Trump Condemns "Horrible And Cowardly" Egypt Mosque Attack As Death Toll Hits 235

Update: After holding an emergency cabinet meeting, Egypt"s el-Sisi, speaking publicly about today"s attack for the first time, vowed that the perpetrators wouldn"t go unpunished. El-Sisi earlier declared a State of Emergency and three-day morning period following the attack.

However, many on twitter blamed el-Sisi"s policies for emboldening the militants.

 

Worst thing about the massive terror attack in #Sinai ?
It will give justification to the likes of #Sisi and #Trump and their so called War on Terror.#Egyptians will pay with more loss of freedom- if that is at all possible.

— Amr Khalifa (@Cairo67Unedited) November 24, 2017

 

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Update: President Donald Trump has offered his condolences to the families of the victims in today"s shooting at a Mosque in the Northern Sinai Peninsula: The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!

 

Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

 

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Early Friday, militants armed with guns and explosives stormed a mosque in Egypt’s troubled northern Sinai Peninsula on Friday, killing at least 235 people and wounding at least 120 others, according to Bloomberg, in what appears to be the deadliest mass killing in Egypt since the 2013 attack in Rabaa al-Adawiya, where soldiers loyal to present-day leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi murdered as many as 900 Islamists who had gathered in the square for a nonviolent sit-in.

The assault west of the town of El-Arish in Sinai targeted people gathered for Friday prayers, when mosques in Egypt often overflow with worshipers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Yet Sinai province, a triangular piece of land bordering southern Israel and the Gaza Strip, has been a key battleground in the government’s battle against a local branch of Islamic State. Al-Arabiya and other local sources said some of the worshippers were Sufis. Islamic State regards them as apostates because they revere saints and shrines, which hardliners believe is tantamount to heresy.

El-Sisi has declared three days of mourning, according to Shorouk News. State TV reports five militants were involved in the attack.

While the bombings aren’t seen as threatening the stability of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s government, they’ve devastated the tourist industry, a vital pillar of the economy, according to Bloomberg. El-Sisi called a meeting with the security committee following the mass killing, according to the state-run television said.

Grisly images of the attack have emerged on social media showing bodies covered in bloody sheets.

 

??? ??? ?????? ???????? ??? ???? #?????? ??? ????? #?????? ??? ???? .#?????#????????? pic.twitter.com/ubBl1y7bRq

— Sinai News - ????? ???? (@sinai_news_1) November 24, 2017

 

According to Bloomberg, militants in four vehicles drove up to the mosque, set off an improvised explosive device outside the building and opened fire on people praying inside, according to a senior official in the north Sinai security directorate who asked not to be named. Locals took up weapons to help thwart the attackers, the official said. The suspects fled as security forces arrived.

While the majority of the militant violence has been confined to the northern part of the Sinai, it has on occasion spilled over to Cairo and other main cities. Meanwhile, attacks against Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority have killed dozens.

According to Russia Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered condolences to al-Sisi, describing Friday’s attack as cruel and cynical.

"The murder of civilians in the course of a religious service is striking with its cruelty and cynicism. We are once again convinced that the notion of human morality is absolutely alien to terrorists," Putin said in a telegram of condolences.

As the BBC points out, Northern Sinai has been living under a media blackout over the past few years. No media organisations, including state-sponsored media, have been allowed to travel there.

Friday’s mass killing comes after at least 54 police, including 20 officers and 34 conscripts, were killed during a raid on a militant hideout south-west of Cairo. The team was ambushed, and the ensuing firefight resulted in one of the largest death tolls for Egypt’s security forces in recent years. Authorities replaced the military’s chief of staff and almost a dozen top police officials following the incident. Of course, the major difference beteen Friday"s attack and the 2013 massacre at Rabaa al-Adawiya is that the latter was perpetrated by the Egyptian government, which has tried to wipe out all memory of the killing in the years since.

Police Brace For Clashes With Leftist Groups As "March Against Sharia" Begins

Police departments across America are bracing for another wave of leftist-inspired violence as protesters gather in 28 cities in 19 states on Saturday for the national "March Against Sharia," the Associated Press reported.

Counter-protesters in virtually every city where marches are taking place have promised to disrupt them, catching the attention of local police who have been wary of groups like Antifa and others that identify with far-left politics. These groups have demonstrated a tendency to provoke violent clashes with otherwise-peaceful conservative demonstrators, like those seen on Sunday in Portland, Ore. The MAS was organized by ACT for America, a conservative lobbying group that believes Sharia is “incompatible with Western democracy and the freedoms it affords." Marchers will gather in both smaller communities and large cities like New York, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta.

The Washington Post reports that “The marches set up the potential for more public clashes between far-right activists and their far-left opposition, similar to recent violent encounters between the political extremes in Berkeley, Calif., and Portland, Ore. While demonstrators argue they are protecting free speech and defending traditional American values, counter protesters say the marchers underscore a larger trend of intolerance that is increasingly evident across a politically divided country.”

In New York City, the rally kicked off downtown nearly an hour late with a crowd of around three dozen people, some of them in camouflage and waving American flags. A few wore shirts identifying themselves as members of far-right groups Oathkeepers and the III Percenters, according to WaPo. Fox News published some footage of the march, which can be seen below.

Across the street, separated by police barricades and a few dozen police, a few hundred mostly young people, including labor activists and Jewish and Muslim activists, and anarchists, blasted airhorns and whistles and held banners that read “Fascists out of NYC.”

Fox News reported that there have been "some clashes" between the marchers and leftist demonstrators around the country, though it didn"t specify where.

Anti-Sharia Law marches and counter protests take place across the country. #MarchAgainstSharia pic.twitter.com/qjfHQ37n0y

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 10, 2017

Frank Morganthaler, the vice president of the New York State Oath Keepers, told WaPo that the smaller turnout at his rally may have been the result of some people being “intimidated” by the threat of violence from opposition protesters.

“These people go wild,” he said, glancing across the street. “They"re crazy. We"ve seen what they"ve done in other cities, breaking windows and other stuff.”

The counter-protesters say the March Against Sharia and its organizers are anti-Muslim. Some weekend shoppers are already worried things will escalate into violence.

Of course, some of the counter-protesters interviewed by WaPo were quick to wrongly associate their opposition with a man who stabbed three men, killing two, on a Portland commuter train last month.

Across the street and two sets of police barricades, Marjorie Stamberg, a New York City teacher, held up a sign that read "drive fascists out of NYC."

“Two people were murdered in Portland a few weeks ago by their people," she said. "If they tell you it"s about free speech, they"re liars. They"re killers. They"re haters.”

Here’s a live feed from the New York march:

And another from Lansing, Michigan:

And a feed from Chicago:
 

Twitter user @bbusa617 tweeted a map showing all the planned protests:

@ACTforAmerica Saturday June 10Th 2017
**MARCH AGAINST SHARIA**
All Across Our Nation pic.twitter.com/COs0RrBSVG

— ????brooks brown???????????? (@bbusa617) June 9, 2017

In Roseville, Calif. more than 100 counter-protesters were planning to show up, according to the local Fox affiliate. However, the Roseville Police Department is prepared and has called in extra officers and additional agencies to step in if things get out of hand.

Is The U.S. Forcing Egypt Toward A Russian Alliance?

Submitted by James Durso

“The lion is back in his den!”

Hosni Mubarak, former President of Egypt, walked free last week after six years in detention on charges of murder and corruption. What does the U.S. have to show for it? Nothing.

In January 2011, Egyptian activists planned protests against corruption, lack of economic growth, and the heavy-handed police tactics of the recent years.  The protests were scheduled for 25 January in Cairo and across Egypt.  A broad swath of Egyptian activist groups participated, including the Islamists.  The protests quickly escalated and became increasingly violent to the extent that the police were replaced by the military.  At the end of two weeks, Mubarak had dissolved his government, appointed an interim leader, and announced he would not seek re-election in the September 2011 elections.

In early February 2011, on the same day that Vice President, and former intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak would resign as President, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces suspended the constitution and dissolved both houses of Parliament for six months until elections could be held.  In May 2011, Mubarak was charged with the murder of protesters and ordered to stand trial.

The elections of June 2012 handed power to the only organized opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood and its leader, Mohammed Morsi, who promptly tried to install an Islamist constitution and grant himself broader power than had Mubarak.  The secular opposition was upset that the Islamist opposition they helped usher into power would be so…Islamist.  More violent protests ensued. The whole sorry mess came to an end in July 2013, when the military seized power and Morsi’s hand-picked minister of defense, General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, became Egypt’s leader and was elected President in May 2014 with a Chicago-like 93 percent of the vote. 

Where was the U.S. in all this?  Inside the White House, Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Gates favored Mubarak’s gradual transition out of power, concerned that giving a longtime friend of the U.S. the bum’s rush would tell other friendly leaders in the region that the U.S. would buckle if it were them.  President Obama decided, however, the U.S. would be “on the right side of history” by forcing Mubarak from power after only two weeks of protests.  Thus, America forgot that its key audience in the Arab Middle East is the rulers of the Gulf Cooperation Council, not every activist with a Twitter feed. 

As a man once said, "How"s that working out for you?"  For America, not so well:

1. President El-Sisi is cordial with the U.S., but he is hedging his bets by getting closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin whom he has met with several times, in Russia and the Middle East.

2. Egypt has signed contracts with Russian companies for nuclear power reactors and advanced fighter aircraft. Egypt was stung when the U.S. delayed the delivery in 2014 of paid-for attack helicopters Egypt claimed were needed for counter-terror operations in the Sinai Peninsula - the first time the U.S. had used the Foreign Military Sales “nuclear option” of withholding spare parts or denying delivery of equipment. Egypt took the lesson and is diversifying its supplier base.

A key part of supplying military equipment is not just shipping the hardware, it is training the people.  Egypt has traditionally sent its military leaders, including then-Brigadier General El-Sisi to U.S. military schools, where they learned U.S. doctrine, the better able to cooperate with the U.S forces, were exposed to U.S. society and made contacts with future U.S. military leaders.  That opportunity to form relationships with future U.S. leaders may now be diluted.

3. Egypt is seeking Russian training for its forces. In one ironic twist, Russia will be training Egyptian pilots of the Russian Ka-52K Katran attack helicopter that will be based on Egypt’s new French-made Mistral-class amphibious assault ships that were once bound for Russia but not delivered after Russia seized Crimea.

4. Egypt is cooperating with Russia’s support of Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar by allowing the deployment of Russian Forces to the Egypt-Libyan border. Haftar, a renegade Gadaffi regime official who cooperated with U.S. intelligence and lived in the U.S. for two decades, returned to Libya to help oust Gadaffi and later gained command of the largest militia, ­­­­which opposes the UN-recognized, Tripoli-based unity government.

U.S.-Egyptian relations aren’t in dire danger, but Egypt’s relations with the U.S. and Russia may be returning to that of an earlier era, not exactly Nasser’s "positive neutrality," but more independent of the U.S.  And Egypt’s more independent stance will be helped by the recent discovery of an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - worth about $100 billion - off its Mediterranean coast.

President El-Sisi was the first foreign leader to talk to President-elect Trump, who previously described El-Sisi as a “fantastic guy,” so goodwill is there.  America’s leaders will now have to dedicate time and attention to get Egypt on-side rather than assuming it will be a perennial “Yes” vote for U.S. policies in the region. 

Turkey Warns Citizens About Travel To US Over "Social Tensions", Anti-Trump Protests

Several days after the US Embassy in Istanbul ordered the families of employees to depart, and advised U.S. citizens to avoid travel to southeast Turkey and "carefully consider the risks of travel to and throughout the country", Turkey has responded by warning its citizens on Saturday about travel to the United States, in response to what the foreign ministry called "increasingly violent protests against President-elect Donald Trump."

"Within the context of risks caused by the incidents and of social tension, our citizens who live in the U.S., or who are considering traveling there, should be cautious," the ministry said in a statement.

The advisory said the unrest began after Tuesday"s elections: "Sometimes the protests turn violent and criminal while protesters (are) detained by security forces," the ministry of foreign affairs said Saturday, adding that "racists and xenophobic incidents increased in USA."

"Considering the risks, we advise our citizens living and traveling to US to follow local media, to follow the warning of our embassy in Washington and American security forces, to stay away from protests, to increase their security in work space and to apply to local security when there is a racist or xenophobic attack while keeping calm," the statement added.

Demonstrators across America, some allegedly funded by George Soros-linked organizations, have staged four consecutive nights of protests against Trump, whose election they say poses a threat to their civil and human rights, a day after a protester was shot in Portland, Oregon. 

At the same time, there has been growing tension between the two NATO allies after repeated calls from Turkey to extradite U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for a failed coup in July.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday he hoped for an improvement in bilateral ties after Trump"s victory, and again called for Gulen"s extradition.