Revolution 2.0

An astute blogger has been putting the pieces together.
T. Monroe-Hamilton of The Noisy Room writes, "Google exec Wael Ghonim utilized Facebook to bring thousands into the streets and set himself up as a political martyr if need be. Youth groups along with Ghonim support ElBaradei and, by default, the Muslim Brotherhood. And who is financing such groups? Well, our old friend George Sorosof course. He and ElBaradei both sit on the International Crises Group board of trustees."
Call it Revolution 2.0. It's what Google's Wael Ghonim has named it,claiming their on-line tech-savvy ability to foment demonstrations was what ultimately toppled the Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak.
Cairo native and Google marketing exec Wael Ghonim helped organize Revolution 2.0, the anti-Mubarak protests, through "We are All Khaled Said", the Facebook page that drew more than 70,000 friends.
Monroe-Hamilton observes, "The Egyptian and Tunisian revolutionsdid not just spontaneously erupt. No …they are well planned, drawn out, militant effortsto bring about revolutionary change on a global scale. This will be done using the Internet and the young, who will be manipulated into revolt, with either legitimate causes, manufactured wrongs or a combination of both. Enter The Alliance for Youth Movements (AYM)."
Just how influential were websites Facebook and Twitter in the rebellion? At least one skeptic argues not so much.
The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell wrote last week, "People protested and brought down governments before Facebook was invented."
But Ghonim and the technically savvy computer geeks proved that technology amplified the protesters' message, helped build international support and showed that the Internet could change politics in Egypt.
Monroe-Hamilton's research would seem to bear this out and takes on the media for not doing theirs.
"If any real journalists had scratched the surface even a tiny bit and researched the connections behind the Egyptian revolt, they would have found it most enlightening," he writes. "It would seem that Soros'Center for American Progress has been behind the majority of lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill for Egyptian 'free' elections. Soros has also invested heavily inIndia with Goog leand in the Palestinian territories. His financial and political fingerprints are everywhere concerning chaos and revolt – of course, all done in the name of philanthropy, while sowing the seeds of violent revolution."
Khalid El-Baramawy, 33, editor of masrawy.comsaid, "This isn't like any revolution in history. It has two faces. The bad face is, we can't control it. We don't know the next step [after] the street." On the positive side, he said, "Mubarak doesn't know how to deal with us."
Have the demonstrations in Egyptleft Google in a bind? Google is officially maintaining its distance even as Ghonim's popularity is growing in Egypt.
Ghonim told CNN's Wolf Blitzer"If you want to liberate a government, give them the Internet."
Ghonim also rang out victory with this Twitter message: "Mission accomplished. Thanks to all the brave young Egyptians."
He plans to write a book about the effect of social media on political activism.
So, have Americans been "out-foxed by their government, who all along has been pulling together the makings of a movement that would start revolts in the Middle East and move throughout Europe and then strike at home, culminating in a New World Order"?Monroe-Hamilton thinks so.
By the way,Algeria has shut down its Internet and deleted Facebook as protests mount in that country. Syria and Sudanese governments haveembraced use of social media to retain power. And if one were to measure the impact of Egyptian coverage:Internet vs. newspapers? No contest. Are we entering a time of worldwide Internet censorship?


Read more:George Soros, Google tagged for starting Islamic uprisingshttp://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=263533#ixzz1E2SFJBXj

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Muslim Brotherhood text reveals scope of radical creed

One of the greatest beneficiaries of the unrest in Egypt has been the Muslim Brotherhood.

Banned but tolerated for decades by successive Egyptian regimes, the Islamist movement is now emerging as a central player in the country’s resurgent opposition.


On Tuesday, two Brotherhood representatives participated in an opposition delegation that met with Vice President Omar Suleiman for the first set of talks over implementing political reforms.

Pundits have portrayed the Brotherhood as uncompromising zealots or beneficent providers of social services that long-deprived Egyptians desperately need.

But a translation released Tuesday of a 1995 book by the movement’s fifth official leader sheds light on just how Egypt’s Brotherhood views itself and its mission. Jihad is the Way is the last of a five-volume work, The Laws of Da’wa by Mustafa Mashhur, who headed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 1996-2002.


The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday saw excerpts of the text, compiled by Palestinian Media Watch founder Itamar Marcus and analyst Nan Jacques Zilberdik.

They detail the Brotherhood’s objectives of advancing the global conquest of Islam and reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate, the public and private duties of jihad and the struggle Muslims must wage against Israel.

The full text, translated by PMW, will be posted Wednesday on the organization’s website, Palwatch.org.

“The Islamic ummah,” it says, referring to the supranational community of Muslims, “can regain its power and be liberated and assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted nation among men, as the leaders of humanity.”

Elsewhere, it exhorts Muslims, “Know your status, and believe firmly that you are the masters of the world, even if your enemies desire your degradation.”


Marcus spoke to the Post about what he views as the danger of downplaying the Brotherhood’s ideology, or expecting it to moderate its objectives after being allowed into the political process. The movement differs from international terror groups like Al-Qaida, he said, only in tactics, not in its goals.

Marcus cited passages in the text that urge Muslims to wage jihad only when circumstances are ripe.

“The Brotherhood is not rushed by youth’s enthusiasm into immature and unplanned action which will not alter the bad reality and may even harm the Islamic activity, and will benefit the people of falsehood,” Mashhur wrote.

“One should know that it is not necessary that the Muslims repel every attack or damage caused by the enemies of Allah immediately, but [only] when ability and the circumstances are fit to it.”

Jihad is the Way explicitly endorses the reinstatement of a worldwide Islamic regime.

“It should be known that jihad and preparation towards jihad are not only for the purpose of fending off assaults and attacks of Allah’s enemies from Muslims, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of establishing an Islamic state and strengthening the religion and spreading it around the world.”

“Jihad for Allah,” Mashhur wrote, “is not limited to the specific region of the Islamic countries, since the Muslim homeland is one and is not divided, and the banner of Jihad has already been raised in some of its parts, and shall continue to be raised, with the help of Allah, until every inch of the land of Islam will be liberated, and the State of Islam established.”

Jerusalem Post

MORE:
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=207415&R=R1

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France wants new global finance system

France, as current head of the Group of 20 countries, will help the transition to a global financial system based on 'several international currencies', French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said today.

Lagarde, speaking ahead of a G20 finance ministers meeting in Paris on Friday and Saturday, said the world had to move on from the 'non-monetary system' it now has to one 'based on several international currencies'.

Accordingly, France wants to see less need for countries, especially the emerging economies, to accumulate huge foreign reserves, she said.

At the same time, international capital flows should be better regulated and the role of the Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund should be reinforced by the inclusion of China's yuan in the system.

China, whose booming economy now ranks second only to the US in size after overtaking Japan, has accumulated massive forex reserves of more than $2.5 trillion on the back of its sustained trade surpluses and foreign fund inflows.

RTE

MORE:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0214/g20-business.html


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Rumsfeld Warns of Iran, N. Korea Electromagnetic Pulse Attack

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s new memoir, “Known and Unknown,” sets the record straight on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and warns of impending dangers from countries such as Iran and North Korea.

During an interview with Newsmax.TV, Rumsfeld vigorously defended the George W. Bush administration’s judgment of the threat from Saddam and blasted critics who accused the president of lying about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. The interview took place shortly after he received the prestigious Defender of the Constitution award Thursday from the Conservative Political Action Conference during the annual conference in Washington, D.C.

Rumsfeld castigated the Democrats who used the taunt of “Bush lied, people died” as their mantra during the 2004 presidential campaign.

“It was an outrageous statement,” he said. “It was so inaccurate. President Bush and Colin Powell and Condi Rice and the vice president and George Tenet and I believed fully in what we said. And to suggest that the president of the United States was lying is inexcusable.”

But “the drumbeat was too powerful” for the White House to push back successfully against its critics, he added.

Rumsfeld said he and his colleagues “were saying exactly what the people in the Congress were saying who saw exactly the same intelligence. They were saying what the intelligence community was saying. They were saying what the intelligence community in other countries such as the U.K., France, and elsewhere believed. It was unfortunate that the lies overwhelmed the truth.”

In his book, Rumsfeld wrote that the failure of the Bush White House to counter “half-truths, distortions and outright lies” in the national media allowed the president’s political enemies to write the narrative of his administration.

And yet, he had no real explanation of why the administration didn’t push back harder.

“Oh, one never knows,” he said. “First, it’s hard” to push back effectively.

Rumsfeld credited the forces of political correctness with powers that exceeded the truth of their ideas.

Whenever administration officials talked about the threat from radical Islamists, he said, “their views are seen as anti-Muslim, which is not true.”

And when the administration opposed Muslim terrorists overseas, it was accused of being “against that Muslim faith, which you are not.”

“What we’re against is people who are going around killing other people, other innocent human beings. And we ought to be willing to say that. We ought to be willing to say there are radical Islamists who are out to damage the nation state, to kill innocent human beings, and we ought not to allow them to do it,” he said.

Rumsfeld said he opted not to write a “quick” book about his tenure in the Bush administration in favor of writing a detailed historical account “aimed at serious readers and people really interested in government and public affairs.”

With a staff of six aides, Rumsfeld got the government to release reams of previously classified memos, including many of his famous “snowflakes” to aides and colleagues.

He said he wants history to judge him accurately, which is why he has posted these documents in searchable format at his website, Rumsfeld.com.

Rumsfeld said he is worried about the threat from an electromagnetic pulse attack from countries such as Iran and North Korea.

“We’ve thrown away the shoeboxes with the 3-by-5 cards,” he said, “so that cyberwarfare, and electromagnetic pulses and the things that can avoid competition with large armies and large navies and large air forces clearly have leverage, an advantage. And because of that, they’re attractive” to America’s enemies.

In his memoir, Rumsfeld says he repeatedly tried to get the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the White House to pay more attention to the threat from Iran, without success.

At one point, he forwarded to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, a news article and a National Intelligence Council paper detailing Iran’s “lethal support” for militants attacking U.S. troops in Iraq. “If we know so much about what Iran is doing in Iraq, why don't we do something about it?” he asked Pace.

“When you have a country like Iran, really a fine country with a proud history, taken over by a very small clique of people who are ideological and radical, you have to worry,” he said. “And we in this country, and other people who value freedom and free nation states, have to recognize that that combination of radical ideology and weapons of mass destruction is a danger.”


Read more on Newsmax.com: Rumsfeld Warns of Iran, N. Korea Electromagnetic Pulse Attack





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Deutsche Börse Eyes Takeover of New York Stock Exchange

Once again, plans are in the works for a mega-merger between the Deutsche Börse stock market in Frankfurt and the New York Stock Exchange. With the NYSE set to be swallowed up, many in the US are skeptical. A growing wave of such mergers could result in fewer national stock exchanges in the future.

Duncan Niederauer appeared as calm as could be. The CEO of the New York Stock Exchange Euronext spoke serenely about annual results, turnover and loss margins. He spoke of significant investments in 2010 and said that, "in short, we believe 2011 should provide a better environment for doing business."

Niederauer's telephone conference with nine market analysts on Tuesday morning lasted exactly one hour. But the most interesting item on the 50-year-old's agenda was kept under wraps. Niederauer and his team said nothing about it and the questions from the otherwise-excellently-informed analysts made it clear that they were in the dark.

It was only the next day that the NYSE made the sensational news public. The announcement came prematurely, the result of rumors flying around the trading floors in Manhattan and Frankfurt. Yes, the NYSE and its primary European rival the Deutsche Börse confirmed in identical statements, it is true that a fusion is in the works. It is a merger that would result in the largest stock exchange in the world.

Originally, the merger was to be announced next week as a fait accompli. The talks had been conducted in the strictest of secrecy, complete with codenames and highly confidential documents. Two earlier merger attempts, after all, had failed -- one in 2009 and another in 2009. And the size of the deal made the negotiations particularly sensitive.

Consternation in New York

The talks of 2009 are said to have failed due to German fears of becoming little more than a branch of the NYSE, as largely happened to Euronext. That problem, however, looks to have been solved: Deutsche Börse stockholders are to receive 59 to 60 percent of the stock in the new company.

That, however, has resulted in consternation in New York. "The US shareholders lose their majority control," complained CNBC on Wednesday. UBS trader Art Cashin, an institution on the NYSE trading floor, also seemed unsure of the deal on Wednesday. He said that Niederauer's position as CEO would indicate that the NYSE would still have substantial influence. But, he complained, details of the looming deal are in short supply.

Still, many feel that the NYSE has a dark future should it remain solo. It is losing market share and classic stock trading is becoming less important. The attractive trading floor, constantly polished to a glistening shine, is a relict of the past and will soon disappear entirely.

The NYSE earnings statistics that Niederauer made public on Tuesday were anything but exhilarating. In the fourth quarter of 2010, profit was 21 percent lower than in the same quarter of the previous year, a result of the strengthening dollar and weak trade volumes on both continents.

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Iranian police fire tear gas into protesters as unrest spreads across Middle East

Thousands of people marching illegally through Iran were targeted by police firing tear gas on Monday as the wave of Middle East revolution continued to spread beyond Egypt and Tunisia.

Eye witnesses spoke of shots being fired and scores of arrests as demonstrators in Tehran shouting "Death to the Dictator" approached Imam Hossein Square. One protester was shot dead and several were wounded by gunshots, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Across the region, opposition groups seized on the success of 18 days of protest in the Egyptian capital Cairo and across the country to make demands for more political rights.

In Sana'a, Yemen, several thousand people calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down before the end of his current term in 2013 hurled stones at police who were attacking them with batons. Bahrain police fired buckshot at demonstrators, and there were also protests in Iraq.

In Egypt, military police moved in to clear the last remaining protesters in Tahrir Square, who had pledged to remain to ensure the army kept its promise to hand over power to a democratic civilian regime. Those who resisted were carried away by force to waiting unmarked trucks.

But in place of pro-democracy protests, many government buildings were surrounded by striking workers demanding higher wages and the sacking of bosses perceived as corrupt or as cronies of the collapsed regime of Hosni Mubarak.

MORE:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8324157/Iranian-police-fire-tear-gas-into-protesters-as-unrest-spreads-across-Middle-East.html

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Terrorists targeting Suez Canal escape

 JERUSALEM – Members of a vast Hezbollah terrorist cell suspected of planning attacks against tourist sites and economic targets in the Suez Canal have escaped from Egyptian prison, according to informedEgyptiansecurity sources speaking to WND.
The event raises the prospect of further instability in the Suez region, which carries about 8 percent of global seaborne trade.


The cell was arrested in June 2009. At the time, Egypt's public prosecutor, Abdel-Magid Mohammed, announced the country had arrested 13 alleged Hezbollah agents on suspicion of planning attacks inside Egypt.


The agents are suspected of establishing a vast terrorist network in Egypt focusing ontargetsinside the country as well as aiding Hamas in the neighboring Gaza Strip.
According toEgyptiansecurity sources speaking to WND yesterday, 10 members of the cell, which the sources said included Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, escaped fromEgyptianprison in recent days amid chaos that has engulfed the nation and has distractedEgyptianforces.

A seniorEgyptiansecurity official, speaking from Cairo, told WND in 2009 his country had information Hezbollah cells – working with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – had been coordinating terrorist activities inside Egypt with al-Qaida elements known to be present in the Sinai.


The accusation that Iranian-backed agents were working with al-Qaida could not be verified by Israeli security officials. If accurate, it would mark a major turning point for Hezbollah, which has openly clashed with al-Qaida over ideology. Hezbollah espouses a strict Shiite Islamic belief system, while al-Qaida adheres to fundamentalist Sunni Muslim beliefs.
Al-Qaida has been fingered in a string of major, deadly suicide bombings inside Egypt the past few years mostly targeting hotels and othertouristsites. TheEgyptiangovernment previously has admitted it was likely al-Qaida was still operating in the Sinai.
TheEgyptiansecurity official speaking to WND said the Hezbollah-Iranian agents in Egypt were working with al-Qaida to plot attacks againsttouristsites, particularly those known to be popular with Israelis.


According to separate informed security officials with direct knowledge of the situation, Hezbollah, working directly withIran, began setting up cells inside Egypt at least two years ago. The cells consisted of well over 80 agents, said the sources.
The goals of the cells operating inside the country include plotting to destabilize theEgyptianregime to advance Iranian interests, planning attacks againsttouristsites with Israeli casualties in mind, aiding Hamas in Gaza and establishing a base of Iranian operations along the strategic SuezCanal.

WND



Read more:Terrorists targeting Suez Canal escapehttp://www.wnd.com/?pageId=261465#ixzz1DTBO6xbS
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