President Morsi approves martial law in Egypt as constitution referendum remains set for Saturday December 15 , 2012..... Army to be deployed against protesters - and the difference between the Temporary Dictator and the Prior Dictator is what ?

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/12/09/254202.html

Egypt prosecutor orders probe in opposition leaders’ ‘treason’ case

Egypt’s new Prosecutor General, Talaat Abdullah, on Sunday ordered a probe in a complaint against opposition leaders and former presidential candidates Amr Moussa, Mohammed ElBaradei and Hamdeen Sabbahi of grand treason and sedition.

The daily Youm7 newspaper reported that the complaint contained allegations that the three prominent leaders were plotting to overthrow elected President Mohammed Mursi by inciting protests and encouraging protesters to break into the presidential palace.

Founder of the Constitution Party ElBaradei, head of the Conference Party Moussa and founder of the Popular Current Party Sabahy all declared their support and participation in the ongoing sit-in in Cairo’s Tahrir Square until Mursi’s constitutional decree is revoked.

The complaint against the former presidential candidates, as well as Wafd party leader Sayed Badawi was filed by Hamed Sadek, a lawyer, and it claimed as well that the prominent opposition leaders “secretly met Israel’s former foreign minister Tzipi Livni to drum up domestic turmoil and bring the country to its knees.”

Egypt tipped into turmoil after Mursi grabbed powers to stop any court action aimed at hindering the transition. An assembly led by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists then swiftly approved the constitution it had spent six months drafting.

Opponents, including minority Christians, had already quit the assembly in dismay, saying their voices were being ignored.A leftist group led by defeated presidential candidate Sabahy demanded the referendum be deferred until a consensus could be reached on a new draft, saying there could be “no dialogue while blood is being spilled in the streets.”

After the dialogue hosted by Mursi, a spokesman announced that the president had issued a new decree whose first article “cancels the constitutional declaration” of Nov. 22. He said the referendum could not be delayed for legal reasons.

The decree ignited more than two weeks of sometimes bloody protests and counter-rallies in Egypt. Mursi’s foes have chanted for his downfall. Islamists fear a plot to oust the most populous Arab nation’s first freely elected leader.

The April 6 movement, prominent in the anti-Mubarak revolt, derided the result of Saturday’s talks as “manipulation and a continuation of deception in the name of law and legitimacy.”

Islamists reckon they can win the referendum and, once the new constitution is in place, a parliamentary poll about two months later. The Islamist-led lower house elected this year was dissolved after a few months by a court order.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/12/egypts-morsi-backs-down-slightly-but-opposition-to-campaign-against-his-referendum.html

Posted on 12/09/2012 by Juan

Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi late on Saturday abruptly announced that his controversial November 22 constitutional decree had been abrogated. He no longer holds himself above the law or above judicial review.

The announcement came after he met with some of his critics, including liberal Ayman Nur of the Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, who had been jailed by Hosni Mubarak and had run against the dictator in 2005. Most of Morsi’s major critics and their parties had refused to meet for a dialogue with the president unless he first abrogated his decree and postponed the referendum on the constitution.

The abrogation of the November 22 declaration, moreover, came after the Egyptian military commandeered the airwaves briefly on Saturday and warned that it would not stand by and let the country slip into chaos.

Despite that not very veiled threat from the officer corps, Morsi declined to postpone the vote on the draft constitution, scheduled for December 15, as protesters demand.

The Salvation Front, a coalition of leftist, liberal and centrist parties, called for Egypt’s youth to continue to mass peacefully in “all the squares of Egypt” until their other demand, that the referendum on the Muslim Brotherhood constitution, is canceled. They appear to be setting the state for a massive general strike.

Aljazeera English reports:

Very cleverly Morsi changed the character of the referendum. Egyptians will be free to vote for the constitution, in which case it will pass and become the law of the land. New parliamentary elections would follow in February. The voters may, however, vote the constitution down. In that case, a new constituent assembly will be elected in March, and will have six months to craft a new constitution.

Referendums with a single question are hard to lose. Could it have passed with 48% ‘yes’ votes if the “no” votes were even fewer– and even though 48% is not a majority?

Now, however, the electorate will have a real choice. Vote for the constitution as it is, or defeat it and elect a new drafting committee. Under these circumstances, I think it will be clear who won.

Morsi is saying, “Let the people choose.”

Many on the left are saying that Morsi’s abrogation of his own decree is no victory for the protesters. Be that as it may, I think the fact that the public now has a clear choice between a Brotherhood-produced constitution and a new, elected constituent assembly, is a real achievement. And, it is clear that Morsi originally had hoped to make people accept the Brotherhood constitution as a way out of the country’s turmoil, as their sole choice. That plan has failed, and he had to give them a choice.

The leftists and liberals are afraid that Muslim clerics mounting the pulpit this Friday will declare that anyone who votes against the constitution is going to hell, and so will sway gullible rural voters. They are convinced that the constitution cannot be stopped if there is a vote on December 15.

I am not so sure. The Brotherhood got only a little over a fourth of the votes in the first round of the presidential election last May. Secular candidates took about 60%. Then, Morsi barely beat Mubarak’s last prime minister, in a country that had overthrown Mubarak. The urban notion of rural rubes is too simplistic. Many villagers are attached to the benefits of the Nasserist government, including land reform, which the Brotherhood has often advocated reversing.

I think that there is a real chance that a coalition of liberals, leftists and Muslim centrists could defeat Morsi’s constitution. Even the prestigious Muslim seminary, the al-Azhar has come out against it.

I am sympathetic to the protesters’ argument that December 15 is too soon for the referendum, and does not afford the people the opportunity for a national debate on its details.

But, the left-liberal strategy of boycotting the referendum and pursuing street protests is a disaster in the making. If they are going to win, they will have to get out the vote against Morsi’s constitution. Staying home and sulking will just hand Morsi a victory.

And, the Sunni Arabs’ decision to boycott the late January, 2005, parliamentary elections in Iraq arguably set the country on the path to civil war. The Iraq parliament was the body that crafted the constitution, and the Sunnis were left out of that process and then voted against the constitution. But they could not defeat it, and many subsequently turned to radicalism.

Clearly, Morsi should do the right thing and delay the Egyptian referendum for a month or two. But remember, he thinks there are justices plotting a way of striking down this constitution as illegitimate, because it is the fruit of a poisoned tree, i.e. it was produced by a Constituent Assembly that is unbalanced (women absent, not 10% Christian as is the country as a whole, liberals and leftists and women largely absent, etc. Morsi may think that if he postpones the referendum for very long, the justices will strike down the present text.

Morsi’s decree, which threw the country into weeks of turmoil, was a preemptive strike at Egypt’s powerful judiciary. Most of the judges had been appointed by deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak, and they have sometimes played a negative role in the country’s transition to greater democracy.

Morsi appears to have received intelligence that the judges were planning to declare illegitimate the Constituent Assembly of 100 members (originally) that had been appointed by parliament to draft a new constitution. Some 22 members, most of them liberals, leftists, Christians or mainstream Muslims, had resigned from the assembly, along with 7 reserve members. The remaining 78 members were disproportionately drawn from the Muslim Brotherhood, which had dominated the parliament elected in fall, 2011. The supreme administrative court had declared that parliament illegitimate and sent home its members because parties (especially the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi Nur Party) had illicitly contested the third of seats that had been set aside for independents. Many observers wondered why the court did not just vacate the seats it said were illegitimately gained, and have re-vote for that third of the parliament. Instead, they struck down the whole body.

Morsi also was clearly worried that the courts might strike down his August 15 decree subordinating the military to himself. And, perhaps he worried that his very continuation as president was in danger from the high-handed justices.

So he struck first. He declared that his presidential decrees could not be overturned by the courts, thus protecting his command of the military. He declared that the courts had no right to dissolve the Constituent Assembly. He also switched out his public prosecutor, who had not won any cases against the corrupt and brutal Mubarak officials.

Then Morsi went further, and declared himself above any judicial review.

I personally believe that if Morsi had begun by addressing the nation, perhaps from Tahrir, and declaring that there was a judicial plot to bring back the dominance of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, he could have gotten most Egyptians on his side.

Instead, he made it look as though he himself were making the coup, placing himself above the law. Even Mubarak was routinely sued (when the former dictator instituted a retail tax in the late 1990s, some 4000 retailers sued him on the grounds that such a tax was unconstitutional according to the socialist-tinged 1971 constitution).

Morsi had also extended the deadline for the production of a constitution from the end of December to the end of February.

But once it was clear that his announcement had been poorly received and was likely to cause a lot of trouble, suddenly the Constituent Assembly finished up its work and handed the president a draft that he could take to a national referendum.

Morsi scheduled the referendum for December 15. Liberals, leftists and centrists complained that the date left too little time to have a national debate on the more controversial articles of the new constitution, some of them seemingly back doors through which a theocratic element could be inserted into Egypt’s governance.

Morsi and his people are likely counting on the following:

1. The judges can no longer stop a Muslim Brotherhood constitution from going forward, since the constituent assembly has finished its work and there is no point in trying to dissolve it. In any case, many judges are so angry over the November 22 decree that they are on strike. So, Morsi gets to present his Brotherhood-crafted constitution to the people, and this is a win for him.

2. Morsi and his team know that the leftists, liberals and even many centrists will likely boycott the December 15 referendum. But this gesture is futile, and if they do boycott, it will simply ensure that the constitution passes.

3. The danger that the judiciary might try to undo the August 15 decree subordinating the military to the civilian president has subsided. And, if the new constitution passes, then the decree will be moot, since the constitution specifies the same arrangement. The justices cannot overrule a constitution that was voted in by a majority of those who voted.

In essence, Morsi no longer needs his November 22 decree, since the constitution itself will accomplish most of the work he wanted the decree to perform. When he issued it, he thought the constitution would not be finished for 3 months, and wanted to protect himself and it from Mubarak’s judges in the meantime. The accelerated timeline achieved by the Constituent Assembly, in finishing up the constitution so quickly, allowed Morsi to back down from his decree.

At the same time, he simply is not giving people enough time to absorb and debate the text of the new constitution, and to deliberate on how it might change their lives.

Egypt’s turmoil will continue as long as Morsi clings to this other authoritarian principle, of trying to ram his preferred constitution through.

and.....





http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-08/egypts-temporary-dictator-deploy-army-against-protesters

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Mohamed-Morsi-approves-martial-law-in-Egypt-state-media-reports/articleshow/17535688.cms

CAIRO: Struggling to subdue continuing street protests, the government of President Mohamed Morsi has approved legislation reimposing martial law by calling on the armed forces to keep order and authorizing soldiers to arrest civilians, Egypt's state media reported on Saturday. 

Morsi has not yet issued the order, the flagship state newspaper Al Ahram reported. But even if merely a threat, the preparation of the measure suggested an escalation in the political battle between Egypt's new Islamist leaders and their secular opponents over an Islamist-backed draft constitution. The standoff has already threatened to derail the culmination of Egypt'spromised transition to a constitutional democracy nearly two years after the revolt against the former leader Hosni Mubarak. 

"President Morsi will soon issue a decision for the participation of the armed forces in the duties of maintaining security and protection of vital state institutions until the constitution is approved and legislative elections are finished," Al Ahram reported, suggesting that martial law would last until at least February. Parliamentary elections are expected to be held two months after the constitutional referendum, which is scheduled for next Saturday. A short time later, a military spokesman read a statement over state television echoing the report of the president's order. The military "realizes its national responsibility for maintaining the supreme interests of the nation and securing and protecting the vital targets, public institutions, and the interests of the innocent citizens," the spokesman said. 

Expressing "sorrow and concern" over recent developments, the military spokesman warned of "divisions that threaten the state of Egypt." 

"Dialogue is the best and sole way to reach consensus that achieves the interests of the nation and the citizens," the spokesman said. "Anything other than that puts us in a dark tunnel with drastic consequences, which is something that we will not allow." 

Al Ahram reported that the defense minister would determine the scope of the military's role. Military officers would be authorized to act as police and "to use force to the extent necessary to perform their duty," the newspaper said. 

A need to rely on the military to secure a referendum to approve the new charter could undermine Morsi's efforts to present the documents as an expression of national consensus that might resolve the crisis. 

Even the possibility presents an extraordinary role reversal: an elected president who spent decades opposing Mubarak's use of martial law to detain Islamists — a former leader of theMuslim Brotherhood who himself spent months in jail under the "emergency law" — is poised to resort to similar tactics to control unrest and violence from secular groups. 

After six decades during which military-backed secular autocrats used the threat of an Islamist takeover to justify authoritarian rule, the order would bring the military into the streets to protect an elected Islamist, dashing the whispered hopes of some more secular Egyptians that the military might step in to remove Morsi. 

The move would also reflect an equally extraordinary breakdown in Egyptian civic life that in the last two weeks has destroyed most of the remaining trust between the rival Islamist and secular factions, beginning with Morsi's decree on Nov. 22 granting himself powers above any judicial review until the ratification of a new constitution. 

At the time, Morsi said he needed such unchecked power to protect against the threat that Mubarak-appointed judges might dissolve the constitutional assembly. He also tried to give the assembly a two-month extension on its year-end deadline to forge consensus between the Islamist majority and the secular faction — something liberals have sought. But his claim to such power for even a limited period struck those suspicious of the Islamists as a return to autocracy, and his authoritarian decree triggered an immediate backlash. 

Hundreds of thousands of protesters accusing Morsi and his Islamist allies of monopolizing power have poured into the streets. Demonstrators have attacked more than two dozen Brotherhood offices around the country, including its headquarters. And judges declared a national strike. 

In response, Morsi's Islamist allies in the assembly stayed up all night to rush out a draft constitution over the boycotts and objections of the secular minority and the Coptic Christian church. Then, worried that the Interior Ministry might fail to protect the presidential palace from sometimes-violent demonstrations outside, Morsi turned to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups to defend it, resulting in a night of street fighting that killed at least six and wounded hundreds in the worst clashes between political factions since Gamal Abdel Nasser's coup six decades ago. 

International experts who monitored the constituent assembly's work say that before the crisis, the Islamists and their secular foes had appeared close to resolving their differences and uniting around a document that both sides could accept. Even the draft charter, ultimately rushed out almost exclusively with Islamist support, stops short of the liberals' worst fears about the imposition of religious rule. But it leaves loopholes and ambiguities that liberals fear an Islamist majority could later use to empower religious groups or restrict individual freedoms, which the secular opposition has repeatedly compared to the theocracy established by the Iranian revolution of 1979. 

Their denunciations, in turn, have reminded Islamist leaders of the Algerian military coup staged in the early 1990s to abort elections after Islamists won, and Morsi's political allies have repeatedly accused their secular opponents of seeking to undermine democracy in order to thwart the will of the Islamist majority. 

Against the backdrop of the mounting distrust, Morsi's advisers say he has tried to offer a series of compromises. He has sought to redefine his initial decree so it fits within judicial precedents instead of stepping over the courts. He has said that the decree would be canceled after the referendum next weekend, even if the constitution is rejected. And on Friday night, government officials opened the door to a delay in the referendum so that the constituent assembly can make further amendments, if secular opponents would agree to the terms. 

But Morsi's Islamist allies say that they have also lost hope that any concession would satisfy the secular opposition and are convinced the opposition's true goal is to bring down the president — the main chant of the protesters who have surrounded the presidential palace for the last four nights. Morsi's secular opponents say they do not trust the president or the Brotherhood to deal in good faith. They are insisting that he agree to revamp the constitutional drafting process before they sit down for any talks. 

In a speech two days ago, Morsi had invited secular opposition leaders to meet with him Saturday to try to work out a compromise. But the principal leaders declined the invitation. Without them, he met with a group again dominated by fellow Islamists, including some less-conservative Islamists outside the Brotherhood's party, according to a list reported on state media. Only one secular politician, the former presidential candidate Ayman Nour, attended. 

The continuing unrest in the streets and attacks on Brotherhood offices had begun to raise the possibility that violence might mar next Saturday's scheduled vote on the referendum. While a deployment of the military could allay those concerns, it might also lead to new questions about the legitimacy of the process if the charter is indeed approved, complicating longer-term hopes of restoring civility and trust.

Egypt's "Temporary " Dictator To Deploy Army Against Protesters

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/08/2012 12:57 -0500

• Martial Law
 
• national security
 
• None
 
• Obama Administration

Update: The devolution is complete as Egyptdeclares martial law.

* * *

It was only a matter of time before Egypt's US-endorsed temporary dictator resolved to what will be spun as temporary military intervention against what is increasingly looking like a permanent counterrevolutionby deploying the army to crush local protesters who have besieged the Egyptian presidential palace for almost a week, and have put the country's new "democratic" regime increasingly under threat of collapse.

RT reports that "Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will authorize the deployment of the country's armed forces to quash protests in Cairo, al-Ahram reported. The military said prolonging the crisis would be "disastrous,” and that they would not tolerate violence. At least six people died and hundreds were reported injured over the last few days in the unrest that has gripped the Egyptian capital since late November. Al-Ahram reported that the armed forces will be given powers of arrest, previously an exclusive right of the police."

Naturally, once one starts down the slope of "temporary decrees" (never to be confused with presidential Executive Orders), one doesn't go back. The only question is whether the denouement of the Mursi administration will be a peaceful one with the self-imposed dictator stepping down without a fight, or if the country will devolve into an all out civil war, threatening the (in)stability of the region even further.

More from Al Arabiya:

On Saturday, the military urged political forces to solve their dispute via dialogue saying it would take the country into a “dark tunnel,” hinting military intervention.

“Anything other than that [dialogue] will force us into a dark tunnel with disastrous consequences; something which we won’t allow,” according to a military statement read out on state TV.

Failing to reach a consensus, “is in the interest of neither side. The nation as a whole will pay the price,” the statement added.

The military stressed that dialogue is the “best and only” way to take Egypt out of its crisis adopted by the Muslim brotherhood. The country previously watched as the military had control over previous presidents particularly after Mubarak’s fall.

However, Mursi pushed the general’s aside in August and they had shown little appetite to intervene in Egypt’s latest crisis.

The army started to assert itself again, sealing off the presidential palace with tanks and barbed wire, saying it “realizes its national responsibility in protecting the nation’s higher interests,” and state institutions.

The state-run daily al-Ahram reported that Mursi would soon authorize the military to help police keep order and give it powers of arrest under a decree approved by the cabinet. It did not say when the decree would be issued.

On the other hand, a far greater problem would evolve if instead of a simple escalation, the conflict grew into a schism along religion lines:

The Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, denounced opposition protests that have swirled around the walls of the Mursi’s palace, saying they “ruin legitimacy.”

Badie said eight people, all of them Brotherhood members, had been killed this week and urged the interior minister to explain why police had failed to prevent assailants from torching the organization’s headquarters and 28 other offices.

“Get angry with the Brotherhood and hate us as much as you like, but be reasonable and preserve Egypt’s unity,” he told a news conference. “We hope everyone gets back to dialogue.”

The turmoil has exposed deep divisions over the destiny of a country of 83 million where the removal of Mubarak 22 months ago led to a messy army-led transition, with the Brotherhood and its allies winning two elections.

The well-organized Brotherhood, which pushed Mursi from obscurity to power, remains his surest source of support, with over 80 years of religious and political struggle behind it.

Late on Friday, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil urged political forces to take “courageous and constructive steps” by calling off protests and joining the dialogue without preconditions.

This is the same Egypt about which US State Department secretary Burns issued the following statement as recently as July:

First, let me take this opportunity to congratulate the people of Egypt on what is truly an historic set of achievements. A peaceful revolution. Competitive elections. The first democratically elected civilian president in Egypt's history. For all the very real problems that remain, not all nations who rose up alongside you last year have been so fortunate. Not all nations carry Egypt’s strategic and historic weight. And not all nations can have such an important impact on the entire region through the success of their democratic transition, and through their continued role as a strong pillar of peace, security, and prosperity.

Second, the United States will do all we can to help ensure a successful transition in Egypt, which offers the best path to realize the aspirations of theEgyptian people for dignity, for opportunity, for security, and for a voice in their own affairs. Egyptians know far better than we do that their aspirations are not yet fully realized, but they can count on America’s partnership on the complicated road ahead.

Third, we are mindful that many of the Egyptian people's most pressing concerns today are economic in nature. We are fully committed to tangible initiatives to help Egypt deal with its economic challenges, including meeting immediate financial concerns, providing debt relief, helping to create jobs and educational opportunities, and encouraging U.S. investment and tourism. For all the obvious challenges, Egypt clearly has the potential for economic revival and inclusive growth.

Fourth, in a very short time, Egypt has traveled a remarkable distance, but a great deal of work remains to build the strong, durable democratic system for which the Egyptian people launched their revolution. It will be critical to see a democratically elected parliament in place, and an inclusive process to draft a new constitution that upholds universal rights. The challenge remains of building institutions which will ensure that no matter who wins an election in any particular year, the rights of all Egyptians will always be protected. This challenge belongs not just to Egypt's leaders but to its citizens as well.

Finally, tens of millions of Egyptians will be looking to President Morsi and the Cabinet he forms to take needed steps to advance national unity and build an inclusive government that embraces all of Egypt's faiths and respects the rights of women and secular members of society. So will the international community. We are fully committed to working with Egypt's President, its new government and all parties to sustain our partnership and advance our shared interest in a strong, democratic, and economically vibrant Egypt that is a force for peace and stability in the region.

Funny stuff.

And while the local situation in the country which the US called a "pillar of peace, security and prosperity" to get much bloodier, violent and overall louder, one person who has kept very quiet during the past few weeks is none other than Hillary Clinton, who as recently as July welcomed Morsi with open arms.

From the NYT:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Egypt on Saturday for meetings with its newly elected Islamist president and the chief of its still-dominant military council, declaring that the United States “supports the full transition to civilian rule with all that entails.”

But after weeks of internal debate across the Obama administration over how to respond to the ongoing struggle between the president and the generals, Mrs. Clinton touched on it only lightly, saying she looked forward to working “to support the military’s return to a purely national security role.”

State Department officials said the meeting itself sent a historic message. Seated in an ornate room in the presidential palace, Mrs. Clinton smiled for cameras and traded pleasantries with President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist jailed more than once by the American-backed autocracy overthrown 18 months ago. She became the highest ranking United States official to meet Mr. Morsi since he was sworn in two weeks ago as Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

This is the same Hillary Clinton who "was targeted by protesters who threw tomatoes and their own shoes at her motorcade during a visit to Egypt on Sunday. Demonstrators also mockingly chanted 'Monica, Monica' in reference to Bill Clinton's extra-marital affair. The Secretary of State was on her first trip to Egypt since the election of the country's new Islamist President, Mohammed Morsi."

Mursi is thus on the way to becoming thesecond US-supported dictator in Egypt. The irony of course is that like the Fed's market interventions, the half-life of the US state department imposing its pawns in various countries, only to see them turn against the US. can now be measured in months.

The only question remaining is with the CIA and the US having no natural allies left in the country that controls the Suez Canal should Morsi be thrown out one way or another, how will America continue to impose its control in this country which is becoming ever more critical at a time when the gateway to Africa is one of the most important geopolitical tension points, not to mention a key focal point in the simmering Iran-Israel conflict?