NYT's readers DERIDE : White House, Egypt Discuss Plan for Mubarak’s Exit

[chimpymustgo]

By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
Published: February 3, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military, administration officials and Arab diplomats said Thursday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/world/middleeast/04diplomacy.html?_r=1

**************

A sampling of Readers' Comments posted on the website. They are not buying it. I added bold:

5.
Martha Shelley
Portland, Ore.
February 4th, 2011
12:47 am
So the Obama administration is prepared to sacrifice Mubarak, as long as his regime remains intact. The Egyptians will get another fraudulent election and another dictator. The IMF will come in with loans and a demand for "structural adjustment," meaning that the poor will get even poorer. $1.3 billion in aid will continue, meaning that American taxpayers will shell out so that our money can be routed through Egypt to U.S. military contractors and to the new dictator's Swiss bank account. I hope with all my heart that the Egyptian public refuses to accept this swindle.

6.
joe
NY
February 4th, 2011
12:47 am
Come on, President Obama, show some guts. Some principle, for once in your life. Suleiman was hand-picked by Mubarak, a close friend. He's the intelligence chief. He will protect Mubarak and the multiple millions he has stolen from the Egyptian people. He was instrumental in allowing Bush to set up secret prisons in Egypt where detainees were tortured. This is the worst possible choice in every way. From your own article, when Mubarak chose him for V.P., I quote:
"But the former general is also the establishment’s candidate, not the public’s. Mr. Suleiman's elevation to the presidency, if it were to occur, would represent not the democratic change called for on the street, but most likely a continuation of the kind of military-backed, authoritarian leadership that Mr. Mubarak has led for nearly 30 years, experts said."
My Arab friends are outraged by this deal. The Egyptian people will be, as well. So should we all be.

38.HIGHLIGHT (what's this?)
yoandel
Boston, MA
February 4th, 2011
1:31 am
Somewhere in the rush of the moment, it seems that the White House lost its mind. If Mr. Obama expects that the Egyptian Street will believe for a single second that Omar Suleiman, the individual in charge of the Security Apparatus for many years of Mubarak's regime, can serve as a bridge to change, then he will be hugely disappointed.

Mr. Suleiman has been *the* instrument of repression, and to believe that he had no part in the thuggery against civilians and reporters alike in the last 48 hours, is well, unbelievable.

-edit-


35.
JP
SF
February 4th, 2011
1:19 am
Suleiman was a known participant in the CIA's secret rendition and torture program.

Surely the US can identify a potential successor that isn't a torturer.

55.
MGN
Houston
February 4th, 2011
1:31 am
At last the Obama Administration, has found a way out of the Egyptian quagmire! Egypt's hated Dictator, our man Mubarak, will be replaced with his nail- puller in chief, er, Head of Intelligence Omar Suleiman, himself not an elected official but appointed by the Dictator, who will then "begin a process of reform", no doubt in close consultation with his CIA, Pentagon and Mossad friends.

This course of action will reassure our other "moderate" allies in the region and if the Egyptian people feel a little cheated, Mr. Suleiman's military and intelligence friends can take care of that problem. After all they have had plenty of practice doing just that during all the years they have been honing their skills in our training centers and with our approval and financial support.

-edit-

41.
B. Mull
Orange County, CA
February 4th, 2011
1:31 am
is a total sell-out, but I have no doubt it's true given the similarity to previous Obama "compromises." Did the people of Egypt risk their lives to trade one strongman for another who is worse? As the head of Egypt's intelligence services he tortured political opponents and collaborated with the U.S. in extraordinary rendition. There is absolutely no reason to believe Omar Suleiman will follow through with free and fair elections.


42.
69lick
los angeles
February 4th, 2011
1:31 am
So we (the US) are open to replacing Mubarak with a transition team consisting of the chief of the Egyptian army, the Defense minister and the head of Egyptian intelligence (who by the way is , according to the Times, well connected in Washington and Tel Aviv). What could possibly be more revealing about the true US interest in Egypt. Democracy be darned. The Egyptian people be darned. Just make sure that Israel is secure with one less potential Arab enemy.



56.
The Other Ed
New York, NY
February 4th, 2011
2:03 am
President George W. Bush has balked at leaving, but talks are continuing with US officials about a plan in which Vice President Dick Cheney would begin a process of reform, officials said.

[AnOhioan]

1. Agreed...a US brokered deal that leaves Suleiman in charge...

is no deal at all for the Egyptian people.

[chimpymustgo]

2. And they have already made clear "the torturer" is not acceptable.

Mubarak’s Top Spy Rejected by Cairo Streets as Masses March
February 01, 2011, 1:27 PM EST

By Gregory Viscusi and Thomas Penny
Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Omar Suleiman, the military careerist singled out by President Hosni Mubarak to save his regime, lacks the support where he now needs it most: the streets of Cairo.

“The Egyptians don’t want Mubarak and they don’t want Suleiman,” said Chayma Hassabo, a researcher on Arab political movements at Cedej, a Cairo-based research center. “They want the whole system to change.”

Suleiman, 74, has run Egypt’s intelligence service since 1993, compromising his ability to deal with the protestors massing in Egypt’s cities as an honest broker. Suleiman said yesterday that Mubarak has instructed him to start a dialogue with the protesters, who have defied curfews for the past week to demand an end to the president’s 30-year rule.

“We want the whole regime to change, starting from Hosni Mubarak,” Ramzi Mohamed Helwan, a 19-year-old student said during today’s protests in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. “We don’t accept Omar Suleiman or anyone else.”

Helwan was one of the hundreds of thousands of people crowding Egypt’s thoroughfares today demanding Mubarak’s departure. On the morning after Suleiman’s appointment as vice president on Jan. 29, signs popped up on Tahrir Square reading: “Mubarak and Suleiman: Get Out.”

Former United Nations nuclear official Mohamed ElBaradei has been nominated by the Muslim brotherhood and some secular opposition groups to negotiate with the regime.

-edit-

more at:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-01/mubarak-s-top-spy-rejected-by-cairo-streets-as-masses-march.html

[mix]

3. Ours is an ethically weak and anti-democratic president abroad.

The pro-democracy protesters are fighting as much against the Mubarak regime as they are against the continuance of US policy in the ME.

The Obama administration, like its predecessors, will do whatever possible to retain the status quo, even if it means supporting torturers and oligarchs.

[chimpymustgo]

4. Rude awakening for a lot of people. But hey, our "interests" come first.

[mix]

5. This is spinning out of control for the administration.

There is little or no trust for the US among the opposition movements rattling their dictatorships in Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt. Their citizens know the bullets come from Washington and, as you say, American "interests" are more important than human rights and democracy.

And Obama doesn't have a strategy to deal with this unraveling except to cling to the democracy hating old guard, ie Omar Sulieman and the military; a pattern that will repeat itself everywhere there is revolt.

[chimpymustgo]

7. Obama looks weak, undecided, and like he's not calling the shots.

[mix]

8. This would have happened to any president, the situation is unprecedented. nt

[chimpymustgo]

9. World and domestic events can't always be anticipated (though this should have been). Our president

is elected to HANDLE shit.

You know - the 3 am phone call.

[okieinpain]

6. that comment page looks like du. n/t.

[tahrir]

10. There is no way we would support anything less than the current establishment

however, the egyptian people still have a say in all this, which may trump the best laid plans of TPTB.

not to mention Israel.