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Egypt's Top Military A Criminal Syndicate'!

Four years on, the uprising in Egypt popularly known as the 'arab spring' has more often than not been described as a revolution. Author Tariq Ali has consistently argued against the view that mass uprisings on their own constitute a revolution.

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Thavam Ratna
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266 views4 pages

Egypt's Top Military A Criminal Syndicate'!

Four years on, the uprising in Egypt popularly known as the 'arab spring' has more often than not been described as a revolution. Author Tariq Ali has consistently argued against the view that mass uprisings on their own constitute a revolution.

Uploaded by

Thavam Ratna
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Egypts top military a Criminal Syndicate!

AUDIO TAPES PROOF OF CONSPIRACY IN ACTION . . .

by Selvam Canagaratna
January 31, 2015
"Authority has every reason
to fear the skeptic, for
authority can rarely survive
in the face of doubt."
Robert Lindner, Must You
Conform? (1956)
Four years on, the uprising in
Egypt popularly known as the Arab Spring has more often than not been
described as a revolution. In fact, it is still officially proclaimed Revolution
Day since the fall of Egypts dictator Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.
And during the 18 momentous days in the spring of 2011, many Egyptians
believed that the military generals stood with them against the tyranny
and decadence of the Mubarak regime, and declared in Tahrir Square and
across Egypt that "the people and the army are one!"
Journalist and author Tariq Ali has, however, consistently argued against
the view that mass uprisings on their own constitute a revolution and
noted in a recent essay that Egypt was the clearest example of that.
"The actual size of the crowd is not a determinant unless the participants
in their majority have a clear set of social and political aims," Ali wrote. "If
they do not, they will always be outflanked by those who do or by the
state that will recapture lost ground very rapidly."
No organs of autonomous power ever emerged, noted Ali. "The Muslim
Brotherhood, a conservative social force that belatedly joined the struggle
to overthrow Mubarak, emerged as the strongest political player in the
conflict and, as such, won the elections that followed. Its factionalism,
stupidity, and a desire to reassure both Washington and the local security

apparatuses that it would be business as usual led it to make several


strategic and tactical errors from its own point of view. New mass
mobilizations erupted, even larger than those that had led to the toppling
of Mubarak. Once again they were devoid of politics, seeing the army as
their saviour and, in many cases, applauding the militarys brutality against
the Muslim Brothers."
The result was obvious, concluded Ali. "The ancien regime is back in
charge with mass support. If the original was not a revolution, the latter is
hardly a counter-revolution. Simply the military reasserting its role in
politics. It was they who decided to dump Mubarak and Morsi. Who will
dump them? Another mass mobilization? I doubt it very much. Social
movements incapable of developing an independent politics are fated to
disappear."
Social movements and Arab Springs aside, what is of immediate
relevance in the Middle East is the emergence of a series of six damning
audiotapes involving Egypts top military brass which two years after the
Arab Spring ousted the democratically-elected President Mohammad Morsi
in a well-planned military coup. [Incidentally, the tapes also prove Tariq
Alis contention that Egypts military regime isnt planning to "disappear"
any time soon!]
The six tapes were originally aired by the pro-Muslim Brotherhood satellite
channel Mukameleen (Arabic for Well Continue) in a special nightly
program on December 4. The program presenter at Mukameleen
insinuated that the leak came from a source within coup leader General
Abdelfattah al-Sisis inner circle. Shortly thereafter, the recordings went
viral on Arabic-language websites, though most foreign language media
outlets have chosen to ignore them.
Esam Al-Amin, author of The Arab Awakening Unveiled: Understanding
Transformations and Revolutions in the Middle East, described the contents
of the six audio recordings [31 minutes in all] as "shocking" because the
tapes caught "the highest-ranking military rulers in Egypt, including
General al-Sisi, conspiring together, falsifying evidence, forging
documents, and admitting to criminal behaviour on tape, while
acknowledging that the legal case concocted against Morsi was in danger
of collapsing."
Abu Khalil, a prominent human rights advocate, tweeted that since the

recordings came from within the Defense Ministry, the leaker must be a
rival to General Sisi, such as former Chief of Staff Sami Anan who declared
his presidential candidacy last spring only to be sidelined by Sisi and
ridiculed by his propaganda machine. Meanwhile, opposition leader Ayman
Noor told Al Jazeera from his home in exile in Lebanon that the tapes were
authentic because he "has known the players and could easily identify their
voices."
The individuals heard on the tape include some of the major figures
involved in the military coup and have ruled the country ever since. They
include Gen. Mamdouh Shahin, legal advisor to Sisi, Gen. Abbas Kamel,
Sisis chief aide and office manager, Gen. Mohammad Ibrahim, the Interior
Minister, Gen. Osama El-Gindy, Chief of Naval Forces, and Gen. Mahmoud
Hegazi, head of Military Intelligence, who was later promoted to army
Chief-of-Staff. The recording also featured Gen. Sisi himself, who was the
Defense Minister at the time before being elected President last May in a
vote that was considered by many neutral observers and monitors to be a
sham election.
In the tapes, Gen. Shahin also described the conspiratorial role of the chief
General Prosecutor, Hisham Barakat (who was appointed to the post by the
coup leaders) and several of his senior prosecutors including Mustafa
Khater and Ibrahim Saleh who lead the prosecution teams against Morsi
and the Muslim Brotherhood leadership.
These revelations clearly demonstrate that Egypt is currently being ruled
by a criminal enterprise masquerading as patriotic military generals or
statesmen, wrote Esam Al-Amin. "Since the July 2013 coup thousands of
Egyptians
have been killed in the streets while at least 40,000 have been arrested,
jailed and tortured. In essence, the coup was a counterrevolutionary
movement led by the military generals and elements of Mubaraks deep
state that recently resulted in the acquittal of former dictator Mubarak and
his cronies.
Wrote Esam Al-Amin: "The military generals in Cairo are not only crooks by
their own admission, but also murderers, thugs, and psychopaths. There is
no parliament, judiciary, or viable civil society institutions in Egypt to hold
them accountable. Meanwhile, the international community is looking the
other way while Egypt descends into turmoil and chaos, and most

Egyptians face unprecedented repression and corruption on a massive


scale."
There is an uneasy alliance of convenience between the generals and the
entrenched economic power brokers of the Mubarak-era, who desperately
want to launch a comeback to directly run the government themselves.
The discredited and despised cronies of Mubarak include his notoriously
corrupt son, Gamal. The whole cabal is characterized disparagingly as the
deep state.
These leftovers got a big boost when charges were dropped a few months
ago against Mubarak for ordering murderous police attacks on peaceful
protestors in 2011.
But the generals are not about to rollover and recede into the background,
Esam Al-Amin reminds readers. "A very dramatic indication that the
military is determined to stay in power is that shortly after their July 2013
coup against the Morsi government, General al-Sisi stacked the 25
available provincial governorship positions with 17 generals."
A June 2014 Human Rights Watch reportnotedthe post-July 2013 coup
era has included the "worst incident of mass unlawful killings in Egypts
recent history" and that "judicial authorities have handed down
unprecedented large-scale death sentences and security forces have
carried out mass arrests and torture."
Government officials concede to 22,000 detainees; critics believe the
actual number is double that figure.
Already controlling one-third of Egypts economy, repression provides the
militarys top officers ample opportunity to further solidify their economic
privileges and they have acted swiftly and quite unilaterally to do just that,
particularly since there still is no overview, with parliamentary elections
not scheduled until March, 2015.
Politics worldwide has simply become a case of wolves guarding the sheep!
[And wolves cant help doing what comes naturally, can they?

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