News Roundup - Hour 2
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-02-04/news-roundup-hour-2
Protests in Egypt turn violent as pro-Mubarak groups attack anti-government demonstrators. Thousands of protesters take to the streets in Yemen and Jordan. And the U.S. and E.U. pledge support for the opposition in Belarus. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
Guests
Yochi Dreazen
senior national security correspondent, National Journal magazine.
Nadia Bilbassy
senior U.S. correspondent, MBC TV -- Middle East Broadcast Centre.
David Ignatius
columnist, The Washington Post; co-moderator of "PostGlobal" on washingtonpost.com.
Comments
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So far, the American political scene, has generally supported the ouster of Mubarak despite the fact that Israel, to which policy line American politicians usually conform, has supported his retention. Any new Egyptian government is likely to be far less docile, at least verbally, towards Israel's treatment of Palestinians and is also likely to make room for participation of the Muslim Brotherhood. How long before we see, particularly the right wing in the US, but also the vast majority of US politicians begin to start the drum beat of anti-Muslim talk that is almost a default position in American politics post 911. Representative Ros-Lehtinen, new House Foreign Affairs Committee chair was already quoted as saying "Further, opposition leaders must categorically reject the involvement of extremist elements who are trying to use this crisis to gain power, hijack Egypt's future, and seriously damage Egypt's relationship with the United States, Israel, and others" which seems 1) to stigmatize the Muslim Brotherhood and 2) prescribe intervention in Egypt's internal affairs. Haven't we meddled enough?
I think the media should be careful about imputing a political ideal to an entire population based on the demonstrations of a vocal minority. Although not perfect, only a fair election after a free discourse can indicate the "will of the people." Even then it is difficult to determine as we know in the United States where disparate politicians claim to represent the will of the people.
Diane,
Have you or your guests read The Daily Telegraph piece suggesting the US has been secretly supporting pro-democracy forces in Egypt for 3 years?
Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising:
The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change” for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/828...
This is the first time i can remember the american citizens being exposed to censorship by a government.
Re; David Ignatius comment on his Saudi source's response:
The Saudi's would say that since their regime is really no better than Egypt's. The opinions of the the tens of thousands of people in Tahrir Square are echoed throughout Egypt. Let us put this charade of supporting Middle East dictators to an end. In the short term this might not serve our interests, but I believe that democracy and the free market will ultimately prevail.
The Saudi's should be quaking in their sandals just about now.
what does all this mean for isreal? shouldn't they sign the peace treaty as fast as possible?
What danger is there of America’s past & massive military funding falling into “dangerous” hands?
-Dov
I am sort of baffled by Mr. Ignatius' take on all this. His well-placed Friends in Israel are perplexed that the United States would turn on a long-term friend based on demonstration of about 10,000 people in Egypt. What is Mr. Ignatius talking about? I mean, that is the same line that Mubarak's government is using. Even as huge demonstrations are taking place all over Egypt, the national TV is showing pictures of calm everywhere in Egypt. This came from a broadcaster on Egyptian TV today: We did not see any demonstration from thos who promised today would be the bloodiest day in Egypt.
Mr. Ignatius did not need to consult with his friends in Israel. All he had to do was watch Egyptian TV.
Self-sering opinions such as those of Mr. Ignatius must make it difficult for our government to make foreign policy decisions based on the interest of the United States.
It is interesting that David Ignatius, who represents the conservative point of view that would like to restrict US government involvement in business and personal lives, should want to put the brakes on overturning one of the most repressive governments in the world.
Are you kidding me? In relation to Israel, ALL the Arab countries have been using the "Palestinian situation" to deflect their people from thinking about their corrupt governments.
As was pointed out, Hamas (which is the Hebrew word for thievery, by the way) gained the Gaza by starting out as a humanitarian group aided by Israel.
How can the Israelis work toward a Palestinian state if it includes a Gaza ruled by a government in opposition to the government of the West Bank?
Israel has been PROTECTING Jordanian interests by buffering the country from West Bank Palestinians from entering Jordan.
I hold no brief for the Muslim Brotherhood but it is inaccurate to allow, as Yochi Dreason and his colleagues did, that the Muslim Brotherhood was responsible for the assassination of Sadat. It was an offshoot that has been at war with the Brotherhood known as Takfir wa Hijra. Read here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takfir_wal-Hijra
This simplistic picture reflected by the caller is some nonsense being bandied about by the usual anti-muslim suspects in our media environment. But apart from politics, accuracy in informing the public about the actual foreign policy options facing the nation demands that we present a more nuanced view of this issue.
Also, Mr. Ignacious points out the problematic nature of drawing conclusions from the demonstrations - large as they are - about the overall picture in Egypt on one hand, but on the other declared this a "revolution" early in the broadcast. Well, not yet. A revolution, even in Arabic (al thawra) implies complete turnover: that means collapse of the current military's control in this case. Such an outcome still seems unlikely.
Diane,
What you are doing is totally not acceptable.
There have been many requests here for you to cover the Collapse of WTC #7 and invite Architect Richard Gage.
But yet you had Nth program about the Uprising in Egypt - what is this .... pop-culture catering rather than investigative and analytical journalism.
If American Media and NPR does the right thing, perhaps Egypt would not be in this situation to begin with.
This Happened Yesterday - fresh, fresh, fresh
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41402478/ns/world_news-asiapacific
As if Lunar Gods in China is trying to help us so that we can find out what really has happened on 9/11
Here is another proof from from China - total inferno, and the probability of total/partial collapse is absolute Zero; ...unless the building was in NYC and owned by Larry Silverstein. This is total high-rise inferno example #15 since 2001.
Why can't you dedicate one hour of your show to 9/11 Truth Movement. We are not going away. Some people have put their careers on hold, disolved their marriages because to fight against the cover-up and your refusal to look into the matter and find out what the heck the fight is about.
part 2 for Diane
Even Fox News is ahead of NPR and your show. Shame on you Diane; Shame on you!!!!! Do your Job!
Geraldo’s Show ambushed by 9/11 Truth Movement – May 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx9YPi6bcjg
He called the Movement in New York on the air… anarchists, mis-fits, nut-jobs, least attractive demonstrators he has seen, they believe in gay-sex, bunch of xxxxx, get a life,
Geraldo got the 9/11 bug on Nov 14, 2011
http://buildingwhat.org/buildingwhat-appears-on-geraldo-at-large-on-fox-...
What made the difference …. WTC #7!
Another one and only kind of TV footage – you cannot see such reporting ever, it will never ever happen about a natural disaster
Aaron Brown – CNN “Live” Sept 11, 2001 @ 4:12 pm (~ 1:07 minutes before the collapse)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VerKCCwORMM
Quote of the Century: “WTC #7 has either collapsed, or is going to collapse [in more than one hour]”
Steel Structured buildings have never ever ever collapsed under any circumstances before.
http://www.wtc7.net
http://www.AE911Truth.org
http://www.TrumpTowels.com
You've obviously never lived in Jordan or in a refugee camp in Gaza (as I have). Your point is silly from their vantage point. But thanks for the parenthetical - hilarious! In Arabic Hamas is an acronym which stands for Islamic Resistance Movement but the acronym means "zeal". You might find it funny that Fatah is a reverse acronym because the actual acronym Hataf means death (as in Laqiya Hatfuhu - he met his fate - which appears in newspaper obituaries) so they reversed it for Fatah which means victory, conquest, or "opening". Cheers!
-Bob
My comment was meant for DaveM above not for the truther trolls. I wish this interface would allow two things: 1. embedded comments so it's clear who is responding to whom and , 2, that we could still see the show information when commenting because I misspelled your guests' names and I apologize for that.
How does all this unrest effect the Christians living in Egypt and other mideast countries? Over the last 40 years these governments have systematically surpressed and harassed the Christians in the mideast. In particular the Orthodox Christians, and Catholic populations have suffered. Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Ethiopia, Albania all had large Christian populations. Now, Christians are a small minority, as many as possible have emigrated to other countries where they can worship freely.
What will now happen to those Christians? We forget that at one time Christians were a viable voice in these countries. What happened and what will happen to these Christian minorities?
if paying for health care should only be by personal choice, why not make paying for the military only by personal choice too?
As long as the Ruling Class (no matter which country) doesn't care
about human rights & the needs
of the working class, there will be no ''stability'' in the world.
The American system is based on the premise that what's good
for the rich and powerful is good for the world.
That is, under trickle down economics, eventually some of the goodies
will trickle down the the working class and the disadvantaged.
So of course our foreign policy has always supported governments who
will protect the rich & powerful at the expense of the ordinary people.
After the Russian Revolution, this pushed people toward radical communism.
Now the choice is radical Maoism (as in India),
or radical Islam because there is no democracy when an election system
is controlled by or funded by the rich and powerful.
The Rich & Powerful elite of the Ruling Class
and the journalists who represent their viewpoint just don't get it.
Greed is not good -- unbridled, profits at any cost, predatory capitalism
for the benefit of those who already have too much will always cause world instability.
Isn't it amazing how the violent pro-Murarak thugs can be turned off and on just like bath water. Maybe the covert American advice will be a night time tank massacre as in Tiannemen Square in 1989.
I wonder if the American version of gun thugs is already being trained to thwart legitimate peaceful demonstrations at the upcoming Democratic (Charlotte) and Republican (Tampa) Party conventions. Are they role playing headbusting up at the Xe reservation?
It is strange how Diane's pundits have a distaste (mostly) for emerging democracy. It could hurt their investments I suppose.
Who will do the dirty work when all the slaves are freed?
Mubarak has now stepped down. You keep talking as if nothing has happened. Take a look at the Washington Post.