Who's behind the Egypt riots?

It's a good thing I heard about this piece last night on the savage
nation.
I remember back in 2005 brown university was hosting some of the 2005
Egyptian presidential candidates, at a time when the entire Middle east
Studies dpt was on sabbatical, and I shold not have to repeat the
goldman sucks/cfr connections brown has. If things get worse in Egypt
and spread to Jordan and Morocco, you will know the cfr has a hand in
this like in Iran in 2009.
Peter Khan Zendran



Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind
uprising
The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the
Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change” for the
past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

By Tim Ross, Matthew Moore and Steven Swinford 9:23PM GMT 28 Jan 2011


The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a
US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his
identity secret from Egyptian state police.

On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats
that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow
President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.

The secret document in full

He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the
demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily
Telegraph.

The crisis in Egypt follows the toppling of Tunisian president Zine
al-Abedine Ben Ali, who fled the country after widespread protests
forced him from office.


The disclosures, contained in previously secret US diplomatic dispatches
released by the WikiLeaks website, show American officials pressed the
Egyptian government to release other dissidents who had been detained by
the police.

Mr Mubarak, facing the biggest challenge to his authority in his 31
years in power, ordered the army on to the streets of Cairo yesterday as
rioting erupted across Egypt.

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in
open defiance of a curfew. An explosion rocked the centre of Cairo as
thousands defied orders to return to their homes. As the violence
escalated, flames could be seen near the headquarters of the governing
National Democratic Party.

Police fired rubber bullets and used tear gas and water cannon in an
attempt to disperse the crowds.

At least five people were killed in Cairo alone yesterday and 870
injured, several with bullet wounds. Mohamed ElBaradei, the pro-reform
leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was placed under house arrest after
returning to Egypt to join the dissidents. Riots also took place in
Suez, Alexandria and other major cities across the country.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, urged the Egyptian government to
heed the “legitimate demands of protesters”. Hillary Clinton, the US
Secretary of State, said she was “deeply concerned about the use of
force” to quell the protests.

In an interview for the American news channel CNN, to be broadcast
tomorrow, David Cameron said: “I think what we need is reform in
Egypt. I mean, we support reform and progress in the greater
strengthening of the democracy and civil rights and the rule of law.”

The US government has previously been a supporter of Mr Mubarak’s
regime. But the leaked documents show the extent to which America was
offering support to pro-democracy activists in Egypt while publicly
praising Mr Mubarak as an important ally in the Middle East.

In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret
Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had
allegedly drawn up secret plans for “regime change” to take place
before elections, scheduled for September this year.

The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in
Washington DC, was marked “confidential” and headed: “April 6
activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt.”

It said the activist claimed “several opposition forces” had
“agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a
parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an
empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011
presidential elections”. The embassy’s source said the plan was
“so sensitive it cannot be written down”.

Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an “unrealistic” plot
could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the
activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive
support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The
embassy helped the campaigner attend a “summit” for youth activists
in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.

Cairo embassy officials warned Washington that the activist’s identity
must be kept secret because he could face “retribution” when he
returned to Egypt. He had already allegedly been tortured for three days
by Egyptian state security after he was arrested for taking part in a
protest some years earlier.

The protests in Egypt are being driven by the April 6 youth movement, a
group on Facebook that has attracted mainly young and educated members
opposed to Mr Mubarak. The group has about 70,000 members and uses
social networking sites to orchestrate protests and report on their
activities.

The documents released by WikiLeaks reveal US Embassy officials were in
regular contact with the activist throughout 2008 and 2009, considering
him one of their most reliable sources for information about human
rights abuses.