The names were changed but the game is the same

Egypt and why everybody likes the military.

It is estimated that around a thousand families maintain control of vast areas of the economy. This business class sought to consolidate itself and protect its wealth through political office. The National Democratic party was their primary vehicle for doing so. This alliance of money and politics became flagrant in recent years when a number of businessmen became government ministers with portfolios that clearly overlapped with their private interests.

Mubarak presided over a process in which the national wealth passed into a few private hands while the majority of the population was impoverished, with 40% living below the poverty line of less than $2 a day, rising rates of unemployment, and job opportunities for the young blocked. In the last few months of 2010, Egyptians protested for an increase of the minimum monthly wage to less than $240, but the now departed Nazif government decreed that less than $100 was sufficient as a basic income. This, at a time when the prices of food staples and utilities tariffs increased at very high rates. Indeed, as one local economist asserted, every single commodity and service cost significantly more under the Nazif government – which is the government of business that ended progressive taxation and replaced it by a single unified income tax.

Additionally, public social services underwent masked privatisation, taking health and education beyond the reach of vast segments of the population. Many poor families were forced to give up the hope of educating children and had to send them to do menial work to contribute to the income of the household. There was little public investment in most services, and in infrastructure such as roads, water and sewerage. In the 2000s, Egypt witnessed numerous demonstrations by ordinary people across the country for the construction of overpass bridges on fast roads and for clean water in towns and villages.

The legitimate social and economic demands of the people were repressed and denied, and the regime used the police to control the population. Under emergency laws, the police acquired extensive powers and engaged in surveillance and monitoring of the population. Torture and abuse in police stations became routine. Police roadblocks and checks were part of the daily reality of Egyptians. Under the generalised corruption, the police engaged in extortion and offered their services to private interests.

This was part of an article by Swala Ismail in the Guardian. I couldn't have put it in better terms myself. But the truly scary part is that we're seeing the exact same scenario here in America. Just change Mubarak to Bush /Cheney. Morph the NDP into the republican party. And we all remember the no bid Haliburton contracts. We're not quite to the point of having to pay off our police but it's getting close. With towns cutting their police it's only a matter of time before low paid rent a cops will fill the void. Not that they don't have their place but would you really want them doing police work on a daily basis?
The call to privatize everything is just another ploy to skim more money to the top 1% of our country. To do so would put us in the exact same position as Egypt with almost no middle class. Their military is lucky enough to have a job although it's a rather unusual label considering that most of their work is making products rather than defending the country.

I may be out for a while as things are getting busy around here. Posting and comments could be light. Keep it together for me would you.

Egyptian extreme renditions

And I'm not talking about "America the Beautiful" here.

It's truly amazing what you can find out here in cyberspace and it doesn't take a whole lot of digging either. Yes, I know there are the flakes who would try to have you believe that somehow Obama was responsible for JFKs' death, even though Barack was only two years old at the time.
I was wondering just how far back the events that lead up to the current uprisings went and what the U.S. roll in all of this played. I'd be almost certain that it goes back farther than this if you take some of the things done as far back as the 1950s into consideration but let's just focus on current events.
Digging through the archives I find:
On February 17, 2003, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (aka "Abu Omar") was kidnapped by the CIA in Milan (Italy). He was rendered to Cairo, Egypt and presumed tortured by local agents there.
If you look at Wikipedia articles on the subject you'll find a map by one Swiss investigator Dick Marty who worked for a human rights group looking into the matter. The map at the top however doesn't begin to show the extent process or all of the locations used. I found a better one :
But I have my suspicions that even this map is far from complete. There is the drop off point not mentioned in Romania and I'm sure there are others not mentioned. Just pick a country where we have a cordial relationship with a dictator and you can bet there's an Abu Ghraib styled interrogation complex complete with waterboards.

The current administration is in a bit of pickle as the saying goes and that's understandable. One the one hand they had no choice but to continue the programs done under the illegal Patriot Act. To do otherwise would have resulted in exposures to some very interesting legal situations both from U.S. and international law. On the other hand if Obama and Clinton were to come clean they would be admitting to the criminal acts of the last two decades. A conundrum of world order with no solution. And now they must face the facts. This might not have started on their watch but they are stuck with the problem.

And the $64,000 question: Do they continue to support Mubarak and his regime until his departure? We know that he is doing nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic when he hand picks people for the transition. And here's one last thought on the matter. It's all about those with the power and money trying desperately to hang on to it. They're losing the power but want to keep the money. All the while they're trying to make it appear as if they are looking out for the best interests of the people. We see it over there and we see it here in our country.

UPDATE:The U.S. is sending a couple of marine platoons to Egypt

Egypt more than just tourists

Prospecting around the internet last night, most often you find trash or at least less useful things, I found an article that sums up nicely the positions of Obama verses Bush.

For all his talk about freedom and democracy, Bush will be seen in the region as the president who set back democracy by mounting two wars of invasion, to impose his will. Obama, despite his limp response to the brutal Iranian crackdown on protesters in 2009, will be remembered as the American leader who went to Cairo University almost two years ago, to tell students: ''Each nation gives life to this [democratic] principle in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people … but I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. You must maintain your power through consent - not coercion,'' Obama told them.

Comparing the approach of the two presidents, Landis* is emphatic: ''Bush was wrong. He thought because the West was so much stronger, it could muscle the Muslim world into behaving as he wanted it to … The people of the Middle East have to find democracy in themselves - it can't be delivered from the barrel of a tank.''

*( Joshua Landis is the director of middle eastern studies at OU)
(Excerpt from an article by Paul McGeough)

The pro democracy demonstrators used Gandi type tactics and have been able to maintain their struggle. What does this tell me about my own knowledge of the middle east from current events? First that I'm woefully ignorant of modern Egyptian society and culture. To this I plead guilty. But I'm sure there are many who hold a stereotype or two of camel riding nomads still bartering from tents in the desert. I'd be almost certain that those camel riding sword swinging counter protesters were nothing more than props for the tourist trade looking for some money to feed their animals.
No, what we have here are a group of well educated unemployed looking for a future. They are organized and with no options left are determined to change things. And as we all know when any one of us is faced with such a challenge it's either fight or flight. The outcome will hinge on the military and who is running it. We may be seeing a split from Mubarak rule even though he unlike our president is not the commander in chief. Who among their military leaders will benefit from an open society? That would be my question of choice.
We will see how much resolve these people really have but judging from history it could be quit a bit. And considering this is about survival and not some ideology it could go on for a while.

Nothing up my sleeve

This is called the Bajimbi Bombay also called the "magician cat". The reason I bring up magic is that you'll want to turn your attention to congress and other news items as the worlds' attention is focused on the events in Egypt, the snow and cold in the east and cyclone in Australia. What better opportunity to sneak a bill through congress than when nobody's paying attention much like the slide of hand er paw from our friend here. You just know this feline is looking for trouble.

Not much news coming out of Cairo of late. The anti Mubarak group has taken a good beating of late with more clashes last night. Only difference is that not much of it made the news videos as that is now banned in the Square. The protesters must be getting fairly worn out by now as they move into day 10.
Reports came in yesterday that Obama was working with Egyptian officials to develop a plan for Mubaraks' exit. Only problem with that is that without removing the rest of the cabal then nothing can change. Much like changing the deck chairs on the Titanic. It also presents a power vacuum. No one really thought of the consequences if they get their wish and Mubarak and company leaves. Who steps up to the plate and fills the void when the country has experienced 30+ years of corruption? There is no written plan for progress or changes. Term limits might help but then what. What freedoms and changes do they really want?

Bank fails later
Update:Three banks hit the skids 2 in GA and 1 in IL
No major surprises to report so if they did slid in something under the radar they did a good job of it.
Most of the discussions in congress today were about Egypt. No bills passed that I could see. They are talking about changing the tax codes. The republicans want a value added tax which would in effect eliminate most of the tax for corporations while the rest of us would pay more. How predictable.

Egypt protest day ....

To my fellow blogger Pygalgia who at least has a rudimentary understanding of Arabic here is the original link in Arabic:
Friday Lunch Club

Watching the rioting in Cairo last night was an unusual sight. But something struck me as odd. As the crowd of protesters rushed back and forth at each other chanting and throwing molotov cocktails at each other the damage appeared minimal. Nobody was setting buildings on fire. No body in the crowd appeared to have guns except the military and even they weren't firing directly at anyone. As the over night fighting continued into the wee hours until the sun came up this looked more like a school yard fight than a national riot. Yes I realize that several people were killed and many more were injured but this could easily have been a slaughter. For a supposed angry mob the protesters were quite civil in all this as was the military.

More later...

Just try and stop the truth from getting out

Here's a few tweets from the demonstrators on the ground. Not a great situation.

f you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." (Desmund ...

Government-sanctioned mass lynch underway in Tahrir Square. #jan25 #Egypt

Mubarak people are throwing molotov cocktails on the egyptian museum and setting it on fire.

This was "the government plan" based on a memo issued last thursday from the Ministry of the Interior. It reads as follows (sorry for the translation but I think you can get the idea):

Topic: Plan to address the mass demonstrations

الاستراتيجيات Strategies

1- السماح بالمظاهرات بالمرور في شوارع مدن وقرى الجمهورية وذلك اعتبارا من تاريخ . 1 - Allow to pass demonstrations in the streets of cities and villages of the state as of the date. وعدم اعتراض مسيرتهم وتوخي الحذر الشديد في اطلاق النار الحي والرصاص المطاطي والقنابل المسيلة للدموع الابامر من المختص يذلك حسب جدول الاختصاص المدون لديكم. And non-objection to their careers and to exercise extreme caution in live fire, rubber bullets and tear gas Alabamr Ivlk of competent jurisdiction according to the table you have a blogger.

2- توظيف عدد من البلطجية والدفع لهم بمبالغ مجزية والاجتماع بهم في دورهم وفي مواقع التجمعات وعلى انفراد من قبل العناصر المصرح لها بذلك دون وجود صفة رسمية بذلك وتوضيح خطة الانتشار حسب الجدول المرفق للموقع المعنون بـ 1 وابلاغهم بوقت التحرك وخطة اشاعة الفوضى التدرجية المذكورة في البيان ، 2 - employ a number of thugs and pay them amounts rewarding and meet with them in their role in the sites gatherings and in private by the elements authorized to do so without an official status, it and surrounding the deployment plan according to the attached table of the site entitled to 1 and tell them the time of the move and plan to create chaos scalability mentioned in the statement ,

3- مراقبة افراد التنظيمات والاحزاب والتنسيق مع المطابع ودور النشر واجهزة الاتصالات وفرض سجل كامل بالرسائل والمكالامات الصادرة والواردة وتوضيح فحواها بتقرير مباشر حال تلقيكم المعلومات. 3 - Control members of organizations and parties, and coordination with the printing presses and publishing houses and communication devices and the imposition of a complete record of messages and incoming and outgoing Almkalamat and clarify the content of the report of the direct case Tgaykm information.

4- سيتم قطع وسائل الاتصالات (موبايل - انترنت) اعتبارا من الساعة السادسة صباحا من يوم الجمعة الموافق 28/1/12011 مع الابقاء بالخدمات الارضية لذلك يجب على جميع المكلفين من ضباط وافراد استخدام اجهزة الاتصالات اللاسلكية اليدوية والتاكد انها في وضع التشفير. 4 - will be cut off means of communication (Mobile - Internet) As of six o'clock am on Friday, 28/1/12011 with services to keep the ground so it must to all holders of the officers and members of the use of wireless communications devices, manual and make sure it is in the development of encryption.

5- خطة نشر افراد الشرطة ورجال المباحث والعناصر الامنية بالزي المدني وحسب المرفق المعنون بـ2. 5 - the planned deployment of police and detectives and the security forces in civilian clothes, according to the annex, entitled B-2.

6- حصر مسيرة المظاهرات يوم الجمعة الموافق 28/1/2011 في الميادين العامة والرئيسية وقطع المظاهرات في حال وصولها الى مناطق التحذير حسب الخريطة المرفقة المعنونة بـ3. 6 - Inventory march demonstrations on Friday, 28/01/2011 in public squares and major parts in the event of demonstrations and access to the areas of warning, according to the attached map entitled by 3.

7- التاكد من تسليح افراد العناصر المدنية بالزي المدني بعصا خشبية وهراوات حديدية صغيرة الحجم (يدوية) لاستخدامها في القبض على العناصر الرئيسية المتواجدة في المظاهرة دون اظهار لاي عنف. 7 - make sure to arm members of the civilian elements in civilian clothes with a wooden stick and sticks, iron small-scale (manual) for use in the arrest of the main elements present in the demonstration, without showing any violence.

8- اطلاق الرصاص المطاطي والقنابل المسيلة للدموع دون استخدام الرصاص الحي والتنبيه بذلك الا في الضرورة القصوى. 8 - firing rubber bullets and tear gas without the use of live bullets and warning that only in extreme necessity.

9- اظهار عجز جزئي اعتبار من الساعة الرابعة عصر يوم الجمعة المذكورة لقوات الشرطة لاظهار تفوق المظاهرات والسماح بتغلغل عناصر البند 2 لاحداث فوضى محدودة اثناء المظاهرة وحسب الخطة المتفق معهم بذلك. 9 - show partial disability as of four o'clock Friday afternoon the police mentioned to show superiority demonstrations and allow the infiltration of elements of item 2 to cause chaos during the demonstration and limited according to the plan agreed with them to do so.

10- الانسحاب التام لقوات الشرطة والامن المركزي ولاراد تنظيم المرور والحراسات وجميع فئات الضباط والافراد المختصين لحماية المواقع الحكومية والشركات والمؤسسات مع ارتداء الزي المدني والتواجد بجانب الطرقات وحول الاشجار والانخراط بين خطوط المنظمين للمظاهرات وبين مواقف السيارات دون التدخل في اي ظواهر سلبية ودون الكشف عن الهويات الخاصة بهم وعدم التدخل في الشارع حتى يتم ابلاغكم بذلك. 10 - a full withdrawal of police and security forces of the Central and wanted to organize the traffic and the guard and all categories of officers and individuals to protect government sites, businesses and institutions with the wearing of civilian attire and presence beside roads, around trees and engagement between the lines of the organizers of the demonstrations and the parking without interfering in any negative phenomena, and without revealing the identities their non-interference in the street until you tell you so.

11- افراغ مراكز الشرطة من الاسلحة والذخائر والمسجونين ونقلهم الى السجن المركزي ووضعهم تحت حراسة مشددة وادخال افراد الامن الخاص والعناصر الامنية الى السجون بدلا منهم وعناصر الاحياء وافراد المتابعة والبحث الجنائي والمتعاونين من المخبرين. 11 - empty police stations of weapons, ammunition and prisoners and transferred to the central prison and placed under heavy guard and the introduction of private security personnel and security elements to jail instead of them and the elements of the living and the members of the follow-up and criminal investigators, and collaborators from informants.

12- بث الاشاعات عبر جميع وسائل الاعلام بوجود اعمال سلب ونهب وذلك بالاتصال من قبل العناصر النسائية على جميع وسائل الاعلام المختلفة مع سماع قوي لحالات الهلع والبكاء وحسب خطة بث الاشاعات المرفقة لكم. 12 - broadcast the rumors through all the media, the existence of acts of looting and by contacting the elements of women at all different media with hearing the cases of strong panic and cry and plan according to broadcast rumors attached to you.

13- بث رسائل مباشرة عبر افراد او رسائل غير مباشرة بتوزيع منشورات لوسائل الاعلام الخارجية فقط خاصة المتواجدة بالقرب من الاحداث بوجود اعمال نهب وسلب وتكسير لبنوك ومحال تجارية ومراكز شرطة تزامنا مع خطة انتشار البلطجية بالبند 2 وذلك لبث حالة من الهلع والرعب لدى الشارع العام ووجود مطالبة اهلية وشعبية لتواجد رجال الجيش والامن العام وعامة الشعب بالتواجد في هذه المواقع. 13 - broadcast messages directly from individuals or indirect messages distributed leaflets to the media only external private located near the events, the existence of acts of looting and breaking of the banks and shops and police stations to coincide with the deployment plan thugs item 2, in order to broadcast a state of panic and terror in the street and the existence of a claim civil and popularity of the presence of the military, public security and public presence in these locations.

14- اصدار تلميحات مباشرة وغير مباشرة عبر اجهزة الاعلام الداخلي والخارجي بتشكيل لجان حماية شعبية داخل الاحياء وذلك لتوجيه افراد المظاهرة الى التوجة الى مواقعهم دون فرض القوة من قبل الجيش. 14 - Tips to issue directly and indirectly through the media of internal and external committees formed to protect the popular neighborhoods in order to guide members of the demonstration to go to their sites without the imposition of force by the army.

15- ارسال اشاعات مغلوطة وكاذبة عبر جميع الوسائل لمحطات الاعلام الخارجي فقط ويتم تصحيحها من قبل محطات الاعلام المحلي وذلك لكسب الثقة من قبل العامة لصرف الانظار عن هذه المحطات وتشويه سمعتها في جميع الاتصالات الوارده الى محطات الاعلام المحلي. 15 - send false rumors and false information through all means of media stations outside only be corrected by the local media stations in order to gain the confidence of the public to divert attention from these stations and discredit all incoming connections to the local media stations.

16- بث الاشاعات القوية عبر جميع وسائل الاعلام المحلي والخارجي بوجود فوضى عارمة وهروب المساجين وتحديد اعداد وهمية كبيرة وكذلك مسجلي الخطر وانهم شوهدوا داخل الاحياء السكنية. 16 - strong rumors broadcast across all media, local and external existence of chaos and escape of prisoners and determining the number and big fake registrants, as well as the danger and they were seen within the residential areas.

17- مطالبة جميع الشعب عبر جميع وسائل الاعلام بتشكيل لجان شعبية تسهر ليلا نهارا لحماية الاحياء وتكوين المطالبات من قبل اصوات نسائية من عناصر الامن حسب ما تم الاتفاق عليه في الجتماع السابق معكم. 17 - claims all the people across all media and the formation of popular committees watches day and night to protect the living and the composition of the claims by the voices of women members of the security as agreed in the meeting with you earlier.

18- متابعة الوضع ميدانيا من قبل العناصر الامنية المدنية والرفع لنا باعداد المتظاهرين التقريبي ومعرفة مواقعهم لارسال مجموعة بند 2 الى احيائهم حتى يتم امتصاصهم وافراغ المساحات من المتظاهرين. 18 - Follow-up situation on the ground by the security forces of civil and uploaded to us the approximate numbers of demonstrators and knowledge of their group to send item 2 to their neighborhoods until you absorb them and empty spaces of the demonstrators.

19- اتصالات مكثفة ومكالمات وتواجد شخصي لدى جميع وسائل الاعلام يظهر تحسن ملحوظ بعد تواجد اللجان الشعبية لحماية الاحياء والمجمعات السكنية والتجارية. 19 - extensive contacts and personal calls and the presence of all the media shows a marked improvement after a presence of the People's Committees for the protection of neighborhoods and residential and commercial complexes.

20- البدء باظهار التلاحم مع القيادة تدريجيا وذلك باظهار بعد الشعارات في الوقت المحدد وحسب ما يتم ابلاغكم به. 20 - start to show solidarity with the leadership gradually after that show logos on time and according to what is to inform you of it.

As you can see this was all planned well in advance and for Lame Stream Media to say that this administration was caught off guard is nonsense. If I can dig up this information in a matter of an hour or two then I'm sure our intelligence agencies can do it even faster. Unless of course that was their (intelligence agencies) plan all along to stop the toppling of governments in the middle east. That's just my guess.

More as I dig later...

Dominos King Tut style

I thought from first look that Algeria was going to be the next target of unrest in the middle east. I didn't do quite enough research on that. Seems their leader was smart enough to head off another revolt with his actions.

Protesters complained about food prices but also about a lack of housing and jobs as well as corrupt local officials.

The government responded by cutting the cost of some foodstuffs by half and by making huge purchases of wheat on the international market in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid bread shortages that could rekindle unrest.

Belkhadem said oil and gas revenues -- energy exports earned nearly $60 billion in 2010 -- are being shared out among the population, partly through a plan to spend $286 billion over five years on infrastructure, hospitals, schools and housing.

"It is unfair to say that Algeria is rich and its people poor", he said. "Health and education are free in Algeria."

"We created 550,000 jobs in 2010. I know that we should do more, but I must say that few countries in the world could create half a million jobs per year," he said.

Again I repeat from a previous post. What is our government doing about our own economic situation? Are they worried about the welfare of the average person here? In his STOU speech Obama is going right along with the opposition party in freezing wages and calling for cuts in domestic programs. All the while when prices for things like gas and food are going up. But I forgot those things aren't counted in the gross domestic product balance sheets. Exactly why is a puzzle. All is going well if you don't count that 800lb. gorilla in your living room trashing the place and eating you out of house and home.

I always thought Jordan was a bit more stable. It seemed like the country where everyone fled when things got tough at home. I guess I was wrong. Maybe the influx of refugees has finally taken its' toll. And now we'll see the closing of borders because we can't have those pesky furriners coming in to pillage the place taking our jobs and eating all our food. Interesting to note that King Abdulla is trying to head off an uprising by sacking his PM. We'll see how this action is accepted in the next few days as the protests in Egypt continue.

And now I'm hearing Syria is gearing up for protests.

Tax cuts work well in a thriving economy. They're like hitting the nitro button in a dragster. Not so much when the economy is doing poorly. They must be made up for somewhere on the balance sheet and that usually falls on the poor. So what are these fools in government going to do? They're going to cut taxes which they've already done if you're lucky enough to have a pay check these days. But they chopped a couple of precent from social security withholding. That will truly keep the system going. One of the main reasons retirement programs fail in this country is because they're underfunded. Companies that were supposed to be making contributions to their plans as promised are instead using the money to bolster their balance sheets. The can is kicked down the road until the road ends. Retirees are left with nothing. Anymore having a company retirement plan is much like playing the lottery. Maybe it will be there and maybe it won't. There is time to fix this problem (about 26 years) but not if our government isn't willing to actually fund it.