Mubarak orders army to back police against unrest

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110128/wl_nm/us_egypt_protest_85

By Edmund Blair Edmund Blair – Fri Jan 28, 5:08 pm ET

CAIRO (Reuters) – President Hosni Mubarak ordered troops and tanks into Egyptian cities on Friday in an attempt to quell street fighting and growing mass protests demanding an end to his 30-year rule.

Mubarak, facing a challenge that could send shock waves through the Middle East, also declared a curfew. But thousands stayed on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez -- the epicenter of four days of protest.

Shots were heard near parliament and the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party was in flames, the blaze lighting up the night sky. Cheering demonstrators thronged around armored cars that moved in a long convoy through Cairo.

Tanks were also seen in the capital and in Suez.

Mubarak, a close U.S. ally, has not been seen in public since unrest began, and there were rumors he would make a television address. The speaker of parliament said late on Friday that "an important matter will be announced in a short time."

Medical sources said 13 protesters had been killed and 75 wounded on a day that saw security forces using rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds.

"How can they do this? Instead of helping the people who are fighting for our rights, these people are dancing with the devil," Zeinab Abdel Fattah, 17, said.

"I don't care for politics and I'm a coward, but I will soon join in because I can't watch them kill our boys."

Demonstrations involving tens of thousands of people were the biggest and bloodiest in four consecutive days of protests by people fed up with unemployment, poverty, corruption and the lack of freedom under Mubarak. Protesters shouted "Down, Down, Hosni Mubarak," some throwing stones at police.

In Washington, the White House said it would review its aid policy toward Egypt based on the events of coming days. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was deeply concerned by violence used by the security forces.

The unrest, which has raised fears of instability in other authoritarian Middle Eastern countries, hit global financial markets. Crude oil prices surged, world stocks fell and the dollar and U.S. Treasury debt gained as investors looked to safe havens.

FIRES

The Pentagon said Egyptian armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Sami Enan would break off defense talks in Washington and return to Cairo on Friday.

Some 2,000-3,000 people encircled a military vehicle near Cairo's Tahrir square, a Reuters witness said. They climbed on it, shaking hands with the soldiers, and chanted: "The army and the people are united" and "The revolution has come."

In the eastern city of Suez, site of the strategically crucial canal, armored cars deployed in front of the charred remains of a police station, a Reuters witness said.

Dozens of protesters climbed on the military vehicles in Suez. They talked to soldiers who attempted to wave them off.

The unrest in Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere was triggered by the overthrow two weeks ago of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Al Ben Ali.

Snatch squads of plain clothes security men dragged off suspected ringleaders. At the Fatah mosque in central Ramses Square in Cairo, several thousand were penned in and teargassed.

Protesters often quickly dispersed and regrouped.

Some held banners saying: "Everyone against one" and chanted "Peaceful peaceful peaceful, no violence." Others threw shoes at and stamped on posters of Mubarak. "Leave, leave, Mubarak, Mubarak, the plane awaits you," people chanted.

Activist Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Laureate, was briefly penned in by police after he prayed at a mosque in the Giza area but he later took part in a peaceful march with supporters. Arabiya television said later police had "asked" him to stay home but this could not be confirmed.

WAFD PARTY CALLS FOR INTERIM GOVERNMENT

In some parts of Cairo, protests were peaceful. Dozens of people prayed together on one road. In Giza, on the city outskirts, marchers shook hands with the police who let them pass peacefully.

It is far from a foregone conclusion that the protesters will force Mubarak out given the strength of the security forces in Egypt.

"... the Egyptian security apparatus ... over the years has developed a vested interest in the survival of President Mubarak's regime," said Amon Aran, a Middle East expert at London's City University.

"This elaborate apparatus has demonstrated over the past few days that it is determined to crush political dissent," he said.

The head of the opposition Wafd party, Sayyid al-Badawi, said Egypt needed a period of transitional rule, new parliamentary elections and an amended constitution to prevent a president serving for more than two six-year terms.

Wafd, a decades old liberal, nationalist party, boycotted the parliament election in November saying the vote was rigged in favor of Mubarak's National Democratic Party.

Before Friday's clashes, at least five people had been killed over the four days, one of them a police officer. Police have arrested several hundred people.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, including at least eight senior officials, were rounded up overnight. The government has accused the Brotherhood of planning to exploit the protests.

Many protesters are young men and women. Two thirds of Egypt's 80 million people are below 30 and many have no jobs. About 40 percent of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day.

Elections were due to be held in September and until now few had doubted that Mubarak would remain in control or bring in a successor in the shape of his 47-year-old son Gamal.

Father and son deny that Gamal is being groomed for the job.

(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed and Yasmine Saleh,, Alison Williams and Samia Nakhoul in Cairo, Alexander Dziadosz in Suez; Writing by Angus MacSwan and Ralph Boulton; editing by David Stamp)

Amid massive protests, Egypt leader fires Cabinet

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_egypt_protest;_ylt=AjSNdHe2_L4oE3cNReuo0dhH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTJxanFrbTN0BGFzc2V0A2FwL21sX2VneXB0X3Byb3Rlc3QEY2NvZGUDdmlld3NoYXJlBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDMgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2VneXB0cHJvdGVzdA--

By HAMZA HENDAWI and HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Hamza Hendawi And Hadeel Al-shalchi, Associated Press – 41 mins ago

CAIRO – Facing a popular uprising, Egypt's president fired his Cabinet early Saturday after protesters engulfed his country in chaos — battling police with stones and firebombs, burning down the ruling party headquarters and defying a night curfew enforced by the army.

In a nationally televised address at midnight, President Hosni Mubarak made vague promises of social reform but did not offer to step down himself. He also defended his security forces — outraging protesters calling for an end to his nearly 30-year regime.

"We want Mubarak to go and instead he is digging in further," protester Kamal Mohammad said. "He thinks it is calming down the situation but he is just angering people more."

Pouring onto the streets after Friday noon prayers, protesters ignored extreme government measures that included cutting off the Internet and mobile-phone services in Cairo and other areas, calling the army into the streets and imposing a nationwide nighttime curfew.

Egypt's crackdown on demonstrators drew harsh criticism from the Obama administration and even a threat Friday to reduce a $1.5 billion foreign aid program if Washington's most important Arab ally escalates the use of force.

Stepping up the pressure, President Barack Obama told a news conference he called Mubarak immediately after his TV address and urged the Egyptian leader to take "concrete steps" to expand rights and refrain from violence against protesters.

"The United States will continue to stand up for the rights of the Egyptian people and work with their government in pursuit of a future that is more just, more free and more hopeful," Obama said.

Throughout Friday, flames rose in cities across Egypt, including Alexandria, Suez, Assiut and Port Said, and security officials said there were protests in 11 of the country's 28 provinces.

Calling the anti-government protests "part of a bigger plot to shake the stability and destroy legitimacy" of Egypt's political system, a somber-look Mubarak said: "We aspire for more democracy, more effort to combat unemployment and poverty and combat corruption."

Still, his words were likely to be interpreted as an attempt to cling to power rather than a pledge to take concrete steps to solve Egypt's pressing problems — poverty, unemployment and rising food prices.

"Out, out, out!" protesters chanted in violent, chaotic scenes of battles with riot police and the army — which was sent onto the streets for the first time Friday during the crisis.

Protesters seized the streets of Cairo, battling police with stones and firebombs and burning down the ruling party headquarters. Many defied a 6 p.m. curfew and crowds remained on the streets long after midnight, where buildings and tires were still burning and there was widespread looting.

At least one protester was killed Friday, bringing the toll for the week to eight. Demonstrators were seen dragging bloodied, unconsciousness protesters to waiting cars and on to hospitals, but no official number of wounded was announced.

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading pro-democracy advocate, was soaked with a water cannon and briefly trapped inside a mosque after joining the protests. He was later placed under house arrest.

In the capital, hundreds of young men carted away televisions, fans and stereo equipment looted from the National Democratic Party, near the Egyptian Museum, home of King Tutankhamun's treasures. Young men formed a human barricade in front of the museum to protect one of Egypt's most important tourist attractions.

Others around the city looted banks, smashed cars, tore down street signs and pelted armored riot police vehicles with paving stones torn from roadways.

"We are the ones who will bring change," declared 21-year-old Ahmed Sharif. "If we do nothing, things will get worse. Change must come!" he screamed through a surgical mask he wore to ward off the tear gas.

Egypt's national airline halted flights for at least 12 hours and a Cairo Airport official said some international airlines had canceled flights to the capital, at least overnight. There were long lines at many supermarkets and employees limited bread sales to 10 rolls per person.

Options appeared to be dwindling for Mubarak, an 82-year-old former air force commander who until this week maintained what looked like rock-solid control of the most populous Arab nation and the cultural heart of the region.

The scenes of anarchy along the Nile played out on television and computer screens from Algiers to Riyadh, two weeks to the day after protesters in Tunisia drove out their autocratic president. Images of the protests in Tunisia emboldened Egyptians to take to the streets in demonstrations organized over mobile phone, Facebook and Twitter.

The government cut off the Internet and mobile-phone services, but that did not keep tens of thousands of protesters from all walks of life from joining in rallies after Friday prayers. The demonstrators were united in rage against a regime seen as corrupt, abusive and uncaring toward the nearly half of Egypt's 80 million people who live below the poverty line.

"All these people want to bring down the government. That's our basic desire," said protester Wagdy Syed, 30. "They have no morals, no respect, and no good economic sense."

Egypt has been one of the United States' closest allies in the region since President Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel at Camp David in 1977.

Mubarak kept that deal after Sadat's assassination and has been a close partner of every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter, helping Washington on issues that range from suppressing Islamist violence to counterbalancing the rise of Iran's anti-American Shiite theocracy.

The Mubarak government boasts about economic achievements: rising GDP and a surging private sector led by a construction boom and vibrant, seemingly recession-proof banks.

But many say the fruits of growth have been funneled almost entirely to a politically connected elite, leaving average Egyptians surrounded by unattainable symbols of wealth as they struggle to find jobs, pay daily bills and find affordable housing.

Friday's unrest began when tens of thousands poured into the streets after noon prayers, stoning and confronting police who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas. Demonstrators wielding rocks, glass and sticks chased hundreds of riot police away from the main square in downtown Cairo and several of the policemen stripped off their uniforms and badges and joined the demonstrators.

The uprising united the economically struggling and the prosperous, the secular and the religious. But the country's most popular opposition group, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, had little overt presence on the streets despite a call for its members to turn out.

Young men in one downtown square clambered onto a statue of Talat Harb, a pioneering Egyptian economist, and unfurled a large green banner that proclaimed "The Middle Class" in white Arabic lettering.

Women dressed in black veils and wide, flowing robes followed women with expensive hairdos, tight jeans and American sneakers.

The crowd included Christian men with key rings with crosses swinging from their pockets and young men dressed in fast-food restaurant uniforms.

When a man sporting a long beard and a white robe began chanting an Islamist slogan, he was grabbed and shaken by another protester telling him to keep the slogans patriotic and not religious.

In downtown Cairo, people on balconies tossed cans of Pepsi and bottles of water to protesters on the streets below to douse their eyes, as well as onions and lemons to sniff, to cut the sting of the tear gas.

Junior lawmakers in the ruling party called in to national Egyptian TV calling on calm in the city.

Some of the most serious violence Friday was in Suez, where protesters seized weapons stored in a police station and asked the policemen inside to leave the building before they burned it down. They also set ablaze about 20 police trucks parked nearby. Demonstrators exchanged fire with policemen trying to stop them from storming another police station and one protester was killed in the gun battle.

In Assiut in southern Egypt, several thousand demonstrators clashed with police that set upon them with batons and sticks, chasing them through side streets.

Mubarak has not said yet whether he will stand for another six-year term as president in elections this year. He has never appointed a deputy and is thought to be grooming his son Gamal to succeed him despite popular opposition. According to leaked U.S. memos, hereditary succession also does not meet with the approval of the powerful military.

_____

Associated Press reporters Sarah El Deeb, Maggie Michael and Diaa Hadid contributed to this report.

Obama tells Mubarak: Must take 'concrete steps'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110129/ap_on_re_us/us_us_egypt

By MATTHEW LEE and ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Matthew Lee And Erica Werner, Associated Press – 23 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Stepping up pressure on a stalwart but flawed Middle East ally, President Barack Obama said he personally told Egypt's Hosni Mubarak Friday night to take "concrete steps" to expand rights inside the Arab nation and refrain from violence against protesters flooding the streets of Cairo and other cities. The White House suggested U.S. aid could be at stake.

"Surely, there will be difficult days to come, but the United States will continue to stand up for the rights of the Egyptian people and work with their government in pursuit of a future that is more just, more free and more hopeful," Obama told reporters in the State Dining Room after speaking with the long-time leader from the White House.

The president made his comments on television shortly after he and Mubarak spoke. The half-hour phone call was initiated by the White House.

The conversation between the two leaders followed closely on a middle-of-the-night TV speech in which Mubarak, in Cairo, announced he was sacking his government to form a new one that would accelerate reforms. At the same time, he said, violence by protesters would not be tolerated.

Obama's remarks capped a day in which his administration struggled to keep abreast of developments in Egypt, where Mubarak ordered police and then the military into the streets in response to the thousands of protesters.

Before Obama spoke, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced the administration might cut the $1.5 billion in annual foreign aid sent to Egypt, depending on Mubarak's response to the demonstrations.

Obama also repeated demands by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for Egypt's government to restore access to the Internet and social media sites, cut by the authorities in an apparent attempt to limit the flow of information about the protests demanding an end to Mubarak's rule.

Obama noted the United States and Egypt have a close partnership, a reference to Mubarak's support over the years for peace with Israel.

But he said, "We've also been clear that there must be reform, political, social and economic reforms that meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people."

"When President Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people tonight, he pledged a better democracy and greater economic opportunity. I just spoke to him after his speech, and I told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words; to take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise," Obama said. "Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people, and suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away."

He added that the demonstrators had a responsibility "to express themselves peacefully. Violence and destruction will not lead to the reforms they seek."

Obama's decision to speak about the crisis in Egypt underscored the enormous U.S. interest at stake — from Israel's security to the importance of the Suez Canal and the safety of thousands of Americans who live and work in Egypt.

Gibbs said Obama had been briefed repeatedly during the day about the events unfolding half a world away.

The State Department issued a warning for Americans to defer all non-essential travel to Egypt.

Clinton said Mubarak should seize the moment to enact the long-called-for economic, political and social reforms that the protesters want. She said authorities must respect the rights of the Egyptian people to freedom of speech, assembly and expression.

"We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protesters, and we call on the Egyptian government to do everything in its power to restrain the security forces," Clinton said.

She sidestepped a question on whether the United States believed Mubarak was finished, but she said the U.S. wanted to work as a partner with the country's people and government to help realize reform in a peaceful manner. That underscored concerns that extremist elements might seek to take advantage of a political vacuum left by a sudden change in leadership.

Asked about U.S. aid to Egypt, Gibbs said the review would include both military and civilian assistance. Since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1978, the U.S. has plowed billions into the country to help it modernize its armed forces, and to strengthen regional security and stability. The U.S. has provided Egypt with F-16 jet fighters, as well as tanks, armored personnel carriers, Apache helicopters, anti-aircraft missile batteries, aerial surveillance aircraft and other equipment.

While the White House spokesman was emphatic in his calls for Mubarak and his government to abandon violence, he was less forceful on other issues.

Asked about Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition figure who has been placed under house arrest, he said, "This is an individual who is a Nobel laureate" and has worked with Obama. "These are the type of actions that the government has a responsibility to change."

Like Clinton, Gibbs would not address Mubarak's future directly but said "we are watching a situation that obviously changes day to day and we will continue to watch and make preparations for a whole host of scenarios."

He also suggested contingency plans had been made for the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, should that become necessary.

Mubarak has long faced calls from U.S. presidents to loosen his grip on the country he has ruled for more than three decades since he replaced the assassinated President Anwar Sadat. Mubarak was Sadat's vice president and was slightly wounded in the attack in which Sadat died.

Mubarak has seen past U.S.-backed reforms in the region as a threat, wrote Ambassador Margaret Scobey in a May 19, 2009, memo to State Department officials in Washington.

"We have heard him lament the results of earlier U.S. efforts to encourage reform in the Islamic world. He can harken back to the Shah of Iran: the U.S. encouraged him to accept reforms, only to watch the country fall into the hands of revolutionary religious extremists," Scobey wrote in the memo, among those released recently by WikiLeaks. "Wherever he has seen these U.S. efforts, he can point to the chaos and loss of stability that ensued."

Senior lawmakers expressed growing unease with the developments, which could affect their deliberations on future assistance to Egypt.

Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Egypt's leaders must step back from the brink as Mubarak called in the military to help quell the protests that continued into the night, spreading in defiance of a curfew and attempts by police and security forces to break them up.

"In the final analysis, it is not with rubber bullets and water cannons that order will be restored," Kerry said. "President Mubarak has the opportunity to quell the unrest by guaranteeing that a free and open democratic process will be in place when the time comes to choose the country's next leader later this year."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the protests were a sign that the Egyptian people's "cries for freedom can no longer be silenced." She said she was troubled by the "heavy-handed" government response.

"I am further concerned that certain extremist elements inside Egypt will manipulate the current situation for nefarious ends," she said.

Mubarak replaced the assassinated President Anwar Sadat. Mubarak was Sadat's vice president and was slightly wounded in the attack in which Sadat died.

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