CBS News Lara Logan attacked

[Graham]

Graham, BBC Radio 4 dispelled that myth the other night. Mubarak made less than $1000/month on his official salary. The one US correspondent said that even if Mubarak had made through all sorts of illegal means $50K per annum, it was a lot of money. Someone blew that up bigtime.

But poverty is part of the cause of the problem. The other is the Muslim Brotherhood, the expansion of Islam and the explosion in Tunisia of unrest. Now we see it in Baharain, Libya, Jordan et el.

Not good times.

Domtoni, from The Guardian: -

Mubarak family fortune could reach $70bn, say experts

Egyptian president has cash in British and Swiss banks plus UK and US property

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• Phillip Inman
• guardian.co.uk, <TIME datetime="2011-02-04T17:58GMT" pubdate>Friday 4 February 2011 17.58 GMT</TIME>
• Article history

<FIGURE>

<FIGCAPTION>Gamal and Hosni Mubarak are reported to have built up huge fortunes, including properties in London. Photograph: Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images</FIGCAPTION> </FIGURE>President Hosni Mubarak's family fortune could be as much as $70bn (£43.5bn) according to analysis by Middle East experts, with much of his wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and along expensive tracts of the Red Sea coast.
After 30 years as president and many more as a senior military official, Mubarak has had access to investment deals that have generated hundreds of millions of pounds in profits. Most of those gains have been taken offshore and deposited in secret bank accounts or invested in upmarket homes and hotels.
According to a report last year in the Arabic newspaper Al Khabar, Mubarak has properties in Manhattan and exclusive Beverly Hills addresses on Rodeo Drive.
His sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also billionaires. A protest outside Gamal's ostentatious home at 28 Wilton Place in Belgravia, central London, highlighted the family's appetite for western trophy assets.
Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton University, said the estimate of $40bn-70bn was comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries.
"The business ventures from his military and government service accumulated to his personal wealth," she told ABC news. "There was a lot of corruption in this regime and stifling of public resources for personal gain.
"This is the pattern of other Middle Eastern dictators so their wealth will not be taken during a transition. These leaders plan on this."
Al Khabar said it understood the Mubaraks kept much of their wealth offshore in the Swiss bank UBS and the Bank of Scotland, part of Lloyds Banking Group, although this information could be at least 10 years old.
There are only sketchy details of exactly where the Mubaraks have generated their wealth and its final destination.
Christopher Davidson, professor of Middle East politics at Durham University, said Mubarak, his wife, Suzanne, and two sons were able to accumulate wealth through a number of business partnerships with foreign investors and companies, dating back to when he was in the military and in a position to benefit from corporate corruption.
He said most Gulf states required foreigners give a local business partner a 51% stake in start-up ventures. In Egypt, the figure is commonly nearer 20%, but still gives politicians and close allies in the military a source of huge profits with no initial outlay and little risk.
"Almost every project needs a sponsor and Mubarak was well-placed to take advantage of any deals on offer," he said.
"Much of his money is in Swiss bank accounts and London property. These are the favourites of Middle Eastern leaders and there is no reason to think Mubarak is any different. Gamal's Wilton Place home is likely to be the tip of the iceberg."
Al Khabar named a series of major western companies that, partnered with the Mubarak family, generated an estimated $15m a year in profits.
Aladdin Elaasar, author of The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age, said the Mubaraks own several residences in Egypt, some inherited from previous presidents and the monarchy, and others the president has commissioned.
Hotels and land around the Sharm el-Sheikh tourist resort are also a source of Mubarak family wealth.

 

[Doc Kaler]

It's a thrill to be a snake handler, grizzly bear naturalist, big cat handler.....and news reporter. Perhaps it's a flaw in some people's psyche to believe that they are immune to the venome or that they have a certain "connection" with the dangerous animals. In this case, it was a dangerous mob. Very sad.

 

[Keith]

In reality these are great times because the Muslim world is Turing in on itself. Not that Muslims as a whole are evil people just that the ones in power are. I have said it many times before the only time we will have peace in the middle east is when all of the old timers and their jaded A$$ BACK WARDS VIEWS are long gone. EGYPT was just the start. I just hope that Israel can hold on long enough to give this movement a chance before removing them off the face of the planet.

It might seem that way on the surface, but political vacuums are to be feared by all moderates judging by past history.

Sunnis and Shias have been topping each other for centuries and that's more what Bahrain is about but they always unite against the Great Satan....

 

[domtoni]

Graham, that is what brought everything to the surface in BBC radio. The yank who was interviewed could in no way ever come up with that much money.

You are aware that the Swiss have agreed to co-operate with the Egyptian government in freezing his accounts, and I presume the UK will do the same.

Now we have to wait for it to come to light. Perhaps the Guardian is correct, but remember it takes a left wing view, and may be running with someone's theory rather than real fact.

Keith, makes me wonder who stirred the pot and got this unrest up and running? Some of the conspiracy theory guys think its the George Soros group.

 

[Keith]

Graham, that is what brought everything to the surface in BBC radio. The yank who was interviewed could in no way ever come up with that much money.

You are aware that the Swiss have agreed to co-operate with the Egyptian government in freezing his accounts, and I presume the UK will do the same.

Now we have to wait for it to come to light. Perhaps the Guardian is correct, but remember it takes a left wing view, and may be running with someone's theory rather than real fact.

Keith, makes me wonder who stirred the pot and got this unrest up and running? Some of the conspiracy theory guys think its the George Soros group.

Now that IS a scary thought. I would believe anything these days. It used to be Governments manipulating political situations, but, who is bigger than Government, unelected filthy rich and unaccountable? :shifty:

 

[domtoni]

I just don't know and have too little information to do any better speculation. Those who watch Glenn Beck on Fox News (and he has plenty of support behind him to make his claims) contends this. It seems the left is associated with the Muslim Fundamentalists, God knows why? My take is the first people the fundamentalists will take out is the liberal generation for leading unholy (in their eyes) lives.

Some months back, Beck talked about his staff meeting with members of Soros' staff and how Soros' staff told Beck's people that Beck's analysis was hurting Soros' interests. Could it be that Soros wants to manipulate the world so he and his investors can make money.

Soros caused a run on the Sterling, he had something to do with Greece. Imagine if he gets all governments running with the same policies (read deficit spending), and then comes out against the big deficits, and then puts a financial trade in totally opposite to the policies his people put into place. How can he not win? Isn't that what he has said with Greece and the inability of the Euro to go forward?

 

[Keith]

I am not at all a believer in conspiracy theories but let me tell you there is something cranky going on in the world right now, and if you hang your hat on the hook of 'democracy', where you feel that you have a say it what goes on, my gut feeling is that the hook is definitely broken.

Wake up guys and enjoy what you got. There's a difficult time ahead, and it's coming down the pike @ you.

I don't read papers and only believe half what I see and never ever anything I hear.

I don't have a horse in this race and I will not be alive within 5 years or less so I could give a shit. Fight for what you have and especially fight together. Divide and Conquer is still a valid strategy.

And now, for the cars!

 

[Doug S.]

One quick comment:
- she probably volunteered for it as it was her job
- probably being liberal, she expected that the crowd would have accepted her and left her in peace
- if any of you saw comments about Code Pink and their involvement in Egypt (they were praised by the crowds for giving moral support to the uprising), being from the media (leftward leaning) , she expected to be given a free ride through and get the best stories

Let us see what comes out of this. Thank God she is safe, and the two from Fox News that were roughed up last week.

I can't express how disgusted I am with the assertions that I changed to red. How dare you suggest that just b/c she might have had liberal political beliefs, she might have brought this on herself? What makes a liberal any less deserving of protection during such an uprising than a conservative?

Do you also believe that just because she is female and in a part of the world where females are not generally afforded the status that males have, that she was deserving of the attack?

Seriously, there is so much wrong with the assertions you made in the post that I'm of the opinion that you are "baiting" for responses just like mine.

You got mine, let's see what your response is.....

:thumbsdown: from Doug!!

 

[Jim Craik]

Doug,

You see that Domtoni is quoting Glenn Beck and just like Beck is blaming everything on Soros.

Mr Beck is playing the same game that the Birch Society did in the 1950's. Scare everyone, tell them that there are huge organizations cleverly running the world, conspiring to ruin your life.

Remember the Birchers said Commies everywhere, Eisenhower was a comi, they were going to poison our water
with fluoride, huge conspiracies........they took advantage of gullible folks who believed their propaganda. Today everyone knows it was crap.

Beck is playing the same game with gullible people. Have you heard the crazy things he has been saying?

Unfortunately Domtoni is that gullible.

 

[Jim Craik]

Domtoni,

You should stop listening to this clever manipulator, he will rot your brain.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Christ you blokes, I think if I farted you would try and analyse if it was because of left wing baked beans or really the fault of right wing onions.
The poor women was raped and beaten by a disgusting bunch of pricks who should be shot. Send her some flowers.

 

[Jim Craik]

Pete,

Well said, get the f*ckrs responsible, don't try and make this her fault!

 

[Doug S.]

Christ you blokes, I think if I farted you would try and analyse if it was because of left wing baked beans or really the fault of right wing onions.
The poor women was raped and beaten by a disgusting bunch of pricks who should be shot. Send her some flowers.

Pete, :lol: is only one of the many good reasons you are my HERO!!!

Wish I knew where to send the flowers leased:

Cheers and a big :thumbsup: from Doug!!

 

[domtoni]

Doug, is CBS left or right wing? Why would she go there and why would her management let her go there? Why would Code Pink go to Egypt, and be portrayed as liberators?

Based on what she heard from Code Pink, she probably felt that she was safe.

My question to you, would a conservative woman go into that crowd, and would you go into the crowd? I would not.

Read the 2006 study, I hope that CBS was aware of this before she was sent in.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_sexual_assault

One last question, if you were her manager, would you allow her to go into that mess? I would not.

Does anyone know where to send our concern for the violence against her?

 

[Doug S.]

Doug, is CBS left or right wing? Why would she go there and why would her management let her go there? Why would Code Pink go to Egypt, and be portrayed as liberators?

Based on what she heard from Code Pink, she probably felt that she was safe.

My question to you, would a conservative woman go into that crowd, and would you go into the crowd? I would not.

Read the 2006 study, I hope that CBS was aware of this before she was sent in.
Egyptian women's issues highlighted by Logan case - Yahoo! News

One last question, if you were her manager, would you allow her to go into that mess? I would not.

Does anyone know where to send our concern for the violence against her?

Frankly, I don't care whether she's liberal or conservative. I don't care whether CBS is liberal or conservative. IMHO political idealogy has nothing to do with what happened to Lara Logan.

NBC's Today Show did a piece on the history of Logan this morning. Seems she was "expelled" from Egypt and managed to find her way back in. I doubt she felt safe, in fact, according to the news report on NBC (and, no, I don't care if NBC is liberal or conservative, either) she simply felt she HAD to go back...there was a bit of concern on her part that if she stayed away, the CBS execs might feel she was not "strong" enough to handle hard news. A brief film clip was shown of a previous assignment she had, in which she was covering some sort of military mission, and what I remember was that it showed her being given a hand by a male soldier as she descended a hill to keep her from slipping on the loose rocks.

Did "chauvanism" have anything to do with it, or was this just a case of a TV journalist who was driven to do what she thought was right?

IMHO, it doesn't matter any more than the political leanings of CBS or Fox "News" Network...it was simply a case of a gang of opportunistic punks who siezed the moment to have some "fun" amid all the chaos. I sincerely doubt they will ever be apprehended, there are so many "more important" things going on in Egypt that the beating and rape of a foreign journalist is WAAY down on the list.

It would have happened to her even if, contrary to your assertions, she were a conservative or if CBS were a conservative organization. As for her manager, it doesn't appear that anyone had "control" over Lara Logan, she made decisions on her own that put her in harm's way (regardless of the political idealogy she embraced or the political leanings of the news organization for which she was working).

This is as apolitical an incident as I can imagine, but even more difficult to imagine is why you felt it appropriate to blame the "liberal news media"...oh, yeah, I know now, you don't agree with the liberal news sources because they don't represent your viewpoint, so they must be at fault for everything, even the strong-willed choice a career-driven journalist made that put her into harm's way. Do you honestly believe she would have made that choice if she could have known what was about to happen to her?

I know Egypt is one of the more progressive nations in the mid-east, but the "attitude" in the entire region is historically one of diminishment of the importance of females in general. As such, the thugs who attacked Lara Logan were probably no more inhibited by her gender than were the members of the KKK inhibited by the race of the individuals they brutalized in our own country's history. That's in our past now (although many of the African-American activists would take exception to that statement), hopefully the attitudes in the mid-east can and will change with progress, although given the long-term history of the region, I'm not too hopeful. Brutality seems to be the way of life there, why would it be any different just because the Egyptians were protesting against a dictator and attempting to run him out of office?

:veryangry: from Doug!!

 

[domtoni]

Two things Doug:
- your political views affect the way you make decisions.
- you are right about Egypt. Yes Mubarak was a dictator, was he as rich as everyone says? Wait and see. Were the crowds violent? Yes. Were other reporters roughed up?
- someone let her go back into Egypt. They should have told her to stay away. On the ABC video I reviewed 30 minutes ago, she has two small children. Is this responsible?

Both ABC, Fox and CBS had people roughed up in violent clashes, and all this happened before. Sure she had the freedom to go in there, but she suffered the consequences.

I blame her management for letting her do that. At least the other two networks showed good judgement by sending men. We don't know who BBC, RAI, DW, France 24, Al Jazeera (I'll bet they didn't send women) sent in.

Here's a link to Media Matters and the author said that she is not responsible. She was there, someone let her go there, and she said in the ABC interview that she was considering risk.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102160010

 

[Mort]

I can't believe some of the comments. This happened because of the barbarians who were her attackers. Don't blame the victum and for sure had her mom aborted her this would never had happened. She was doing her job; but all are correct, the culture she became embroiled in is one where woman are not treated respectfully.
How stupid to treat the person who brought you into the world (if a male offspring) and nurtured you through your childhood like a cow once you are matured. What needs to be bashed than encouraged and enlightened is a culture that creates this type of philosophy as correct and demands to be respected.
This demonstrates that she is a poster child of what happens to woman in that culture and any where barbarians can rule the roost.
Mort