EGYPT: Opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei accuses U.S. of dropping the ball

Egyptian dissident Mohamed ElBaradei called the U.S. position on the Egyptian crisis a disappointment and condemned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's early Satruday morning speech as "almost an insult to the intelligence of the Egyptian people." 

ElBaradei also said in an interview with the English-language segment of France 24 that he would continue to speak out against Mubarak's regime, whether he was under house arrest or not, until the president leaves office.  

"I will continue to participate in whatever it takes to make sure that the Mubarak regime should leave," he said. "I think that there is a consensus here in Egypt in every part of society that this is a regime that is dictatorial, that has failed to deliver on economic, social or political fronts and that we need a new beginning, an Egypt that is free, that is democratic and we need to go through a transitional period."

ElBaradei said Egyptians had hoped that Mubarak would have announced his resignation earlier on Saturday, "but at the last minute he came out with an empty statement which was a huge disappointment to the Egyptian people."

Mubarak, he said, doesn't have a clue.

"He obviously did not understand the message from the Egyptian people," ElBaradei said. "It was almost an insult to the intelligence of the Egyptian people to tell them that  the only response is that I will have a new government. People know full well that he is in charge of every aspect of running the country. He did not elaborate on one single economic or social reform."

ElBaradei said he expected "more demonstrations and larger demonstrations" especially since the police appeared to have handed control of the streets to the army. "It's the army that has taken over and the army traditionally never really clashes with the Egyptian people, so I hope he will understand the message before things get ugly," he said. 

As for the U.S., ElBaradei said the leadership had fallen short of Egyptians' expectations.

"What is ... very disappointing to the Egyptian people is the message coming from the U.S., which is saying that we are going to work with the Egyptian people and with the government," he said. "Well, you have to make a choice. This is an authoritarian government and on the other hand the people have been deprived of their freedom for 58 years."

In general, ElBaradei predicted the situation would worsen before it got any better. "Things do not look good here," he said. "People are very frustrated and I think the situation will escalate in my view."

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-- Borzou Daragahi in Tunis, Tunisia

Photo: Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, left, is greeted by followers and protesters during Friday prayers before a protest in Cairo. Credit: Yannis Behrakis / Reuters

Comments

[Dr. Saud Baqawi]

I believe that what Dr. Baradei said is true. The USA has dropped the ball. I thought President Obama will be more assertive to press for USA vital interests but it seems that he is no better than his predessor Bush. Isreal is more important than USA vital interests. The Arab world revolt against the ailing and sick and ineffective rulers has been started by Mohammed AL bouAizizi in his vegetables' cart in Sedi BouZaid in Tunisia. I am sure this revelution will spread across the Arab world.

[bill]

"deprived of their freedom" these people cant handle freedom b/c they think its anarchy. they are trashing their country and its not comming back. i guess these people want to live in a country like afganistan thats just about complete disorder. they have a so-called "dictator" head of state for a reason b/c thats what they understand. now they will have no state but chaos. its very scary to see this

[Montana Gold-]

One word... REVOLUTION. That's when the gloves come off and the tree of liberty needs watering.

[trajan]

Once again President Obama looks weak and indecisive. Remember when President Kennedy went to Berlin and said, " Ich bin ein Berliner" President Kennedy gave a big moral boost to West Berliners in the face of East German occupation. Now what is Obama doing? Secretly hoping that Mubarak cracks down on the protesters so that everything goes back to normal? Its amazing how those fighting the good fight expose our own corrupt government everytime. It is not supposed to be that way. We are supposed to be the ones representing the ideas of freedom around the world. im sorry to see Obama turning out to be no better than Bush. What another lost opportunity!

[dave sadler]

Yup! save king Tut .as a boy king he did a much better job for the people than Mubarak........

[dhwj]

El Baradei the incompetent.

Does he think the world forgets he was the head of the UN watch dog agency that kept saying that IRAN was forthcoming in its disclosures of nuclear activity and that IRAN was not intending to make nuclear weapons.

Only as he was going out the door did he admit that he had been wrong at every step of the process.

The guy is a bureaucratic hack not worthy of mention.

[John]

Idiot! How the US stop giving your stupid 3rd world country billions of aid.

[kathyo1]

The last thing the U.S. needs is to stick its nose in this chaos. We're still a little busy dying over in Afghanistan, thank you very much. As for the Middle East, save the antiquities; however, to heck with the government.

[Cosmo Kramer]

El Baradei was a waste while governing the IAEA, allowing Iran to play its hand as it wished. Now he expects the US to jump into the fray and calls the US's response "disappointing".

The US has propped up long enough the Mubarak regime. Any change that would be initiated by the US would have been looked at as meddling in Egypt's affairs - which would have incensed the Arab world more.

Yes, Mubarak is a borderline dictator, but he danced to the US's fiddle. Now, his days are numbered and "regime change" will be the talk of the town again. Let the Egyptians sort it out for themselves and build a real democracy, if they want. It is their decision. The US will have to work with the new government to do its best to support the will of the people - which I believe would prove to strengthen Egypt's resolve to remaining a somewhat stable nation. If radicals get in to the government, then expect the US to meddle to oust the regime or get its way.

[Munkle]

Members of Senate Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, which must approve appropriations to Mubarak government, "No More US Money for Mubarak, Mubarak OUT, period, end of story! Support the Egyptian people!" Even if Murak doesn't get it, make sure our own representatives do.
Capitol switchboard, ask for offices: 202-224-3121

* Senator Patrick Leahy (Chairman) (VT)
* Senator Daniel Inouye (HI)
* Senator Tom Harkin (IA)
* Senator Barbara Mikulski (MD)
* Senator Richard Durbin (IL)
* Senator Tim Johnson (SD)
* Senator Mary Landrieu (LA)
* Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ)

The White House
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
Webform for email: www.whitehouse.gov/contact

[Ron Ranft]

If Egypt gets rid of Mubarak the US will loose another country where we can send renditioned prisoners, or terrorists, or American citizens to be "aggressively interrogated" by proxy. I love how this country touts itself as a beacon of democracy but every time the citizens of a country where we support a dictator rise up our illustrious leaders begin the mealy-mouthing and the let's pretend we didn't support the tyrant jitterbug. Obama gives a speech promoting democracy in the Middle East but I gather not that part of the Middle East. And good old Hillary hems and Haws every bit as good as Condileeza Rice did. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Tell me once again how Obama is so much better than Bush.

[jane]

There is no doubt that Mubarek's regime, like every other in the middle east, and Pakistan, is corrupt and high-level officials line their pockets with the billion$ in aid money from th U. S. so the people never see the money.

Other countries instead of giving aid in cash to the regimes, takes charge of building roads, buildings, infrastructure, schools, hospitals and other things that benefit the people which the people can SEE and they could say, "That's from the U. S." (or Japan - which is very clever at doing that with much smaller sums.)

BUT let's keep in mind that "freedom" for many of these people is a much more extremist Muslim sharia regime. The "cold peace" Mubarek has with Israel, continued from the Sadat era, is despised by many average Egyptians and although this is denied by the U. S. media, a lot of the underpinning of the anger against Mubarek is that he's seen as too sympathetic to the U. S. and Israel and seen as not doing enough to "free the Palestinians." The comment from Mohammed Nagy below is typical.

I have visited Egypt several times and while I found most people friendly to the U. S., when you get out of the central city of Cairo and out to the suburbs and to the heart of Egypt where people are not cosmopolitan, there is a much more fundamentalist, what we'd consider "extremist" mentality taking hold.

Wherever we traveled to look at ancient sites like Dendara (a tiny part of which is in the Met in New York, as a focal point), we had to have our tourist caravan escorted by soldiers to protect us. Violence is barely under control, so keep that in mind when we ask Mubarek to give open reign to all opposition. There are extreme clerics as well as moderate opposition. We've also seen increasing violence against Christians although Coptic Christianity in Egypt precedes Islam - it's been only the government which protects them.

This explosion of anger is partly a manifestation of that and would be dangerous to real freedom. Religious extremists abhor freedom for anyone but themselves. Be careful wht you ask for in wanting "democracy," these people are on the whole not like the west, but we may get what we see in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the tribal areas. And a regime which secretly aids America's enemies while continuing to take and pocket our money until/ unless we wise up and donate it more wisely.

By the way the photos in this same paper of the burning government building next to the Museum, which is literally stuffed to the gills and rafters with invaluable ancient artifacts, and endangers the museum itself of burning or collapse and looting, speaks volumes too about the motives of some of these protesters. Remember how the National Museum in Iraq was looted, a treasure trove gone forever? How the giant statue of Buddha on the mountainside of Afghanistan was only one of many such barbaric destructions? (Extremists believe all visual depictions are a defilement and so justify destroying all Buddhas, and many think nothing of ancient artifacts, to them they're just "old stuff from the past, no value."

Any one half of one room of which would be the pride of any western museum (which would have safeguarded and cared for these artifacts much better had politics and national pride not gotten in the way). The loss of any part of the museum would be catastrophic to the world as a whole. It's good to learn that a cordon of average young men has circled the building to help the police.

[Clive R]

We, in the U.S. have a long history of allowing our government to prop-up despots. We, and the rest of the world, must then deal with the inevitable results. We, in the U.S., fail to run our own nation equitably, comforting the the rich and, squeezing & deceiving the rest of us into consumerist 'submission'. We've sold our souls to the corporations.

[SNL]

Regardless of the US "response", this is an Egyptian issue. People love to scrutinize what the US does and does not do in international affairs. We are always damned if we do and damned if we don't. I for one can say that I had no idea of Egypts governments brutality because it honestly didn't affect me. I realize the de-stabalization in the reagion can have a domino effect on the world economy and security, but for now the people need to be heard. I am not Egyptian, but I can say that I am proud of the Egyptian people and how they are standing up for themselves. Hopefully the casualties are low, Mubarak is replaced, and the power vacuum is filled by a government that puts its people first. Again....this is not a US issue, its Egyptian.

[Public Advocate]

It's obvious that Obama and the U.S. would prefer and supports a more democratic government in Eygpt. But it's also clear that the U.S. must be prepared to deal with whoever is in power after the dust settles. ElBaradei should not blame the U.S. for Eygpt's troubles. ElBaradei is one of a number of Nobel Peace Prize winners who didn't deserve any consideration much less the award itself. Nonetheless he would likely be a much better leader for Eygpt than Mubarak or many alternatives. Here's hoping for a peaceful revolution and a goverment that represents the people without caving into radical Islam.

[pat]

How sad that Obama cannot show more decisive leadership at this time. He should stop thinking "strategically" and speak the right words in support of the people of Egypt. Once again I fear we will end up on the wrong side of more dictatorships.

[Josh B.]

Wow - a bunch of thoughtful, reflective comments - so unusual for an on-line Times article!! Where are all the Right-Wing wack-o's who usually spam these sections?!?

Perhaps this complex issue of Arabs fighting for democracy doesn't fit neatly into their over-simplified view of the world. The conservative spam-bots are waiting for their talking points from their leaders.

[jojo]

It is in the interests of America (the People) to always support popular revolt.
"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
All this traditional mealy mouthed triangulation from "the Hope & Change™" administration further reveals them as run of the mill Statists....

[oldusedcop]

These responses appear to overlook two salient facts, the first being the absolute ineptitude of the present US administration, including the Secretary of State, to deal with matters foreign or domestic. The other fact should be obvious. Governments deal with governments. In terms of one government's relationship to another, the "will of the people" is irrelevant.

[Lenny]

He is right, the US response has embarrassed me as a US citizen