CREATING ISIS

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration: How U.S. citizens, and most commentators, get their news.  It is all corporate based.  In fact, if I wanted to take issue with Nietzsche, I'd say God is not dead – He's just been laid off until capitalism runs its course.

Some time ago, actually recently, one of my friends or correspondences (not sure how to make the reference) said "I'm at a loss to understand why Donald Trump is getting so much criticism for this" (referring to calling Obama the Founder of ISIS.  It is actually quite difficult to explain to someone overseas (as most people oversees either think he actually did or at least found them VERY convenient in an effort to overthrow Assad and also take attention away from Israel and its relentless persecution and exploitation of Palestinians).

How explain that, even if true, that fact can never be widely accepted in the United States?  Even consideration of it as true is virtually impossible.  Perhaps understanding our electoral process would help.

Other countries have multi-party systems and are not afraid to run their elections fairly.  Greece would be a good example where a left-wing party was overwhelmingly elected and its members actually acted as they promised.  It turned out that Germany did not like it, so the more honest members were expelled or crushed, but still they had been properly installed in office.  Such things will not happen here.

Yes, we have a Green Party and a Libertarian Party, either of which makes more sense than the Neo-fascist Republicans or Neo-Liberal Democrats, but for that very reason, they will not have a chance.

So what if Trump is right if he said Obama founded ISIS?  Here is another, quoting as best I can from memory:

         So I say to the black people, what do you have to loose? You live in poverty, 58% of your youth is unemployed, your schools don't work [you came over on slave ships, have low IQs, ] your lives suck, your cities are faling apart because of Democrats, what the HELL DO YOU HAVE TO LOOSE?  VOTE FOR TRUMP!!

He also promised that in his second term, he would get 95% of the black vote.  (Obama only got 93% in his second term.)  How can anyone take anything he says seriously?  He is actually the square root of –1 (i) the so-called "imaginary number.

Clinton? Really?  [I've had enough of this and hope I answered the question.]

The Postman Commeth --or WAKE UP!!

THE ABSURD TIMES

 

Too Dangerous a Threat to National Security?

Postal Delivery

            Doug Hughes has given now meaning to "going postal".  He has become an overnight hero.  This has not happened in the corporate press, of course, as just about everything you here is owned by six corporations, but on social media where citizens and people in general speak out and get their news, he is well thought of.  A few buy into the whole corporate "danger" business, but they are promptly told what really is gong on.

            The entire thing is a protest against the Citizen's United vote in our pitiful Supreme Court, but only made possible by an even more pitiful congress and executive branch with the campaign funding rules as they stand.  The court, such as it is, decided that corporations should be considered individuals.  If so, every corporation in this country should be institutionalized because they are legally bound by their own articles of incorporation to be totally a-social, even anti-social, megalomaniacs.   Profit for their shareholders are they only thing they must do and every action must be weighed in connection with that. 

            It reminds one of the old story about a person with a several case of paranoia who was convinced that they were dead.  Now such people are perfectly capable of logic so long as everything is in accord with their first premise.  In this case, that he was dead.  The person treating him in complete frustration once decided to ask him "Ok, do dead people bleed?"

            The answer was "No, of course not."

            He then took out a blade and cut the man's wrist slightly and blood came out.  The paranoid look at it in astonishment and said "By God, dead people do bleed."

            With corporations, the premise is always that any action must be profitable for the shareholders.  If they spend billions on political campaigns, you can be certain that they have calculated that it will eventually result in a tremendous profit.  The contribution is no more than a business decision.

            Since corporations own the media, they do not want this fact to get out.  To keep people from deciding on reform, they keep them thinking on "terrorism," a behavior which is an Orwellian  form of terrorism itself. 

            The people know that he gave warning that he was coming.  They knew that a 60 year old man in a flying bicycle is not a terror threat.  All of his advance notice was simply ignored. 

            At any rate, his message was not lost, although so far NO member of congress has admitted to reading any of the letters, thanks to social media we know what really happened.  (This is one reason corporations are trying to get firmly in control of it.)  Amy Goodman was able to get a media equipped truck down to his house (he is under house arrest for dissemination information without a permit) and this is her interview with him:

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

"It Was Worth Risking My Life, My Freedom": Campaign Reform Activist on Flying Gyrocopter to Capitol

Last week U.S. mailman Doug Hughes made national headlines when he flew a tiny personal aircraft known as a gyrocopter on to the lawn of the U.S. Capitol in an act of civil disobedience. Hughes was carrying letters to every member of Congress urging them to address corruption and to pass campaign finance reform. The letter began with a quote from John Kerry’s farewell speech to the Senate: "The unending chase for money I believe threatens to steal our democracy itself." After landing on the Capitol Mall, Doug Hughes was arrested and could now face up to four years in prison on charges of violating national defense airspace and operating an unregistered aircraft. Despite being under house arrest and forced to wear a GPS monitoring device, Doug Hughes has decided to keep speaking out about the need for campaign finance reform.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We begin today’s show with Doug Hughes, the U.S. mailman who made national headlines last week when he flew a tiny personal aircraft known as the gyrocopter onto the lawn of the U.S. Capitol in an act of civil disobedience. Hughes was carrying letters to every member of Congress urging them to address corruption and to pass campaign finance reform. The letter began with a quote from John Kerry’s farewell speech to the Senate: "The unending chase for money I believe threatens to steal our democracy itself."

Doug Hughes flew about an hour from Maryland into restricted airspace and onto the Capitol’s West Lawn, stunning authorities and bystanders. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Hughes literally flew below the radar, going undetected, before landing on the Capitol lawn. Before taking off, Hughes had spoken about his plans to the Tampa Bay Times.

DOUG HUGHES: I’m going to violate the no-fly zone nonviolently. I intend for nobody to get hurt. And I’m going to land on the Capitol Mall in front of the Capitol building. I’m going to have 535 letters strapped to the landing gear in boxes, and those letters are going to be addressed to every member of Congress. I don’t believe that the authorities are going to shoot down a 60-year-old mailman in a flying bicycle.

AMY GOODMAN: After landing on the Capitol Mall, Doug Hughes was arrested and could now face up to four years in prison on charges of violating national defense airspace and operating an unregistered aircraft. Despite being under house arrest and forced to wear a GPS monitoring device, Doug Hughes has decided to keep speaking out about the need for campaign finance reform. He joins us now from his home in Ruskin, Florida, under house arrest.

Doug Hughes, welcome to Democracy Now!

DOUG HUGHES: Good morning. Thank you for inviting me.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s very good to have you with us. We’re just going to try to bring up the sound of your microphone, because we can hardly hear you. But can you describe what exactly you did?

DOUG HUGHES: Well, this [inaudible] for quite a while. A key part of my plan was—

AMY GOODMAN: It looks like we just lost Doug Hughes. Now we’re getting him back on. You have to understand, we have a truck at his house, because he is under house arrest inside, as he sits inside in front of his piano. Let’s go to the congressmember, Walter Jones of North Carolina, who took to the House floor and talked about the gyrocopter protest and the need for campaign finance reform.

REP. WALTER JONES JR.: ... onto the Capitol lawn to make a point about influence of money in politics. While I don’t condone violating restricted airspace and putting innocent people at risk by flying a gyrocopter on the Capitol lawn, Mr. Hughes does have a point about the pervasive influence of money in politics. I’ve seen it get worse and worse in my 20 years in Congress. The Citizens United decision by the United States Supreme Court in 2010 created super PACs and multimillionaires that buy candidates.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Republican Congressmember Walter Jones speaking on the floor of the House. One day after Doug Hughes landed his gyrocopter on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol, we spoke with Congressmember Alan Grayson about money in politics. Grayson is a Democrat representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District.

REP. ALAN GRAYSON: I’m the only member of the House of Representatives who raised most of his campaign funds in the last election from small contributions of less than $200. Thousands of people came to our website, CongressmanWithGuts.com, and made contributions. I am one—one—out of 435. On the other side of the building, over at the U.S. Senate, there’s only one member of the U.S. Senate who raised most of his campaign from some small contributions. That’s Bernie Sanders, who you heard earlier in this broadcast. That tells you something. In fact, to a large degree, in both parties, because of the absence of campaign finance reform, the place is bought and paid for. And the only question is: Do the members stay bought? That’s what the corporate lobbyists stay up late at night wondering about: Is that member going to stay bought?

Now, I was actually in the courtroom when this disastrous Citizens United decision was decided five years ago. Mitch McConnell was two seats to my left. We were the only public officials who were in the courtroom. Mitch McConnell was the happiest I have ever seen him that day. He was literally chortling when the decision was rendered. And I said on MSNBC that night five years ago that if we do nothing, you can kiss this country goodbye. Well, pucker up, because right now the millionaires and the billionaires and the multinational corporations are calling the shots with whatever they want in TPP, whatever they want in fast track—more generally, whatever they want. They get the bailouts. They get the tax breaks. They get the so-called deregulation. They get what they want here because they get what they pay for.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Congressman Alan Grayson talking about campaign finance reform. Doug Hughes is the mailman from Florida who landed a personal aircraft known as a gyrocopter on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol last week, and we have him back in the feed. I wanted to ask you, Doug, were you surprised that you were able to get as far as you did onto the Capitol Mall?

DOUG HUGHES: Well, my expectation was that my letter would get through, they’d find out who I was, and the decision would be made that it’s less dangerous to let me land, since I had already been vetted by the Secret Service and they knew I wasn’t carrying a bomb. That didn’t work. And it turned out I was able to land safely anyway.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, you did everything possible to warn folks ahead of time that you were doing this protest?

DOUG HUGHES: Yeah. I sent an email, which some people have said was inadequate, but the email gave the reasons why they didn’t need to shoot me down. And I had a website, and on the website I asked people to call the White House to tell them to read the email, what address it went to and who it was from. And the Tampa Bay Times called in to the White House to tell them that I was coming in. So, every effort was made to give the Homeland Security advance warning of my arrival and who I was and that I wasn’t a threat.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you fly under the radar, Doug Hughes, in this kind of flying bicycle contraption, a gyrocopter, and you land on the West Lawn of the Capitol. You could have been blown out of the sky. Was [campaign] finance reform that important to you?

DOUG HUGHES: Yes. I’m a father, I’m a grandfather, and I can see the change over the decades as we slide from a democracy to a plutocracy. Just like Alan Grayson said, the fat cats are calling the shots. They’re getting everything they want. And the voters know it. Across the political spectrum—center, left and right—they know that this Congress isn’t representing the people. And yes, it was worth risking my life, it was worth risking my freedom, to get reform so that Congress works for the people.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re a letter carrier. You’re a postal carrier, a mailman. How many letters were you carrying in your gyrocopter to deliver to Congress?

DOUG HUGHES: I believe the count was 535, but I never actually counted them. I handle a lot of them in the process of printing them, signing them, stamping them. There was a lot of hours that went into getting the letters done.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you planning to hand-deliver them individually to each member of Congress?

DOUG HUGHES: No, no. At no time did I expect that was going to happen. The plan was to get the letters there in such a way that—let me step back. Congress knows what’s going on. I wasn’t telling Congress anything that they’re not aware of. I was telling them something they don’t want the people to be aware of. And I was telling the people that there are solutions in place. They know there’s a problem. I’m telling people something they don’t know: There are solutions that have already been designed; they only have to be implemented. And it’s in our power to implement them.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about some of those solutions and what your letter actually said?

DOUG HUGHES: What my letter actually said to the Congress critters was they’ve got to decide whether they’re going to deny that corruption exists, or they’re going to pretend that they’re doing something about it, or they’re going to really roll up their sleeves and be a part of reform. But I’m looking to the local media, particularly the print media, OK, at the local level, to hold the candidates’ feet to the fire and force them to take a stand on real reform and whether or not they’re going to vote for it or whether or not they’re going to try and take a halfway, mealy-mouthed stand on it, which means they’re going to try and preserve the status quo. The idea is, the voters can decide well if they’re informed. The national media can’t and won’t inform the voters about where the candidates stand. But the local media, which has been, you know, very weak and impotent in the political process, can really take the ball, and they can be the moving force in informing the voters.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your own evolution of your thinking. You were formerly in the U.S. Navy, served on the USSEnterprise. Talk about the evolution of your thinking on this issue.

DOUG HUGHES: Well, I wound up hanging out with a friend of mine, Mike Shanahan, and over a bunch of beers in his backyard, we came up with a written action plan, which we weren’t able to take anywhere. That was called The Civilist Papers. But Mike came up with the idea that what we needed to do is take our written plan and send certified copies of it to every member of Congress, and that was the nucleus of the idea. But we observed that it wouldn’t work, because Congress already knows; what we really need to do is get that letter to the public. They need to be aware. And during the time that we were working on this, we discovered the existence of other groups and other very sophisticated plans that had been written by people a lot smarter than me. But we also observed these groups weren’t getting any traction. They had managed to get through to the people who were sympathetic to the idea, but it wasn’t going a lot further than that, nor could they get any attention in the media about what they wanted to do.

AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination with her first formal campaigning in Iowa, and she talked about this issue, as she has for a few days now, campaign finance reform.

HILLARY CLINTON: We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment.

AMY GOODMAN: Is that what you’re calling for, Doug Hughes? Does that hearten you?

DOUG HUGHES: Yes, I’m glad to hear the candidates are talking about this. Cenk Ungar [sic], who’s a liberal media figure—

AMY GOODMAN: Cenk Uygur.

DOUG HUGHES: —has been working on an Article V—say again?

AMY GOODMAN: Cenk Uygur.

DOUG HUGHES: He’s been working on an Article V convention, and this does an entire end-around on Congress, so that Congress doesn’t ever even vote on the amendment. It can be done completely through the states through an Article V convention that would be called. The amendment would be designed, then it goes back to the states, and three-quarters of the states have to ratify that constitutional amendment. At that point it becomes law, without the House or the Senate ever voting on it. So the states can put limits on the Congress, OK, and fix this problem so that there’s no backsliding that would ever happen. The constitutional amendment can protect legislation from it being struck down by the courts. So, this whole thing can happen, and it can stay.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Doug Hughes, are you encouraging other like-minded Americans who feel this way about campaign finance reform to come up with other creative ways to get the issue before the American public?

DOUG HUGHES: I’m absolutely sympathetic to other people getting involved with whatever their view on it is. I think we’re going to see a lot of Trojan horse legislation and groups come up that are intended to misdirect people into solutions that have no power. OK. I’ve pretty much signed on to the Anti-Corruption Act. And I will look at other ideas that are out there, but the Anti-Corruption Act, which stands no chance of getting out of committee, as we are right now, was written by a former head of the Federal Election [Commission], FEC. This guy is as far to the conservative end as Cenk [Uygur] is liberal, OK? That’s why I say this thing completely goes across the political spectrum. But what this guy wrote will work, if it’s passed without any amendments. That’s got to be a key part of this, is that they can’t take this act, that will work, cut out the key parts so that it has no teeth, and then say they passed reform.

AMY GOODMAN: Doug, one last question. Your son committed suicide last year. Did losing him—in 2012. Did losing him affect what you decided to do this year?

DOUG HUGHES: Yes. No, I wasn’t trying to commit suicide, but his death was pointless. It was a waste. And he had so much potential. I looked at what I had done and accomplished and contributed, and I looked at how we’re going to leave this country and this world if things go on the way they are. I’ve got kids. I’ve got two adult children, and I’ve got an 11-year-old daughter. I want to hand them a real democracy, so that they have the power to control their destiny and their children’s destiny. And right now they’re losing that. We’re losing that. And it’s in our power to restore democracy, and we can find the solutions to the problems that we have, if the people have control.

AMY GOODMAN: Doug, we want to thank you for being with us. Doug Hughes is a postal carrier from Florida who landed a tiny personal aircraft known as a gyrocopter on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol last week in a protest to demand campaign finance reform. He was carrying letters to every member of Congress, calling for them to address corruption. Hughes flew about an hour from Maryland into restricted airspace onto the Capitol’s West Lawn, stunning authorities and bystanders. He is under house arrest. We’re speaking to him at his home in Florida. He faces four years in prison. This is Democracy Now! Today is Earth Day.

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EGYPT, REALITY, AND CORPORATE MEDIA

EGYPT, REALITY, AND CORPORATE MEDIA

          Our media was unusually accurate with the Arab Spring in Egypt before the corporate ‘thinkers’ got involved.  Why, they even had “Sandman”, the Twitter Toast, on CNN.  Now, however, they can’t even get that right.

          We can see what moves the military has already made, but do not be fooled by that.  Egypt has finally achieved the same sort of ‘democracy’ we have here.  That is to say, no matter who they vote for, there will be no difference.

          I had thought that it was possible for a clear-headed politician to be elected, but several of them ran and were thus eliminated, canceling out one another’s votes.  It is sort of like the Democratic Primaries here when Dennis Kucinich theoretically could have been elected.

          Now, this is not to disparage the Brotherhood.  They have actually done a great deal for the people of Egypt.  One even left the party to run and then the brotherhood was allowed to run a politician and he is sort of like an Obama here.  They other guy is left over from the Mubarak regime and is sort of like a Bush here.

          Now, what is wrong with the Brotherhood’s candidate?  Well, it may surprise you to learn (although not as much as the Egyptian people, it seems) that he worked for NASA.  In most cases, anybody who works for NASA must be an American citizen.  Hillary has made nice with him.  What else do you want?

          The results will be announced on Sunday (we are told), but don’t hold your breath.  Also, the military has already made sure that he will not be able to do anything.  The military also runs the tourism industry and other things.  Dow that sound like the Military-Industrial complex to you?  Hrm.

          Even “Liberals” here wonder if aid will be cut off and other blather.  Believe  me, the U.S. and the Egyptian military have already made sure that this election is meaningless.

          An interview:

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

A Coup in Cairo: As Muslim Brotherhood Claims Election Victory, Military Strips President of Power

Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports from Egypt on the country’s growing political crisis. Former President Hosni Mubarak is on life support, both candidates claim to have won last weekend’s election, and the ruling military council has seized greater power. Official presidential election results are not expected to be announced until Thursday. Tens of thousands of Egyptians protested Tuesday night in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a rally called by the Muslim Brotherhood, expressing outrage over the army’s decree late Sunday that it would seize all legislative powers. "Right now the country has no constitution, no parliament, and an incoming president that will have scant power," Kouddous says. "So, really, the military council is controlling the key branches of state. ... [It’s] perhaps a fitting end to this nonsensical transition that we’ve seen over the last 16 months." [includes rush transcript]

Filed under  Egypt

Guest:

Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! correspondent reporting from Cairo

Related

• A Judicial Coup in Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood-Controlled Parliament Dissolved, Military Gains Power Jun 15, 2012 | Story
• Mubarak Sentenced to Life Term in Egypt, But Protests Erupt as Sons, Aides Avoid Convictions Jun 04, 2012 | Story
• Jimmy Carter on Monitoring Egyptian Elections, U.S.-Egypt Relations, Future of Camp David Accords May 29, 2012 | Story
• Report from Cairo: Protests Erupt in Egypt as Mubarak’s Ex-PM Secures Spot in Presidential Runoff May 29, 2012 | Story
• Egypt Election: Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Could Face Mubarak’s Ex-Prime Minister in Runoff May 25, 2012 | Story

Links

• Read Sharif Abdel Kouddous’ Articles in The Nation magazine
• Follow Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Twitter

Rush Transcript

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.Donate >

Transcript

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We begin today’s show on the political crisis in Egypt. Former President Hosni Mubarak has been moved from prison to an army hospital in Cairo where he is reportedly unconscious and on life support. The military strongman ruled the country for 30 years until he was toppled from power during last year’s uprising. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the deaths of protesters. Senior officers have given various accounts of the 84-year-old Mubarak’s condition, but they denied reports he was, quote, "clinically dead," as briefly reported by the state news agency.
The news comes amid high tension over the results from last weekend’s presidential vote that pitted Mubarak’s former prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, against Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Official results are not expected to be announced until Thursday, but both sides have already claimed victory.
Meanwhile, Egyptians showed little sympathy to news about Mubarak’s deteriorating health.

ADEL MORAD: [translated] We do not need anything from him or his family. We want them to leave us alone, because we’ve gotten tired of them. We are looking forward for good people to rule us. We do not need anything from his family. We want to live. We need security. We need a decent life. We need freedom. And we need to retrieve our dignity.

AMY GOODMAN: Tens of thousands of Egyptians protested Tuesday night in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a rally called by the Muslim Brotherhood. Others protested outside Egypt’s parliament. They expressed outrage over the army’s decree late Sunday that it would seize all legislative powers. Some have described the move as a "military coup." This is Egyptian parliament member, Mhamed Uof.

MHAMED UOF: [translated] We should stream into the streets. I’m calling on all free people from the army, police, all of the state associations, and all of Egyptians who are brave and free people, to come to Tahrir Square to protest. Hosni Mubarak stepped down after only 18 days. But the military council will leave power only during nine days. We will hinder traffic, close streets. We will do whatever it takes to achieve our demands. It is going to be a civil, peaceful disobedience.

AMY GOODMAN: For more on the situation in Egypt, we go to Cairo, where we’re joined by Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous.
Sharif, can you tell us what’s happening, from what’s happening to Mubarak right now, reported—reportedly in a coma, to what’s happening in the streets, the reports of a military coup?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, this news of Mubarak’s health came in late last night, the state news agency, as you reported, saying that he was clinically dead. This caused, of course, a huge flurry in the media. But quickly, those reports were denied by his lawyer, senior members of the military council, who said he wasn’t clinically dead, that he had suffered a stroke or he had suffered some kind of a heart attack, his heart had stopped. There’s varying reports. What we do know is that he was transferred out of the prison where he’s been held since he received his life sentence earlier this month. He’s now in a military hospital. The news has been, honestly, treated with some skepticism amongst the Egyptian public here. I mean, Mubarak’s health and reports of his death have been swirling in the media since the beginning of this revolution, especially since he was taken into custody last year. We keep hearing rumors that he died. And also, especially when he was moved to prison earlier this month, immediately there were rumors that he had collapsed, that he was having trouble breathing. But now he’s moved out of the Tora prison. Some think that this was all just to get him out of the prison and back into a hospital. So, that’s where—that’s where that stands right now.
But it comes at a very, very sensitive time. Tomorrow we’re going to learn who the winner of Egypt’s first competitive—arguably competitive—presidential election will be. Both sides have claimed victory in the poll. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi has said that they won with 52 percent of the vote to 48 percent of Ahmed Shafik. They’ve backed this up with very detailed documents from each polling station around the country, which are stamped. And their tally seems to coincide with most independent reports and from most local media outlets. The Shafik campaign has denied that he lost, saying instead that their candidate won. But we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.
Over and above that is that what exactly—what powers will this president have, and that really this handover of power that was scheduled for June 30th has really been rendered meaningless by a sweeping set of amendments to the constitutional declaration that has been governing the country since March of 2011. These amendments were issued unilaterally by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and made public minutes after polls closed on Sunday evening. And really, they entrench the military’s power, and they strip the incoming president of any significant authority. And, of course, we have to remember that these amendments come just three days after the country’s top court, the Supreme Constitutional Court, dissolved the popularly elected parliament and also after a decree by the Ministry of Justice that really returns elements of martial law to Egypt and allows the military widespread powers of arrest and detention of civilians.
So, most prominently, perhaps, of these constitutional amendments is that it removes the president’s role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. It gives that to the head of the Supreme Council, who is Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and effectively gives the military complete control over its own affairs. So what this does, really, is creates the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces as a fourth branch of state that’s constitutionally separate from the presidency, the parliament and the judiciary. It also—the amendments also shield the military from any kind of public oversight whatsoever, any kind of civilian oversight.
They also—the amendments also allow the military to act as parliament. In the absence of a sitting parliament, they’re allowed to issue laws by decree. They also tighten their grip on the writing of the country’s constitution. So they have an effective veto over any clause that they might disapprove of, and they can also actually go further and dissolve the current assembly, that was formed by parliament just two days before it was dissolved, and on very vague grounds, if it encounters what’s called an obstacle, they’re allowed to dissolve that body and handpick their own hundred-member body that will draft this country’s permanent constitution. And the military has made clear throughout the transitional period—we only need to look back to last fall to something called the Selmi Document to know exactly what they’re looking for, what kind of protections they’re looking for in the constitution, and that’s really to enshrine their political and economic privileges in the constitution. So, and also, to add insult to injury, they recently—the head of the advisory council to the military council, a man named Sameh Ashour, said that the incoming president may only serve for an interim period, until a new constitution is written.
Further above that, the Tantawi—the military council announced a national defense council that will be formed, of 17 members, which will be headed by the incoming president. But of those 17 members, 11 of them are senior military commanders, and decisions will be made by a simple majority vote. So, really, all of these sweeping steps have really stripped the incoming president of any significant authority, in a last-minute power grab, and really is perhaps a fitting end to this nonsensical transition that we’ve seen over the last 16 months. Right now the country has no constitution, no parliament, and a president without—an incoming president that will have scant power. So, really, the military council is controlling the key branches of state.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Sharif, the powers you describe are, as you said, quite sweeping. Is there any way in which the incoming president can either—in any sense, either alter or overturn some of these amendments, these constitutional amendments?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, the Muslim Brotherhood, who is widely expected to win the presidency tomorrow, has soundly rejected these amendments. They have also rejected the Supreme Court’s ruling to dissolve parliament. The army deployed troops around the parliament building to prevent MPs from entering the building over the weekend. We saw a massive protest yesterday that was called primarily by the Muslim Brotherhood but also other forces, also political forces, but including revolutionary forces like the April 6 Youth Movement. The Revolutionary Socialists were there, as well. But really, the square was packed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood who rejected these amendments. And I think it was also a show of force to act as a warning, in case Ahmed Shafik is named as president, that they might return to street protests.
From a legal perspective, whether these amendments can be overturned, it’s anybody’s guess. I mean, the Supreme Council has been changing the rules as it goes along and has issued laws by decree. There’s no—there’s no rules to the game right now. So, I’m sure negotiations are probably underway, but right now the military council is acting with a lot of hubris and really—and also in what appears to be desperation, which may be encouraging in a way, that they fear that their power may be slipping. But right now, they hold all the cards in terms of the levers of power of the state.
AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, what role does the United States play in all of this?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, the State Department and the Pentagon voiced concern over these amendments. We heard State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland expressing concern, as did the Pentagon. But as with so much in U.S. policy, especially towards Egypt, words rarely match the actions. And so, U.S. policy towards Egypt has changed very little since before the revolution.
Washington, of course, backed the Mubarak regime with annual military aid of $1.3 billion for decades. We’ve seen that aid continue. Congress last year, in the wake of the revolution, added a provision to the aid that had this—the State Department had to certify that the military, the ruling military council, was doing a transition to civilian democracy. The Obama administration issued a national security waiver that overrode that provision to continue the aid to Egypt, despite widespread human rights abuses by the army and security forces. It came in the wake of the NGO crisis, where U.S.-funded NGOs were raided and closed down, and the son of the transportation minister, Sam LaHood, was not allowed to travel or leave the country.
So, we’ve seen this continuation of U.S. policy where issues regarding regional concerns with Israel and so forth have trumped human rights concerns. But many people here on the ground are asking for the U.S. to finally take a stand and perhaps have its actual policy match its words and have a significant cutoff of aid, given what’s happened with this—what many are calling a constitutional coup by the military council.
AMY GOODMAN: Also, the number of people who came out to vote in this election this past weekend, can you talk about the boycott movement? I mean, the Egyptian elections are looking a little like the U.S. elections in how few people came out to vote.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Amy, you know, Egyptians have gone to the polls three times in this transition, and each time they go, their vote has been rendered meaningless. They went in March 2011, voted on nine amendments to the constitution, and that was supplanted by a constitutional declaration issued unilaterally by the military council just a few days later that altered over 60 articles to the constitution. Then they went to the polls last fall, and they voted with a much lower turnout, and they voted for parliament. That parliament has now been dissolved, and so those elections were rendered worthless. And now they’ve gone to the polls again, and with again a lower turnout—or we’re actually not sure what the turnout is, to be clear, in this round, but it’s close to about 50 percent, some have predicted. And we’ve again seen that their vote has been rendered somewhat meaningless, because the person that they voted for has been stripped of all power.
So, there has been a growing movement to boycotts, a growing movement to spoil ballots, to say that there’s a third choice, we don’t have to pick between the two candidates that were represented. And I don’t know. I mean, if Egyptians find that there’s—that their vote means nothing, then perhaps they’ll seek other avenues of change. But, you know, the runoff election that we saw—really, the enthusiasm of the streets—I traveled around Cairo and went to the Delta, as well, to different polling stations, was—the enthusiasm was very low. You didn’t see the ubiquitous, you know, person holding up their ink-stained finger and proudly showing that they voted, because of this—a lot of confusion and apathy that has been fostered by this very nonsensical transition, as well as the candidates themselves—on one side, Ahmed Shafik, who’s really a stalwart of the Mubarak regime and represents the authoritarianism of that state, and on the other, the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative Islamist group that, in many ways, has been seen as abandoning the revolution in pursuit of its own interests. So it was really a kind of a low-energy turnout.
We’ll have to wait for the numbers tomorrow. But everyone is going to be glued tomorrow to this announcement by the Presidential Elections Commission. It’s a very close vote, regardless, by all counts, somewhere between 52 to 48 or 51 to 49. And the Presidential Election Commission’s decision are unappealable. So, if they—so everyone will be tuned in tomorrow to find out who the incoming president is, even though his powers have been severely curtailed.
AMY GOODMAN: Sharif Abdel Kouddous, I want to thank you very much for being with us. Sharif is joining us from overlooking Tahrir Square in Cairo, in Egypt, Democracy Now! senior correspondent.
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, Julian Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadoran embassy in London. He is seeking political asylum. The British police have issued an arrest warrant for him. We’ll speak with Assange’s lawyer, Michael Ratner. Stay with us.

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