US secretly backed rebel leader in Egypt
Image by World Economic Forum via FlickrThere is more.The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.
On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.
He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph.
The crisis in Egypt follows the toppling of Tunisian president Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, who fled the country after widespread protests forced him from office.
The disclosures, contained in previously secret US diplomatic dispatches released by the WikiLeaks website, show American officials pressed the Egyptian government to release other dissidents who had been detained by the police.
Mr Mubarak, facing the biggest challenge to his authority in his 31 years in power, ordered the army on to the streets of Cairo yesterday as rioting erupted across Egypt.
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The timing of the association with the rebel leader seems to be about the Time Obama was planning his Cairo speech. It appears to be a betrayal of his host country for his speech to the Muslim world. The fury of the crowds suggest that many were eager for the rebellion planned in 2008 for 2011.
While the crowd greeted the army with some enthusiasm when it took the place of the police, that mode may change in the coming days. If the army stays with Mubarak, I think he can survive--for awhile. He is of an age when he needs to be thinking about a transition in power. What form that transition takes will decide whether Egypt become another radical Islamic state or a force for peace.
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