Analysis & Commentary
A Tale of Two Egyptian Armies
Last week, the Obama administration started releasing the $1.3 billion in U.S. military assistance to Egypt that’s been on hold since October. Over the objections of human rights advocates and democracy activists, Hillary Clinton signed a waiver...
Egypt in Transition
Today Egyptians celebrate the first anniversary of the uprising that ended three decades of authoritarian rule under Hosni Mubarak. In its rocky aftermath, the army took control, but the transitional process it set up created major advantages for Islamist parties, which were the only ones ready to run in elections.
Egypt’s Day of Anger
The aftershocks of Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution continue to reverberate across the Arab world. On January 25, Egyptians began an unprecedented revolt against poverty, corruption and thirty years of rule by President Hosni Mubarak, launching massive protests on the streets of Cairo and other cities. The protests began peacefully, but turned violent when the police began using batons, and firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators. What happens next will determine whether these protests mark the beginnings of a stable, democratic Egypt, or a bump in the long road of autocracy and fake stability.
Egyptian Elections: International Observers Don’t Matter
Washington and Cairo are locked in a war of words over whether or not the government of Egypt will allow international observers to monitor the country’s parliamentary elections this Sunday. The U.S. State Department has fanned the flames of the controversy by demanding international observers.
Egyptology
Here is Egypt's modern history in a nut shell: In the 1950s and ‘60s, the nation was led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, a socialist revolutionary who intended to unite the Arabic-speaking world. He failed.
El Baradei Versus The Pharaoh
November 28, over 40 million Egyptians were called upon to cast votes to elect their next parliament. This was only the first round of elections, but independent observers maintain that turnout was extremely low, and irregularities were the norm. In the 2000 and 2005 elections, official participation never exceeded 25 percent, and local nongovernment organizations allege that the true numbers are substantially lower. As in elections past, the regime intimidated opposition supporters and observers alike, and there have been widespread reports of ballot stuffing. Some candidates are filing lawsuits, alleging that they were denied due process of law.
Election Rigging Leads to Egypt’s First Major Opposition Boycott
For the first time in decades, the Egyptian people have pressured the major political opposition groups to boycott the country’s parliamentary elections. The move denies the aging autocracy its traditional democratic fig leaf and is raising hopes that the government will eventually be forced to open the Egyptian political system.
Free Hour
Egypt marks the one year anniversary of Mubarak's departure.
Free Hour
The Mubarak Trial, as well as Iraq security issues leading up to troop withdrawal.
Hostage Crisis
Since last month, 19 Americans working with pro-democracy nonprofit organizations have been under investigation for trumped-up charges of operating without proper registration.
How to Kill an Economy
Late last week Spanish authorities announced that they’re extraditing Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem, a close associate of former president Hosni Mubarak. Salem is a central figure in the post-Mubarak narrative of the regime’s rampant corruption.
Mubarak’s Old Stalwarts Vie for Supremacy
In late May, Egyptians will vote in the first free presidential election in their history. But despite parliamentary elections and other inklings of democracy, the forces of the old dictatorship under deposed President Hosni Mubarak still hold the cards.
Talk Like An Egyptian
In his remarks following the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last week, President Obama echoed the pro-democracy protestors in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. When he said, “something in our souls … cries out for freedom,” he sounded a lot like George W. Bush. The Wall Street Journal quipped: "We are all neocons now."
The Answer to Egypt’s Problems?
President Mubarak’s government may soon collapse. Popular support for him has evaporated, and while the Obama administration has declined to officially take sides in the Egyptian protests, it is clearly looking toward some sort of endgame. But what form would such a transition take? Oddly, the most obvious possibility is a plan that has, in its broad contours, been around since the mid-1980s.
The Arab Winter of Discontent
When a Tunisian street vendor set himself on fire in a remote corner of Tunisia, on December 17, 2010, his unprecedented gesture triggered a stormthat, nearly ten months later, is now commonly referred to as the “Arab Spring.”
The Army’s Regime
When commenting on Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, President Obama spoke about the Egyptian people’s “hunger for change,” which “bent the arc of history toward justice.” Perhaps. But for now, Egypt’s military will continue to run the show. The feel-good references to the American civil rights movement mask a worrying uncertainty over how the policies upheld by Egypt for the last three decades might now change, profoundly impacting US interests. While most observers are focusing on the Muslim Brotherhood as the agent of such potential change, it is the Egyptian military, and the course it decides to chart, that will be of the utmost consequence.
The John Batchelor Show
The Norway attack and Mubarak trial.
The John Batchelor Show
Mubarak trial, Libya and Syria.
The John Batchelor Show
Mubarak's trial and the decision to hold in camera.
The Military, Not Mubarak, was Egyptians’ Real Enemy
Aside from Egypt, perhaps no place in the world was more galvanized by the events in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last year than Washington. American policymakers and foreign policy experts on both sides of the aisle rallied behind the cause of the young men and women
