U.S. supported regimes on brink of collapse

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...evolution.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...rge-rally.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...overnment.html

Egypt protests: Fresh protests could leave Egypt on brink of revolution

A fresh wave of mass protests could leave Egypt teetering on the brink of revolution on Friday after police warned the president they could soon lose control of the demonstrators demanding his overthrow.

Hosni Mubarak's grip on power was slipping on Thursday and momentum appeared to be shifting rapidly in favour of pro-democracy activists. Undeterred by a violent police response, the deaths of at least seven people and over 1,000 arrests after three days of clashes in Cairo and other cities, organisers said they planned to make today's marches the biggest yet. Yesterday police shot dead a protester in north Sinai.

They were given a further boost after Mohamed ElBaradei, one of Mr Mubarak's fiercest critics, returned to Egypt from Vienna to join the protests, providing opponents of the regime with a potential figurehead to rally around. There are also reports of arrests of opposition figures overnight. The reported crackdown on the largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, came after it said it would back the Friday protests.

Desperately trying to avoid a repeat of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolt, which saw President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali ousted from power earlier this month, Mr Mubarak's ruling party convened in emergency session. The interior ministry declared on Thursday night it would take “decisive measures” against anyone protesting on Friday. In a further blow to his attempts to retain the office he has held for nearly 30 years, sources in Egypt said Mr Mubarak, who is 82, was told by police commanders that any demonstration attracting more than 70,000 protesters could not be contained.

A page announcing Friday's protest on Facebook, one of the social networking websites that has played a leading role in mobilising opposition supporters, drew over 56,000 supporters in 24 hours. However early on Friday morning, many internet connections went down across Cairo, leading some to accuse the government of cutting them to prevent social networking sites being used to coordinate protests. While many of those are likely to stay at home, analysts say the regime's failure to break the protests will only embolden more Egyptians to join them. Yesterday, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood – Egypt's largest opposition group – also threw its support behind the protests, which have been mainly secular so far.

Its supporters could give the protests a major numerical boost. "It's over, I think, for the Mubarak regime," said Maha Azzam, an Egyptian-born associate fellow at the think-tank, Chatham House. "It may take a couple of months or longer, but I think there will now be a consistent challenge to him." If the police are unable to quell the demonstrations, Mr Mubarak will be left with no choice but to turn to the army. Although Egypt's generals have been unquestioning in their loyalty to the president, they may baulk at the prospect of ordering their troops to open fire at unarmed protesters and turn against him. It was the loss of the army's support in Tunisia that prompted Mr Ben Ali to flee.

Well the Tunisian regime is in its final throws with the dictator fleeing a few days ago, and now it looks like Egypt will be the next to have a revolution as Mubaraks son has already apparently fled the country. The protests started off mainly over the fact they had a greedy and corrupt government as Wikileaks exposed how corrupt Ben Ali was (remind you of somewhere closer to home?) but now they've started turning into pro-democracy protests. Once the Police and Army sense the balance tipping they'll join the protests in the same way every unelected regime eventually collapses.

Goodluck to them, and a sidenote; is it any wonder the United States is hated across the Middle East?

Thoughts?

[Jordy]

Been keeping my eye on this and rest of the Middle East quite a lot recently. The latest rumours on Twitter are the army are now supporting the main protests in Tahir Square. Once the army joins in, it's pretty much game over so I suspect the President will be on a plane by the end of the day, bring on the revolution!

Al Jazeera Live is also showing similar things;
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

[Frodo13.]

[Goodluck to them, and a sidenote; is it any wonder the United States is hated across the Middle East?

Egypt is actually in Africa :rolleyes:

And I'm actually suprised at the speed in which this has erupted. I was in Egypt last week and there wasn't a sign of this anywhere, the people all seemed so happy!

[-:Undertaker:-]

Egypt is actually in Africa :rolleyes:

And I'm actually suprised at the speed in which this has erupted. I was in Egypt last week and there wasn't a sign of this anywhere, the people all seemed so happy!

Egypt is considered a part of the Middle East; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East.

[Fez]

Velvet revolutions taking place akin to Eastern Europe twenty years ago, very interesting to be watching in.

[Catzsy]

I think Dan you are being somewhat inflammatory here.
Perhaps you should listen to what Condoleezza Rice in 2005!

http://biggovernment.com/mrichmond/2...racy-in-egypt/

[-:Undertaker:-]

I think Dan you are being somewhat inflammatory here.
Perhaps you should listen to what Condoleezza Rice in 2005!

http://biggovernment.com/mrichmond/2...racy-in-egypt/

Oh Rosie if you really can't see the hypocrisy then you are a lost cause, look; they say these things in public (but not very vocally) yet behind our backs they give these regimes vast amounts of money (U.S. gives Egypt $1.2bn a year for military purposes) and supply them with weapons. If they really went into Iraq to spread democracy (as you believe), then why support Saudi Arabia/Egypt and Tunisia and not Iraq? the reason is because Iraq, like Iran wouldn't kowtow to the western world.

Now Clinton, Straw, Obama and Cameron are on the news saying 'we don't want to interfere' - after 30 years of continuous interference in Egyptian affairs. Now I wonder why that is? smoke and mirrors smoke and mirrors is the answer - it is how these people work and they are very good at it.

[Jordy]

If you ask anyone what's so good about Obama they'll no doubt say his dealing with Foreign Affairs but where is he to be seen here? By keeping silent he's essentially backing the current Regime (As per usual), surely some sort of Foreign Affairs Guru would back the people wanting to overthrow a dictator?

What a joke Obama has a Nobel peace prize for doing nothing.

[Catzsy]

If you ask anyone what's so good about Obama they'll no doubt say his dealing with Foreign Affairs but where is he to be seen here? By keeping silent he's essentially backing the current Regime (As per usual), surely some sort of Foreign Affairs Guru would back the people wanting to overthrow a dictator?

What a joke Obama has a Nobel peace prize for doing nothing.

He hasn't done nothing he has asked him to step down.

[-:Undertaker:-]

He hasn't done nothing he has asked him to step down.

Well of course he's going to go and say that now that Murbarak is on the brink of being thrown out by his own people anyway. I mean seriously can you not see what the United States and western politicians in general are doing? they get people like yourself behind them by pretending they believe in freedom and democracy whilst supporting vile regimes with money, vocal support and arms (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen etc) and now that the people are finally fed up, the politicians are afraid of being shown up as the hypocrites they are and they then switch sides no doubt hoping that Mubarak can replace himself with another U.S.-backed stooge in time for the next elections.

The fact you actually think Obama and Co want democracy in the Middle East just goes to show why we are so hated by them, pure ignorance it is.