Meet the new boss, or the Pharaoh rebuilt as Shiva; the Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces. If this was Southeast Asia, people would
say "same same - but different".
Instead of a police state, it's communique time (talk about a
throwback to the 1970s). President and vice president dissolved.
Parliament dissolved (but with Pharaoh-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed
Shafiq insisting the current kangaroo cabinet will be in place for
that "orderly transition".) Constitution suspended. The army trying
to impose the notion it will run Egypt for the next six months.
Vaguely sinister expected curbs on strikes and "chaos and disorder".
...But Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) badly wanted him to stay. While Mubarak - like a trashy
dyed-hair version of Louis XVI - fought for his own survival, Vice
President Omar "Sheikh al-Torture" Suleiman, endorsed by Washington
and Brussels, fought for the survival of the regime (as in "orderly
transition"), and Washington fought for the survival of one of the
crucial pillars of "stability" in the Middle East. The street was
fighting for their lives.
It's easy to explain why the CIA never saw it coming. The agency may
have excelled in doing extraordinary rendition business with Sheikh
al-Torture, but overall it has been imprisoned by a major ideological
strait jacket since the Ronald Reagan years. The CIA simply does not
talk to anybody who's not a vassal - from Iran to Hamas to the Muslim
Brotherhood (MB). ...
Mehr http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB15Ak01.html
Council of the Armed Forces. If this was Southeast Asia, people would
say "same same - but different".
Instead of a police state, it's communique time (talk about a
throwback to the 1970s). President and vice president dissolved.
Parliament dissolved (but with Pharaoh-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed
Shafiq insisting the current kangaroo cabinet will be in place for
that "orderly transition".) Constitution suspended. The army trying
to impose the notion it will run Egypt for the next six months.
Vaguely sinister expected curbs on strikes and "chaos and disorder".
...But Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) badly wanted him to stay. While Mubarak - like a trashy
dyed-hair version of Louis XVI - fought for his own survival, Vice
President Omar "Sheikh al-Torture" Suleiman, endorsed by Washington
and Brussels, fought for the survival of the regime (as in "orderly
transition"), and Washington fought for the survival of one of the
crucial pillars of "stability" in the Middle East. The street was
fighting for their lives.
It's easy to explain why the CIA never saw it coming. The agency may
have excelled in doing extraordinary rendition business with Sheikh
al-Torture, but overall it has been imprisoned by a major ideological
strait jacket since the Ronald Reagan years. The CIA simply does not
talk to anybody who's not a vassal - from Iran to Hamas to the Muslim
Brotherhood (MB). ...
Mehr http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB15Ak01.html