Just saw this headline and, after checking to make sure it hadn't already been posted by any other diarist, I thought I'd share this with you. More beneath the fold.
This is potentially huge, but caution is warranted. For the last four days, Egyptian youth have returned to Tahrir Square with one simple message: "The People Demand the Fall of the Field Marshall" (Hussein Tantawi). All too many Americans and Egyptians thought the battle to renew Egyptian democracy had reached its conclusion with the resignation of Hosni Mubarak on February 11. However, the military junta remained in charge in Egypt -- as it has ever since Nasser and his fellow "Free Officers" overthrew the monarchy in 1952. The "new boss" was simply a handpicked crony of the "old boss." The "new boss" talked a good game about a quick transition to democracy, elections, a free media, an end to human rights abuses. The junta has in the months since that fateful day in February broken all of its promises and broken trust with the Egyptian people who counted on the junta to oversee the transition to democracy. With presidential elections postponed until at least next year, with journalists and human rights activists being harassed, arrested, and tortured, it became clear to the heroic youth who inspired millions around the world that their faith had been misplaced. Thus began Occupy Tahrir 2.0.
The Jerusalem Post article linked to above the fold, based on al-Jazeera sources, is vague as to the details of this "Government of National Salvation" (GNS). It's worth noting that the source for the junta's about-face is the Wasat party -- a mildly Islamist party close to Nobel Peace Prize winner and former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Muhammad al-Baradei. Baradei has the greatest cred with foreign governments and would make an ideal front-man for the junta... except that he had called for the resignation of the junta before the flawed parliamentary elections scheduled to start next week. Thus, this information is coming from the most Establishment figure associated with the Revolutionaries -- whether that makes it more or less credible remains in the eye of the beholder. Al-Jazeera's Egypt live-blog contains quotes from members of two other parties claiming to have inside info, but none have this level of specificity: the GNS will be formed "within days" and presidential elections will now take place "before July."
The devil is always in the details. As we get more details, we'll be able to tell if this is simply a stalling move of the kind Mubarak engaged in repeatedly in his last weeks in office or if this heralds the final (belated) triumph of the Egyptian Revolution. Whether it happens tonight or not, the writing is on the wall: The Will of the People Cannot Be Denied. And after a year of populist unrest from Spain to Wall Street to UC-Davis, it's only fitting that it should come full circle back to Cairo. May God protect and preserve the youth of Egypt and may all Arabs finally get to realize the dreams the tired old men have denied them for so long.
Viva la Revolucion!
UPDATE 8:12PM EAT: According to al-Jazeera, the Freedom and Justice Party (main electoral vehicle for the Muslim Brotherhood Establishment), the GNS will still be formed, but elections will still start on Monday as originally planned. I highly doubt that's gonna fly with the folks in Tahrir Sq, Alexandria, Suez, and elsewhere, but we'll see
10:39 AM PT: UPDATE 9:33PM EAT: Well the earlier reports were true. Tantawi in a speech to the nation promised to transition executive powers to an elected president before July 2012. The response from the protesters in Tahrir Square: "Erhal!" (leave!) http://www.guardian.co.uk/...