Mubarak’s family flees to London with 35 Billion Pounds. US plans Post-Hosni era
Posted on 31 January 2011.
The panic-stricken family of President Mubarak has reportedly fled Egypt for the luxurious refuge of their £8.5 million London townhouse.
There are reports in the mainstream US media that the Obama Administration is preparing for an Egypt without US protégé Mr. Hosni Mubarak. The White today faces the same dilemma as it faced in Iran in 1979 and in Pakistan in 2008. How does it throw dictators to the wolves when they have worked with the US for years. The US is using the old play-book, egg on the dictator to open up and reform. Obviously, “reform” at this stage leads to a further weakening of the dictatorship ultimately rending him impotent. The scenario has been played out many times where the dictator is left seeking political asylum in the UK and the US–with the US facing the ugly situation of having to refuse entry to the dictator.
The LA Times says “It’s a very difficult balance to be struck. Mubarak is, after all, a friend of the United States for the last 30 years,” he said. “A lot of our allies in the region — the Saudis, Jordanians and Kuwaitis — will be particularly nervous if it looks like the U.S. is doing in one of their friends. The administration understand this.
It may be too late to save Mubarak. The Sun from the UK reports that “The panic-stricken family of President Mubarak has reportedly fled Egypt for the luxurious refuge of their £8.5 million London townhouse.
The leader’s son Gamal, 47, is said to have spearheaded the move, flying to Britain on a private jet with his own family and NINETY-SEVEN pieces of luggage. He owns the six-floor Georgian mansion a stone’s throw from Harrods in Knightsbridge, West London.
But according to rumours sweeping Britain’s Egyptian community, the President, 82, and wife Suzanne, 69, are also planning to head to the ritzy five-bed haven….Egyptian baggage handlers at Heathrow are even said to have already spotted the First Lady arriving at the airport.
Mubarak is said to have amassed a £25 billion fortune for his family since grabbing power in 1981.”
The chickens have come home to roost, the Obama Administration is now facing the wrath of the Egyptian people. Any further support of Mubarak will lead to further alienation of what the State Department used to derisively refer to the as the “Arab Street”. Today the “Arab Street” is angry and not willing to tolerate a US imposed henchman.
As in Iran, the US now wants someone like Mohamed ElBarade or Solaimon to take over. This will probably not work in Cairo–where the Ikhwan Ul Muslimeen is ready to fill the vacuum.
This “managed change” will not satisfy the Egyptians who have eked out a living under the brutality of Mubarak.
The LA Times says that “They don’t want to push Mubarak over the cliff, but they understand that the Mubarak era is over and that the only way Mubarak could be saved now is by a ruthless suppression of the population, which would probably set the stage for a much more radical revolution down the road..”
“They recognized that change was coming and they needed to be on the right side of history and not trying to keep Mubarak in power against all odds.”
President Obama’s famous speech in 2009 in Cairo proclaimed that governments must reflect “the will of the people.” He is hard-pressed now to throw his support behind a brutal ruler at the expense of a young population clamoring for democratic and human rights.
“But the most important thing they understand is that they have to get in front of this and not behind it.”
President Obama on Saturday spoke to a jittery Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and worried King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and listened to the sane advice given by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They key is –how does the US put in play “an orderly transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people,”. This is not an easy nut to crack, despite what the White House wishes.
The Haaretz from Israel reports that “Israel called on the United States and a number of European countries over the weekend to curb their criticism of President Hosni Mubarak to preserve stability in the region.
Jerusalem seeks to convince its allies that it is in the West’s interest to maintain the stability of the Egyptian regime. The diplomatic measures came after statements in Western capitals implying that the United States and European Union supported Mubarak’s ouster”.
The Akhwan Ul Muslimeen (AUM) has promised to rip the peace treaty with Isreal and current statements from the leadership clearly warns the governments in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
“The American government cannot ask the Egyptian people to believe that a dictator who has been in power for 30 years would be the one to implement democracy,” Mohamed ElBaradei talking to “Face the Nation.”
The US is propping up Mohamed ElBaradei as a viable option to Mubarak–but it wont fly.