Obama Scrambles to Save Morsi After Muslim Brotherhood Pres Defies Ultimatum to Bend to Protest (Geller, Atlas Shrugs)
Millions
of Egyptians have taken to the streets in protest of the Muslim
Brotherhood and Obama. The President of the United States has always
been a champion of freedom; we must navigate through uncharted waters
when the current President of the United States is an enemy of freedom.
Once again, Obama is on the wrong side of history, and more
significantly, the wrong side of America. Muslim Brotherhood President
Mohamed Morsi Tuesday
night rejected
Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ‘s demand that he quit to
avert a bloodbath. He said he stood by his “constitutional dignity” and
demanded the army’s withdrawal of its ultimatum.
President Barack Obama and Chief of US General Staff Gen.
Martin Dempsey intervened in the Egyptian crisis early Tuesday, July 2,
in an attempt to save the besieged President Mohamed Morsi and his
Muslim Brotherhood. Obama called the Egyptian president and Gen. Dempsey
phoned Chief of staff Gen. Sedki Sobhi, hoping to defuse the three-way
crisis between the regime, the army and the protest movement before it
gets out of hand.
The crash of Morsi’s presidency would seriously undermine the
objectives of the Arab Revolt pursued by the Obama administration as
the arch-stone of his Middle East policy.
The administration had earlier sought unsuccessfully to persuade the heads of the Egyptian army not to issue its 48-hour ultimatum to Egypt’s rulers “heed
the will of the people” by Wednesday afternoon – or else the army would
intervene. The Americans proposed instead to leave Morsi in place after
stripping him of presidential authority and installing a transitional
government to prepare the country for new elections to the presidency
and parliament. (DEBKA)
Morsi can afford to brush off isolation if Obama continues to support
this Islamic supremacist thug with billions, F16s, arms and aid.
“Brushing aside a military ultimatum and his deepening isolation,
President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt declared on Tuesday that he was the
legitimate leader of the country and blamed the spiraling and violent
national crisis on what he repeatedly called the corrupt “remnants of
the former regime” overthrown in the 2011 revolution.”
Morsi Defies Egypt Army’s Ultimatum to Bend to Protest NY Times, July 2, 2013
Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
Thousands of Mr. Morsi’s supporters demonstrated in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City and in front of Cairo University.
More Photos » By BEN HUBBARD,
DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and
KAREEM FAHIM
In an emotional and rambling speech broadcast live on state
television that extended past midnight into Wednesday morning, Mr. Morsi
called on both his supporters and opponents to put aside their
disagreements and unite behind him, and hinted strongly that the country
could fall into chaos if they did not.
“I am the president of Egypt,” Mr. Morsi said, invoking again and again what he called his constitutional mandate to remain in power.
“The remnants of the former regime, they are fighting against
our democracy,” he said, referring to the toppled government of his
predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. “If they come back to the people they will
be rejected. They are accustomed to corruption, rigging elections
sucking dry the blood of the people.” He added: “They cannot thrive in
democracy.”
Addressing both his supporters and the opposition, Mr. Morsi said:
“Safeguard Egypt, safeguard the revolution. The revolution we earned by
the sweat of our eyebrows and by the blood of our martyrs.”
It was Mr. Morsi’s most extensive rebuttal to the growing calls on
him to resign from an ever-widening spectrum of the Egyptian population
after a yearlong tenure that has been riven with turmoil and growing
disenchantment with him and his Islamist supporters.
Mr. Morsi also demanded that the Egyptian military rescind its
ultimatum against him, which his supporters have described as the
prelude to a military coup.
Mr. Morsi’s defiant message came amid a new outbreak of armed
and lethal political violence as protesters massed to call for his
ouster. As the clock ticked on the military’s two-day ultimatum for the
president to ease the crisis, high-ranking aides abandoned him and
dozens of his supporters were hit by birdshot. At least seven people
were reported killed.
“President Morsi stresses his tenacity to the constitutional
legitimacy and refuses any attempt to deviate from it,” the message in
Arabic read. The message added that he “calls on the armed forces to
withdraw its warning/ultimatum and rejects any domestic or foreign
dictation.”
For the third consecutive day, anti-Morsi protesters packed Tahrir
Square in central Cairo and filled the street in front of the main
presidential palace while starting a new sit-in in front of a second
palace, where Mr. Morsi has been working since last week. They chanted
for the end of his rule of the country one year after he rode to victory
as Egypt’s first democratically elected president.
At the same time on Tuesday, reinforcing the sense of impending
showdown, thousands of Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters demonstrated in
the Cairo suburb of Nasr City and in front of Cairo University. Armed
assailants firing birdshot wounded at least 40 of them at the university
and injured 35 others with rocks, police officials said.
In a second location, a Cairo neighborhood once considered a
stronghold of support for the president’s conservative allies, a
gunfight erupted as pro-Morsi marchers entered the neighborhood. An
angry mob chased them away, and stripped and beat a man presumed to be
among the supporters.
The attacks in both places erupted at nightfall, while in Alexandria
in the north, 33 people were wounded by pellets in clashes between Mr.
Morsi’s opponents and supporters with gunfire from both sides, police
officials said.
Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr resigned, bringing to six the
number of ministers to announce their resignations since the outbreak of
mass anti-Morsi protests on Sunday, although the prime minister’s
office said in a statement that they would continue to carry out their
duties. The cabinet spokesman, Alaa al-Hadidi, and two presidential
spokesmen also quit, state media reported.
Other state institutions also undermined Mr. Morsi’s grip on the
state, with a court ruling ordering the removal of the Morsi-appointed
prosecutor general, Talaat Abdallah, and moving to reinstate a
prosecutor first appointed by President Hosni Mubarak before his ouster
in the Arab Spring euphoria of 2011.
Also on Tuesday, Egypt’s largest ultraconservative Islamist group and
its political arm, the Nour party, joined the call for early
presidential elections and the formation of a caretaker cabinet. The
group did not heed the original calls to protests against Mr. Morsi but
appears to have been influenced by the turnout.
The opposition umbrella group that has coordinated the protests, the
June 30 Front, said on Tuesday that it had named Mohamed ElBaradei, a
prominent Egyptian statesman and opposition leader, to represent the
group in “any possible upcoming talks with the armed forces.” The group
said its demands included Mr. Morsi’s departure and the formation of a
technocratic cabinet to run the country.
Opposition activists called for new protests in front of the
presidential palace on Tuesday evening, while a state of tense
uncertainty gripped the country after the armed forces delivered an
ultimatum on Monday giving Mr. Morsi 48 hours to reach an accommodation
with the opposition.
Mr. Morsi’s supporters, too, renewed the calls for demonstrations to
support the president and defend against what they said would amount to
“a military coup.”
The crisis drew in President Obama, who spoke to Mr. Morsi by
telephone on Monday from Tanzania, during the last stage of an African
tour.
The standoff prompted other expressions of concern far beyond Egypt’s
borders, with the United Nations high commissioner for human rights,
Navi Pillay, urging all parties to engage in “a serious national
dialogue in order to find a solution to the political crisis and prevent
an escalation of violence” and calling on Mr. Morsi to “listen to the
demands and wishes of the Egyptian people.”
Through a spokesman, Ms. Pillay also said Mr. Morsi should “heed the
lessons of the past in this particularly fragile situation.”
In a military communiqué read over state television Monday that
echoed the announcement toppling Mr. Mubarak two chaotic years ago, the
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces demanded that Mr. Morsi satisfy the
public’s demands within 48 hours or the generals would impose their own
“road map” out of the crisis.
But instead of soothing the volatile standoff between Mr.
Morsi’s opponents and his supporters, the generals seemed to add to the
uncertainty that has paralyzed the state, decimated the economy and
brought millions into the streets Sunday demanding that the president
step down. It was not clear what the military meant when it
said Mr. Morsi must satisfy the public’s demands, what it might do if
that vague standard was not met, and who would be able to unite this
badly fractured nation.
The generals did, however, open a new confrontation with Mr. Morsi’s
allies in the Muslim Brotherhood with its threat to impose a political
“road map.” Brotherhood members rallied in half a dozen cities to
denounce the threat of a military takeover, a reminder that the group
remains a potent force unwilling to give up the power it has waited 80
years to wield.
“We understand it as a military coup,” said one adviser to Mr. Morsi,
speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential
negotiations. “What form that will take remains to be seen.”
In a sternly worded statement issued after 1 a.m. Tuesday, moreover,
Mr. Morsi’s office said it was continuing with its plans for dialogue
and reconciliation with its opponents. Noting that it was not consulted
before the military made its statement, Mr. Morsi’s office asserted,
“Some of its phrases have connotations that may cause confusion in the
complicated national scene,” and suggested that it “deepens the division
between the people” and “may threaten the social peace no matter what
the motivation.”
The delicate interplay between Mr. Morsi and the military’s top
officer, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, was fraught with risks for both men,
and for the nation. Faced with fuel shortages, dwindling hard currency
reserves and worries about its wheat supplies, Egypt urgently needs a
government stable and credible enough to manage difficult and disruptive
economic reforms. A move by the military to force the Brotherhood from
power, despite its electoral victories, could set off an Islamist
backlash in the streets that would make stability and economic growth
even more elusive.
According to a statement released by the White House as Mr. Obama
visited Tanzania, he told Mr. Morsi, “The United States is committed to
the democratic process in Egypt and does not support any single party or
group.”
He stressed that “democracy is about more than elections,” the
statement said, and encouraged Mr. Morsi to demonstrate “that he is
responsive to the concerns of the protesters.” He underscored that the
crisis “must be resolved through a political process.”
Mr. Morsi’s aides described Mr. Obama’s message as a confirmation
that the White House was continuing to deal with Mr. Morsi as Egypt’s
elected president and to support the country’s transition to civilian
democracy.
On Monday, Mr. Obama had expressed concern about the protests but
said the situation was different from earlier protests that had prompted
the United States to call for the departure of Mr. Mubarak. “When I
took a position that it was time for Egypt to transition, it was based
on the fact that Egypt had not had democratic government for decades, if
ever,” he said.
Now that Egypt has such a government, he said, “there’s more work to
be done to create the condition where everybody believes their voices
are heard.” He urged both sides to refrain from violence, and
specifically mentioned reports of assaults on women in Egypt, saying,
“Assaulting women does not qualify as peaceful protests.”
In Cairo, speaking to a crowd of Islamists armed with makeshift clubs
and hard hats at a rally, a senior Brotherhood leader, Mohamed
el-Beltagy, called on the crowd to defend Mr. Morsi’s “legitimacy” as
the elected president. “No coup against legitimacy of any kind will pass
except over our dead bodies,” he said, dismissing the latest protests
as “remnants” of the Mubarak elite.
Across the Nile in Giza, Mohamed Fadala, a financial manager, said at
a late-night rally for Mr. Morsi that General Sisi appeared to have
considered only the non-Islamists in Egypt. “Sisi ignored half the
people!”
The generals have shown little enthusiasm for returning to politics,
especially after their own prestige was badly tarnished by the year of
street violence and economic catastrophe they oversaw after ousting Mr.
Mubarak. But as the protests against Mr. Morsi grew larger than those
that pushed out Mr. Mubarak, it became clear that Mr. Morsi had lost the
support of much of the population and had never fully controlled the
security services or other institutions of the state.
Protesters faulted Mr. Morsi and his Brotherhood allies for what they
called a rush to monopolize political power. In public squares that
just a year ago echoed with chants demanding an end to military rule,
cheers rose up again Monday welcoming the generals’ help in pressuring
Mr. Morsi.
Citing “the historic circumstance,” the Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces said in its statement Monday that “if the demands of the people
have not been met” within 48 hours, then the generals would “announce a
road map” to be enforced under the military’s supervision. But the
generals insisted that under its auspices “all political factions” would
participate in settling the crisis.
The “demands of the people” appeared to refer to the rallying cry of
the wave of protests: a call for Mr. Morsi’s immediate departure. The
generals, however, did not elaborate, leaving open the possibility that
they might accept another power-sharing arrangement.
“The wasting of more time will only create more division and conflict,” the statement warned.
Still, the generals also wanted to disavow any eagerness to return to
political power. “The armed forces will not be party to the circle of
politics or ruling, and the military refuses to deviate from its
assigned role in the original democratic vision,” the generals insisted.
As the Islamist pressure grew Monday night, the generals issued a
second statement specifically denying that they were planning a military
coup, saying their earlier statement was intended to “push all
political parties in the nation to find solutions to the current crisis
quickly.”
The Interior Ministry, whose police officers have been in open revolt
against Mr. Morsi, issued its own statement endorsing the military’s
intervention — another reminder of the breakdown in authority over the
holdover institutions of the Mubarak government.
Egypt had been bracing for weeks for Sunday’s protests against Mr.
Morsi on the anniversary of his inauguration. But the turnout surprised
almost everyone: the crowds were far larger — running into the millions —
and less violent than expected. The result not only underscored the
depth of the animosity against Mr. Morsi but also dispelled Brotherhood
arguments that a conspiracy of Mubarak “remnants” accounted for most of
the opposition in the streets.
By Monday morning, however, clashes between Brotherhood supporters
and opponents had left 15 dead across the country. Protesters attacked
several Brotherhood offices. In Cairo a mob attacked the Brotherhood’s
headquarters with Molotov cocktails, setting it on fire, breaking down
its doors and looting the building.
The Health Ministry reported eight deaths outside the building, six from gunshots.
Protest organizers had given Mr. Morsi until Tuesday to resign and
threatened a general strike. Protesters chained or blockaded government
offices in 11 provinces. By evening, the crowds in several cities had
grown to the hundreds of thousands again.
Many of the demonstrators now calling for Mr. Morsi’s ouster had
spent months last year marching to demand that the military give up its
hold on power, but when the military’s announcement was broadcast over
the radio on Monday, cheers erupted.
Hassan Ismail, a local organizer, rejected any compromise that left
Mr. Morsi in office and at the same time sought to distance his movement
from its new military allies. “We don’t want to be against the army,”
Mr. Ismail said. “And we don’t want the army to be against us.”
