Updated: Egypt’s Military Imposes Martial Law

Copyright 2.14.11 By CK Hunter, All Rights Reserved.

Repost courtesy of the Washington Post

Egypt in turmoil

Full coverage of the Egyptian protests

Egypt’s generals impose martial law

Gallery

Egypt day 20: Aftermath of a regime change

Ruling council says it will run the country for six months or until elections are held; tensions flare as military evicts protesters in Tahrir Square.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

By Craig Whitlock and Sudarsan Raghavan

Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 13, 2011; 11:00 PM

CAIRO – Egypt’s generals imposed martial law on Sunday, dissolving parliament and suspending the constitution, moves that many of the protesters who helped topple President Hosni Mubarak said were necessary to excise a rotten form of government.

This Story

• Egypt’s generals impose martial law
• Where is Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak?
• In Mubarak’s home town, angst and sorrow

The sweeping actions appeared to have their desired effect of calming the national mood. Under a celebratory facade, Egypt has remained on edge since Mubarak was forced to abdicate Friday, as uncertainty grew over the revolution’s next stages.

In a written communique, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, led by Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi, said the military rule was temporary and would last until elections are held, possibly as soon as six months from now. A new set of guiding laws will be drafted by an appointed committee and made subject to a referendum, the military chiefs said.

The parliament disbanded by the military had been a rubber-stamp body dominated by ruling-party members who prevailed in rigged November elections. The constitution had also been skewed heavily in favor of Mubarak’s regime.

Opposition figures praised the moves as important first steps toward free elections but urged further measures to sweep away the old guard. Some expressed alarm at an aborted effort by the military early Sunday to clear Cairo‘s Tahrir Square of remaining protesters. They also criticized a decision by the military rulers to leave Mubarak’s cabinet in place.

“By no means can they concentrate on fixing the problems and investigating what happened under the former regime, because they are the ones responsible,” said Alaa al Aswany, an Egyptian novelist and democracy activist.

It remains far from clear how quickly elections might be held in Egypt. The well-organized Muslim Brotherhood, officially banned under Mubarak, has pressed for speedy elections. Some democracy activists have said that it might take much longer than six months to prepare the ground for a fair contest.

Some unrest continued in Cairo, as about 500 police officers, demanding higher wages, marched through Tahrir Square and blocked the entrance to the Interior Ministry. Workers at state banks held sit-ins, forcing Egypt’s central bank to declare Monday a bank holiday. The antiquities-rich Egyptian Museum reported that two statues of King Tutankhamen and 16 other artworks had been looted.

“Our concern now is security, to bring security back to the Egyptian citizen,” Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said after presiding over a meeting of the caretaker cabinet. “That sense has been lost since the beginning of the events. It’s been coming back, but not as quickly as we hoped.”

Before the session, workers removed a huge portrait of Mubarak that had kept watch over the meeting room.

Unlike the police and other domestic security forces that Mubarak used to brutalize his political foes, the armed forces are seen by many Egyptians as their protectors and saviors. The military permitted the protests to unfold peacefully during the 18-day revolution. Many soldiers and officers made clear that their sympathies lay with the people.

For the near term, at least, the man running the country is Tantawi, 75, a close ally of Mubarak’s who served under him as defense minister and commander in chief of the armed forces. The military council’s communique said Tantawi would function as Egypt’s head of state in international relations.

Retired military officers and analysts described Tantawi as pragmatic and conservative, with no visible political aspirations. They said he has the support of other senior commanders, including Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, the armed forces’ chief of staff.

This Story

• Egypt’s generals impose martial law
• Where is Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak?
• In Mubarak’s home town, angst and sorrow

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“Tantawi does not have ambitions to run for president. No one in the supreme council has that wish,” said Hosam Sowilam, a retired major general and former military college classmate of Tantawi’s. “We are military people. We don’t want to indulge in any political matters. We want to only participate in defending our territory and preserving the independence and stability of the country.”

Over the years, Tantawi has kept close ties with U.S. government and military officials. “He understands the importance of this relationship,” said Mohamed Kadry Said, a former major general who is an analyst at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

Tantawi is also seen as a reliable ally by Israel, which has feared greater instability with Mubarak’s departure. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has affirmed that Egypt will honor its international treaty obligations, including its peace accord with Israel.

But some military analysts said that despite protestations to the contrary, Tantawi and other generals might find that they enjoy ruling Egypt without any checks on their authority.

“In a few months, after they realize how powerful they are and if they believe they can control the country and restore stability, I am not sure they won’t fall in love with their huge influence,” said Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli major general who is an analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “Under certain circumstances, they can find excuses as to why an election cannot be held at the moment.”

Some demonstrators said they would continue to occupy Tahrir Square until the generals acceded to other demands, including the release of thousands of political prisoners and the repeal of Egypt’s state-of-emergency law, which Mubarak imposed almost 30 years ago as a tool to repress political opponents.

“How can there be freedom as long as the emergency law exists?” said Ram Ebead, 32, an unemployed chemist who has camped out in the plaza since protests erupted Jan. 25. “How can there be freedom without the release of political prisoners?”

Other organizers said they would leave Tahrir Square for now but would return every Friday to pressure the military to make good on its promises.

“The people will be frustrated if the military stays in power more than six months,” said Essam el-Erian, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Analysts said the group stands to benefit from snap elections because it is Egypt’s best-organized political movement.

Erian urged the military to cancel the emergency law and to release the prisoners, many of them Brotherhood supporters. But he also praised the military for the measures it has taken.

“We’re on the right road,” Erian said. “Transitions from dictatorship to democracy are very difficult. It will take time.”

Special correspondent Samuel Sockol contributed to this report.

“I burst just like a supernova.” Obama’s Credibility At Stake in 2010

I thought this was a noteworthy tome for Christmas Eve 2009, below by Daniel Henninger. We have all heard the phrase “What goes up, must come down.”  With even more outrageous new allegations of fraud against Obama’s one year old presidency now barreling in on him, i.e Reverend James Manning alleging that Obama  never even actually attended Columbia University, the fast moving locomotive of daring, truthful and fearless citizen journalist reporting is now running over the credibility of Obama’s leadership with freight train destructive power. Witnessing all this, it’s no wonder the White House is making not so secret preparations for coming civil unrest and martial law.

Chase Hunter

DECEMBER 24, 2009, 12:06 A.M. ET

Is Obama a star for the ages, or is he fading fast?

• By DANIEL HENNINGER

In February 2007, Barack Obama announced he would stand for the presidency of the United States in 2008. One year into that far-from-inevitable presidency, no figure has ever so thoroughly pulled toward himself the nation’s political energy.

He’s a star alright. One of his most eager admirers, Bruce Springsteen, sang at the dawn of his own emergence years back:

“I burst just like a supernova.”

But here’s NASA’s definition of a supernova: It’s a stellar explosion, an incredibly luminous star, able to outshine a whole galaxy . . . before gradually fading from view.

So one may ask after the first year of Obama: Is he a star for the ages, or is he fading fast?

Has any president so engulfed American politics? He is everywhere. He is the first real king of all media. He makes himself the constant conversation, the national siren song. No one can stop listening to him, even if it kills them to hear it.

Daniel Henninger discusses President Obama’s star power.

•Podcast

Nobody says “Barack Obama” anymore. He’s just “Obama.” He is the champ of one-name celebrities. Bono, Beyoncé, Sting, Madonna, Moby, LeBron, Ronaldo, even Oprah—no one’s close. Obama. Oh-BAHH-ma. Ohhhhhbama.

The politician formerly known as Barack Obama swept into office on a wave of goodwill. After the election his support grew, giving him a bigger win than the 52.9% to 45.7% voting result.

The election itself was part fairy tale, part fight of the century. The incredible primary battle between the rookie from Illinois and Team Clinton was a mesmerizing, six-month thriller.

It is true that his approval rating has fallen fast, though keep in mind that high unemployment brought Ronald Reagan a disapproval rating of 54% in early 1983. Still it remains impossible to view Obama as just another pol. No previous politician or president has sustained such a huge public presence. The Obama machine has hard-wired itself to the 24/7 media machine.

People started to think Obama was speaking to them every day. Why not? He has the best voice in politics since Reagan’s, and Obama hasn’t acted professionally a day in his life.

View Full Image

Associated PressBarack Obama delivers his acceptance speech in Denver.

The whole Obama thing, starting with the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, followed immediately by the book “Dreams from My Father,” was built around a persona, an aura. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wrote that Obama told him early in his Senate career: “Harry, I have a gift.”

This column has referred previously to a January 2007 New York Times article about Obama at Harvard Law School. It has the best description I have seen of the “gift.” This was 1988 to 1991, one of the most politicized periods in the law school’s history, with divisive fights over ideas such as critical race theory. In the article Prof. Charles Ogletree recalled how the young Obama spoke to a public gathering on one particularly contentious issue, and both sides thought he was endorsing their argument: “Everyone was nodding. Oh, he agrees with me.”

That is the “gift.” What is not clear as we approach the second year of Mr. Obama’s term is whether the gift can produce magic for a presidency.

The American presidency isn’t like anything else in life. What was magic at Harvard or wowed independents in 2008 isn’t necessarily what works in the Oval Office or in a room with Vladimir Putin or Wen Jiabao, who are quite beyond the experience of political awe.

The aspect of the “Obama” phenomenon that disconcerts me most is the sense that Barack Obama himself is at times oblivious of where it has taken him. The first time was his acceptance speech last year in Denver, in which he promised to solve, well, pretty much everything. Grandiosity is de rigueur on that occasion, but this was its antic cousin, grandiloquence.

This week brought a more troubling incident. Harry Reid’s Senate had just secured its 60th vote for Mr. Obama’s health-care reform. Whatever one’s view, its trillion-dollar-plus cost is an agreed given. Days earlier the public saw Congress vote to raise the debt ceiling by almost $290 billion to make room for the needs of the $800 billion stimulus bill, the unprecedented $3.5 trillion budget, and the House’s approval Dec. 16 of a new $154 billion jobs bill. Amid this President Obama said Monday: “We can’t continue to spend . . . as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money.”

From the Wizard of Oz to Tiger Woods, the greatest danger to grand men is feet of clay. There are varieties of clay. For the politician known as Obama it is that if he is shown to be a cynic, he is finished. “Monopoly money” was an everyone-agrees-with-me remark. But to everyone, it was simply fantastic.

The American people took a flyer on Barack Obama. If they conclude Obama is just the name of another lesser god, his fall could come as fast as his rise.

Write to henninger@wsj.com

Alternative News Forum: Our First Video Collection of 2009

Keep your hands inside the fence. Don’t touch the animals please.

Musings upon: Oprah’s New Religions Agenda, Eckhart Tolle, Evolution of Spiritual Consciousness, New Spiritual Awareness, Battle for the Soul and Wallet of Americans in Crisis, New Age Religion, Reptilian Activities, Obama’s Hidden Satanic Phrase Revealed, Exposing the New World Order  Agenda, Looking at D.U.M.B. Deep Underground Military Bunkers for the Global Elite (hell on earth for the rest of us), Refusing RFID Chips, False Christ Maitreya is Busted, Barack Obama is the False Prophet of the Book of Revelations, 2012 Pole Shift Science Explained, Planet X Nibiru is Wormwood, 4th Dimensional Explorations, Surfing The Photon Belt, 9-11 False Flag Event Known of By Bush Crime Family, Future Predictions, 2012-2037 Prophecy, and Videos Which are Sublime, Sordid & Everything in Between:

Alligator Farm’s First Video Collection 7.2009

Wondering what billionaire USA media High Priestess Oprah Winfrey has been up to lately? Well, as if changing the course of human history by endorsing  false prophet Obama wasn’t enough to sate her thirst for global power, she has now founded a church. Yep.  “The Church of the New Earth” is based on the books of Oprah’s guru Eckhart Tolle, and it now boasts more than 5 million members.

Just what are these two alligators, the USA Christian media, and Oprah’s New Earth Church, at odds over? Such furor, such uproar. My guess is that it may have something to do with the dwindling coffers of many USA Christian churches, whose congregations are now so weary of being hammered with doctrines of fear, hate, hell, guilt and sin that they are just looking for a breath of fresh air somewhere.  ( Can I get an amen? ) And it certainly has not helped the Christian churches in America that at least 55% of the population wants them to STOP focusing on whether or not gays can marry and just FOCUS ON THEIR OWN FAMILIES instead. Ted Haggert. Ahem.

Is Tolle a bonafied spiritual teacher or, like Obama, a mass “oratorial NLP hypnotist and mass mind trance inducer”? Don’t they do some kind of mass trance as part of their church services? Just exactly what IS a mass trance?

Oh yeah, I get it. A mass trance is the same thing that Obama did to the nation when he would speak and the ladies would tear their blouses and weep, and young kids would beat their chests in affiliation, and hardened fossilized media talking heads like Glenn Beck would go gay for Obama and gush over the chill that ran up his leg when he heard him speak. Oh yeah. THAT”s what a mass trance is like. I get it.

Do you suppose if common folk knew that Barack Obama is a trained adept at something called “Neurolinguistic Programming” – a psychological control and mind control technique which emphasizes the use of “aggressive mental suggestions” delivered by specific voice intonations and inflections of speech, they might turn off that TV set when he starts up givin’ one of his “listen to me now and do what I say” speeches from the Oval Office?  It wasn’t just the intellectually vulnerable  ipod generation who voted by the gadzillions that got Obama elected – it was the complicit USA media and his ‘mass hypnosis’ oratorial skills using NLP.

Just exactly what is Oprah’s new church actually selling?  Every church everywhere is always selling something, and it usually has to do with MONEY and CONTROL, i. e.  Church of Scientology, Church of the Latter Day Saints, Church Universal and Triumphant (Elizabeth Claire Prophet’s former new age creation, which is now in tatters), Heaven’s Gate, The Family, Jim Jones’ People’s Temple, et al.

Has the cult of Oprah finally tipped the bucket of America’s tolerance for her various ambitions? Will she soon march her church members off into the  jungles of South Africa to build “the New Earth” –  leaving family members of cult-struck moms to sit weeping into TV dinners, wondering when mom will come home and cook some real food again?

Could this be why is American Christendom is so irate and up in arms over her new $church$? Is a mass $piritual awakening of stressed out Americans who are just disgusted with the Christian church, (although they have never stopped loving God, they just cannot stomach what the church sells along with it) who venture to read Eckhart Tolle’s books actually such a  BAD thing?

It all depends on whether we will soon see Oprah’s church members boarding planes bound for South Africa, or wearing pale apricot togas, ringing little bells in airport causeways, begging for more members and more money.  Stay tuned. I am watching this particular alligator with the keenest of interest.

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You just can’t make this stuff up folks. This video below came out about a year ago, right around the time that I figured out beyond all shadow of a doubt that Obama’s political career had something to do with the rise of the Antichrist.  I don’t usually like rap, but this is just darn eloquent.

Here is another one similar to it.

Just in case you did not know, CIA and NSA black ops in the US have now siphoned off more than 50 trillion dollars from usa taxpayers and CIA drug cartel operations since around 1970 and have used the wicked black cash to build an elaborate undergound tunnel and city system for the use of the Washington DC elites and military families when the 2012 pole shift hits the fan. The pentagon knows all about it. Oh by the way Russia is also building entire undergound cities for their elites, as is Norway. Norway is also storing seeds. Hmmm. Gosh. Seems like our governments forgot to tell us something. Hmm. Gosh. Wonder why all the major governments of the world now have telescopes pointed at the same spot in space. Wow. Even the Vatican has an observatory with it’s scopes pointed at the same spot. Gee. If you don’t know what I am talking about, you better read this web page and all it’s links from top to bottom. Then start praying like your life depended on it. Cause it does. – CKH See http://2012poleshift.wetpaint.com Here’s video footage of Norway’s undeground tunnel system, which they are building in secret. A few hardy souls with intestinal fortitude have posted news and videos about this on the web, I laud their courage. Pray for the people of this world. Here is another real alligator for you to gawk at: Now we all know by now that 9-11 was a false flag event carried out by New World Order operatives with the full knowledge and consent of the Bush crime family. Butt did you know that George W. Bush was such a loose cannon in front of TV cameras when he was speaking “unscripted” that he actually mentioned the bombs that had been pre-wired in the twin towers, (that took place the weekend before 9-11 under the pretense of upgrading security systems at the towers) where they had been placed right before 9-11. He actually accidentally admitted the whole thing in front of TV cameras, then just kept right on talking, too stupid to even realize what he had done. This is commonly called a “subconscious tell” in psychiatric circles. It happens when someone needs to tell the truth about something, but they cannot bring themselves to do it, so it kind of squirts out sideways as they appear to be talking about something else entirely.

Step right up and see it here first folks in the main pond of my Alligator Farm. Listen to George speak below, then tell me what you think he just said.

Marshall Masters is a scientist of noteworthy intelligence who runs a series of well documented websites which make a clear case that the arrival of Planet X Nibiru in 2012 poses a clear and present danger to human civilization. That is what all these secret undergound tunnels and cities, and the storing of seeds and all the covert astronomy is all about, just in case you have been idling away on a desert island for several years, and just washed back onto the shores of civilization. Here is Marshall’s February 2009 science report on video.
I suggest you gather the family round the hearth to watch this one.
This stuff ain’t for the faint of heart. See http://yowusa.com for more info and supporting free ebook downloads. See also
http://2012poleshift.wetpaint.com

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