"Ambassador
Frank Wisner, at the intersection of the secret services, the administration
and big business, has for many years been the architect of U.S. conspiracies
against the people. Presented as the official intermediary to Hosni Mubarak and
Omar Suleiman, this one-man band of high-level dirty tricks is charged with
organizing a transition favorable to the Israeli ally."
With arrogance - Mubarak is hanging
on. Despite the Egyptians, he remains. And he remains with the support of the
Americans. The immediate expression of this is the strategy of chaos being implemented
with the implicit and hypocritical support of the Egyptian army in Tahrir Square.
Under the eyes of millions of viewers, hordes of thugs - notorious
"baltaguiya [pro-government thugs]" - led by plain-clothes police and
by members of the [ruling] National Democratic Party, have attacked peaceful
demonstrators.
In exchange for a promise not
to stand in the September presidential election, the president has given his
assurance that he would work to re-establish order and to put an end to the
unrest. This has since played out, live, with a violent attack by thugs armed
with swords and sometimes mounted on horses and camels.
The orchestration of violence
around Tahrir Square is a sign that Egypt has entered a new and very dangerous phase.
This is a direct result of the mixed message of Barack Obama. Yesterday's speech
by the American president was naturally interpreted by the Mubarak regime as a
green light to manage the popular uprising in its own way. This was an offer of
direct support for a regime opposed by millions of demonstrators.
The Egyptian movement toward freedom
- and thus toward sovereignty, has resulted in great contortions of communication
on the part of the U.S. administration, which is caught between its
pro-democratic verbal discourse and the prevalence of Israeli interests. This
has created an ambiguous public message, but its actual support is more
indicative of the genuine posture of the United States.
The arrival in Cairo of Ambassador Frank Wisner,
a man at the very heart of American power, is a clear signal. This person, at
the intersection of the secret services, the administration and big business,
has for many years been the architect of U.S. conspiracies against the people. Presented
as the official intermediary to Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, this one-man
band of high-level dirty tricks is charged with organizing a transition
favorable to the Israeli ally. The resort to the minions of the National Democratic
Party and secret police to terrorize the population, with the complicity of the
army, was decided on the day after the arrival of this very iconic character.
It's certainly not by chance. Post-Mubarak Egypt is to be managed directly by
the American Establishment. It is a matter of supporting Mubarak against the
will of the population and giving the regime time to create fissures and
divisions in the fast-coalescing opposition.
The attack yesterday against peaceful
demonstrators gathered at Tahrir Square aimed to break the back of the protest
and lead Egyptians to compromise with a regime whose only strength is derived
from the interests of plutocrats and outside powers.
The savage attack on Freedom
Square [Place de la
Libération] and
attempts underway at the time of this writing to set fire to the Cairo Museum
cannot fail to remind us of the Reichstag fire that permitted
the Nazis to declare a state of emergency and suspend civil liberties.
The West and its regimes want
to make sure Tunisia is the exception. Americans and Westerners are sending a
message to the Arab people: a little change is acceptable; but profound changes
that overturn the established order are not. Egypt makes this quite clear.
Shame on you, Mister Obama!
