Arab Spring, Round 2

[Viking]

Egypt is fucked.

That's been true ever since Ramesses III was assassinated, though.

The Harem Conspiracy, the beginning of the end. One wonders where those  got the plot from the garden of end story from.

[Savonarola]

Worse than Hifter 

Armed group attacks Libyan parliament
Government insists it is in control after attack on parliament by forces loyal to a renegade general.

Libya's government has insisted it is still in control of the worsening security situation, even as an al-Qaeda-inspired group vowed to fight troops loyal to a renegade general behind an attack on the country's parliament.

Gunmen launched an attack on the parliament in the capital Tripoli on Sunday and demanded its suspension and an airport in the Eastern city of Benghazi came under rocket attack early on Monday.

Later on Monday the al-Qaeda-inspired Lions of Monotheism Group said it would fight forces apparently loyal to a renegade Libyan general, Khalifa Hifter, after they attacked parliament and suspended its activities.

The Associated Press news agency reported that Libya's army chief had ordered the deployment of the group, compounding the issue voiced by Hifter of unofficial armed groups being used by the government to enforce laws.

Hifter is a one-time rebel commander who said the US backed his efforts to topple Muammar Gaddafi in the 1990s. He says his group is taking on some of Libya's most hardline groups, and blames the government for not doing more to tackle them.

Hours before the parliamentary suspension, members of an armed group backed by truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns, mortars and rocket fire attacked parliament, sending politicians fleeing for their lives as gunmen ransacked the legislature, the Associated Press news agency reported.

MPs were evacuated from the building in southern Tripoli as heavy gunfire erupted after a convoy of armoured vehicles entered the city from the airport road and headed for the GNC.

The attack reportedly killed two people and wounded more than 50.

Witness joins a group of Libyan rebel fighters defending the frontline in MisrataEarly on Monday, the violence escalated as unknown attackers fired rockets at Benina airport in Libya's second-largest city of Benghazi. Authorities had closed the airport on Friday for security reasons.

Libya has been struggling with chaos as its government, parliament and nascent armed forces are unable to impose their authority over brigades of former rebels and militias who helped oust Gaddafi in 2011 but now defy the state.

Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that it was closing its embassy and consulate in Tripoli and withdrawing all of its diplomatic staff, citing security concerns, the state news agency SPA reported.

General Mokhtar Farnana, speaking on a Libyan television channel on behalf of Hifter's group, said it had assigned a 60-member constituents assembly to take over for parliament.

Farnana said Libya's current government would act on as an emergency Cabinet, without elaborating.

Farnana, who is in charge of prisons operated by the military police, said forces loyal to Hifter carried out Sunday's attack on parliament.

He also said the attack on parliament was not a coup, but "fighting by the people's choice".

"We announce to the world that the country can't be a breeding ground or an incubator for terrorism," said Farnana, who wore a military uniform and was seated in front of Libya's flag.

Early on Monday morning, Libya's interim government condemned the attack on parliament and largely ignored the declaration by the general's group.

"The government condemns the expression of political opinion through the use of armed force," Salah al-Marghani, the justice minister, said in a statement.

"It calls for an immediate end of the use [of] the military arsenal... and calls on all sides to resort to dialogue and reconciliation."

'Extremists'

The attack came after an assault on Friday by Hifter's forces on hard-line religious armed groups in the restive eastern city of Benghazi that authorities said killed 70 people.

On Sunday, gunmen targeted Islamist politicians and officials Hifter blames for allowing "extremists" to hold the country at ransom, his spokesman Mohammed al-Hegazi told Libyan television station al-Ahrar.

Officials believe members of the al-Qaaqaa and Sawaaq militias, the largest in the capital, backed Hifter even though they operate under a government mandate. Al-Qaaqaa posted a statement on its official Facebook page saying it attacked parliament with Sawaaq because politicians supported "terrorism".

Parliamentary head Nouri Abu Sahmein earlier told Libyan television station al-Nabaa that parliament would convene on Tuesday.

The part about Al-Qaeda coming to the rescue of the legitimate government reminded me of the ending of "Birth of a Nation" where the Klan restores order to the south.

[KRonn]

Libya was probably better off with Qaddafi in control. He was mostly secular, had given up his WMDs and appeared to be more willing to work with the West, and  also in opposing the radical groups.  Now the place is a mess, no strong government and there doesn't seem to be a good end game. I don't know how much help the Libyan govt. is getting from other nations, the UN, etc. but they seem pretty weak right now and the radicals are gaining strength.

[jimmy olsen]

That is anemic turnout. I'm a bit surprised, even if the election is rigged, an authoritarian regime like this can at least usually get people to polls.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/egypts-military-ruler-suffers-an-embarrassment-at-the-polls/2014/05/28/770e52c8-e68e-11e3-a86b-362fd5443d19_story.html

Egypt's military ruler suffers an embarrassment at the polls

Editorial Board, Thursday, May 29, 8:07 AM
EGYPT'S PRESIDENTIAL election has turned out to be considerably more revealing of national sentiment than might have been expected. Despite increasingly desperate measures by authorities, including the extension of polling from two days to three and threats to fine anyone who didn't cast a ballot, turnout was disastrously low. While an official newspaper reported a figure of 37 percent Wednesday, other sources, including the sole opposition candidate, said it was closer to 15 percent. The relentless propaganda by the regime of Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, which claimed he enjoyed overwhelming support from an adoring population, was proved false.

That may surprise Western supporters of Gen. Sissi, including many in the Obama administration, who have bought into the former general's claim that he can restore stability to Egypt. On Wednesday Mr. Obama said at West Point that the United States had not cut off cooperation with the military regime because of "security interests" such as the peace treaty with Israel and "shared efforts against violent extremism." The election is one more sign that Gen. Sissi lacks the means or the mandate to deliver on those interests.

That the low turnout reflected more than apathy or hot weather was confirmed by a recent survey in Egypt conducted by the Pew Research Center. It showed that 72 percent of Egyptians were dissatisfied with the direction of the country and that Gen. Sissi was viewed favorably by only 54 percent, compared with 45 percent who rated him unfavorably. Despite massive repression, the arrest of thousands of its members and a vicious media campaign, almost 40 percent still were willing to tell Pew's pollsters they have a positive view of the Muslim Brotherhood and former president Mohamed Morsi.

Gen. Sissi will no doubt take office in spite of the failed election, but his strategy of eliminating the Muslim Brotherhood with repression clearly has no chance of success. If he persists he will drive supporters of the group into the arms of more militant organizations, making terrorism worse.

Meanwhile, interviews Gen. Sissi has been giving suggest his notions for managing the crippled economy range from anachronistic to delusional. As David D. Kirkpatrick of the New York Times reported, his rhetoric echoes the failed state socialism of former military ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser, while his solution to Egypt's energy shortage is to supply every home with power-saving light bulbs.

Mr. Obama may hope that Gen. Sissi will resemble former president Hosni Mubarak, who governed Egypt under a light autocracy for 30 years. But the chances of that are small. It is more likely that a crumbling economy and smoldering opposition to the coup that brought Gen. Sissi to power will propel Egypt toward increasing disorder, if not another revolution. If the Obama administration ignores warning signs like this week's election flop, sooner or later it will find itself hanging onto another weak and despised Arab dictator — and calculating the damage to Mr. Obama's "security interests."

[Valmy]

That is anemic turnout.

LOL if 37% of Texans turned up for most of our elections I think there might be a parade.  Under 10% turnout is not unusual.

[DGuller]

Did al Sisi win?

[jimmy olsen]

A quick glance show's Texas was 4th lowest in 2012, but they still had a turnout rate of 49.7%

http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2012G.html

[Valmy]

Yeah that is a Presidential election.  I am talking about every other election: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/29/runoff-draws-lower-turnout-march-primary/

LOL 950,000 out of 13.6 million voters voted.  Granted usually turnout is about 15% in a state election and not 7% but this was a runoff. 

Just 145,000 people selected one of our finalists for a US Senate election.  In a state of 25 million.  Nobody gives a fuck about politics in Texas, it is hilarious.

[Valmy]

In local politics it gets really sad.  Your city is about to borrow 10 billion dollars for some useless piece of crap?  Prepare yourself for 5% turnout and the stupid thing passing by a margin of about 40%.  Then everybody bitches their property taxes mysteriously went up.

[CountDeMoney]

Nobody gives a fuck about politics in Texas, it is hilarious.

I really wish politicians in Texas felt that way, and stopped trying to get into the fucking White House.  #dubyadestroyseconomypaintsfeetafterwards

[jimmy olsen]

Yeah that is a Presidential election.  I am talking about every other election: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/29/runoff-draws-lower-turnout-march-primary/

And the election in Egypt was a presidential election, making it an appropriate comparison.

Also, 37% was the doctored number, the article said the actual number was more like 15%.

[Valmy]

And the election in Egypt was a presidential election, making it an appropriate comparison.

Not really.  The Egyptian vote is a rigged dog and pony show.  The Texas ones are very real and have important impacts on our lives.

However I was just making a statement about your description of 37% as anemic and I was wistfully thinking how grand it would be to get 37% turnout here.

[Admiral Yi]

How many of you would be inclined to trudge to the polls for an election where one of two candidates was expected to win 97% of the vote?

[DGuller]

How many of you would be inclined to trudge to the polls for an election where one of two candidates was expected to win 97% of the vote?

With that kind of defeatist attitude, of course the candidate you don't like will win 97% of the vote.

[CountDeMoney]

How many of you would be inclined to trudge to the polls for an election where one of two candidates was expected to win 97% of the vote?

Too many people have died--and die every day in other countries for just dreaming about voting--for me not to spend the 20 minutes every 2 years to cast my vote: even for the usual sure-thing results in the People's Republic of Maryland. 

Least I can do for the Maryland volunteers that bought Washington time with their lives at Brooklyn Heights, or the 29th at Omaha.