What You Need To Know About President Hosni Mubarak

Since he stepped into office after the 1981 assassination of his predecessor Anwar Sadat, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has proved to be a far more durable leader than anyone could have imagined.

The now 82-year-old autocrat -- who has been slammed by Foreign Policy as "senile and paranoid" -- now faces violent and unprecedented protests from Egyptians who are said to have been inspired by the civilian overthrow of Tunisia's president. Among the demonstrators' many concerns: Mubarak's near-militant lockdown on political opposition for much of his nearly 30 years in power, as well as a lack of a designated successor.

Take a look at some facts about Mubarak's controversial rule here:

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Emergency Law

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Mubarak came into power after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left) was assassinated in 1981, and the former has come under criticism for extending the country's Emergency Law since then. Under that "state of emergency," the government has the right to imprison individuals for any period of time, and for virtually no reason, thus keeping them in prisons without trials for any period.

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Mubarak came into power after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left) was assassinated in 1981, and the former has come under criticism for extending the country's Emergency Law since then. Under that "state of emergency," the government has the right to imprison individuals for any period of time, and for virtually no reason, thus keeping them in prisons without trials for any period.

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Comments

[mburgh]

05:48 PM on 01/28/2011

Don't forget that Mubarak was one of the few Egyptian pilots to make it aloft in the Six Day War. Upon landing, he informed his commander that American pilots and not Israeli flyers were responsible for the destruction of Eqyptian Air Force, both on the ground and in the subsequent dog fights. From Michael Oren's Six Days of War, if you want to check it.

[FCBarca]

03:57 PM on 01/28/2011

Forgot to include how Mubarak is a propped up dictator, courtesy of Uncle Sam

The real question is, which world dictator hasn't been propped up by the US at one time or another?

[marknez21]

03:53 AM on 01/27/2011

Good bye Hosni Mubarak. Your pilot waiting for you in Cairo Airport.

[cliffhammond]

02:37 AM on 01/27/2011

In America, journalists have the unabridged freedom to write what the corporate media will print. Otherwise, their careers are over.

In America, the 2000 and 2004 national elections were rigged. The computer expert who fixed them decided to testify to a Congressional hearing despite being threatened by Karl Rove. He did not survive the plane crash. The U.S. refused all offers by foreign bodies to monitor the elections.

In America, we don't even have presidents; at least not any with real power. Effectively, the government of the U.S. is administered by corporatists and internationalist bankers, who make up the U.S. corporatocracy. Foreign policy is enforced by the American national security state on their behalf. Domestic policy falls into the purview of the "president" and the "Congress," most of which doesn't concern the elite in the least unless it effects them economically.

[anti politricks]

01:00 PM on 01/28/2011

i

[xargaw]

10:11 PM on 01/26/2011

When I read some of the things in this piece it hit me as troubling. My country is now also holding people indefinately in custody that are not formally charged with crimes. My country has had troubling elections with faulty electronic voting machines where recounts are halted and elections are in question. My country has leaders that have blatantly over-ridden the authority of the Constitution without consequences. While Egypt may be an extreme case, we are not by any means pure when it comes to our own laws and human rights. We should be equally concerned about cleaning up our own country as well as pointing fingers at others.

[KarlaElisa]

11:15 PM on 01/26/2011

Thank you. You wouldn't believe the number of people willing to compare what we exist under to other countries, yet call us the superior free nation. I'm just not seeing it.

[cliffhammond]

02:43 AM on 01/27/2011

Thank you. I was taken aback by Obama's unmitigated triumphalism in the State of the Union Address.

[cliffhammond]

02:44 AM on 01/27/2011

F&F #346.

[cliffhammond]

02:41 AM on 01/27/2011

F&F at number 267. I should have read yours before commenting above.

[samerbayer]

07:40 PM on 01/26/2011

The dictator is safe in Egypt. You can tell that by the very small number of protesters¬. Consider for example that Um-kalthoum funeral was attended by 8 millions of Egyptians while protesting the dictator of Egypt was attended by the few (in the order of tens of thousands). Invite Egyptians for a dance and more than the number of protesters will show up. Unfortunat¬ely the number of brave people in Egypt is small.
You have more people tweeting and twating than protesting¬. What the current population in Egypt and what the percentage that showed up?
I'm not only criticizin¬g Egypt alone. The same apply to Jordan, Syria etc. People are cowed and dictators are brutal.
My fear is for the brave few who risked so much for their country.
The cold fact though is that the dictator is safe for now

[marknez21]

03:54 AM on 01/27/2011

By February 2011 he is gone. Bye MUBARAK.

[Jack Canuckski]

10:24 PM on 01/29/2011

The difference is that public gatherings without government permission is illegal in Egypt.

Those who attended Um-Kalthoum's funeral were not risking their lives and what little freedom they had.

These demonstrations represent unprecedented deviance by the Egyptians.

They have overcome their fear and there is nothing that Mubarak can do to bring it back.

His efforts to terrorize the population again will only make them angry.

I don't know if you're aware of it, but the police, including the riot squads, are nowhere to be found. There are videos on-line of police vehicles being attacked by the crowds, overturned, and set on fire. The police have fled. It is the army now that is patroling the streets, and nobody yet knows if these soldiers would fire on the crowds if ordered to. The soldiers are largely conscripts, who come from the streets that they now patrol.
Mubarak is not so safe.

[samerbayer]

09:08 PM on 02/01/2011

I hope you are correct and I'm not.

[Ty LaRue]

05:18 PM on 01/26/2011

So he's basically a dictator

[messy]

04:23 PM on 01/26/2011

The Egyptian government like to pretend that there's freedom of the press by letting journalists bash Israel and the Jews mercilessly, and then saying: Israel is our friend we have freedom of speech.

[cliffhammond]

02:51 AM on 01/27/2011

Someone needs to "bash Israel...mercilessly." It won't happen in the States. Our media is just not all that free. My fear for the Palestinian people right now is that this turmoil, as well as the shock caused by the release of documents on the Palestinian Authority and its collusion, will be exploited by israel to load them into boxcars at the first signs of unrest, and send them down the tracks to concentration camps like the one at Gaza.

[mburgh]

05:52 PM on 01/28/2011

I was with you until this blatantly anti-Jewish remark. If Israel is such a rogue state, why haven't they done it already. Oh, an you're forgetting the co-conspirator in Gaza, namely Egypt.

[eric14]

04:17 PM on 01/26/2011

A little more is required in the ''Need to Know'' category. Mubarak heads up an extensive, long-established oligarchy of gangster-clans whom we may politely refer to as the dynastic families of the ruling class. They will not hesitate to use any kind of force to protect themselves fro m dispossession of power, influence and wealth.

The removal of Mubarak and his regime constitutes a class struggle in the sense described one way by Lenin and another way by Trotsky. Here is an amalgam: An insurrection of the working-class and the middle-class together takes place to overthrow the corrupt bourgeoisie which has replaced the colonial exploiters with a home-grown brand of corruption and oppression.

Hillary Clinton in advising the Egyptian government to permit ''demonstrations'' is implicitly and unintentionally (I believe) advocating revolution. They will ignore her with a nod and a wink from Peace Prize Prez..

[cliffhammond]

02:57 AM on 01/27/2011

I think that Peace Prize Prez and his Secretary of State both realize, at least to some degree that doesn't quite overcome their hypocrisy in cautioning against a more violent level of oppression, is that the best way to control a raging bull is to give it lots of pasture.