meetings that never happen to arrange democracies that don't exist

Video from Flogging Dead Horses.

"I just don't know why we have to come and beg people that we put in office to work for us, to work for us." ~ Sandra Hines

Well, the trouble is, of course, that we DIDN'T put the people in office, and that's why they don't work for us. The people in office work for those who put them in office. They work for bankers. And that's why it SEEMS LIKE they work for bankers. Because they actually do!

Remember that politics is a playpen, an elaborate social engineering experiment that keeps many people happily entertained and employed, while signifying nothing.

Image from The Guardian

The American people seem a little slow on the uptake with this situation.

^^^^^^^

For decades, Americans send a lot of foreign aid to certain countries. Israel and Egypt receive a lot of US foreign aid. We hear a lot about Israel. We don't hear so much about Egypt.

In Egypt, 50 million people live below the poverty line. The total population is around 80 million people. High food prices, unemployment and poverty have stalked the Egyptian population for many years.

Hosni Mubarak has been in power in Egypt for almost 30 years. During those same years, the United States has poured billions and billions of taxpayer dollars into Egypt.

Cairo child.

Egypt is not all 'Hilton at Sharm El-Sheikh.'

Evidently, all our billions of taxpayers dollars have not done much for the majority of the Egyptian people. Sorry. 

^^^^^^^

Hosni Mubarak has never named a Vice President. Hosni Mubarak has two sons, Alaa and Gamal. Many people think that son number two, Gamal, will take over when Hosni dies.

Gamal Mubarak got married in 2007 at age 44. He married a woman twenty years younger, Khadiga el-Gammal (her close friends call her Moni). "Miss Khadiga is part of an old family in the city of Damietta in northern Egypt in a village called The Village of El-Gamal. The wealthy family closely associated with the mysterious Egyptian Refaat El-Gamal, who is known as Refaat Elhagan, the main character in the famous spy episode that happened Israel for Egypt’s benefit. That family owns a large amount of agriculture and lands." The couple now have one child. (The Wedding of Gamal Mubarak Stirs the Attention of Egyptians) 

Gamal Mubarak and Khadiga el-Gammal

at the World Economic Forum summit in Sharm Al Sheikh in 2006

source

It's interesting that Khadiga's family reportedly has strong connections to Refaat Al-Gammal, an Egyptian spy who reportedly infiltrated Israeli intelligence and played a role in the arrest of the unit that carried out the Lavon Affair. While many Arabs consider him a hero, it is not exactly clear whether he was an Egyptian spy or a double agent for Israel. Most information about him remains classified.

Refaat Ali Slueiman el-Gammal (Arabic: رفعت علي سليمان الجمال‎) (July 1, 1927 – January 30, 1982), better known as Raafat el-Haggan (Arabic: رأفت الهجّان‎) in Egypt and as Jack Beton in Israel, was an Egyptian spy who spent 17 years performing clandestine operations in Israel. Most information about him is still confidential.^[1]
According to the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID), he moved to Israel as an Egyptian Intelligence asset in 1956. He was well-known in the Israeli society and was involved in commercial projects. According to the Egyptians, he provided the Egyptian intelligence service with important information while operating a tourism company as a front. El-Gammal's intelligence concerned, among other things, the Six-Day War and he had an important role in the Yom Kippur War by providing Egypt with detailed engineering data about the Bar Lev Line. El-Gammal is considered a national hero in Egypt.

However, A book that describes various spy affairs in Israel claims that the information published by the Egyptian Intelligence is pure fiction and that the Shin Bet knew about El-Gammal from the early beginning and converted him into a double agent to work for them, and that he provided many disinformation to the Egyptians which lead to the destruction of the Egyptian Air Force in the Six-Day War.^[2]

On the other hand, the Egyptians strongly deny that El-Gammal was a double-agent supporting their story by the important information he provided them.

We seem to be hearing more about Egypt lately in the news. For instance, we recently learned about a spy ring that was broken up in Egypt. We have not yet learned the identities of the two alleged Mossad agents.

We notice how countries seem to come and go in the news. The focus and blackouts seem to be coordinated. For instance, there have been no stories about the Tri-Border Area of Paraguay since early December. But there have been lots and lots of stories about Uganda. And now we see some stories about Egypt, and Al Qaeda, and spies, and Egypt's supposedly worsening relationship with Israel.

The front pages of most Egyptian newspapers have been dominated by news of the Egyptian Kung Fu instructor who was recruited by Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in 2007 in return for US$7500.  Since the network was unraveled, many other stories of espionage have emerged in the local media.
Most recently, Egyptian authorities introduced a new suspect, known to the Israelis as “The Master,” who has been reportedly working for the Mossad for 20 years and is said to have recruited hundreds of Egyptians to spy for Israel.
The suspect, Tarek Abdel Razek Eissa, is alleged to have attempted to recruit a chief editor at a major pro-Syrian Lebanese newspaper. Abdel Razek also confessed to authorities that Israel had been behind the mass internet outage in 2008, said at the time to have been caused by damaged cables in the Mediterranean Sea. He has also reportedly provided information regarding intelligence he received from a Syrian chemist concerning Syria’s alleged nuclear program.

However, in reality, it seems that Egypt and Israel get along fine.

Many examples of Israel-Egypt cooperation, both on the official and social levels, have also been brought to light--to the dismay of many Egyptians. The first of these were reports earlier this year of an Egypt-Israel gas deal worth some US$10billion. Pundits in the Egyptian media decried the agreement, claiming that Egypt stood to lose money on the deal, as Israel would be buying the gas at prices lower than its market value.
Other reports this year revealed that, due to massive unemployment in Egypt, there were large numbers of Egyptian nationals working in Israel, and that Egyptians actually comprised some 13 percent of the Israeli army’s civilian workforce....The Egyptian government is generally expected to speak out against Israeli violations against the Palestinians--like the recent spate of air strikes targeting the Gaza Strip--with little in the way of follow-up.

Just like with the politicians in the US, we have to go by what they DO not what they SAY. Just like with all people.

And they don't do much in the way of follow up, surprise surprise.

So the Egyptian people don't care much for the sham elections.

"I have never voted, because the elections do not change anything... (and) will make the regime continue," said Samir, 42, a father of two who owns a barber's shop. (Egypt's poor look on election with apathy)

And Gamal Mubarak makes noises about doing something to alleviate poverty, after all these years.

Mubarak junior, a banker-turned-politician, has been closely associated with a clique of rich businessmen since his ascent through the ranks of the ruling party began a decade ago, giving many Egyptians the impression of him as a "rich boy" with little understanding of the hardships endured by the poor....In the five years ahead of the next parliamentary election in 2015, he said, the party needs to create more jobs, increase non-oil exports, nearly double the number of tourists coming every year and lift a million families out of poverty....Gamal Mubarak has frequently sought to debunk talk of him being groomed to succeed his 82-year-old father, but has never categorically denied it. The older Mubarak, who had surgery this year to remove his gallbladder, rarely speaks in public on the issue of succession.

^^^^^^^

Gamal Mubarak is an elite.

• Gamal's nickname is Jimmy. He eats at swanky restaurants and attends high-society functions.
• Gamal studied at the privately-funded American University in Cairo.
• He worked for eleven years as an investment banker for Bank of America in Cairo and London.
• He helped set up a London-based advisory and investment banking firm called MedInvest.
• He held an executive post on the U.S.-Egyptian President’s Council set up by Hosni Mubarak and Al Gore to boost economic ties between Egypt and the US.
• His right hand man, Ahmed Ezz, is a steel magnate and politician.
• Gamal serves on the board of a bank (Arab-African International Bank) and a think tank (Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies). 

In September 2010, hundreds of Egyptians protested his succession to the presidency. People take their life in their hands to voice their opinions in Egypt. The security services are very harsh. Hosni Mubarak runs a dictatorship.

• Repressive measures against journalists and human rights activist have now become common currency in Egypt, where neither domestic nor international laws are respected.
• For instance, Journalist Hamdi Taha was arrested 3/27/10 in a raid on his home by plain clothed State Security forces and the Central Security services.
• The security services terrorized his family members and locked them in their bedrooms during the raid.
• He has been arrested before after writing about government corruption and publishing the stories in various Egyptian newspapers and websites. Security services arrested him under false pretenses and held him without further investigation.
• Three newspapers he has written for have been shut down by Egyptian authorities.
• The State Security Prosecutor in Aswan is currently investigating him as a threat to national security.

But after thirty years of Hosni Mubarak, some Egyptians have had enough. They do not want Gamal Mubarak.

"I am 30 years old and I still have not got enough money to marry. I can't find a job. Tell the world to help us. We are dying under Mubarak. Send an SOS." He then set fire to a picture of Gamal Mubarak. "We are supposed to be a democracy even though everyone knows it's a sham. We will not stand by while the presidency passes from father to son."

Gamal Mubarak remains popular with certain important people.

Mubarak signals Egypt succession by taking son to Washington, Haaretz, August 31, 2010

Gamal Mubarak, son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, will accompany his father to this week's Washington peace summit in what may be the clearest sign yet that he is being groomed for the succession. ..This time, the younger of the president's two sons is expected to meet with Israeli delegates to U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians, and perhaps even with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself.

Meeting with Bibi himself? Kind of like meeting the pope we guess... a big deal.

No, actually, now the meeting supposedly never happened.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit has denied reports in the Israeli media that a meeting took place between Gamal Mubarak, head of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP)'s Policies Secretariat and son of President Hosni Mubarak, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Israeli news reports, the meeting--which also allegedly included US President Barack Obama--took place in Washington last week at a business lunch, held on the sidelines of the launch of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

And who bankrolled Gamal Mubarak's Washington trip (that never happened)? No one will say.

And since this trip surely has nothing to do with securing US and Israeli support for Gamal Mubarak's inheritance of power from his father, there is only one explanation left: The president just wanted to spend quality time with his son on the sidelines of the negotiations, like many fathers who take their kids to work as a form of leisure.

Bibi himself is ready to visit Egypt next month.

"JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - DECEMBER 26: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting on December 26, 2010 in Jerusalem, Israel. Netanyahu is soon expected to discuss developments of the peace process with a visit to Egypt and meeting with President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak in early January 2011." Times of India, 12/27/10

Surprise surprise.