Obama's "Partners" for Stability and Security

Here is a video of Egyptian state police arresting Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian blogger, computer engineer and the Head of Marketing of Google Middle East and North Africa since January 2010:



He has now been missing for well over a week. He is either dead of imprisoned for who knows how long. This is the Egypt that Obama wants to "partner" with to provide "stability and security".

It is tragic that a promise to change is the deal that Mubarak and Obama have decided on to trick the world into ignoring the reimposition of dictatorship in Egypt. Any pretense of "change" is belied by the fact that the state media is completely censored, that Egypt continues to harrass and imprison journalist, and that all elements of state power remain in the hands of Mubarak and his thugs. This is the "new Egypt" which Obama is selling to his people as the "best deal" for change, a "change" that brings "stability and security"... because it is no real change!

Update 2011feb07: Wael Ghonim has been released after being held for nearly two weeks. Here is a bit from a UK Guardian newspaper report:

Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager who became a hero to anti-government protestors after he went missing on 27 January, confirmed in the interview following his release that he was behind a highly influential Facebook page that helped lead to what he described as "the revolution of the youth of the internet."

Before his appearance on Monday on a privately owned Egyptian television channel, the father-of-two was held in repute by many who believed that he was the anonymous activist behind a Facebook page named after a young Egyptian businessman whose death at the hands of police in June set off months of protests.

The page, "We are all Khaled Said", became one of the main tools for organising the demonstrations that started the revolt in earnest on 25 January.

However, Ghonim's stature across the country now appears destined to rise dramatically if the post-interview reaction on the internet is anything to go by. Calls are being made for him to stand as president. Others predicted that his performance, which was being acclaimed as a tour de force of calm but explosive political passion, would inevitably boost the numbers of those attending the latest mass demonstration in Cairo's Tahrir square and elsewhere this morning.

"I am not a hero. I only used the keyboard, the real heroes are the ones on the ground. Those I can't name," said Ghonim, who sobbed throughout the interview, which ended with him being overcome with emotion as he was shown images of some of those who died in the uprising.

While insisting that he had not been tortured and saying his interrogators treated him with respect, he said he was taken aback when others who he met in jail believed that he was "a traitor".