Clinton: Egypt must respect citizen rights, reform

[Guest guest]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110128/ap_on_re_us/us_us_egypt

Clinton: Egypt must respect citizen rights, reform

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Lee, Associated Press – 38 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday appealed for

Egyptian authorities to respect the rights of their citizens amid a crackdown on

swelling anti-government protests, and urged them to heed demands for political

and economic reform.

Speaking as street demonstrations rocked Egypt's capital despite a curfew,

Clinton urged calm on both sides and said the government must investigate and

prosecute any allegations of brutality by security forces. She also called on

Egypt to restore access to the Internet and social media sites that have been

blocked.

" We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and

security forces against protesters, and we call on the Egyptian government to do

everything in its power to restrain the security forces, " Clinton told reporters

at the State Department. " At the same time, protesters should also refrain from

violence and express themselves peacefully. "

" We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and to reverse the

unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communication, " she said. " These

protests underscore that there are deep grievances within Egyptian society, and

the Egyptian government needs to understand that violence will not make these

grievances go away. "

Clinton said that reform " is absolutely critical to the well-being of Egypt " and

urged the longtime U.S. ally to " engage immediately " with opposition groups and

others to enact broad economic, political and social reforms. She said the Obama

administration had raised repeatedly with Egypt the " imperative for reform and

greater openness. "

[Guest guest]

The State Department doesn't have a clue what is happening. I've read other articles that say this is all moving too fast for them and they have no policy in place, even though they seem to have had intelligence this was coming. Same with Tunisia and Lebannon. The signals State is sending are all over the place. Even Biden isn't on the right page when he said that Mubarak WASN'T a dictator.

This could get very nasty for us. If this shuts down the Suez Canal, oil prices will rise. If it spreads to Saudi or Iraq, forget it. Oil prices will shoot up way up and send the economy way down. Saudi also holds a lot of US debt, so it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't call it to bring down troops from Iraq. Since the US only supplies about 30% of its own fuel needs, prices will go up accordingly. I say that because if Saudi and the rest go down, then suddenly Mexico, Canada, and Venezuela will suddenly be sitting on a platinum mine as the US and China bid against each other for their oil. With the Yuan potentially stronger than the dollar and China holding much of our debt, they probably would win out. The government might impose price controls or rationing, neither of which will do much to increase production in the US because there will be no profit. The government might dump a subsidy to drill and build new plants, which will all take several years at least, particularly with China supplying so much US steel (and increasing production in the US of anything will mean greater demand for oil and the coal the government controls and put off limits, hmmm), but if the companies can't make a profit, the work will be slow and the product wastefully collected and processed. Its just the way such incentives work. Ditto if pollution regulations aren't scaled back some but even then with this administration and the EPA being what it is there is no future promise against suits and fines down the road.

In a message dated 1/28/2011 1:20:45 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

Clinton: Egypt must respect citizen rights, reform

[Guest guest]

The State Department doesn't have a clue what is happening. I've read other articles that say this is all moving too fast for them and they have no policy in place, even though they seem to have had intelligence this was coming. Same with Tunisia and Lebannon. The signals State is sending are all over the place. Even Biden isn't on the right page when he said that Mubarak WASN'T a dictator.

This could get very nasty for us. If this shuts down the Suez Canal, oil prices will rise. If it spreads to Saudi or Iraq, forget it. Oil prices will shoot up way up and send the economy way down. Saudi also holds a lot of US debt, so it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't call it to bring down troops from Iraq. Since the US only supplies about 30% of its own fuel needs, prices will go up accordingly. I say that because if Saudi and the rest go down, then suddenly Mexico, Canada, and Venezuela will suddenly be sitting on a platinum mine as the US and China bid against each other for their oil. With the Yuan potentially stronger than the dollar and China holding much of our debt, they probably would win out. The government might impose price controls or rationing, neither of which will do much to increase production in the US because there will be no profit. The government might dump a subsidy to drill and build new plants, which will all take several years at least, particularly with China supplying so much US steel (and increasing production in the US of anything will mean greater demand for oil and the coal the government controls and put off limits, hmmm), but if the companies can't make a profit, the work will be slow and the product wastefully collected and processed. Its just the way such incentives work. Ditto if pollution regulations aren't scaled back some but even then with this administration and the EPA being what it is there is no future promise against suits and fines down the road.

In a message dated 1/28/2011 1:20:45 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

Clinton: Egypt must respect citizen rights, reform

[Guest guest]

The main concerns are:

1) Shipping through the Suez canal being cut off.

2) Islamic radicals being elected with the next government who will oppose

Israel and void Egypt's treaties with them.

3) A rise in oil prices. Egypt, Lybia, and a few other Arab countries produce

about the same amount of oil, and Egypt dropping out while the new people try to

gain and hold power won't mean much, but it will have an effect on the world

market regardless.

4) Other Arab states undergoing similar protests by their citzenry and falling.

Saudi Arabia would be the next to go, I'd think. Then we'd have a real oil

crisis.

Administrator

The State Department doesn't have a clue what is happening. I've read other

articles that say this is all moving too fast for them and they have no policy

in place, even though they seem to have had intelligence this was coming.

[Guest guest]

Good points. The threat to oil prices, and indeed simple availability, will be a closure of Suez and if the troubles spread to Saudi, Kuwait, Iraq. If Middle Eastern oil is shut off, then prices will shoot up and wreck the economy. We'll also then be having to bid strongly against China for Venezuelan, Mexican and Canadian oil. That will also cause a rise in prices and China may have the upper hand because of the US debt it holds and that the US economy would tank very quickly.

In a message dated 1/30/2011 12:16:49 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

The main concerns are: