BREAKING: US Negotiating Resignation of Mubarak

Latest: White House, Egypt Discuss Plan for Mubarak’s Exit

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately, turning over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military, administration officials and Arab diplomats said Thursday.

President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, and State Department spokesman PJ Crowly all took time on TV today to express American concern for use of overt use of violence, suppression, and intimidation of reporters, legitimate protest, and human rights groups.  Reporters have been beaten and ‘disappeared’.  Green Vans belonging to the State Police were caught speeding up, then running over protesters on their way to the Square. (WARNING: Video below shows this.)There is increasing evidence that the pro-Mubarak protesters are themselves state police and paid thugs.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday that the violence was carried out by “elements close to the government or ruling party.”

“I don’t think we have a sense of how far up the chain it went,” he noted.

There are no images coming out of journalists in Egypt.  Nile TV–the government propaganda channel–has been blaming foreign forces for the protests which is leading to attacks on nonEgyptians all over Egypt.  Nile TV journalist Shahira Amin has quit.  She’s joined the protesters.

There are increasing calls from the International Community to the Government of Egypt for restraint.  Here’s a link to an article from, of all places, China.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday condemned the violence, saying attacks on peaceful demonstrators are unacceptable and must stop.

“We call upon the government of Egypt to take steps to ensure that its citizens are free to demonstrate safely,” Rudd said in a statement.

“The disturbing events in Tahrir Square underline the urgent need for a negotiated and peaceful solution to this political crisis.”

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who was on a visit to Britain, Wednesday urged all sides to show restraint during the unprecedented nine-day-old movement.

“I am deeply concerned by the continuing violence in Egypt. I once again urge restraint to all the sides,” Ban said after a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Ban also said that any attack on peaceful demonstrators in Egypt was unacceptable and that he strongly condemns it.

In Athens, Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas called on Egyptians to exercise restraint.

Egyptian protesters continue to pour onto the streets.  Friday protests are being characterized as a “final” Friday indicating the hope that  Friday will be the day Mubarak will quit.

One man, a 30-year-old lawyer named Tareq Hussein Ali, whose sweatshirt was so bloodied it looked like a red-brown bib, ventured his analysis. “Egypt will never be as it used to be,” he said.

…

“Last night showed that the government is at the last of their options,” Ali said Thursday afternoon, sitting on a grass patch in the middle of Tahrir – which means “liberation” – where dozens of protesters were resting under anti-government banners.

Tahrir on Thursday resembled a bustling open-air triage center. With businesses locked up long ago, young women in head scarves served water to demonstrators from inside a Hardee’s while weary-looking men sporting bandages dozed on the doorsteps of travel agencies, too many to count.

At every entrance to the square, protesters had set up security cordons backed up by neatly arranged lines of stones, in case of another attack. As in previous days, the Egyptian army presence was thin, just a few dozen soldiers looking on, and no uniformed police were in sight.

In a back alley, volunteers set up an emergency medical clinic, where doctors in dirtied white coats re-dressed wounds from the previous night. Hussein Dawood, a physician, said that more than 3,000 people had been injured, a figure that far exceeded the government’s count.

“We want the whole world to know that the Egyptian president organized an operation against his own people,” Ali said, “as if he was in a war.”

When Ali left his Cairo home Jan. 25 to join the first day of the protests, he told his parents: “I will come home victorious, or you will receive my dead body.” Late Wednesday night, after nearly 10 hours of running battles in and around the square, he was on the front lines near the museum alongside scores of young male demonstrators.

After days of watching the coverage I think I can safely say that there are very few people left standing that support Mubarak with the exception of Fox News, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and others representing the extremely right wing element in the US.  It’s pretty obvious that instead of looking for communists under the bed that we are now to look for stylized, extremist  ‘Islamists’.  In fact, we’re now seeing some weirdish melting of Islam, Shari’a, socialism, leftists and communism.  How desperately deluded to you have to be to push that one?

“Any honest assessment on 9/11 this year, ten years after the attack, I think will have to conclude that we’re slowly losing the war,” Gingrich said. “We’re losing the war because there are madrassahs around the planet teaching hatred. We’re losing the war because the network of terrorists is bigger, not smaller.”

Gingrich pointed to the unrest in Egypt as posing a potential new threat to American security.

“There’s a real possibility in a few weeks, if we’re unfortunate, that Egypt will join Iran, and join Lebanon, and join Gaza, and join the things that are happening that are extraordinarily dangerous to us,” Gingrich said.

The right wing buzz word of the day is “Muslim Brotherhood” which is now seen to have tentacles that reach–according to professional wacko Glenn Beck–to some unknown place in US Democratic Circles. Here is an example from right wing extremist Frank Gaffney on Sean Hannity, professional bully.

The Muslim Brotherhood is often a target of right-wing pundits like anti-sharia crusader Frank Gaffney, who last month claimed the group had infiltrated CPAC. And as the single largest organized opposition group in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as a target for the right as the protests continue.

On Hannity last night, Gaffney argued that “the Obama Administration’s policies are being viewed through, and actually articulated and implemented through influence operations that the Muslim Brotherhood itself is running in our own country.”

“You cannot possibly get your strategy right, you cannot execute it effectively if you don’t know that the enemy is actually giving you advice on how to proceed,” he said.

I mentioned this earlier, but I’m personally having to de-friend people on Facebook from people perpetuating this obvious right wing paranoia and hatred.  I’m not sure how any one could be following the coverage these last days and not realize that Mubarak’s behavior is unacceptable and that these are legitimate calls for democratic change from widespread and mainstream elements in Egypt.  I have to admit that most of these people have also been serious Sarah Palin apologists also.  We had removed blogs links from these people earlier this month for some of that behavior.  I’ve had to completely remove contact with them after the posting of some really hateful right wing posts to FaceBook.

There are legitimate concerns about the treatment of women by all fundamentalist religions.  However, it is becoming increasingly clear to most of us that these groups have jumped the shark and are motivated by ignorance and bigotry.  The complaints and shout outs I have seen recently for the Beck idea that some “caliphate” takeover is happening is clearly rooted in racism and extremist views of Islam.  Many of these are aimed not only at Egyptians but the President of the United States.  This does not reflect well for the values traditionally held by this country.  I personally find it deeply disturbing and frightening that these people are supporting a military dictatorship that is disappearing and brutalizing US journalists (more than 70), human rights activists, diplomats,  and–as BB pointed out today–US academics.

Read the rest of this entry »