Egypt: A virtual smoking gun?

On January 12,2009 US  Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman joined a group of Egyptian political bloggers from the Virtual Newsroom of the American University in Cairo. Is this the Virtual smoking gun that indicates American collusion in the subsequent ouster of Hosni Mubarak?

Maidhc Ó Cathail

Less than two months earlier, Glassman and Jared Cohen from Secretary Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff had given an on-the-record briefing on the State Department’s alliance with ten partners in the private sector -- including Facebook, Google, MTV, AT&T, Howcast, Access 360 Media -- to form the Alliance for Youth Movements (AYM). During that briefing, Glassman singled out Egypt’s April 6 Youth Movement for special mention, saying that some of its members would be in attendance at the inaugural AYM youth summit in New York from December 3-5. Asked about “the risk of unleashing something here that is going to come back to bite you, especially with our allies,” Glassman replied: “We are very supportive of pro-democracy groups around the world. And sometimes, that puts U.S. at odds with certain governments.”

When pressed by the questioner, Glassman explained: “Now, we have to work with those governments. And let me also just say, there’s a difference on an operational level between public -- what we do in public diplomacy and what is often done in official diplomacy. We are communicating and engaging at the level of the public, not at the level of officials. So you know, it certainly is possible that some of these governments will not be all that happy that -- at what we’re doing, but that’s what we do in public diplomacy.”

After Jared Cohen pointed out that the organizations that are coming together online form “a new kind of civil society organization” that eventually leads to a “transformation,” Glassman acknowledged that the U.S. government has “been engaging with such civil society organizations in places like Egypt for a long time.”

As Al Jazeera revealed in a behind the scenes look at Egypt’s non-violent coup, the State Department-backed April 6 Youth Movement did indeed play a crucial role in that “transformation,” through organizing and directing the protests that toppled America’s erstwhile ally Mubarak. The April 6 leaders also received training from the Belgrade-based Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), which works closely with the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). The ICNC was founded and funded entirely by Peter Ackerman, the multi-millionaire junk bond “teflon guy,” who chaired Freedom House between 2005 and 2009. Freedom House is funded in part by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the U.S. government-sponsored neoconservative-led regime change specialists.

On April 19, 2010, Ackerman attended an event entitled “Cyber-Dissidents and Political Change” sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute, which Glassman has headed since September 3, 2009. “Inspired by President and Mrs. Bush’s unwavering commitment to freedom for all people,” its website states, “the Bush Institute works to embolden dissidents and freedom advocates, creating a powerful network for moral support and education.” Among the cyber-dissidents in attendance at its Dallas event were Rodrigo Diamanti from Venezuela… Oleg Kozlovsky, from Russia; Ernesto Hernández Busto, from Cuba (who lives in Barcelona); Isaac Mao, from China; and Ahed Alhendi, from Syria. Clearly, some people are seen as more deserving of Mr. and Mrs. Bush’s freedom advocacy than others.

In 2007, Glassman became chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a U.S. government agency that provides propaganda to overseas audiences via the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Marti). Norman J. Pattiz, the “founding father” of Radio Sawa, which is increasingly popular in Egypt, sits on BBG’s board. Pattiz is also on the national board of the Israel Policy Forum, which is “committed to a strong and enduring U.S.-Israel relationship and to advancing the shared interests of the United States and… Israel.” Its Israeli Advisory Council is comprised of prominent figures from Israel’s military and intelligence establishment, mostly notably David Kimche, who was once described as “Israel’s leading spy and would-be Mossad chief.” According to a Washington Report profile, “The ‘man with the suitcase,’ as Kimche became known by colleagues in Israel, would appear in an African country a day or two before a major coup, and leave a week later after the new regime was firmly in control, often with the aid of Israeli security teams.”

Prior to his involvement with “democracy promotion,” Glassman was a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, the neoconservative propaganda mill that pushed the concept of a “global war on terror” primarily to advance the national interest of Israel. While there, he founded The American, a magazine of ideas for business leaders, and was its editor-in-chief from 2005 to 2007. Evidently, Glassman’s neocon paymasters were not put off by his unenviable financial track record. In his 1999 book Dow 36,000, written shortly before the dot-com bubble burst, he predicted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would rise to 36,000 within a few years. Commenting on the “hysteria” that fueled the deregulation-induced financial crisis nine years later, Ralph Nader singled out Glassman’s bestseller, joking that he would send it back to Glassman with one of the zeros missing.

Let’s hope that the Egyptian activists who put their faith in Glassman’s “public diplomacy” haven’t a similar rude awakening in store.

Maidhc Ó Cathail writes extensively on U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East. He is editor of The Passionate Attachment blog. 

Egypt: end of the beginning

The revolution unleashed on January 25 is not going to die down. It is unstoppable. It will keep on reverberating time and again until a victory is achieved by overthrowing the present system, which is root cause of all the burning problems of Egyptain society.

By Lal Khan


The mighty power of revolution was demonstrated with the resignation of Mubarak. It has shown that the staunchest, most vicious and stubborn of despots can be overthrown when the masses enter the arena of struggle and their resolve becomes absolute. But the most unique feature of this movement is that even after the tyrant has gone, the system he headed refuses to relent. What began as an uprising to overthrow the despotic regime of Mubarak has entered a new phase with clear socio-economic demands that challenge the existing relations of property and the exploitative system of capitalism. And yet there are many who had long abandoned any perspective of class struggle and social revolution and now refuse to recognise the revolution unfolding on the streets of Tunis and Cairo, and spreading to Amman, Tehran, Aden and many other cities across the Middle East. There are none so blind as those who will not see. But this whole generation of sceptics and cynics dominating the media and the intelligentsia is doomed by history.

Leon Trotsky in his epic work, The History of the Russian Revolution, defined revolution in the following terms: “The most indubitable feature of a revolution is the direct interference of the masses in historical events. In ordinary times the state, be it monarchical or democratic, elevates itself above the nation, and history is made by specialists in that line of business — kings, ministers, bureaucrats, parliamentarians, journalists. But at those crucial moments when the old order becomes no longer endurable to the masses, they break over the barriers excluding them from the political arena...The history of a revolution is for us first of all a history of the forcible entrance of the masses into the realm of rulership over their own destiny.”

Revolution is not a one-act drama. To say that a revolution has begun is not to say that it has been completed, or even that victory is assured. It is a struggle of living forces. The masses learn from experience. In a revolution this process acquires lightning speed. The youth and workers of Egypt have learnt more in a matter of three weeks than in 30 years of ‘normal’ life. On the streets and in the factories they have come to realise their power in modern society. The attacks of the counter-revolutionary forces have been smashed with the steeled will and determination of the people.

However, the Egyptian revolution has not finished. In order to solve the problems of society, it is necessary to break with capitalism, expropriate industry, banks, finance capital and the imperialist assets and stop their plunder. These measures will enable the workers to carry out a socialist transformation of society. This is both necessary and possible.

As the revolution advances after the end of its beginning without a Leninist party and a Marxist leadership, the revolutionary process will become more and more protracted. There will be battles encompassing victories and defeats. There will be lulls in the movement, periods of despair, apathy, indifference and inactivity, which will be followed by bursts of feverish activity and social explosions. But one thing is assured: Egypt will never be the same again. The revolution unleashed on January 25 is not going to die down. It is unstoppable. It will keep on reverberating time and again until a victory is achieved by overthrowing the present system, which is the root cause of all the burning problems of Egyptian society.

The imperialists are terrified. Hillary Clinton’s remarks during the initial upsurge graphically illustrated the imperialist fears. She said, “In too many places, in too many ways, the region’s foundations are sinking in sand.” The greatest economic and military power on earth, the US, is powerless to intervene in spite of the fact that they have a lot at stake. It could not even control the actions of Mubarak. The sending of US warships to Suez was in reality an empty gesture. The imperialists have already burned their fingers in Iraq. They are facing a defeat in Afghanistan. They are in no position to launch another military adventure in the Middle East, and least of all against the Egyptian revolution. After the departure of Mubarak from the scene, the imperialists do not really have a clue of how to resolve the situation to maintain the status quo.



The US state has had close relations with the Egyptian military for decades. But the cohesion and the chain of command of the army is very fragile to say the least. The relentless upsurge of the masses will never tolerate another military regime having just got rid of a despot. Another thrust of the masses and the military will break along class lines.



At present, the imperialists are trying to manoeuvre in fabricating some sort of a ‘democratic’ façade. However, that would be very vulnerable. Newsweek of January 31 wrote, “By definition, revolutions are unpredictable, but should democracy take hold in Egypt, the American administration will have to deal with a much more messy and turbulent situation.” The CIA’s experienced operative Bruce Riedel had this to say, “The challenge Obama has now, is managing the whirlwind.” Any imperialist imposed democratic set up will be for the continuation of the exploitation and plunder. Jawaharlal Nehru, who although he capitulated to the lure of imperialist negotiated power later due to his ideological confusion, wrote the following in 1935, “Democracy for an eastern country seems to mean only one thing: to carry out the behests of the imperialist ruling power.”



The Islamic fundamentalists were left far behind by the revolution. But where the spontaneous nature of the movement was its strength, it was also its principal weakness. Now the media are trying to prop up the Muslim Brotherhood. But the leaders of the Ikhwan are overwhelmed by the secular nature of the movement. When Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei talked of an “Islamic awakening”, the Brotherhood replied that the revolt was the “Egyptian people’s revolution”. Although they are offering their services to the west, a regime including the Islamists would not be stable and would not last very long.



The main problem for the imperialists and the custodians of capitalism is the resilience of the movement on the one hand and the rising socio-economic demands that this decaying system can never fulfil on the other. Ultimately, only a socialist transformation can guarantee the victory of this revolution.


The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com

Egypt on verge of civil war

The current events in Egypt have put the country on the verge of civil war.

After January 25, the Egyptian crisis developed according to the following scenario: everyday the opposition put more and more pressure on the government, with crowds of people going into the streets demanding a change of the regime. This continued until February 2. On Wednesday, the supporters of President Hosni Mubarak organized counter-demonstrations in the capital and a number of other cities. The confrontation led to violent clashes with the use of guns. In the clashes on Cairo’s Tahrir Square several people were killed and hundreds were wounded.

The confrontation in Egypt has entered a new level. According to one version, that the roles of the president’s supporters were played by special services agents. To Adzhar Kurtov, an expert with the Institute of Strategic Studies this version sounds not very convincing. 

It is difficult to believe that the entire country, the whole population is expressing such hatred for the president. This is not the case, indeed. Mubarak does have supporters among Egyptians. Firstly, there are quite many of them, secondly they are ready to take decisive steps. Who are these supporters? Considering the fact that they tried to bring cavalry to the central square we can assume that these are people from the rural areas. As we can judge from historical experience village people tend to support strong and steady power, not to follow any revolutionaries and reformers.  

Those who believed that the fall of the regime was inevitable now will have to consider the stronger position of Hosni Mubarak, when the talks begin on the changes to the constitution and in the government. The crisis in Egypt should be regulated by political forces within the country, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. “We do not find it useful to impose any recipes and come up with any ultimatums”, the minister stressed.

The Egyptian society has been split, the economy is almost paralyzed. With tourists leaving Egypt the country’s income is decreasing. There have been difficulties with food supplies and some people do not even exclude the threat of hunger. The situation requires urgent steps to be taken.

The current crisis in Egypt is advantageous for Islamic radicals.  Speculation around it give the Muslim Botherhood organization an opportunity to come to power or at least to be represented in  the state organizations. This may have far reaching consequences for Egypt and the Middle East region in general, Sergey Pashkov, a reporter with the Rossiya TV channel in the Middle East, says.

The Israeli people are watching the events in Egypt attentively because Murbarak had been a reliable partner in talks and the man who under any circumstances tried to observe peace agreements which were signed before him by President Anwar Sadat with Israel. That is why any change of power in Egypt is a problem for Israel. They do not exclude they will have to start their relations with Egypt from scratch.

If the Islamists come to power in Egypt, this largest Arabic state which has been a stabilizing factor on the Middle East for many years, may completely change its political course. This is not an exaggeration. One of the leaders of the Muslim Botherhood Mohammed Ganem has already urged Egyptians to get ready for war against Israel. 

US lobbyists fought for Mubarak

Two of the biggest lobbying firms representing the Egyptian government made more than $400,000 during the last six months of 2010 lobbying lawmakers, military officials and their staffs on behalf of the embattled government, according to newly filed disclosure reports. In the period ending just weeks before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s dramatic announcement Tuesday, Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta’s firm, the Podesta Group, brought in $279,000 and made about 30 contacts, largely with Senate staffers, according to the report.
Former House Republican Majority Leader Robert Livingston, who partners with Podesta on the account, made $132,000 and his firm, the Livingston Group, logged almost 100 visits or conversations with lawmakers, military officials and staffers. Livingston himself lobbied staffers and Republican Sens. Roger Wicker and Johnny Isakson, according to disclosures required by law to be filed with the Justice Department because the firms represent a foreign government.
Livingston’s firm lobbied on a Senate resolution, sponsored by then-Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, that called on Egypt to support, “free, fair, transparent, and credible” elections and for Mubarak to honor his 2005 pledge to end a 29-year state of emergency that allowed authorities to “harass, intimidate, arbitrarily detain, and engage in violence against peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights activists and bloggers.”
Podesta’s firm contacted Feingold’s office four times and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office three times between June and December, according to the disclosures. Unlike Livingston, Podesta’s disclosures offer no real details about what was discussed, opting instead to generically describe the conversations as discussions about the “the current status of U.S.-Egypt relations.”
In addition to Egypt, Podesta represents the National Security Council of Georgia, Thailand, India, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Japanese Embassy. The work paid the firm a total of almost $1 million over the last six months of 2010, according to the disclosure filed Friday.
Livingston also represents the Central Bank of Curacao and Sint Maarten, which, in addition to Egypt, paid him a total of almost $400,000 between June and December 2010, according to the disclosures filed Monday.
Livingston and Podesta did not immediately respond on Tuesday to requests for comment.
Disclosures also show that the Egyptian lobbying is intended to increase United States military aid, facilitate arms sales and improve the country’s relations with top lawmakers with sway over Egypt’s Washington fortunes.
On Monday, former Rep. Toby Moffett (D-Conn.), who works with Livingston and Podesta to represent Egypt, told POLITICO that they were not lobbying the issue of whether Mubarak should step down, as he announced Tuesday that he would, but rather were educating lawmakers about Egypt’s importance as an ally.
“This is a very important strategic ally of the United States and it’s about the country not flipping over into the hands of somebody who wants to make it anything other than a secular state,” he said. “We feel very good about it. We feel good about what we’re doing.”
The firm will also help the Egyptians protect the $2 billion aid package that helps fund its military, he said.
“There’s a very strong bipartisan understanding of how important this aid package is to American security as well as the security of the region,” Moffett said.
The trio does business as the PLM Group, which began as a joint venture between the lobbying shops of Podesta and Livingston and is headed by Moffett, and is paid $1.1 million yearly to represent Egypt’s interests, according to public records.
“The theory was that there may be some big projects around like Egypt … where we could add some value beyond what either of us could do alone,” Podesta said of the partnership last year in an interview with POLITICO.
Generally, the lobbyists are “promoting and safeguarding Egypt’s interests in the United States; maintaining or increasing the amount of U.S. military and economic aid to Egypt; enhancing the quality of that aid over time (and) promoting Egypt’s economic, political and military interests in the United States,” according to a 2007 draft of the contract the firm was required to file with the Department of Justice.

(By Chris Frates; Capitol News Company, LLC)

Hosni Mubarak era coming to an end

It was an autocratic police authoritarian regime, nothing like in Iraq, for instance, under Saddam Hussain, no . But it`s regime without any ideology, nationalistic regime, pro-American of curse, but at the same time nationalist enough. It was a very tough regime, but it had something unlike Tunisia. In Egypt it was possible to criticize government, there are all kind of newspapers, leaflets, books, it`s a new generation. What we are witnessing now, is a new generation of people --- young, educated, who are just sick and tired of all this autocracy, from all these people from the 90s of the 20th century.

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Millions of Egyptians are protesting on the streets against the tyrannical Mubarak regime. Despite all this, President Hosni Mubarak is being his usual stubborn self — a trademark of all dictators who refuse to see the writing on the wall. What is heartening though is how the Egyptian army is handling the precarious situation. It has refused to ‘crush’ the protests and vowed not to use force against the people. In a statement released on January 31, the Egyptian army stressed that it is “aware of the legitimate demands of the honourable citizens” and that the “presence of the army in the streets is for your sake and to ensure your safety and wellbeing. The armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people”. If the army is not willing to put down the uprising and lets it continue peacefully, surely it means that the people of Egypt have won.

The protests in Egypt were so far leaderless but now Nobel Laureate and former Director General of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, is emerging as the new face of this resistance movement. Both the secularists and the Islamists have tactically agreed on this issue. Mr ElBaradei has asked the US administration not to support the Mubarak regime. He said, “The American government cannot ask the Egyptian people to believe that a dictator who has been in power for 30 years will be the one to implement democracy.” The US administration is also distancing itself from Hosni Mubarak and getting ready for a transition. The US gives around $ 1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt apart from hundreds of millions of dollars for the state. Recent events have forced the White House to review its aid policy, which may be why Egypt’s military chief, Lieutenant General Sami Enan, who was on a visit to Washington last week, cut short his visit to return to his country. Egypt is an important ally of both the US and Israel. Peace in Egypt is essential for policing Gaza’s border on the Egyptian side. It seems that the Egyptian armed forces have understood the signal from the US and have decided therefore to refrain from using military might against the protestors. Mubarak has no hope left: his people want him gone, he has tacitly been dumped by his biggest backers in the international arena, and his own army has also sent him a loud and clear message, i.e. to exit peacefully because it is untenable to save him any longer. It is time for Mr Mubarak to go.

The protests in Egypt have taken the Arab world by storm. What began in Tunisia will likely not end in Egypt; the tremors are now being felt in Jordan as well where King Abdullah has dismissed the Jordanian cabinet and appointed a new prime minister after thousands of protestors demanded Prime Minister Samir Rifai’s resignation and an end to unemployment and rising prices. What King Abdullah does not understand is that a change in cabinet is not the answer to the woes of the Jordanian people. Political reforms in the Arab world would mean an end to monarchy and authoritarian regimes. Today the Arab people are standing up for their rights; they want democracy, freedom of speech and basic human rights. It is about time that they get what they have long been denied. More power to the people of the Arab world.

US facing a dilemma in Egypt

This is a typical example of what happens when we run on intervention-type foreign policies. We get the middle of these fights. We`ve been in the middle of this for 30 years now. We`ve given Mubarak $60 billion. We`re responsible for a lot of the mess that is over there. ( US Representative Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson said this on FOX News Channel`s Your World with Neil Cavuto.

As the unprecedented uprising in Egypt continues to rage, the US officials who are Mubarak's main allies in the West, have felt an urge to break their silence and talk on the issue.

One of the first reactions to the situation came on January 25, from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs who urged "all parties" to refrain from violence and stated that "the United States is committed to working with Egypt and the Egyptian people" to pursue political, economic and social reforms, reassuring his country's loyalty to the Egyptian government.

On the same day, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also refrained from criticizing the government's use of violence against the protestors and, similar to Gibbs, she called "all parties" to "exercise restraint", adding "the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people."

Vice President Joe Biden however showed more solidarity with the Egyptian regime in his interview with PBS NewsHour, supporting Mubarak's grip on power and refusing to call him a dictator (considering he has been in power for three decades and has banned political parties among other dictatorial acts). When asked whether he thought it is time for Mubarak to stand aside and go, Biden said, not surprisingly, that he believed Mubarak should stay in power and should only move in another direction.

But the comments by US officials did not stop at this level. As the protests reached a peak, president Obama was also forced to speak out on the issue. Obama stated that he was "calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters".

Nothing more than this, no sharp criticism despite the reported brutal crackdown of the government on the people. He also tried not to offend his most important ally in the region by urging the Egyptians to express themselves peacefully.

At the end of his speech, and after showing up some support for the Egyptians, Obama made it clear that his country will continue to work with the Egyptian government, closing his eyes to the main demand of the people of Egypt who want Mubarak out of power.

These vague and confused comments by the US officials on the uprising in Egypt clearly show the dilemma they are facing.

In an interview with CBS News, Richard Haas, who is the president of the US Council on Foreign Relations, described this dilemma pretty well. "The United States has to be very careful... If instability comes to Egypt, it will send shockwaves throughout the rest of the Arab world. It's the first country to establish peace with Israel. It's, indeed, the cornerstone of what peace there is in the Middle East. So if the United States is seen to pull the rug out from under this friend which, as you noted in the report, a friend for some three decades, it will raise major questions about American reliability. On the other hand, if we're seen to give him an uncritical embrace, it could risk alienating the Egyptian people and some future government we may have to work with," said Haas.

Moreover, he pointed to America's main concern regarding the situation in Egypt stating that if it's too late for pushing the Mubarak government in the direction of reform and if his government does not survive then the US must start working on "putting into place some alternative." He emphasized that the last thing the US would want in Egypt is an "Islamist alternative". He reminds the interviewer of what happened in Iran after its 1979 revolution and said, "The one thing we never want to have in Egypt is the sort of thing, say, we had in Iran three decades ago".

Egyptians must be very careful: they should not let their uprising to be hijacked; they certainly do not want another Mubarak in power.

Mubarak’s deputy linked to secret CIA program

The man named by the beleaguered President Hosni Mubarak as his first ever deputy, Egyptian spy chief Omar Suleiman, reportedly orchestrated brutal interrogation of terror suspects abducted by the CIA in a secret program condemned by rights groups.
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His role in the shadows of the so-called “war on terror” illustrates the ties that bind the United States and the Egyptian regime, as an unprecedented wave of protests against Mubarak present Washington with a difficult dilemma.
With Mubarak’s rule in jeopardy, Suleiman was anointed vice president last week and is now offering superficially talks with the massive opposition groups in a bid to defuse the crisis.
Suleiman is a sophisticated operator who carried out truce negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians as well as talks among rival Palestinian factions, winning the praise of American diplomats.
For US intelligence officials, he has been a trusted partner willing to go after Islamist militants without hesitation, targeting homegrown opposition groups.
A product of the US-Egyptian relationship, Suleiman underwent training in the 1980s at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and Center at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
As spy chief, Suleiman reportedly embraced the CIA’s controversial “extraordinary rendition” program under ex-president George W. Bush, in which terror suspects snatched by the Americans were taken to Egypt and other countries without legal proceedings and subjected to harsh interrogations.
He “was the CIA’s point man in Egypt for rendition,” Jane Mayer, author of “The Dark Side,” wrote on the New Yorker’s website.
After taking over as spy director, Suleiman oversaw an agreement with the United States in 1995 — during Bill Clinton’s presidency — that allowed suspected militants to be secretly transferred to Egypt for questioning.
Human rights groups charge the detainees have often faced torture and mistreatment in Egypt and elsewhere, accusing the US government of violating its own legal obligations by handing over suspects to regimes known for abuse.
In the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the CIA relied on Suleiman to accept the transfer of a detainee known as Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, who US officials hoped could prove a link between Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.
The suspect was bound and blindfolded and flown to Cairo, where the CIA believed their longtime ally Suleiman would ensure a successful interrogation, according to “The One Percent Doctrine” by author Ron Suskind.
A US Senate report in 2006 describes how the detainee was locked in a cage for hours and beaten, with Egyptian authorities pushing him to confirm alleged connections between Al-Qaeda and Saddam.
Libi eventually told his interrogators that the then Iraqi regime was moving to provide Al-Qaeda with biological and chemical weapons.
When the then US secretary of state Colin Powell made the case for war before the United Nations, he referred to details of Libi’’s confession.
The detainee eventually recanted his confession.
In “Ghost Plane,” a book about the rendition program, journalist Stephen Grey writes that Egypt faced regular public criticism from lawmakers in Congress about its rights record.
“But in secret, men like Omar Suleiman, the country’s most powerful spy and secret policeman, did our work, the sort of work that Western countries have no appetite to do themselves,” he wrote.

Battlefield Egypt

President Hosni Mubarak, facing the biggest challenge to his authority of his 31 years in power, has ordered the army onto the streets of Cairo. Mr Mubarak is expected to make a statement shortly. The curfew is now in effect, but live television pictures from Cairo continue to show large crowds on the streets.
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Tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Egypt on Friday, prompting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to impose a curfew to cover all 28 governorates in the country, state television announced at the end of a fourth day of mass nationwide protests.

He had earlier declared a curfew in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez.

“Following the earlier decree... the commander of the armed forces has decided to extend the curfew to cover all governorates in the country,” state television said.

The curfew was to run from 6pm to 7am until further notice.

The president “has asked the armed forces, in cooperation with the police, to implement the decision, and maintain security and secure public establishments and private property,” it said.

In Cairo, protesters poured out of mosques after Friday prayers and ran rampant through the streets, throwing stones and torching two police stations as police chased them with batons, firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

In the canal city of Suez, protesters overran a police station, seized weapons and set fire to security force vehicles in fierce clashes in which a demonstrator was killed, witnesses said.

The nationwide demonstrations, inspired by the “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia, have swelled into the largest uprising in three decades, sending shockwaves across the region. Eight people have been killed, hundreds injured and some 1,000 arrested.

But in a hint that authorities might heed the rising tide of popular anger, a senior lawmaker and member of the ruling party called for “unprecedented reforms” in order to stave off a revolution.

Egypt is one of Washington’s closest allies in the region, but analysts say the United States is growing increasingly concerned that its refusal to implement more political reforms could lead to further unrest and instability.

That was reflected on Friday when Fitch ratings agency said it had revised its ratings outlook for Egypt to negative.

Demonstrations spread around the capital of Cairo, where police appeared overwhelmed as protesters broke through several police barriers.

Protesters were seen being dragged away and pushed into police vans, as others defied the heavy police presence and made their way to the central Tahrir Square.

Leading dissident Mohamed ElBaradei, who has said he would be prepared to lead a transitional authority if he were asked, was among a crowd of around 2,000 targeted by police and was forced to take refuge inside a mosque in Giza Square and not allowed to lead.

The crowd attacked police vans, torching one, after a civilian had most of his hand blown away, allegedly by police.

Protesters also set fire to the governorate building in the centre of Alexandria.

Medical sources said at least five protesters killed and 870 were wounded on a day that saw security forces using rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds. Some were in a serious condition with bullet wounds.

The main opposition party, Wafd, said Egypt needs a period of transitional rule, new parliamentary elections and amendments to the constitution so a president can stand for only two six-year terms. agencies.