Year: 2009

Obama has once again exposed himself for the hypocrite he is. Interviewed by the BBC yesterday, Obama showered Mubarak with praise:

…while acknowledging that there are “obviously” issues of human rights in the Middle East, the President avoided specifics that many Egyptians may have been looking for.
He said President Hosni Mubarak was a force for stability, without commenting on the President’s domestic policies. “He has been a stalwart ally, in many respects, to the United States. He has sustained peace with Israel, which is a very difficult thing to do in that region.”
The counterparts will meet in private for the first time during Obama’s visit to Cairo.
When Webb asked whether he considered Mubarak to be “authoritarian,” Obama deferred. “I tend not to use labels for folks,” he said.
Hossam El-Hamalawy, activist and blogger at arabawy.org, said he felt that Obama was not going far enough. He said that Obama’s silence regarding Mubarak was a “clear endorsement of his regime.”
“The pro-democracy movement here has allies in the west, but they are not in the Whitehouse,” El-Hamalawy said. Despite Obama’s differences from the past, El-Hamalawy was not confident that he will be fundamentally different from his predecessor.
AUC Political Science Professor Walid Kazziha said Obama’s reluctance to emphasize a purely pro-democracy policy was understandable. “He’s not going to raise that issue against any Arab regime that he considers to be moderate,” said Kazziha. “They’re opting for stability rather than democracy.”

In all cases, it seems the old man isn’t attending the speech after all!

Mubarak is not going to attend the speech in CU #Cairospeech

— Zeinobia 🎙️📷📓 (@Zeinobia) June 2, 2009