02/3/11

Obama, Code Pink and Egypt: ‘There Are No Coincidences in Politics’

By: Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King
The Radio Patriot

As the cliche goes, there are no coincidences in politics. Obama fundraiser group Code Pink just happened to have arrived in Cairo last week for the group’s ninth visit there in two years as part of its campaign to undermine the Mubarak government and help Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza.

Code Pink and the media are trying to portray the leftist group’s “sudden” appearance in Cairo Wednesday as an act of courageous support for a democratic revolution. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Code Pink protests the Mubarak government in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. February 2, 2011.

Code Pink has a well-documented history of working to overthrow American allies while propping up anti-American leftist governments and terrorist regimes.

In fact, the group was founded in late 2002 to help keep the socialist Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein in power. Code Pink even traveled to Baghdad in February 2003 as guests of the tyrannical terrorist to lobby the world to keep Saddam Hussein in power.

Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin donates blood to Saddam Hussein’s government in Baghdad, Iraq, February 5, 2003. Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images/Life Magazine

Since then, Code Pink has worked to support the communist dictatorship of the Castro brothers in Cuba, the terrorist regime of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the government of Fidel Castro wannabe Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The group has visited each of these nations as guests of their respective governments.

Code Pink has also met with various terrorist groups including Hamas, the Taliban and Iraqi “insurgents.” Code Pink has even acted as a messenger between terrorists and President Barack Obama.

Last year Code Pink invited the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood to “join us in cleansing our country.”

In January 2007 Code Pink traveled to Cuba to wage a propaganda campaign, aided by the Cuban government, that called for the closure of the United States terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo. The Ladies in White, a persecuted human rights group comprised of wives and mothers of Cuban democracy activists held in the Castros’ gulags, wrote an open letter beseeching Cindy Sheehan, who accompanied Code Pink to Cuba, to inspect Cuba’s prisons for human rights violations.

Code Pink interceded on Sheehan’s behalf and blew off las Damas de Blanco.

The year before, in January 2006, Code Pink met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Obama fundraiser Jodie Evans described Chavez as “a doll.”

Cindy Sheehan, Jodie Evans, Hugo Chavez, Medea Benjamin, Caracas, Venzuela, January 28, 2006. Photo by Code Pink

In the summer of 2009, Code Pink made no effort to travel to Tehran to support Iranian democracy activists protesting the stolen election that reelected Ahmadinejad president. How could they when just months earlier Code Pink had visited Tehran and Qom as personal guests of Ahmadinejad?

In contrast, that same summer when the Hugo Chavez ally President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras was forced from office after the nation’s Supreme Court ruled he had violated the constitution by trying to stay in power past his term, Code Pink went to his aid in Honduras.

In the summer of 2008 when Russia waged war on Georgia, Code Pink snottily taunted critics who challenged the so-called antiwar group to protest the invasion with the snarky post, “Yes, we’ll get right on that” to explain their inaction to defend the American ally.

In December 2007 when American ally President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan was under pressure to leave office, Code Pink traveled to Pakistan to help America’s enemies increase the pressure on Musharraf. The Pakistanis rightly tossed the interlopers out of the country.

Since 2009 Code Pink has been leading an international campaign to get a blockade lifted that was imposed by Egypt and Israel after Hamas was elected to rule Gaza.

One year ago, Code Pink was in Cairo with former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn agitating against the Mubarak government and its decision to limit the amount of aid and activists it would allow in Gaza.

Code Pink protested in the very same Tahrir Square that has become famous the past two weeks.

Code Pink brags on its Web site that its protests in Cairo helped inspire Egyptians to rise up against Mubarak.

When CODEPINK was in Cairo for the Gaza Freedom March last year, we led and participated in small, peaceful protests that were set upon by hundreds of riot police at the behest of repressive Mubarak regime.

But now there has been a seismic shift. There are not 50 people rallying in Cairo, but hundreds of thousands protesting across the nation. Dozens have been killed; hundreds have been wounded.

But the Egyptian people will not be turned back. They feel their power and are determined to seize the moment.

For those who question Code Pink’s involvement in the protests to overthrow Mubarak, this report from Cairo should put that to rest.

Later Sunday afternoon one amazing event after another continues to unfold. When we left the hotel early in the afternoon, we met a human rights activist/reporter that Medea knew who invited us to come to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Justice, which he said was at the center of the organization of the protests. (This Center was the organizer of the April 9th Movement protests in 2008). We went into an unprepossessing building in a narrow street, climbed up about six flights of stairs and came into a room that was filled with young organizers/activists. We met with Nada Saddek, a middle aged woman who is a key person at the center…

Code Pink does not care about Egyptian democracy. Code Pink’s goal is to overthrow an American ally that has helped keep the peace with Israel and been a bulwark against Islamist radicals.

What is interesting is that despite the apparent opposition in positions on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Code Pink and President Barack Obama are amazingly in sync. Obama wants Mubarak to go. So does Code Pink. Obama wanted Zelaya to stay in power. So did Code Pink. Obama hobnobs with Hugo Chavez, so does Code Pink. Obama wants to close Guantanamo and is easing travel restrictions on Cuba, which mirrors Code Pink’s positions. Obama is waging war on Big Oil, so is Code Pink. Obama opposed liberating Iraq, so did Code Pink. Obama wants our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan soon regardless of the effect, so does Code Pink.

It’s no wonder that one of Obama’s early supporters and key fundraisers was Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans.

Obama bundler and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans meets with President Barack Obama, October 15, 2009.

02/3/11

Raw Video: Rival Protests in Yemeni Capital

Hat Tip: Nancy Jacques

Tens of thousands of opponents and supporters of Yemen’s president staged dueling demonstrations on Thursday, underscoring deep divisions in a nation seen by the Obama administration as a key ally in its fight against Islamic militants. Ironically, the name adopted for the day’s protests — the “Day of Rage” — is the same name used by protesters in Egypt as well as the Weather Underground in the 60s.

02/3/11

International Call to Arrest Mubarak

By: Ashraf Ramelah
Voice of the Copts

In light of the information reaching our office that the Egyptian regime has escalated violence against demonstrators and foreigner journalists, Voice of the Copts strongly condemns the use of weapons by regime police and Special Forces in plain clothes who are riding horses and camels to control the crowds in El-Tahrir square.

The failing dictator and his regime have shown their true neo-Nazi face as he uses violence against his own people to protect his own interests.

After thirty years under the rule of an oppressive fascist regime, the demonstrators which are now asking for their freedom in the streets must have the support of the entire free world.

The safety of the Egyptian people as well as the historic treasure of ancient Egypt, which have now been vandalized by the hand of the Mubarak regime, is the responsibility of the entire free world.

Voice of the Copts demands an international coalition to intervene immediately to protect Egyptian civilians and to arrest Mubarak along with his neo-Nazi regime members and bring them to the international criminal court.

Furthermore, we ask the entire world’s leaders to close all Egyptian diplomatic offices in their countries, because the actual Egyptian embassies personnel are part of Mubarak’s neo-Nazi regime and they are not representative of the Egyptian people.

02/3/11

Newsflash – Obama (Almost) Saves The World!

By: Nancy Morgan
Right Bias

According to media reports, President Obama (almost) resolved the spiraling Egyptian crisis in one “private message” to Hosni Mubarak. “Mubarak Promise Comes After Private Obama Message” AP reports.

President Obama is firmly in charge and appears to finally be calling the shots. In a bold, presidential moment, Obama said Tuesday evening that he has told Mubarak that a transition to representative government “must begin now.”

For the millions of Americans who only watch CNN, it appears that our president has, once again, saved the day. Only problem is, it’s just not so.

On Monday, after maintaining a conspicuous silence throughout the escalating Egyptian protests, Obama finally revealed America’s stance on the escalating Egyptian crisis. A full week after they started. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said it is “not for me or our government to determine” whether Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should leave office.

Translation: America, via Obama, is firmly committed to sitting on the fence and waiting for the situation to resolve itself. As it appeared to do on Tuesday, with Mubarak announcing the he would not be running for re-election.

With a response time measured in minutes, Obama appeared on national news and claimed the credit. The Washington Post reported:

President Obama, clearly frustrated by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s intention to retain his hold on power until elections later this year, said Tuesday evening that he has told Mubarak that a transition to representative government “must begin now.”

Taking a cue from George Bush’s famous “We hear you now” declaration made on the burning embers of the World Trade Center, Obama proceeded to voice his support for the Egyptian protestors, saying the passion and dignity demonstrated by the people of Egypt has been an inspiration. He says young protesters will reach their destiny. “We hear you now!” Obama stated.

The media ignored the fact that it took a full week for our president to be so inspired, while giving full credence to the “private message” Obama reportedly sent to Mubarak which reportedly persuaded Mubarak to announce he would finally step down. Does anyone else smell a rat?

Like every other issue Obama has faced in the last two years, he maintained a deafening silence until he saw which way the wind was blowing. Then he jumped on board and took the credit. Following events and maintaining silence until there is no political risk is not leadership.

The good news is, Obama has finally taken a stand. The bad news is, he is now committed to those who want Mubarak out now. Unfolding events show this crisis is far from over. With communications now restored, Americans are watching live as this crisis spirals into yet another phase.

Waiting to place a bet until after the race is run is not leadership. And claiming success for a position he never took is shameful. Almost as shameful as trying to obtain courage on the cheap by trying to associate himself with the real leadership George Bush took. “We hear you now” indeed.

Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for conservative news site RightBias.com.
She lives in South Carolina.

This article was first published in American Thinker.

02/3/11

“We Are Witnessing the Collapse of the Middle East”

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Jim Simpson has written an excellent analysis of events in Egypt and Tunisia and the Obama Administration’s role in this debacle.

If Egypt should fall, it will mark the beginning of the end for what little remaining stability there is in the Middle East. Jordan is facing similar unrest, as is Algeria and Yemen. Lebanon and Tunisia fell in January. It is highly unlikely that these events are unrelated. A combination of leftist and Islamist forces provoked the protests, and we are likely looking at a ring of radical Islamic states rising up to surround Israel. Once their power is solidified, perhaps in a year or two, they will combine forces to attack Israel. If Israel falls, the United States will stand alone in a sea of virulent enemies and impotent allies.

So who does Obama support, Mubarak or his enemies?

Obama wasted no time in telling us. He supports Mubarak’s opponents, and probably has been all along. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that the Obama administration favors a role for the Muslim Brotherhood in a new Egyptian government…

Check Jim’s full article at examiner.com.

02/3/11

Egyptian Revolution – Muslim Face, Marxist Brain

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Many Westerners struggle to understand that radical Islam, is in many ways, a tool of the Marxist – Leninist left.

While the two philosophies appear completely at odds, they do share a mutual hatred of “capitalism” and the Western values of individual responsibility and limited, constitutional government.

While many would argue the point, I would go so far as to say, that without a Marxist left to enable and manipulate them, there would be only a very minimal radical Islamic problem.

Muslim Brotherhood/Revolutionary Socialist protest against Egyptian regime, August 14, 2005.

Below are experts from a circa 2008 document by Egyptian Trotskyist Hossam El-Hamalawy, on how his comrades have worked to unite the Egyptian left and to “court” the Muslim Brotherhood in recent years. This has been a worldwide Trotskyist pattern for more than a decade.

Bear in mind that this document is around three years old.

From campus fistfights in the 1990s to joint demonstrations in 2005–2006, relations between the Muslim Brothers and the radical left in Egypt have come a long way. In settings where the two tendencies operate side by side, like student unions and professional syndicates, overt hostility has vanished, and there is even a small amount of coordination around tactics. Still, the cooperation remains symbolic, and leftists and Islamists have yet to join forces to undertake sustained mass actions against their common foe, the regime of President Husni Mubarak.

The improvement of leftist-Islamist relations can largely be traced to two factors. First is the evolution of a new left in Egypt whose two main pillars are the Revolutionary Socialist Organization and a growing left-leaning human rights community. This new left has different attitudes toward Islamism than those held by the previous “communist waves.” Second is the generational change within both the left and the Brotherhood cadres spurred by the revival of Egyptian street politics, thanks to the second Palestinian intifada.

Most independent leftist organizations in the 1980s and 1990s hewed to a line on political Islam similar to that of the Egyptian Communist Party—the dominant faction inside the “legal left” Tagammu‘ Party—equating Islamist organizations, reformist or radical, with fascism…. As might be expected, the Muslim Brothers did not appreciate the “fascist” label, and they regarded the left with great distrust.

Starting in the late 1980s, small circles of Egyptian students, influenced by Trotskyism, gathered to study, eventually evolving in April 1995 into an organization named the Revolutionary Socialists’ Tendency. In contradistinction to the Stalinist left, these activists put forward the slogan “Sometimes with the Islamists, never with the state” in the literature they distributed on university campuses and elsewhere.

In practice, this slogan translated into taking up the cause of Muslim Brotherhood students on campus when it came to “democratic” issues, as when state security banned Islamist candidates from running in student union elections or expelled Islamist students from school. The “galleries” (ma‘arid)—impromptu broadsheets written on cloth or cardboard and laid out in campus squares—of Revolutionary Socialist students at Cairo and ‘Ayn Shams Universities regularly carried denunciations of military tribunals’ sentences handed down to Muslim Brothers.

As a Revolutionary Socialist member who was active in the 1990s recalls: “We were a kind of leftist the Muslim Brothers hadn’t met before. They couldn’t quite figure us out at the beginning. Anyway, we were still too marginal for them to bother with. We were only a few individuals.” This began to change in 1999. On a few occasions in that year, as one socialist remembers, the Muslim Brotherhood students at Cairo University allowed the Revolutionary Socialist students to speak at rallies held on campus against the US air strikes on Iraq. The socialist students took this unprecedented opportunity as a sign of the Muslim Brothers’ recognition that they were a force that had to be given a place on the political stage. It was a step in a long, slow process of building trust.

From a handful of members in 1995, the Revolutionary Socialists grew to a couple hundred activists on the eve of the second Palestinian intifada. Their ranks then swelled thanks to their role in the Egyptian movement of solidarity with the Palestinians, at a time when the Muslim Brothers largely abstained from street action. The radicalizing influence of the intifada among youth helped to reawaken the Egyptian tradition of street politics, which had been virtually smothered by the Mubarak regime’s fearsome security services…

Despite the opportunities presented by the ferment on the streets, the Muslim Brotherhood pursued the policy of non-confrontation with the regime it had abided by since the 1995 crackdown on its rank and file, culminating in a series of infamous military tribunals. Not only did Brotherhood students refuse to mobilize on the street, but they also sought on several occasions to curb the militancy of demonstrations. In October 2000, for instance, after the socialists clashed with state security and burned police vans at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the Brothers emerged to denounce “socialist sabotage.” At other times, Islamist students tried to physically restrain students from marching outside campus gates.

The increasingly radicalized political scene created a space for the left to intervene, but also generated pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership from the organization’s cadre. Leftist activists then at universities recall “naming and shaming” campus Brotherhood activists for their lack of participation in the mass protests. In early April 2002, precisely following the outbreak of the leftist-led, pro-Palestinian riots at Cairo University, members of the Muslim Brothers began turning out for events organized by the Egyptian Popular Committee for the Solidarity with the Palestinian intifada.

On April 5, 2002, a group of young Muslim Brothers published an open letter to Supreme Guide Mustafa Mashhour in the London-based daily al‑Hayat, questioning the group’s acquiescence in security crackdowns and demanding more involvement in the Palestinian solidarity movement…

The Muslim Brothers initially approached Revolutionary Socialist members, regarding them as the “least hostile” among the leftist factions, to suggest that Islamists collaborate with the left in the pro-intifada and anti-war movements. The move triggered a debate among leftist circles. Sympathizers of the Egyptian Communist Party, the People’s Socialist Party, members of the Tagammu‘ bureaucracy and a faction from the human rights organizations refused any form of coordination with Islamists, though they made an exception for Magdi Hussein’s Labor Party, whose brand of Islamism is regarded as somehow “left-leaning.”

The anti-war movement, successor of the pro-intifada movement, evolved again by the end of 2004 into an anti-Mubarak movement, composed of two organizations. One was Kifaya (the Egyptian Movement for Change), a coalition made up primarily of members of the breakaway Nasserist faction Karama, individuals from the liberal al‑Ghad Party, figures from the Egyptian Communist Party and veterans of the 1970s student movement.

The other wing was the Popular Campaign for Change, which was more Marxist in composition, and included the Revolutionary Socialists, left-wing human rights activists and independent leftists. The two organizations more or less fused together in the months to follow. Kifaya’s sometimes quixotic and theatrical street actions attracted public attention, and helped to break taboos in Egypt’s political life by issuing direct challenges—without euphemisms—to the president and his family.

Shortly after a series of Kifaya demonstrations, a group of Muslim Brotherhood activists, notably ‘Ali ‘Abd al‑Fattah of Alexandria, held talks with Revolutionary Socialists and independent leftists, resulting in the launching of the National Alliance for Change in June 2005. The alliance was tactical, and revolved around an anti-Mubarak platform, with emphasis on vigilance against the prospect of vote rigging in that year’s presidential and parliamentary elections…

The rapprochement between Islamists and the left continued when students from the Revolutionary Socialists’ Tendency, Muslim Brothers and some independents formed the Free Student Union (FSU) in November 2005, with the aim of acting as a parallel organization to the government-dominated student unions… Though the FSU is far from achieving the ambition of its organizers—nothing less than a national grassroots student union—the places where the FSU operates have witnessed another great improvement in relations between the Brothers and the radical left…

The backbone of the solidarity actions with the Palestinian intifada has been students in their late teens or early twenties. As political virgins, they do not carry the baggage of the historical fighting between the leftists and Islamists, and among leftist factions.

Today, the majority of factions on the left still stand opposed to (or express caution about) joint actions with the Islamists, most notably the newly evolving Democratic Left (a reformist tendency centered around al‑Busla magazine), the Egyptian Communist Party, the People’s Socialist Party and a faction of the human rights community. But the Brothers and those comrades who will work with them remain engaged in mutual confidence building. The Muslim Brothers’ leadership is staunchly gradualist, and always on the lookout for compromises with the Egyptian regime. That stance will likely impede a further rapprochement with the radical left, unless the Brotherhood’s base of youth attains a greater say in when, and how, their powerful organization bestirs itself.

The picture painted by El Hamalawy is one of a Muslim Brotherhood “old guard” quite happy to collaborate with, or at least tolerate, the Mubarak regime, versus more radical and secularized youngsters willing to work with the left in order to overthrow the existing power structures.

I believe that the left, more so than the Muslim Brotherhood, is driving this revolution.

If successful, I think that while the new regime may have a Muslim face, it will mask a Marxist brain.

02/3/11

Egypt – Which Form of Tyranny Will Win?

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Below is a video of Egyptian Revolutionary Socialist member Hossam el-Hamalawy speaking at the British Socialist Workers’ Party run Marxism 2008.

The Egyptian revolution is no spontaneous event. The Egyptian and international left has been building to this for some years.

Revolutionary Socialist is but one element of the Egyptian revolution. It has both worked with and against the Muslim Brotherhood.

Starting in the late 1980s, small circles of Egyptian students, influenced by Trotskyism, gathered to study, eventually evolving in April 1995 into an organization named the Revolutionary Socialists’ Tendency. In contradistinction to the Stalinist left, these activists put forward the slogan “Sometimes with the Islamists, never with the state” in the literature they distributed on university campuses and elsewhere.

In practice, this slogan translated into taking up the cause of Muslim Brotherhood students on campus when it came to “democratic” issues, as when state security banned Islamist candidates from running in student union elections or expelled Islamist students from school. The “galleries” (ma‘arid)—impromptu broadsheets written on cloth or cardboard and laid out in campus squares—of Revolutionary Socialist students at Cairo and ‘Ayn Shams Universities regularly carried denunciations of military tribunals’ sentences handed down to Muslim Brothers.

At the same time, the Trotskyist students confronted the Muslim Brothers on issues such as freedom of expression and the rights of women and Coptic Christians. Whenever they felt the Brothers wanted to impose sex segregation in the classroom, or clamp down on campus theater and art, or whenever the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide made sectarian comments about the Copts, the socialists’ “galleries” would carry vehement denunciations.

The Egyptian revolution is not about tyranny versus “democracy.”

It is about which brand of tyranny will come out on top.

02/3/11

So Sayeth the Egyptian Communist Party

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Statement issued by the Egyptian Communist Party, February 2, 2011:

The hour of truth is near and the decisive moment has arrived when the Egyptian people pronounce their final word asserting the need to bring down Mubarak and change his regime. It seems that the life of the regime of tyranny (..) especially that its American masters have taken their hands off in the wake of the continuing revolution of the people and its escalation everywhere in Egypt.

The millions of people who have come out today to demand the departure of Mubarak will ensure the defeat of all the conspiracies of the dictator and his gang who aim to thwart the revolution and to circumvent it.

The agreement to form a committee that enjoys the confidence of the people and the demonstrators is a critical issue for achieving the political, economic and social demands of the revolution. And we stress the basic demands approved by the patriotic forces represented in the people’s parliament:

1 – The removal of Mubarak and the formation of a presidential council for a transitional period of specified duration.

2 – The formation of a coalition government that assumes the management of the country during the transitional period.

3 – To call for the formation of an elected constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for the country, based on the principle of the sovereignty of the nation and ensuring the devolution of power within the framework of a just democratic civil state.

4 – To prosecute those responsible for hundreds killed and injured among the martyrs of the Revolution and victims of security oppression, as well as prosecuting those responsible for plundering the wealth of the Egyptian people.

Long live the revolution of the Egyptian people!

Yep, this is a “democratic” revolution folks. Nothing to see here. Move along.