Opposition Leader ElBaradei Slams Egypt Negotiations

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Opposition figure ElBaradei slams Egypt talks
Doina Chiacu
Reuters US Online Report Politics News
"Says He Was Not Invited To Attend Talks With Vice President Suleiman ... Calls The Negotiations 'Opaque'"

...............

"The process is opaque. Nobody knows who is talking to whom at this stage," ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"It's managed by Vice President Suleiman," ElBaradei said. "It is all managed by the military and that is part of the problem."

ElBaradei said he has not been part of the negotiations.

"I have not been invited to take part in the negotiations or dialogue but I've been following what is going on," he said."

Read more: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2011/02/opposition_figure_elbaradei_slams_egypt_talks.php?ref=fpa

[Better Believe It]

1. K & R

[ProSense]

2. From the article:

<...>

However, a representative of ElBaradei's group, National Association for Change, met with Suleiman on Sunday and described the talks as a positive first step.

<...>

Here's the video and transcript of ElBaradei's appearance on MTP.

[bvar22]

3. There will be much money and power working to ensure....

....that any change is superficial,
and that the same old PTB remain in power behind a thin veil.

The Egyptians are wise to be cautious.

[decidedlyso]

4. Exactly. Actually, if I were a betting man, I would bet subsequent to

the superficial changes, things will get dramatically worse because there will be a new layer of security implement to make certain nothing like the protests happen again. Many of the protesters will ultimately be hunted down and jailed. Not that it would have made much difference, I think one of the biggest mistakes the protesters made was not choosing a spokesman. The government has been able to divide and reconquer rather easily.

[Knight Hawk]

6. Exactly!

Our leaders have been exposed for who they are.Status quo comfort lovers.The Egyptians need a Fidel Castro.The fix is in.I smelled it a few days ago.Mubarak and his family have 70 BILLION dollars in a poor country.Yeah he is a great man.

[TBF]

10. Indeed, Fidel's words were quite to the point on this uprising -

“However, the Egyptian protests show that the continuity of the regime is not necessarily guaranteed nor that Israel will continue to have Cairo as its main ally in the region.”

As you can see, for the first time the world is simultaneously facing three problems:

Climate crises, food crises and political crises.
And we can add other serious dangers to them.
The risk of increasingly destructive war is very real.
Will the political leaders have sufficient serenity and equanimity to successfully face them?
Our species’ fate depends on it.

http://redactednews.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubaraks-fate-is-sealed-reflections-by.html

[defendandprotect]

17. Leaders gave us Global Warming, resulting food crises and political crisses ... they are suicidal!!

Capitalism is suicidal in its exploitation of nature!

[GliderGuider]

27. Add in a global energy crisis...

In case anyone hasn't noticed yet, we hit Peak Oil in 2005, and the world's net oil exports have dropped 6.5% since 2006. That gurgling sound you hear is the wold oil market starting to drain out.

This is not a good time for modern industrial civilization, as political crises flow out of the underlying biophysical crises. People aren't connecting up the dots yet, but we should expect the ride to get bumpier from here on out.

[molly77]

11. Friend of the US. 70 billion in a poor country

Israel says there will be chaos unless he stays in office. HMMMM

[go west young man]

15. Looks like he learned from the U.S. quite well.

Get in government and steal as much money from the people as you can.
Set up your family, invest in deals you set up, diversify and keep on taxing em.
It's called capitalism.

[defendandprotect]

16. Obama called Mubarak a "Patriot" ... that should give us some idea of what the Patriot Act ....

is really all about!!

[Bobbysox22]

7. Right....

Except that a spokesman could sell them out, too.

The problem is sustaining the energy while remaining non-violent. You demonstrate, demonstrate, demonstrate...and then what?

Meanwhile the regime waits you out.

[decidedlyso]

9. Yeah, that's true. Yes, nothing left to do...and now they have become

a nuisance. To probably more than just the government.

[Edweird]

14. I agree. The PTB are the military.

[No Elephants]

19. Unless Egyptian generals also have 70 billion, I might at least question that.

However, whether or not they have been the PTB all along, the military may well now be the PTB. And that seems to be the direction that our government and media are selling us.

The message being pumped by pundits, U.S. media, U.S. generals and other U.S. government officials sinte the protests began has been steady:

"Unlike Egyptian police, who are Mubarak's thugs, the Egyptian people love the Egyptian military--and vice versa. That is good news for us because:

1. This is not some South American (or Cuban) banana republic, where we've been condemning governments run by the military or rebel military leaders.

1. The bogeymen here are Mubarak and his Party and (Terra, Terra, Terra) the dreaded MUSLIM Brotherhood.

2. The the Egyptian military are more like you and me than most Arabs. Many of have them (read "NOT the rank and file") have been trained (read "sanitized") at West Point and (fortunately for you and me) have maintained friendships with members of our own military for years. Therefore, we have been able to keep lines of communication open with them throughout.

3. We are very comfortable with the Egyptian military; the Egyptian people are very comfortable with the Egyptian military; you should be very comfortable with the Egyptian military."

[ProSense]

5. Mohamed ElBaradei on CNN calls for one-year transitional government.

Video

Calls for Mubarak to be completely out of the process and then: (my transcription)

"What I'm calling for, Fareed, is a Presidential Council of three people with Suleiman or somebody from the army would be one member, the other should be civilian, a year of transition of a government of national unity of caretaker government that prepares properly for free and fair elections. I think any election in the next coming of months before the right people establish parties and engage it would be agian a fake democracy. We need a year of transition we need a transitional government. We need a Presidential Council. We need to abolish the present constitution. We need to dissolve the current parliament."

[Bobbysox22]

8. This would be ideal. But the regime is ignoring ElBaradei.

So the only rational solution is being shunted to the side.

[No Elephants]

20. An unelected military ruler Ideal? Framers never thought so. (Please see Reply # 19.)

[Bodhi BloodWave]

25. so it HAS to be him at the meeting and a representative of ElBaradei's group isn't good enough? nt

[underpants]

12. ElBaradei arrived with no constituency

he tried to latch onto the Brotherhood and it looks like they cast him off when they got the invite.

Sorry to say it but this looks more like sour grapes than anything-- and I like ElBaradei

[Edweird]

13. "It is all managed by the military" They are the ones with the power - they are the 'powers that be'

Unless the military is deposed this is not a 'revolution'.

[boppers]

18. The military is one of the few organizations that is still respected.

[No Elephants]

21. That seems to be the official version anyway.

I think there is a big difference between sharing a beer with a frontline grunt who may have been drafted out of your neighborhood during a protest on a hot Cairo street and respecting "the military," let alone wanting generals as the PTB.

However, those are the kinds of distinctions no one feeding us info about Egypt lately seems to want anyone to make. See Reply # 19.

For example, I'd share a cold beverage with a hard pressed grunt in a NY heartbeat. I do not respect the MIC contract-granting, warring military bigwigs; and I agree with the Framers about keeping the military firmly under the control of civiian government.

[boppers]

24. Interesting point.

I'll keep a sharper eye on what my friends in Egypt have to say about their military, both grunts and bigwigs.

[No Elephants]

22. I know El Baradei has a Nobel Prize, but is he Egypt's Chalaby (sans U.S. support) or a good guy?

I have no idea.

One thing seems clear. The U.S. will have a great deal to say about Egypt's government. And Mubarak may have at least some voice in the matter as well, probably in the name of a compromise to get him to leave before September.

[grahamhgreen]

23. Suleiman is Chalabi. Baradei is the good guy. Unless one is a neocon.

[hugo_from_TN]

26. Self appointed opposition leader?

Who elected him?