<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Egypt: Social Movements, the CIA and the&nbsp;Mossad]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<table border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="100%" align="center">
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<td class="normal_text" style="padding-left:15px;" align="right">19:49 02/15/2011</td>
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<td class="caption_text" align="center">It is not arms, billions of dollars, secret police .. that decide history.</td>
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<td class="normal_text" style="padding-top:10px;"><strong>By James Petras</strong></p>
<p>The  mass movements which forced the removal of Mubarak reveal both the  strength and weaknesses of spontaneous uprisings. On the one hand, the  social movements demonstrated their capacity to mobilize hundreds of  thousands, if not millions, in a successful sustained struggle  culminating in the overthrow of the dictator in a way that pre-existent  opposition parties and personalities were unable or unwilling to do.</p>
<p>On  the other hand, lacking any national political leadership, the  movements were not able to take political power and realize their  demands, allowing the Mubarak military high command to seize power and  define the “post-Mubarak” process, ensuring the continuation of Egypt’s  subordination to the US, the protection of the illicit wealth of the  Mubarak clan ($70 billion), and the military elite’s numerous  corporations and the protection of the upper class. The millions  mobilized by the social movements to overthrow the dictatorship were  effectively excluded by the new self-styled “revolutionary” military  junta in defining the political institutions and policies, let along the  socio-economic reforms needed to address their basic needs of the  population (40% live on less than $2 USD a day, youth unemployment runs  over 30%). Egypt, as in the case of the student and popular social  movements against the dictatorships of South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines  and Indonesia, demonstrate that the lack of a national political  organization allows neo-liberal and conservative “opposition”  personalities and parties to replace the regime. They proceed to set up  an electoral regime which continues to serve imperial interests and to  depend on and defend the existing state apparatus. In some cases they  replace old crony capitalists with new ones. It is no accident that the  mass media praise the ‘spontaneous’ nature of the struggles (not the  socio-economic demands) and put a favorable spin on the role of military  (slighting its 30 years as a bulwark of the dictatorship). The masses  are praised for their “heroism”, the youth for their “idealism”, but are  never proposed as central political actors in the new regime. Once the  dictatorship fell, the military and the opposition electoralists  “celebrated” the success of the revolution and moved swiftly to  demobilize and dismantle the spontaneous movement, in order to make way  for negotiations between the liberal electoral politicians, Washington  and the ruling military elite.</p>
<p>While the White House may tolerate  or even promote social movements in ousting (“sacrificing”)  dictatorships, they have every intention in preserving the state. In the  case of Egypt the main strategic ally of US imperialism was not  Mubarak, it is the military, with whom Washington was in constant  collaboration before, during and after the ouster of Mubarak, ensuring  that the “transition” to democracy (sic) guarantees the continued  subordination of Egypt to US and Israeli Middle East policy and  interests.</p>
<p>The Arab revolt demonstrates once again several  strategic failures in the much vaunted secret police, special forces and  intelligence agencies of the US and Israeli state apparatus none of  which anticipated, let along intervened, to preclude successful  mobilization and influence their government’s policy toward the client  rulers under attack.</p>
<p>The image which most writers, academics and  journalists project of the invincibility of the Israeli Mossad and of  the omnipotent CIA have been severely tested by their admitted failure  to recognize the scope, depth and intensity of the multi-million member  movement to oust the Mubarak dictatorship. The Mossad, pride and joy of  Hollywood producers, presented as a ‘model of efficiency’ by their  organized Zionist colleagues, were not able to detect the growth of a  mass movement in a country right next door.  The Israeli Prime Minister  Netanyahu was shocked (and dismayed) by the precarious situation of  Mubarak and the collapse of his most prominent Arab client – because of  Mossad’s faulty intelligence. Likewise, Washington was totally  unprepared by the 27 US intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, with  their hundreds of thousands of paid operatives and multi-billion dollar  budgets, of the forthcoming massive popular uprisings and emerging  movements.</p>
<p>Several theoretical observations are in order. The  notion that highly repressive rulers receiving billions of dollars of US  military aid and with close to a million police, military and  paramilitary forces are the best guarantors of imperial hegemony has  been demonstrated to be false. The assumption that large scale, long  term links with such dictatorial rulers, safeguards US imperial  interests has been disproven.</p>
<p>Israeli arrogance and presumption of  Jewish organizational, strategic and political superiority over “the  Arabs”, has been severely deflated. The Israeli state, its experts,  undercover operatives and Ivy League academics were blind to the  unfolding realities, ignorant of the depth of disaffection and impotent  to prevent the mass opposition to their most valued client. Israel’s  publicists in the US, who scarcely resist the opportunity to promote the  “brilliance” of Israel’s security forces, whether it’s assassinating an  Arab leader in Lebanon or Dubai, or bombing a military facility in  Syria, were temporarily speechless.</p>
<p>The fall of Mubarak and the  possible emergence of an independent and democratic government would  mean that Israel could lose its major ‘cop on the beat’. A democratic  public will not cooperate with Israel in maintaining the blockade of  Gaza – starving Palestinians to break their will to resist. Israel will  not be able to count on a democratic government, to back its violent  land seizures in the West Bank and its stooge Palestinian regime. Nor  can the US count on a democratic Egypt to back its intrigues in Lebanon,  its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, its sanctions against Iran. Moreover,  the Egyptian uprising has served as an example for popular movements  against other US client dictatorships in Jordan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.  For all these reasons, Washington backed the military takeover in order  to shape a political transition according to its liking and imperial  interests.</p>
<p>The weakening of the principle pillar of US imperial  and Israeli colonial power in North Africa and the Middle East reveals  the essential role of imperial collaborator regimes. The dictatorial  character of these regimes is a direct result of the role they play in  upholding imperial interests. And the major military aid packages which  corrupt and enrich the ruling elites are the rewards for being willing  collaborators of imperial and colonial states. Given the strategic  importance of the Egyptian dictatorship, how do we explain the failure  of the US and Israeli intelligence agencies to anticipate the uprisings?</p>
<p>Both  the CIA and the Mossad worked closely with the Egyptian intelligence  agencies and relied on them for their information, confiding in their  self-serving reports that “everything was under control”: the opposition  parties were weak, decimated by repression ad infiltration, their  militants languishing in jail, or suffering fatal “heart attacks”  because of harsh “interrogation techniques”. The elections were rigged  to elect US and Israeli clients – no democratic surprises in the  immediate or medium term horizon.</p>
<p>Egyptian intelligence agencies  are trained and financed by Israeli and US operatives and are amenable  to pursuing their masters will. They were so compliant in turning in  reports which pleased their mentors, that they ignored any accounts of  growing popular unrest or of internet agitation. The CIA and Mossad were  so embedded in Mubarak’s vast security apparatus that they were  incapable of securing any other information from the grassroots,  decentralized, burgeoning movements which were independent of the  “controlled” traditional electoral opposition.</p>
<p>When the  extra-parliamentary mass movements burst forward, the Mossad and the CIA  counted on the Mubarak state apparatus to take control via the typical  carrot and stick operation: transient token concessions and calling out  the army, police and death squads. As the movement grew from tens of  thousands to hundreds of thousands, to millions, the Mossad and leading  US Congressional backers of Israel urged Mubarak to “hold on”. The CIA  was reduced to presenting the White House with political profiles of  reliable military officials and pliable “transitional” political  personages, willing to follow in Mubarak’s footsteps. Once again the CIA  and Mossad demonstrated their dependence on the Mubarak apparatus for  intelligence of who might be a “viable” (pro-US/Israel) alternative,  ignoring the elementary demands of the masses. The attempt to co-opt the  old guard electoralist Muslim Brotherhood via negotiations with  Vice-President Suleiman failed, in part because the Brotherhood was not  in control of the movement and because Israel and their US backers  objected. Moreover, the youth wing of the Brotherhood pressured them to  withdraw from the negotiations.</p>
<p>The intelligence failure  complicated Washington and Tel Aviv’s efforts to sacrifice the  dictatorial regime to save the state: the CIA ad MOSSAD did not develop  ties to any of the new emerging leaders. The Israeli’s could not find  any ‘new face’ with a popular following willing to serve as a crass  collaborator to colonial oppression. The CIA had been entirely engaged  in using the Egyptian secret police for torturing terror suspects  (“exceptional rendition”) and in policing neighboring Arab countries. As  a result both Washington and Israel looked to and promoted the military  takeover to preempt further radicalization.</p>
<p>Ultimately the  failure of the CIA and MOSSAD to detect and prevent the rise of the  popular democratic movement reveals the precarious bases of imperial and  colonial power. Over the long-run it is not arms, billions of dollars,  secret police and torture chambers that decide history. Democratic  revolutions occur when the vast majority of a people arise and say  “enough”, take the streets, paralyze the economy, dismantle the  authoritarian state and demand freedom and democratic institutions  without imperial tutelage and colonial subservience.</p>
<p><em>&#8211; James  Petras&#8217; most recent books are: What&#8217;s Left in Latin America?, coauthored  with Henry Veltmeyer (Ashgate Press, 2009), and Global Depression and  Regional Wars (Clarity Press, 2009). He contributed this article to  PalestineChronicle.com.</em></td>
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<p><a href="http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16653">Egypt: Social Movements, the CIA and the Mossad</a>.</p>
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