Middle East Revolutions: Current Bahrain protests getting violent

[Callisto]

ugh I can barely hear Gibbs through this thing but whoever keeps coughing in the gallery apparently is right next to the mic

[dejet]

I can only hope to inform some of the people around me about the events. It really does give you hope.

The people did something that has not been done since Gandhi. One hell of a turning point in this modern world. I do not side with many of the people on BG, but I was rooting alongside all of you on this one.

The US oddly did a great job by staying out of it.

edit: also that pic with them shielding the praying group is going to be on the front of my FB forever....

[BardonGaruda]

Good on Gibbs getting his digs in against Ahmadinejad. But mispronoucing Iranian several times wont win him too many fans in the general population of Iran.

[Devolver]

The US oddly did a great job by staying out of it.

Hopefully the powers-that-be in Washington are starting to realize, through this, that you can be helpful without helping.

[Kurokikaze]

The t-shirt design is READY! Show your support now!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...revolution.png

Was gonna go with a Che design but this is more appropriate and mildly funny.

[Skidz]

A great win for the youth of Egypt, who were the driving force of this revolution. I truly hope they get the rights and freedoms they seek and deserve.

[Gwynplaine]

A great win for the youth of Egypt, who were the driving force of this revolution. I truly hope they get the rights and freedoms they seek and deserve.

Don't hold your breath... meet the new dictator, worse than the old dictator.

[isladar]

Don't hold your breath... meet the new dictator, worse than the old dictator.

Again, post news links when that is apparent.

[quannum]

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/6...239012huge.jpg

Breaking Reuters: Egypt army to suspend parliament, sack cabinet-TV http://bit.ly/dGgLDL

The group so-called Piggipidia gathers pictures of torture perpetrators in Egypt.

This group is linked to another intiative of a map that shows sites where torture is taking place or has taken place (the map is available here torturemap.blogsite.org/ and for the time being is only visible on Firefox).

http://www.flickr.com/groups/piggipedia/pool/show/

Wael Ghonim #Jan25 24 minutes ago

Lets work on raising 100 Billion EGP from Egyptians to rebuild Egypt. Talked to one business man and he is ready to put the first 1B.

ALGIERS — Large numbers of police were deployed in central Algiers Friday ahead of a pro-democracy march planned by opposition groups in defiance of a government ban.

The head of the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), Said Sadi, said the authorities had ringed the capital in a bid to prevent people joining Saturday's march from outside.

"Trains have been stopped and other public transport will be as well," he said.

Sadi claimed that 10,000 police were being drafted into the city, to reinforce the 20,000 who succeeded in blocking the last protest on January 22, when five people were killed and more than 800 hurt in clashes.

Large quantities of tear-gas grenades had been imported, he added.

[isladar]

From Feb. 10, but the image caught my eye per earlier discussion:

Egypt's Muslims and Christians join hands in protest

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...11201654-1.jpg

The adoption of slogans and symbols of Muslim-Christian unity is particularly important in a context where the Coptic community has been the target of a recent series of deadly attacks. [...]
The fact that only a few weeks after the Alexandria attack, Egyptian Copts could hold public prayers in the streets of Cairo, in an overwhelmingly Muslim crowd of protesters, protected by ranks of volunteers from the Muslim Brotherhood at the entrances to the square, may indicate a shift in the atmosphere in Egypt.

Some would go further, arguing that it is the Egyptian government, rather than popular anti-Christian feeling which has played a crucial role in fuelling violence against the Coptic community. [...]
The symbol of the crescent embracing the cross was the banner of the 1919 revolution against British control of Egypt, and became the badge of the nationalist Wafd party which dominated Egyptian politics until the early 1950s.

[Tempyst]

oh and the picture that got me the most from all during the protests was, showing christians building a human shield around the praying muslims during those police/thugs attacking days:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/...02_634x472.jpg

whish other countries, incl. mine would finally understand that different faith can peacefully co-exist.

This photograph is fantastic. The proud smile on the man on the right, hands locked in solidarity, protecting their fellow countrymen despite any differences in creed or faith, united in non-violence against tyranny.

I'd also like to put in my thanks to the thread contributors, I haven't been able to catch up on the events in Egypt until now and this has been an excellent resource.

[quannum]

Mr Cook says Field Marsham Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the defence minister and head of the higher military council, is "one of the least charismatic figures in all the Middle East". "He owes his position to his relationship to Mr Mubarak. He came to the president's attention through providing security for his family. He is not known to be a great strategic thinker. A Mubarak loyalist is now in charge of the country," he adds.

Samer Shehata, an assistant professor of Arab Politics at Georgetown University in Washington, agrees. "Tantawi is certainly tainted," he tells the BBC. "The people underneath him, including the four other individuals sitting on the higher military council have much more legitimacy now. If he were to leave, that would be acceptable for the great majority of Egyptians for the immediate period

CIA claims they want Egyptian transition to go quickly and hope by Monday they know who gets the bribe money

[Caiyuo]

augh, that song killed me every time it came on during the World Cup. Really great video, but the article is a little disconcerting.

[Kuya]

[A]round midday I caught up with Pamela Geller, who made a name for herself as the driving force behind the battle against the Park 51 Muslim community center in lower Manhattan, which critics dubbed the "Ground Zero mosque." I asked Geller what she thought about Mubarak's resignation and the fate of Egypt's leadership. Her take was nothing short of apocalyptic, predicting "the rise of Islamic supremacism and the imposition of the Sharia" throughout the Middle East.

"We are witnessing a complete seismic shift in the direction of the world away from freedom," Geller said. When I asked her about Glenn Beck's theory that "uber-leftists" and Islamic extremists could be plotting to from a new Islamic caliphate, she told me that those "are justifiable fears. An earthquake has occurred in the Middle East." She added, "These are catastrophic events over which we have no control."

Geller said she was "thoroughly embarrassed and disgusted" that the US "would abandon an ally," a reference to the Obama administration's recent statements calling for a peaceful change in leadership in Egypt, which had been under Mubarak's autocratic rule for nearly 30 years.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/...er-mosque-cpac

It's bad for freedom.

[bigrougabagel]

I heard that idiot theory the other day on fb, though it was more based around the muslim brotherhood and that their plan was to take over the united states in 10 years and install an islamic theocracy. Apparently the ambassador from egypt told brian williams this a few nights ago, but the clip now doesnt exist anywhere on the internet.

Hate people.

[Mistress Stowastiq]

Interesting perspective on how Mubarak's regime acted on the inside while leading up to the resignation.

Richard Engel explained that the senior military and the younger echelon were splitting ranks with the younger threatening to turn in their uniforms and join the protest movement because they all anticipated that the last speech was to be his resignation but he changed his mind at the last minute.

This 'insider's view' is even more detailed with a bit of a different take with info about Mubarak's son and others shielding Mubarak from the reality of the true threat that the protester's movement represents.

Spoiler: show

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226005194176

Gamal Mubarak behind leader's surprise attempt to retain power
AP | February 13, 2011 10:27AM


HOSNI Mubarak was supposed to announce his resignation.

The Egyptian military expected it. The new head of his ruling party pleaded to him face-to-face to do it. But despite more than two weeks of massive demonstrations by protesters unmoved by lesser concessions, the president still didn't get it.

Mubarak's top aides and family - including his son Gamal, widely viewed as his intended successor - told him he could still ride out the turmoil. So the televised resignation speech the rest of Egypt had expected became a stubborn - and ultimately humiliating - effort to cling to power.

It only enraged protesters. Yesterday, the military moved decisively.

Insiders in Egypt have given The Associated Press an initial picture of what happened in the hours before Egypt's "unoustable" leader of nearly 30 years fell. Some of them spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

Their account portrayed Mubarak as unable, or unwilling, to grasp that nothing less than his immediate departure would save the country from the chaos generated by the protests that began January 25. A senior government official said Mubarak lacked the political machinery that could give him sound advice about what was happening in the country.

"He did not look beyond what Gamal was telling him, so he was isolated politically," said the official. "Every incremental move (by Mubarak) was too little too late."

The military, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly impatient with the failure of Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, his newly appointed vice president, to end the protests. The unrest spiraled out of control late last week, with demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins and even gunbattles engulfing almost the entire nation.

Insiders spoke of fighting among Cabinet ministers over how great a threat the demonstrators posed, and of deliberate attempts by close aides, including Gamal Mubarak, to conceal from the president the full extent of what was happening on the streets.

The insiders who spoke to the AP include a senior Egyptian official, editors and journalists from state newspapers close to the regime who have spent years covering Mubarak's presidency, retired army generals in contact with top active duty officers, senior members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party and analysts familiar with the machinations of Mubarak's inner circle.

Their account of the events of the past three weeks shows that the military became concerned soon after the protests began. They said it was the military that persuaded Mubarak to appoint Suleiman as vice president - the first since Mubarak took office in 1981 - and place him in charge of negotiations with opposition groups on a way out of the standoff.

Suleiman failed on that score - on Tuesday he was reduced to threatening that a coup would replace the negotiations if no progress was made. Leaders of the protests vowed not to negotiate until Mubarak was gone, even after he said he would not seek another term in September and promised reforms to reduce poverty, end repressive emergency laws and make Egypt more democratic.

By Thursday, nearly everyone had expected Mubarak to resign, including the military.

Hossam Badrawi, a stalwart of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, met with Mubarak on Thursday and later told reporters that he expected the Egyptian leader to "meet people's demands" - read that stepping down - later the same day. After Mubarak did not, Badrawi, who had been named the party's secretary general a few days earlier, resigned in protest, according to two party insiders.

Meanwhile, the military's highest executive body - The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces - met without its chairman, commander-in-chief Mubarak, and issued a statement recognising the "legitimate" rights of the protesters. They called the statement Communique No. 1, language that in the Arab world suggests a a coup was taking place.

Insiders said Mubarak's address Thursday night was meant to be his resignation announcement. Instead, he made one last desperate attempt to stay in office after being encouraged to do so by close aides and especially by his family, long the subject of rumours of corruption, abuse of power and extensive wealth.

One insider said Gamal, his banker-turned-politician son, rewrote the speech several times before the recording. It was aired at 11pm, several hours after state TV said Mubarak was about to address the nation. It showed brief footage of him meeting with Suleiman and his Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.

The address was clearly prepared in a rush. It had rough cuts, and Mubarak was caught at least once acting like he was between takes, fixing his tie and looking away from the camera.

Information Minister Anas al-Fiqqi was there at the studio alongside Gamal Mubarak, according to two of the insiders. State TV quoted him in the hours before the broadcast saying that Mubarak would not resign. On Saturday, al-Fiqqi announced his own resignation.

Mubarak said in the address that he was handing over most of his powers to Suleiman but again rejected calls for his resignation. He vowed to introduce genuine reforms, prosecute those behind the violence that left scores of protesters dead and offered his condolences to the victims' families. He said he was hurting over calls for his removal and, in his defence, recounted his record in public service. He was not going anywhere until his term ended in September, he said.

He had hoped that putting Suleiman in charge would end the protests and allow him to remain in office as a symbolic figure, a scenario that would have seen him make a dignified exit.

The address betrayed what many Egyptians suspected for years - Mubarak was out of touch with the people.

Mubarak, said a senior Egyptian official, "tried to manage the crisis within the existing structures and norms. That was clearly too late. The incremental offers of reform also were clearly insufficient."

The insiders differ on whether Mubarak's address that night was made with the consent of the military, whether it represented his last chance to take back control of the streets. Even if the military's patience wasn't exhausted by the speech, it ran out as the protests grew more intense.

The next day, the military allowed protesters to gather outside Mubarak's presidential palace in a Cairo suburb - but by that time Mubarak and his immediate family had already flown to another palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 400km away. The soldiers also allowed protesters to besiege the TV and radio building in downtown Cairo. Two days earlier, the military stood by and watched as protesters laid siege to the prime minister's office and parliament. Shafiq, the prime minister, could not work in his office and had to work out of the Civil Aviation Ministry close to Cairo's airport.

By early afternoon, millions were out on the streets in Cairo, the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria and a string of other major cities. The crowd outside his palace was rapidly growing. Only a few metres and four army tanks separated the protesters from the gate.

Suleiman, Mubarak's longtime confidant and a former intelligence chief, announced that Mubarak was stepping down. In a two-sentence statement to state television that took 49 seconds, Egypt's history changed forever.

[BardonGaruda]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12442270

Army are removing the protestors from Tahrir square this morning

Egypt army clears protesters from Tahrir Square

Egypt's army is clearing Cairo's Tahrir Square of protesters who have been camped there for 20 days, vowing not to move until reforms are implemented.

The square was the focal point of the uprising that led to President Hosni Mubarak's departure on Friday, drawing crowds several hundred thousand strong.

But by Sunday morning their numbers had dwindled and traffic was flowing again.

US President Obama has welcomed the new military leadership's pledge to work towards civilian rule.

In a statement read out on state TV on Saturday, the army said it had asked the current government to stay on until a new one was formed.

The military also reaffirmed the country's commitment to all its international treaties.

Clearing sand castles

Although there were reports of scuffles between soldiers and die-hard protesters in Tahrir Square on Sunday morning, the BBC's Jon Leyne says the operation to clear the area was being conducted unprovocatively.

A hardcore of protesters had wanted to stay until a full timetable of reform was drawn up.

Several hundred remain marooned on a traffic island in the heart of the square, adds our correspondent, but it feels like the tide is slowly coming in on a beautifully-constructed sand castle as they are squeezed out.

Throughout the weekend, an army of volunteers and municipal workers has cleared away debris from the streets.

Earlier, Mr Obama "welcomed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' announcement today that it is committed to a democratic civilian transition, and will stand by Egypt's international obligations," a statement released by the White House said.

The announcement, which was read by a senior officer on state TV, implicitly confirms that the country's 1979 peace treaty with Israel will remain intact.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu also welcomed the announcement, saying the treaty was a cornerstone of Middle East stability.

Meanwhile the authorities banned three senior officials close to Mr Mubarak - former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli and current Information Minister Anas al-Fekky - from foreign travel, saying they were under investigation.

Mr Mubarak resigned on Friday after 18 days of protests, being flown to his luxury residence in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh having handed power to the high command, a body composed of high-ranking generals.

'Return to normal'

The military statement said the current government and regional governors would "act as caretakers", looking to guarantee "a peaceful transition of authority in a free democratic framework which allows an elected civilian authority to rule the country, to build a free democratic country".

Later state media reported that the high command's leader, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, had met Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and other senior officials to discuss "the immediate return of life to normality".

He discussed with Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy the rapid return to duty of the police, who left the streets in the early days of the protests, reports said.

The police force in Egypt was widely perceived as an instrument of repression under Mr Mubarak.

The military has managed to give the impression of being above politics, a unifying force for the nation, but the opposition wants an early and clear indication that this country is heading in a new direction and not simply swapping one dictatorship for another, says our correspondent.

The demonstrations were triggered by widespread unrest over unemployment, poverty and corruption.

[BardonGaruda]

Items looted from Egyptian museum in first few days of protests

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12442863

Egyptian Museum: Cairo's looted treasure

For lovers of ancient history, the Egyptian Museum and the priceless, cultural treasures it contains have been in alarmingly close proximity to troubles in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Following an inventory, Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass has now confirmed for the first time that artefacts were stolen during a break-in on 28 January.

In a statement entitled "sad news", he lists 18 items that have disappeared. They include a gilded wood statue of the boy king Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess and parts of another statue of him harpooning.

A criminal investigation has begun to try to recover the valuable objects. A group of men already in custody is being questioned.

The raid on the museum took place at the height of a period of lawlessness after police were removed from the streets.

The office of Mr Hawass confirmed that 70 artefacts were knocked over or damaged when showcases were broken. Pictures on state television showed shattered glass and items overturned on the floor.

Two unidentified skulls, being kept in storage in the museum grounds for examination by researchers, were retrieved in their original condition. It has been reported that they were mummies that had been damaged.

Soldiers have guarded the museum since the raid. They could be seen putting out fires started by petrol bombs that landed in the garden, when anti-government protesters fought with gangs supporting President Hosni Mubarak.

On his official blog, Mr Hawass, wrote: "I have said that if the Egyptian Museum is safe, Egypt is safe. However, I am now concerned Egypt is not safe."

But he later added: "Not a single thing has been thrown at the museum by the thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square, because these people do not want to damage their cultural heritage."

A date for the Egyptian Museum to open has not yet been decided. Its director and other staff have been sleeping at the site to watch over it.

'Confidence dented'

The red, neoclassical building on Tahrir Square houses the golden treasures of Tutankhamun discovered in his nearly intact tomb in 1922, as well as other world-famous pharaonic artefacts.

Other ancient sites, popular with the millions of tourists who come to Egypt each year, have also been affected by recent unrest.

Antiquities workers say intruders tried to enter the Coptic Museum in old Cairo and the Royal Jewellery Museum in Alexandria on 29 January.

A padlock was broken at the site of the open-air museum in Memphis, south of Cairo, although nothing was stolen.

There was also a break-in at a building near a "crooked pyramid" at Dahshur, also south of Cairo.

The army continues to surround the site of the pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza.

The ancient monuments are usually a highlight for visitors on historic tours of Egypt. However, officials say about 1.2m tourists were driven away by recent political turmoil.

A continuing state of uncertainty may also dent the confidence of international museums currently considering returning "unique cultural objects" from Egypt on loan for the opening of the new Giza Museum due by 2013.

Egyptian officials have requested the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum and the bust of Queen Nefertiti from the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Parliament disolved

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12443678

Egyptian military dissolves parliament

13 February 2011 Last updated at 21:16 GMT Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Egyptian military dissolves parliament
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Egypt's new military authorities say they are dissolving parliament and suspending the constitution.

In a statement on state TV, the higher military council said it would stay in power six months, or until elections.

Egypt's current parliament is dominated by supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted on Friday after 18 days of mass protests.

Earlier there were scuffles in Cairo's Tahrir Square as protesters thwarted army efforts to remove them.

The military police chief has called for tents to be cleared from the area, the focal point of the uprising that led to Mr Mubarak's departure.

The BBC's Wyre Davis in Cairo says the situation on the square has become a good-natured standoff, but protesters have vowed to stay night after night.

Also, disruption caused by public sector strikes has prompted the central bank to declare an extra bank holiday on Monday.

Correspondents say employees have been emboldened by the success of protesters and are now seeking the removal of bosses they blame for what they consider to be huge earnings gaps in their companies.

A statement was read out on state TV on Sunday from the higher military council, saying it would suspend the constitution and set up a committee to draft a new one, before submitting it to a popular referendum.

'Victory for revolution'

The current constitution has prevented many parties and groups from standing in elections, leaving Egypt with a parliament packed with supporters of the National Democratic Party, loyal to Mr Mubarak.

Our correspondent says the new announcement means elections could be held in July or August, instead of in September as planned.

By making another important statement and providing more details of how the future state will look, he adds, the military should satisfy protesters still sceptical about the pace of change.

The opposition's Ayman Nour, who challenged Mr Mubarak for the presidency in 2005, described the military leadership's steps as a "victory for the revolution", Reuters news agency reported.

Meanwhile, caretaker Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said his main priority was to restore the country's security.

Speaking earlier at a news conference, he said: "Our main concern now as a cabinet is security - we need to bring back a sense of security to the Egyptian citizen.

"Parallel to that we also want to ensure that the daily life of all Egyptians goes back to normal and that basic needs like bread and healthcare are available."

He said that the country had enough reserves to weather the economic crisis, but that if instability continued there could be "obstacles".

[Mistress Stowastiq]

Items looted from Egyptian museum in first few days of protests

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12442863



Parliament disolved

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12443678

The looted museum is so saddening, especially when the looters were looking for this object in the mummie's throats that supposedly gives one the control of the spirit world. Even the cureator commented on such a treasure hunt's reminding him of Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

@BardonGaruda , El Baradei said that if the military is not more clear on the exact plan that they will completely re-fill the square again on Friday so that is the deadline according to him. [see Fareed Zakaria GPS podcast for today link above]

Fareed Zakaria's GPS show today (available on podcast just download the m4v file or click subscribe for dl link last weekend's episode on Egypt with ominous floating football opposition leader El Baradei interview (sp) ) He interviews the Egyptian Ambassador to USA and El Baradei again referencing last weekend's interview with him. Pretty nice perspective, Fareed in general does not fuck around.
http://www.cnn.com/services/podcasting/
http://rss.cnn.com/services/podcasti...akaria/rss.xml <-back episodes



Looking for info:
I heard from Al Jazeera today that there was a whopping 6 hour long meeting with questions answered. It was with the Egyptian Cabinet I think and I am going to check here and not be lazy, to see if notes were posted up on it yet. Any way I am trying to find notes to that meeting because it will be very detailed. The AJ correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin went to it. If anyone knows please let me know or post please.


@Mods Ty for the nice edit on title, I like. I was thinking "Oh shit I posted in the wrong thread," then I figured it out.

[Cadsuane]

Many mysteries remain and questions still go unanswered about what just happen in Egypt last week, particularly with regards to Mubarak and Sulieman. Who even knows where they are and what they're doing now?

It is now well established that Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak was suppose to have stepped down when he spoke on state TV, 45 minutes after the announced time, late Thursday evening. That's why NBC News reported the 'scoop' early in the day, why various U.S. government sources were making assurances and even the supreme council of the Egyptian army, and that is where the power really lies anyway, all but proclaimed it.

The fix was in. Mubarak had promised to resign and turn his powers over to his new Vice President Omar Suleiman. Then at the last moment he threw the hook again. This was the third time that he had spoken publicly since the mass protests began on January 25th and it is being said that on each of the previous occasions be had been expected to resign but twice, on Jan. 27th & Feb. 1st, he had failed to do so but this time it was for sure.

He surprised almost everyone. Instead of resigning, he announced that he was staying on as president but giving some of those powers over to Mr. Rendition, Omar Suleiman, he chastised his children, promised punishment, said he would serve out his term and hoped to die in Egypt. The people were outraged!

The next morning Omar Suleiman gave Mubarak's resignation speech for him. It took all of 20 seconds. Hosni Mubarak is now reported to be at home at Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea but hasn't been seen or heard from publicly since he was so unceremoniously removed from office. All ministers from his government are forbidden to leave the country. There is talk of criminal proceedings. Suleiman has also been very quiet lately, keeping a very low profile.

Most observers who know anything about Suleiman's history know that a change in leadership from Mubarak to Suleiman is not much change at all. So what's Suleiman up to now? What's his exact position? Is he the Commander-in-Chief of the military? Do they even have a Commander-In-Chief now? We know Mubarak had turned some of his powers over to Suleiman. Nobody seems to know exactly which powers through. What is going on?

In light of these questions the announcement made on Sunday by Egypt's prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, was quite significant. He said "The role of Omar Suleiman will be defined by the Higher Military Council." That is welcome news. IMHO the "role of Omar Suleiman" should be that of cell-mate to Hosni Mubarak.

As to what transpired between Mubarak and Suleiman in those last hours of his presidency, time will certainly tell the tale. Meanwhile we can take as a possible template, the last hours of Tunisian Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's presidency.

Thanks to the French publication, Nouvel Observateur , we now have the juicy details. It seems that Mubarak wasn't the first North African dictator to express a wish to die in his country before leaving:

He refused to board the plane. On the tarmac of the airport of Tunis, he resists, wrings his hands he shakes his little black briefcase, his only luggage, trying to turn back toward the black Mercedes he had just come from. He pleads, "Leave me, I do not want to go, I want to die here in my country." [...]

It is Friday, January 14 about 5pm, while resistance is growing in the streets of the capital, Ben Ali is still refusing to leave. Seriate Ali, Ben Ali's feared secret police chief and companion of thirty years is haggard and groaning as he pushes Ben Ali up the stairs of the aircraft that will take him to Saudi Arabia, "God Damn! You will go up!"

None of the soldiers who form a circle around the small group composed of the president, his wife Leila, their son Mohammed, his daughter, Halima, her fiance, the butler Mustafa, and two Filipino domestic employees is offering to help. Leila is exasperated as she bullies the dazed and whinning Ben Ali with the flowery language she loves "Go up Monte, you idiot, all my life, I've had to support your bullshit!" ...

Le Nouvel Observateur reported this week that Seriate Ali and Ben Ali's diabolical wife Leila worked together to get Ben Ali to leave by promising him that it was only temporary and he could return soon. As if!

I don't imagine that he will want to return anytime soon now that Tunisia has put out an Interpol international arrest warrant for him. They just might help him fulfill his desire to die on Tunisian soil.

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak is a criminal too.

It is good that Hosni Mubarak hasn't left Egypt and they should not let him leave because he has some very serious charges to face. We now know that on the night of January 30th, at one of the most critical junctures for the Egyptian Revolution, that President Mubarak ordered the army tank command to massacre the people in Tahrir Square and the tank commanders refused. As Robert Fisk reported on Friday:

The critical moment came on the evening of 30 January when, it is now clear, Mubarak ordered the Egyptian Third Army to crush the demonstrators in Tahrir Square with their tanks after flying F-16 fighter bombers at low level over the protesters.

Many of the senior tank commanders could be seen tearing off their headsets – over which they had received the fatal orders – to use their mobile phones. They were, it now transpires, calling their own military families for advice. Fathers who had spent their lives serving the Egyptian army told their sons to disobey, that they must never kill their own people.

Later we could see some tank commanders in Tahrir Square striping off their uniforms and joining the protesters. The revolution and Tahrir Square had yet to endure the horrific violence that Mubarak's thugs were to unleash on February 2nd and 3rd but already his most powerful tool of violent suppression had abandoned him.

Although the army took a neutral position when Mubarak's thugs came riding horses and camels into the crowds and then ended up my employing Molotov cocktails and machine guns on them, while the army stood by, those thugs didn't have tanks and artillery and Mubarak already knew that they weren't going to be in this fight. So once this thug assault failed to drive pro-democracy activists from the square and the people came back even stronger on the Friday, Mubarak was out of options. His fate was all but sealed.

So soldiers with cell phones stopped the massacre. This is yet another way that new technology has played a surprising role in this new wave of revolutions. A lot of armies, including the U.S. army, allow their people to carry cell phones. Now an army in the field has used cell phones to organize a mutiny. Will they be re-thinking that?

Please note also something else that can be deduced from Robert Fisk's description of these events. Namely that it was the low level officers in the tanks, the ones that got their orders over headsets, that refused to carry out the mass murder in Tahrir Square. Had the top brass refused Mubarak, those orders never would have been heard over headsets.

This should give all some insight into the true character of the supreme military council, show that this revolution is not safe in their hands, indicate the importance of the people building strong ties with the lower ranks of the army and most importantly, not letting down their guard or abandoning Liberation Square.

While there are still many questions and problems in the road going forward and the success of the Egyptian Revolution is by no means assured simply because Mubarak has finally been forced from office, the Egyptian people have shown a good account of themselves so far and the future looks bright.

Unfortunately I can't read french very well. I'd love to know exactly how Ben Ali's exile went. Speaking of which I haven't heard much about Tunisia lately.