Egypt's Mubarak Steps Down : Taking $40B into hiding?

                      Disappearing into the Dazzling Desert Sunshine                                       photo  R.A. Kukkee

 The people of Egypt are to be congratulated for their persistence, but has  ex-President Mubarak disappeared with $40B into the dazzling desert sunshine? 
     It was inevitable that  Hosni Mubarak eventually  step down from the Presidency  a move forced by pro-democracy supporters  in a three-week  display of  protest and solidarity against Mubarak's corruption.  The objective of the protest,  which has come to be known as the  Nile Revolution,  finally  happened.   It only took  18 days, an undetermined number of deaths,  a number of missing persons,  and over 800 people wounded to achieve that goal.  Foreign journalists  were arrested, intimidated, and beaten.   Not content with that inexcusable action,  an Egyptian journalist was even  shot to death.  Free speech was stifled and the internet was briefly  shut down to tightly shutter the eyes of the world on the unfolding events.

Mubarak's  "step down"  and a cosmetic transfer of power to his own army and henchmen occurred on or about February 11th, 2011. 

      It is our sense and the opinion of many Mid-East watchers  that little if anything has really changed, with an ugly  military crackdown on the protesters becoming more possible, in fact more  probable with each passing day.  The marginal propensity for the "immediate" dispersal AND disposal  of peasant protesters with tanks, guns and whips  can grow as quickly as  a general's lack of anger control management -- or Mubarak's  accumulation of treasures and  bank accounts.  Very quickly. 
      What is more  predictable was the recognition of the fact that   Mubarak's  personal  "treasure", legally acquired or not, is reported to be in the amount of more than 40Billion dollars.  The truth ALWAYS comes out.
 The reader should immediately ask:
  "  Cool piggy-bank,Hosni-baby,  but why did it take you so long to step down, .... nobody can use that much money after the age of 80,  no matter what kind of lifestyle he  intends to follow ! "
     Corruption, rot , stinking greed and blatant theft all  come to mind,  but the reader must admit,  $40B isn't a bad salary for a dictator that ruled a country where forty percent of people  live on less than $2.00 per day, surviving and and paying taxes too.
      It seems  Mubarak may have drained  Egyptian coffers, the Egyptian people,   and the Nile  itself  dry in the process.  The nose of the Sphinx is definitely broken  and missing,  thereby unable to detect the stench of corruption left behind by the Mubarak regime. 
Somewhere, there is a large pyramid of gold bars and cash with " This belongs to Hosni" hastily written in blood in  70  languages.
      The $40B is spread around the globe and the only people that know for sure where the tons of  gold bars, hoards of cash, or other valuable forms of plunder may be -- are his family--his wife and sons--and they have  conveniently disappeared.  
How lovely and how predictable.  The noble banking nation of  Switzerland has already frozen assets that may or may not be  in Mubarak's bank accounts legally , and the rest of the international community must immediately follow suit.  International corruption watchdogs are recommending the seizure of Hosni Mubarak's assets for return to the Egyptian people. (1)
As a quizzical and  rather neat  aside the  United States of America might also immediately consider  demanding  a return of the $1.5B they have paid Egypt  annually to support that corrupt, brutal regime. 
Has anyone done the mathematics  class ?   Let's see,,,,,1.5B per year for 30 years...imagine that,  it just coincidentally equates to $45B.....a rather large pile of funding, isn't that a nice pile of taxpayer  loot?     Where is it hiding?  Are  most of those greenbacks hiding in  Hosni's very large, sticky  moneybags  he is  now dragging across the desert to  hide in  some  dusty desert  rat-hole?    
The world will wait with abated breath and wonder, where does Egypt go now?   It may ultimately  be easier to find Hosni and his money-bags than it will be to answer THAT question.


(1)  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation  (CBC) 02/11/11

Egypt: Shaking up the Middle East and Suppressing Freedom of Speech

     There is little  doubt at Incoming BYTES  that the last 12 days of revolution offer serious implications reaching far beyond Egypt's dusty borders.   With President Hosni Mubarak defiantly clings to power, warning of "chaos" if he steps down.  Perhaps Hosni not been paying attention,  or is he  suffering from  shock or delusion?  Most citizens in real life  have experienced,  felt the pain, and observed the chaos he has already created and  sanctioned in the last two weeks. 
Mubarak  still stubbornly resisting removal in spite of massive protests by anti-government demonstrators, and  deaths, mayhem, whipping  and destruction  by pro-Mubarak forces,  Mubarak has  yet to  step  down,  has no intention to do so,  and there is no clear transfer of power to any transitional opposition  occurring as recommended by foreign governments world-wide.  


     Repercussions of the revolution continue as saboteurs blew up a gas line to Israel,  France has suspended all sales of arms to Egypt, and the whole world is unsettled as it anticipates a "new regime" yet to be decided,  if it is formed at all. 
Will the Muslim Brotherhood,  learned clerics,  or even religious fanatic factions  influence, participate in, or even form the next Egyptian government? Will the next government of Egypt fashion itself in the image of Iran?  Should the free world sanction a "new Egyptian government" that could,  in the extreme of fanaticism,  be "sworn to destroy Israel"?   I think not.  All human beings have a right to exist in peace.
      How is the world to know what is happening as journalists are attacked, beaten, detained, and harassed as their equipment is smashed?  One Egyptian journalist, Ahmed Mohammed Mahmud,  shot by a sniper  during the melee between opposing forces  has  already died.   Many foreign journalists have been  beaten badly,  arrested, interrogated, and ordered detained in their hotels  as Mr. Mubarak's government  "protects" them.   Do tell. 
Therein lies the root of skepticism as a  lack of credibility is clearly demonstrated. 


      How should the world  react if  freedom of speech is not clearly restored ?  Is the true intent of Mubarak's regime  to remain hidden or disguised? In spite of the blood shed in this revolution, is there any genuine intent by the Egyptian government  to initiate a peaceful transition other than superficial changes made in the thin veneer of deceit ?
There are many questions that must be answered.
 

Egypt's Mubarak to Remain: Bloodshed in EGYPT

Can  Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak be trusted  by anyone from this point in Egypt's revolution? There has now been bloodshed in Egypt's revolution.  
Why should any independent  observer  expect anything other otherwise?    President Hosni Mubarak, after orchestrating a massive and brutal pro-government rally to intimidate,  beat and even kill anti-government protestors,  has now decided not to step down. 
Let us paraphrase President Mubarak's  unbelievable excuse and comment:    "( He)  cannot step down because it might bring  CHAOS to  Egypt. "  
      Has total lunacy set in?  Does anyone actually believe that highly questionable assessment of the unstable status quo?
     Surely the existing deaths and total CHAOS  are already the product of his deceit and orchestration. 
    No fewer than 10 people were shot dead,  and as many as 300 people may  have been killed and 800 wounded  in the violent conflict between pro-Mubarak thugs and anti-government demonstrators that had, been, at least up to the time the loyalists attacked them,  been patiently demonstrating in a relatively peaceful manner.
    Mubarak has also  ordered the roundup of western and other foreign journalists, some  of whom had already been attacked,  stabbed and beaten,  undoubtedly to prevent them from observing what his thugs are doing.  How better to  stifle  the voice of democracy and free speech, than under the "GUISE OF PROTECTION"? 
     He will now conveniently extend his tenure to the end of his term to "prevent CHAOS"  and his son Gamal "will not"  take his place.   Do his empty words mean anything at all?  Anti-government protesters think not.  The governments of Spain, Italy, Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States of America  think not. 
Why should the reader at Incoming BYTES  imagine otherwise?
     Clearly Mubarak's unbelievable method of choice   is to use blunt force if necessary,  and pretend  innocence  while conveniently "allocating" the  blame and brutality necessary to murderous thugs, camel-riding,   whip-wielding lunatics  and  Molotov cocktail-rock-throwing loyalists do his bidding.

      Proof  of his method  lies in the fact that his  paid military army  stood by doing NOTHING  while loyalists viciously attacked, wounded and killed anti-government demonstrators.  

     This brutality and murder of innocent people   is unacceptable by any civilized standard. Mr. Mubarak.  
If you wish to continue to run a brutal, corrupt dictatorship,  at the very least be HONEST enough to say so.
      Mr. Mubarak, perhaps you are right, the west  may not "understand" your culture, but we do understand murder, deception, dishonesty, and lies.

Intimidation in Egypt and Turmoil In Yemen: Is it any Wonder?

UPDATED 02/02/2011 @ 11:00EST

****UPDATE:  Four deaths and hundreds of people have been injured in the violence in Cairo. Molotov cocktails have been used, shots have been fired, and crowds attacked Western Journalists, beating a Canadian television cameraman severely .**** 
I am always amazed by the speed at which change occurs when there is  no other alternative possible.
Such is the case in the Arab world, where quantum change is taking place.
In Egypt, with the exception of a few ugly-natured Mubarak supporters riding camels and horses, into crowds,  viciously beating  and intimidating innocent protesters with sticks and whips as might be expected,   Hosni Mubarak is supposed to be in retreat,  encouraged  by  the Egyptian revolution and little other choice. Why would any sane observer be surprised to see intimidation and violence by Mubarak supporters?  Instead, it appears that pro-Mubarak support and demonstrations  and clashes between the two groups have been orchestrated and encouraged.  
 Tunisia is also  in turmoil,  the President was forced into exile with his treasures and  not much other choice,  so it is little wonder President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen is also suddenly taking pre-emptive and creative  steps to remove himself from power.   Is he  removing himself from mortal danger too?   After three decades of dictatorship, President Saleh has announced his departure. The people have spoken, the writing is on the wall,  so yet another dictatorship will fall ‘willingly’. 
 President Saleh has pledged that he will not seek re-election --and also vowed that his son Ahmed,  who leads  military special forces and the presidential guard, will  not  inherit the powerful position.  Both pledge and vow are convenient and timely.

It takes little imagination to explain Saleh’s sudden urgency for change; revolt is at hand,  the government of Yemen is rife with corruption, the nation has been dependent  upon shrinking oil production for revenue,  and little if any  of the income from that oil has ended up in the hands of the people. Half of the population of Yemen subsists on less than $2.00 per day, infrastructure for roads and sanitation is marginal or sub-standard, and unemployment is the norm,  as unrest  blooms like a desert receiving the blessing of seven days of rain.    Saleh has happily and boldly  proclaimed a 50% income tax cut.  It is a  nice promise and a creative tactic to stall for time, Mr. President.    
 In the presence of such extreme economic disparity, one might easily  wonder if a dictator’s accumulated wealth is best removed quickly to avoid confiscation,  a la’ Saddam Hussein -- when  hanging also may be both convenient and inevitable?
“But father, I wish to inherit the kingdom and rule the people just as you have”
 “Let us leave now, son, we finally have it  all, and the natives are restless... ”
 The “timely” evacuation of dictators is not unknown to the rest of the world.  If you are about to be hung, drawn and quartered, or  run out of town on an rail anyway, it is beneficial to do anything to delay action,  pretend happiness,  lead the parade in style, and clutch the strings of the golden purse tightly in both hands on the way out.   
“Time to leave.  What did you expect, Mr. President"?    Just as it did in Iraq,  the truth always comes out.