Egypt Sentences 529 To Death, Including Reporters

Mary Greeley

Canada : Whole truth? Hardly: Media Party spins quite a tale about its two latest heroes

Sun News

EZRA LEVANT | QMI AGENCY

The Media Party has two new heroes: Tarek Loubani and John Greyson.

A search of the CBC's website shows more than 5,000 stories on the two men. By contrast, lowly Nelson Mandela only has 2,000 mentions.

So, who are these saints? The Media Party says Loubani is a doctor and Greyson is a filmmaker, and they're being held in an Egyptian jail without charges. That's part of the story. Here's the rest:

Loubani is, in fact, a doctor from London, Ont. He calls himself a Palestinian refugee, though he came to Canada from Kuwait, where he was born. But it's politically sexier to say you're Palestinian.

Loubani is an extreme activist. When a Canadian cabinet minister was announcing a grant to help people with disabilities, Loubani stormed into the press conference, disrupting it, shouting about how he's a refugee from Palestine. Even though he's been in Canada since he was a child. And he's a rich doctor, doing just fine.

Loubani just wouldn't leave the press conference, even when security guards asked him to. He kept shouting like a crazy person until police escorted him away.

So, sure, he's a doctor. But he's also a professional protester, an extremist activist. Who went to Egypt in August. Who would go there in the middle of a civil war? A trouble seeker, of course. He says he was trying to go to the Gaza Strip, a little piece of land ruled by Hamas, the terrorist group that is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

That's why he was arrested by Egyptian police. They're at war with the Muslim Brotherhood right now.

Loubani and Greyson have been happy boosters of Hamas before, with Greyson involved in running an Israeli naval blockade of the Hamas forces in Gaza.

It's technically accurate to call Greyson a filmmaker. But it is more informative to mention he's a leader of the extremist group called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid - the anti-Israel group that has marched in the gay pride parade in Toronto. Which is odd, because Israel is the only country in the Middle East where homosexuality isn't a crime and where they actually have a gay pride parade, too.

The punishment for being gay in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip is the death penalty.

Greyson is obsessed with sex. He makes movies about his obsessions, with titles like Urinal and After the Bath. He explores his sexual feelings about Pierre Trudeau. Of course he's a professor at York University.

So, yes, Loubani is a doctor. And yes, Greyson is a filmmaker. Are those really the most relevant facts to report about them? Or is it more relevant to point out they are anti-Israel propagandists and activists who have made common cause with the Muslim Brotherhood's Hamas wing for years - not just in the streets of Toronto and London, Ont., but in Gaza itself?

That these men are not mainstream or moderate. It's lucky they were arrested by the Egyptian military, which only held them - as Canadian police would do, if foreign provocateurs came to town in the middle of a massive riot.

They're lucky they weren't arrested by the more enthusiastic members of Hamas' religious police. They might not be as tolerant of Greyson's sexuality as Canada is. They might not be as tolerant of Loubani's free speech as Canada is.

But there's another story here: You just can't trust the Media Party to give you the straight facts, can you?

Canada: Former head of high profile "Muslim Association of Canada was senior adviser to Mohammed Morsi

Infidel Bloggers Alliance

Wael Haddara/
twitter.com

From Tundra Tabloids:

On his Twitter account, Wael Haddara introduces himself as an “ICU physician (and other things).” In recent months, one of these “other things” done by Haddara has been advising ousted Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. In an interview to Canadian network Global TV on August 15, 2013, Wael Haddara was introduced as a “former advisor to Mohammed Morsi.” According to his own professional profile, Haddara was born in Egypt. 

Haddara’s mandate for Morsi likely started after he resigned for “personal reasons” his position as president of the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) on December 12, 2012. Besides his involvement with MAC, Wael Haddara has also been associated with the following Islamist organizations in the past: Muslim World League, CAIR-CAN, London Moslem Mosque, IRFAN-Canada and the Muslim Students Association (National). 

Appropriate references about Haddara’s leadership roles with these organizations are available in our previous article announcing Haddara’s resignation from MAC’s Board. This may not be a complete list of Islamist organizations with which Haddara has been involved in North America. 

So far, the oldest official mention of Wael Haddara’s role as an advisor to President Morsi that we found is dated December 28, 2012. On an official United Nations document, Wael Mahmoud Haddara is listed as a member of the Egyptian delegation at the UN.

More here >>

Cuba denuncia la detención en Egipto del corresponsal de Prensa Latina

Diario de Cuba

www.cubadebate.cu

El Ejército de Egipto arrestó este viernes al corresponsal de la agencia oficial cubana Prensa Latina, Pablo Osoria, junto a su camarógrafo, cuando daban cobertura a las manifestaciones populares contra el derrocamiento del expresidente Mohamed Mursi.

Osoria, que también trabaja como corresponsal del canal TeleSUR, destacó que fueron retenidos en la céntrica plaza de El Cairo, informan medios oficiales.

Los militares le prohibieron continuar la cobertura de las manifestaciones.

"Efectivos del Ejército revisaron el equipo con los que hemos trabajado, están revisando las filmaciones y no sabemos qué pueda pasar, nos tienen aquí. Revisando material. Intentamos hablar con las fuerzas de seguridad, pero nos dijeron que no podíamos hacerlo y nos llevaron a otro lugar donde hay otros soldados con mayor rango", detalló Osoria.

Las protestas de seguidores de Mursi se volvieron violentas en Egipto este viernes, con funcionarios reportando unos 50 muertos en El Cairo y numerosas víctimas fatales en ciudades de todo el país, en medio del llamado de Hermanos Musulmanes a un "Día de la Ira".

El Ejército desplegó docenas de vehículos blindados en las principales calles de la capital, luego de que el movimiento Hermanos Musulmanes de Mursi convocara a manifestaciones en todo el país contra la sangrienta represión militar a islamistas, informa Reuters.

El Ministerio del Interior dijo que la policía usaría munición real ante cualquiera que atente contra edificios públicos.

Los nuevos episodios de violencia se producen luego de que cientos de personas murieran y miles más resultaron heridas, el miércoles, cuando las fuerzas de seguridad desalojaron dos campamentos de protesta en El Cairo.

Transportation Secretary's Son Sentenced to 5 Years in Egypt

www.politico.com

Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood’s son, Sam Lahood, has been convicted and sent to prison in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood regime led by Mohammed Morsi has ruled that Lahood may spend up to five years in prison for receiving foreign funds, supposedly to foment unrest in Egypt. The non-profit group of which Lahood was a part was allegedly working on democracy training, a no-no in repressive Egypt.

Keep reading on breitbart >>

Report: Al Qaeda-linked militants planned attack on US Embassy in Egypt

worldnews

By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

An al Qaeda-linked cell disrupted in Egypt was planning suicide attacks on the French and U.S. embassies, the state news agency MENA reported, according to Reuters.

In light of this news and last week’s stabbing of a U.S. citizen on the embassy’s perimeter, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo alerted U.S. citizens to exercise “elevated awareness.”

“The knife attack on the Embassy's perimeter, along with weekend media reports acknowledging that Egyptian authorities have disrupted a terror cell possibly targeting Egyptian and Western interests, serve as yet another reminder of the need to exercise good situational awareness,” read a statement from the embassy, which was obtained by NBC News. 

According to Reuters, authorities announced Saturday they had captured three Egyptians with al Qaeda links, saying they had been found in possession of 22 pounds of explosive materials.

"The investigations revealed that the suspects were intending to carry out terrorist bomb operations inside Egypt via suicide operations, penetrating the security cordon in front of the American and French embassies with a car bomb," MENA said, citing a source in the state security prosecutor's office, according to Reuters.

MENA said the suspects had escaped from prison in 2011, during the revolts that removed Hosni Mubarak from power.

The Silver Pharaoh: Secrets of The Dead

PBS

A team of Egyptologists decodes hieroglyphic clues and pieces together forensic evidence left behind by Psusennes I, whose lost legacy could rewrite Egyptian history. Narrated by actor Liev Schreiber.

Al Qaeda, Hamas Bid on Guns and Bombs in Secret Desert Auctions

foxnews

Terrorists with links to Al Qaeda and Hamas drive in for the clandestine arms auctions. (Reuters)

By Paul Alster 

The weapons that helped Libyan rebels oust dictator Muammar Qaddafi are turning up for sale at clandestine auctions in Egypt’s lawless Sinai Desert, where shadowy buyers purchase firearms for Al Qaeda and Hamas operatives, sources told FoxNews.com.

The illicit sales take place in the barren Sinai peninsula, where Moses is believed to have wandered with the children of Israel for 40 years. Auctions announced through the grapevine bring caravans of foreigners, all with huge sums of money at their disposal and all with the same mission, Israel Defense Force sources told FoxNews.com.

The vast and rugged desert area inhabited by an estimated 250,000 Bedouins has borders with Egypt, Gaza and Israel, as well as a long coastline on the Red Sea. While the location makes it easy for buyers to come from various regions, it also combines with the impromptu nature of the auctions to make them almost impossible to stop.

“There are more and more contacts between Al Qaeda and the small groups in Sinai,” a senior source in the Israel Defense Force told the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism.

“There are more and more contacts between Al Qaeda and the small groups in Sinai.”

- Senior source in the Israel Defense Force

The hosts of these auctions aren’t just doing it for the money, the source said. Al Qaeda-linked jihadists are becoming more and more influential in the region, and playing a large role in who shows up for the auctions and who leaves with the bombs, anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons that are peddled there.

“If at the beginning we saw these tribes supporting terror cells for the sake of money, now we see it becoming more an ideological support, and we see more and more cases that these groups of Al Qaeda-influenced extreme jihadists are becoming more powerful than the tribes," the source said.

With Libya rendered an unstable tribal nation rife with internal power struggles between secular moderates and radical Islamists in the wake of Qaddafi’s ouster, accountability for weapons in the north African country is impossible. The U.S., which denies directly supplying arms to the Libyan rebels, is concerned about weapons being sold in the region.

“The potential for proliferation and smuggling of unsecured small arms and weapons in the region is a concern to the U.S. government and the international community,” a U.S. State Department official told FoxNews.com.

The New York Times reported in December 2012 that the Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar, only to express alarm when evidence mounted that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants.

Qatar, strong supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, may well have been playing both sides of the game, as the U.S official strongly hinted to The New York Times. The weapons being auctioned in the Sinai desert almost certainly include many sent by Qatar to Libya, a disturbing consequence that had been flagged early by some American officials.

The weapons don’t always travel too far before they are deployed. A violent ambush by Islamist rebels from Sinai on an Israeli bus and a civilian car near Eilat, in August 2011, killed eight Israelis and got the attention of IDF officials. The bombs, anti-tank missiles and automatic weapons used in the attack were more sophisticated than typically seen, and the fleeing terrorists fired an RPG at an Israeli helicopter pursuing them.

The State Department official who spoke to FoxNews.com said the U.S. is working with Libya to contain weapons, and with Egypt to stop their spread once they make it to the desert.

“The Libyan government has assured us that security is its No. 1 priority,” the official said. “We remain concerned about the security situation in the Sinai, and continue to engage with the Egyptian government about this issue. We believe the Egyptian government recognizes potential threats from the Sinai as well. Securing the Sinai is vital to peace in the region.”

Under President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt has started to take action against the radical jihadists, including Hamas, which ironically is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that propelled Morsi into office. Stopping the spread of the weapons originating from Libya is no diplomatic issue – it is in Egypt’s own interest.

Last August, 16 Egyptian border police were surprised in the night and killed by terrorists attacking from Sinai who went on to breach the Israeli border before six of the attackers were killed by Israeli forces. The fact that Egyptian forces were targeted demonstrated that for hard-core Al Qaeda-inspired Islamists, even the Muslim Brotherhood is not radical enough and is viewed as the enemy.

Egypt has been increasingly intercepting weapons in the Sinai over the last month, including the interdiction of two tons of weapons bound for the Gaza Strip two weeks ago. Egyptian forces have also flooded as many as 200 smuggling tunnels into the Hamas-governed strip, making weapons deliveries significantly harder.

Morsi’s efforts have Israeli security services mildly encouraged, although Egypt alone may not be able to neutralize the proliferation of Qatari-supplied weapons that originally reached Libya with tacit U.S. approval. And the threat of those weapons being turned on U.S. and other Western citizens in the Middle East and potentially around the globe remains.

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who blogs at www.paulalster.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/26/arms-that-freed-libya-turning-up-at-desert-auctions-and-in-hands-terrorist/#ixzz2M1o5pcBu

The Hamas-Egyptian Alliance

Egypt’s president Mohamed Mursi attends a meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal at the presidential palace in Cairo. (Reuters)

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org

By Khaled Abu Toameh

The collapse of the Mubarak regime has been a great blessing for Hamas, which has emerged as a major player. Now Hamas knows that it can always rely on Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to stay in power and increase Hamas's influence.

Did Hamas dispatch 7,000 militiamen from the Gaza Strip to Egypt to protect President Mohamed Morsi, who is currently facing a popular uprising?

Reports that appeared in a number of Egyptian opposition media outlets in the past few days claimed that the militiamen entered Egypt through the smuggling tunnels along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The reports quoted unidentified Egyptian security officials as saying that the Hamas militiamen had been spotted in the Egyptian border town of Rafah before they headed toward Cairo, to shore up the Muslim Brotherhood regime of Morsi, which Hamas may have feared was in danger of collapse.

The officials claimed that the Hamas militiamen had been deployed in a number of sensitive locations in the Egyptian capital, including the Al-Ittihadiyeh Presidential Palace, as part of a plan to protect the Muslim Brotherhood regime.

Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, is a staunch supporter of the Morsi regime.

This week, a Gulf newspaper Akhbar Al-Khaleej published what it described as "secret documents" proving that Hamas, with the financial backing of Qatar, had plans to send hundreds of militiamen to Egypt to help Morsi's regime.

One of the classified documents, signed by Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, talks about the need to send "warriors to help our brothers in Egypt who are facing attempts by the former regime [of Hosni Mubarak] to return to power."

The reports about Hamas's alleged involvement in the Egyptian crisis have been strongly denied by Hamas officials.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar lost his temper during an interview with an Egyptian TV station; he said the reports were lies intended to tarnish Hamas's image.

Zahar accused supporters of the Mubarak regime of being behind the reports depicting Hamas as a terrorist organization helping President Morsi to kill Egyptians.

But this was not the first time that Egyptians had accused Hamas of meddling in their internal affairs.

In August 2012, reports in the Egyptian media suggested that Hamas was involved in the killing of 16 Egyptian border guards near the border with the Gaza Strip. The perpetrators have never been caught.

Egyptians have also accused Hamas of involvement in a terror attack against a church and attacking prisons in Egypt.

Although the talk about Hamas's involvement in terror activities on Egyptian soil may in some cases be exaggerated, repeated accusations against Hamas show that many Egyptians continue to see the radical Islamist movement as a threat to their national security.

Hamas has further been accused by some Egyptians of helping other Muslim fundamentalist groups turn Sinai into a base for jihadis from all around the world.

During last week's street clashes in Cairo, anti-Morsi demonstrators torched Hamas and Qatari flags. They also chanted slogans condemning Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organization for bringing Hamas militiamen to suppress Egyptian protesters.

There is no doubt that Hamas is prepared to do its utmost to help Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organization stay in power, even at the cost of killing and torturing Egyptian civilians. The downfall of the Mubarak regime has been a great blessing for Hamas, which has since emerged as a major player in the Palestinian and regional arena.

Thanks to Morsi, an Egyptian prime minister visited the Gaza Strip for the first time ever last November to express solidarity with Hamas during Israel's "Pillar of Defense" military operation. Such a visit would have been unthinkable under Mubarak, who did everything he could to weaken Hamas and stop it from meddling in the internal affairs of Egypt.

But now Hamas knows that it can always rely on Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to stay in power and increase Hamas's influence. In return, Morsi apparently expects Hamas to reward him by sending its men to defend his palace.

JAILED FOR BELIEFS: Egypt Family Gets 15 Years For Christian Conversion

By Benjamin Weinthal

scoop.it

The 15-year prison sentence given to a woman and her seven children by an Egyptian court for converting to Christianity is a sign of things to come, according to alarmed human rights advocates who say the nation's Islamist government is bad news for Christians in the North African country.

A criminal court  in the central Egyptian city of Beni Suef  meted out the shocking sentence last week, according to the Arabic-language Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm. Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was raised a Christian, converted to Islam when she married Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab Mustafa, a Muslim, 23 years ago. He later died, and his widow planned to convert her family back to Christianity in order to obtain an inheritance from her family. She sought the help of others in the registration office to process new identity cards between 2004 and 2006. When the conversion came to light under the new regime, Nadia, her children and even the clerks who processed the identity cards were all sentenced to prison.

Samuel Tadros, a research fellow at Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, said conversions like Nadia's have been common in the past, but said Egypt's new Sharia-based constitution "is a real disaster in terms of religion freedom.”

"Now that Sharia law has become an integral part of Egypt's new constitution, Christians in that country are at greater risk than ever."- Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice

"The cases will increase in the future," Tadros said. "It will be much harder for people to return to Christianity."

President Mohamed Morsi, who was elected last June and succeeded the secular reign of Hosni Mubarak, who is now in prison, pushed the new constitution through last year.

Tadros said the constitution limits the practice of Christianity because “religious freedom has to be understood within the boundaries of Sharia.” He added that the constitution prescribes that the highest Sunni authority should be referred to as an interpreter of the religion clause contained in the constitution.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/16/egyptian-court-sentences-entire-family-to-15-years-for-converting-to/#ixzz2IAaENfdD

Obama Disarming Americans, Arming Terrorists

frontpagemag

By Daniel Greenfield

F-16

While the White House was busy drafting proposals to ban assault rifles, the last of the regulations imposed on Saudi travel to the United States after September 11 were being taken apart. While some government officials were busy planning how to disarm Americans, other officials were negotiating the transfer of F-16s and Abrams tanks to Muslim Brotherhood-run Egypt.

Obama is unwilling to trust Americans with an AR-15, but is willing to trust a genocidal terrorist group with Abrams tanks and F-16 jets. The F-16’s M61 Vulcan cannon can fire 6,000 rounds a minute and the 146 lb warhead of its HARM missiles can do a lot more than put a few dents in a brick wall. The Abrams’ 120 mm cannon can penetrate 26 inches of steel armor making it a good deal more formidable than even the wildest fantasies of San Francisco liberals about the capabilities of a so-called “assault rifle.”

While Obama has not been willing to respect the Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights, he was willing to arm a terrorist group whose motto is, “The Koran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, Jihad is our path and death in the name of Allah is our goal.” If a High School student wrote that on his Facebook page, he would be in police custody within the hour, but an international organization and national government that trades in such rhetoric gets devastating firepower from our government… free of charge.

Abrams tank

In addition to giving the Hezbollah-run government of Lebanon two hundred M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, Obama deliberately turned a blind eye while Al Qaeda and other Islamist rebel groups in Libya received arms shipments from Qatar. Those weapons included a good deal more firepower than anything you can buy at Wal-Mart and later made their way to Mali and Syria. More weapons made their way into the hands of Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Whether any of these weapons were used in the assault on the Benghazi mission is unknown, but entirely possible.

While the Al Qaeda attackers at Benghazi were heavily armed, with the complicity of the Obama Administration, the Americans had been forced to abide by Libyan gun control laws, because while Obama was willing to bomb a country and help arm its terrorists, he wasn’t willing to allow embassy security personnel to flout firearms law in a city ruled by terrorist militias. Instead the terrorist militia of the Muslim Brotherhood was hired to provide security for the Benghazi mission… with tragic results.

There has been a great deal of ink spilled about Nancy Lanza’s irresponsibility in keeping guns around the house; but what of Obama’s irresponsibility in sending guns to Mexican drug lords and jets and tanks to Muslim terrorists?

Based on his track record, Obama believes that it is safe to send weapons to Mexican drug lords, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda terrorists, not to mention the Muslim Brotherhood, but that it’s far too dangerous for an American to own a clip that can hold more than 10 rounds.

And that means that Obama doesn’t think much of the moral character of Americans, but thinks a great deal of Muslim terrorists.

This double standard is the defining motif of this administration. A handful of mass shootings is enough to deprive all Americans of their constitutional rights, but the worst act of mass murder of Americans is not enough to deprive Saudi Muslim students looking for a good flight school of their visas.

M113 Armored Personnel Carriers

Even while Obama and Biden are pushing more background checks for gun owners, Saudi students will undergo fewer background checks. In The Audacity of Hope, Obama vowed to stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction. But when the political winds shift in an ugly direction toward gun owners, then Obama can be found blowing on the fan.

In Obama’s America, only some people can expect the protection of the Bill of Rights. And in a crisis, there are some people’s civil rights that we violate and some people’s rights that we do not.

There is nothing in the Bill of Rights that says you cannot profile Muslim travelers in airports. To use the same argument as the gun controllers, airports and airplanes didn’t even exist during the time of the Founding Fathers; therefore they couldn’t have possibly foreseen their existence or applied any limitation to any violation of civil rights that can take place in them.

The murder of 3,000 people did not in any way make it acceptable to single out a Muslim for special attention, despite the laws of probability, logic and common sense. That would be an overreaction. It would mean punishing large numbers of people and that would be unacceptable, no matter how many lives it might save. But depriving millions of Americans of the protection of the 2^nd Amendment after several shootings carried out by mentally ill teenagers is, for some reason, not an overreaction.

It’s not acceptable to single out the relatively small number of Muslims in the United States to save the lives of thousands, but it is imperative that we single out tens of millions of Americans to save a smaller number of people. The public safety logic of this does not hold up according to the numbers, the ethics or the law.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s arms dealer in the White House is operating under a glaring double standard. Either an act of mass murder is a valid reason for depriving people of their civil rights or it isn’t. Either dangerous weapons should be kept out of the hands of potentially dangerous people, or they shouldn’t. But what he can’t do is what he’s trying to do, which is have it both ways, granting special privileges to Muslims abroad and at home, while depriving Americans of their basic civil rights.

If President Mohammed Morsi, who only two years ago described America as an enemy, and who has since then tortured and murdered his only people can be trusted with Abrams tanks and F-16s, then surely the American gun owner can be trusted with an AR-15 and a clip that holds more than ten rounds.

‘I Want Him to Be Free’: Guess Which Convicted Terrorist Egypt’s Morsi Is Talking About

theblaze

Omar Abdel-Rahman

Jason Howerton

In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in Cairo, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, said he wants President Barack Obama to release Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the “Blind Sheikh.” The blind Egyptian cleric was convicted in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and is currently in U.S. custody.

“I want him to be free,” Morsi said, “but I respect the law and the rule of law in Egypt and the Untied States. What I am talking about isn’t a violation…There could be things like visitation, assistance, his children, his family, assisting him.  He is an old sheikh and sick and blind.”

While Morsi claims he merely wants Abdel-Rahman back in Egypt based on humanitarian and health concerns, the terrorist cleric is a revered figure in the country and many fear he would be released completely once in Egyptian custody.

“I wish that there could be a big possibility for the American administration to look into this matter about this sheikh, who is very old, without there being, I don’t intend on violating the rule of law in anyplace.  And I don’t like anyone asking me to violate the rule of law in my own country,” he added.

Morsi went on to say that he will address the issue when he meets with Obama sometime before March.

When asked what he thinks about Obama, Morsi said: “I respect him and I value him. He played an effective and important role in the cease-fire in regards to Gaza and the end of attacks against Gaza. He cooperated with us in a big way and I’m still in constant communication with him. When we meet, there will be a chance to talk about cooperation in different areas, like scientific research, manufacturing and production, investments and tourism.”

The federal government has denied previous reports that the Obama administration was ever considering releasing the Blind Sheikh into Egyptian custody.

“Reports saying otherwise are completely and unequivocally false,” National Security Staff spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.

Egyptian Judges Investigate Morsi Vote Fraud In Constitution Referendum

patdollard

President Mohamed Mursi sees the basic law, drawn up mostly by Islamists, as a vital step in Egypt’s transition to democracy almost two years after the fall of military-backed strongman Hosni Mubarak.

The opposition, a loose alliance of liberals, moderate Muslims and Christians, says the document is too Islamist, ignores the rights of minorities and represents a recipe for more trouble in the Arab world’s most populous nation.

Critics have also said the vote, conducted over two stages in a process that ended on Saturday, was marred by a litany of irregularities, and have demanded a full inquiry.

“The committee is currently compiling results from the first and second phase and votes from Egyptians abroad, and is investigating complaints,” Judge Mahmoud Abu Shousha, a member of the committee, told Reuters.

He said no time had been set for an announcement of the final outcome, but it appeared unlikely to be on Monday.

A tally by the Muslim Brotherhood, which lifted Mursi into the presidency, indicated a 64 percent “yes” vote, although only a third of the 51 million eligible Egyptians took part. An opposition count was similar, but they said the ballot had been marred by abuses in both rounds.

By forcing the pace on the constitution, Mursi risks squandering the opportunity to build consensus for the austerity measures desperately needed to kickstart an ailing economy.

Highlighting investor concerns, Standard and Poor’s cut Egypt’s long-term credit rating on Monday and said another cut was possible if political turbulence worsened.

The low turnout also prompted some independent newspapers to question how much support the charter really had, with opponents saying Mursi had lost the vote in much of the capital.

“The referendum battle has ended, and the war over the constitution’s legitimacy has begun,” the newspaper Al-Shorouk wrote in a headline, while a headline in Al-Masry Al-Youm read: “Constitution of the minority”.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

If the “yes” vote is confirmed, a parliamentary election will follow in about two months, setting the stage for Islamists and their opponents to renew their battle.

Under the new constitution, legislative powers that have been temporarily held by Mursi move to the Islamist-dominated upper house of parliament until a new lower house is elected.

The make-up of the Supreme Constitutional Court, which Islamists say is filled with Mubarak-era appointees bent on throwing up legal challenges to Mursi’s rule, will also change as its membership is cut to 11 from 18.

Those expected to leave include Tahani al-Gebali, who has described Mursi as an “illegitimate president”.

The head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, Saad al-Katatni, wrote on Facebook that the group’s members were “extending our hands to all political parties and all national forces”, adding: “We will all start a new page”.

But the opposition National Salvation Front says the new basic law deepens a rift between the liberals and Islamists who combined to overthrow Mubarak, and will extend the turbulence that has taken a heavy toll on society and economy.

The opposition said they would continue to challenge the charter through protests and other democratic means.

“We do not consider this constitution legitimate,” liberal politician Amr Hamzawy said on Sunday, arguing that it violated personal freedoms. “We will continue to attempt to bring down the constitution peacefully and democratically.”

The run-up to the referendum was marred by protests, originally sparked when Mursi awarded himself broad powers on November 22. At least eight people were killed when rivals clashed in protests outside Mursi’s official palace in Cairo. Violence also flared in the second city, Alexandria.

Egyptians narrowly back Islamist-shaped constitution, say rival camps

Mahmoud Khaled / AFP - Getty Images

Polling station officials count ballots in Cairo on Friday at the end of the first day of vote in a referendum on a new constitution.

By Reuters

CAIRO - Egyptians appeared to have voted narrowly in favor of a constitution shaped by Islamists, officials in rival camps said on Sunday after the first round of a two-stage referendum.

<br>

The result based on unofficial tallies, if confirmed for this round and repeated in Saturday's second stage, may give Islamist President Mohamed Morsi limited cause for celebration as it shows the wide rift in Egypt at a time when he needs to build consensus on tough measures to heal a fragile economy.

Official results are not expected till after the next round.

Morsi and his backers say the constitution is vital to move Egypt's democratic transition forward. Opponents say the basic law is too Islamist and tramples on minority rights, including those of Christians who make up 10 percent of the population.

The build-up to Saturday's vote was marred by deadly protests. Demonstrations erupted last month when Morsi awarded himself sweeping powers and then fast-tracked the constitution through an assembly dominated by his Islamist allies.

The vote passed off peacefully with long queues forming in Cairo and other cities and towns where this round of voting was held. The vote was staggered because many judges needed to oversee polling staged a boycott to voice their opposition.

But late on Saturday, as polls were closing, Islamists attacked the offices of the liberal opposition Wafd party newspaper, a party that was part of the National Salvation Front coalition that pushed for a "no" vote.

"The referendum was 56.5 percent for the 'yes' vote," a senior official in the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party operations room set up to monitor voting told Reuters. More >>

Also 

ANALYSIS: As Egypt votes, what is at stake? >>

Huge Egyptian turnout leads to extended voting

Euronews

Huge queues have been visible everywhere in Egypt where voting in the constitutional referendum is taking place today. Among the first to vote was President Mohammed Morsi.

Two votes have had to be organised, the second on December 22, because some of Egypt's judges have boycotted the vote and there are not enough willing officials to monitor polling stations. Turnout is so high voting may be extended into Sunday, and has already been extended by several hours.

After violence in the days leading up to the poll, today has been quiet. Over half of Egypt's electorate is due to vote today, with both Cairo and Alexandria included in the first round. The results will not be published until both rounds are concluded.

"I feel that the country will be stable and that people will resume their work and interests, because the situation has been frozen for two years and the country is in a mess. I hope that god will offer good things for the country, so I'll vote 'yes', not 'no' ," said one hijab-wearing woman.

"This day is not a good thing for us because we are forced to vote on the whole constitution, articles containing poison and defects. This constitution has been created for slaves, it's a big shame on Egypt to be voting it, and I think disaster is coming if we carry on with the same approach," said another woman, in big sunglasses and furs.

These two women are emblematic of the division in society that our reporter has been witnessing.

"With 'yes' or 'no' Egyptians move today into a new phase in the history of their young revolution, to vote on the new draft constitution which has already led to a split in the state apparatus, demonstrations, and clashes. Egyptians hope this will end as soon as the result is announced," says our reporter Mohammed Shaikhibrahim.

Take A Look Inside The Muslim Brotherhood's 'Torture Chambers'

The Blaze/ Tiffany Gabbay 

The Blaze.com

A chilling report recently published in the Egyptian newspaper, al-Masry al-Youm, reveals that the torture chambers once utilized by the Hosni Mubarak regime to tamp down protesters are being put to the same if not greater use by the country’s new, self-proclaimed dictator, Mohammed Morsi.

Despite the Obama administration and worldwide media’s insistence that the election of the Muslim Brotherhood leader was a watershed moment for democracy in the Middle East, it would seem those hopes are on a rapid downward trajectory as reports of savage beatings and brutality against Egyptian protesters, abound.

This disturbing revelation came to light just days ago when an al-Masry al-Youm reporter, with the help of a Brotherhood-owned and operated television station, was given an exclusive tour of the torture chambers. While one might think the decision to grant a journalist access to such a chilling look into the way the Muslim Brotherhood treats its critics as counter-intuitive, it makes perfect sense. After all, what could possibly ever serve as better warning for those even thinking of resisting Morsi’s push for a totalitarian regime based on sharia law than to know what will happen to them if they do?

Al-Monitor reports that the central torture chamber is located near the Ittihadiya Palace, just opposite the gates facing the Omar Ibn Abdel Aziz Mosque. The street is reportedly “secured with a cordon and iron barriers, where the Central Security Forces (CSF) barr any and all access without the authorization of the Brotherhood. Keep reading >>

Egypt’s Morsi annuls orders giving him sweeping powers, but keeps Dec. 15 constitution vote

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Tanks Deployed To Guard Obama-Supported Dictator Morsi

Pat Dollard

CAIRO — The Egyptian military’s elite Republican Guard deployed tanks and barbed-wire barricades around the presidential palace to restore order Thursday after violent clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi rocked his fledgling government.

Thousands of Morsi supporters from the powerful Muslim Brotherhood organization heeded the Guard’s mid-afternoon deadline to withdraw from the area, but scores of opponents — kept at a distance by the barricades — continued to demonstrate across the street from the palace, chanting slogans against the Islamist president.

The overnight clashes, in which Egypt’s divided and angry revolutionaries battled each other with rocks, molotov cocktails, sticks and clubs, left the capital on edge and raised concerns about the stability of the country’s first democratically elected government and its relationship with the military.

The commander of the Republican Guard, Maj. Gen. Mohamed Zaki, said his forces were deployed to separate the demonstrators, not suppress them, the official Middle East News Agency reported.

In Washington, a senior Obama administration official said the military so far appears to be playing a neutral role in the upheaval.

“We have not seen any cracks” in Morsi’s relationship with the military, said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “They’ve been careful to stay out of it.”

The presence of troops and tanks around the presidential palace, the official said, is seen in Washington as an effort to protect the compound and prevail upon demonstrators to stand down. “I wouldn’t make too big a deal of the military being out now,” the official said.

In talks with U.S. officials this week, a high-level Egyptian delegation had indicated that the government was preparing to make a gesture of “outreach” to the opposition, the official said. The delegation’s trip was originally scheduled to discuss plans for a Morsi visit to Washington on Dec. 17. That visit has now been postponed, at the request of the Egyptian government.

The fighting between Morsi’s Islamist supporters and his secular, liberal and non-Islamist opponents stems from a political crisis unleashed Nov. 22, when Morsi issued a decree giving himself near-absolute power in the name of speeding the country’s turbulent democratic transition.

By Thursday afternoon, at least three of Morsi’s advisers had resigned over the decree, and Egypt’s influential al-Azhar University, a seat of moderate Islam, was calling on Morsi to rescind it.

At the presidential palace, soldiers from the elite Guard units — which are tasked with protecting Morsi — set up a barbed-wire perimeter and deployed seven tanks and about 10 smaller armored trucks with guns. Dozens of black-uniformed riot police huddled against the walls of the compound, as some opposition protesters shouted taunts at the soldiers across the barbed-wire coils.  Keep reading >>

Obama’s Impotence in the Face of Muslim Brotherhood Coup

FrontPageMag.com/ Arnold Ahlert

my.opera.com

Events in Egypt continue to deteriorate. On Wednesday, rival groups of protesters clashed outside the presidential palace in Cairo, when Muslim Brotherhood supporters of President Mohamed Morsi confronted 300 opposition members who were staging a sit-in. The protesters were initially routed, but after a lull in fighting, hundreds of young Egyptians returned to the scene and a violent exchange of firebombs and rocks ensued. Gunshots were also fired, and more than 211 were injured, medical sources reported. The violence marks the worst outbreak of unrest in the deepening crisis centered on Egypt’s new draft constitution, scheduled to be put to a vote December 15.

By nightfall Wednesday, more than 10,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood had massed around the palace, setting up metal barricades to keep traffic off a stretch of road that runs parallel to the palace in Cairo’s upscale Heliopolis district. A banner saying, “May God protect Egypt and its president,” was posted on a truck the Brotherhood brought with them. On top of the truck, a man with a loudspeaker began reciting verses from the Quran. Chants from the Islamist crowd also began to fill the air. “The people want to cleanse the square” and “Morsi has legitimacy,” they intoned, according to AFP news agency. The fighting extended into Thursday morning, after riot police tried and failed to separate opposing forces. When police failed to ease tension on the streets, residents took matters into their own hands, erecting makeshift road blocks to check passers-by.

The latest round of protests is apparently an escalation of Tuesday’s violence, when anti-Morsi supporters descended on the palace, and police fired tear gas to stop their approach. Morsi was inside conducting business, but he left when the crowds “grew bigger,” according to a presidential official who spoke on condition of anonymity. By Wednesday, the protests had spread beyond Cairo, and offices of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party in Ismailia and Suez were torched.  More >>

Egypt's Morsi flees palace as protesters battle cops

 

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By NBC News wire reports

Updated at 7:58 a.m. ET: CAIRO -- Egyptian police battled thousands of protesters outside President Mohammed Morsi's palace in Cairo on Tuesday, prompting the Islamist leader to leave the building, presidency sources said.

Officers fired tear gas at up to 10,000 demonstrators angered by Morsi's drive to hold a referendum on a new constitution on December 15. The Associated Press reported that some protesters broke through barbed wire around the building and hurled chairs and rocks at retreating police on Tuesday night.

The crowds had gathered in what organizers had dubbed "last warning" protests against Morsi, who infuriated opponents with a November 22 decree that expanded his powers. "The people want the downfall of the regime," the demonstrators chanted.

"The president left the palace," a presidential source, who declined to be named, told Reuters. A security source at the presidency also said the president had departed.

Morsi returned to work at the presidential palace on Wednesday morning, an aide later told Reuters.

The Muslim Brotherhood also called for a rally backing Morsi outside the palace on Wednesday and leftists planned a counter-demonstration, raising fears of clashes in a crisis over a disputed push for a new constitution. More >>