A backwards step for Egypt
November 25th, 2012 at 1:00 pm by David FarrarThe Guardian reports:
Egypt‘s most senior judges have condemned President Mohamed Morsifor granting himself sweeping new powers which they say amount to an “unprecedented assault” on the independence of the judiciary.
The supreme judicial council said work would be suspended in all courts and prosecution offices until the decree passed by the president earlier this week was reversed. …
Morsi’s decree orders the retrial of former president Hosni Mubarak, officials and security force members accused of killings during the country’s revolution. Controversially, it also exempts all of Morsi’s decisions from legal challenge until a new parliament is elected, as well as offering the same protection to the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly, which is drawing up the country’s new constitution.
Egypt may have swapped one dictator for another.
Tags: Egypt
November 25th, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Well, well…. how’s that “Arab Spring” working out, Egypt?
All of the lefties who have been wittering on about the “Arab Spring” and the “flowering of democracy” in the Middle East are having truckloads of egg applied to their faces now.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Bring back Mubarak, you think? Keep Assad in Syria? Pity about Sadam and Gadaffi, huh – those guys sure were useful.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Each country get the government it deserves.
Vote:The vile religion of peace is a curse on humanity.
November 25th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Did the Polish, say, get the governments they deserved from 1939 to 1989?
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:14 pm
You can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Comrade mike, you appear to be thick as a plank in not understanding the world.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
This was necessary. It’s not a revolution unless you clean out the dead wood. Mubarak’s cronies have to be removed from all positions of power, tried, and punished for their crimes. Anyone who is trying to effectively replace an authoritarian regime has to do something like this at some point.
If Morsi does not give this up after that task is accomplished, then we all ought to oppose him.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:30 pm
he may be attempting to get rid of draconian laws that the judicial elite are opposing. He was elected after all. Who should run a democratic country, the elected representatives or the judiciary feeding at the top trough.
I wish NZ politicians would oppose our judicial elite setting government policy more often.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
“Four legs good, two legs better” right, Tom?
Orwell had your number a long time ago.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
The smugness of some is unbelievable. Look at the gumints we’ve had over,the last 40 years. We certainly deserved them because we were stupid enough to,vote for them?
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
@Tom Jackson
Yep, I’ve noticed that, just how often a dictator will knock a country into line and then “give it all up” for the ‘people’.
Someone out there will have the long list of dictators that have done this, these are the ones I like to call “philanthropic dictators”.
This list will be too long to post here probably as comments are limited to two million words!!!!!!!
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Revolutions are messy things. After 1776 it took the Americans a fair while, and a civil war, to get a democracy. The ‘success’ or otherwise of the Arab Spring is a bit of a facile concept. The fall of an authoritarian regime can often lead to another and democracy can be very fragile.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
@mikenmild – “Bring back Mubarak, you think? Keep Assad in Syria?…”
I never suggested anything of the sort.
I was simply making the point that those lefties out there who thought that the so-called “Arab Spring” would result in unicorns flying over rainbows were dead wrong. There is a very large thing in the way, and it is called “Islam”.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 4:12 pm
If Romney had won the U.S election, I’m wondering if these events (the new attacks by Gaza on Israel and the subsequent involvement of Morsi in brokering a peace deal between the two followed by this power grab) would have happened.
Morsi is doing this now because he knows Obama is a soft touch and weak, and won’t do anything about it.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Fletch,
Vote:meh – what is the US supposed to do about some president in some random country extending his political powers?
To get too involved in that sort of things would appear to be opverstreching particularly when the Us is already got a bit of an overspending problem.
November 25th, 2012 at 5:34 pm
In addition to what’s happened in Egypt with the MB one also observes Obama has given Libya to Al-Qa’ida.
If Romney had won Iran was on the agenda. Gaza was a consolation prize. That’s why Bibi waited till now.
Iran is delighted with Obama’s victory.
BTW, if you want to know why so many US Generals are being retired, all of a sudden, this is why:
Vote:http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/19/273240/coup-and-countercoup-in-washington/
November 25th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
After 1776 it took the Americans a fair while, and a civil war, to get a democracy.
This sentence shows you effectively know nothing about either the history of the US or concept of democracy.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 6:47 pm
“There is a very large thing in the way, and it is called “Islam”.”
There was a very large thing in the way of democracy in the West once upon a time too, and it was called “Christianity”. We more or less got there though.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 8:42 pm
By what right does a judiciary oppose an elected President and an elected parliament when there is as yet no constitution?
This judiciary was prepared to perform their work while the human rights of their people were being betrayed, including those of people before them on trial in their courts.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 8:55 pm
As for threats to democracy.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/24/274332/aipac-decapitators-inside-us-govt/
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 8:59 pm
I didn’t see DPF complaining when Gerry Brownlee was appointed ‘temporary’ dictator of CHCH.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 9:46 pm
@SPC at 8:55 PM
“As for threats to democracy. . . ”
The relevance to Egyptian democracy of an anti-semitic Iranian Web site is what, precisely?
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
The President’s text below, unedited:
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
November 21, 2012
Presidential Memorandum — National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs
Memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies
Subject: National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs
This Presidential Memorandum transmits the National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs (Minimum Standards) to provide direction and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security. These threats encompass potential espionage, violent acts against the Government or the Nation, and unauthorized disclosure of classified information, including the vast amounts of classified data available on interconnected United States Government computer networks and systems.
The Minimum Standards provide departments and agencies with the minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs. These elements include the capability to gather, integrate, and centrally analyze and respond to key threat-related information; monitor employee use of classified networks; provide the workforce with insider threat awareness training; and protect the civil liberties and privacy of all personnel.
The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security.
Barack Obama
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/24/274332/aipac-decapitators-inside-us-govt/
As Reid posted before (on Benghazi)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/19/273240/coup-and-countercoup-in-washington/
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 10:58 pm
I wouldn’t necessarily defend morsi. Mubarak has generally had a bum wrap. He presided over 30 years or relative prosperity and peace, kept sadats legacy,of peace with israel without mass murder even if there were some human rights violations, that is t too bad for many countries in the world.
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/21/presidential-memorandum-national-insider-threat-policy-and-minimum-stand
Vote:November 25th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
Kevin, the point is, what exactly are the judiciary concerned about?
They posed no restraint on human rights abuses under the former regime, yet see themseleves as needing some veto over the decision making of an elected President and parliament. Why?
What law are they upholding before there is a new constitution? The attempt of the military to determine the process by which democracy is allowed?
Vote:November 26th, 2012 at 9:38 am
Keeping in mind the mess in the Gaza and Syria and Libya and various other arab/muslim societies how could one expect these wogs in Egypt to do anything other than continue to wollow in the dishonesty of typical arab/muslim leaders.
Long may it contonue in the hope that they wipe themselves out. the only trouble are hand wringing liberals who think that we should send aid to these ferals.
Vote:November 26th, 2012 at 12:09 pm
shocked
Vote: