away have said in recent days that they believed the debate over the constitutional declaration only served to further deepen divisions in the electorate over the role of Islam in Egyptian public life and as a result benefited the well-organized Islamists.

Protesters Again Demonstrate In Syria

Protesters have again taken to the streets to protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, primarily after the Friday prayers. Protests were not confined to Daraa, but there are indications of protests in multiple cities.




There are reports of casualties in skirmishes between Assad's goons and the protesters. Three people were reportedly killed in the latest violent crackdown against opponents to the regime.

At least three people reportedly were killed in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, Reuters says, citing witnesses. AFP news agency, also citing witnesses, said at least four people were killed and dozens of others wounded after security forces fired on protesters in Douma.

Earlier posting: Protests broke out in three Syrian cities after prayers today, two days after President Bashar Assad sought to quell unrest that has rocked the country for two weeks.

Al-Jazeera TV reports that thousands of protesters turned out in the southern city of Daraa, where 61 people were killed last week by security forces, and around the capital of Damascus, as well as several other towns.

Reuters, quoting opposition activists, reports demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Douma and in the coastal cities of Latakia and Banais.

Al-Jazeera and other media report that the government is using tear gas, water cannon and people in plainclothes armed with sticks to try to subdue the protesters.

Syria's Muslim Brotherhood, which took it on the chin nearly 30 years ago in Hama, says that while they support Western intervention in Libya to stop Khadafi, they see no need for a similar intervention in Syria. Then again, there's no one clamoring for a no-fly zone in Syria - not France, not the US, and not the UN, so for the moment, Assad is free to quell the protests as he sees fit.

The regime has released a Reuters reporter, but a photographer remains in custody.

Reuters correspondent Suleiman al-Khalidi was released by Syrian authorities Friday, three days after he was detained in Damascus.

A week after Syria expelled another Reuters foreign correspondent, Khalidi was set free to cross back into Jordan, where he is based, shortly after 4 p.m. (3 p.m. British time)

But Reuters had still had no contact with photographer Khaled al-Hariri, a Syrian based in Damascus, since he disappeared in the capital four days ago. He was last seen arriving at work Monday morning.

Machinations and Maneuvering to Send Mubarak Packing

The demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak are now going on nearly two weeks, and there's no end in sight. US officials continue talks with Egyptian officals on a way to effectuate a peaceful transition away from the Mubarak regime to something different.

The machinations and maneuvering to send Mubarak packing also includes talks between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian government.

The Brotherhood is an outlawed Islamist organization often depicted by the authorities as committed to the overthrow of the secular order in the heart of the Middle East. Official attitudes toward it here have swung between outright repression and reluctant tolerance. But it has remained Egypt’s biggest opposition force against the autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

After the meeting had started, The Associated Press said that talks included some of the top issues for the opposition — including freedom of the press and the release of those detained since anti-government protests started — as well as agreement to begin setting up a structure to study amending the country’s constitution.

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Gamal Nassar, said the huge and sometimes violent demonstrations that have paralyzed Cairo for 13 days, reverberating around the Middle East, would continue “until the political path can have a role in achieving the aspirations of the protesters” — an apparent reference to their goal of removing Mr. Mubarak.

Mr. Nassar said mediators had brokered the encounter with Mr. Suleiman, who Saturday received public backing from the Obama administration and other Western governments that confirmed him as the West’s choice to guide any transfer of power.

“The brothers decided to enter a round of dialogue to determine how serious the officials are achieving the demands of the people,” Mr. Nassar said. “The regime keeps saying we’re open to dialogue and the people are the ones refusing, so the Brotherhood decided to examine the situation from all different sides.”

Trying to figure out the ultimate goal of the Brotherhood is the biggest problem facing the US and even ordinary Egyptians. The Brotherhood's website and propaganda includes ultimately establishing a caliphate and instituting Islamic law on Egypt. It seeks the elimination of Israel, but depending on who you ask within the group, the group will work within the political process to do so. Some factions within the Brotherhood have spun off to form Islamic terror groups you might be familiar with, including Egyptian Islamic Jihad, al Qaeda, and has inspired the likes of Hamas.

There are even reports that the Brotherhood will accept a continuing Mubarak regime as long as there are significant constitutional reforms.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement accepts that President Hosni Mubarak staying in power is a “safer option” to secure the implementation of constitutional reforms.

“We wanted the president to step down but, for now, we accept this arrangement as long as we feel there is a serious implementation,” Mohamed Saad El-Katatni, a senior leader of the group, said after a meeting between Vice President Omar Suleiman and leaders of some opposition groups.

“It’s safer that the president stays until he makes these amendments to speed things up because of the constitutional powers he holds,” he said in Cairo today.

Because the Brotherhood is more organized than other opposition groups, their decision may allow Mubarak the breathing room to continue limping along and gives the Brotherhood time to prepare for elections in September when they can use the elections to further their goals - which are antithetical to many Egyptians.

So, what are ordinary Egyptians to do?

Well, they're going to continue demonstrating.



And the West will continue hoping that Mubarak takes the hint and resigns with an orderly transition to a caretaker government that will hold elections in a prompt manner. The West, and the US and Israel, will hope that the new government fulfills its obligations under the Camp David Accords and doesn't bring about a wholesale revision/rejection of the Treaty between Egypt and Israel; if that happens, any further peace treaties between Israel and its enemies (those regimes that are still at war with Israel or which are trying to bring about Israel's end) will not happen. That means that the peace process will come to an abrupt end because the treaties will last only as long as the regime in charge and Israel is not about to trade land for a peace that could be over within the blink of an eye.

Protesters Continue Defying Mubarak's Regime

After yesterday's riots and skirmishes started when pro-Mubarak groups stampeded camels and horses through Tahrir Square and hundreds of people were injured, the Egyptian Prime Minister apologized for the violence. Gunfire overnight rang out through Tahrir Square and at least five people were killed. That was after hours of melee combat between the pro-Mubarak thugs and protesters included hurling rocks, Molotov cocktails and anything that wasn't firmly attached to the ground.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told state TV that the attack on the anti-government protesters which began late Wednesday was a "blatant mistake" and promised to investigate who was behind it. He said the actions of the pro-Mubarak supporters were "a million percent wrong."

In an attempt to quell the violence, Egyptian army tanks and soldiers cleared away pro-government rioters Thursday and deployed between them and the protesters seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

The protesters accuse the regime of organizing the assault, using paid thugs and policemen in civilian clothes, in an attempt to crush their movement.

Government supporters charged central Tahrir Square Wednesday afternoon, sparking 15 hours of uncontrolled chaos, with the two sides battled with rocks, sticks, bottles and firebombs as soldiers largely stood by without intervening.
Video: Witness: Gangs roam Cairo with 'iron bars, knives' (on this page)

However, the military began to move with muscle to stop the fighting early Thursday after a barrage of automatic gunfire hit the anti-government camp before dawn.

Four tanks cleared a highway overpass from which Mubarak supporters had hurled rocks and firebombs onto the protesters.

Multiple journalists were assaulted by mobs of demonstrators, making it more difficult for reporting to get out. So, what has the Egyptian government/military done?

Well, the military has begun rounding up the journalists.

The Egyptian military started rounding up journalists, possibly for their own protection, on Thursday after they came under attack from supporters of President Hosni Mubarak who have been assaulting anti-government protesters.

The U.S. State Department condemned what it called a "concerted campaign to intimidate" foreign journalists in Egypt. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday that violence against journalists was part of a series of deliberate attacks and called on the Egyptian military to provide protection for reporters.

Foreign photographers reported a string of attacks on them by Mubarak supporters on Thursday near Tahrir Square, the scene of battles between supporters of Mubarak and protesters demanding he step down after nearly 30 years in power.

One Greek print journalist was stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver. A Greek freelance photographer was punched in the face by a group of men who stopped him on the street near Tahrir Square and smashed some of his equipment.

An Associated Press reporter saw eight foreign journalists detained by the military near the prime minister's office, not far from Tahrir Square

The Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Arabiya pleaded on an urgent news scroll for the army to protect its offices and journalists.

Instead of capturing those who were assaulting the journalists, the military is squandering an opportunity to do the right thing to maintain the flow of information.

Despite the military's ongoing presence in Cairo, the violence continues as the pro-Mubarak thugs continue their ongoing assault on the protesters.

Meanwhile, jihadis are looking on and trying to figure out how they can take advantage of the situation to further their own agenda.

At Muslm.net, a Web site associated with Al Qaeda in Egypt, the call was for foreign youths to come to Egypt to join the jihad.

“Hey, brothers, the fall of Egypt’s tyrant is a fall of the earth’s tyrants,” it urged. “This is the time to slaughter the cow.”

That, one expert said, was about the most they could make of the crisis.

“Like always, Al Qaeda’s online movement is viewing this through consummately opportunist lenses,” said Jarret Brachman, a counterterrorism consultant and author of the book “Global Jihadism,” who monitors jihadi Web sites.

Elsewhere, Web postings urged jihadis in Egypt to attack the Arish-Ashkelon gas pipeline, which goes to Israel. “This is a chance to stop the supply to the Israelites,” urged a writer on the Shumukh al-Islam forum, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist Web sites.

In Yemen, where Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula is stronger, the group posted a videotaped speech by its deputy leader Abu Sufyan al-Azdi encouraging attacks on a Shiite group that it considered part of an Iranian advance on the country, according to SITE.

The jihadi groups, which created mayhem in Egypt in the early part of the last decade, were largely crushed by Mr. Mubarak’s government, and do not enjoy popular support. They face structural challenges in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative but nonviolent organization, forms the best-known political opposition.

Though many Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, began in the Muslim Brotherhood, the two movements have often contrary positions, and the Brotherhood on Tuesday announced its support of Mohamed ElBaradei, a liberal Muslim, to lead an opposition umbrella group in negotiations on a new government to replace Mr. Mubarak’s — a position that is antithetical to Al Qaeda, because it exalts human authority rather than divine.

On Hanein, a Qaeda Web site, a poster using the name Citizen of the Village called jihadis to join with the Muslim Brotherhood because both supported Islamic revolution, whatever their differences.

“You have printed the exact truth,” another replied. “We have to sacrifice for our religion and not let titles hinder us.”

From their weakened position, some jihadis struggled to figure out their role in the protests in Cairo.

In a post on the Ansar al-Mujahedeen forum, translated by SITE, an anonymous writer noted many jihadis’ objections to the demonstrators’ “mistakes and distance from religion.”

But he added, “it is nevertheless our duty not to ignore the benefits that may come about,” including an empty throne. “Jihadists may then leap on that throne.”

Yet, the writer also acknowledged that within the jihadi movement many felt that replacing Mr. Mubarak with a secular, democratic leader might mean simply exchanging one tyrant with ties to the United States with another. “So we wait and do not care for those revolutionaries against injustice, and we continue our jihadi path and the support of our jihadi brothers.” Ultimately, “separating the jihadi movement from the popular Muslim movement is the end of this movement,” he wrote.

Perhaps most ominous are the calls for the jihadi groups to come under the Muslim Brotherhood umbrella to help topple the Mubarak regime.

UPDATE:
There are reports that the Egyptian Central Bank is imposing limits on how much depositors can withdraw. That would suggest that the Bank is contemplating a possible bank run - except that the news of those limits might itself bring on a bank run not just in Cairo, but around the country. That's going to upset the already delicate economic situation even further and would suggest that the government is even more worried about the financial picture than they're letting on.

Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that the Egyptian Constitution will be amended to impose term limits and who can or can't be elected to the presidency.

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1457: More from Vice-President Suleiman, as reported by state TV: He says articles 76 and 77 of the Egyptian constitution will be amended, and other articles are open to amendment as well. Article 76 specifies who can or can't run for president, and article 77 says the president can be re-elected, without specifying a term limit.

That's not sufficient to placate the protesters.

The BBC is also reporting that at least one employee at the state-run television network has quit over the propagandizing nature of the network's reporting:

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1450: Shahira Amin, was until yesterday a journalist with the state-run Egyptian channel, Nile TV. She told the BBC World Service that she had to leave her job because she no longer felt able to report the state view when what she saw on the street was so different: "We were basically showing the pro-Mubarak rallies all day long, as if that was the only thing that was happening. I couldn't show what was happening here in Tahrir. I couldn't even report the figures as they were. So no thank you. I feel liberated."

NYT Lede coverage continues here.

Mohamed ElBaradei has given Mubarak 48 hours to leave the country, but that's an idle threat since ElBaradei doesn't exactly have the power to make that happen. It's just a strong statement made in the hopes of currying favor among the disparate opposition groups.

UPDATE:
The regime is systematically attempting to thwart reporting of the protests, the riots by pro-Mubarak thugs, and otherwise getting the news out about the ongoing conditions in the country.

Many journalists covering the protests in Egypt were detained and attacked on Thursday, and human rights groups were also a target, in what appeared to be an escalating effort to block reports on the violence.

The Egyptian security forces were rounding up workers for human rights groups as well as foreign journalists, witnesses in Cairo said. Security police raided the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, where many nongovernmental organizations operate. They ordered people there to lie on the floor and disabled their mobile phones. Two people were being interrogated. The state news agency Thursday has asked foreign press to evacuate all the hotels near Tahrir Square.

The Committee to Protect Journalists was investigating at least 10 cases of reporters being detained on Thursday. The government told the journalists that they were not being arrested but rather taken into "protective custody," according to the group.

UPDATE:
There are protests in Gaza to support the anti-Mubarak protesters, but similar protests were disbanded by Hamas in Gaza and Fatah has prevented similar gatherings in the West Bank. The PA Prime Minister says that the Egyptian situation is blamed on the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday during a visit to Paris that he thinks the failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is playing into the unrest in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Fayyad said he thinks protesters' complaints stem partly from the internal situations in countries hit by unrest, but also from "a frustration, a desperation because of the failure of efforts to solve the Palestinian problem."

Ah, when all else fails, blame Israel. Never mind that the situation in Egypt is directly related to with the failure of Mubarak to provide socioeconomic opportunities and allow a political process to develop and flourish that was open - high food costs, high unemployment, and lack of political participation have nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with the autocratic regime in place whose economic policies have led to more than half the population of Egypt living on less than $2 a day.

And you wonder why I have no expectation of success in a peace process when Israel is demonized its so-called partners in peace at every opportunity.

Egypt in Turmoil

Egypt is in turmoil and it looks like the protests are continuing - and having an effect.



Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei says Egypt must change and he is ready to lead the transition if asked. If that name sounds familiar, it should. He was the former head of the IAEA and won a Nobel Peace Prize so his statements carry significant weight inside and outside Egypt. That he's voiced those opinions shows that Hosni Mubarak is in real trouble.

If the Egyptian government used violence, it would lead to more violence, he warned.

"I continue to call on the regime to understand that they better listen and listen quickly, not use violence and understand that change has to come. There's no other option," Mr ElBaradei added.

Police and demonstrators have again clashed in Cairo and Suez, and the unrest has now spread to the industrial city of Ismailiyya.

The Egyptian stock exchange suspended trading temporarily after a sharp drop within minutes of opening, but its benchmark index has fallen further since re-opening.

The unrest began on Tuesday in what anti-government activists called a "day of revolt", inspired by the uprising in Tunisia which ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

On Wednesday night, activists remained on the streets of the capital, Cairo, and of Suez, defying official warnings.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says that while the protesters are still only a minority, they show no sign of fading away and there is a chance that many more people will join once the working week finishes on Thursday.

The protest organisers have urged people to come out in force again after attending prayers in mosques and churches on Friday, stressing that the religion of protesters is not relevant.

The Muslim Brotherhood has given its backing to the planned protests. Despite an official ban, it remains Egypt's largest and most organised opposition movement.

The Muslim Brotherhood's actions are in contrast to their hands-off attitude towards the protests earlier this week. It looks like they're getting ready to take advantage of the situation to their own benefit.

UPDATE:
Egyptian bloggers continue reporting on the protests and rallying others to the cause of bringing down the Mubarak regime. The NY Times has posted a bunch of videos from rallies, protests, and riots throughout Egypt that have taken place in the past two days.

UPDATE:
ElBaradei has returned to Egypt, but he seems to have more support among the chattering class than he does among actual Egyptians. Rather than being mobbed by supporters, journalists turned out in droves to hear what ElBaradei has to say, which isn't much more than self-serving grandstanding.

UPDATE:
MSNBC characerizes ElBaradei as a democracy leader, but the Times notes that he's a late convert to the democracy movement. Also, protesters and security forces are gearing up for a major confrontation tomorrow, which could go a long way to defining the future of Egypt.

Smoke rose over the city of Suez on Thursday as sometimes violent protests continued there. In the capital, a relative calm settled over the streets in anticipation of a new wave of demonstrations anticipated for Friday.

Raising the stakes, the Muslim Brotherhood, long the country’s largest organized opposition group, intends to end days of official inaction to enter fully into protests on Friday. On its Web site, the group said it would join “with all the national Egyptian forces, the Egyptian people, so that this coming Friday will be the general day of rage for the Egyptian nation.”

Mr. ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who has sought to refashion himself as pro-democracy campaigner in his homeland, is viewed by some supporters as capable of uniting the country’s fractious opposition and offering an alternative to Mr. Mubarak’s authoritarian rule. Critics view him as an opportunist who has spent too little time in the country to take control of a movement which began without his leadership.

But his return adds a new element to the unrest in several big cities that has shaken assumptions that Mr. Mubarak’s security apparatus can keep a tight lid on popular protest.

Safwat el-Sherif, the secretary general of the ruling National Democratic Party, called for restraint from both security forces and protesters, and he raised the possibility of opening a dialogue with the young people who have powered the demonstrations. At the stock exchange, meanwhile, the benchmark Egyptian index fell to its lowest level in over two years, shedding more than 10 percentage points and forcing a brief suspension of trading, news reports said.

“It’s clear today that the inability to control the situation in the streets yesterday is panicking investors,” The Associated Press quoted Ahmed Hanafi, a broker with Guthour Trading, as saying. “The drop we saw yesterday is being repeated. At this rate, it’s going to continue to fall hard.”

Despite the ban issued Wednesday on public gatherings, organizers continued to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to prepare for Friday.

Local Politicians Avoiding Mosque Fray On Staten Island

They tried to avoid the situation with the Cordoba House. They again are doing so in the case of a proposed sale of a convent and church on Staten Island to the Muslim group Muslim American Society.

This isn't merely the sale of a parcel of property between two religious groups, but the sale between a religious group, the Roman Catholic archdiocese and a group that has noted ties to terror organizations and the group that spawned the likes of Hamas and al Qaeda.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the church didn't send representatives to the meeting, and there's some dispute over whether they were invited or requested a presence there.

Focusing on land use and development issues is a cop-out for the local politicians.

State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) said Wednesday’s night’s focus should have been more on the land-use issues, such as traffic and parking, and that the tone should have been less accusatory. He added that a residential developer, who would have put just two or three houses on the property, would have put less strain on the area.

“I’m not voting against a mosque,” he said. “Whether it’s a CVS, a Duane Reade, a church or a mosque, you’re going to have lots and lots of traffic that street can’t handle anymore.”

Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer (D-East Shore/Brooklyn), said it’s not up to her to intervene.

“I think myself and other government officials realize that this is a private sale between two religious entities and, as such, our role is really limited to maintaining peace and stability in the community,” she said.

Still, if the deal went through, Ms. Hyer-Spencer said she was confident the residents and MAS would eventually mesh. She said she’s already seen it happen in Bay Ridge, where a mosque was built about seven years ago. Though it took about five years, the clashing communities finally appear to be getting along.

If the group has ties to terrorist organizations, it shouldn't be getting any kind of support whatsoever and it certainly shouldn't be able to purchase land for a new mosque or community center. It should be shut down.

A Mosque Purchase In New York That Should Raise Questions

Unlike the sound and fury surrounding the Cordoba House project that would build a community center a mosque facility in a building two blocks from Ground Zero that has gotten some folks outraged, there is a proposed mosque project in Staten Island in Midland Beach that should raise eyebrows because of the group and individuals involved and their connections with Islamic terrorism.

While the Cordoba House project needs more transparency about who will be funding the project beyond those that have already been identified, this Staten Island project raises red flags.

The group, Muslim American Society, is proposing building a mosque on the site of a former convent that the Catholic Church has shuttered. The proposed sale had caught the local community off guard and this meeting was supposed to clear the air. The archdiocese did not have a representative at the meeting.

For those who aren't familiar with the Muslim American Society, they do have links with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a worldwide movement that has spawned the likes of al Qaeda and jihadi groups that have attempted the overthrow of the Egyptian government, engaged in terrorism against Israel and the US, and which supports the likes of Hamas and Hizbullah. The Muslim Brotherhood's committed to the globalization of Islam through a variety of means, including violent jihad. Residents have a right to be wary.

MAS is Rejected at Mosque Hearing in Midland Beach

Needless to say, the meeting didn't exactly go as planned as it turned into a shouting match and the sponsors had to end the community meeting early.

One of those asking questions, Robert Spencer, repeatedly sought an answer to a simple question - "Do you denounce Hamas and Hizballah?" and eventually got a response that "MAS denounces any act of terror in the United States or outside."

What was so tough about answering that question? The response, however, does leave the door open to some interpretation because MAS would likely see Israel's actions to defend itself as terrorism, and wouldn't see the furtherance of jihad as an act of terror because it is a legitimate use of force under Islamic law.

The Muslim American Society does have strong links with pro-terrorist groups and supports an ideology that is antithetical to peaceful coexistence with those who don't support their ideology. The Investigative Project has a full dossier on the MAS.

Then, there's the positions previously taken by the people in charge of the MAS, which rallied in support of Hamas and Hizbullah:



Those spokespersons for the MAS at the meeting attempted to deflect the issue, but fell short of a proper explanation. They could not sufficiently answer questions on the group's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood remain or the group's ongoing support for groups that include Hamas and Hizbullah.

This is a situation that bears continued examination.


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Lal Masjid Military Operation Continues

We're into day two of the military operation to clear the Lal masjid mosque in Islamabad of militants. There has been strong resistance from the militants inside who have barricaded themselves into rooms underneath the mosque. Heavy casualties are expected.

A commando raid that was expected to be a quick operation to subdue Islamic radicals in the Red Mosque turned into a marathon battle Tuesday and Wednesday, with elite Pakistani forces sweeping through underground bunkers in nearly two days of intense combat.

By late Wednesday afternoon local time, Pakistani forces were combatting as many as 30 armed militants still holed up within the mosque compound.

Military officials said the fighting left at least nine commandos and at least 50 radicals dead -- including the firebrand cleric at the center of the standoff. But they also suggested the toll might ultimately prove far higher. Among the hundreds of people estimated to be in the mosque when the raid began, only 86 have made it out alive so far -- most of them women and children, but including some civilians who were rescued and some militants who were wounded or captured.

At least 10 security forces have been killed and 33 injured. There's no clue as to what the final toll will be, but it may be quite significant. For good background on the mosque and the situation in Islamabad that led up to the siege, see Pakistaniat.

The US issued a statement regretting the loss of life, but pinned those deaths on the militants inside the mosque. Predictably, Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood wasn't so supportive:

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday condemned the Pakistani army's dawn raid on a pro-Taliban mosque in Islamabad, describing the assault in which at least 58 people were killed as dangerous and unprecedented.

“The movement condemns the killings and violation of the mosque's sanctity,” Salem Falahat, leader of the country's largest opposition grouping, told AFP.

“Pakistan undermined the lives of innocent people, which is dangerous and unprecedented. The government should have given more time to the besieged people inside the mosque.” Falahat accused Pakistan of “trying to win the satisfaction of the United States.“Pakistan should reject external meddling in its affairs under the pretext of fighting terrorism,” he said.

As anyone following this page should know, the Muslim Brotherhood is the organization from which grew such terrorist organizations including Hamas and al Qaeda. They are Islamists to the core and are not afraid to use violence when the need arises. They're likely concerned that Musharraf will do unto the thugs in Lal Masjid that Assad did to the Brotherhood in Hama, Syria; crush and eliminate the threat - killing thousands of supporters in the process.

UPDATE:
Reports now indicate the fighting has indeed stopped. However, there is no information about the extent of casualties and what else was found inside the mosque compound.

"The first phase of the operation is over. There are no more militants left inside," Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said in a telephone interview.

He said that the compound was still being combed for mines, booby traps and other weaponry.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that no dead women and children had been found inside the sprawling complex and the probability of finding bodies during the clearing operation was low.

For the Prime Minister's sake, I hope that remains the case, because sentiment might change against the Musharraf government if it turns out that women and children were killed in the course of the siege.

UPDATE:
Other reports are more circumspect as to the number of casualties as the numbers wont be known until the entire complex is searched and cleared of traps and explosives.

UPDATE:
Gaius wonders why folks are not calling Ghazi what he was - a coward for hiding behind women and children, and putting hundreds and perhaps thousands at risk of injury or death because he sought to impose Sharia on all.

UPDATE:
Did high value targets manage to escape the compound using tunnels dug under the compound? Did Ghazi die in order to give those individuals a chance to escape? One tunnel was apparently discovered linking the mosque to the madrassa next door, but both are within the same compound so security forces do not believe that those inside could have escaped. Those and other issues will need to be addressed by Musharraf in coming weeks as they have to wrap their hands around the issue.

Watch for the possibility that other Islamist groups take to the streets:

Meanwhile, the six party Islamist Parties Alliance (IPA) staged a demonstration in Peshawar over the Lal Masjid conflagration.

Liaqat Baloch, a parliamentarian of the Jamaat-e-Islami, described "Operation Silence" as a misnomer, adding that it was "basically" a bloody continuation of an attempt to undermine the decisions of the Jirga convened recently by the Federally Administered Tribal Arear (FATA).

Samya Raheel Qazi, another member of the party, was quoted by a foreign news agency as saying that it was a huge tragedy, and queried why none had protested.

Pakistani officials were said to be procuring body bags to remove the dead bodies from the Lal Masjid complex, even as paramilitaries continued patrolling the area.

Medical staffs were moving body bags into ambulances. The final death toll is still unknown as mopping-up operations continue.

The curfew in Islamabad's G-6 area would remain in force till further orders, the capital administration said.

UPDATE:
Zawahiri has been quite busy producing videos of late. He's done three in the past week alone, and today's video calls on Islamists to make jihad against Pakistan and Musharraf for his actions against the Lal Masjid. Laura Mansfield has the text.

Partners in Peace? Not a Chance

How exactly can Fatah be a partner in peace when it doesn't even have control over the territories ceded to the Palestinians by Israel in 2005 and one would have to ignore the fact that Fatah is itself a terrorist group unworthy of any such support and aid? Abbas is trying to get an international peacekeeping force to operate in Gaza, to accomplish what he was unable to do - deal with Hamas.

Hamas threatens any international peacekeeping forces and will treat them as occupying forces should they operate in Gaza. As I've noted from the outset of the Palestinian civil war, there is absolutely no way the UN would get countries to participate in a peacekeeping operation in Gaza because it is simply a recipe for disaster.

Hamas reiterated Saturday that it would forcefully resist the deployment of a multi-national force in the Gaza Strip.

The group's armed wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that they would regard "any foreign force as an occupying force, and we will respond decisively."

Hamas issued similar warnings when the proposal to deploy a multinational force was initially made after Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip a few weeks ago.

"We will not receive them with roses, but with rockets and shells," Hamas members vowed Saturday.

Haniyeh says that he will follow in the path of Yasir Arafat and Sheikh Yassin, both of whom called for unending war against Israel until it was destroyed. Yassin melded the nationalist view with the religious ideological view in leading Hamas before he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

It would also appear that there are those within Fatah who don't like what Fatah is doing these days, and may try to take things in a different direction.

Syria is busy producing more rockets and missiles, and if you think that those aren't being stockpiled for a conflict with Israel, you're sorely mistaken. As it is, the rockets keep hitting Israel from Gaza.

Egypt arrested a bunch of Muslim Brotherhood members. For those that aren't up on their terrorist groups, the Brotherhood spawned the ideological underpinnings of groups like the Hamas and al Qaeda.