Video:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2011/01/28/VI2011012803333.html?sid=ST2011012705125

US government Mouth Piece Washington Post calls for Need to Break with
Mubarak

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/28/AR2011012805399.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
-----------------------------

*Mubarak addresses nation, calls on government to resign but vows to remain
in power himself
*

By Griff Witte, Janine Zacharia and William Branigin
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 28, 2011; 6:04 PM

CAIRO - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak demanded the resignation of his
government early Saturday but vowed to remain in power himself to protect
the nation in defiance of massive demonstrations calling for his departure.

Speaking on state television shortly after midnight, Mubarak lamented
rioting and clashes with police that led him to deploy military units on the
streets of the capital.

"I take responsibility for the security of this country and the citizens,"
he said, adding that he would not allow fear and chaos to take hold in this
nation of more than 80 million people.

"I ask the government to resign today," he said. He said he would give the
new government "very specific goals" to improve the lives of the people.

Mubarak spoke after military units deployed in the streets of Cairo and
protesters attacked offices of the government and ruling party, with crowds
of opposition demonstrators defying an overnight curfew.

In some parts of the capital, the protests appeared to grow more violent,
and demonstrators looted and burned the headquarters of the ruling National
Democratic Party, attempted to storm government buildings and attacked a
police station. But in other parts, an apparently festive atmosphere
prevailed, as demonstrators warmly greeted newly deployed army troops and
urged them to join the protests. Unlike the police, the military did not
appear to be battling the demonstrators.

By late night on Friday, police had largely abandoned the streets of the
capital to the remaining bands of protesters.

By blaming the cabinet under Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif for the turmoil,
Mubarak, 82, hoped to sidestep demands for his resignation after three
decades of autocratic rule. He said he had asked the government to give the
demonstrators the "space" they needed to voice their grievances and was "so
sorry" to see protesters and police injured in clashes.

"There is a very thin line between freedom and chaos," he declared. "I am
absolutely o the side of freedom for each citizen, and at the same time I am
on the side of the security of
Egypt<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/egypt.html?nav=el>.
And I would not let anything dangerous happen that would threaten peace . .
. and the future of the country."

Mubarak said he would not allow looting and arson, but he suggested that he
would work toward "new steps for more democracy," more job opportunities and
aid to the poor.

"We need to build on what we already have and to make a new future," he
said. "What happened in the last few days puts fear in everybody's heart."
He vowed to honor his "oath to protect Egypt."

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called on security forces
and protesters to "refrain from violence" and said the administration would
review U.S. aid to Egypt "based on events that take place in the coming
days."

Gibbs said President Obama has not spoken to the embattled Egyptian
president personally about the crisis but that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt
and other officials "have been in touch with the Egyptian government." He
added: "This will be solved by the Egyptian people, but there is a very
important opportunity for the Egyptian government to address . . .
grievances that have been in place for a number of years."

Asked whether the United States stands by Mubarak, Gibbs said, "We are
monitoring a very fluid situation."

Since 1979, Egypt has been the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid,
receiving an average of nearly $2 billion a year in economic and military
assistance, according to the Congressional Research Service. The Obama
administration sought more than $1.5 billion in aid for Egypt in fiscal
2011.

The deployment of troops and armored fighting vehicles came after heavily
armed riot police battled thousands of protesters across Egypt in an effort
to squelch a burgeoning pro-democracy movement that appeared to be gaining
strength.

Crowds surged onto the streets of Cairo and other cities immediately after
noon prayers, responding to a call for protests dubbed "Angry Friday."
Toward sunset, the demonstrations seemed to grow larger, even as police
fired guns, tear gas and water cannons.

The Egyptian government imposed an overnight curfew on Cairo, Alexandria and
Suez starting at 6 p.m. (11 a.m. Eastern) and ending at 7 a.m., but the
surging crowds did not heed it, appearing only to become more violent and
intense. The curfew was later expanded to cover the entire nation.

State television said the military would work with police to enforce a ban
on demonstrations, and military units deployed on the streets of this
capital of about 18 million people. CNN showed one military armored fighting
vehicle blocking a street with its gun turret pointing down the road. It was
soon surrounded by a chanting crowd.

As reports circulated that Mubarak would appear on television around 6 p.m.
to address the nation for the first time since the crisis began, riot police
apparently pulled back from some of their positions.

Mubarak finally appeared on television just after midnight. There was no
explanation for the delay.

Protesters, meanwhile, pressed forward and grew less organized and more
violent than they had been in daylight. Demonstrators torched armored
personnel carriers on some Cairo streets, and live video reports showed
police security trucks careening wildly through the crowds. Gunshots and the
firing of tear gas continued uninterrupted. It was not immediately clear
whether the police were firing live ammunition or rubber bullets.

As the army's tan camouflage vehicles took the place of the black police
vehicles in some areas, the crowds surrounded them, cheering and chanting as
they urged the soldiers to join their cause.

Crowds attempted to gather at the Cairo headquarters of Mubarak's ruling
National Democratic Party, and fires were set, although it was not
immediately clear what was burning. In the cities of Mansoura, north of
Cairo, and Suez, east of the capital, party headquarters were ransacked by
protesters, the Associated Press reported.

All over Cairo, including in upper-class neighborhoods, protesters scrawled
anti-government graffiti on walls. "Down with Mubarak" was a common slogan.

In one neighborhood, teenagers walked around wearing police riot gear. It
was not immediately clear where or how they obtained it.

Elsewhere, people went ahead with their daily activities. In one poor
neighborhood, a family was getting ready for a wedding.

In the port city of Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city with a
population of more than 4 million, military armored vehicles deployed in the
streets after a day of protests. Like the army troops in Cairo, those in
Alexandria received a warm welcome from demonstrators.

Speaking to reporters at the State Department, Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton called for restraint on both sides.

Clinton said: "We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by police
and security forces against protesters, and we call on the Egyptian
government to do everything in its power to restrain the security forces. At
the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and express
themselves peacefully."

Clinton added: "We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests
and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off
communications," such as stopping Internet and social networking services.

"These protests underscore that there are deep grievances within Egyptian
society, and the Egyptian government needs to understand that violence will
not make these grievances go away," Clinton said. She urged the Mubarak
government to "engage immediately with the Egyptian people in implementing
needed economic, political and social reforms."

Clinton made it clear that her message also applied to other Middle Eastern
governments. "The people of the Middle East, like people everywhere, are
seeking a chance to contribute and to have a role in the decisions that will
shape their lives," she said. "Leaders need to respond to these aspirations.
And to help build that better future for all, they need to view civil
society as their partner, not as a threat."

Separately, the State Department issued a travel alert for Egypt, urging
Americans to "defer nonessential travel to Egypt at this time" and advising
those already in the country to "defer nonessential movement and exercise
caution." The alert also warned Americans to "avoid all demonstrations, as
even peaceful ones can quickly become unruly and a foreigner could become a
target of harassment or worse."

EgyptAir, the national airline, announced the suspension of flights from
Cairo for 12 hours starting at 9 p.m., and a number of foreign airlines
canceled flights into the city.

Earlier, on the 6th of October Bridge, which spans the Nile in the heart of
this teeming capital, two protesters were shot by police and collapsed on
the ground, unresponsive. They were loaded into a van that appeared headed
for a nearby hospital.

But police stopped the van, pulled out the people accompanying those who had
been shot and began beating them with wooden batons. The fate of those who
were shot was not known.

Protesters clashed with police in Suez and Alexandria as well. In Suez, a
port city that has been the site of some of the most intense confrontations
this week, thousands of protesters overwhelmed riot police after a two-hour
battle at a police station.

The protesters hurled what appeared to be gasoline bombs at armored
personnel carriers, setting at least a half dozen of the vehicles on fire
with the occupants inside. The protesters then freed the prisoners who were
being held at the station. They began looting, carting off anything they
could find in the police building, including weapons. Police fled.

Like previous demonstrations this week, Friday's rallies appeared to be
primarily made up of secular, middle-class citizens demanding the end of the
decades-long rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. A government shutdown
of Internet connections and cellphone service, intended to disrupt
communication among the demonstrators, appeared to have little impact.

"This is no longer a time of fear. It's a time of change," said Mohammed
Nabil, a 35-year-old doctor participating in his first protest. "We want
Mubarak to leave and end 30 years of oppression."

Mohamed ElBaradei, a political reform advocate and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate who returned to Egypt from abroad to participate, was placed under
house arrest Friday, the Associated Press reported.

ElBaradei, the former chief of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy
Agency, has said he wants to lead Egypt in a peaceful transition to
democratic government. He could challenge Mubarak in the presidential
election in September.

Across Cairo, as the sun set, clouds of tear gas hovered near virtually
every minaret on the skyline, marking the spots where the demonstrations
began. A roar of chanting and cheering rose from the crowds on the streets,
accompanied by the near-constant wail of sirens and the staccato beat of
gunfire and exploding tear gas canisters.

On the 6th of October bridge - so named to commemorate the 1973 Arab
invasion of 
Israel<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/israel.html?nav=el>that
launched the Yom Kippur War - and on other spans over the Nile,
protesters repeatedly surged forward from one end, only to be driven back by
police surging from the other. The demonstrators were trying to converge on
the centrally located Tahrir Square, where about 15,000 demonstrators
protested Tuesday. But police continued to blockade it.

Live video showed <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr-R7d40_s0> seas of
people swarming against row after row of helmeted police, who struck the
protesters repeatedly with wooden batons. Clouds of tear gas and deluges
from water cannons dispersed the masses momentarily. But the protesters soon
converged again, chanting slogans.

Protesters called for the U.S. government to support their cause. Osama
el-Ghazi Harb, a prominent Egyptian writer, held aloft an empty tear gas
cannister that only minutes earlier had been fired at him and several
hundred other protesters.

"I'm very sorry to say that it was made in the U.S.A.," Harb said. "The U.S.
must condemn this use of force and, at the proper moment, tell Mubarak to
get out."

The crowds shouted "Down, down, Hosni Mubarak" and stamped on posters of the
president. Protesters waved Egyptian flags and occasionally thew stones, but
for the most part remained peaceful.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, had largely been
absent from the protests that have roiled the nation this week. But the
group said it would fully participate in Friday's demonstrations, potentially
drawing many more people <http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=27941> to
the streets.

The showdown Friday could be a crucial test of Mubarak's staying power.
Egypt's Internet and cellphone shutdown appeared to be the most drastic move
against anti-government activists' use of technology since the Iranian
government cracked down on protests in 2009. Overnight, security services
raided the homes of opposition leaders - including those of the Muslim
Brotherhood - and arrested dozens.

Neither Mubarak, who has ruled here for 30 years, nor his son, Gamal, a
possible successor, has appeared in public since the demonstrations began
Tuesday.

But Safwat el-Sharif, secretary general of Mubarak's ruling National
Democratic Party, expressed sympathy for protesters' concerns Thursday and
said the party was "ready for a dialogue" with youth activists, whom he
applauded for expressing their views and described as "Egypt's future."

Nevertheless, Sharif discouraged demonstrators from gathering Friday.
Egypt's Interior Ministry has banned all demonstrations and arrested
hundreds, defying a call by the United States to allow peaceful protests.

"The minority does not force its will on the majority," Sharif told
journalists as he spoke beneath a large photograph of Mubarak at his party's
headquarters in Cairo a short walk from Tahrir Square.

Egypt's protesters have said they were inspired by Tunisia, where
demonstrators ousted the country's president this month. But Sharif said
Egypt would not "imitate" other countries.

This week's demonstrations have fed uncertainty about Mubarak's political
future and Egyptian stability and wreaked havoc on the local stock market,
which was halted for a half-hour on Thursday amid a steep slide in shares.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed on Friday for Egypt's leaders
and its people not to let violence escalate.

"All concerned, people or leaders, should ensure that the situation in that
region, particularly in Egypt should not lead to further violence," Ban said
at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

*wit...@washpost.com zachar...@washpost.com*

*Correspondent Leila Fadel in Suez, special correspondent Sherine Bayoumi in
Cairo and staff writers William Branigin and Mary Beth Sheridan in
Washington contributed to this report.*


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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