[I got this late last week from my dad, who is in Amman]: It is quite apparent that Mubarak had been sacrificed by the US administration to save the allied military. The military had to be taken kicking and screaming to, at last today, to oust the Mubarak installed shafic government. Can you imagine that the shithead Abul Geit was thrown out only to day as the Shafic govt was sacked.
It is evident to me that the military will continue to stall on real changes and continue this turtle pace cosmetic reform and will try to hand over the least possible amount of reforms, trying to keep the uprising semi content. The uprising has not properly focused its demands and never developed into a revolution that exactly knows what it wants and how to get there. It is going to be a long long delayed implementation of social reforms and freedoms before the upper rich Egyptian class will give up any of its privileges and power, trying to hold to gains acquired during the Mubarak regime.
It is a known by now that the Egyptian Islamic brotherhood is in bed with the military regime. Other opposition parties that were licensed are prone to make deals with the military. It looks like that the military is speeding up the upcoming election in an intent to give the brotherhood and few others the advantage over the Egyptian-youth leadership, especially that the brotherhood is the better organized and better mobilized, than the burgeoning uprising.
Re Libya..Some satellite commentators are pointing out that the US has been for some time on excellent terms with Gaddafi, even at the level of intelligence sharing, and as such are not serious about ousting Gaddafi, though they will continue to make limited moves pretending to; and Gaddafi will continue to claim that Libya's enemies are Al Qaeda and the west!! The theater of the absurd.!
It is evident to me that the military will continue to stall on real changes and continue this turtle pace cosmetic reform and will try to hand over the least possible amount of reforms, trying to keep the uprising semi content. The uprising has not properly focused its demands and never developed into a revolution that exactly knows what it wants and how to get there. It is going to be a long long delayed implementation of social reforms and freedoms before the upper rich Egyptian class will give up any of its privileges and power, trying to hold to gains acquired during the Mubarak regime.
It is a known by now that the Egyptian Islamic brotherhood is in bed with the military regime. Other opposition parties that were licensed are prone to make deals with the military. It looks like that the military is speeding up the upcoming election in an intent to give the brotherhood and few others the advantage over the Egyptian-youth leadership, especially that the brotherhood is the better organized and better mobilized, than the burgeoning uprising.
Re Libya..Some satellite commentators are pointing out that the US has been for some time on excellent terms with Gaddafi, even at the level of intelligence sharing, and as such are not serious about ousting Gaddafi, though they will continue to make limited moves pretending to; and Gaddafi will continue to claim that Libya's enemies are Al Qaeda and the west!! The theater of the absurd.!
McCain Says Human Rights Concerns Were Behind his “Interesting Time” with Gadafi as he Refuses Questions on Torture and Manning
Q: “You tweeted in 2009: ‘Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his “ranch” in Libya – interesting meeting with an interesting man.’ What did you find interesting about Qadhafi?”
McCain: “Well I found it interesting that he was one of the more erratic individuals I have ever seen. He reacted very unfavorably to our conversations concerning human rights. And it was at that time that there was the talk of the release of the fellow [an apparent reference to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi] who was apparently almost dead, he’s had a miraculous recovery apparently. We’ve made it clear, as we have in other countries, our advocacy and support of human rights.”
This claim of concern for human rights led directly to my second question, about the apparent torture of Bradley Manning (the alleged source for the WikiLeaks cables that have helped destabilize tyrannical regimes) who is being subjected to solitary confinement and forced nudity. But McCain refused to take the question — “I’d like to take the next question. I’d like to take the next question. I’d like to take the next question” — insisting on giving the floor to another reporter. I attempted repeatedly to ask about Manning, but McCain refused. He schmoozed with tourists and a Ben Franklin look-alike at the Newseum as I periodically asked “Is Private Manning being tortured?” I talked briefly to McCain’s assistant, noting the irony of McCain’s silence given that he has written regarding his experience in Vietnam: “It’s an awful thing, solitary. … It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.” The assistant confirmed that McCain has said nothing about Manning.
(As for the claim that the U.S. was pressuring Gaddafi on human rights, see Andy Worthington’s recent piece: “Revolution in Libya: Protestors Respond to Gaddafi’s Murderous Backlash with Remarkable Courage; US and UK Look Like the Hypocrites They Are,” where he writes about the al-Libi case and other cases pointing to collusion between the U.S. and Libya on torture. Stakeout had asked Colin Powell about the al-Libi case in May 2009 — a few months before McCain met with Gaddafi: “Powell Denies Knowledge of Torture-War Link.”)
Kerry: Authorization for No-Fly Zone “Would be Better”
Following up on another reporters question on Libya and no-fly zones, Stakeout asked Kerry: “Does the U.S. need authorization by the Security Council or by the Congress to do a no-fly zone?”
Kerry: “It would be better to have that authorization. It’s always better to have some sort of international approval. And frankly to have allies and others taking part in the effort, I hope that can be achieved.”
Kerry Backs Claims that Manning’s Treatment for His Own Good
Noting that Kerry promised constituency to look into the Manning’s treatment, Stakeout asked: “What are you doing on the Bradley Manning case?”
Kerry: “There are concerns about what is happening, but a strong argument is being made that they’re trying to preserve his safety, they don’t want him harming himself, and using his own clothing to hang himself, or do something like that. That’s happened in prison before.”
Q: “Why the solitary confinement, if they’re –?” (See: Glenn Greenwald’s “Bradley Manning’s forced nudity to occur daily.”)
Kerry: “To protect him, I think, and there are some legitimate reasons to believe that that may be true also. But I think that a lot of people are now reviewing this very, very closely, people have weighed in, myself included, I think that analyses are being made. There was a big article in the newspapers today examining it. And I’m convinced that there will be real scrutiny with respect to that issue.”
Question: “Are you planning to visit him, he’s like 30 miles from here.”
Kerry: “It’s not my job, no. I’m not planning to visit him.”
Kerry Acknowledges Israel’s Nuclear Weapons
Kerry claimed regarding the Iraq war: “I didn’t vote for the Iraq war. I voted to give the president authority that he misused and abused. And from the moment he used it, I opposed that.” [If true, this would mean that Kerry is claiming that he opposed Bush's use of force in Iraq in March of 2003. Well worth confirming as it would have been politically devastating to do so at that time.]
Q: “Do you know that Israel has a nuclear weapons program?”
Kerry: “Sure. Everybody — it’s common knowledge and commonly understood.”
Q: “Why won’t the administration acknowledge that?”
Kerry: “I don’t know what the administration policy is on that.”
Stakeout has asked a number of officials about Israel’s nuclear weapons. Negroponte, Edwards, Pawlenty, Cornyn, Indyk, Pence, Pickering all refused to answer meaningfully. Finegold and Gingrich gave affirmative responses, but wavered. Kerry is the first to outright acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons, but it’s rather remarkable that he states he doesn’t know what the administration policy is given that he is chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
– Sam Husseini
Video production by Alchymedia
[originally published on Washington Stakeout on March 6, 2011; posted on posthaven Nov. 13, 2015]
Chukwuma Agubokwu, Wilmer Wilson and Kunj Patel explore their different performance art.
Irony is CNN disinformer Sanjay Gupta jabbering about bipolar disorder. Sure mass media innocent of culpability in psychological ailments. When I asked the librarian, expecting she would voice her displeasure about the teevee in the library, she half-mockingly talked of setting up her barcalounger infront of it.
McKeldin Library, University of Maryland.
I saw the tail end of a "performance" of this today at the University of Maryland. Patel pours rice in his shirt and then stabs it with a knife, the rice gushing out. Was powerful. Reminded me of this: "17,368 farm suicides in 2009." Photo from arhu.
Contrast these two pieces. One by a big name journalist (Christiane Amanpour) for a major corporation (Disney/ABC) with a cast of thousands of Libyans in the background who get to speak in a sentance fragment.
The other for The Real News by Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk. The journalists don't even appear on screen or do a voice over. They just let you know what Egyptian workers are saying, thinking, feeling. [Disclosure: I spent some time with Philip a year ago in Cairo and consider him a friend]
More than WikiLeaks, more than my attempts at tough questioning of politicos, more than other strong interviews The Real News and other independent media do, this is real journalism.
Journalism
"Journalism"
