The Ambassadors Magazine - July 2011

Forced by his own people and army to step down from office in last February, former Egyptian president Mubarak is now on trial in the Police Academy. The 83 year old man supine on a hospital bed inside the steel defendants cage told the judge "I deny all accusations." They were the first words he had spoken in public since the speech he gave back in February insisting he would remain in office. The man who ruled for nearly 30 years with an iron fist was in the courtroom for 3 hours on August 3rd with his two sons, Alaa and Gamal who tried to shield their father from the cameras. Many of the people who referred to him as the 4th pyramid have now changed their colors and are now opposed to him now that they are aware of the major blunders of his regime. Who could have believed that Gamal Abdelaziz, his secretary has accumulated around seven billion Egyptian pounds. If we look at the iconography of the revolution, the image of Mr. Mubarak caged becomes all the more disturbing. It was a stark reminder of the fate of fallen leaders at the hands of the justice system. In London, on 1649, Charles I stepped out of the Banqueting House onto a scaffold where the axmen waited. As his head fell, the crowds fell dead silent. In Paris, 1793, Louis XVI of France goes to the guillotine and is greeted by crowds of joy.

The Gang that Robbed Egypt: Gamal Mubarak, Ahmed Ezz, Zakaria Azmy and Safwat El-Sherif had a hand in fabricating the November 2010 Parliamentary elections.

What happened in Cairo's Tahrir Square on the 25^th of January 2011 did not come out of the blue. I am astonished how former President Mubarak was not aware that there were major problems in Egypt. He was surrounded by many people who were corrupt thieves. The last of which was the complete fabrication of the Parliamentary elections led by Ahmed Ezz, Gamal Mubarak, Safwat El Sherif, Zakaria Azmy, Fathy Sorour and other members of the political committee of the National Democratic Party. This was done to usher in Gamal Mubarak as president and create a Mubarak dynasty. It was after the Algerian soccer match with Egypt’s controversy, that Alaa and Gamal Mubarak took ignorant and ridiculous stances that should have been the end of the political career such as threatening diplomatic ties with Algeria!!

It is shameful that under his administration, his appointed Editor-in-Chief of Egypt’s top daily national newspaper Al-Ahram defended a doctored a photo of the summit on Palestinian-Israeli negotiations showing Mubarak leading President Obama and the heads of Arab countries. How he kept this man in his position is unexplainable.

Initially, I was mistakenly impressed with some of his assistants such as Zakaria Azmy who often supported the opposition and used to appear before parliament complaining of the corruption. We now realize he too is incriminated having amassed hundreds of millions of dollars during his time in power. Thievery stole billions from Egypt. The rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer. They privatized the entire public sector and sold it for pennies and made commissions. We discovered after the revolution that there are unknown billionaires.

For months, workers demonstrated in front of the parliament but he did nothing to address their concerns. In fact, they had made life in Egypt so unbearable for the majority of its citizens that many poor people decided it would be better to die on board ships taking them illegally to other countries across the Mediterranean than to live in Egypt. Many Egyptians were prepared to move to Israel than to live in Egypt. In fact, there is a joke going around now that says "Nasser drove the British out of Egypt, Sadat drove out the Israelis and Mubarak drove out the Egyptians!!"

How could he be so aloof to have missed all of these matters. What happened on January 25^th was not unexpected. Never forget the story of Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia or the story of Khaled Saeed who was beaten to death in Alexandria or Hamza Al-Khateeb in Syria, or Ms. Iman El-Obaidi, the Libyan lawyer who said she was gang-raped by Libyan forces loyal to Gaddafi, and Saleh’s bloody attack on his people. Each of these leaders operate like monarchies who will do anything to stay in power even if it costs the lives of their own country men, women and children. The have truly earned the acronym BAD (Bloody Arab Dictators)!!

Egyptian Khaled Saeed was killed by two policemen in June 2010..

Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in November 2010 to start the revolution that toppled then-President Ben Ali

13-year-old Syrian boy Hamza Al-Khateeb was tortured, killed and mutilated by Bashar Al-Assad's police in May 2011

Libyan lawyer Iman El-Obaidi who was gang-raped by Gadhaffi's militias

The unbelievable is that Safwat Sharif who operated in Egypt like a king, was a intelligence officer under the code name Mowafi who was responsible for the dirty games that have become a characteristic of politics. He is now accused of having been behind the killing of the Cinderella of Egyptian cinema, the iconic actress Soad Hosny!! How can this person run Egypt. And how can Mubarak keep this man as one of his top assistants and confidants?! Mercenaries, Shabiha, Baltageya, thugs with different names pose threats to these areas. They featured prominently. It is claimed that during the Mubarak era, baltageya emerged as a major force. They are now in the number of 100,000. They even attack hospitals, police stations and intimidate judiciary. How can Mubarak not realize his country was disintegrating. Was he suffering from blindness, deafness, senility, and dementia? These were signs that any child would be able to identify?

During his time as President, Mubarak failed to see the signs that led to the revolution. Against the advice of everyone and to the chagrin of many, he stubbornly refused to appoint a Vice-President, instead it appears he was grooming his uncharismatic dull son Gamal to succeed him. As a medical doctor whose job is to diagnose and identify ailments and behavioral anomalies, I have to say that Mubarak's behavior defies explanation and I cannot explain why he took the actions he did.

During the second day of trial, on August 15, Mubarak spent most of the time with his eyes closed, very much the way he was while in the presidential palace. He should open his eyes to see what he has done to his country and what he has left behind. Mubarak, like most leaders in the Arab world whose dictatorial governments have oppressed their people, have to realize that it is time for power to return to the people of their countries.

Mubarak's cronies sold Egypt's most valuable natural resource, gas for pennies to Israel and Jordan, to the disadvantage of their own country. And while the chosen few made billions of dollars squandering Egypt's treasures, the growing population of poor in the country, by all estimates more than 40% of the population, slept on the sidewalks. We must admit our own mistakes as well as people. We were all blinded. I was one of the people who was deceived by the state media. They dismissed all the independent press and deceived us into thinking they were the protectors of the country's assets and that they were acting in the country's national interests. State media was contaminating our brains and feeding us lies. They created an illusion which they kept us living in. I remember Ihsan Abdulkudous, the lawyer and editor of Rose El-Youssef magazine wrote about the faulty weapons scandal of 1948 war at the height of King Farouk's power. He later wrote an article about the 1952 revolution where he described the Revolutionary Council of the Military as the "The Secret Mafia that rules Egypt" since what brought them together was not an ideology, or a worldview or a vision, but rather mutual interest. Such a group cannot be described as a party or a ruling council, instead operated like a gang. Unfortunately, in 2011 after the January 25 revolution, we have awoken from the dream to find that Abdelkudous' description is still an accurate one today. For the last decades we too have been living under the rule of the Mubarak mafia!!

As Mubarak faces the trial of the century while aging and ailing, some Egyptians have expressed sympathy for him in what international psychologists have argued that they are experiencing a case of Stockholm Syndrome. This is described as the state when prisoners begin sympathizing with their captors and those who abuse them and are even prepared to come to their defense. For the Egyptians that suffered during Mubarak's reign this blind sympathy and calls for canceling the trial are pathological.

It seems that Mubarak was convinced that he was a President, Caliph, Walli, King, Magistrate, and a Pharaoh. He was the head of the supreme council of the judiciary, the police, the army forces, and the legal father of the nation! The days of absolute power must come to an end and the country's destiny must return to the people. Mubarak From the Globe and Mail

did not simply get killed by the revolution, more accurately, he committed suicide. His failure to read and learn from history left him humiliated, dejected, undignified and with little legacy to defend. Even the good things he had done for his country are now overshadowed by his catastrophic decisions in the last 10 years and especially his reaction to his critics and opponents in the January 25 revolution.

At the twilight of his life, Mubarak must try to undo his mistakes if is going to be remembered with any fondness. If he wants to put a positive note on his legacy, he must immediately secure and return 30 billions dollars he and his gang smuggled out of the country to cover Egypt's debts and improve services. Egypt must be governed by untarnished people, those who have not been polluted. In Paris recently, it was found that Safwat El-Sherif has a home worth 5 million Euros, and Mubarak's secretary owns one as well for "only" 4 million Euros! I have unlimited confidence in the Egyptian justice system which will ensure that Mr. Mubarak's mistakes will not be repeated by any future authority. While he has full right to defend himself in front of the senior judge Ahmed Refaat, I am sure justice will be served.

This is a call to all THE BLOODY Arab dictators and their mafias and quacks that have stolen the wealth of their peoples to wake up because justice is on the way.