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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Mubarak Departure In Hours

The Supreme Council of Armed Forces has declared emergency meetings for the next 24 hours and they just spoked on TV. The thing is, Mubarak is the head of this council, yet he did not seem to be in that meeting. That unofficially says that Mubarak has stepped down unofficially and it will be announced in the next few hours.

I daresay, congratulations Egypt. The history books will soon be writing about another brutal and unjust pharaoh.


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/ 236 Comments

236 comments

  2. jsfox

    that this comes to pass and that what comes next is all that the Egyptian people hope for and so richly deserve.

    as-Salâm Alaikum

  3. HappyinVT

    A senior member of Egypt’s governing party has told the BBC he “hopes” that President Hosni Mubarak will transfer power to Vice-President Omar Suleiman.

    snip

    The Egyptian military has said it is ready to respond to the “legitimate demands of the people”.

    snip

    Earlier, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told BBC Arabic that the scenario of President Mubarak stepping down was being discussed.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl…

    Reuters and MSNBC reporting is similar.

  4. Peter Jukes

    …fingers crossed… and great to hear this through the Moose.

    I’m hopping on a plane (again) but I look forward to see what my Moose-lim Brotherhood/Sisterhood make of this all when I land.  

  5. Strummerson

    Now, how much of the estimated $40-75 BILLION dollars that he swindled from his impoverished nation, while keeping his hand out for US tax dollars, will he be returning…

  9. HappyinVT

    has been evacuated out of fear of being attacked by protesters with strikes Jim Clancy of CNN as odd given the protesters have been peaceful thus far.  Might be thinking of the reaction to any address Mubarak might give later.

  10. DeniseVelez

    and found this.

    I hope this is true and hope that if it is true it will go hand in hand with some news about how a new government is to be formed.

  11. HappyinVT

    and they are monitoring it closely.  (The president is in MI on a previously scheduled trip.)

    Panetta says there’s a “strong likelihood” Mubarak will step down tonight.

  12. jsfox

    However, Anas el-Fekky, Egypt’s information minister, denied all reports of Mubarak resigning.

    “The president is still in power and he is not stepping down,” el-Fekky told Reuters.

    “The president is not stepping down and everything you heard in the media is a rumour.”

    http://english.aljazeera.net/n…

  14. Stipes

    Maybe Iran colored my thinking too deeply.

    However, I still have a very bad feeling about Suleiman remaining as well.  

    I think he is just as bad as Mubarak.

    I’ve got my fingers crossed that the momentum is unbreakable now…

  15. Hollede

    has decided that Mubarak will step down today.  They are suggesting it is a military coup.

    If this is true, now is the time to support a full, free, and participatory democracy. Egypt is the perfect  country to lead other North African, Middle Eastern and Western Asian all predominantly Islamic countries, to the same place.  

  18. HappyinVT

    8:00pm: Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reports an army officer put his weapon aside and joined the crowds in Tahrir Square.

  21. John Allen

    the protests will lead to a more democratic and free society in Egypt, I am not very confident things will change all that much. The ruling party’s tentacles are too wide-spread and deep in the Egyptian economy and military to be pulled out completely. The Mubarak family isn’t the only one to get rich under the current regime. The most I think can be reasonably expected is more open elections and a more representative parliament.  

  22. Strummerson

    A lot of people are gonna die…

    Gave Obama the finger and is talking to his people in the square as if they are idiots.

  25. Kysen

    honestly did not think that the modern-day Pharaoh would fold.

    Though, tbh, sittin here listening to him speak (via translator)….I don’t understand what he is announcing? Is he saying anything much different from his announcement the other day that he would not run again…that he would step down in September?

    Can someone please put it to simple wording that Kysen can understand?

  33. Shaun Appleby

    If that was Murbarak’s last hurrah it was a flop.  I’m guessing the military gave him one last shot.  It’s up to the street now…  And the army.

  37. Rashaverak

    People in Tahrir Square are very exercised.  Massive protests are promised for tomorrow.

    This guy is as stubborn as a mule.  I honestly don’t get what another six or seven months in power will do for him.

  38. HappyinVT

    administration official this morning that Mubarak would step down.  Wonder if Mubarak changed his mind or, more likely, is screwing with everyone.

    People are marching on either State TV and/or Presidential Palace.

    It is now being reported that Suleiman is going to make an address.

  40. HappyinVT

    11:25pm: Thomas Gorguissian tells Al Jazeera the protests planned for tomorrow “are now likely to be much, much larger”.

    Ya think?

    Suleiman’s telling the protesters to go home.  Good luck with that.

  42. Shaun Appleby

    “Boring lecture from the Vice Torturer…”  Heh.  Commentator on Al Jazeera suggesting that this is the best outcome for the aspirations of the people.

  45. Kysen

    one, the people stand down accepting his ‘I will leave in September’ schtick…and that gives him several months to create a reason that it is impossible for him to step down.

    two, the people continue to protest and in their anger acts of violence are committed that give the police/military ‘cover’ to attack the protesters and shut down the uprising thru violence.

    I don’t think he has any equation in his mind that leads to him actually stepping down. Lies and violence will be his methods of staying in power.

    Jackass.

  46. HappyinVT

    thoughts today said that they are questioning whether the military guy who went into the square this morning was himself conned or was doing the conning.

    Also, does anyone who thinks Mubarak can justify a crack-down on any “violent” protesters at this point and get away with it?  Last week, I’d say maybe; today and tomorrow, I don’t think so.

  47. janicket

    If the army cracks down on the protesters, they can kiss all those million$ goodbye, I’m betting.  And I’m betting the powers that be in the Egyptian military have been told that — or, if not, now will be.

    I hope I’m right, and I hope that will help restrain the army from making a very bad wrong choice.

  48. Jjc2008

    people generally do NOT give up power willingly.

    I was hoping a miracle would happen but in the back of my mind, I wondered if he was getting assurances from the Saudi’s and other dictatorial countries they would back him.

  49. Stipes

    the path of full bore revolution. Dictators can be amazingly dumb when it comes time for their regimes to end.

    King Abdullah has offered Mubarak sanctuary in SA, (they’re pretty tight).  He and his family could live in luxury and safety the rest of their lives.

    At 82 years of age, what else does Mubarak plan to prove?

    The Army really miscalculated by prematurely announcing that Mubarak would step down.  

  50. HappyinVT

    that the president has transferred power to Suleiman.

    Wolf is trying to get the gentleman to say that Mubarak is no longer president but the guy won’t say it ~ just that all presidential power has been transferred that can be done constitutionally.  The Ambassador got that from Suleiman himself.  He did say he has not transferred all authority.  He is legally head of state but not CiC.

  52. Shaun Appleby


    US President Barack Obama will meet with his national security team at the White House to discuss the situation in Egypt, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs says.

  53. Strummerson

    According to CNN:

    Egypt will explode. Army must save the country now.

    I hope they are stockpiling pressure bandages.

  55. HappyinVT

    and he believes this morning the military was going to act extra-constitutionally and act as a caretaker after Mubarak stepped down.  That’s what the military guy who went into the square thought at the time; that what the Administration was told would happen.

    At some later point, for some reason, minds were changed and they decided to act within the confines of the Constitution and use those provisions that are intended for cases when the president is incapacitated.

    It makes some sense to me ~ curious to know why they changed their minds.  

  56. Stipes

    “Pay no attention to cable TV.  They are seditious foreigners.”

    This rhetoric is really starting to concern me.  I hope that the regime is not digging in, because violence will be inevitable.

  57. Strummerson

    Ahmed Raafat in Cairo writes:

    Mubarak’s speech made the protesters more angry. I was in Tahrir Square during his speech. People here expected something new, but all they got is disappointed. We reached a point where there’s no way back. We’ll keep fighting until we get our rights back. Fear has been defeated, there’s no way back.

    Can we donate blood and get it there?

  58. Shaun Appleby

    From Al Jazerra’s live blog:


    2:00am An angry crowd has gathered in front of the Egyptian State TV building in Cairo. Protesters are chanting against the regime and calling for Mubarak to resign. (posted by @Gsquare86)

  59. Shaun Appleby

    With no prognosis:


    It’s hard to exaggerate how bad Hosni Mubarak’s speech today was for Egypt.   In the extended runup to his remarks, every sign indicated that he planned to announce his resignation: the military’s announcement that it had taken control, the shift in state television coverage, a steady stream of leaks about the speech.   With the whole world watching, Mubarak instead offered a meandering, confused speech promising vague Constitutional changes and defiance of foreign pressure.   He offered a vaguely worded delegation of power to Vice President Omar Suleiman, long after everyone in Egypt had stopped listening.  It is virtually impossible to conceive of a more poorly conceived  or executed speech.

    Omar Suleiman’s televised address which followed made things even worse, if that’s possible, telling the people to go home and blaming al-Jazeera for the problems.   It solidified the already deep distrust of his role among most of the opposition and of the protestors, and tied his fate to that of Mubarak.    Even potentially positive ideas in their speeches, such as Constitutional amendments, were completely drowned out by their contemptuous treatment of popular demands.   Things could get ugly tonight — and if things don’t explode now, then the crowds tomorrow will be absolutely massive.    Whatever happens, for better or for worse, the prospects of an orderly, negotiated transition led by Omar Suleiman have just plummeted sharply.  

    Marc Lynch – Responding to the Worst Speech Ever Foreign Policy 10 Feb 11

    We are headed into terra nullis.  There is never a clear historical precedent for events of this magnitude.

  62. Stipes

    that the Army was blindsided by Mubarak’s speech, which explains much about how the WH was blindsided as well.

    My guess is that our principal intelligence on Egypt is coming through the Pentagon.

    When I was at the Naval Academy, one of the midshipmen in my company was an Egyptian national who was commissioned into the Egyptian Air Force when he graduated.  There is a significant back channel network of communication going on right now between these old classmates.

  64. jsfox

    First from graeme green ( http://www.theatlantic.com/int… )

    I filed out of Tahrir with a crowd that kicked up dust as it went, like a cattle stampede. By now it was nearly midnight, and many who had come to watch history being made went home filled with rage. Others, in a group of a few hundred, marched to the state TV station — a heavily guarded building about a kilometer away — and were, as of a few minutes ago, chanting “Irhal” so furiously that one could hear them across the Nile and up and down the corniche.

    If Mubarak hadn’t delayed so long, perhaps the protesters would still have had the energy to take the TV building outright. I have not seen the faces in the Square seem so bitter or fuming before; they looked like they wanted to overturn cars.

    next Wendell Steavenson : ( http://www.newyorker.com/onlin… )

    I have never been in a crowd wracked with such intense emotion. After he finished, men wept openly while their friends consoled them. There was rage and screaming and shock. People could hardly find the words to voice their frustration. “It is promises in the air!” “He wants to keep his military honor!” “He cannot imagine that his people are telling him to go.” People shook their heads and looked up to the sky as if for some answer. One woman told me with a cracked, inchoate voice: “I’m angry … we’ve been waiting for years … wait until September? And he’s sorry!” she spat with sarcasm. “It’s too much! Sorry is in actions, not words. It’s the same old story. It’s no change. We’re just running in circles.”

  65. jsfox

    To avoid a continuation of dictatorial rule under a new strong man or a dangerous power vacuum as weaker players try to seize control, Egypt will need to see the lightning-fast development of long-suppressed political parties. So the US is preparing a new package of assistance to Egyptian opposition groups designed to help with constitutional reform, democratic development and election organizing, State department officials tell Time. The package is still being formulated, and the officials declined to say how much it would be worth or to which groups it would be directed.

    Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.co…

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