February 11, 2011

Phyllis Bennis: Mubarak's Defiance

"After deliberately raising the hopes of millions of Egyptians and millions more around the world, U.S.-backed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak defied the rising demand of the millions of protesters who have taken to Egypt's streets, to announce he will remain in office."...

"Claiming he wouldn't bow to "foreign pressure," Mubarak, he said he had "laid down a vision...to exit the current crisis, and to realize the demands voiced by the youth and citizens...without violating the Constitution."

With those words, he took up the mantle of protecting Egypt's Constitution, an approach championed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from last weekend. Clinton had urged that Egypt's political transition go slow because, she said, if Mubarak stepped down the Constitution required elections within 60 days – to early for free and fair elections. What she ignored was the popular demand of the Egyptian opposition to scrap the current constitution, widely understood to be designed to keep the ruling party in power. Mubarak did describe a range of organizational and political processes he said would lead to amending the constitution, even listing specific articles that should be changed, but the constitutional committee he announced a few days ago is made up of Mubarak loyalists and is broadly distrusted.

Mubarak claimed he's "totally committed to fulfilling all the promises" he made earlier, but those promises, including a pledge he would not run again in September elections, are based on the assumption that he remains in power at least until then. He did refer to delegating some authority to his newly appointed Vice-President Omar Suleiman, long known for his links with the CIA in coordinating Egypt's interrogation-and-torture role in Washington's extraordinary rendition program, but he didn't give up the power of the presidency.

Monumental Crowds

The celebratory crowds in Tahrir Square – which had grown to a monumental size over the last six or eight hours as people gathered in anticipation of a very different speech – as well as those in Alexandria and elsewhere across Egypt, reacted with fury. There's little question that the rumors, which reached fever-pitch by the time Mubarak addressed the nation around 11:00 p.m. Egypt time, also stoked the anger when the hated president made clear, despite claiming his belief that the protesters' demands were legitimate, that he wouldn't leave Egyptian soil until he was "buried under it."

The question now is what happens next." ...

Read full posting here: 11 February 2011