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Israel evacuated military outpost near Rafah hours before Sinai attack

MEMO | August 8, 2012

Israel evacuated military outpost near Rafah hours before Sinai attackThe Israel Defence Forces knew about the attack which targeted an Egyptian army post on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and evacuated an outpost close to the area where the attack took place in advance of the incident. The IDF’s southern area commander was involved in taking the decision to evacuate army personnel.

According to reports on Hebrew Radio, intelligence warning about Sunday’s attack was received last Friday; this pushed the IDF to take a number of preventive measures a few hours before the bombings. The moves included ordering all Israeli tourists and nationals to leave Sinai and the evacuation of an Israeli military outpost near the attack site.

The radio reports claim that the IDF noticed a small Egyptian armoured vehicle about two kilometres from the border which started to weave its way around concrete barriers before it was fired upon by the Israeli soldiers. Nevertheless, the vehicle managed to make its way towards the Karam Abu Salem crossing point where heavy machine guns were used against it. It is alleged that the focus was on a small cart which apparently contained high explosives and exploded as soon as it was targeted by the Israelis.

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August 9, 2012 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism | , , , | Leave a comment

Muslim Brotherhood: “Israel Is Connected To Sinai attack”

By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC News | August 07, 2012

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt stated that Sunday’s attack against an Egyptian military base in the Sinai, “could be attributed to the Israeli Mossad”, adding that this attack aimed to foil efforts of newly-elected Islamist President Mohammad Morsi.

In an online statement, the Brotherhood said that Israel is trying to foil the achievements of the Egyptian revolution that removed former President Hosni Mubarak from power. The Brotherhood added, “this attack pushes all related sides into reconsidering the articles of the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement”.

The Brotherhood stated that after the Egyptian revolution several groups tried to sabotage popular achievements and began plotting against the country and its people.

“Yesterday, a group of criminals attacked our policemen, killed nearly twenty soldiers, brothers, in an ugly crime, before the criminals managed to hijack two armored vehicles and drove them towards the border”, the Brotherhood said. “Immediately after the attack, Zionist media agencies accused fighters in Gaza of being behind the criminal attack; the timing of the attack comes to create a rift between Gaza and Egypt”.

The Brotherhood also said that the attack aims to prove the failure of the new Egyptian government, formed just three days ago, “to foil the reform agenda of the newly elected Islamic president”.

“This crime carries the signature of the Israeli Mossad as Israel has been trying to sabotage the achievements of the revolution, especially when taking into consideration that just a few days before this attack was carried out, Israel called on its tourists to leave Sinai”, the Brotherhood added.

The Muslim Brotherhood further called on the Egyptian people to counter the criminal activities collaborators, and to stand with the newly elected president in his efforts to restore law and order, and to maintain a strong security situation.

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August 7, 2012 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism | , , , , | Leave a comment

August 5 Sinai Attack Bears All the Hallmarks of an Israeli False Flag

By Martin Iqbal  | EmpireStrikesBlack | August 6th, 2012

On Sunday 5 August a number of unidentified militants carried out an attack in the Egyptian Sinai in which several Egyptian soldiers were killed, and Israel’s border was penetrated. After Iftar as the Egyptian Muslims were breaking their fast, unknown militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers and stole an Egyptian armoured vehicle. Using a pick-up truck packed with explosives, the militants breached the Egypt-Israel border at the ‘Kerem Shalom’ crossing and subsequently drove approximately one mile into Israel using the armoured vehicle they had commandeered.

This event brings severe geopolitical repercussions for Egypt, and is characterised by extremely suspicious circumstances. Resultingly we must carefully consider this attack within its proper context.

Israel had foreknowledge of the attack

The Israeli military knew in advance that the Sinai attack would occur, which even allowed them to have aircraft defending the area in advance – hence why the armoured vehicle was blown up shortly after crossing the border and the attack was thwarted within 15 minutes of its advent.(1) IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz wasted no time in pointing out that “a large disaster was averted.”

This begs the question, why did the Israelis not inform the Egyptian military to allow them to prevent the attack in the first instance? The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports,(2)

Israeli intelligence had information on the planned attack, which allowed the military to have helicopters in the area to strike the vehicle, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said Monday.

Israel and Egypt remained in close contact during the attack, Barak said, according to reports.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak curiously blamed the attack on an unidentified ‘global’ Jihadi terror group. Although Barak is unable to identify the group, we are supposed to believe his alarmist assertion that it is global in nature.

Compulsive liar and Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, tried to pin the attack on Iran within hours, stating on his Twitter account,

“Iranian backed terrorists again struck at our Southern border today killing 15 Egyptian guards and attempting to massacre Israeli civilians,”

Obviously it was too soon for him to be in possession of evidence linking the attack to Iran, and Oren subsequently deleted his Twitter post. Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu did precisely the same thing with regard to the Burgas terror attack in Bulgaria, subsequently retracting his claim that Iran was behind the carnage, instead blaming Hezbollah. At the time of writing, the identity of the perpetrator of the Burgas attack is unknown to Bulgarian and US authorities.

Late last year MK Aryeh Eldad, foaming at the mouth, stressed that “World public opinion should be prepared“(3) for Israel waging war on Egypt, should Egypt deploy more troops in the Sinai than what has been agreed in the Egypt-Israel ‘Peace’ treaty. Today however, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is demanding that Egypt step up its military control of the Sinai:(1)

“Perhaps this will be necessary wake-up call for the Egyptians to take matters in their hands in a more serious way,”

Israel’s designs on the Sinai

There are alarming indications that Sunday’s events were a false flag attack designed to give Israel the pretext it requires to carry forward its regional agenda. The Sinai raid must be considered within the context of Israel’s longstanding designs on the Sinai Peninsula.

In February 1982 an important Hebrew paper appeared in a Jewish journal named KIVUNIM (Directions). Penned by Oded Yinon and titled ‘A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties‘, the essay delineates strategies for Israel to become a regional hegemon in the Middle East. The short and long term strategies discussed involve the dissolution of the surrounding Arab states, and the expansion of Israel beyond its current undeclared borders.

Israel covets the Sinai for not only ideological reasons (the realisation of ‘Eretz Yisrael’ – Greater Israel), but also economic ones. Yinon makes no secret of Israel’s designs on the Sinai:

The loss of the Suez Canal oil fields, of the immense potential of the oil, gas and other natural resources in the Sinai peninsula which is geomorphologically identical to the rich oil-producing countries in the region, will result in an energy drain in the near future and will destroy our domestic economy: one quarter of our present GNP as well as one third of the budget is used for the purchase of oil. The search for raw materials in the Negev and on the coast will not, in the near future, serve to alter that state of affairs.

(Regaining) the Sinai peninsula with its present and potential resources is therefore a political priority which is obstructed by the Camp David and the peace agreements. The fault for that lies of course with the present Israeli government and the governments which paved the road to the policy of territorial compromise, the Alignment governments since 1967. The Egyptians will not need to keep the peace treaty after the return of the Sinai, and they will do all they can to return to the fold of the Arab world and to the USSR in order to gain support and military assistance. American aid is guaranteed only for a short while, for the terms of the peace and the weakening of the U.S. both at home and abroad will bring about a reduction in aid. Without oil and the income from it, with the present enormous expenditure, we will not be able to get through 1982 under the present conditions and we will have to act in order to return the situation to the status quo which existed in Sinai prior to Sadat’s visit and the mistaken peace agreement signed with him in March 1979.

Israel’s ultra-secure border was penetrated during the August 5 attack in which 16 Egyptian soldiers were killed; the operation was sophisticated and ambitious. Considering this in hand with the fact that Israel had foreknowledge of the event, it is highly likely that this attack was carried out by (or with the support of) Israel’s notorious ‘thou shalt wage war by deception‘ intelligence agency, the Mossad.

The raid serves as a perfect pretext for Israel to realise its desire to reoccupy the Sinai. As Israeli propagandists crawl out of the woodwork and baselessly blame unknown ‘global’ terror groups in addition to Iran, we would be terminally foolish not to treat this event with the utmost suspicion.

Notes

(1) ‘Barak hopes Sinai attack will be a ‘wake-up call’ for Egypt’ – Jerusalem Post, 6 August 2012
(2) ‘Barak calls Sinai attack, border inflitration a ‘wake-up call’ for Egypt’ – Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 6 August 2012
(3) ‘MK: Prepare for War If Egypt Deploys in Sinai’ – Arutz Sheva, 27 November 2011

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August 6, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, False Flag Terrorism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Analysts say Sinai attack attempt to strain Egypt-Gaza relations

Ma’an – August 6, 2012

GAZA CITY – The attack on a Sinai police station that killed 16 Egyptian officers on Sunday was an attempt to strain relations between Egypt and Gaza, political analysts said Monday.

“What happened in Egypt was a crime and organized terror meant to drive a wedge in Palestinian-Egyptian relations. It is possible that external hands are interfering with Egypt after Muhammad Mursi became president,” Gaza-based analyst Mustafa al-Sawwaf told Ma’an.

Palestinians have no interest in attacking Egyptian forces, but Israel has been unsettled by the improvement in relations between Gaza rulers Hamas and Egypt’s recently elected Muslim Brotherhood president, al-Sawwaf said.

Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown by a citizen revolt in Jan. 2011, had played a key role in maintaining Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip, but Mursi has pledged measures to ease the blockade and held several high-level meetings with Hamas.

Al-Sawwaf said some parties within Egypt and at an international level were uncomfortable with Hamas’ friendly relations with Mursi. Hamas has condemned the Sinai attack and vowed not to let anyone threaten Egypt’s security.

Faysal Abu Shalha, a Fatah MP in Gaza, said he hoped Mursi would still implement his pledges to aid Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

But Akram Atallah, a political analyst based in Bethlehem, said he feared residents of Gaza could pay a heavy price for the deaths of the Egyptian officers, particularly if militants in Gaza were involved in the attack.

Mursi had promised to extend the opening hours of the Rafah crossing but Egyptian security officials said the Egypt-Gaza border was indefinitely closed in the wake of the attack.

Attallah told Ma’an he suspected Israel was involved in the attack. He said Israel knew about the raid and noted that it had advised its citizens to leave Sinai days earlier.

He added that Israeli forces assassinated a man in Gaza earlier on Sunday claiming that he was involved in a plot “to execute a terror attack against Israeli civilians via the Israel-Egypt border.”

Hamza Abu Shanab, a Gaza-based analyst, said the Sinai attack was an opportunity for Mursi to cancel Egypt’s 1979 peace agreement with Israel.

The Camp David agreement limits the number of soldiers Egypt can deploy to Sinai, Abu Shanab noted, and so Mursi must ask Israel’s permission to enlarge its force in the peninsula.

An Israeli refusal would be embarrassing as Tel Aviv has called on Cairo to tighten its grip on Sinai, Abu Shanab added.

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August 6, 2012 Posted by | False Flag Terrorism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel Siphons off Africa’s Nile

By Jomana Farhat | Al Akhbar | July 30, 2012

Egyptian and Sudanese policy failures have lead to a looming strategic threat to both countries’ most important resources – the Nile. Israel has now signed an agreement with the South Sudanese authorities over rights to the country’s precious water source.

There was an outcry in Egypt and Sudan over last week’s signing of a cooperation agreement between Israel and South Sudan on water infrastructure and technology development. Warnings abounded that the pact between the government in Juba and Israeli Military Industries Ltd posed a threat to the water security of the two downstream countries and should be countered. Largely overlooked was the fact that their own inaction was mostly to blame for it.

Israeli designs on the waters of the Nile and on the resources of the African continent are hardly new. For years Israel has striven hard to forge ties with a number of African states and strengthen its presence in the continent, for both economic and security reasons.

In South Sudan, Israel has flaunted its ties with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) – now the new country’s absolute ruler – and other southern faction leaders ever since the first southern rebellion began in Sudan in the 1950s. This was in line with a longstanding strategic doctrine, which was revisited in a 2008 lecture on Israel’s regional strategy by former Israeli security minister Avi Dichter.

This doctrine held, among other things, that Sudan, with its vast resources and economic potential, should not be allowed to become an asset to the power of the Arab world as a whole. As development in a stable Sudan would make it a threat to Israel, despite its geographical distance, Israel and its agencies should actively encourage the destabilization of the country by fueling successive crises until that instability becomes chronic.

The other acknowledged motive for Israeli intervention in Sudan was that the country constitutes the “strategic depth” of Egypt. In this regard, nothing could conceivably pose a greater strategic concern to Egypt and Sudan alike than a potential threat to their supplies of water from the Nile. Israel has succeeded in mounting such a threat with its latest pact with South Sudan and earlier agreements with other Nile littoral states in recent years.

The move comes against a backdrop of tensions over water issues between Egypt and Sudan and the majority of the other Nile Basin countries (the other riparian states are Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Eritrea, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda).

Most of the upstream countries want major changes made to the arrangements that have long governed the management of the Nile’s waters. These include a 1929 agreement which requires Egypt to approve any large-scale water projects in upstream countries that would affect the flow of Nile waters. They also oppose a 1959 pact that allocates an annual 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water to Egypt and 18.5 billion cubic meters to Sudan, which they argue is unfair. Six countries have demanded a reallocation under a proposed new Entebbe Agreement, but Egypt and Sudan have rejected it. The pair – especially Egypt, which since ancient times has relied on the Nile for more than 95 percent of its water – would rather keep their historic shares, and insist there can be no new water agreement until contentious issues have been resolved.

Egyptian and Sudanese objections will not, however, stop South Sudan – which with its independence became the Nile’s 11th riparian state – and other countries from proceeding with large-scale water projects to meet their pressing development needs. These are bound to increase their consumption and impede the downstream flow. South Sudan occupies a strategic location in this regard, with about 45 percent of the Nile Basin’s water in its territory, and 28 percent of the river’s water flowing through it to Sudan and Egypt.

Yet both countries could have acted to avoid getting to this point.

Sudan’s relations with South Sudan began deteriorating from the moment the latter seceded, with political, territorial and financial disputes triggering military confrontation within months. The opportunity was missed of holding negotiations prior to independence on what proportion the South would get of Sudan’s water allocation, which would have enabled Khartoum to safeguard its interests. Water issues have since been overshadowed by other quarrels.

For Egypt, the Nile Water question arguably represents the greatest of the country’s many Mubarak-era foreign policy failures. The former regime neglected Africa diplomatically, and failed to sustain Egypt’s once-strong relations with the countries concerned. Its most tangible failure in this regard was its inability to persuade South Sudan to agree to the resumption of work on the long-stalled Jonglei Canal project, designed to save between 40 and 50 billion cubic meters of Nile water annually from evaporation.

Israel was quick to fill the vacuum. It has seized every possible opportunity to offer its backing to water projects in the upstream countries, through which to both put pressure on Egypt and Sudan, and gain leverage to help overcome its own water shortage.

July 30, 2012 Posted by | Economics, Timeless or most popular | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ahmadinejad personally invites Morsi to attend Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran

Mehr News Agency | July 21, 2012

TEHRAN – In a telephone conversation earlier this month President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad personally invited his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Morsi to attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran in late August, the aharam online said on its website on Saturday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast has confirmed the invitation, describing Morsi as a principal guest of the the event.

The Mehr News Agency correspondent has learned that Mojtaba Hashemi-Samareh, the senior advisor to Ahmadinejad, will visit Cairo to deliver Ahmadinejad’s invitation letter to Morsi.

Egypt currently holds NAM presidency. It will hand over the presidency of the body to Iran for a period of three years. As of 2012, the movement had 120 members and 21 observer countries.

Relations between Egypt and Iran were strained since they severed diplomatic ties in 1980 following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

President Anwar Al-Sadat – a strong ally of the ousted monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – severely attacked the Islamic revolution.

Only a few months after Egypt’s 2011 uprising, the first Iranian envoy to Cairo in over 30 years was appointed. Months before that, Egypt had allowed two Iranian naval vessels pass through the Suez Canal, also a first-time event in 30 years.

July 21, 2012 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Morsi orders release of 572 inmates

Press TV – July 20, 2012

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has ordered the release of 572 people detained by the Army since last year’s revolution.

Morsi, who took office last month as Egypt’s first elected civilian president, on Thursday ordered military courts to grant amnesty to the defendants, AFP reported.

The Egyptian president earlier set up a committee to examine the cases of civilians put on trial by the military. The committee says 11,879 Egyptians were detained by the military throughout out the uprising that ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak. Out of them, 9,714 have since been released.

Human rights activists and bodies have unanimously called for the end of military trials of civilians.

“International law is crystal clear on this: No civilian, regardless of the crime, should be tried by a military court,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said this week.

“Military trials and arrests of civilians by the military have continued, despite the June 30 handover to civilian authority,” the HRW noted.

Sworn in on June 30, Morsi is locked in a power struggle with the powerful Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Last week, Egyptians thronged the iconic Tahrir Square in Cairo to express solidarity with Morsi over his decree to reconvene parliament.

The parliament, dominated by Muslim Brotherhood lawmakers, was dissolved in line with a ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court, based on a decision by the military, prior to the presidential elections.

July 19, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

JINSA: ‘Israel is winner of Arab Spring’

Rehmat’s World | July 17, 2012

In April 2011 – Turkish President Abdullah Gul in a New York Times Op-Ed, warned both Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama that the “Arab Revolution is aimed at Israel”. However, later events in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria proved that Abdullah Gul was totally wrong.

Last week, Gabriel M. Scheinmann, a visiting Fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), admitted that the Zionist entity is in fact the winner of the so-called “Arab Spring”.

“The so-called “Arab Spring” has, paradoxically, made Israel stronger as Israel’s enemies have turned on each other. While Arab capitals burn, Jerusalem has calmly and carefully steeled itself against the possible immediate deleterious effects, building fences along its Egyptian and Jordanian borders and accelerating the deployment of its Iron Dome anti-missile system,” wrote Scheinmann. He then added: “Even as it rightly plans for the changes wrought by the “Arab Spring”, Israel should also recognize that as the Middle East convulses, it is more likely to be left alone. As Alawites battle Arab Sunnis and Kurds in Syria, as Kurds target Turks in Turkey, as the Imazighen fight Arabs in Libya, as the Army contends with Islamists in Egypt, and as Sunnis and Christians confront Shiites in Lebanon, people don’t have the time, energy, or resources to fight the Jews in Israel. The more the region tears itself apart, the more Israel floats to the top, unscathed economically, militarily, or diplomatically. While an Islamist ascent is undesirable, the intervening disorder only makes Israel stronger.”

Karen DeYoung, in Gen. Colin Powell’s biography, ‘SOLDIER: The life of Colin Powell’, has quoted Powell twice saying that “the Iraq war was the product of Donald Rumsfeld’s absorption in the “JINSA crowd.” By the way, Dick Cheney was on JINSA’s Board of Advisors before becoming vice president, where he was joined by Ledeen, Feith, Perle, James Woolsey, and John Bolton.

Both AIPAC and JINSA are behind Washington’s regime change in Tehran.” So far the Israel lobby has failed to make its dream come true, as Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival, wrote: “The wars of 2001 and 2003 have fundamentally changed the Middle East to Iran’s advantage.”

Lebanon’s interior minister, retired Maj. Gen. Marwan Charbel in a recent interview with RT has claimed that the Zionist entity is the only country which has benefited from the so-called “Arab Spring”.

The so-called “Arab Spring” is the defacto working of Zionist elements in the United States. The brainchild is within the Israel-Firsters, and by extension the Zionist entity.

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July 17, 2012 Posted by | Deception, Timeless or most popular, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Egyptian court freezes Mursi decree

Al Akhbar |  July 10, 2012

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court on Tuesday froze a decree issued by President Mohamed Mursi reinstating the Islamist-led parliament, a judicial source said.

The decision is expected to raise tensions between Mursi, the top court and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) which handed over power to the new president at the end of June.

“The court ordered the freeze of the president’s decree,” the source said.

On Sunday, just eight days after taking office, Mursi, a former member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, ordered the lower house to reconvene.

His move highlighted the power struggle between the president and the Supreme Constitutional Court which last month said certain articles in the law governing the parliament elections were invalid, annulling the lower house.

The judicial source added: “The court ordered that its previous ruling (invalidating the elections and annulling the lower house) be implemented.”

The latest announcement came hours only after the dissolved parliament convened on Tuesday in defiance of the powerful SCAF and the judiciary.

“We are gathered today to review the court rulings, the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court,” which ordered the house invalid, speaker Saad al-Katatni said.

“I want to stress, we are not contradicting the ruling, but looking at a mechanism for the implementation of the ruling of the respected court. There is no other agenda today,” he added.

SCAF, which ruled Egypt after dictator Hosni Mubarak was ousted in last year’s popular uprising, dissolved the house and took legislative control using a document granting it supreme powers.

On Monday, the Supreme Constitutional Court rejected Mursi’s decree, saying that all of its rulings were binding.

“All the rulings and decisions of the Supreme Constitutional Court are final and not subject to appeal…and are binding for all state institutions,” it said.

And the military echoed it with a statement late on Monday saying the constitution and the law must be upheld.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

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July 10, 2012 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , , | Leave a comment

Egypt People’s Assemby refers own fate back to the Judiciary

Egypt’s reinstated lower house, the People’s Assembly resumes its sessions only to end them in minutes, referring its own fate back to the courts, possibly staving off a serious confrontation with the military

Ahram Online |  July 10, 2012

Within just minutes of starting, Egypt’s People’s Assembly speaker Saad El-Katatni ended the first session of the reinstated legislative body.

On 15 June, Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) ordered the dissolution of parliament based on a High Constitutional Court (HCC) ruling which rendered parliamentary elections law unconstitutional.

By presidential decree, the newly-inaugurated President Mohamed Morsi reinstated parliament on Sunday.

The parliament session opened Tuesday at 10:20am, with El-Katatni arguing that President Mohamed Morsi had not violated the HCC’s decision by reinstating parliament.

El-Katatni declared he will refer the HCC decision to the Appeal Court, saying parliament is aware of both its rights and responsibilities.

The People’s assembly sessions will not resume until the Appeal Court gives its verdict on the standing of members of the lower and upper houses of parliament based on Article 40 of the 30 March 2011 Constitutional Declaration which was issued by the SCAF.

The decision by the reinstated Islamist-dominated People’s Assembly to refer its fate to the courts is seen as a possible compromise between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Military Council, thus staving off what looked to be a serious constitutional and political crisis.

The Muslim Brotherhood called for a million-march for Tuesday on the group’s Twitter account linked to their official website Ikhwanweb to support President Mohamed Morsi’s decree.

Leftist and liberal party MP’s, including the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Tagammu Party, Wafd Party and Free Egyptians, boycotted the parliament session on Tuesday.

The prestigious Judge’s Club threatened on Monday to bring legal action against Morsi for “defying court orders.”

Clashes erupted outside of the People’s Assembly (lower house) as MPs deliberated for a total of 12 minutes.

The supporters of Mohamed Morsi’s presidential decree that gives parliament authority to continue its work chanted “The people and the president are one hand.”

Meanwhile, opponents of the decree chanted “Down with the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule.”

A melee broke out amidst the tension between the two sides.

Tuesday, the High Constitutional Court (HCC), Egypt’s highest judiciary body, is reviewing four cases challenging Morsi’s presidential decree.

The HCC released a statement on Monday saying it is not party to political conflicts and that its decisions are “binding on all state institutions,” in reference to its mid-June ruling on consitutionality of parliamentary elections law.

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July 10, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Egyptian parliament dissolution “binding”

Al Akhbar | July 9, 2012

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court said on Monday that all of its rulings were “binding,” in response to a presidential decree reinstating parliament after the court ruled the house invalid.

“All the rulings and decisions of the Supreme Constitutional Court are final and not subject to appeal…and are binding for all state institutions,” the court said in a statement.

The court also stressed that it was “not a part of any political conflict… but the limit of its sacred duty is the protection of the texts of the constitution.”

The court had said certain articles in the law governing parliamentary elections were invalid, annulling the Islamist-led house.

President Mohammed Mursi had on Sunday annulled the decision, putting himself on a collision course with the judiciary and the military that enforced the ruling when it was in power.

Parliamentary Speaker Saad al-Katatni announced that the body’s next meeting would be on Tuesday, but that is likely to be delayed following the court ruling.

Activists have accused the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) of organizing a coup to increase their power.

The differing rulings of Mursi and the court illustrate the divides between SCAF and the president as Egypt negotiates its path towards democracy.

(Al-Akhbar, AFP)

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July 9, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , , , , | Leave a comment

Egypt’s military council to hold 2nd meeting on Morsi’s decision

Police have surrounded the area around the parliament

Press TV – July 9, 2012

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to decide in a meeting on President Mohamed Morsi’s order to reconvene the dissolved parliament.

Shortly after the announcement of Morsi’s order on Sunday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) held an emergency meeting, but it did not take any concrete action.

The military authorities are set to convene once again to discuss the consequences of the decree by the newly-elected president.

The Egyptian president ordered the country’s dissolved parliament to resume its legislative work, rejecting the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court’s ruling that said the country’s parliamentary elections about 7 months ago were unconstitutional.

The Egyptian president also called for holding new parliamentary elections within 60 days of the ratification of the new constitution for the North African state.

Protests have been going on since the junta dissolved the country’s parliament dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt’s junta also took control of the state budget and gave itself veto power on a new constitution, making the new president almost powerless through a recent constitutional declaration.

Despite Morsi’s calls for resumption of parliament’s legislative work, police have surrounded the area around the parliament , making the entrance to the parliament building almost impossible for lawmakers.

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July 9, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , , | Leave a comment

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