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Egypt dictator Hosni Mubarak on the brink of being toppled.
- Thread starter soikee
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Egyptians take pictures of a banner with portraits of members of President Hosni Mubarak's regime at Tahrir square in Cairo on February 10, 2011. Tens of thousands of Egyptian workers walked out in mass nationwide strikes to demand wage increases and show support for the widening revolt against President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
A medic has a snack at a makeshift clinic in the opposition stronghold of Tahrir Square, in Cairo February 10, 2011. The Egyptian government resisted growing pressure on Thursday from key ally the United States and from a still energetic popular protest movement, both demanding radical and immediate political change.
An Egyptian army commander, Hassan al-Roweny, addresses protesters in the opposition stronghold of Tahrir Square, in Cairo February 10, 2011. Egypt's government resisted growing pressure on Thursday from key ally the United States and from a still energetic popular protest movement, both demanding radical and immediate political change. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is on the verge of capitulating to protester demands to give up power but may still seek to hold on in a nominal capacity by giving presidential powers to his deputy or a joint leadership involving an army council.
Protesters wave their shoes in the air in contempt as they watch a projection of the televised speech of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, at the continuing anti-government demonstration in Cairo, Egypt Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011. Mubarak refused to step down or leave the country and instead handed his powers to his vice president Thursday, remaining president and ensuring regime control over the reform process, which stunned protesters demanding his ouster, who waved their shoes in contempt and shouted, "Leave, leave, leave."
Anti-government protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square listen as President Hosni Mubarak speaks to the nation February 10, 2011. Mubarak provoked rage on Egypt's streets on Thursday when he said he would hand powers to his deputy but disappointed protesters who had been expecting him to step down altogether after two weeks of unrest. "Leave! Leave!"
Egypt's Vice President Omar Suleiman addresses the nation on Egyptian State TV, in this still image taken from video, February 10, 2011. Suleiman, speaking on Thursday after President Hosni Mubarak handed him presidential powers, said Egyptians would not be dragged into chaos or used as tools for sabotage.
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak (L) speaks with his Vice-President Omar Suleiman in Cairo in this still image taken from video February 10, 2011. Egyptian state television showed images on Thursday of Mubarak in a meeting with his deputy Suleiman. Mubarak sat behind a desk in silence while the vice president was talking, the footage showed. It was not immediately clear when it was filmed, though the channel said the meeting was happening now.
Egypt's Omar Suleiman emerges from the shadows
Suleiman, a loyal aide to Mubarak who headed Egypt's intelligence service, moves into the spotlight, so far offering a rigid response to the protests.
February 10, 2011
Reporting from Cairo — Omar Suleiman has always been at the vortex of power. As Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's most trusted loyalist, he headed his country's intelligence service and handled its most sensitive dealings with Israel and the Palestinians. His relentless pursuit of Islamic radicals in Egypt made him a natural ally of the Bush and Obama administrations.
Now a man most comfortable in the shadows finds himself operating under the lights of state television, a vice president armed with the powers of the presidency casting for some formula of words and actions that might douse the rage in the streets.
Mubarak's decision to surrender the levers of presidential authority to Suleiman, though not the presidency itself, has placed his longtime confidant in a tricky spot. Suleiman must prove to a skeptical protest movement that he can turn Egypt away from an era of repressive government that he helped design.
But in his limited turn in the spotlight since Jan. 29, when he was appointed vice president, Egyptians have mostly been exposed to more of the 74-year-old Suleiman's law-and-order persona.
"Go home, go back to work," he said, addressing the protesters in the country's streets and squares as "heroes."
That unbending message was characteristic of a man whose career has been defined by an aversion to instability.
Suleiman attended a military academy and rose through the ranks of intelligence to become Egypt's security chief in 1993.
Two years later he endeared himself to Mubarak when he insisted that the president travel in a bullet-resistant limousine during a visit to Ethiopia. Islamic militants fired on the motorcade, but Mubarak was unhurt.
Trusted by Mubarak and the powerful military hierarchy, Suleiman moved forcefully against radical Islamists. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Suleiman's experience and knowledge made him a natural ally of the Bush administration's counter-terrorism programs.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official told The Times on Thursday that Suleiman has a "close and continuing" relationship with the CIA.
Critics say his CIA ties have implicated Suleiman in some of the murkier episodes of the last decade, including cases in which Washington shipped suspects to Egypt for interrogation under a practice known as rendition.
"When called upon by other nations to assist in intelligence operations, Suleiman's Mukhabarat [intelligence agency] has shown itself willing to take into custody and interrogate Egyptian and non-Egyptian persons, and those interrogations have included torture," said John Sifton, a former Human Rights Watch researcher, who specialized on rendition and detention issues involving Egypt.
"He is directly implicated [in torture], both as a member of the regime and … he headed the Mukhabarat."
In 2009, Amnesty International asked Egyptian authorities to investigate the case of Hassan Osama Nasr, better known as Abu Omar, who was taken by the CIA from Milan in 2003 and shipped to Egypt, where he was held and allegedly tortured for 14 months. A trial in Italy found 22 CIA officials and a U.S. military officer guilty in absentia of kidnapping.
Suleiman's direct participation in rendition has not been documented, though journalist Ron Suskind's 2006 book, "The One Percent Doctrine," alleged that Suleiman was involved in the case of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a Libyan captured by the U.S. and turned over to Egypt for questioning.
Under harsh treatment, Al-Libi told his interrogators that Iraq had given two Al Qaeda associates chemical and biological weapons training, a statement that he later recanted, saying it had been made under duress. The statement was used by Bush officials in making the case for invading Iraq in 2003.
Suleiman had long been mentioned as a potential successor to Mubarak. He was a particular favorite in military circles, where the other main candidate, Mubarak's son Gamal, was widely mistrusted. Suleiman's emergence Thursday as Mubarak's surrogate suggests he still has the support of at least a core of military leaders.
Parlaying his new powers of office into enough support from those clamoring for change will be an enormous challenge. He has already alarmed many Egyptians in his short time as vice president with his dark warnings of a coup if the protests did not end. He also declared that Egypt was not ready for democracy and said it was too early to end its decades-long state of emergency law.
Those positions were received uncomfortably in the Obama administration, which at one point in the crisis had hoped Suleiman could be a transitional figure, able to lead Egypt from autocracy into an era of more open government.
But that option looked like wishful thinking Thursday, with Suleiman following his mentor into the glare of state TV lights and echoing Mubarak's insistence that a reform process was underway and the protests must stop.
"I call on all honorable Egyptians concerned for the safety and stability of Egypt to be governed by reason and to look to the future," he said.
In volatile Tahrir Square, it was uncertain whether his words were an overture, or an implied threat.
[email protected]
Times staff writers Ken Dilanian in Washington and Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo contributed to this report.
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak addresses the nation in this still image taken from video February 10, 2011.
Army soldiers stand guard as anti-government protesters surround the state television building following Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's televised speech, on the Corniche in downtown Cairo, Egypt Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011. Mubarak refused to step down or leave the country and instead handed his powers to his vice president Thursday, remaining president and ensuring regime control over the reform process, which stunned protesters demanding his ouster, who waved their shoes in contempt and shouted, "Leave, leave, leave."
Thousands of Egyptian anti-government protesters march in Alexandria , 230 km (140 miles) north of Cairo, February 11, 2011. Egypt's powerful military gave guarantees on Friday that promised democratic reforms would be carried out but angry protesters intensified an uprising against President Hosni Mubarak by marching on the presidential palace.
Egyptian anti-government protesters carry a huge banner with names and pictures of victims killed during protests at Cairo's Tahrir Square on February 11, 2011. President Hosni Mubarak flew out of Cairo to his Red Sea retreat as more than a million furious Egyptians marched in cities around the country to demand he step down.
CAIRO, EGYPT - FEBRUARY 11: Thousands of anti-government protesters mass in front of the Egyptian state television headquarters the afternoon of February 11, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Egyptians continue to protest the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who has transferred some powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman and has now left Cairo for his home in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik, but has thus far has adamantly refused to step down from office.
People watch as Egyptian soldiers close the road leading to Cairo's presidential palace in Heliopolis as anti-government demonstrators approach the building on February 11, 2011, following news that President Hosni Mubarak left the capital with his family, according to a source close to the government.
Egyptian anti-goverment demonstrators carry on with their protest in Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square on February 11, 2011, after the military threw its weight behind President Mubarak's attempt to cling on to power despite massive nationwide protests over the past 18 days.
In this photo taken from Egyptian television, Egypt's vice president Omar Suleiman makes the announcement that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has stepped down from office, Friday, Feb. 11, 2011, in Cairo, Egypt. On screen Arabic writing reads "President steps down, he calls the High Council of the army to take over.
Fri Feb. 11 2011
CTV.ca News Staff
Thousands of jubilant protesters are celebrating in Egypt's capital city, after Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that President Hosni Mubarak has stepped down from his position.
The brief announcement from Omar Suleiman came after a day of uncertainty in Egypt, with raging protests in Cairo and other cities.
The announcement came on the 18th day of demonstrations by protesters who were determined to oust Mubarak from office.
CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Martin Seemungal reported that thousands of protesters could be heard shouting in Cairo's Tahrir Square after the announcement aired on TV.
"It's not just the people in the square it's everyone in this area -- people who aren't even down in that square are cheering, they are honking horns, it is an incredible scene here right now especially given what's gone on the last two weeks, there's been so much tension down there and now it's like a wave of joy coming out of that square and its unbelievable," Seemungal said from Cairo on Friday.
On the phone from Tahrir Square, struggling to talk over the cheers of the cheering crowd, anti-Mubarak protester Ahmed Nazmi described the elation of the scene around him.
"It's an unbelievable feeling," he said. "If you've ever held your breath when you felt like you couldn't breathe anymore, and then suddenly it's just a giant, gasping breath of air -- that's the feeling right now. It's incredible."
Leading Egyptian democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei said "this is the greatest day of my life. The country has been liberated after decades of repression."
Alessandro Bruno, the deputy editor of the North African Journal, said the protesters had been waiting for this moment and had expected it Thursday, when Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people on television.
"This is what they should have heard last night and it was obvious then that Mubarak was reluctant to deliver the statement himself and that the intelligence from yesterday was correct," Bruno told CTV News Channel during an interview in Toronto, moments after the Friday announcement.
Earlier Friday, Mubarak had reportedly travelled to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh, about 400 kilometres from Cairo.
Mubarak had held power in Egypt since 1981, when he took over for the late president Anwar Sadat who was assassinated while in office.
Mubarak had served as Sadat's vice president and took the slain president's place after he was killed.
With files from The Associated Press
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