Arab Spring in Egypt;

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/violence-erupts-outside-egypt-presidential-palace-172224552.html

Violence erupts outside Egypt presidential palace

By By HAMZA HENDAWI and AYA BATRAWY | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago

CAIRO (AP) — Supporters and opponents of Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi fought with rocks, firebombs and sticks outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday, as a new round of protests deepened the country's political crisis.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition advocate of reform and democracy, said Morsi's rule was "no different" from that of former President Hosni Mubarak, whose authoritarian regime was toppled in an uprising nearly two years ago.

"In fact, it is perhaps even worse," the Nobel Peace Laureate told a news conference after he accused the president's supporters of a "vicious and deliberate" attack on peaceful demonstrators.

The opposition is demanding Morsi rescind decrees giving him near unrestricted powers and shelve a disputed draft constitution that the president's Islamist allies passed hurriedly last week.

The dueling demonstrations and violence are part of a political crisis that has left the country divided into two camps: Islamists versus an opposition made up of youth groups, liberal parties and large sectors of the public. Both sides have dug in their heels, signaling a protracted standoff.

The latest clashes began when thousands of Islamist supporters of Morsi descended on the area around the palace where some 300 of his opponents were staging a sit-in. The Islamists, members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group, chased the protesters away from their base outside the palace's main gate and tore down their tents. The protesters scattered in side streets where they chanted anti-Morsi slogans.

After a lull in fighting, hundreds of young Morsi opponents arrived at the scene and immediately began throwing firebombs at the president's backers, who responded with rocks.

No casualties were immediately reported but witnesses said they saw several protesters with blood streaming down their faces. Several opposition groups said they were calling on their supporters to head to the palace area, a move that portended more violence.

"I voted for Morsi to get rid of Hosni Mubarak. I now regret it," Nadia el-Shafie yelled at the Brotherhood supporters from a side street. "God is greater than you. Don't think this power or authority will add anything to you. God made this revolution, not you," said the tearful el-Shafie as she was led away from the crowd of Islamists.

By nightfall, there were about 10,000 Islamists outside the palace. They set up metal barricades to keep traffic off a stretch of road that runs parallel to the palace in Cairo's upscale Heliopolis district. Some of them appeared to plan staging their own sit-in.

"May God protect Egypt and its president," read a banner hoisted on a truck that came with the Islamists. Atop, a man using a loudspeaker recited verses from the Quran.

"We came to support the president. We feel there is a legitimacy that someone is trying to rob," said engineer Rabi Mohammed, a Brotherhood supporter. "People are rejecting democratic principles using thuggery."

At least 100,000 opposition supporters rallied outside the palace on Tuesday and smaller protests were staged by the opposition elsewhere in Cairo and across much of Egypt. It was the latest of a series of mass protests against the president.

Buoyed by the massive turnout on Tuesday, the mostly secular opposition held a series of meetings late Tuesday and Wednesday to decide on next steps in the standoff that began Nov. 22 with Morsi's decrees that placed him above oversight of any kind. It escalated after the president's allies hurriedly pushed through a draft constitution.

While calling for more mass rallies is the obvious course of action, activists said opposition leaders also were discussing whether to campaign for a "no" vote in a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum or to call for a boycott.

Brotherhood leaders have been calling on the opposition to enter a dialogue with the Islamist leader. But the opposition contends that a dialogue is pointless unless the president first rescinds his decrees and shelves the draft charter.

Vice President Mahmoud Mekki called for a dialogue between the president and the opposition to reach a "consensus" on the disputed articles of the constitution and put their agreement in a document that would be discussed by the next parliament. But he said the referendum must go ahead and that he was making his "initiative" in a personal capacity not on behalf of Morsi. He put the number of clauses in disputes at 15, out of a total of 234.

Speaking to reporters, ElBaradei said there would be no dialogue unless Morsi rescinded his decrees and shelved the constitution draft. Asked to comment on Mekki's offer, he said: "With all due respect, we don't deal with personal initiatives. If there is a genuine desire for dialogue, the offer must come from President Morsi."

The charter has been criticized for not protecting the rights of women and minority groups, and many journalists see it as restricting freedom of expression. Critics also say it empowers Islamic religious clerics by giving them a say over legislation, while some articles were seen as tailored to get rid of the Islamists' enemies.

If the referendum goes ahead as scheduled and the draft constitution is adopted, elections for parliament's lawmaking lower chamber will be held in February.

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http://news.yahoo.com/tanks-outside-egypt-presidential-palace-streets-calm-074211411.html

Military halts clashes as political crisis grips Egypt

By Marwa Awad and Edmund Blair | Reuters – 1 hr 3 mins ago

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Republican Guard restored order around the presidential palace on Thursday after fierce overnight clashes killed seven people, but passions ran high in a struggle over the country's future.

The Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, criticised by his opponents for his silence in the last few days, was due to address the nation later in the day, state television said.

Hundreds of his supporters who had camped out near the palace overnight withdrew before a mid-afternoon deadline set by the Republican Guard.

Dozens of Mursi's foes remained, but were kept away by a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks.

The military played a big role in removing President Hosni Mubarak during last year's popular revolt, taking over to manage a transitional period, but had stayed out of the latest crisis.

Mursi's Islamist partisans fought opposition protesters well into the early hours during duelling demonstrations over the president's decree on November 22 to expand his powers to help him push through a mostly Islamist-drafted constitution.

Officials said seven people had been killed and 350 wounded in the violence, for which each side blamed the other. Six of the dead were Mursi supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood said.

The street clashes reflected a deep political divide in the most populous Arab nation, where contrasting visions of Islamists and their liberal rivals have complicated a struggle to embed democracy after Mubarak's 30-year autocracy.

The United States, worried about the stability of an Arab partner which has a peace deal with Israel and which receives $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid, has urged dialogue.

The commander of the Republican Guard said deployment of tanks and troop carriers around the presidential palace was intended to separate the adversaries, not to repress them.

"The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators," General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency.

Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of the opposition National Salvation Front, said more protests were planned, but not necessarily at the palace in Cairo's Heliopolis district.

"Our youth are leading us today and we decided to agree to whatever they want to do," he told Reuters.

UNITY APPEAL

Egypt plunged into renewed turmoil after Mursi issued his November 22 decree and an Islamist-dominated assembly hastily approved a new constitution to go to a referendum on December 15.

The Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood, to which Mursi belonged before he was narrowly elected president in June, appealed for unity. Divisions among Egyptians "only serve the nation's enemies", Mohamed Badie said in a statement.

Rival factions used rocks, petrol bombs and guns in the clashes around the presidential palace.

"We came here to support President Mursi and his decisions. He is the elected president of Egypt," said demonstrator Emad Abou Salem, 40. "He has legitimacy and nobody else does."

Opposition protester Ehab Nasser el-Din, 21, his head bandaged after being hit by a rock the day before, decried the Muslim Brotherhood's "grip on the country", which he said would only tighten if the new constitution is passed.

Another protester, Ahmed Abdel-Hakim, 23, accused the Brotherhood of "igniting the country in the name of religion".

Mursi's opponents accuse him of seeking to create a new "dictatorship". The president says his actions were necessary to prevent courts still full of judges appointed by Mubarak from derailing a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition.

Mursi has shown no sign of buckling under pressure from protesters, confident that the Islamists, who have dominated both elections since Mubarak was overthrown, can win the referendum and the parliamentary election to follow.

Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood's secretary-general, said holding the plebiscite was the only way out of the crisis, dismissing the opposition as "remnants of the (Mubarak) regime, thugs and people working for foreign agendas".

As well as relying on his Brotherhood power base, Mursi may also tap into a popular yearning for stability and economic revival after almost two years of political turmoil.

The Egyptian pound sank on Thursday to its lowest level in eight years, after previously firming on hopes that a $4.8 billion IMF loan would stabilise the economy. The Egyptian stock market fell 4.4 percent after it opened.

Foreign exchange reserves fell by nearly $450 million to $15 billion in November, indicating that the Central Bank was still spending heavily to bolster the pound. The reserves stood at about $36 billion before the anti-Mubarak uprising.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-president-offers-nothing-defuse-crisis-210524609.html

Egypt's president offers nothing to defuse crisis

By By MAGGIE MICHAEL and AYA BATRAWY | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago

AIRO (AP) — An angry Mohammed Morsi refused Thursday to call off a referendum on a disputed constitution that has sparked Egypt's worst political crisis in two years, drawing chants of "topple the regime!" from protesters who waved their shoes in contempt.

The Egyptian president's uncompromising stand came a night after thousands of his supporters and opponents fought pitched battles outside his Cairo palace, leaving at least six dead and 700 injured.

Speaking in a nationally televised address, Morsi accused some in the opposition of serving remnants of Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime and vowed he would never tolerate anyone working for the overthrow of his "legitimate" government.

That brought shouts of "the people want to topple the regime!" from the crowd of 30,000 Morsi opponents — the same chant used in the protests that brought down Mubarak.

Morsi also invited the opposition to a "comprehensive and productive" dialogue starting Saturday at his presidential palace, but gave no sign that he might offer any meaningful concessions.

The opposition has already refused to engage Morsi unless he first rescinds decrees giving him nearly unrestricted powers and shelves the draft constitution hurriedly adopted by his Islamist allies in a marathon session last week.

Morsi said the referendum on the disputed charter would go ahead as scheduled on Dec. 15. He also refused to rescind the Nov. 22 decrees.

Reading from prepared notes, Morsi frequently broke off to improvise. He wore a black tie in mourning for the six people killed in Wednesday's clashes.

From Washington, President Barack Obama called Morsi to express "deep concern" about the deaths and injuries of protesters in Egypt, according to a White House statement.

The statement Thursday night said that Obama told Morsi that he and other political leaders in Egypt must make clear to their supporters that violence is unacceptable. Obama welcomed Morsi's call for a dialogue with opposition leaders in Egypt but stressed that such a dialogue should occur without preconditions. The United States also has urged opposition leaders to join in talks without preconditions.

Earlier Thursday, Morsi's troubles grew when another of his advisers quit to protest his handling of the crisis, raising to seven the number of those in his 17-person inner circle who have abandoned him. The only Christian in a group of four presidential assistants has also quit.

Violence persisted into the night, with a group of protesters attacking the Cairo headquarters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, ransacking the ground floor. Another group of protesters attacked the Brotherhood's offices in the Cairo district of Maadi. Outside the president's house in his hometown of Zagazig, 50 miles north of Cairo, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters, security officials said.

During his speech, Morsi repeated earlier assertions that a conspiracy against the state was behind his move to assume near unrestricted powers, but he did not reveal any details of the plot.

"It is my duty ... to protect institutions of the nation," he said. "I will always fulfill this role, no matter how much pressure or what the situation."

Opposition protesters jeered and raised their shoes in contempt.

"We have two simple demands: Cancel the decrees and change the draft constitution. Other than that he can just go away," shouted one protester, Osama El-Sayyed.

"I have no hope in this man" shouted another as thousands chanted "Erhal! Erhal!" — "Leave! Leave!" in Arabic.

Later, a photograph of Morsi giving his speech was circulated on social networking sites alongside one of Mubarak addressing the nation during the 18-day uprising that toppled his 29-year rule in February 2011. Both wore black ties and dark suits.

The opposition issued a statement rejecting Morsi's offer of a dialogue, and spokesman Hussein Abdel-Ghani dismissed Morsi's address.

"Tonight, he proved that he is not a president for all Egyptians, but merely the representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in the presidency," Abdel-Ghani said on state television.

Earlier Thursday, the Egyptian army and elite Republican Guard sealed off the presidential palace with tanks and barbed wire, following the worst night of violence of the two-week crisis.

Responding to a call to "protect" the presidential palace, thousands of Brotherhood members and other Islamists descended on the area Wednesday, beating and chasing away some 300 opposition protesters who had been staging a peaceful sit-in there. Hours of street battles followed.

"We raise Egypt's flag but they raise the Brotherhood flag. This is the difference," Cairo protester Magdi Farag said as he held the tri-colored national flag stained with blood from his friend's injury in the clashes.

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http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-delays-early-voting-constitution-232250882.html

Egypt delays early voting on new constitution

By By MAGGIE MICHAEL and SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press – 2 hrs 55 mins ago

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt postponed early voting on a contentious draft constitution, and aides to President Mohammed Morsi floated the possibility of canceling the whole referendum in the first signs Friday that the Islamic leader is finally yielding to days of protests and deadly street clashes.

Tens of thousands marched on the presidential palace after pushing past barbed wire fences installed by the army and calling for Morsi to step down. Thousands also camped out in Tahrir Square, birthplace of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

A spokesman for Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood urged the group's supporters to practice "self-restraint" after hundreds gathered in front of a mosque near the presidential palace. He appealed for them not to march to the palace and to avoid confrontation.

The announcement by the election committee head Ismail Hamdi to delay early voting on the charter came as a surprise, and it was difficult to predict whether it will lead to a breakthrough in the political crisis.

The president's aides said the move would ease some pressure and would provide room for negotiations with the opposition.

But Morsi's opponents have rejected talks, saying he must first cancel the referendum and meet other demands.

Late Friday, an opposition umbrella group called for an open-ended sit-in in front of the presidential palace.

The crisis began Nov. 22, when Morsi issued a decree that gave him absolute powers and immunity from judicial oversight. It deepened when he called for a Dec. 15 national referendum on the draft constitution hurriedly produced by the Islamist-led constituent assembly. The draft was infused with articles that liberals fear would pave the way for Islamizing Egypt.

Legal Affairs Minister Mohammed Mahsoub said the administration was weighing several proposals — including calling off the referendum and returning it to the constituent assembly for changes. Another possibility was disbanding the constituent assembly and forming a new one, either by direct vote or an agreement among the political forces.

"We have a big chance tomorrow," Mahsoub told the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera network, referring to what he said was a meeting between Morsi and political forces. "There are no deadlines or referendums outside the country. Tomorrow or day after, we might reach a good agreement."

Vice President Mahmoud Mekki also told the broadcaster that he had contacted leading democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei to join Morsi in a dialogue. ElBaradei leads the newly formed National Salvation Front, a group of liberals and youths who opposed Morsi's decrees and led the protests in Cairo.

In a televised speech, ElBaradei made clear the opposition's demands: cancellation of the declaration that Morsi used to give himself immunity from judicial oversight and postponement of the referendum.

"The people are angry because they feel their rights have been raped," ElBaradei said on the ONTV network. "If he takes these decisions, he will be opening the door for dialogue. I hope he is listening."

The opposition National Salvation Front rejected talks with Morsi, urging an ongoing sit-in at the palace and warned of assaults on the protesters and more violence.

"We reject the fake dialogue which Morsi has called for. No talks after bloodshed and before holding those responsible accountable," the front said in a statement.

Some protesters expressed optimism after they heard that the early voting for Egyptians abroad, which was due to begin Saturday, had been put off until Dec. 5.

"This looks like the beginning of a retraction," said Dr. Mohsen Ibrahim, a 56-year-old demonstrator. "This means Morsi may postpone the referendum. It looks like the pressure is working out."

But he warned that "if Morsi doesn't see the numbers of people protesting, then he will be repeating the same mistake of Mubarak."

Since the Arab Spring uprising that toppled Mubarak, Egypt has been split between Islamists and mostly secular and liberal protesters. Each side depicts the conflict as an all-out fight for Egypt's future and identity.

The opposition accuses Morsi and his Islamist allies of turning increasingly dictatorial to force their agenda on the country, monopolize power and turn Egypt to a religious state. The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists say the opposition is trying to use the streets to overturn their victories in elections over the past year and stifle popular demands to implement Islamic Shariah law.

The tone was one of a battle cry as thousands of Islamists held funeral prayers at Al-Azhar Mosque — the country's premier Islamic institution — for Morsi supporters killed in Wednesday's clashes. A series of speakers portrayed the opposition as tools of the Mubarak regime, or as decadent and un-Islamic.

"Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal," the crowd chanted in a funeral procession filling streets around the mosque.

During the funeral, thousands chanted, "With blood and soul, we redeem Islam," pumping their fists. Mourners yelled that opposition leaders were "murderers."

One hard-line cleric denounced anti-Morsi protesters as "traitors." Another said Egypt would not be allowed to become "a den of hash smokers."

"We march on this path in sacrifice for the nation and our martyrs," a leading Brotherhood figure, Mohammed el-Beltagy, told the crowd. "We will keep going even if we all become martyrs. We will avenge them or die like them.

"Bread! Freedom! Islamic law!" the crowd chanted, twisting the revolutionary slogan of "Bread! Freedom! Social justice!" used against Mubarak.

At the same time, the anti-Morsi demonstrators streamed in from different parts of Cairo to the presidential palace in an upscale neighborhood for a fourth straight day.

Many were furious over the president's speech Thursday night in which he accused "hired thugs" of attacking protesters. Most witnesses said Wednesday's clashes began with supporters of the president attacking a tent camp set up by the anti-Morsi crowd.

Video clips emerged showing badly bruised faces of female activists and a man putting his hand over the mouth of one of them, prominent activist Shahanda Mekalad, to try to silence her as she chanted, "We are the Egyptian people." Other protesters were shown stripped naked and beaten up by Morsi supporters.

The violence has fed into the mistrust between the two sides.

Pressure on Morsi also came from his inner circle after he was hit by a string of resignations by some top aides protesting the violence.

Criticism is also growing from journalists, including those working for state-run news organizations, over what they say are attempts by Islamists to control the media. Judges are on strike for two weeks and said they are not going to oversee the vote as stipulated by law, something that would erode the credibility of the process.

Salafis rallied Friday in front of Egypt's Media City south of Cairo, protesting coverage by privately owned networks.

Led by lawyer-turned-cleric Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail, with his trademark long, gray beard, the Salafis raised black flags and signs reading "hypocritical media," and brought bedspreads for a prolonged sit-in. Anti-riot police were deployed.

Violence also was reported in cities across Egypt either between members of the Muslim Brotherhood and police on one side and anti-Morsi protesters on the other side in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria and Nile Delta city of Zagazig.

The sides pelted each other with stones outside the headquarters of the Brotherhood office in Nile Delta city of Kom Hamada, in the province of Beheira. In the Delta industrial city of Mahallah, protesters stopped trains and announced a sit in until the cancellation of Morsi's decrees and the referendum.

In the southern city of Assiut, hundreds of protesters chanted, "No Brotherhood, no Salafis, Egypt is a civic state." Mohammed Abdel Ellah, one of the protests' coordinators, said the secular groups are organizing street campaigns to get the public to vote "no" if a referendum is held.

But Muslim preachers in Assiut mosques called on worshippers to support Morsi. One cleric in the nearby village of Qussiya denounced the opposition as "those with wicked hearts" and "enemies of God's rule."

"The enemies of the president are enemies of God, Shariah and legitimacy" another preacher said, adding that it is prohibited to protest against the ruler.

Edited December 8, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-protesters-breach-barriers-march-palace-180802790.html

Egypt protesters breach barriers, march on palace

By By SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press – 10 hrs ago

CAIRO (AP) — Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters push past barbed wire fences installed by the army and march on the presidential palace, calling for President Mohammed Morsi to "leave" a day after they say he offered no concessions to opposition demands.

Climbing over tanks of the Republican Guard, protesters streamed toward the palace as night fell Friday, crossing a no-go zone set up around the compound's perimeter.

The area witnessed deadly clashes on Wednesday, when supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group drove out crowds camped outside the palace.

The clashes left at least six dead and hundreds injured, deepening the schism between the two sides.

Egypt is plunging deeper into crisis as protesters — mainly liberals— press Morsi to call off a referendum on a draft constitution agreed by his allies.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-military-returns-political-fray-221925161.html

Is Egypt's military siding with opposition?

By By HAMZA HENDAWI and SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press – 58 mins ago

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's powerful military, sidelined last summer by the newly elected Islamist president, edged back Saturday into a political fray boiling over with tensions between secular forces and a government determined to pass a constitution enshrining a central role for religion.

A military statement warning of "disastrous" consequences should the standoff continue was widely interpreted as pushing President Mohammed Morsi to compromise and meet the opposition halfway over a draft constitution and the near-absolute powers he gave himself.

A direct military intervention to stave off bloodshed would likely enjoy the paradoxical and tacit support, at least initially, of some pro-democracy activists mortified by the authoritarian bent and Islamist ambitions of the freely elected Muslim Brotherhood-backed government.

Egypt's military, which had been the nation's de facto ruler since army officers seized power in a 1952 coup, remains the country's most powerful institution. But it has kept a low profile since Morsi ordered the retirement of its top two officers in August and canceled a constitutional declaration that gave it legislative powers when parliament's law-making chamber was dissolved by a court ruling.

The carefully worded statement appeared designed in part to show the military's growing impatience with the deepening political crisis pitting Morsi and his Islamist supporters against secular and liberal forces, including minority Christians.

It said dialogue was the "best and only" way to overcome the nation's deepening conflict. "Anything other than that (dialogue) will force us into a dark tunnel with disastrous consequences; something that we won't allow," it warned. "Failing to reach a consensus," is in the interest of neither side, it added. "The nation as a whole will pay the price."

Following its return to the barracks in June after a 16-month stint leading the country after Hosni Mubarak's ouster, the military has been busy cleaning up its image and focusing on its core task. Morsi, meanwhile, has since taking office five months ago been going out of his way to assure the generals that he has no intention of meddling in their affairs. The draft constitution hurriedly adopted by Morsi's Islamist backers also leaves the armed forces as an entity above oversight.

Whether the military wants to return to the messy business of running a nation torn by divisions and beset by political turmoil and chronic economic woes may be doubtful. However, many, in view of Saturday's statement, see the possibility of a limited and temporary intervention to save the country from civil strife if the need arises.

A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Mahmoud Ghozlan, said he saw the statement as an expression of support for Morsi, but lamented the military's return to the political fray. "We don't accept the interference of the military," he said.

Mohammed Waked, a prominent activist of the National Front for Justice and Democracy and a veteran of last year's uprising against Mubarak's rule, said any attempt by the military to return to power would initially be successful given heightened fear of violence.

"We will oppose it ... but there is a larger segment in society now that is willing to accept it more than before," he added. "It is in Morsi's hands."

Abdullah el-Sinawi, a prominent commentator close to the military, said the statement was a warning to Morsi and his Islamist backers to reach an agreement with their opponents to prevent the country's security from unraveling.

"We don't want a coup, and the military itself doesn't want to return to politics. But if it is forced to interfere to restore security, it will," el-Sinawi said. "The onus is on Morsi."

Mostafa el-Naggar, a former lawmaker and protest leader during last year's anti-Mubarak uprising, speculated that it could not have been easy for the military to issue the statement after the scathing criticism it endured for its running of the country starting from Mubarak's ouster in February, 2011 and June this year when it handed power to Morsi, the country's first civilian and freely elected president.

"It means a return to political life," el-Naggar said of the statement. "The military is saying it is still here and will interfere when necessary."

Egypt's military long enjoyed an aura of invincibility. All four presidents before Morsi hailed from the armed forces, which considers itself the ultimate guarantor of the nation's sovereignty and safety.

Army generals taking powerful jobs on retirement in the state-owned public sector and as provincial governors ensured that the military's influence extended beyond the armed forces, which have over the years built an economic empire above oversight of any kind. But its reputation was shattered in the aftermath of Mubarak's ouster.

Until Morsi came to power in June as the nation's first freely elected president, Egypt's military had been struggling with protesters accusing it of trying to stall the transition to democracy after Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February 2011.

It faced allegations of human rights violations, including torturing detainees, and scenes of elite troops beating up peaceful protesters, including women, on the streets hurt its standing as the defender of the nation.

This week's scenes of Brotherhood supporters armed with sticks carrying out military-type drills on streets close to Morsi's palace in the upscale Heliopolis district have revived suspicions that the fundamentalist group is running militias and made the prospect of an army intervention more palatable.

"The escalation of the conflict into civil strife becomes a risk to the military's interests and the country as a whole," said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert from the New York-based Century Foundation. "So, the statement is a reminder of the potential role of the military and a signal for civilians to manage the political process."

Egypt's ongoing crisis is the worst since Mubarak's ouster, with the two sides repeatedly bringing out tens of thousands of supporters on the streets often fighting with firebombs, sticks and rocks in deadly clashes. Offices of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood have been attacked, sometimes torched, by his opponents. With neither side willing to compromise and a flurry of threats of violence by radical Islamists, the specter of more and widespread violence is real.

The military's role in the ongoing crisis began Thursday with troops sealing off the area around Morsi's Cairo palace — scene of mass opposition rallies and deadly clashes — with tanks, armored vehicles and barbed wire. Images of elite Republican Guards' troops surrounding the palace area were the most high-profile troop deployment since the army handed power to Morsi in June.

The troops, however, have been anything but hostile to the opposition protesters in the area, allowing them on Friday to bypass their lines and surge ahead all the way to the walls of the palace, which they covered with anti-Morsi graffiti. Protesters also have painted anti-Morsi graffiti on the tanks and hoisted banners denouncing the president's Muslim Brotherhood on the palace walls.

The deployment, however, was received with mixed feelings— underlining the tenuous relations between the two sides and the lingering fear of a return to military rule. Some in the crowd posed with army officers for pictures, as soldiers assured them they won't let anyone harm them. But others rejected the military's reassurances, and one female protester shouted to the officers that their tanks had protesters' blood on them, a reference to a violent crackdown by the military on a protest last year.

Many protesters also heckled a small crowd that chanted "the military and the people are one hand."

Omar Abdel-Halim, a 28-year-old veteran of the 2011 uprising, says he and his comrades will reserve judgment on a possible intervention by the military.

If there is large scale bloodshed between the revolutionaries and the Islamists, he added, the army may not even be able to end it. "I think troops will just deploy to protect state institutions. They are not equipped to go after combatants on side streets and in alleys."

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/12/why-morsi-considering-martial-law-matters/59778/

Morsi Considering Enacting Martial Law

CONNOR SIMPSON | DEC 8, 2012

Things in Egypt are going to get a whole lot worse before they get any better. Presdient Mohamed Morsi is considering enacting martial law until the parliamentary elections in the spring, state-owned Al-Ahram reported Saturday.

The decision to enact martial law would give the military authority to arrest people and use force as they deemed necessary to ensure the security of the egyptian people. Protests continued Saturday over Morsi's decree giving himself executive power over the courts until a constitution and a new parliament are elected. The order for martial law was approved by the sitting parliament in their last meeting, Al-Ahram reported, but it has not taken effect yet.

A military spokesman delivered a statement on state TV Saturday urging a "serious dialogue" to try and end the conflict between the Egyptian Islamists and their secular opponents. "Dialogue is the best and sole way to reach consensus that achieves the interests of the nation and the citizens," the spokesman said. "Anything other than that puts us in a dark tunnel with drastic consequences, which is something that we will not allow." Which, when paired with the martial law report, does not sound encouraging.

Morsi attended a meeting with national figures Saturday to discuss the controversial and rushed draft constitution to be voted on next week. Unfortunately, the meeting yielded few results because it was sparsely attended by the opposition and Morsi left shortly after it started.

The protests in Egypt have taken an ugly turn recently, with the first deaths from clashes with palace security officials being reported a few days ago. Egyptians have gathered in front of Morsi's Presidential palace and in Tahrir Square for the last few weeks.

To put the news of Morsi possibly declaring martial law in context, The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick absolutely nailed it:

An elected president who spent decades opposing Mr. Mubarak’s use of martial law to detain Islamists — a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who himself spent months in jail under the “emergency law” — is poised to resort to similar tactics to control unrest and violence from secular groups. After six decades during which military-backed secular autocrats used the threat of an Islamist takeover to justify authoritarian rule, the order would bring the military into the streets to protect an elected Islamist, dashing the whispered hopes of some more secular Egyptians that the military might step in to remove Mr. Morsi.

It's the last step of his transformation into everything he promised he wouldn't be.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-president-behaves-predecessors-212046882.html

Egypt's president behaves like his predecessors

By By HAMZA HENDAWI | Associated Press – 5 hrs ago

CAIRO (AP) — The freshly scrawled graffiti depicting Mohammed Morsi as a pharaonic Saddam Hussein tells the tale of high hopes dashed with record speed: Barely six months after becoming Egypt's first democratically elected president, the Islamist is widely accused of abandoning pledges of inclusive government for doctrinaire and authoritarian ways.

Some say it should come as no surprise: heavy-handed rule has a history in Egypt and in much of the region — as do unfulfilled promises of reform.

In the past three weeks alone, Morsi has given himself near-absolute powers; placed himself above any oversight; allowed or looked the other way when his supporters set upon peaceful protesters outside his palace or besieged the nation's highest court to stop judges from issuing an unfavorable ruling; and, ominously, indicated he was spying on his foes.

Borrowing a page from his predecessors' governance manual, Morsi justified his actions by speaking, albeit cryptically, of a "conspiracy" aimed at destroying state institutions and derailing the transition to democracy. He offered no evidence to back his allegation, saying only that he would do everything he can to protect the nation.

"I see what you don't see," he told state television a week after he touched off a political crisis Nov. 22 by issuing decrees that gave him sweeping powers.

The actions of the 61-year-old, U.S.-trained engineer have a lot to do with a political system that in six decades of de facto military rule has grown accustomed to having one man with all the power concentrated in his hands. Some in Egypt argue that one-man rule is an enduring legacy of pharaonic times when the leader was treated as a god.

In Morsi's case, critics and analysts believe his actions are dictated by the powerful group he hails from, the Muslim Brotherhood, although they only have anecdotal evidence to support that contention.

"In the final analysis, he is a dictator," said analyst and former lawmaker Emad Gad. "But he is only carrying out the will of the Brotherhood after he promised to be a president for all Egyptians."

Gad and others were surprised that Morsi made the power grab so quickly.

But Gehad el-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman, dismissed charges that Morsi embraced an autocratic style of governance, emphasizing the president's popular election.

"Those who claim he is a pharaoh or a dictator need to produce proof to back their argument or be quiet," he said.

The Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest Islamist group, had been outlawed for nearly 60 years until it emerged as the country's most powerful political force following Mubarak's ouster in last year's uprising. Critics accuse the group of monopolizing power as a prelude to its longtime dream of turning Egypt into an Islamic state.

The military officers who seized power in 1952, ending three decades of a Western-style democracy under a monarch and British occupation, promised to return to the barracks after six months. Instead, they founded decades of military rule with Gamal Abdel-Nasser emerging as the country's strongman two years later after a power struggle with an older officer.

Anwar Sadat, who succeeded him in 1970, jailed his rivals a year later to consolidate his grip on power, marketing his move a "corrective revolution."

Mubarak began his 29-year rule with a series of goodwill gestures toward the opposition, ordering the release of hundreds of Sadat's critics, promising a gradual move toward democracy and pledging to step down after two terms in office. Before his ouster, his son, Gamal, was poised to succeed him.

Such transformations are found elsewhere in the region. Syria's Bashar Assad succeeded his father, Hafez, in 2000 amid high hopes that the young leader would relax the police state that was established in nearly 30 years of iron-fisted rule.

Assad did not disappoint, but the so-called "Damascus Spring" he tolerated lasted less than a year before authorities began to arrest dissidents and jail them again. Assad is now fighting for his survival in a civil war that has killed at least 40,000 Syrians since March 2011.

Even the late Moammar Gadhafi brought hopes for a better life and development to Libyans when he seized power in a 1969 coup that toppled the monarchy. He rode a wave of popular support for several years before he began ruling the North African nation as a fiefdom, with his family dividing up its vast oil wealth.

So much hope had been placed on Morsi's shoulders during his campaign and the early days of his presidency that liberals found it hard to accept his latest grab for power. Many of them voted for him in June not so much out of conviction as out of a desire to see the defeat of Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq. Morsi narrowly beat him, winning only 51 percent of the vote.

Morsi had fed these expectations by promising inclusion and equality, suggesting at one point that he might appoint a Christian as vice president. In the end, he gave the job to a Muslim judge, and the one Christian among his four assistants has quit in protest of his handling of the political crisis.

In fact, of the 17 people he named to a presidential advisory council, seven quit over the same issue. Most of those who remain on the panel are Islamists.

All those who quit, in addition to Vice President Mahmoud Mekki, said they were not consulted about the president's Nov. 22 decrees. Morsi has vowed never to infringe on the freedom of the press, but since coming to office, Egypt has seen a private TV station closed and several newspaper journalists and bloggers hauled before the courts. Brotherhood members or sympathizers have been named editors of most of the nation's 50-plus state publications, including its flagship dailies. Hundreds of Islamists are besieging a media complex on the western outskirts of Cairo to protest what they see as a hostile editorial line of the powerful, privately owned TV networks.

The spiritual leader of the Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, offered a rare glimpse of the vast influence he wields in Egypt when he criticized prosecutors for releasing most of the dozens of protesters who were arrested last week in clashes with Morsi supporters near the presidential palace. The prosecutors cited a lack of evidence in the release, but they still drew the ire of Badie, who has no official capacity in Morsi's administration.

Also Sunday, the man thought to be the Brotherhood's most powerful member, Khairat el-Shater, indicated in statements on TV that he had voice recordings of individuals allegedly plotting to destabilize Morsi's rule. El-Shater did not identify the individuals and did not say how or why he had access to the recordings. Like Badie, he has no official role in government.

Morsi and his Brotherhood supporters, however, must contend with a very different Egypt than his predecessors — one in which nearly every adult has a strong opinion on topics such as political leaders, the economy and how to reform the police force.

"He has made a huge mistake when he did not accurately read the Egyptian population in terms of whether or not they will accept what is essentially a return to authoritarian rule," said Tarek Radwan, a Middle East expert at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center in Washington. "He saw himself as having 'revolutionary legitimacy,' which allows him to take the drastic steps he did. He does not have that mandate."

Evidence of the new Egypt has been on display since the uprising that toppled Mubarak began on Jan. 25, 2011, with wave after wave of demonstrations, strikes and sit-ins that at times made the country look almost ungovernable.

In the past three weeks, tens of thousands of Morsi opponents have rallied in Cairo and elsewhere against the decrees and a draft constitution that they see to be favoring Islamists, restricting civil liberties and giving clerics a say over legislation.

And then there is all the graffiti — the unflattering caricatures and slogans against Morsi and the Brotherhood that the protesters have spray-painted on the walls outside the presidential palace.