US takes tougher line with Egypt & Arab allies

[Lankan Ranger]

US takes tougher line with Egypt & Arab allies

United States sharpened its response to political upheaval and brutal crackdowns in Egypt, telling its closest ally in the Arab world it must respond to its people's yearnings for democracy as the largest political protests in years swept Cairo streets.

But with no clear picture emerging of a democratic and pro-Western alternative to the three-decade rule of Egypt's authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak, it was unclear how hard the United States was willing to press its case.

A day after delivering a measured response to Egypt's demonstrations, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that Egypt had to adopt democratic and other reforms and allow peaceful protests.

She told Cairo to lay off social media sites like Facebook and Twitter even as activists are using them to organise street gatherings and destabilise the government.

The White House declined a direct opportunity to affirm support for Mubarak, who travelled to Washington to meet President Barack Obama just four months ago. Asked if the administration still backed Mubarak, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would say only: "Egypt is a strong ally."

The tougher tone came as the US struggles to confront an explosion of instability in the Middle East as Arabs from Tunisia to Yemen rebel against decades of political repression. Adding to the confluence of crises is the emergence of an Iranian-backed militant movement as Lebanon's dominant force and potentially embarrassing revelations creating new obstacles to Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Clinton said Mubarak's government had the power to ease tensions with anti-government activists, who defied an official ban on protests yesterday by pelting police with firebombs and rocks in a second day of clashes. Police forces used tear gas and fired live ammunition in the air to disperse demonstrators. Some people were beaten.

"I do think it's possible for there to be reforms and that is what we are urging and calling for," Clinton told reporters at a State Department news conference with visiting Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.

US takes tougher line with Egypt, Arab allies

 

[Muhammad-Bin-Qasim]

what a pathetic attempt to hide their real face...

 

[monitor]

Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising

The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change” for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned.


By Tim Ross, Matthew Moore and Steven Swinford 9:23PM GMT 28 Jan 2011



The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.

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 secret document in full

He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph.

The crisis in Egypt follows the toppling of Tunisian president Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, who fled the country after widespread protests forced him from office.

The disclosures, contained in previously secret US diplomatic dispatches released by the WikiLeaks website, show American officials pressed the Egyptian government to release other dissidents who had been detained by the police.

Mr Mubarak, facing the biggest challenge to his authority in his 31 years in power, ordered the army on to the streets of Cairo yesterday as rioting erupted across Egypt.

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in open defiance of a curfew. An explosion rocked the centre of Cairo as thousands defied orders to return to their homes. As the violence escalated, flames could be seen near the headquarters of the governing National Democratic Party.

Police fired rubber bullets and used tear gas and water cannon in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

At least five people were killed in Cairo alone yesterday and 870 injured, several with bullet wounds. Mohamed ElBaradei, the pro-reform leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was placed under house arrest after returning to Egypt to join the dissidents. Riots also took place in Suez, Alexandria and other major cities across the country.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, urged the Egyptian government to heed the “legitimate demands of protesters”. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she was “deeply concerned about the use of force” to quell the protests.

In an interview for the American news channel CNN, to be broadcast tomorrow, David Cameron said: “I think what we need is reform in Egypt. I mean, we support reform and progress in the greater strengthening of the democracy and civil rights and the rule of law.”

The US government has previously been a supporter of Mr Mubarak’s regime. But the leaked documents show the extent to which America was offering support to pro-democracy activists in Egypt while publicly praising Mr Mubarak as an important ally in the Middle East.

In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for “regime change” to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year.

The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked “confidential” and headed: “April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt.”

It said the activist claimed “several opposition forces” had “agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections”. The embassy’s source said the plan was “so sensitive it cannot be written down”.

Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an “unrealistic” plot could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The embassy helped the campaigner attend a “summit” for youth activists in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.

Cairo embassy officials warned Washington that the activist’s identity must be kept secret because he could face “retribution” when he returned to Egypt. He had already allegedly been tortured for three days by Egyptian state security after he was arrested for taking part in a protest some years earlier.

The protests in Egypt are being driven by the April 6 youth movement, a group on Facebook that has attracted mainly young and educated members opposed to Mr Mubarak. The group has about 70,000 members and uses social networking sites to orchestrate protests and report on their activities.

The documents released by WikiLeaks reveal US Embassy officials were in regular contact with the activist throughout 2008 and 2009, considering him one of their most reliable sources for information about human rights abuses.

 

[fida jan]

why america needs to back rebels against its long standing puppet husnai mubarak who is ruling for 30 yrs now, and how can there be a massive demonstration most of them the common egyptians

i dont buy this

 

[Sinnerman108]

^^^^

Well, one reason comes to mind, and that is
Mubarak has been sick already,
and word is out, that he is terminally ill.

On his passing, maybe the americans were unsure if they could "install" another puppet.

thus, they found a better way; by organizing anarchy and letting people think a change has happened.

This may not be true, but one has to put plausible theory to explain your question.

 

[Ahmad]

why america needs to back rebels against its long standing puppet husnai mubarak who is ruling for 30 yrs now, and how can there be a massive demonstration most of them the common egyptians

i dont buy this

maybe mubarak is losing anyway, that could be the reason.

 

[Super Falcon]

yes becoz USA days are numbered in Middle east now