March 24, 2007   The Editors of ECrisis carry few mandates for our web site postings but one insistence so as to never perpetuate conspiracy theories. We reprint below the following article about the Foro de Sau Paulo of the middle East, the backbone and operating vehicle of the muslim extremeists: the marxist Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, political inspiration [sometimes called religious instruction] for Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran's ruling junta.
 
Freedom House finally steps up to the plate and decries the underpinnings of the remarkable funding stream from US AID and the Soros foundations to convert known constitutional democracies in to autocracies of unending misery. Marc Lynch calls the upcoming so called constitutional referendum in Egypt a "crude mockery of promises of political reform." To be sure, they do not out these background groups whose insistence that national constitutions must be altered in favor of "alternative" or "sovereign" democracies is today's magic bullet.
 
The article below is notable for its insistence that these so called constitutional plebiscites are often the sole vehicles to legal dictatorships.
While the Egyptian problem is compounded by the heavy handed Mubarack government under attack by the radical fascist arm of the fundamentalist muslim efforts, the Middle East itself has traditionally never been democracy's brightest bulb.
 
From the news article, we extract: "The changes will stifle meaningful political participation in Egypt and encroach more on Egyptians' personal freedoms and rule of law in the country..."
...." Miss Rice...told reporters at the State Department before leaving yesterday she was "really concerned" about the constitutional changes.
    "This is a really disappointing outcome," she said. "We will talk about it and hopefully it will turn out better than expected." ..."...Win an election and then use his majority to abolish democracy..."
 
We cannot predict what will happen in the Middle East. What we do know is that the fundamentalist/fascist wing of the middle east has teamed with so called "NGO" civil society groups to use democracy's tools to rewrite constitutions for political aims. We can predict with a certainty that this global constitutional rewriting fever is remarkably effective for its abuse of normative governmental structures in their rush to replace law and order with criminal or fundamentalist-fascist agendas. In all constitutional plebiscites underway today there is no adherence to the key factor: transparency. Manipulation are usually high and the media is increasingly shuttered.
 
Recently in Ecuador, a high court- itself a kangaroo court for Correa- basically ruled that no one is allowed to campaign against Correa's constitutional plebiscite. "NO" vote discussions and ads are barred. This is but a harbinger of the Correa rules....rules that will enshrine the end of free speech, free commerce, and freedoms in Ecuador.
 
- The Editors, ECRISIS
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www.washingtontimes.com

Rice critical of moves to amend constitution
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published March 24, 2007

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Under pressure from human rights groups and democracy activists, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday stepped up criticism of Egypt's plans to hold a referendum on constitutional amendments critics say will enhance the control of longtime President Hosni Mubarak.
   
Opposition parties, including the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, are boycotting Monday's vote, which comes just a week after the Mubarak-dominated legislature approved language amending 34 articles of the constitution.
   
The most hotly disputed amendments would suspend independent judicial oversight of elections and give Egyptian police enhanced powers to bypass established legal channels to combat terrorism. Another amendment would remove the limit on the number of terms the president can serve.
   
"The changes will stifle meaningful political participation in Egypt and encroach more on Egyptians' personal freedoms and rule of law in the country," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of the Washington-based Freedom House.
   
Miss Rice, who visits with Mr. Mubarak in Aswan, Egypt, today at the start of a new round of regional talks on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, told reporters at the State Department before leaving yesterday she was "really concerned" about the constitutional changes.

"This is a really disappointing outcome," she said. "We will talk about it and hopefully it will turn out better than expected."
   
"As the Middle East moves towards greater openness and greater pluralism and greater democratization, Egypt has got to be in the lead," she said.
   
Egyptian democracy activists roundly criticized the State Department's initial reaction to the referendum. A spokesman Tuesday expressed concern over the amendments, but added the vote was a domestic Egyptian affair.
   
It was in Cairo in June 2005 that Miss Rice gave a widely noted speech on the need for democracy and greater political reform in the Arab Middle East, with some pointed passages aimed at Egypt, a key U.S. ally. Analysts say the Bush administration's commitment to the cause has withered as the need for allies in the Iraq war and Iranian nuclear showdown has increased.
   
The initial "tepid" U.S. reaction "is the latest evidence that the Bush administration has all but abandoned the policy of democracy promotion articulated by [Miss Rice] in Cairo in June 2005," Andrew Exum and Zack Snyder, researchers at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote in a new analysis.
   
Mr. Mubarak and his allies defend the amendments as needed to fight terrorism and strengthen the country's democracy. It would be the first major change to the country's constitution in 35 years.
   
The amendments on police powers are meant to "strike a balance between safeguarding national security and public order on the one hand and protecting personal rights and freedoms on the other," parliament Speaker Fathi Sorour told Egyptian reporters last week.
   
But the referendum comes just seven days after the Mubarak-dominated parliament approved the constitutional changes. Secular and leftist parties have joined the Muslim Brotherhood in boycotting the vote.
   
Marc Lynch, a political scientist at William College and author of the influential "Abu Aardvark" blog on Middle Eastern politics, www.abuaardvark.typepad.com, called the referendum "a crude mockery of promises of political reform."
   
"Mubarak is about to do exactly what he always accuses Islamists of secretly planning: Win an election and then use his majority to abolish democracy," Mr. Lynch wrote.