Its all kicking off in downtown Cairo...

[Cramulus]

I heard an interesting theory: The Egyptian protests followed the Tunisian protests, which started because people found out how corrupt their government really was, because of... WIKILEAKS.

Which would mean that Assange is a promoter of (rather than a threat to) Democracy, just as he said.

I am very curious as to how the american media will handle all of this.

If the media treats the events in Tunisia and Egypt as an embrace of democracy and freedom, it will be very hard to keep branding Assange as a terrorist.

[Cain]

Partially true, but has even more to do with rising food and fuel prices.  No-one gives a shit about corruption when times are good, but times are not good at all

And why are food and fuel rising?  Speculation.  What, you thought essential commodity speculation was banned?  Only for the likes of you and me, Goldman Sachs etc have notes from the Treasury saying its OK.

[Cramulus]

for real?? commodity speculators are the reason the food and fuel prices are going up over there? Jeeeesus... another wave of nausea just hit me.

[Cain]

Not just there.  Everywhere.

Remember when fuel prices in the US hit a massive high in 2008?  And everyone said "oh teh noes, oil is running out, we must do more offshore drilling?"  It was bullshit.  OPEC were flooding the market with oil like there was no tomorrow, and if there had been a shortage in the supply, you'd see waiting lines and rationing, not raised prices.  That was speculation.  And I have good reason to suspect this is the case again.

In the UK, most food prices have jumped ahead of inflation and the VAT rise (leading in, at least some cases, a 20% rise in the cost of some goods), as have fuel prices, despite an excellent year for crops and a better one for food manufacturers.  I wouldn't be surprised to find the same happening in the USA right now.

[Adios]

United Nations food agencies today warned that record-high prices for basic commodities are helping generate unrest around the world and contributed to the ousting of the Tunisian president last month.

'Not only is there a risk, but there have already been riots in some parts of the world because of rising prices,' Jacques Diouf, head of the UN's Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation, said.

'Some governments have found themselves in difficult situations and there is even one that has fallen,' he said - a reference to the toppling of Tunisia's veteran ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in a popular revolt on January 14.
[snip]
The World Food Programme, another UN agency, said: 'The events unfolding across the Middle East these past few weeks serve as a warning to us all about the important role that food security plays in calming public anger.'

'Across the region, we have seen civil protests driven by a complex array of different factors but all sharing one thing in common - growing anxiety about rising food prices and concern about access to food,' it said in a statement.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0204/food-business.html

Hungry people get pissed.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

"When you are burying your second child due to starvation, and you already ate the family dog. You may consider revolution" - A Documentary on the Visigoths (Discovery Channel)

[Adios]

Members of leadership of Egypt's ruling party, including President Hosni Mubarak, submit resignations, state TV reports.

CNN had this as breaking news, evidently they didn't vet it and took it back down.

[Adios]

The politburo of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) has resigned en masse, in an apparent response to anti-government protests.

Two key allies of President Hosni Mubarak, including his son Gamal, were stripped of their posts.

Both positions were taken by Hossam Badrawi, a reformer and prominent physician.

Protesters still occupy Cairo's Tahrir Square, but their numbers have fallen from Friday's huge rally.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12374010

[Jenne]

So, the king is dead, long live the king?

Update at 11:07 a.m. ET: CNN's John King quotes a senior
U.S. official as saying that President Mubarak has agreed to yield power to his vice president Omar Suleiman.

The BBC quotes a senior member of Egypt's governing party as saying he "hopes" that Mubarak will transfer power to Suleiman. Hossan Badrawi, secretary general of the National Democratic Party tells the BBC that Mubarak would "most probably" speak to the nation within hours.

It remains unclear what role the military will have. The supreme council of the armed forces issued a statement saying they will stay in session indefinitely during the crisis.

I mean, are we taking it for granted that the #2 guy's gonna be any less shady and powerful than the #1 guy?

Hope not.

[Requia ☣]

How often does a revolution actually work on the first try?

At best they can hope for somebody whose just as bad an asshole as Mubarak, but who knows he has to keep people happy because the army won't bail his ass out if people take to the streets again.

[Cain]

Omar Suleiman is a psychopath.

Not exaggerating here, according to Mamdouh Habib, an Australian Muslim who was renditioned to Egypt by the American gov, he not only orders the tortures, he takes part in the sessions...according to Habib, he ordered another prisoner to be killed just to intimidate him into talking.  According to ABC News, he once offered to chop the arm off of a suspected terrorist in order to please the CIA, who are on very good terms with him.  As are the Israeli government, who would very much like to see him rule Egypt.

[Jenne]

@Requia...in my experience, the #2 guy is usually doing and saying all the shit the #1 guy can't get caught doing.

*shrug*

Also, what Cain said.

[Adios]

Holy shit, the Army might have actually been turned by the protestors:

http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/28/angry-friday-egyptian-unrest-continues-elbaradei-reported-under-house-arrest/#

Unconfirmed reports of fights between military and police according to Al Jazeera now. Military are moving toward Ministry of Defense and Radio and Television Building – no word yet of their plans as those locations are site of massive protests. Egyptians flags seen being waved by soldiers.

12:48 CNN reporting from the Information Ministry building that there are chants of "the Military and the People are one" and the military officers speaking calmly with them'

Uncomfirmed but I so hope it is true.

Wow. So the fuse to the powder keg that is the ME may have just been lit.

What?  Why would you say that?

If the Egyptians are successful then Yemen and Jordan will be encouraged. Who knows what else will happen in the next few days?

Yes, but we have no idea what changes - if any - will result from a successful coup in Egypt.

It's an incredibly unstable time there, but it's a little too early to be an alarmist, IMO.

I give up on individual countries, the shitstorm has begun.

In a growing number of countries across the Middle East and North Africa, CNN's reporters and iReporters are covering protests, most of them inspired by January's Egyptian protests that ended President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. Egyptians were inspired by a revolt in Tunisia that toppled its dictator. Here's the inside story by CNN.com's John Sutter about the faces of a social network-aided revolution. Have a story to tell from the scene? Click here to send an iReport.

The protests, which suggest a kind of domino effect, are chronicled country by country here. But no two nations' protests are driven by exactly the same reasons. Some have been violent, resulting in several deaths. Others have been mostly peaceful. How they unfold will matter to the stability of the regions, the war against al Qaeda and the world economy. Consider that Libya is an OPEC member.

This is a live blog that tells the stories of the people involved and what their actions may mean for the world.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/21/liv...ts/?hpt=T1

Very interesting blog that follows a time line.

[Jenne]

...I'm sure it's already been said, but this shakeup in the Arab/Muslim despot world is similar to the fall of the Soviets and their satellites in the late 80's/early 90's and on.  Expect the resulting tumult to not end for some time to come.  I'm talking civil war and the like a la Kosovo.

[Adios]

When historians in future years grapple with the significance of the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in Egypt 10 days ago, coming as it did in the wake of the "Jasmine" January 14 Revolution in Tunisia, they may judge it not only as a seismic event, shattering and renewing the Arab political order, but also the key watershed moment in confronting the global al Qaeda threat.

The political, economic, and cultural stagnation that al Qaeda fed off for more than two decades has been replaced by the fastest moving change the region has ever witnessed, the most promising of Arab Springs.

The burgeoning democracy movement across the Middle East appears to have caught al Qaeda off guard and threatens to reduce the terrorist group to irrelevance.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/2...tml?hpt=C1

I hadn't even considered this.