Anyone Else Hearing Mubarak is Out?

A friend with relatives in Egypt is reporting that Mubarak is being deposed in a 'soft coup'. The speech he is giving started out saying that no foreign power would force him. However, he is going on to announce that he is stepping down and that the military will assume power.

I am told it is being reported on NPR radio, but is not on their website yet.

that he won't step down and that the rest of the world is invited to fellate him

as of about 15 minutes ago. Some of the reports seem to be confirming that the military will take over. So we'll see.

so it's definite that he did not 'go on to announce that he is stepping down'. You can in no way say anything has 'confirmed' that the military will take over. The rumours you hear seem to be personal speculation by your sources.

That's on the BBC site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698#video

"The army said that they were in charge and they responded positively to the people "legitimate demands". And these demands included Mr Mubarak to go and to go immediately."

But there do seem to be differences between that and what Mubarak and Suleiman are saying.

We may be in an odd situation where we get more timely information here than people on the ground are getting over there, outside of what they can observe firsthand.

and read more into the early part of it than was actually there.

Crowds are now moving to State TV

Wow! That would be something if they took over State TV.

Because now it seems either the people themselves will force him out, or somebody in the military will do it.

the patronage system favors mostly SENIOR officers. Junior Officers not so much.

I'm watching him speak now on AJ English. He is encouraging the protesters to return back to their lives now that Mubarak has transferred power to him but not yet stepped down. It may be a compromise he wants the people to accept.

and a hero of the 1973 war... as a junior officer back then.

So yes, he is representing flag and general ranks with a few colonels.

Mubarak has not stepped down. I think the point was to get him to step down.

they were willing to accept suleiman as a care taker... but not any longer,

I believe the Egyptian people are taking this compromise as an insult. I believe what is happening in the minds of protesters is that they are now linking Suleiman with Mubarak as a member of the old guard. The meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-one type of anger appears to be overtaking the jubilation that was there a few hours earlier.

this might have worked.

Hard to tell where Mubarak is right now.

and batshit crazy. :hi:

They are so out of touch this regime is continuing in the same vein. They will only appear to make changes until the protestors get tired out, if they do, and then slowly move in and disperse them. Or another scenario is of them appearing to make changes until the protestors get so fed up they actually go after these thugs and the military is forced to act. If only the military would take them off the board now and let the protestors feel they have gained enough by getting them ousted that the precious normalcy they speak of can return and the country can get a break.

Just a corroborating self-serving speech by Suleiman.

Here's hoping

I'm pretty tired of everyone trying to get a news scoop at the risk of misinforming people.

Here is the background:

My friend Ibrahim is a medical intern from Egypt who rents my basement. His family is well connected -- two uncles are provincial governors. We talk daily about Egypt and he is an informed source. Ibrahim came up at 4PM and said Mubarak had resigned. He was just gotten off the phone with his mother, who was still there listening to the speech, and said he had heard it confirmed on NPR.

That interpretation of his speech was common but turned out not to be accurate. However, it seems plenty to go on start a thread entitled "Anyone else hearing Mubarak is out?" People post here from sources like this all time, often in a much more assertive way.

He is not out yet. Massive protests scheduled for Friday.