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Re: [MESA] =?utf-8?q?=5BOS=5D_US/EGYPT_-_Washington_did_not_want_Egyp?= =?utf-8?q?t=E2=80=99s_revolution=3A_Obama_advisor?=

Released on 2012-10-16 17:00 GMT

Email-ID 123072
Date 2011-09-13 19:22:57
This doesn't contradict with what happened, or what the person quoted in
this article is saying.

The U.S. did not want the protests to begin in Egypt. They began anyway.
The U.S. held back from supporting the movement for as long as it could,
until it began to feel that it was the best option. You can say it was
because Washington saw the writing on the wall that the "people" would
eventually triumph; or you could say it was because Washington didn't want
to be seen as supporting an oppressive regime in clamping down on the
demonstrations, that the stain on its reputation in the Arab world it
wouldn't be worth the victory of its ally surviving.

Whatever it was, there was a lot of reluctance from the Obama
administration to give the military the go-ahead to push Mubarak out. That
was obvious from the public statements. Then, it shifted its position. And
Mubarak was pushed out.

This goes back to the assertion some people here have tried to make that
the military "organized" the protests. That is bullshit. The military may
have started to fuck around with them once they already started; the
military may have seen an opportunity in exploiting the popular
demonstrations to achieve out its mission of ensuring that Mubarak would
not hand power to Gamal. But the military did not engineer the faux
revolution from scratch.

There was a convergence of interests between Washington and among the
Egyptian military, imo. So this is not butting against what you're saying,

On 9/13/11 8:57 AM, Emre Dogru wrote:

no way that the egyptian military could oust mubarak without us approval


From: "Basima Sadeq" <>
To: "The OS List" <>,
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 7:57:07 AM
Subject: [OS] US/EGYPT - Washington did not want Egypt's revolution:
Obama advisor

Washington did not want Egypt's revolution: Obama advisor
Tuesday, 13 September 2011

The United States did not want a revolution in Egypt, and only when it
was evident Hosni Mubarak had lost control did the Obama administration
then started supporting the revolutionaries, said Dalia Mogahed,
executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and an
advisor to President Barack Obama.

"Even now, many in the United States still think that Mubarak's presence
was better for American interests, since he did everything they asked
for," she told Egyptian newspaper al-Akhbar.

Mogahed added that the same applied to Israel, whose officials described
Mubarak as the best person they could deal with.

"When the revolution took place, they found a new regime which they
cannot control and in which they have no role."

Mogahed explained that U.S. officials don't know who the next president
of Egypt will be, while in the past they dealt with a stable situation
under Mubarak and which they expected would continue when his son Gamal
assumed power.

The relationship, Mogahed said, is easy to understand: Mubarak never
acted against Israel, which is why the U.S. was reluctant to see him
leave power.

Regarding the trial of the former president and his aides, Mogahed said
it does have several drawbacks, but is also historic.

"For the first time in Egyptian and Arab history, a country tries its
former president instead of killing him or instead of him running away.
This is an honor for every Egyptian," she said.

Mogahed cited the example of Saddam Hussein, who was tried while Iraq
was under American occupation, comparing that to Mubarak's trial in a
liberated Egypt.

"This is the highest degree of justice and civilization," she said.

Mogahed added that the entire world was proud of Egyptians during the
revolution and that everyone is now watching.

"We have to believe that our success is not only important for
Egyptians, but also for the entire region. The trial sets a model for
dealing with an ousted president according to the law."

When asked if she was requested by Omar Abdul Rahman's family to mediate
with the Obama administration to gain the release of the blind sheikh,
who was arrested on terrorism charges, Mogahed replied that she was
indeed approached.

"After a lecture I gave in Cairo someone gave me a letter about this
case, but naturally I cannot interfere in such a thing," she said.

According to Mogahed, any stance the United States takes on Egypt will
be a reaction, rather than an action.

"Egypt's future is in the hands of Egyptians and no one else; the
Americans or anybody else can control it. Many countries will try to
play a role in Egypt, but only Egyptians will determine their fate."

Mogahed said she would like to address the people who are skeptical
about the revolution and ask them what the case would have been had the
revolution happened in another country.

"For example, in the Indonesian revolution, people took their money out
of the country, banks deteriorated, and the economy collapsed. This did
not happen in Egypt. On the contrary, Egyptians are trying to boost

Mogahed also cited the example of Britain and the theft and vandalism
that took place during the riots, even though the government is stable
and the security situation is much better than in Egypt.

Egypt, she added, could have also fallen prey to terrorism because of
the security vacuum, but this did not happen.

As for the performance of the transitional government, Mogahed said she
believed it is not bad under the circumstances.

"We all know that we're going through a tough time, but compared to
other cases the revolution is relatively successful. Things will get
better because Egypt is a civilization that dates back to thousands of

Emre Dogru
Cell: +90.532.465.7514
Fixed: +1.512.279.9468