Archive for December, 2012

Egyptian Liberals Say Western Media is Failing Them

by Cynthia Farahat on December 14, 2012
Interview with Epoch Timeson December 11, 2012

Violence, suffering ignored, say activists

By Anna Skibinsky
Epoch Times Staff
Egyptian protesters gather outside of the presidential palace in Cairo on Dec. 4. While American media coverage of Arab Spring protests was thorough, Egyptian activists say the truth of widespread protest and violence under President Morsi is barely acknowledged. (Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images)Egyptian protesters gather outside of the presidential palace in Cairo on Dec. 4. While American media coverage of Arab Spring protests was thorough, Egyptian activists say the truth of widespread protest and violence under President Morsi is barely acknowledged. (Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images)

Egyptian protesters gather outside of the presidential palace in Cairo on Dec. 4. While American media coverage of Arab Spring protests was thorough, Egyptian activists say the truth of widespread protest and violence under President Morsi is barely acknowledged. (Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON—Egypt’s liberal Arab Spring veterans are disappointed at what they are calling American media’s unaggressive coverage of last week’s protests that turned violent and deadly.

As Facebook newsfeeds and YouTube channels are filled with images of anti-government protesters covered in blood, activists complain that the U.S. media and government seem largely unmoved by their plight. The activists say American media and officials barely acknowledge the beating, abduction, and killing of liberal Egyptians in a return of Mubarak-style violent politics.

“I expect the Western press to report the events and the surrounding narrative as if it were happening in the West, not with a logic that assumes that ‘things are different in the Middle East,’” said Aly, one of the founders of a Facebook page dedicated to the issue titled Bring the Noise Egyptian Revolution 2.0, in a Facebook chat. Aly is an MIT graduate currently protesting in Cairo.

According to Bring the Noise, Western media outlets appeared indifferent when suspected Muslim Brotherhood (Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s party) militia attacked and wounded members of the liberal opposition, including journalist Husseini Abu Deif on Dec. 5.

Abu Deif is now hospitalized and in critical condition, according the Egypt Independent.

Egyptian dissident and associate fellow at the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum Cynthia Farahat spoke at a rally in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

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Arabic Interview On Iraq Hurr TV

by Cynthia Farahat on December 12, 2012

13.12.2012

أعربت واشنطن من خلال المتحدثة بأسم الخارجية الاميركية فكتوريا نولاند, ووسائل إعلام, ومعاهد بحوث, عن قلقها إزاء التطورات المتلاحقة في مصر, في حين أُرجأت الزيارة المقررة للرئيس محمد مرسي الى واشنطن إلى أواخر  كانون الثاني المقبل, إلى جانب تخوف علني من أعضاء في الكونغرس, لما قد يحدث في المرحلة الأتية وعشية الإستفتاء.
الناطقة بلسان المعارضة المصرية بواشنطن سينتيا فرحات, تحدثت عن ذلك في حوار مع إذاعة العراق الحر, ورفضت جميع المحاولات لأعطاء صفة الشرعية للإستفتاء على مسودة الدستور, لأنه  في الأساس غير شرعي وغير دستوري, مطالبة بإلغائه, وتشكيل لجنة جديدة لصياغة دستور يمثل كل المصريين.
وأضافت فرحات أن إرسال 20 طائرة حربية لمصر, من قبل الولايات المتحدة, لا تدل على قلق الإدارة الأميركية, بل على مباركتها, كما قالت. أما بالنسبة للكونغرس فالوضع يختلف, لأن الكونغرس وضع شروطا على المعونة العسكرية لمصر, إلا أن الرئيس أوباما, يستخدم صلاحياته الرئاسية, لتجاوز هذه الشروط, على حد تعبيرها.
واشنطن قلقة من عدم إستقرار الاوضاع في مصر

Listen :

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Inside the Muslim Brotherhood Torture Chambers

by Cynthia Farahat on December 12, 2012

Mr. Mark Tapson quotes my post about the abduction of Ambassador Yahya Najm in Front Page Magazine

December 12, 2012 By 

As New York Times critics wring their hands over the depiction of “enhanced interrogation” in Zero Dark Thirty, the upcoming film about the raid that eliminated bin Laden, the newspaper glosses over the very real torture taking place at the hands of President Obama’s allies in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, whom the Timescontinues to describe as “moderate politicians.”

muslim-brotherhood-torture-chambers-discovered-obama-supports

According to journalist Mohamad Jarehi at the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, who spent three hours in the facilities with other journalists, the Muslim Brotherhood operates a network of torture chambers designed to violently intimidate President Mohammed Morsi’s opposition. This report comes a week after word surfaced that the Brotherhood is paying thugs to sexually assault women and beat men protesting in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Interview With Cynthia Farahat On Trento Vision TV

by Cynthia Farahat on December 10, 2012

My three hour interview with Tom Trento on Trento Vision TV  on December 10, 2012

Part 1: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/27634069

Part 2: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/27634846

Part 3: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/27635624

 

CairoGate: Egyptian Diplomat Survives MB Torture Says “It was like a Nazi camp”

by Cynthia Farahat on December 9, 2012

While America is still discussing Benghazi’s  9/11 terrorist attack and questioning whether Ambassador Chris Stevens and the four America heroes were killed by U.S. supplied arms to Libyan jihadists or not; it happens yet again! The founding fathers of al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) militants introduces the second act of the familiar horror in Cairo. But unlike Ambassador Stevens, Ambassador Najm lived against the dismay of the MB to speak the truth after he survived the horror.

The MB militia which is currently supported, funded and armed by the current U.S. administration, abducted the former Egyptian Ambassador to Venezuela Mr. Yehyia Najm, while he was peacefully protesting against Mohammed Morsi’s constitution and the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule last Wednesday. Mr. Najm who was exiled in Venezuela under Mubarak’s regime from 2005 to 2011 because of his opposition to Mubarak’s dictatorship, came back to a worse version of the same.

These are videos of Mr. Najm’s testimony in Arabic, and this is my translation of parts of his testimony from the time he went to the protest on Tuesday, to his abduction, torture, and imprisonment until he was finally released yesterday. The first video taken shortly after he was arrested and the second is his interview on Haya TV yesterday:

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Washington DC’s American-Egyptians’ March Against Tyranny

by Cynthia Farahat on December 9, 2012

Today hundreds of American-Egyptians from all religions and ethnicities marched from the White House to the Egyptian embassy in protest against Mohammed Morsi’s tyrannical theocratic dictatorial constitution, and President Obama’s administration support, funding, and now according to the Washington Times, arming Islamists with “more battle tanks and jet fighters” from the United States, which will be used by the Muslim Brotherhood religious and autocratic tyranny to subvert millions of protestors representing the vast majority of Egyptians. 

The protest was organized by The Egyptian Front for National Salvation and Coptic Solidarity to condemn the power grab and other illegitimate measures taken by Mohammad Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organization in Egypt.

The protest in DC had the same objectives as the protests in Egypt which are:

1. Annulment of the constitutional declaration of November 22nd

2. Cancellation of the referendum scheduled for December 15th, and discarding the subject Constitution Draft.

3. Disbanding the Constituent Assembly and forming a new one which truly represents all segments of the Egyptian society.

4. Strongly demanding a constitution in total accord with all international agreements and conventions which guarantees women rights, human rights and religious freedom to all citizens equally.

What The Media Won’t Tell You About Egypt: El-Mahala Al-Kubra City Council has Announced its Separation and Independence From Egypt’s Illegitimate Regime

by Cynthia Farahat on December 7, 2012

El-Masry Al-Youm reported today: El-Mahala Al-Kubra City Council has announced its separation and independence From Egypt’s Illegitimate Regime: 

Hundreds of protestors have taken over El-Mahala’s city council and hanged the sign of the “National Rescue Council,” a non-governmental organization against the Muslim Brotherhood’s regime. The organization’s  representative, Mahmoud EL-Samouli, and a member of Egypt’s Youth Revolutionary Coalition announced gave a speech in front of the city council announcing the illegitimacy of Mohammed Morsi’s regime and the independence of the govornorate from the current regime, and the establishment of an intermedium committee to conduct the city’s affairs, formed of local political parties, and politicians.

The current dissent is against Morsi’s tyrannical decree and the current constitutional draft, the announcement was followed by the chants of protestors:

“We don’t want it an Islamic state, we want it a civil state.”

 ”No to the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists, Egypt belongs to all Egyptians.” 

 

The David Madeira Show Interview

by Cynthia Farahat on December 4, 2012


Interview with The David Madeira Show about the uprising in Egypt against Mohammed Morsi.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tuesday, November 4th. Kenn Anderson on the sinking of the HMS bounty replica, Cynthia Farahat, Coptic Solidarity Advocacy Director and Associate Fellow at Middle East Forum.