Saturday, January 29, 2011

Egypt:



Omar Suleiman Named Egypt Vice President 

As Protests Continue

Omar Suleiman
The Huffington Post/AP  MAGGIE MICHAEL and DIAA HADID  First Posted: 01/29/11 12:12 PM Updated: 01/29/11 07:35 PM
112
366
CAIRO — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak named a vice president Saturday for the first time since coming to power nearly 30 years ago. It was a clear step toward setting up a successor in the midst of the biggest challenge ever to his rule from tens of thousands of anti-government protesters.
Mubarak named his intelligence chief of nearly two decades and close confidant Omar Suleiman, state television reported.
The president had been seen as grooming his son Gamal to succeed him, possibly even as soon as in presidential elections planned for later this year. However, there was significant public opposition to the hereditary succession.
The appointment of Suleiman, 74, answers one of the most intriguing and enduring political questions in Egypt: Who will succeed 82-year-old Mubarak?
Another question is whether his appointment will calm the chaotic streets of Egypt's cities. In the capital Cairo, looting was rampant on Saturday and lawlessness was spreading fast. Residents of affluent neighborhoods in the capital were even boarding up their houses against gangs of thugs roaming the streets with knives and sticks.
__
Have a tip you want to share? You can leave a message for HuffPost at 00-1-315-636-0962. If you know someone there and have email access, send us an email ategypt@huffingtonpost.com. Our Skype account is HuffPostReports.
Scroll down for the latest updates.

LIVE BLOG

OldestNewest
01/29/2011 4:08 PM Obama's Meeting
The White House released a photo from President Obama's meeting today with his national security team:
01/29/2011 4:04 PM Death Toll Surpasses 100
Reuters reports the sad news:
More than 100 people have been killed during anti-government protests that have swept Egypt, according to a Reuters tally of reports from medical sources, hospitals and witnesses.
There was no official figure, and the real figure may be very different, given the confusion on the streets.
More here.
01/29/2011 3:47 PM 700 Prisoners Escape In Egypt
A massive prison break in Egypt is being reported in Egypt. According to Reuters:
Some 700 prisoners escaped in Fayoum, south of Cairo, and killed a senior police officer, sources said. Another senior police officer was also kidnapped in Damietta, a witness said.
In Cairo, witnesses said armed men seized ambulances and police vehicles, quickly driving off away from streets where they were chased by community watch groups.
"They are torching down the prisons. Our lives and property are at risk. Get out of the way," one shopper shouted, echoing the anxieties of many as they raced to stock up at supermarkets.
You can read the entire report here.
01/29/2011 2:58 PM 19 Private Jets Head To Dubai
Wealthy businessmen are fleeing Cairo as protests continue. Reports the AP:
An official at Cairo airport says 19 private jets carrying families of wealthy Egyptian and Arab businessmen have flown out of the capital.
The official said the jets left Saturday carrying dozens of family members of Egypt's business elite. He said most of the planes were headed for Dubai.
The passengers included the families of telecom mogul Naguib Sawiris, the executive chairman of Orascom Telecom, and Hussein Salem, a hotel tycoon and close confidant of President Hosni Mubarak.
The exodus of the families comes as Egypt enters its sixth day of mass unrest directed against Mubarak and what they say have been policies that further enrich the wealthy at the average citizen's expense.
01/29/2011 2:47 PM Countries Flying Out Citizens
Reports the AP:
Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan organized an additional 10 flights to evacuate their citizens, officials at Cairo International Airport said. Among those who left were families of diplomats.
Egypt's national carrier, meanwhile, was forced to cancel 15 scheduled flights because it was unable to secure the necessary crew and service personnel, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
01/29/2011 2:41 PM 17 People Shot Dead By Police: Reports
Riot Police have killed 17 people attacking a police station. Reuters reports:
Egyptian police shot dead 17 people trying to attack two police stations on Saturday in Beni Suef governorate, south of Cairo, witnesses and medical sources said.
Twelve of those shot were attempting to attack a police station in Biba while five others were trying to attack another in Nasser city. Dozens of others were injured in the exchanges.
01/29/2011 2:40 PM Looters Rip Heads Off Mummies
AP reports:
Would-be looters broke into Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum, ripping the heads off two mummies and damaging about 10 small artifacts before being caught and detained by soldiers, Egypt's antiquities chief said Saturday.
Zahi Hawass said the vandals did not manage to steal any of the museum's antiquities, and that the prized collection was now safe and under military guard.
With mass anti-government protests still roiling the country and unleashing chaos on the streets, fears that looters could target other ancient treasures at sites across the country prompted the military to dispatch armored personnel carriers and troops to the Pyramids of Giza, the temple city of Luxor and other key archaeological monuments.
More here.
01/29/2011 2:17 PM Amazing Video Appears To Show Army Helping Protestors
This raw footage appears to show the Egyptian army interfering to protect protestors from riot police. In the video, riot police fire into the air, at which point the protestors seem to gather behind three armored military trucks. Soldiers come out of the trucks and seem to be encouraging the protestors to take refuge behind vehicles. Watch for yourself:
01/29/2011 1:44 PM Reports From Cairo
Reader Patricia writes in with updates from her daughter, who is in Cairo. She says:
[My daughter]'s in Cairo. Her cell phone is working today.
She said the demonstrations during the day included women and men, but just men at night. She said Egyptians are the nicest people in the world. She said the demonstrators are aware others around them and once when one of the police got hurt demonstrators carried him off to safety.
Some demonstrators are carrying signs and chanting things about human rights & justice and THEY are not the violent ones, they are not looting. The talk on the street is that Mubarak opened up some of the jails and let out thugs to terrorize neighborhoods, while calling back the police. They think it might be a strategy to have the people want him back to restore order. It's nice people out during the day and hoodlums at night. If the demonstrators see vandalism or violence being perpetrated they chase down the vandal, lock him in a garage and call the police. She said mostly the police are ok, just doing their job. But police stations have been trashed and guns stolen. Citizens have to deal with looters. Right now where she is groups of men are outside of the buildings and blocking cars so they can check every single car before letting it pass through the neighborhood. People are really united.
The word is that the army is on their own right now i.e. they were given orders to shoot to disperse the crowd and they refused. When they saw that the men in the neighborhood were out protecting the area they told them it was good that they were standing there and gave them an emergency number to call.
Confusion around the airlines. They think the airlines are shut down right now but not sure.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The airports are open, but flight cancellations and delays are rampant. Some countries are scheduling emergency flights to evacuate their nationals.
01/29/2011 1:02 PM Getting Online
Some Egyptians are managing to connect to the internet in some very creative ways.
01/29/2011 12:49 PM 'The Pharaonic Dictatorship'
Al Jazeera writes that Mohamed ElBaradei, who has played a key role in Egypt's opposition, said the following:
"We are seeking a change of regime. President Mubarak should step down. We should head towards a democratic state through a new government and free democratic elections...The whole world should realize that the Egyptians are not going home until their demands are realized...We are talking about taking down the Pharaonic dictatorship."
01/29/2011 12:23 PM Obama Meeting
President Obama met with his national security team today. According to the White House, Obama "reiterated our focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint; supporting universal rights; and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform within Egypt."
Full White House statement:
At 1:00 pm today, the President convened a meeting of his national security team at the White House. Participants included Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan, National Security Advisor to the Vice President Tony Blinken, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, Senior Director for the Central Region Dennis Ross, Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa Dan Shapiro, Chief of Staff Bill Daley, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, and Senior Advisor David Plouffe. The meeting lasted just over an hour. The President was updated on the situation in Egypt. He reiterated our focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint; supporting universal rights; and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform within Egypt.
01/29/2011 12:21 PM Police Have Vanished, Widespread Looting In The City
Reports from CNN journalists on the ground are that the Egyptian police have mostly vanished from the streets, leaving the Army as the only security force in the city. The Army is protecting government buildings but not people's homes and commercial property. Looting is widespread.
AP reports: Cairo residents boarded up homes and set up neighborhood watches armed with guns, clubs and knives Saturday as looting engulfed the capital, despite the deployment of army troops to restore order.
Residents reported gangs of youths, some on motorbikes, roaming the streets, looting supermarkets, shopping malls and shops. Some of the gangs made it to affluent residential areas in the suburbs, breaking into luxury homes and apartments. The crack of gunfire could be heard in the city center as well as outlying districts.
The situation had spiraled far enough out of control by dusk Saturday that the army was deploying reinforcements across the city to restore order and prevent looting, state TV said.
The looting, which has spread despite a 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew, has prompted residents in some neighborhoods, including the upscale Zamalek district in central Cairo, to set up vigilante groups to protect private property. Outside some apartment blocks, guards armed with machine guns had taken up posts.
In the well-heeled Maadi neighborhood in south Cairo, neighborhood mosques called on young men over loudspeakers to come down to the entrances of building and homes to ward off looters.
Naglaa Mahmoud, a 37-year-old Maadi resident, said thugs were breaking cars and threatening to get into homes. She said even the ambulance service in the neighborhood had abandoned their offices and accused the regime of planning the chaos by pulling out all of its police forces.
"All this seems to be prearranged. They are punishing us for asking for this change," she said. "What a shame he (Mubarak) doesn't care for the people or anything. This is a corrupt regime."
01/29/2011 12:12 PM Middle East Leaders React To Egypt
Saudi Arabia's leader has harshly condemned the protestors in Egypt, while in Iran, the foreign ministry said that Egypt should "respect" the protestors, CNN is reporting. According to the report:
Saudi King Abdullah called Mubarak and "was reassured" about the situation in Egypt, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
"During the call, the king said, 'Egypt is a country of Arabism and Islam. No Arab and Muslim human being can bear that some infiltrators, in the name of freedom of expression, have infiltrated into the brotherly people of Egypt, to destabilize its security and stability and they have been exploited to spew out their hatred in destruction, intimidation, burning, looting and inciting a malicious sedition,'" the news agency said.
Saudi Arabia "strongly condemns" the protest, it said.
The Egyptian president's harsh views about the Iranian leadership were recently exposed by WIkiLeaks. In the leaked cables, Mubarak reportedly describes the Iranian leadership as sponsors of terrorism and says, "They are big, fat liars and justify their lies because they believe it is for a higher purpose."
01/29/2011 11:50 AM Cell Phone Reception Restored
According to Reuters, Vodafone, which previously agreed to shutdown cell phone service in Egyptat the request of the Egyptian government, is now resuming service. Reuters the wire service:
Mobile phone services started to resume across the Egyptian capital on Saturday, after being shut down a day earlier during unprecedented demonstrations calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.
Telecoms operator Vodafone (VOD.L) said it and other mobile operators had no option but to comply with an order from the Egyptian authorities to suspend services in selected areas of the country [ID:nWLA3980].
The move was heavily criticised by rights groups.
"We would like to make it clear that the authorities in Egypt have the technical capability to close our network, and if they had done so it would have taken much longer to restore services to our customers," a Vodafone spokesman said.
01/29/2011 11:46 AM Egyptian Bloggers
Al Jazeera did an interview with bloggers and political activists in Egypt, including Gigi Ibrahim, who the New York Times talked to on Thursday via Skype.
01/29/2011 11:22 AM Protest In Georgia
A picture of the solidarity protests taking place in Atlanta, Georgia:
@ juicyjazmyn : Passing by the Egypt demonstration @ajc http://twitpic.com/3ukvwc
01/29/2011 11:07 AM Egyptian-Americans Protests
People are protesting outside of the Egyptian embassy in DC. NBC reports:
"I can't contain my excitement to see young men and women going to the streets claiming those basic rights that you and I enjoy here in the United States," said protest organizer Mohammed Abdeljaber, a student at Georgetown who is getting a PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies.
Abdeljaber said more than 500 people have signed up on Facebook to be at Saturday's protest. He wants Egyptians to know that Americans are watching and aware of what's going on in the country.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcwashington.com/video.

The AP adds:
Protesters have filled the street in front of the Egyptian embassy in Washington, demanding that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak step down.
The demonstrators on Saturday also criticized the Obama administration's response to the clashes in Egypt, where thousands of protesters have thrown the country's 30-year-old regime into tumult.
Those in Washington waved Egyptian flags and held signs that read "Obama: Democracy or Hypocrisy?" and "Victory to the Egyptian People!"
Tamim Barghouti, a 32-year-old professor, said he was angered by Mubarak's choice for a vice president Saturday. He says the new vice president would simply be another puppet of America.
01/29/2011 10:53 AM Tunisia Minister Weighs In
The protestors have said that they were inspired by the successful ousting of the Tunisian president. Now Tunisia's new foreign minister has given his take on the Egypt. Reports the AP:
Tunisia's new foreign minister says his country isn't going to lecture Egyptians on what path their country should take, following this week's anti-government protests.
Ahmed Ounaies says the two Arab countries are different and must each chart their own course.
He told The Associated Press Saturday "it is up to the Egyptian people to decide their present and their future for themselves. We are not going to decide on their behalf or give them any lessons."
01/29/2011 10:39 AM ElBaradei Speaks
Opposition activist ElBaradei says the protestors will not stop now, according to Al Jazeera:
@ AJELive : "People will demonstrate, they will not go home until justice is restored and democracy is gained"- #ElBaradei http://aje.me/ajelive #egypt
01/29/2011 10:37 AM Obama's Egypt Response
Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy has an interesting take on the Obama administration's response to the Egypt crisis. According to him, they're doing a pretty good job at providing a pragmatic endgame option for the protestors, which they need more than U.S> leadership. Argues Lynch:
What they do need, if they think about it, is for Obama to help broker an endgame from the top down --- to impose restraints on the Egyptian military's use of violence to repress protests, to force it to get the internet and mobile phones back online, to convince the military and others within the regime's inner circle to ease Mubarak out of power, and to try to ensure that whatever replaces Mubarak commits to a rapid and smooth transition to civilian, democratic rule. And that's what the administration is doing. The administration's public statements and private actions have to be understood as not only offering moral and rhetorical support to the protestors, or as throwing bones to the Washington echo chamber, but as working pragmatically to deliver a positive ending to a still extremely tense and fluid situation.
01/29/2011 10:00 AM 62 Dead
From the AP: "Egyptian security officials say at least 62 people have been killed nationwide over the last two days of mass anti-government protests. The officials say an additional 2,000 people have been injured in the demonstrations, that have included violent clashes between police and protesters."
01/29/2011 9:41 AM Army Enters Rihab
The following video reportedly shows the Egyptian army entering the town of Rihab after reports of looting.
01/29/2011 9:29 AM Report From Cairo
A reader who wishes to be known only by his alias Abu and Twitter handle @EgyptFreedomNowwrites to tell us the situation on the ground in Cairo this morning. Reports Abu:
So far the protests have been hostile with the plain clothes thugs and uniformed riot police under Mubarak!
Reactions to his speech have been brutally negative from everyone young and old. We the people of Egypt do not want a change in the regime, we want regime change! You cannot reform a broken government by re-shuffling the the card deck with "new and improved minions" when the dictator dealer is corrupt! The Army has been very respectful so far as have the crowds. We share a weary but mutual trust and camaraderie.
A majority of Egyptians in Cairo want the following:
1) Pro-secular freedom and tolerance of others. This includes Coptic Christians that have been supporting our effort. 2) We want a Constitutional Democracy. 3) We want to exile Mubarak and his family. There is no compromise on this priority issue from our people. 4) No more dictators regardless of their name, rank, or popularity!
5) No hard-line theocracy! Especially no "Muslim Brotherhood" thugs that would crackdown worse than this regime has ever done for human rights.
Just as American President Reagan told Gorbachev in 1987 Berlin to: "Tear down this wall!"
President Obama must tell Mubarak in 2011 Cairo to: "Tear down this firewall!"
We are nervous today because we do not know how violent they will become during each new day of protest. This has been much more peaceful than we believed it would be, however we are not even one week into this path we have taken.
Much of the service here has been cut. No phone, no sms, and no internet without proxies.
The best resource we have been using to spread information about how to get information out to others is this resource list website: werebuild.eu/wiki/Egypt/Main_Page
May peace guide our actions as we seek a new dawn in Cairo.
01/29/2011 9:20 AM 'More Of The Same'
Ben Wedemen from CNN tweets:
@ bencnn : New VP Omar Sulaiman and PM Ahmed Shafiq are as Mubarak as Mubarak. Egyptians in no mood for more of the same. #Jan25 #Egypt
01/29/2011 8:43 AM New Prime Minister
Al Jazeera is reporting that former aviation minister Ahmad Shafiq has been appointed prime minister.
01/29/2011 8:42 AM Mubarak's Sons In London: Reports
Reports indicate that Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Alaa, have arrived in London. The BBC is reporting both their arrival and the official denial on Egyptian television that they have left Egypt. More to come.
01/29/2011 8:24 AM Israel Evacuates 200 Citizens From Egypt
AP reports: Israel's national airline has whisked some 200 Israelis, including families of Israeli diplomats, out of Egypt on board an emergency flight to escape the chaos engulfing the Arab country.
An Israeli official said Saturday's flight included dozens of tourists as well as diplomat's families.
The official said Israeli diplomats would remain in Egypt for the time being. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.
A Cairo airport official confirmed that El Al arranged the special flight. El Al does not usually fly on the Jewish sabbath to appease observant Jewish passengers who do not travel on the day of rest.
El Al refused to comment.
The flight reflects Israel's concerns over the situation in Egypt — the first Arab country to reach peace with Israel.
01/29/2011 8:21 AM Leading Cleric Calls Mubarak 'Blind, Deaf And Dumb'
Sunni Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi has called on Mubarak to step down. The Egyptian-Qatari Qaradawi insisted that the Egyptian president's ouster would be the only solution to the nation's problems now that he had turned "blind, deaf and dumb.' Reports the AFP:
The cleric, spiritual leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and longtime resident of Qatar, heads the International Union for Muslim Scholars.
"There is no staying longer, Mubarak, I advise you (to learn) the lesson of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali," he said, referring to Tunisia's deposed president who fled to Saudi Arabia.
"Go Mubarak, have mercy on this people and leave so as not to increase the destruction of Egypt," he added.
He told Egyptians to "continue their uprising" but cautioned against any "attack on state institutions." The uprising "must come through peaceful means," Qaradawi said.
01/29/2011 8:13 AM Widespread Looting
NBC's Richard Engle reports from Cairo that widespread looting is taking place in the wealthy suburbs outside the city as well as in Cairo itself.

No comments:

Post a Comment