UPDATE: Egyptian President Mubarak Will Reportedly Step Down
[President Hosni Mubarak is expected to say in a speech Tuesday night that he plans on stepping down at the next election scheduled in September, according to Reuters.He does plan to stay in office until then to meet the demands of the protesters.Al-Jazeera reports that the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv is making preparations to welcome him into exile.]
The Tundra Tabloids has serious doubts that Elbaradei will be sworn in as president, but in the event that takes place, he’ll have a whole group of bearded sheiks whispering into his ear and holding knives to his throat. KGS
Egypt Protests: Will the Real Mohammed ElBaradei Please Stand Up?
In the name of democratic reform, Mohammed ElBaradei is doing his best to appear as the annointed one to succeed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, should the government fall. In reality, ElBaradei has more in common with Iranian demagogue Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than anything remotely resembling democracy. He is the former Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where his primary legacy was running interference for Iran and ensuring that Iran is now on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons.
Year-after-year for a decade, ElBaradei used his position at the IAEA to stall for time on behalf of Iran. In September 2005 ElBaradei helped push the issue off the Security Council table and bragged: “I am encouraged that the issue has not been referred to the Security Council, precisely to give time for diplomacy and negotiation.” Typical of his foot-dragging was his February 2006 report: “Although the Agency has not seen any diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, the Agency is not at this point in time in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran. The process of drawing such a conclusion … is a time consuming process.”
In January 2007, in the midst of growing calls for sanctions against Iran, ElBaradei suggested a “time-out.” In September 2007, with stiffer sanctions on the horizon, ElBaradei again called for a “time-out.” In January 2008 the IAEA reported: “ElBaradei has repeatedly noted that … the IAEA has not seen any diversion of material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.”
