Egypt military moves to protect power

CAIRO - The military council governing Egypt is moving to lay down its own ground rules for a new constitution that would protect and potentially expand its own authority indefinitely, possibly circumscribing the power of future elected officials.

The military announced Tuesday that it planned to adopt a “declaration of basic principles’’ to govern the drafting of a constitution, and liberals here initially welcomed the move as a concession to their demand for a Bill of Rights-style guarantee of civil liberties that would limit the potential repercussions of an Islamist victory at the polls.

But legal specialists enlisted by the military to write the declaration say that it will spell out the armed forces’ role in the civilian government, potentially shielding the defense budget from public or parliamentary scrutiny, and protecting the military’s vast economic interests.

Proposals under consideration would give the military a broad mandate to intercede in Egyptian politics to protect national unity or the secular character of the state. According to a report last month in the Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al-Youm, a top general publicly suggested such a role.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2011/07/17/egyptian_military_works_to_draft_constitution_guidelines/

than the military because unlike the military, nothing has come easy to them in forty years. I've been following a group of them since January, and have never seen anything quite like them. Very thoughtful, great communication, good at delegating, spread over every sector I can think of. They are going to win this one.

Egypt's new cabinet will be sworn in on Monday after a reshuffle that protesters say have partially satisfied their demands for deeper political and economic reforms.

Protesters, who have camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square since July 8, say they want further measures, including a quicker trial of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted as president on February 11 in a popular uprising.

Mubarak's lawyer said the former president, who has been in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since April, had slipped into coma, but hospital officials and the deputy health minister denied the report.

The new ministers would take the oath of office on Monday in front of field marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, leader of the military council that took control of Egypt after Mubarak's resignation, the state news agency MENA said.

New Egypt Cabinet Appointees

Deputy PM / Finance - Hazem El Beblawi
Deputy PM - Ali El Selmi
Military Production - Gen. Ali Ibrahim
Religious Endowment - Mohamed el-Qoussy
Foreign Affairs - Mohammed Kamel Amr
Antiquities - Abdel Fattah el Banna
Agriculture - Salah el Farag
Civil Aviation - Lotfy Mustafa Kamal
Trade & Industry - Ahmed Fekri Abdel Wahab
Communications & IT - Hazem Abdel Azim
Health - Amr Helmy
Higher Education - Moataz Khorshid
Transportation - Ali Zain Heikal
Water Resources & Irrigation - Hesham Qandil
Tantawi was defence minister under Mubarak for two decades.

State TV dubbed the new government lineup the "Revolution Cabinet". Most of the ministers were relative newcomers, clearly a way to avoid further criticism by the protesters

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/2011717232716512838.html


Notice that this guy got kicked out?




Egypt's antiquities minister, whose trademark Indiana Jones hat made him one the country's best known figures around the world, was fired Sunday after months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Zahi Hawass, long chided as publicity loving and short on scientific knowledge, lost his job along with about a dozen other ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle meant to ease pressure from protesters seeking to purge remnants of Mubarak's regime.

"He was the Mubarak of antiquities," said Nora Shalaby, an activist and archaeologist. "He acted as if he owned Egypt's antiquities, and not that they belonged to the people of Egypt."



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43787940/ns/technology_and_science-science/

. . . . . . there goes the teevee gig.