Egypt's Triumph, and Updates on Yemen, Algeria, Tunisia, Bahrain

[the_future_modernes]

Al Jazeera English

Egypt's remarkable 18 days {WARNING: Scenes of police violence.}

The rise and fall of Hosni Mubarak

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak resigned as president and handed control to the military on Friday, after 30 years in power, bowing to a historic 18-day wave of pro-democracy demonstrations by hundreds of thousands.

Mubarak, 82, had flown with his family from Cairo to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a ruling party official said.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher takes a look at how the former military man rose to power, and how it all began to slip away.

Al Arabiya

Sharm el-Sheikh: Mubarak's Red Sea Bolt Hole

The Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, bolt hole for president Hosni Mubarak who stepped down Friday, is both a popular tourist haunt and favored place to showcase Egypt's role as Middle East peacebroker.

Mubarak was known for showing off development in the area, where he has a holiday home, to foreign guests he invited there for political meetings and conferences.
Tucked between the mountains of the Sinai desert and waters of the Red Sea, the glitzy strip of golden beaches, hotels and casinos, diving resorts and golf courses attracted about a quarter of 12.5 million tourists to Egypt in 2009.

...


Sharm el-Sheikh, dubbed Egypt's own Las Vegas in among the Bedouin villages of the Sinai, has also been Mubarak's location of choice for Middle East peace summits.

In 2002, UNESCO -- the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- honored Sharm el-Sheikh as a "City of Peace."MORE

The Wall Street Journal

The Secret Rally that Sparked an Uprising: Cairo Protest Organizers Describe Ruses Used to Gain Foothold Against Police; the Candy-Store Meet That Wasn't on Facebook basically the untold story of how the protesters first took Tahrir Square.

Reuters

The Great Debate: The experts were wrong, again

In 2003, renowned foreign correspondent, Georgie Anne Geyer, wrote a book titled “Tunisia: A Journey Through a Country That Works.” On one of her many visits to the country, Geyer sat in a cafe in Sidi Bou Said — the same city, ironically enough, where the Jasmine Revolution was sparked. For several hours she relaxed and was “as happy as the black and white cats that were leaping from rooftop to cafe and from cafe to exquisite doorway in the magical city.” Charming.

Tunisians were “admiring all the lovely things in the shops and lingering over coffee and drinks in the picturesque little restaurants and bars. I looked, but I did not see any revolutionaries marching down the streets promising the perfect society, nor any utopian dreamers who would either be crushed by the tanks of the righteous when the revolution came or be destroyed by their own grandiosity. I saw no-one who looked even a bit afraid and no-one who looked remotely persecuted.”

Geyer saw no revolutionaries, no fear and no persecution for the same reason that Walter Duranty saw no famine in the Soviet Union in the 1930s — he did not want to see it. There is no limit to man’s ability to deceive himself. Tunisia was a “country that worked” — until one day it didn’t. Simmering beneath the facade of stability were decades of repression and marginalization. Tunisians loathed the corrupt and pompous gang that ruled over them.

All one really needed to know about Tunsia is that it was ruled by just two men since its founding 55 years ago. Ben Ali treated his people as children, unworthy of political freedom and incapable of choosing their leader. So did Mubarak who eliminated opposition and ruled for three decades. Both dictators fought jihadists and so the West showered them with praise. Professors, pundits and the press were all too eager to explain in exquisite, lofty rhetoric why Arabs weren’t quite ready for pesky democratic rights and inherently unstable liberty.

“[T]he Tunisia experience,” wrote Geyer in 2003, “spoke a daring truth — that not all people are immediately ready for democracy … [Tunisians] didn’t need any revolutions, nor even any rebellions; and unless every indicator was wrong, Tunisians were still willing to give their leaders a long political leash as they continued to make their way through the minefields of development and change.” What she ignored, along with almost everyone else, is simple truth that the number of double thinkers in closed societies is almost always higher than we imagine and the number of true believers lower.MORE

Pro Publica

Egypt Post-Mubarak: Key Facts on the Military’s Long-Standing Role

Feb 7 As Egyptian Army Cracks Down, Leaked Cables Shed Light on Its Gov’t Loyalties, Internal Rifts

Feb 5 State Department Approved Export of U.S.-Made Tear Gas to Egyptian Gov’t


IPS News

Arab Women Lead the Charge

CAIRO, Feb 11, 2011 (IPS) - Asmaa Mahfouz, a 26-year-old Egyptian woman who two weeks ago had only one name, now boasts at least three. These include "A woman worth 100 men", "The girl who crushed Mubarak" and "The leader of the Egyptian revolution".

Mahfouz, who began online political activism in 2008, is now credited for launching a video call that sparked the revolution against the autocratic military rule of U.S.-backed President Hosni Mubarak.

Mahfouz is a member of a new lot of Arab women activists who are shedding their typical conservative image to lead or inspire a wave of pro-democracy protests that are reshaping the political future of several countries in the Arab world.

Mahfouz created a YouTube.com video in mid-January (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgjIgMdsEuk) in which she urged "all young men and women" to leave their computer screens and converge on the streets of Egypt to protest the brutal and corrupt rule of the 82-year old Mubarak.

"I am a woman and I am going out on Jan. 25 and am not afraid of the police," she said a few days before the unrest broke out. "For the men who brag of their toughness, why exactly are you not joining us to go out and demonstrate?" MORE

People Power Pushes Mubarak Out

Gap Widens Between U.S. and Arab World


The Brotherhood Bogeyman


Global Voices:
Egypt: The Moment of Triumph

YEMEN

Yemen: Protests Continue Away from International Media Eyes

With the entire world watching Egypt as it celebrates the uprooting of its dictator, Yemenis are calling for help and the world's media attention.

On Twitter, the calls came loud and clear. A rally started in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, in celebration of the ousting of Hosni Mubarak. Soon, it turned into an anti-Saleh protest, calling for an end of Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule.

Police surrounded the protesters, and there were reports of fire shots. Wounded protesters, taken to hospitals, were arrested - at least that is what I understood from a frenzy of tweets.

To add to the confusion, and in the absence of many citizen journalists in Yemen, there seems to be unrest in Aden, to the South, and in Taiz.

Here are some of the reactions I have been able to gather from Twitter. The last the three tweets list tweeps reporting on Yemen, some from the ground - voices we will have to watch closely to figure out if Yemen will go Tunisia's and Egypt's way or not:MORE

Protests Held in All of Yemen's Provinces

Thousands of protesters, including youths, human rights activists, journalists, and lawyers took to the streets in Yemen's provinces in joy after the announcement of the Egyptian President Mubarak's fall.

In Sana'a, tens of thousands of demonstrations celebrated in the streets, saluting the Egyptian people’s move, and calling for Yemeni people to revolt against the Yemeni government.

Protesters chanted ant-government slogans, demanding President Saleh to step down.
In return, Yemeni security forces intercepted protesters on their ways to the Egyptian embassy stopped them to reach the embassy.

In Aden, Taiz, Hadramuot, and all provinces thousands of protesters staged to the street hailing the fall of the Egyptian President.

On the other hand, youths and activists called on Facebook for Yemeni people to hold a rally in order to protest against the Yemeni regime.MORE

YEMEN: Protests revived in 'Friday of Rage'

About 3,000 people took to the streets across southern Yemen in a "Friday of Rage," demanding secession from the north, but heavily deployed security forces quickly stamped out protests, residents told Reuters.

The protests come after a wave of anti-government rallies spread across Yemen during the past two weeks, inspired by revolts that ousted Tunisia's former president and the uprising in Egypt that threatened President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.

"Revolution, revolution for the South," protesters chanted in the flashpoint cities of Aden, Dalea and Zinjibar. -- Molly Hennessy-Fiske
MORE

As Mubarak resigns, Yemenis call for a revolution of their own
Thousands of secessionists protested in Yemen today in an example of how disparate movements across the Middle East are tapping the anti-regime fervor for their own disparate aims. [Uuuhhh. What the fuck else would they be doing exactly? They DO have different situations do they not?]

Aden, Yemen
As jubilant protesters in Cairo celebrated the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Yemenis were calling for a revolution of their own.


In the southern port city of Yemen, protesters marched through the district of Mansoura, waving the old flag of South Arabia and chanting, "Revolution, revolution for the south."

Just hours before, security forces had fired live ammunition during a protest on the same street, according to eyewitnesses. Hundreds more staged ad hoc demonstrations throughout Aden, as well as in other cities across Yemen's south.

"After Hosni Mubarak, Yemen is going to be next. I know it," said Zahra Saleh, a prominent secession activist watching the scenes in Cairo on TV in a small Aden office.

"Now our revolution has to be stronger," declared Ali Jarallah, a leader in the southern separatist movement sitting with Ms. Saleh on the low cushions of a diwan.

Divergent aims of Yemeni protesters

The Yemeni southern secessionist movement is not calling for political reforms, an end to corruption or even for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, as the political opposition is doing in the capital of Sanaa. They are pushing for the end of what they view is northern Yemeni occupation and the restoration of an independent southern Yemeni state.

Though both derive momentum from the recent revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, the divergent aims of the Yemeni protesters represent another example of how anti-regime factions across the Arab world our shaping revolutionary energy to serve their own agendas. [ya don't say!]MORE

Yemen Begins Trial in Absentia for Southern Movement's Leader

A Yemeni security court in Aden began on Tuesday a trial in absentia for Southern Movement's leader, Shalal Ali Shia on charges of inciting and targeting security and stability in the society.
The prosecutor accused Shalal of inciting and provking people in the south provinces to revolt against Yemeni government.

Salah was also convicted of holding demonstrations called for returning the independent state of the south, which united with the north in 1990.
Last year, a Yemeni court specialized in the cases of terrorism and state security in Aden sentenced to death, Fares Abdullah Saleh, 25, the main suspect behind bombing of Al-Whadah sports club in Sheikh Othman district, Aden, which killed at least four people, and wounded 14 others on October 11.

People in southern Yemen, home to most Yemeni oil facilities, complain that northerners have abused a 1990 agreement uniting the country to grab resources and discriminate against them.MORE

In his first Appearing after Mubark's Fall, President Saleh Announces new Reforms

President Ali Abdullah Saleh chaired on Friday evening an expanded meeting with the National Defense Council, political leaders and the security committee.
This meeting came after Egyptian President Mobark's resignation in which he handed his authorities to the Egyptian Military Council peacefully after the call of the of Egyptian people to step down.

President Saleh discussed several issues regarding economic reforms and the efforts of construction and modernization of the armed forces as well as issues related to improving the wages of government staff and personnel of the armed and security forces.
He also approved new measures to launch the financial allowances for government employees, following the application of the 3rd phase of the strategy of wages and salaries in order to improve their living conditions.

President Saleh endorsed necessary measures to reduce public expenditures of all government facilities and stop purchasing any accessories or building any unnecessary buildings, giving priority to equip the completed buildings and facilities.

During the meeting he stressed the need to combat tax evasion and take legal action against taxes and customs duties evaders.MORE

ALGERIA


Algeria Moves to stave off Unrest

Opposition groups say thousands of police drafted in to surround capital a day ahead of planned pro-democracy protests.

Thousands of police are reportedly being drafted into the Algerian capital ahead of planned pro-democracy marches, opposition groups have said.

Said Sadi, the head of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), said authorities were moving to prevent Saturday's protests in Algiers from taking place.

"Trains have been stopped and other public transport will be as well," he told the AFP news agency.

According to Sadi, around 10,000 police officers were coming into reinforce the 20,000 that blocked the last protest staged on January 22, when five people were killed and more than 800 hurt in clashes.

Attempts to appease

The latest rally is being organised by the National Co-ordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD), a three-week-old umbrella group of opposition parties, civil society movements and unofficial unions inspired by the mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt.

Demonstrators in the oil-rich nation have been protesting over the last few months against unemployment, high food costs, poor housing and corruption - similar issues that fuelled the uprisings in other north African nations.

At least 12 people have set themselves alight in protest against the government since January, four of those dying.

Earlier this month, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president, said he would lift emergency powers, address unemployment and allow democratic marches to take place in the country, in a bid to stave off unrest.

However, protests in Algiers remain banned.MORE

Algeria police try to stifle Egypt-inspired protest

Widespread unrest in Algeria could have implications for the world economy because it is a major oil and gas exporter, but many analysts say an Egypt-style revolt is unlikely because the government can use its energy wealth to placate most grievances.

"We are ready for the march," said Mohsen Belabes, a spokesman for the small RCD opposition party which is one of the organizers of the protest. "It's going to be a great day for democracy in Algeria."

A heavy police presence is routine in Algeria to counter the threat of attacks by al Qaeda insurgents, but many times the usual numbers were already in place hours before the start of the protest at 11:00 a.m. (1000 GMT).

At May 1 Square, the starting point for the planned march not far from the city's Mediterranean port, at least 15 police vans, jeeps and buses were lined up. A similar number were in a nearby side-street outside the city's Mustapha hospital.MORE

Algerians say they want change but not chaos

Many Algerians believe their country needs new people at the helm to restore hope and create jobs, but change must be smooth because after years of Islamist strife in which 200,000 died they cannot face more turmoil.

Algerians have watched with fascination the revolts in Egypt and neighboring Tunisia, and opposition groups say they will defy a police ban and hold a protest march in the capital on Saturday inspired by the popular uprisings elsewhere.

But so far there are few indications that the planned protest, organized by a coalition of civil society groups, some trade unionists and small political parties, has captured the imagination of people in the street.

Change yes, chaos no," said Aicha Chikoun, a 48-year-old employee at a post office in central Algiers.

"We must never forget the years of blood and tears during the 1990s when hundreds of people were killed and beheaded daily," she told Reuters.

Algeria plunged into chaos in 1992 after the military-backed government scrapped a legislative election which a radical Islamist party was poised to win. According to independent estimates, 200,000 people were killed in subsequent violence.

"There are not enough coffins," Algerians used to say as the death toll climbed at the peak of the war.MORE

TUNISIA

Feb 1 Tunisia protests against Ben Ali left 200 dead, says UN

At least 219 people died during the protests that toppled Tunisia's President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali last month, a UN team has said.

Team leader Bacre Waly Ndiaye said this figure included 72 people who died during prison riots.

The government previously said that 78 people had died, although the opposition said the figure was higher.

Mr Ndiaye was speaking at the end of a week-long human rights team investigation into the unrest.

He added that the figure was not final and the UN would continue its investigations.

Earlier reports that a synagogue had been set on fire in the southern city of Ghabes had proved to be false, Agence France-Presse news agency said.MORE

The Great Debate: The experts were wrong, again

In 2003, renowned foreign correspondent, Georgie Anne Geyer, wrote a book titled “Tunisia: A Journey Through a Country That Works.” On one of her many visits to the country, Geyer sat in a cafe in Sidi Bou Said — the same city, ironically enough, where the Jasmine Revolution was sparked. For several hours she relaxed and was “as happy as the black and white cats that were leaping from rooftop to cafe and from cafe to exquisite doorway in the magical city.” Charming.

Tunisians were “admiring all the lovely things in the shops and lingering over coffee and drinks in the picturesque little restaurants and bars. I looked, but I did not see any revolutionaries marching down the streets promising the perfect society, nor any utopian dreamers who would either be crushed by the tanks of the righteous when the revolution came or be destroyed by their own grandiosity. I saw no-one who looked even a bit afraid and no-one who looked remotely persecuted.” [what the fuck!!! Did this jackass seriously expect people to say what they really thought in a closed society??? And she is an EXPERT?!?!!??]

Geyer saw no revolutionaries, no fear and no persecution for the same reason that Walter Duranty saw no famine in the Soviet Union in the 1930s — he did not want to see it. There is no limit to man’s ability to deceive himself. Tunisia was a “country that worked” — until one day it didn’t. Simmering beneath the facade of stability were decades of repression and marginalization. Tunisians loathed the corrupt and pompous gang that ruled over them.

All one really needed to know about Tunsia is that it was ruled by just two men since its founding 55 years ago. Ben Ali treated his people as children, unworthy of political freedom and incapable of choosing their leader. So did Mubarak who eliminated opposition and ruled for three decades. Both dictators fought jihadists and so the West showered them with praise. Professors, pundits and the press were all too eager to explain in exquisite, lofty rhetoric why Arabs weren’t quite ready for pesky democratic rights and inherently unstable liberty.

“[T]he Tunisia experience,” wrote Geyer in 2003, “spoke a daring truth — that not all people are immediately ready for democracy … [Tunisians] didn’t need any revolutions, nor even any rebellions; and unless every indicator was wrong, Tunisians were still willing to give their leaders a long political leash as they continued to make their way through the minefields of development and change.” [blink.blinkblink. What a bloody ignoramus.] What she ignored, along with almost everyone else, is simple truth that the number of double thinkers in closed societies is almost always higher than we imagine and the number of true believers lower.MORE

BAHRAIN

King orders BD1,000 for all Bahraini families

MANAMA: His Majesty King Hamad has issued directives for BD1,000 to be paid to each Bahraini family.

The Royal gesture is a recognition of the loyal Bahraini people who overwhelmingly endorsed the National Action Charter, the Royal Court announced yesterday.

It marks the 10th anniversary of the charter - an event in the kingdom's modern history that has resulted in, over the last decade, numerous political, economic and social reforms from which all Bahrainis have profited.

The payments will be made after necessary legal measures have been taken, the Royal Court said. Well-to-do families willing to waive the payments for the benefit of needy families will be highly appreciated, it said.MORE