Mubarak Faces Corruption Probe Of Years Of Selling Gas To Israel At Sub-Market Rates
Business Insider- Gus Lubin
March 4, 2011 – 9:19 AM
Hosni Mubarak and his former oil minister are being investigated for exporting artificially cheap gas to Israel and six European countries, according to Al Masr Al Youm.
Egypt’s new authorities say these deals cost the country $170 million over the past five years. Chief prosecutor Magid Mahmud claims deals with Israel cost as much as $500 million, according to DEBKA.
Israel signed a 15-year contract worth 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2005, following up the big contract signed in 1979 after the Camp David Accords.
Gas exports from Egypt to Israel were supposed to resume this weekend, after being shut down since the pipeline was sabotaged in early February. That probably won’t happen now. This represents a big worry for Israel, which relies on Egypt for nearly all of its gas supply.
The latest developments, as confirmed by CNN, on the uprising in Egypt. Throngs of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Egypt’s major cities to demand an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, prompting the government to deploy the military to deal with civil unrest for the first time in a generation. Check out our full coverage and the latest tweets from CNN correspondents on the ground.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, ElBaradei said it’s unclear whose side the Army is on. As for Suleiman taking control of the presidency?
“Suleiman, Mubarak ‘are twins’ – neither is acceptable to the people.”
[Update 1:00 a.m. in Cairo, 6:00 p.m. ET] Parliamentary speaker Ahmed Fathi Srour tells Nile TV that President Hosni Mubarak’s move puts the authority for the day-to-day running of the government in Vice President Omar Suleiman’s hands. That would include oversight of the police, the Interior Ministry and other key agencies, control of economic policy and running any negotiations with the opposition. Srour echoed Mubarak’s statement in adding that the constitution specifically prohibits the president from delegating other key powers to the vice president. As a result, power to dismiss parliament or dismiss the government and the power to ask for amendments to the constitution remain in Mubarak’s hands, not Suleiman’s.
First Posted: 02/10/11 10:40 AM Updated: 02/10/11 11:31 AM
CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s military announced on national television that it has stepped in to “safeguard the country” on Thursday and assured protesters that President Hosni Mubarak will meet their demands in the strongest indication yet that Egypt’s longtime leader has lost power. In Washington, the CIA chief said there was a “strong likelihood” Mubarak will step down Thursday.
The dramatic announcement showed that the military was taking control after 17 days of protests demanding Mubarak’s immediate ouster spiraled out of control.
Gen. Hassan al-Roueini, military commander for the Cairo area, told thousands of protesters in central Tahrir Square, “All your demands will be met today.” Some in the crowd held up their hands in V-for-victory signs, shouting “the people want the end of the regime” and “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” a victory cry used by secular and religious people alike.
The military’s supreme council was meeting Thursday, without the commander in chief Mubarak, and announced on state TV its “support of the legitimate demands of the people.” A spokesman read a statement that the council was in permanent session to explore “what measures and arrangements could be made to safeguard the nation, its achievements and the ambitions of its great people.”
The statement was labeled “communique number 1,” a phrasing that suggests a military coup.
AP/The Huffington Post First Posted: 02/ 3/11 06:21 AM
Updated: 02/ 3/11 12:23 PM
CAIRO – Egyptian army tanks and soldiers cleared away pro-government rioters and deployed between them and protesters seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, as the prime minister made an unprecedented apology Thursday for the assault by regime backers that turned central Cairo into a battle zone.
Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told state TV that the attack Wednesday on the anti-government protesters was a “blatant mistake” and promised to investigate who was behind it.
But about the same time Shafiq was issuing an apology, another government official was denying a direct link to the violence by Mubarak supporters. As relayed by the BBC:
A cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady has insisted to Reuters that the government had no role in mobilising pro-Mubarak groups. “To accuse the government of mobilising this is a real fiction. That would defeat our object of restoring the calm.”
Also in Egypt, foreign journalists were beaten with sticks and fists by pro-government mobs on the streets Cairo on Thursday and dozens were reported detained by security forces in what the U.S. called a concerted attempt to intimidate the press.
Two New York Times reporters were detained in Cairo and later released. The Washington Post‘s Cairo bureau chief and a photographer were reportedly arrested.
The protesters accuse the regime of organizing the assault, using paid thugs and policemen in civilian clothes, in an attempt to crush their movement. Government supporters charged central Tahrir Square Wednesday afternoon, sparking 15 hours of uncontrolled chaos, with the two sides battled with rocks, sticks, bottles and firebombs as soliders largely stood by without intervening.
The military began to move with muscle for the first time to stop the fighting early Thursday after a barrage of automatic gunfire hit the anti-government camp before dawn, killing at least three protesters in a serious escalation.
Published: Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 10:34 p.m.
WASHINGTON – The officer corps of Egypt’s powerful military has been educated at defense colleges in the United States for 30 years. The Egyptian armed forces have about 1,000 American M1A1 Abrams tanks, which the United States allows to be built on Egyptian soil. Egypt permits the American military to stage major operations from its bases, and has always guaranteed the Americans passage through the Suez Canal.
The relationship between the Egyptian and American militaries is, in fact, so close that it was no surprise Friday to find two dozen senior Egyptian military officials at the Pentagon, halfway through an annual week of meetings, lunches and dinners with their American counterparts.
By the afternoon, the Egyptians had cut short the talks to return to Cairo, but not before a U.S. Defense Department official urged them to exercise “restraint,” the Pentagon said.
It remained unclear Saturday, as the Egyptian Army was deployed on the streets of Cairo for the first time in decades, to what degree the military would remain loyal to the embattled president, Hosni Mubarak.
The crisis has left the Obama administration to try to navigate a peaceful outcome and remain close to an important ally, and the military relationship could be crucial in that effort. One fear is the possibility that, despite the army’s seemingly passive stance Saturday, the Egyptian armed forces would begin firing on the protesters — an action that would probably be seen as leading to an end to the army’s legitimacy.
“If they shoot on the crowd, they could win tomorrow, and then there will be a revolt that will sweep them away,” said Bruce O. Riedel, an expert on the Middle East and Asia at the Brookings Institution, who predicts that in any event, Mubarak will step down.
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