Breaking: U.S. envoy tells Hosni Mubarak to step aside (LA Times)

Breaking: U.S. envoy tells Hosni Mubarak to step aside
Los Angeles Times | Feb. 1, 2011 | 11:28 a.m.

A U.S. special envoy in Cairo told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he needed to step aside and allow a new government to take shape without him but was rebuffed, according to Middle East experts who have discussed the matter with the Obama administration.

Frank Wisner, a former ambassador to Egypt who has good relations with the Mubarak regime, traveled to Cairo at President Obama's behest to talk to the Egyptian leader about the country's future.

Wisner delivered a direct message that Mubarak should not be part of the "transition" that the U.S. has called for, according to Middle East experts who spoke on condition of anonymity


http://www.latimes.com/

Don't run again becomes don't stay. I think the message has been delivered loud and clear.

I think, despite all the shouting on DU, that Obama is handling this well. You don't bounce a 30-year dictator - without firing a shot - unless you use some subtle pressures. We tried it the other way getting rid of Hussein, and that worked out pretty poorly for all involved. Obama isn't going to end this, anyway; the Egyptian people (or the Army) will.

Maybe that will work out and in part because the Egyptian people have handled themselves like champs. I'm in awe of they way they've gone about this.

I also sense that Kerry may be having some influence over America's rapidly evolving foreign policy regarding Egypt.

...and what does "transition" mean? A dictator with a human face or concrete democratic and economic reforms?

I have a hard time believing that US policy wants the latter.

El Baredei has an excellent international reputation, and this movement appears to be coalescing around him.

There may be a new sheriff in town ere long, whether the State Department likes it or not.

Too many cameras, bloggers and independent media outlets to pull a Mossadeq...I hope.

EU and the US are the biggest exporting markets for Egyptian products. Italy has the largest share of the Egyptian export pie, accounting for 9% of the total volume. It is followed by the US, Spain, India, Syria, Germany and Saudi Arabia.

http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/egypt/export-import.html

not US.

Frank Wisner Source Watch page
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Frank_Wisner

AIG vice chair, former Under Sect for Defense during Clinton admin, appointed to replace Pickering as US Ambassador to India, was Reagan/Bush Ambassador to Egypt 86-91, when first starting "State Department" career in 1961 spent quite a bit of time in Vietnam; his father Frank committed "suicide" in 1965 after a career in the CIA many times involving regime change via any and all available methods...


Frank Wisner Source Watch page
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Frank_Wisner

Whatever real messages were "delivered" by the operative Wisner to Hosni Mubarak (from Panetta's CIA and Hillary's State Department) have really had an "impact" today on real people that have "legitimate grievences" and have suffered for thirty years under an "acceptable" puppet of TPTB.

Kick.