Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak transferring power...

[snusgetter]

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Mubarak hands over power to Egypt VP, but won't step down - Haaretz Daily Newspaper

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday in a live address on Egyptian TV that he is transferring power to Vice President Omar Suleiman, but is not resigning from his official position as president of Egypt.

Mubarak said he would transfer power to Suleiman to prove that the demands of protesters will be met by dialogue.

He said he would not leave Egypt and the country would remain above the individual.

Mubarak said he had requested six constitutional amendments, answering one of the demands of the protesters. He said he would lift hated emergency laws when security permitted.

Mubarak reaffirmed that he will not run in elections in September, and said that those who died during the Egypt protests did not die in vain, adding that he felt the pain of those who had lost family members.

Saying he was addressing the people in Tahrir Square and the nation, Mubarak said he believed in the honesty of the demands of the protesters and their intentions.

Omar Suleiman, speaking on Thursday after President Hosni Mubarak handed him presidential powers, said he was committed to doing everything possible to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.

He said he was committed to achieving people's demands through dialogue, which had started and agreed on a road map.

Protesters in central Cairo's Tahrir Square were dismayed by Mubarak's speech on Thursday, waving shoes and chanting, "down, down with Hosni Mubarak," and "leave, leave," in rage that he did not step down but handed over powers to his vice president.

Anti-Mubarak protests had escalated in the past two days with labor strikes and revolts by state employees that added to the chaos, and in a sign of the government's distress, top officials were warning of a coup or the imposition of martial law.

The military's supreme council, headed by Defense Minster Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, appeared to hold the reins of leadership.

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And the beat goes on...

[snusjus]

He's "transferring power" to his hand-picked vice president. I hope Mubarak gets what is coming to him.

[snusgetter]

Breaking: Live coverage of the protests in Egypt

[Roo]

The army is likely going to do something about this. Hopefully they will usher him out and let everyone go home unscathed. If they do nothing, large-scale rioting is the next logical step.

[Mykislt]

well at least that's something..

He said he would lift hated emergency laws when security permitted.

I know the curfew was openly disobeyed, in front of police and everything on a large scale, when I went to Egypt in January, the people didn't really care about it, it wasn't even in protest or anything, people just went about their business.

[Maher]

The army is likely going to do something about this. Hopefully they will usher him out and let everyone go home unscathed. If they do nothing, large-scale rioting is the next logical step.

Mubarak is one of the old school generals, as we all know, IMHO the army has one of two choices, to seize power, coordinate a transition government, which means, that the generals will lose bower when a civilian is elected, we need to remember that all the presidents (3 to be exact) were ex-generals, so he is one of them, looks like the army wants to preserve its position but at the same time seeing the people like that, the generals know that Mubarak days are counted and trying to give him a clean exit. Very hard and complicated situation there, no one knows what the outcome will be, but one thing for sure, the people are demanding the entire regime to go starting with Mubarak. The recent meeting of the army without Mubarak is another indication that they are sending him a message that he is no longer welcomed as head of the army thus as head of state to follow. Man he is one stubborn SOB, if he was, as he says, democratically elected then the ones who elected him want him out, this proves that he was not elected

[sgreger1]

The army is likely going to do something about this. Hopefully they will usher him out and let everyone go home unscathed. If they do nothing, large-scale rioting is the next logical step.

The military has a tough decision to make. This is like the Tunisia revolution a few weks ago, it all depends on if the military helps out the protestors or not. Right now the military is playing both sides, and generally not messing with the protesters (except for some obligatory torture and shootings here and there).


Mubarak is believed to have $70 billion in assets hidden around the globe, he is likely one of the 3 wealthiest people alive, though it is hard to get a real number on that since super wealthy people hide their money in secret places that don't have to report it. But either way, this guy has endless amounts of cash and is supported by the Saudi's. The saudis are going to let him chill over there if he gets chased out of Egypt, just watch.



But the real question is, what will Obama do? He is in a real shitty position and I don't envy him. He has to choose between supporting one of our few remaining allies in the middle east (Mubarak) and therefore supporting a dictatorship, or supporting democracy in the region which is likely to lead to an anti-US government being elected. A lot of Egyptians see Mubarak as a puppet to the US and they probably all think this is somehow our fault. And probably it is in some way. For exampl, our CIA trained the Egyptian military in torture, which they are now using some protestors and the media.


Either way, this is giong to kick off tomorrow. Everyone thinks that the protestors were going to storm the palace after his announcement, but they havn't. That's because the military coralled them into the square where everyone thought he was going to be resigning, so when he didn't they weren't in a good position to storm the palace. They also would have to plow through Mubarak's private army of people (Presidential Guard) who are 20,000 strong and answer only to him.



Tomorrow. Watch, tomorrow night after prayers, Ciaro is going to be on fire. Friday is the big day, everyone is already out of their homes for prayers, this is the same thing that happened at the beginning of the protests, it didn't kick off until everyone was out of church.

Tomorrow, watch.

[sgreger1]

The recent meeting of the army without Mubarak is another indication that they are sending him a message that he is no longer welcomed as head of the army thus as head of state to follow.

The significance of this was great. Him not being there means that he is already out of power effectively, it means his days aren't limited, his hours are. I hope they do the right thing and throw his ass out, but like you said Mubarak is was a general and we all know how stong the "good ol` boys" club can be with the army.