" Brumberg said the youth are holding onto an unachievable goal of “revolution”—eradicating every last vestige of the old system—when progress, overseen by powerful figures left over from Mubarak’s administration, is likely to be incremental and halting. “This is a process managed by the military, built around mobilizing and negotiating with different groups,” he said. “Whether you like it or not, you have to do politics.” "

At first glance the split of the #April6 "movement" (coalition? campaign?) doesn't look uniquely Egyptian. This is common.

" Protests for political reform are crucial, many argue, because the system of governance will define Egypt's future on all levels. Labor strikes, on the other hand, can and should be postponed: it's not the right time, they say; Egypt's floundering post-revolution economy needs all the work it can get.

" But the laboring classes - many members of whom have not received their salaries in months - feel otherwise. "

" But by early Saturday, the military made it clear there would be limits to further dissent as soldiers and plainclothes security officers moved into the square, beating protesters and tearing down their tents, witnesses said. "

" A real grown-up understands that the question is hard, that we need facts on the ground before we can start to answer it. Twitter brings down governments is not a serious idea about the Internet and social change. Refuting it is not a serious activity. It just feels good… for a moment. "

notes on negotiations of the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups with the military

" Revolution is the radical restructuring of society, politics, ideology and, not least, economic classes. In a revolution, everything changes. The rich are no longer rich. The poor are no longer poor. Old elites are driven out of power. Outsiders take over. In Egypt, the military is in charge. They are run by an existing set of elites. The civilian government of Omar Suleiman, though nominally in charge, remains in place. Suleiman was appointed by Mubarak, and was Mubarak’s right-hand man for many years. Mubarak has been allowed to escape. None of these events reflect a revolutionary scenario. "

Kefaya, Youth for Change, Otpor

Be wary of future scholarly explanations for Mubarak's resistance that don't take this into account.

" a senior Western intelligence source claimed that Mubarak had begun moving his fortune in recent weeks. "We're aware of some urgent conversations within the Mubarak family about how to save these assets," said the source, "And we think their financial advisers have moved some of the money around. If he had real money in Zurich, it may be gone by now." "

" A president who himself is often torn between idealism and pragmatism was navigating the counsel of a traditional foreign policy establishment led by Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Biden and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, against that of a next-generation White House staff who worried that the American preoccupation with stability could put a historic president on the wrong side of history. "

" In a presidential straw poll conducted last week by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 3% of Egyptians supported ElBaradei. That's two percentage points better than opposition leader Ayman Nour, but well below the 26% for Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister who topped the list. Moussa quit his post as secretary-general of the Arab League on Friday to begin what is widely seen as a campaign for president. "

" Obama never publicly called for Mubarak to resign. The White House feared that approach could backfire. Obama's advisors did not want to give the impression Washington had forced change in another country. And they worried that conservative elements in the Egyptian regime might prop up Mubarak in response to U.S. demands that he go. "

" But analysts in Cairo, Washington and Tel Aviv say the situation remains too volatile to be sure that the military council will ultimately permit free elections, accede to civilian control and allow transparency. "

" The Egyptian opposition has created what it calls a "confidential council," which will conduct negotiations with the interim military government and, if necessary, call for fresh protests. "

" The army's announcement, which included the suspending of the constitution, was a further rebuff to some pro-democracy activists after troops were sent to clear demonstrators from Cairo's Tahrir Square, the centre of the protests that brought down Hosni Mubarak. "We do not want any protesters to sit in the square after today," said the head of the military police, Mohamed Ibrahim Moustafa Ali. "

" The White House focus has been on revolutions against U.S.-backed dictatorships, including the 1986 popular revolt against Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, the Chilean transition from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet to democracy in 1990, and the 1998 uprising in Indonesia that drove out President Suharto. Officials have also looked to Serbia and Poland for lessons. "

" Egypt's military called Monday for an end to the strikes and protests that have practically paralyzed the country since late last month, but thousands of police and other state employees took to the streets to demand better pay and working conditions, and pro-democracy leaders vowed to keep demonstrating if their demands for change are not met. "

" The military leadership gave no timetable for the political transition, and many of the demonstrators who filled Cairo's Tahrir Square for 18 days rejected the military's appeal to dismantle the barricades and go home. They said they were waiting for specific commitments from the military on their demand for a civilian-controlled interim administration, the lifting of the oppressive state of emergency and other steps toward liberalisation. "

" The point: Mubarak united a very large coalition in opposition. When he leaves, the critical glue that held that coalition together disappears, and the whole range of activists and interests will find new opponents–and maybe enemies–among their recent allies. Right now, we have one clear loser, Hosni Mubarak, but just who the ultimate winners will be–and what Egypt will ultimately look like–is pretty much unknown. "

" Now, though – having been wrong-footed and overtaken by largely non-religious young activists – the brotherhood is seeking to regain its standing as the country's leading opposition movement, without turning either local or western opinion against it. "

" But hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s. "

" Workers from 5 service companies owned by Suez Canal Authority in the cities of Suez , Port-Said and Ismailia began an open-ended sit in today. "

attitudes toward democracy, Islamic law, etc.
survey conducted 2010 April 12 - May 7

" But the Brotherhood, like everyone else, is evolving. It would be a serious error to believe that it has not sincerely wrestled with the seductive challenge of democracy, with the fact that the Egyptian faithful like the idea of voting for their leaders. "

" If the United States looks like it’s succoring Mubarak’s henchmen with military and economic aid, it risks having Egyptians blame it for siding with a dictatorship against their democratic aspirations. With the 2012 elections looming, Republicans could easily pile on. "

Improvised headgear / -1 to Armor Class #Egypt #Jan25

" No matter what was said in private, or how forcefully, the public message sent by the Obama administration over the past two years was that democracy and human rights in Egypt was not a top priority. When given the opportunity to use the biggest megaphone in the world--the voice of the president of the United States--the words were whispered, if said at all. "

see below: "secret backing" was anything but

" 5. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx described how he tried to convince his Washington interlocutors that the USG should pressure the GOE to implement significant reforms by threatening to reveal CAIRO 00002572 002 OF 002 information about GOE officials' alleged \"illegal\" off-shore bank accounts. He hoped that the U.S. and the international community would freeze these bank accounts, like the accounts of Zimbabwean President Mugabe's confidantes. xxxxxxxxxxxx said he wants to convince the USG that Mubarak is worse than Mugabe and that the GOE will never accept democratic reform. xxxxxxxxxxxx asserted that Mubarak derives his legitimacy from U.S. support, and therefore charged the U.S. with \"being responsible\" for Mubarak's \"crimes.\" He accused NGOs working on political and economic reform of living in a \"fantasy world,\" and not recognizing that Mubarak -- \"the head of the snake\" -- must step aside to enable democracy to take root.

" 6. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx claimed that several opposition forces -- including the Wafd, Nasserite, Karama and Tagammu parties, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kifaya, and Revolutionary Socialist movements -- have agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections (ref C). According to xxxxxxxxxxxx, the opposition is interested in receiving support from the army and the police for a transitional government prior to the 2011 elections. xxxxxxxxxxxx asserted that this plan is so sensitive it cannot be written down. (Comment: We have no information to corroborate that these parties and movements have agreed to the unrealistic plan xxxxxxxxxxxx has outlined. Per ref C, xxxxxxxxxxxx previously told us that this plan was publicly available on the internet. End comment.) "

" The Obama administration’s “priority in dealing with Egypt is how can Egypt help us on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process or the Arab-Israeli peace process in general. That’s just sort of the prism through which the relationship is viewed.” "

" The Egyptian Foreign Ministry recently ordered two US non- governmental organisations -- the International Republican Institute (IRI) and its twin, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) -- to halt their activities in Egypt until they are licensed. "