US funded anti-Morsi protests last year: Documents

Apr 02, 2014
Source: Press TV


Newly revealed documents show senior Egyptian opposition leaders who called for the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, had the financial backing of the US.
US President Barack Obama had claimed that Washington did not take sides in the Egyptian political crisis that ousted Morsi in July last year.

According to Aljazeera TV channel, a review of dozens of US federal government documents obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley shows that Washington quietly funded opposition groups in Egypt that worked against the Morsi government.

Washington channeled the funding through a State Department program which is part of a wider effort to try to stop the retreat of pro-US secularists and defeat the Islamic movements in the Middle East.

The program was dubbed by US officials as a "democracy assistance" initiative.

The move is in contradiction to the US government regulations that ban the use of taxpayers’ money to fund foreign politicians and activists that target democratically-elected governments.

The Egyptians launched a revolution against the pro-US regime of former President Hosni Mubarak in January 2011, which eventually ended the 30-year dictatorship of Mubarak in February 2011.

In June 2012, Egyptians voted in the country's first free and fair presidential election, electing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi as their leader.

But about a year later, the Egyptian army toppled Morsi, suspended the constitution and launched a violent crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood.

On December 25, 2013, the military-appointed government listed the Brotherhood as a “terrorist” organization over alleged involvement in a deadly bombing, without investigating or providing any evidence.

In January 2014, Amnesty International criticized Egyptian authorities for using an “unprecedented scale” of violence against protesters and dealing “a series of damaging blows to human rights.”

According to the UK-based rights group, at least 1,400 people have been killed in the political violence since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013, "most of them due to excessive force used by security forces."

GJH/GJH

Link:  presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/30/356515/us-sponsored-coup-against-morsi-report/.

Osama Morsi: Coup Commanders, Collaborators Share Power-Grab

March 27,2014
Source: IkhwanWeb

Osama Morsi, the son of elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, said: "Now, it turns out the coup against Egypt's legitimate President Morsi had nothing to do with the country's stability or preventing a rupture in society (both crises are much worse now than ever before). The treasonous coup was obviously executed to satisfy the greed of a traitor – who betrayed his solemn oath to the President and the nation – and his comrades and their lust for power, over the dead bodies of many innocent Egyptians and through the arbitrary arrest of thousands of innocent citizens and suppression, even grizzly murder, of women, girls and young people.


"Now, that the picture is sharper in focus, it is clear that the leaders of a full-fledged military coup d'etat against the democratic process are sharing power amongst themselves. But Egypt is greater than those treasonous putschists, their heinous coup and their lust for power. The will of the Egyptian people will triumph over the junta, using all peaceful forms of defiance and resistance."


Osama added: "The Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will remain steadfast, resilient, true to the covenant he made to the people, committed to the democratic process, rejecting this murderous military coup and all its processes, procedures and actions. He will not rest until the coup leaders – and all those who shed blood of Egyptians – are brought to justice, and until Egypt's freedom and democracy are restored".

Link:  http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=31616.

Morsi tells Sisi: You shall be brought to account and severely punished

22 February 2014
Source: Middle East Monitor

President Mohammed Morsi was today permitted to make a statement from within the detention cage inside the court, which is presided over by Judge Sha'ban Al-Shami, the head of Cairo criminal court - which is looking into the case of the storming of Wadi Al-Natroon Prison. He said: "Abdul fattah Al-Sisi, who presides over the military coup d'etat that took place in the country will be called to account before God and will also be tried before the entire people who will show in mercy to him. He will be punished several for what he did to the country. He mobiles the military, the army, inside the country without permission from the supreme commander of the armed forces. This is considered an abhorrent crime committed against this people."

The president sent his greetings to the Egyptian people saying: "My greetings to the entire people. I would like to say to you continue your peaceful demonstrations. I am with you. We shall prevail despite the conspirators who are allied with the Zionists." This is what the Middle News Agency reported.

Link: 
 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/9915-morsi-tells-sisi-you-shall-be-brought-to-account-and-severely-punished.

Egypt's Morsi sees spying trial adjourned after stormy start

February 16, 2014
By Haitham El-Tabei
AFP
Source: Yahoo News

Cairo (AFP) - Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi claimed he was being muzzled in a soundproof dock at the start of his trial on espionage charges Sunday, as his defence lawyers staged a protest walk-out.

The court adjourned the trial, the third for the Islamist since his July 3 ouster, to February 23 to allow the lawyers' syndicate to appoint new lawyers.

Morsi, who has shouted that he was Egypt's legitimate and elected president in hearings of other trials against him, said the court was trying to silence him.

"We are in a farce, all this because you are afraid of me. You are afraid that the president speaks," Morsi cried out.

"If this farce continues, don't come to the court," Morsi told his defence.

Mohamed Selim al-Awa, a member of the defence team, told AFP: "We have withdrawn until the court removes the glass cage, we will not get in the room today."

The soundproof dock is designed to stop Morsi and the other defendants from interrupting the proceedings with outbursts. On Sunday, 20 defendants were brought to court, including Morsi, who was placed in a separate dock with a former aide, and the Brotherhood's supreme guide Mohamed Badie and his deputy Khairat al-Shater.

The accused include former presidential aides and renowned political scientist Emad Shahin, who is being tried in absentia.

The latest court case is part of a relentless government crackdown targeting Morsi and his Islamist supporters since he was ousted by the military after a single year in power.

Morsi and 35 others, including leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, are accused of espionage "for the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood, its military wing and (Palestinian) Hamas movement."

If found guilty, the defendants could face the death penalty.

Morsi, who was Egypt's first democratically elected and civilian president, is already on trial for alleged involvement in the killing of opposition protesters in December 2012.

Along with 130 others, including dozens of members of Hamas and Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah, he is separately being tried on charges linked to a jailbreak during the 2011 uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak.

The ousted leader also faces trial for "insulting the judiciary". A date for that has yet to be set.

In the espionage trial, the prosecution aims to implicate Morsi in a vast conspiracy involving foreign powers, militant groups and Iran to destabilise Egypt.

The defendants are accused of "espionage for foreign organisations abroad to commit terrorist attacks in the country", a prosecution statement said.

Some defendants, including Essam Haddad, Morsi's second in command when president, also stand accused of betraying state secrets to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

During Morsi's short-lived presidency, ties flourished between Cairo and Hamas, a Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood which rules neighbouring Gaza.

But since July, Egypt's military-installed government has accused Hamas of backing Morsi and his Brotherhood and carrying out terrorist attacks inside Egypt.

The army has destroyed several hundred tunnels used to smuggle crucial supplies, including fuel, into the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

Since Morsi's ouster, his supporters have faced a relentless crackdown by Egypt's government that has left more than 1,400 people dead, according to Amnesty International, and seen thousands more arrested.

 

Most Egyptians favour Morsi return as president

01 December 2013
Source: Middle East Monitor (MEMO)

A poll conducted in Egypt suggests that 68 per cent of a random sample of the population is in favour of the return to office of the deposed President Mohamed Morsi. The percentage of those supporting his ousting has fallen to 18, while 12 per cent support neither Morsi nor the coup.
Conducted by the Egyptian Centre for Media Studies and Public Opinion (Integration Egypt), the poll revealed that the total number of people who took part in anti-Morsi events was less than 5.5 million. Pro-Morsi demonstrations attracted 26 million Egyptians in the same period, it is claimed.
The director of the centre, Mustafa Khodri, said that the study called into serious doubt the Egyptian media’s claim that the number of people participating in protests supporting the isolation of President Morsi topped 33 million. He also pointed out that the study was conducted by means of a field analysis and the level of confidence in the results is 95 per cent.
The poll showed a degree of relative stability in the number of those supporting Morsi’s legitimacy, with a sharp decline in those supporting his isolation. “There has been a 28 per cent reduction in the number of those supporting the isolation since last August,” added Khodri.

Link: www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/8602-most-egyptians-favour-morsi-return-as-president.

Egypt: Morsy’s Ex-Aides Forcibly Disappeared

December 1, 2013
Source: Human Rights Watch

150 Days Later, Whereabouts Unknown 

 

(New York) – The Egyptian military has detained five members of former president Mohamed Morsy’s administration at an undisclosed location without judicial process and with very little outside contact since July 3, 2013. Almost five months later, the government has yet to formally acknowledge their detention or disclose their fate or whereabouts, conditions that constitute enforced disappearance. 

The government has been carrying out a systematic crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood. The police have rounded up thousands of the organization’s leaders, members, and perceived sympathizers. Human Rights Watch has documented significant evidence of arbitrary arrests, selective targeting of activities and individuals based solely on their political objectives, and serious due process violations. 

“What kind of roadmap is this where a military-backed government can brazenly disappear former presidential aides for 150 days without any explanation?” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “Forcibly disappearing people for months on end doesn’t inspire confidence that this government intends to follow the rule of law.”  

On the day it removed Morsy from power, July 3, 2013, the Egyptian military forcibly detained him and nine high-ranking members of his administration:

 

·         Ahmed Abdelaty, office director

·         Essam al-Haddad, foreign relations assistant

·         Ayman Ali, expatriate affairs assistant

·         Abdelmeguid al-Meshaly, media adviser

·         Khaled al-Qazzaz, foreign relations secretary

·         Ayman al-Serafy, secretary to the office director

·         Mohammad Rifaa al-Tahtawy, chief of staff

·         Assad El-Sheikha, deputy chief of staff

·         Ayman Hudhod, security adviser

 Family members of six detained aides who spoke to Human Rights Watch said that they lost contact with their loved ones around the time Defense Minister Abdul Fatah Sisi announced the government’s ouster on July 3. The military initially held the presidential aides incommunicado, with the exception of al-Qazzaz, who placed several short calls to his family during the first 10 days after their disappearance, assuring his family that the aides were safe and would be home soon.

In the days after July 3, the government refused to acknowledge that it was holding the former aides or to confirm their whereabouts, putting them outside the protection of the law. On July 10, Badr Abdellatty, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, told Agence France Presse that, although Morsy had not been “charged with anything up until now,” he “is in a safe place, for his safety, and he is being treated with dignity.” 

Ahmed El-Muslimani, spokesman for the interim president, Adly Mansour, announced on July 16 that Morsy is “in a safe place and is treated in a matter appropriate for a former president.” Neither statement, though, provided details of where Morsy was detained, nor made mention of the nine other members of his administration. It is widely presumed that the military initially held the group in the Republican Guard Headquarters.   

The military failed to bring any member of the group in front of a prosecutor within 24 hours, as Egyptian law requires, the relatives of the six detained aides interviewed by Human Rights Watch said. Based on conversations with their husbands, the wives of two detained aides said that the military separated Morsy, al-Tahtawy, and El-Sheikha from the remainder of the group several days after their initial disappearance. 

Prosecutors on July 26 formally ordered Morsy imprisoned pending investigation on a range of charges and on August 4 brought charges against al-Tahtawy and El-Sheikha, ordering their pretrial detention for 15 days pending investigation. Their location, though, remained secret. Security officials eventually transferred El-Sheikha to Tora Prison, where he is currently held. No official statement has been made about where al-Tahtawy, who previously served as Egypt’s ambassador to Libya and Iran, is being held, although a relative told Human Rights Watch that authorities held him with Morsy at an unknown location until Morsy’s preliminary court appearance on November 4, at which point they transferred both to Borg al-Arab Prison.

Prosecutors on August 6 ordered Abdelaty and Hudhod to be detained pending investigation. On that date, security officials moved both from the secret location where they had been held for over 30 days to Tora Prison, Abdelaty’s wife, Mona al-Masri, told Human Rights Watch. El-Sheikha, Hudhod, and Abdelaty appeared in court on November 4 as co-defendants along with Morsy on charges related to the clashes outside the Ettihadiya presidential palace in December 2012. 

The five other aides – al-Haddad, Ali, al-Meshaly, al-Qazzaz, and al-Serafy – remain detained without any legal basis at an undisclosed location. On July 19, al-Qazzaz called his wife, Sarah Attia, and requested that each family deliver white clothes, the uniform for prisoners in Egypt, to a particular secure facility, where an army general would receive the clothes and deliver them to the detained aides, six relatives told Human Rights Watch. The families have since periodically delivered clothing and other items and picked up laundry in this manner. 

The families of the other four aides each had a phone call about a minute long on speakerphone from their loved ones about a month after their disappearance. The aides have had limited family contact since, though they remain unable to speak with a lawyer or have any other outside contact.

Attia, al-Qazzaz’s wife, told Human Rights Watch that she learned, based on her limited communication with her husband, that the military has held the aides together in a single room,  allowing them outside for only one hour a day and denying them access to phones or the Internet. Relatives expressed particular concern about Ali and al-Haddad, who they said have chronic health conditions that require regular access to medication and doctors. 

Several relatives of the disappeared detainees told Human Rights Watch that they feared the government was detaining their relatives to use as leverage for future negotiations with the Muslim Brotherhood. A relative of al-Tahtawy said he fears the authorities will continue to hold al-Tahtawy until a new president is elected. Mona al-Qazzaz, al-Qazzaz’s sister, said she believed her brother was being “kept in the fridge” for use by the government as a negotiating lever with the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Haddad’s son Abdullah said he has similar anxieties about his father, given that he had a close relationship with Morsy. 

All of the relatives interviewed said they felt intimidated when it came to speaking out about their family members. The al-Haddads and al-Qazzazes, in particular, said that a number of their family members have been detained. Security forces in September arrested al-Haddad’s son Gehad, who became the spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood after June 30. Al-Qazzaz’s father, Adly, was arrested in October. Three families told Human Rights Watch that security forces have raided their homes. 

Link: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/12/01/egypt-morsy-s-ex-aides-forcibly-disappeared.

President Morsi Rejects Second Prosecution Investigation; No Compromise on Legitimacy

 President Morsi Rejects Second Prosecution Investigation; No Compromise on Legitimacy

November 10,2013
Source: Ikhwanweb

 First, there was the farcical investigation into a charge against President Morsi for allegedly inciting supporters to kill demonstrators outside his Itehadia Palace; now a ludicrous investigation into an implausible charge of escaping a prison where he had been detained for a couple of weeks.

Dr. Mohamed Morsi, the legitimate President of Egypt, refused Saturday to recognize or cooperate with the first investigation by the Egyptian prosecutor in Burg Al-Arab prison – where he is being illegally detained – on false and clearly politicized charges of escaping from the Wadi Natrun prison at the beginning of the January 25 (2011) Revolution.


President Morsi affirmed that the whole process was unconstitutional, in fact a vindictive assault on the Constitution and the law, refusing to sign the records of the one-hour long interrogation session.


Overall, this is the second attempted investigation. The first was into the Itehadia Presidential Palace clashes.

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=31410

Morsi tells judge 'I am president'

Morsi tells judge 'I am president'

Why the Egyptian junta's PR blitz in the west is failing

Why the Egyptian junta's PR blitz in the west is failing

President Morsi Family Message: Coup Failing Despite Traitorous Junta Scorched-Earth Approach

October 14,2013
Source: Ikhwanweb

The family of President Mohamed Morsi offers sincere congratulations to all Egyptians on the special occasion of Eid Al-Adha, stressing that the coup is falling apart and will soon come to a crashing defeat.

In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Gracious

An open letter to all honorable, patriotic people

“Lose not heart, nor fall into despair; for you are the ultimate victors, if you are true in faith” (Quran 3:139).

A very special salute and greetings from us and from the legitimate President of Egypt, who has been abducted by those who betrayed the people and repressed freedoms, on the occasion of a glorious Eid that comes to Egyptians as they stand steadfast like mighty mountains in the face of the failed military coup’s suppression, which is certainly coming to an inevitable defeat, with the will of the people and the power and Grace of God.

Greetings from the legitimate President of Egypt who would certainly not miss the opportunity to go out to congratulate Egyptians, all Egyptians, and renew his pledge to his great people who bear witness to the crimes committed by the traitorous junta against democracy, freedom and the economy.

Although coup commanders and collaborators think they can reinstate the repressive dictatorial Mubarak regime, their plots are falling apart like the frailest of all houses – the spider's web (as described by God in Quran 29:41), and the will of the people will prevail.

Special greetings from the legitimate President of Egypt to each and every grieving family, under the dark shadow of this treasonous coup – to every family who lost a breadwinner, a son or a daughter now missed either because they were killed, injured, detained or are missing due to the ferocious fascists’ insatiable appetite for death and destruction and the coup that will certainly end soon.

We truly believe that your collective will and your peaceful protest actions are the most effective and the most powerful, with the will of Almighty God, to defeat this vain fascist coup.

Every day, people of conscience discover the falsity and the evil of the bloody coup and its heinous plots against Egypt, its people and its democratic transformation. The junta’s acting, pretense and false promises no longer deceive the people, who stand steadfast against the coup and its brutal practices.

The President, too, stands steadfast to the last breath. He will not back down on the fair demands of reinstating constitutional and democratic legitimacy. He will not be defeated by illegitimate abduction and detention or by invalid farcical trials that blatantly violate the Constitution and the law.

Furthermore, the President will not back down from the demand to return to the democratic process, even if his souls is the price for returning to the path of democratic transition chosen by the people as they regained their freedoms – sacrificing in the process many honorable martyrs and much precious blood.

The people will not lay to waste those great sacrifices by cowering or compromising, not with all the martyrs they miss and the wounded, detainees and the loved ones who have disappeared.

No-one can break the will of your legitimate President, because it is of your popular will, and it derives from your own steadfastness, courage and noble character.

Let the peaceful Revolution continue in Egypt’s liberty squares, not simply in support of the president as a person, but in defense of the homeland whose present is being demolished and future stolen by a gang of enemies of the people.

"They say: ‘When will that be?’ Say: ‘Sooner than you think’!" (Quran 17:51)… Then, the tyrants will realize the falsity of their fortifications, and the brave who stand steadfast will realize how great and honorable the sacrifices they made for their homeland were.

"God's command has been written. Do not hasten it" (Quran 16, 1).

Osama Mohamed Morsi

Official spokesman for the family of the legitimate President.

Link:  http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=31360

Egypt's agricultural exports increased by 43 per cent under President Morsi

Egypt's agricultural exports increased by 43 per cent under President Morsi

The Grand Scam: Spinning Egypt’s Military Coup » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

The Grand Scam: Spinning Egypt’s Military Coup » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

July 19-21, 2013
by ESAM AL-AMIN
Source:Counterpunch

Every coup d’état in history begins with a military General announcing the overthrow and arrest of the country’s leader, the suspension of the constitution, and the dissolution of the legislature. If people resist, it turns bloody. Egypt is no exception.

As the dust settles and the fog over the events unfolding across Egypt dissipates, the political scene becomes much clearer. Regardless of how one dresses the situation on the ground, the political and ideological battle that has been raging for over a year between the Islamist parties and their liberal and secular counterparts was decided because of a single decisive factor: military intervention by Egypt’s generals on behalf of the latter.

As I argued before in several of my articles (as have others), there is no doubt that President Mohammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) committed political miscalculations and made numerous mistakes, especially by ignoring the demands of many of the revolutionary youth groups and abandoning their former opposition partners. They frequently behaved in a naïve and arrogant manner. But in any civilized and democratic society, the price of incompetence or narcissism is exacted politically at the ballot box.

read more: 

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/19/the-grand-scam-spinning-egypts-military-coup/#.UervtPx944B.blogger

Morsi Spurned Deals, Seeing Military as Tamed

July 6, 2013
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MAYY EL SHEIKH
Source: New York Times






CAIRO — As President Mohamed Morsi huddled in his guard’s quarters during his last hours as Egypt’s first elected leader, he received a call from an Arab foreign minister with a final offer to end a standoff with the country’s top generals, senior advisers with the president said.

The foreign minister said he was acting as an emissary of Washington, the advisers said, and he asked if Mr. Morsi would accept the appointment of a new prime minister and cabinet, one that would take over all legislative powers and replace his chosen provincial governors.

The aides said they already knew what Mr. Morsi’s answer would be. He had responded to a similar proposal by pointing at his neck. “This before that,” he had told his aides, repeating a vow to die before accepting what he considered a de facto coup and thus a crippling blow to Egyptian democracy.

His top foreign policy adviser, Essam el-Haddad, then left the room to call the United States ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, to say that Mr. Morsi refused. When he returned, he said he had spoken to Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, and that the military takeover was about to begin, senior aides said.

“Mother just told us that we will stop playing in one hour,” an aide texted an associate, playing on a sarcastic Egyptian expression for the country’s Western patron, “Mother America.”

The State Department had no comment Saturday on the details of the American role in Mr. Morsi’s final days.

The abrupt end of Egypt’s first Islamist government was the culmination of months of escalating tensions and ultimately futile American efforts to broker a solution that would keep Mr. Morsi in his elected office, at least in name, if not in power.

A new alliance of youthful activists and Mubarak-era elites was driving street protests. A collapsing economy put new pressure on Mr. Morsi and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood, the once-outlawed Islamist group that had finally come to power after the ouster of the former president, Hosni Mubarak. And an alliance between Mr. Morsi and the nation’s top generals was gradually unraveling.

Senior Brotherhood officials said Mr. Morsi’s adamant response to the last proposal — a combination of idealism and stubbornness — epitomized his rule. It may also have doomed his presidency.

As long ago as the fall, he had spoken fatalistically of the possibility of his own ouster, his senior advisers said. “Do you think this is the peak?” he asked a visibly anxious aide during his first major political crisis. “No,” Mr. Morsi said with resignation, “The peak will be when you see my blood flowing on the floor.”

That was just after what his advisers and Muslim Brotherhood leaders now acknowledge was the defining blunder of his one-year presidency. After Mubarak-appointed judges dissolved the Islamist-led Parliament, Mr. Morsi in November declared his own authority above the courts until a constitutional convention could finish its work.

Tens of thousands of protesters denounced his tactic as authoritarian, setting off the first major street fighting between his supporters and opponents. Even some of his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood were angered, the group’s leaders and presidential advisers said. They complained that he had not consulted them, but still expected them to defend him in the streets.

“If I were not in my place, I would think he wants to be a dictator,” one Muslim Brotherhood leader said when he heard the news on television, a colleague recounted on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Morsi, though, feared he would appear weak if he backed down, his advisers said. “The president is headstrong,” lamented another Brotherhood leader.

Through it all, Mr. Morsi never believed the generals would turn on him as long as he respected their autonomy and privileges, his advisers said. He had been the Muslim Brotherhood’s designated envoy for talks with the ruling military council after the ouster of Mr. Mubarak. His counterpart on the council was Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi.

The Brotherhood was naturally suspicious of the military, its historical opponent, but General Sisi cultivated Mr. Morsi and other leaders, one of them said, including going out of his way to show that he was a pious Muslim. “That is how the relationship between the two of them started,” said a senior Brotherhood official close to Mr. Morsi. “He trusted him.”

The two grew so close that Mr. Morsi caught his advisers by surprise when he promoted General Sisi to defense minister last summer as part of a deal that persuaded the military for the first time to let the elected president take full control of his government. Mr. Morsi kept relations with the military as his “personal file,” and worked out the deal without consulting his aides, one adviser said.

But the generals’ exit, however, only redoubled the criticism from Mr. Morsi’s opponents that the Islamists were monopolizing power.

Mr. Morsi failed to broaden his appeal among the sectarian opposition, and amid complaints that he and the Brotherhood were monopolizing power. And when the protests took off last fall, General Sisi signaled that his departure from politics might not be so permanent. Without consulting Mr. Morsi, the general publicly invited all the country’s fractious political factions — from social democrats to ultraconservative sheiks — to a meeting to try to come to a compromise on a more inclusive government. Mr. Morsi quashed the idea, advisers said, to avoid drawing the generals back into politics.

General Sisi said publicly last week that he continued to try to broker some compromise with the opposition and to ease the political polarization. It was at that point, Mr. Morsi’s advisers said, that they first suspected General Sisi of intrigue.

Mr. Morsi, they said, often pressed the general to stop unnamed military officials from making threatening or disparaging statements toward the president in the news media. General Sisi merely said that “newspapers and media exaggerate,” and that he was “trying to control the tensions toward the president inside the military,” one adviser said.

Yet Mr. Morsi insisted to his aides that he remained fully confident that General Sisi would not interfere, almost until the end of his presidency. He was the last one in the inner circle to acknowledge last week that General Sisi was ousting them.

United States officials had repeatedly urged Mr. Morsi to compromise with the opposition and include it in government. In December, President Obama met with Mr. Haddad, Mr. Morsi’s foreign policy adviser, in the Oval Office to deliver that message, Mr. Morsi’s advisers said. At one point, they said, Mr. Obama offered to intervene with the opposition leaders, either Mohamed ElBaradei, the former United Nations diplomat, or Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister under Mr. Mubarak. But Mr. Morsi declined.

Embassy officials tried to act as intermediaries, Morsi advisers said. They said Secretary of State John Kerry suggested naming Mr. ElBaradei as prime minister. But this year, Ms. Patterson pointedly told Mr. Morsi’s aides that some in Washington were running out of patience with her defense of Egypt’s new Islamist leaders, his advisers said.

By June, the economy was sputtering, with gas shortages and blackouts. Young organizers tapped into the growing discontent with a petition drive calling for Mr. Morsi’s removal, and it was set to culminate in a demonstration on the anniversary of his inauguration, June 30.

The first alarms went off in Mr. Morsi’s inner circle on June 21, when General Sisi issued a public statement warning that the growing “split in society” between Mr. Morsi’s supporters and opponents compelled the military “to intervene.”

Mr. Morsi was given no warning, his advisers said. But when Mr. Morsi called the general, General Sisi told the president that “it was to satisfy some of his men” and that “it was nothing more than an attempt to absorb their anger,” one of Mr. Morsi’s advisers said. “So even after that first statement, the president didn’t think a coup was imminent.”

The day before the protests, General Sisi called Mr. Morsi to press him for a package of concessions, including a new cabinet. But Mr. Morsi refused, saying he needed to consult first with his Islamist coalition.

When the protests came last Sunday, demonstrators were energized by the general’s suggestions of a possible intervention. Millions poured into the streets.

Inside Mr. Morsi’s office. Mr. Morsi’s team checked the official crowd count, sent its own observers, monitored the gathering on Google Earth, and even compared the numbers of mobile phone signals in various public squares, one adviser said, and mistakenly concluded that the pro-Morsi rally in Cairo outnumbered the protests against him.

“We felt a sense of relief,” the adviser said.

The next day, on Monday, General Sisi gave political leaders a 48-hour ultimatum to reach a compromise. A shaken Morsi adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said at the time the president’s team considered it “a military coup.”

Mr. Morsi’s advisers had meetings with Ms. Patterson and her deputy as well as a phone call with Ms. Rice, the national security adviser. Mr. Morsi’s advisers argued that ousting the president would be “a long term disaster” for Egypt and the Arab world because people would “lose faith in democracy.” They said it would set off an explosion in the streets that they could not control.

And they argued that the United States was implicated: “Nobody who knows Egypt is going to believe a coup could go forward without a green light from the Americans.”

At a meeting with General Sisi at 2 p.m. the next day, Mr. Morsi’s advisers said that they had their coalition’s blessing to accept the earlier concessions the general had suggested before the protest.

But when the general returned to the Republican Guard building at 6 p.m., he said “the opposition” had balked, the advisers said.

Mr. Morsi’s team did not know who the general actually consulted and the young protest leaders and some other opposition leaders said they did not know either. But that night Mr. Morsi delivered a fiery address denouncing his opponents as traitorous conspirators.

General Sisi later publicly cited the speech as a turning point in his decision to act.

On Wednesday, the generals convened a four-hour meeting at military headquarters with protest and opposition party leaders. The head of Mr. Morsi’s Islamist party, now jailed, was invited but did not attend.

In Washington, officials stepped back and said little.

Mr. Morsi had been working out of his guards’ house for his own security during the protests. As he waited to be arrested, he told stories about the politicians of his youth. “He was as relaxed as I’ve ever seen him,” one adviser said.

As the last aides to leave walked out, one heard a general tell his guards: “Lock the gates.”

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/world/middleeast/morsi-spurned-deals-to-the-end-seeing-the-military-as-tamed.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=tw-share

Battle intensifies between Egyptian state and broadcasters

 7 hours ago
By Asma Alsharif and Shadia Nasralla
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News

CAIRO (Reuters) - The owner of an Egyptian TV channel that satirizes Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was banned from leaving the country on Thursday, hours after Mursi attacked him by name, authorities shut down another channel and a state TV anchor resigned on air.

"This is dictatorship," a lawyer for business tycoon Mohamed al-Amin told Reuters. Amin's CBC channel has had legal run-ins before over its ridicule of President Mursi on a hit satirical program modeled on American comic Jon Stewart's "Daily Show".

Stewart appeared in person just last week as a guest of Bassem Youssef, the host of the weekly broadcast, who himself has been investigated for insulting the president and Islam.

Separately, a judicial source said a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Tawfiq Okasha, a television talk-show host and owner of the private Al-Faraeen channel, which has frequently criticized Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood. The grounds for the investigation was spreading false information.

The investment ministry, in charge of giving licenses to private channels, announced later on its Facebook page the closure of Okasha's channel for insulting the army and police and inciting the army's lower-ranked officers to launch a coup against senior officers. The channel ceased broadcasting.

Known for his on-air diatribes against Islamists, Okasha has been at liberty to work pending an appeal against a four-month sentence handed down for insulting Mursi last year.

The channel was given a one-month suspension last year, a decision Okasha had successfully appealed.

Meanwhile, state TV anchor Gamal al-Shaer resigned dramatically on air in protest at what he said were attempts by Information Minister Salah Abdel Maqsoud, of the Brotherhood, to control the program's guests and subjects.

"I apologize, as the administration of state TV has issued a decree to stop the program because the talk did not please the officials and the information minister," Shaer said.

PRESIDENT BLAMES MUBARAK LOYALISTS

In an address to the nation on Wednesday to defend himself against opponents who plan mass rallies this weekend, Mursi blamed loyalists of fallen dictator Hosni Mubarak for thwarting his first year in office. He denounced several figures by name, including judges and owners of media organizations.

"Some dream of the return of the old regime, like Mohamed al-Amin," Mursi said. "They will not be left in peace until they pay what they owe the nation in taxes."

Hours later, Amin, who also owns anti-government newspaper Elwatan, called in to a CBC show to deny any wrongdoing.

State news agency MENA said prosecutors had blocked Amin's movements while it probed suspected tax arrears of about $60 million. Officials were not immediately available for comment.

His lawyer Mohamed Hammouda called the legal move an attempt to "get him and get the CBC channel and Elwatan newspaper and force them to bend to the president's will". He said he would seek to get the travel ban lifted and would sue Mursi for defamation.

"This is dictatorship of a kind Egypt has never seen before," lawyer Hammouda said. "And an attempt to get at rivals using force, and we do not accept that."

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Andrew Roche)

Egypt Islamists say clerics must approve IMF loan

Feb 12, 2013
By Tom Perry | Reuters
Source: Yahoo News

Comment:  In Islam usury of any amount is totally unacceptable. Anyone, anyone who is involved in usury in any way, to any degree is an enemy of The Creator.  No Muslim country in any way should be involved in usury.  If  I was involved in writing a constitution for a Muslim country I would insist that it would ban all usury of any amount.  Some liberal Egyptians may think that the new constitution is Islamic. I have news for everyone, the new Egyptian constitution is far from being Islamic!  What the new Egyptian constitution is, is a product of compromise between:  "Islamists", Christians and Liberals.  I am upset with both President Morsi and the Egyptian Government for acting like they want to get a loan from the IMF. I  think that it is stupid of them.  Both provision and security are with Allah.  Any involvement with the IMF is provoking Allah's anger. Yet this government which is led by President Morsi is insisting on being involved with the IMF.  President Morsi is my brother in Allah, yet he is involving himself and Egypt in something which he should understand is dangerous. Why is it dangerous? Because anyone who involves themselves in usury is an enemy of The Creator. That is why!

Here is the article:
"CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's main hardline Islamist party says an IMF loan agreement requires the approval of a body of Muslim scholars under the new constitution and it is considering legal action to make sure the government sticks to the law.

The case could set a marker on the extent to which clerics will have a say over state affairs according to the Islamist-tinged constitution that was signed into law in December following its approval in a referendum.

The Salafist Nour Party says the loan agreement, seen as vital to easing a deep economic crisis, must be approved by a body of senior scholars at Al-Azhar, a religious institution whose new role is embedded in the constitution.

Such a challenge could complicate the Muslim Brotherhood-led administration's effort to finalize the International Monetary Fund deal that was tentatively agreed last year but shelved following political unrest in Cairo.

Abdullah Badran, head of the Nour Party's bloc in the upper house of parliament, told Reuters the move was intended to "activate the role of the Senior Scholars' Authority in all matters pertaining to sharia (Islamic law)". He said the party was studying its legal options.

The Nour Party believes the IMF agreement must be vetted by the scholars because it includes a loan on which Egypt will pay interest - something that is forbidden under Islamic law.

The constitution states that the opinion of Al-Azhar's Senior Scholars' Authority must be sought "on matters pertaining to Islamic sharia". It does not say whether their opinion is binding on government nor make clear the scope of Al-Azhar's role.

The article is one of several written into the constitution by the Islamist-dominated committee that finalized the document in December, fast-tracking it into law despite the objections of liberals, leftists, feminists and Christians, among others.

The party has previously signaled it would not oppose such a loan on principle, citing arguments that allow Muslims flexibility in interpreting Islamic law when they have no alternative or face severe conditions.

The interest on any IMF loan is expected to be around 1.1 percent, far below market rates.

Badran said the party's main concern was to make the government apply the new constitution. "There are many reasons which must be researched for either taking the loan or not," he said.

"Our request is that the opinion of the Senior Scholars' Association be taken, on this agreement or other agreements (related to sharia)," he said.

The government has said IMF negotiators are due in Cairo soon to complete talks on the loan agreement, which would require Egypt to agree to a set of economic reforms including tax increases and cuts in subsidy spending.

Many economists, however, believe final ratification of the agreement could be pushed back to mid-year as the politicians try to avoid upsetting voters ahead of parliamentary elections due in April.

(Editing by Paul Taylor)"