Mumia 'After all the juice is gone, they throw him away."

When Puppets Fall?
[col. writ. 1/29/11] (c) '11Mumia Abu-Jamal


It may prove too early to predict the fall of Egypt's 'President-for-Life', Husni Mubarak, but events do not look hopeful for long term success.

Mubarak's regime has been the cornerstone of U.S. Middle-East strategy for decades, for, as an Arab state (in North Africa), it boasts the biggest population -- and as Egypt goes, so goes the region.


Mubarak, who succeeded to power after the Army's assassination of Pres. Anwar el-Sadat on Oct. 4, 1981, stood by Sadat's peace deal with Israel, and has been more an ally of the West than of his Palestinian and Arab neighbors. For his services Egypt has been one of the biggest recipients of U.S. military aid in the region (after Israel, of course). Despite his long services to Western paymasters, Mubarak is being prepped for an unwilling retirement.

This is especially remarkable given what seemed to be a charmed ability to survive seeming disaster, for he stood within arm's length when the Army delivered the coup de grace to Sadat, and he escaped assassination himself during his Ethiopia trip in June, 1995.

Mubarak, a man long on Egypt's Internal security, may have been undone by kids of the Twitter generation, for those devices allowed them to stage anti government protests across the nation with lightning speed.

Egypt's president may soon be on a rowboat down the Nile largely because of the nation's economic crisis, its gnawing unemployment for its youth, and the brutal, fiendish nature of its police. For several months now, pictures of people beaten and abused by cops have been flashed across the Internet.

But, as in Tunisia, brutality and repression by police can only work for so long; once fear evaporates, resistance grows.

Egypt has served as the export destination of choice for U.S. renditions; especially when the U.S wanted people to disappear -- forever.

And now, after decades of acquiescence to U.S. Imperial whims, Mubarak may receive the Shah treatment: exile (or worse)

Panama's former dictator, Gen. Omar Torrijos (1968-1981), who gave brief refuge to an ailing, exiled Shah of Iran, remarked, upon receiving his guest, "This is what happens to a man squeezed by the great nations." Said Torrijos, "After all the juice is gone, they throw him away."