Is this a ‘Young Turks’ moment all over again? By William Bowles

By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
11 February, 2011

Mubarak steps down, surely the result of direct US pressure. But what difference will it make, the country has been run by a military clique for three decades, all that’s changed is that now they do it openly. The real issue, is what next? Will the masses now press for Suleiman, all of them to step down now? It’s possible, it depends on what the army and the security-state forces do next, after the euphoria has died down.

Is it a pre-revolutionary situation? The fact that this all came to a head with the entry of organized labour into the fray, is not a coincidence, for buried in this act is also the fact that alternate, independent trade unions have sprung into being and it’s these that helped mobilized workers across Egypt.

America is No Example of Democracy By Timothy V. Gatto

By Timothy V. Gatto
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
liberalpro.blogspot.com
February 10, 2011

It’s very telling that the United States will not give any indication that actually makes any kind of statement on the Egyptian revolution and where America stands on the subject. It’s apparent that the U.S. doesn’t want to show it’s hand until all of the variables have been taken into account and the people of Egypt have finally accepted an alternative to the rule of Mubarak’s regime…at least not in public anyway. We have no real idea of what is happening in the background. It’s quite possible that elements in the U.S. government have clear goals as to what they want to wash out of the current stalemate in Cairo.

Robert Fisk: The Great Tragedy is Obama Chose Not to Hold Out His Hand

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Democracy Now!
Feb. 9, 2011

“The Great Tragedy is Obama Chose Not to Hold Out His Hand”: Robert Fisk on the Gap Between U.S. Rhetoric and Action in the Egyptian Uprising

Protests Demanding Mubarak’s Resignation Grow Stronger + Media Crackdown

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Democracy Now!
Feb. 7, 2011

Image by gwenflickr via Flickr

Protests Demanding Mubarak’s Resignation Grow Stronger, Despite Some Government Concessions

Newly-appointed Egyptian vice president Omar Suleiman held talks on Sunday with opposition groups in Cairo in an attempt to stem the anti-government protests that continue across the country. Suleiman agreed to several major concessions, including ending the country’s decades-old emergency laws he did not say when, allowing a free press even as another Al Jazeera reporter was arrested, and creating a constitutional reform committee. The top demand of demonstrators–the immediate removal of President Hosni Mubarak-was not addressed. Protests continue today across Egypt, and tens of thousands of demonstrators have held their ground in Tahrir Square amidst a heavy military presence. We go to Cairo to speak with Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Hossam Bahgat, an Egyptian human rights activist. [includes rush transcript]

Time for Democracy in Egypt by Ralph Nader

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
Feb. 7, 2011

Those politically savvy people who thought strongman, Hosni Mubarak would be out before the end of the first week of the Egyptian uprising better rethink the odds. For thirty years Mubarak has developed what can be called a deeply rooted dictatorial regime with regular White House access and annual largesse of some $1.3 billion in military equipment and payroll.

His Master’s Voice By William Bowles

By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
6 February, 2011

Image by Takver via Flickr

On the 5 February, the New York Times published a piece entitled ‘West Backs Gradual Egyptian Transition‘ that illustrates exactly how the media and the state collude in presenting the imperial line.

Effectively, it’s a distillation of the corporate state’s changing public response to the Egyptian insurrection as presented by one of its leading mouthpieces, the New York Times and it doesn’t beat about the obamabush in telling it like it is.

As things fall apart By William Bowles

By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
crossposted on Strategic Culture Foundation
6 February, 2011

If it wasn’t such a tragedy the headlines in the corporate media would be truly laughable! Led of course, by the Washington Post and the New York Times, the duel cheerleaders for US corporate capital, where we read the following titled ‘Egypt has Obama cautiously shifting world view on democracy’,

Israeli Spy Arrest in Egypt Points to High Stakes for Washington and Tel Aviv by Finian Cunningham

[Note: replaced text Feb. 5, 2011.]

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
4 February, 2011

An amateur video showing the arrest in Egypt of an alleged spy belonging to the Israeli General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, the Sayeret Matkal, indicates how worried Tel Aviv is by the turmoil engulfing the Mubarak regime and suggests that attempts are underway by outside forces to destabilise the popular revolution.