If Western leaders, who have backed the dictator Mubarak for 30 years, cannot stand before the Egyptian people today and say unequivocally, "we support your right of national self-determination," when can they do it?
That's the question that Egyptian democracy leader and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei has put before Western leaders today.
Speaking to the Guardian in Cairo, before the planned protests today, ElBaradei stepped up his calls for Western leaders to explicitly condemn Mubarak, who, as the Guardian noted, has been a close ally of the US:
"The international community must understand we are being denied every human right day by day," he said. "Egypt today is one big prison. If the international community does not speak out it will have a lot of implications. We are fighting for universal values here. If the west is not going to speak out now, then when?"
Giving forceful illustration to ElBaradei's words that "Egypt today is one big prison," Egyptian police later doused ElBaradei with a water cannon and beat supporters who tried to shield him, AP reported, then trapped ElBaradei in a mosque by surrounding it with tear gas:
Police fired water cannons at one of the country's leading pro-democracy advocates, Mohamed ElBaradei, and his supporters as they joined the latest wave of protests after noon prayers. They used batons to beat some of ElBaradei's supporters, who surrounded him to protect him.A soaking wet ElBaradei was trapped inside a mosque while hundreds of riot police laid siege to it, firing tear gas in the streets around so no one could leave.
As I can attest from personal experience, having been under "hotel arrest" in Egypt during the Gaza Freedom March a year ago, this is a standard tactic of Egyptian police -- prevent you from participating in a demonstration by detaining you where you are.
What does it say that ElBaradei, a Nobel Prize winner, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a former assistant to the Egyptian Foreign Minister, not to mention a 68-year-old man -- is not allowed to peacefully raise his voice in protest against the Egyptian government?
Some folks in Washington still seem to be laboring under the illusion that the U.S. can wash its hands of this matter, like Pontius Pilate.
If the Egyptian government were not one of the largest recipients of U.S. "foreign aid," largely military "aid," it might be a different story. If the protesters in Egypt weren't painfully aware that the U.S. has long backed Mubarak to the hilt, it might be a different story.
But that's not the world in which we live. The world in which we live is the one in which people in Egypt know that the U.S. has backed Mubarak to the hilt. FDR famously said of the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza, "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." But FDR didn't say that in 2011. The world has changed. Expectations have been raised. U.S. leaders today have to meet a higher standard today. "Our son of a bitch" isn't going to wash on the streets of Cairo.
ElBaradei told CNN on Tuesday:
I was stunned to hear Secretary Clinton saying that the Egyptian government is "stable," and I asked myself at what price stability. Is it on the basis of 29 years of martial law? ... Is it on the basis of rigged elections? That's not stability. That's living on borrowed time. Stability is when you have a government that is elected on a free and fair basis. And we have seen how elections have been rigged in Egypt, we have seen how people have been tortured. And when you see today over 100,000 young people, getting desperate, going to the street, asking for their basic freedoms, I expected to hear from Secretary Clinton... democracy, human rights, freedom."
In cities across Egypt today, thousands of people, young and old, secularists and Islamists, Muslims and Christians, workers, lawyers, students and professors, have placed their bodies on the line. Their willingness to sacrifice forces us to consider ElBaradei's question: if not now, when? As Rabbi Hillel said,
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when?
Follow Robert Naiman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/naiman
Richard Grenell: Obama-Biden Support Mubarak, the Dictator
Eboo Patel: Egypt, Tunisia and the Youth Revolt in the Middle East
All the Neocons ever wanted to do is 'creatively destroy' the Middle East such that it laid prostrate at Israel's feet - just like they are trying to do to Iran at present.
Israel and the Neocons are scared to death of losing an useful agent like Mubarak
Israel's environment is changing so rapidly she cannot keep up - first Lebanon kicked out it's Israeli/American-domination, now Egypt - hopefully Abdullah in Jordan is the next to go
Come on Robert, you and I went through Honduras together. No one there was allowed to raise their voice in peace either. Let's get real brother Robert. When it comes to peace, it ain't gonna happen unless its all approved in the back rooms first.
But it did happen. Hundreds of people were shot, many people were killed. The internet was shut off. Cell phones were shut down, the entire country was quarantined or cut off from the rest of the world. Yet, no one really cared to talk about it, or show it on TV, or even do anything about it. My opinion is it was because they were Latin Americans, and the people in the Middle East are the boogymen, those Islamic people we are afraid of crying Allah Akbar from the rooftops. We want them to find freedom and become wealthy capitalists. As for Latin America, especially Central America, we lump them in with the immigration debate. We think of them as problems to be dealt with. The Muslims, well, we want them to like us, and that is why we spend so much time and coverage on their issues. I am sure there are more reasons, but those are just the few off the top of my head. Nothing in the Middle East is different from what happened in Honduras, and continues to happen in Honduras. Strikes marches and protests were going on just the other day. No one reported it.
Which brings us to the failed idea of the rights of man. He, having the right to speak out because in the west, mostly that has been allowed. Being an ugly Americans I understand that my right is allowed by my government. If I have some say in who I elect and have some power in my country I also have rights that are granted to me by the government.
Because of teaching threw school I think all should have those rights. But I was given my right by a very bloody civil war for independence and an even smarter then I group of educated Englishmen who preached revolution. Perhaps that is why, they put their lives on the line and won I have that right, until that happens in other countries and they have the very bright and forward thinking leaders that right will not be given.
Rights are man made, they require certain generations to bleed for them, they can be taken away by a government of individuals that are powerful and allowed by a people who do not understand the truth of any right!
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/israeli-knesset-member-expresses-support-mubarak
We are analagous to the chameleon trying to decide on his color while crawling on a crazy quilt. Tragically without a U.S. plan we are once again on the wrong side. True some Islamic militants may be leaders in the rebellion but there are many Egyptians who desire freedom over the torture of the current government,many might be injured from our indecision. We should be making it abundantly clear where our support resides, it's not with Egypt's President or the violence he is spawning.
Dr. Alan G. Phillips
Bloomington, IL
Iran, unlike Israel, is a signatory of the 1970 NNPT, which requires the International Atomic Energy Agency to make frequent unannounced inspections in order to verify that the country’s nuclear program remains within the bounds of the treaty. The IAEA has made over 2,700 snap inspections in Iran and have repeatedly stated that they have found no evidence of a weapons program and that non-diversion of nuclear material is continually being verified.
United Nations Security Council investigations, led by former Director General of IAEA, Mohamed El-Baradei, have repeatedly shown that Iran has no military component to its program. In an interview for the German magazine, Der Spiegel, in July 2010, El-Baradei stated “I do not believe that the Iranians are actually producing nuclear weapons… in general, the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran is overestimated, some even play it up intentionally.””
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/07/AR2005100700179.html
The award for the 63-year-old ElBaradei and his army of international inspectors was seen within the U.N.-sponsored organization as a vindication of its work in Iraq before the war and currently in Iran, where they are leading a cautious investigation of that country's nuclear program while promoting diplomacy as a way of resolving the crisis there.
In announcing its selection yesterday at a ceremony in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said ElBaradei "stood as an unafraid advocate" for disarmament, relying on diplomacy, rather than confrontation, to rid the world of nuclear threats.
"At a time when disarmament efforts appear deadlocked, when there is a danger that nuclear arms will spread both to states and to terrorist groups, and when nuclear power again appears to be playing an increasingly significant role, IAEA's work is of incalculable importance," it said.
ElBaradei, who opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and spent the last year fending off attempts by the White House to push him out of the agency, said he was "humbled" and strengthened by what he saw as an international vote of confidence in an agency that has been battered by conflict with Washington.
"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/07/AR2005100700179.html