Queena Kim

'Ousted,' 'Mubarak Steps Down,' 'Mubarak Resigns' as President of Egypt


10:53 a.m. | Mubarak's getaway might not be as kush as he expected. CNN is reporting that the government of Switzerland has “moved Friday to freeze any assets in the country's banks that might belong to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak or his family.”

An official statement from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said the Swiss cabinet had frozen all funds belong to Mubarak or "his circles."

"The [government] intends in doing so to avoid any risk of embezzlement of Egyptian state property," the statement read. "At the same time, the cabinet calls on responsible authorities in Egypt to comply with the justified demands of the Egyptian people in a quick, credible, participatory and transparent manner." -From CNN's "Mubarak assets frozen by Swiss government" 

10:32 a.m. | While Egypt is just starting to celebrate, the news establishment is trying to figure out what’s the military’s next move and where goes Egypt?

The initial, albeit tepid, verdict is that while the leader is gone, the leadership agenda might remain the same.

Here are the basic facts as The New York Times is reporting it:

Shortly before the announcement of Mr. Mubarak’s departure, the military issued a communiqué pledging to carry out a variety of constitutional reforms in a statement remarkable for its commanding tone. The military’s statement alluded to the delegation of power to Mr. Suleiman and it suggested that the military would supervise implementation of the reforms.

The military did not indicate whether it intended to take the kinds of fundamental steps toward democracy that protesters have been demanding. This was the second direct statement from the military in two days, and it largely stuck to the main constitutional and electoral reforms that Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Suleiman had promised to implement. It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Suleiman would retain a role, under the military council, in running the country. -From the NYT's story "Mubarak Steps Down, Ceding Power to Military"

Here's the NYT’s Nicholas Kristof's take on the reporting. To put this in context, this paragraph comes after two paragraphs celebrating the Egyptians’ triumph!

But the game isn’t over, and now a word of caution. I worry that senior generals may want to keep (with some changes) a Mubarak-style government without Mubarak. In essence the regime may have decided that Mubarak had become a liability and thrown him overboard — without any intention of instituting the kind of broad, meaningful democracy that the public wants. Senior generals have enriched themselves and have a stake in a political and economic structure that is profoundly unfair and oppressive. And remember that the military running things directly really isn’t that different from what has been happening: Mubarak’s government was a largely military regime (in civilian clothes) even before this. Mubarak, Vice President Suleiman and so many others — including nearly all the governors — are career military men. So if the military now takes over, how different is it? - From Kristof's blog On the Ground

10:03 a.m. | After Hosni Mubarak defied expectations last night — and didn’t resign — the announcement this morning came as a surprise and of course everybody is asking : What happened? 

The speculations are heating up and here’s one from Ahram Online, which posits the theory that Mubarak went off-script last night and broke his agreement with the military.

Maj. Gen. Safwat El-Zayat, a former senior official of Egypt’s General Intelligence and member of the Egyptian Council of Foreign Affairs, asserted, in an interview with Ahram Online, that the address delivered by President Mubarak last night was formulated against the wishes of the armed forces, and away from their oversight. He claimed that Vice Preisdent Omar Suleiman’s address, which came on the heels of Mubarak’s address, was equally in defiance of the armed forces and away from its oversight.

Attributing this information to his own sources within the Egyptian military, Maj. Gen. El-Zayat said there was now a deep cleavage between the armed forces, represented in its Supreme Council, and the Presidential authority, represented in both President Mubarak and his Vice President, Omar Suleiman.

-From Ahram Online's story "Army and presidency at odds - says former intelligence official"

9:51 a.m. | These headlines flashed on the Web this morning as Hosni Mubarak resigned from his post as president and turned over power to the military.

If you want to see the celebration live, Al Jazeera is streaming on YouTube right now. Click here.

Stay tuned here for an update of news around the Web.

Queena Kim
Queena comes to the Bay Citizen from 89.3-KPCC, Southern California’s leading NPR-affiliate, where she helped start-up its highly-successful arts and culture show Off-Ramp. As a reporter and co-producer of the show, Queena has done hundreds ... View Profile
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