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Mubarak says that he will not be leaving office
- jim_h 16y agoI wonder what the armed forces in Egypt are going to do. Will there be a coup?
- ldayley 16y agoI don't feel as though I know enough about Egypt and the political sentiment there to comment directly, but I sense that this is a very historical moment in time for the entire Middle East.
- kasted 16y agom night twist
- elvirs 16y agoSon of a bitch
- sammville 16y agoI actually thought he had come to his right senses!
- jim_h 16y agoSome key elements of the speech. Not exact wording, but key phrases. "I announced that I will not be running in the next presidential elections." "I also announced that I will remain shouldering the responsibilities until September."
- allwein 16y agoWhen I heard that, and given the political corruption there, I'm anticipating that he's going to be unanimously re-elected by write-in vote or something even though he's not actually "running".
- kprobst 16y agoI've also said on occasion that I have to "shoulder the responsibilities" of watching football in my PJs all Sunday. No one at my household is fooled by it either.
- JoachimSchipper 16y ago... ouch. This is going to be bloody.
- Alex3917 16y agoThat was probably the point of the CIA starting this rumor in the first place.
- eli 16y agoWhy would the CIA want it to get bloody?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- Alex3917 16y agoThey don't want blood per se, but rather they want to end the geopolitical uncertainty. And the way they do this is by setting up the game theory so that it's in everyone's rational interest for the situation to resolve itself in a way that benefits the US and minimizes global risk. And if this means a few hundred protestors getting killed, that's what's going to happen. It's not really different than any other coup or revolution.
- dkarl 16y agoThere are people who fear the Egyptian electorate and want to discredit the protesters. Those people are hoping it gets as violent as possible so the television footage scares Americans and prejudices us against any government in Egypt that represents the people. I'm sure there are many individual CIA agents who share that bias. That said, I imagine the leadership of the CIA has better sense.
- nym 16y agoSource?
- Alex3917 16y ago
- cubtastic71 16y agoScared to see what happens by the end of the weekend. You could hear the crowds tone change as the man spoke trying to cling on to his power.
- obiefernandez 16y agoI'm glued to AlJazeera at the moment and have definitely been following the whole story with enthusiastic interest since the beginning. BUT Why are we discussing this topic here again? Seems completely off-topic...
- robryan 16y agoPretty much every piece of really significant world news gets discussed here, no matter what the topic. I find that fine, as long as the bar is high enough that it's not all the time.
- siavosh 16y agoAgreed, it actually makes me feel proud that this community is so well rounded...unlike a lot of other fields.
- ErrantX 16y agoI think... the protesters won't accept it. I also think the ball is in the military's court now, they've come down quite heavily on the side of the protesters. Crucially the army leaders seem to have made some quite strong statements tonight when it looked like he was leaving.
- foenix 16y agoFull story is up: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011210172519776830.html http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011210...
- BigZaphod 16y agoOh.... he'll be leaving, I think. Perhaps not in one piece, though. :/
- bryanh 16y agoLet's hope it doesn't come to that. Any violence on either side means many, many people will be killed in the struggle.
- stcredzero 16y agoMubarak has very strong personal motivations for staying and executing a calm hand-off of power. Other dictators have expatriated themselves suddenly, then later discovered their former countries repatriating their money. I suspect Mubarak knows he's finished. But he knows that he has to make an orderly withdrawal and broker deals to ensure his family is provided for in their accustomed style. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to play well with that crowd. This looks to me a bit too much like the situation in Tienanmen Square.
- gaius 16y agoOther dictators have expatriated themselves suddenly, then later discovered their former countries repatriating their money. I don't think Mubarak has to worry about that. His close friend King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has already stated any aid that the US withdraws, he will make up. Money is not an issue in this.
- cabalamat 16y agoIt's not aid from the USA that Mubarak is worried about, it's his personal billions. He wants them safely away from where a future Egyptian government can get at them.
- gaius 16y agoThat's what I am saying; he knows Abdullah has his back financially. He can just stash his money in a Saudi bank.
- stcredzero 16y agoIf I were Abdullah, I might ask Mubarak to hold on and have a orderly transfer of power. I think a lot of middle eastern regimes are afraid of a domino effect.
- silverlake 16y agoMubarak is baiting the protesters to become violent so he has an excuse to crack down on them. This will get messy soon.
- ugh 16y agoI very much doubt that the military would be willing to follow such orders, even given violent incidents. They might but I don’t think that Mubarak has currently anything like absolute power over the military.
- Qz 16y agoThe military has never really been Mubarak's tool of repression, but rather the police force as well as hired thugs.
- ugh 16y agoThe problem for the police and hired thugs is that the military is on the street. I don’t think cracking down on the protestors is currently possible without the support of the military. I think that the military is the key actor: Will they use violence is the big question.
- Qz 16y agoWell that's the big question if Feb 2 happens again. You'll recall that the military was on the streets for that entire debacle and did next to nothing.
- silverlake 16y agoMubarak can only hang on because the military supports him. The military is a giant conscript army of regular kids, and a corrupt officer corp that controls a giant chunk of the Egyptian economy. Those officers will never release their grip on the country. They will replace Mubarak with another strongman.
- mousa 16y ago
- joelmichael 16y agoUntil September. And who would you have him give power to? There is no democratically selected replacement. Which is why he is waiting for an election, in which he will not be a contender, to give power. People will have time to vet and debate the candidates. You'd rather there be a power struggle amongst radicals leading an angry mob, to see who replaces Mubarak as dictator? I think Mubarak is doing the sensible thing, and at least deserves the benefit of the doubt.
- cabalamat 16y agoYour arguments make sense, and if Mubarak had announced this a week ago, it would have flown. But I doubt the feeling of the people will allow this now. I will be surprised if Mubarak lasts until September, and if he does it won't be without a bloodbath.
- robryan 16y agoWhy not hand over power to a deputy until September then? It seems to me that the people really just want him to go, sure they won't support who he hands it over to but I think it will buy them calm until September.
- roc 16y ago> "And who would you have him give power to?" I'm sure the Vice President, while quite possibly a stooge, is perfectly capable of running things until September. As are at least a dozen cabinet- or governor-level officials. That Mubarak would have picked the interim leader doesn't delegitimize the process any more than his staying in place. It would instead underscore his promise and intent to not seek re-election, to not manipulate the process and to seek a peaceful transition of power. And the idea that an interim leader would instead retain power for themselves is farcical. The Egyptian people have expressed their will and surely they could do it again. Unless the entire military apparatus wheeled around on the people, there is simply no option whereby an interim governor could crown themselves dictator.
- mousa 16y agoI think the VP and the parliament chair have exhausted any trust too as they've been trying to demonize the protesters for a week. Military guy + committee of OK ministers and opposition is probably going to happen
- _delirium 16y agoStrange. The military was hinting pretty strongly all day that something major would happen in this speech, but the speech seems generic and has no real concessions over the previous one. Wonder if the military was the one misleading, or being misled.
- radicaldreamer 16y agoCould be posturing by some in the military for a coup attempt
- phlux 16y agoWouldn't his refusal to step down in the speech be a major revelation given that the expectation was that the speech would announce his stepping down? I'd say that "Mubarak announces he will not step down during his speech which was to announces his leave..." is something major.
- teyc 16y agoMaybe we can turn this into a useful HNer discussion. Has anyone been involved with enterprise sales where one part of the company is supportive of the project while another isn't. The worst thing is no one knows what is really going to happen and a turf war is about to break out. The US administration is like the sales guy trying to influence the outcome, but really has very little ability to guide the result.
- csomar 16y agoThe day before Tunisia dictator departure, he made a talk to the Tunisian people. (It's good to note here that in 13 January no one is calling to his departure, but just angry population due to the situation). The president made some good decisions: lowered the prices of food, removed Internet censorship (yes, even Wikileaks worked), said that we can protest freely, promised to sue the snipers.... After the talk, I didn't feel like that something has changed [1]. Actually, me and my family and my friends, nothing has really changed and it's like he had said nothing. I was happy with YouTube uncensored, not more. The day after that one, Tunisians walked in masses asking for his departure. What I wanted to say here is that the scenario is quite different. ZBA (Tunisia old president) worked on his last talk to lower the tensions. It hadn't worked out. Now in Egypt, the leaders are rising the tensions (asking the protests to go home and actually not giving anything). I'm seriously afraid about tomorrow that the current government still has plans to flow more blood. [1] I noted my feeling because some journalists that day said that the talk is revolutionary (like opening the doors for opposition). I think, and from experience, after 23 and 29 years of the life under such regime, what the population wants is the leader and his party to go and not jobs, money or freedom.
- adolph 16y agoI think the word "voluntarily" is missing from the title.