Monday, January 31, 2011

Keep Him Out

I don't trust El Baradei. He ran interference for Iran's nuclear program when he headed the IAEA, as far as I could see. I worry that he might have a role in Egypt's future and what that mean for Iranian influence.

So it is nice to see that many Egyptians don't seem too fond of him:

ElBaradei and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood said on Sunday he had a mandate from opposition groups to make contact with the army and negotiate a government of national unity.

At least one opposition party, the Arab nationalist Karama Party of Hamdin Sabahi, has rejected ElBaradei outright as a transitional figure, saying he was trying to jump on the bandwagon of the popular uprising. ...

ElBaradei, 68, began overt opposition to Mubarak on his return to Egypt in February 2010 and won a widespread following among the young and the middle classes.

But the Egyptian authorities harassed his supporters and ElBaradei lost much credibility through his long absences abroad. The official media tried to ridicule him, saying he knew nothing about Egypt and had no political experience.

Some elements of the government's campaign appear to have stuck. "ElBaradei won't do. He doesn't have the experience here and he's a little weak," said Khaled Ezzat, 34, an information technology engineer who had joined the evening vigil in Tahrir Square.

ElBaradei does have a following, however, despite the main thrust of the article. Hoever, the young and the middle class who are said to back him are probably the least committed of the people on the streets, if by "young" in a country of youngsters that means the Twittering class.

Funny enough, many Egyptians think ElBaradei is too close to America!

Whatever. I don't care if Egyptians believe ElBaradei is George W. Bush in disguise as long as ElBaradei is kept out of power in Egypt.