Mubarak’s Top Spy Rejected by Cairo Streets as Masses March

Source: Bloomberg

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Omar Suleiman, the military careerist singled out by President Hosni Mubarak to save his regime, lacks the support where he now needs it most: the streets of Cairo.

“The Egyptians don’t want Mubarak and they don’t want Suleiman,” said Chayma Hassabo, a researcher on Arab political movements at Cedej, a Cairo-based research center. “They want the whole system to change.”

Suleiman, 74, has run Egypt’s intelligence service since 1993, compromising his ability to deal with the protestors massing in Egypt’s cities as an honest broker. Suleiman said yesterday that Mubarak has instructed him to start a dialogue with the protesters, who have defied curfews for the past week to demand an end to the president’s 30-year rule.

“We want the whole regime to change, starting from Hosni Mubarak,” Ramzi Mohamed Helwan, a 19-year-old student said during today’s protests in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. “We don’t accept Omar Suleiman or anyone else.”



Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-01/mubarak-s-top-spy-rejected-by-cairo-streets-as-masses-march.html

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It really does seem that Hosni really doesn't get it. Earlier today I heard a report that this guy is associated with assassinations and torture. What kind of message (outside of delusion) could the Pharaoh be sending by using Suleiman to be the mouth piece?

Perhaps a last ditch attempt to cow the protesters? If so, like I said, it's delusional. Or do the people of Egypt not know or not believe the stories about Suleiman?

Anyone want to inform?