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You are here: Home / Always Focused Like a Laser on the Real Victims

Always Focused Like a Laser on the Real Victims

by John Cole|  February 7, 20116:42 pm| 28 Comments

This post is in: Assholes, Our Failed Media Experiment

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When I read this piece this morning, I laughed out loud and was going to blog about it, but the Steelers have sapped my will to live and I didn’t get around to it. It is, however, most excellent:

As Egyptians turned their anger on symbols of the state late last month, torching police stations along with the headquarters of President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party, they reserved a special hatred for a garish building with black tinted windows in an upscale neighborhood, setting fire to it three times.

It belongs to a steel tycoon and ruling party insider named Ahmed Ezz, a close friend and confidante of Mr. Mubarak’s son Gamal. For many years, Mr. Ezz has represented the intersection of money, politics and power, controlling two-thirds of the steel market, leading the budget committee as a member of Parliament and serving as an officer and loyal lieutenant in the governing party. Public resentment at the wealth acquired by the politically powerful helped propel the uprising already reshaping the contours of power along the Nile.

Mr. Ezz’s world has come undone. He is treated as a liability by an old guard intent on saving itself from fed-up and furious protesters. He is under investigation on suspicion of corruption. His assets have been frozen and his right to travel taken away. He has denied accusations of corruption in the past, and his location was not known Sunday. Now his name is part of the derisive chants in Tahrir Square, a symbol of all that was wrong with Mr. Mubarak’s government.

Oh NOES! A corrupt tycoon whose actions leaves millions in poverty has had his world come undone! Tell me this doesn’t remind you of some other choice nuggets of journalism from the Times, say the puff pieces about the poor rich folks who had to hide their conspicuous consumption, or the poor Wall Street traders who had their salaries tripled but are bummed there are no bonuses this year.

Fortunately for you, Glenn gives this story the attention it deserves.

Our liberal media.

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Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    kindness

    February 7, 2011 at 6:47 pm

    Cough, cough…Koch brothers….

  2. 2.

    Ash Can

    February 7, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    Karma’s a bitch.

  3. 3.

    BGinCHI

    February 7, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    His assets have been frozen and his right to travel taken away.

    You know who else has this problem (no assets and no ability to travel)?

    90% of the Egyptian population.

    Assholes.

  4. 4.

    PanurgeATL

    February 7, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    I’m sorry, but I just don’t see the pity party here. They may not want to say “Mr. Ezz has gotten his comeuppance”, but under the circumstances–“Garish building”, “Black tinted windows”, “Intersection of money, politics and power”?–“Mr. Ezz’s world has come undone” seems not too far away.

  5. 5.

    IM

    February 7, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    But Mr. Ezz is not as long winded as Greenwald, so there.

  6. 6.

    rob!

    February 7, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    You know, watching the events in Egypt makes me wonder what would have happened if Americans did the same thing when the Supreme Court handed the presidency to Bush.

    Don’t get me wrong–I don’t think it really would have changed the outcome, but I wonder if a violent show of “We ain’t taking this shit lying down” from the liberal part of this country might not have shaken the Republicans up a bit.

    Surely there’s some parallel world where this occurred…

  7. 7.

    IM

    February 7, 2011 at 6:56 pm

    @PanurgeATL:

    But there is so much you can report on right now in Egypt, so wasting your ressources on this?

  8. 8.

    Mike in NC

    February 7, 2011 at 6:57 pm

    Wall Street traders who had their salaries tripled but are bummed there are no bonuses this year

    While the rest of the country was watching the Superbowl, we tried watching “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”. God, what an insipid and just plain horrible mess of a movie. I think it tried to touch on how Wall Street greed wrecked the US economy, but just to be even-handed I’ll read a few editorials in the WSJ to be reminded how it was really greedy poor people who couldn’t afford their mortgage payments that were to blame.

  9. 9.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    February 7, 2011 at 7:02 pm

    Those poor deluded fools taking to the streets in Egypt need look no further than our own indefatigable champions of freedom to see how to effect real change.

  10. 10.

    freelancer

    February 7, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    I watched it last night, too. Like most other Oliver Stone movies that try to tell a story about history, I found it heavy-handed and simultaneously naive. That and I really can’t stand Shia LeBeouf either.

  11. 11.

    El Cid

    February 7, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    (1) This man’s suffering is representative of the kind of people we should care about in Egypt.

    (2) He hasn’t suffered nearly as much as the Wall Street tycoons who gambled hundreds of trillions of dollars in imaginary investment interests and destroyed much of the world economy only to be bailed out by taxpayers, but who had to hear criticism of their worst decisions by Obama.

  12. 12.

    Citizen_X

    February 7, 2011 at 7:26 pm

    I’m glad you highlighted that Greenwald post; I highly recommend it.

    I read a great quote from an Egyptian protestor (I wish I could remember where), one that applies here as well: “Let them hide in their gated compounds. That way we know where they are.”

  13. 13.

    srv

    February 7, 2011 at 7:34 pm

    It would appear Mr. Sulieman is using the opportunity to shake down tycoons of choice. Nothing like making a public spectacle of a few elite. Worked wonders for Mr. Putin.

  14. 14.

    liberty60

    February 7, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    Did anyone see that article in the Nation about the protests in the UK that shut down Vodaphone stores?
    Wouldn’t it be great if we could duplicate a version of that here?

  15. 15.

    SteveinSC

    February 7, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    Let them hide in their gated compounds

    Grab your pitchforks and axes. Storm the Bastille anyone?

  16. 16.

    scav

    February 7, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    They’re pretty much an international class of chums, all shocked, just shocked! that people should find their tone-deaf chumminess disturbing. Look what the French have to deal with:
    French minister shows regret after new revelations about Tunisian holiday
    Foreign minister Michèle Alliot-Marie forced into U-turn after trying to shrug off criticism

    Her [French foreign minister Michèle Alliot-Marie] judgment was first called into question when she offered to send France’s “world renowned” security forces to help quell the uprising in Tunisia three days before Ben Ali was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia on 13 January.
    __
    Afterwards details emerged of her post-Christmas holiday in Tunisia, after the unrest had begun. The minister — with her partner Patrick Ollier, also a minister, and her parents — took a nine-seater private jet belonging to businessman Aziz Miled, who was alleged to have links with the Ben Ali regime. Revelations about a second flight in the same jet were published this weekend.

    And I think that gated compound quote should be cross-stitched on a pillow in blood somewhere about my apartment.

  17. 17.

    4jkb4ia

    February 7, 2011 at 8:23 pm

    Yes. Glenn owned that story. Eloquently said what needed to be said. The paragraph about the empowerment of Suleiman was a little much given Clinton’s remarks that you simply have to have the environment for democratic parties to compete.

    Pitt up by four (smiles sweetly) (Hopes John gets will to live back soon)

    (And just like that, Pitt TO)

  18. 18.

    Allan

    February 7, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    That was a pretty good story by Glenn. Thanks to him, I now know that earning income from writing books is “cashing in” and inherently corrupting. Oh, and I’m looking forward to reading his latest book that will have an extended chapter all about Bradley Manning.

  19. 19.

    Fax Paladin

    February 7, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    @IM: I’m with Panurge on this. I didn’t see it as a look-how-awfully-he’s-being-treated story but as a look at something that contributed to popular anger. I don’t see Ezz as being treated sympathetically here.

    But there is so much you can report on right now in Egypt, so wasting your ressources on this?

    This hits one of my buttons. Yes, there are many things to report from Egypt — and this is one of them. I thought it was interesting, and I wouldn’t be as sure as Glenn is that the writer and editor are clueless about the parallels in America.

  20. 20.

    wobbly

    February 7, 2011 at 11:26 pm

    This article from the NYTimes actually taught me something about what’s going on behind the scenes in Egypt.

    I especially liked the part where the IMF forced Egypt to switch from state socialism to crony capitalism, thus propelling Mr. Ezz to his high estate.

    What is your problem with this story?

    What is your problem with the NYTimes?

    what

    t

  21. 21.

    burnspbesq

    February 7, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    Another complete waste of time from Greenwald. Boy should stick to what he’s competent at.

  22. 22.

    TenguPhule

    February 8, 2011 at 1:19 am

    We could learn a lot from Egypt.

    Is it too late to deport from Wall Street Names there and let the Hilarity Ensue?

  23. 23.

    Snarkyshark

    February 8, 2011 at 6:49 am

    Linking to Greenwald? What will the roll over and give up third way contingent on this board think? Come on, Glenn’s TONE! Think of the children! My god, next you might link to FDL or some ‘Hippies we love to bash’ blog.

    Because the third way contingent pretty much own’s BJ now.

    But you are my favorite cantankerous rebel, so its only fitting you end up with a crowd you have to rebel from.

  24. 24.

    BruceFromOhio

    February 8, 2011 at 6:52 am

    …setting fire to it three times.

    Free clue: time to move.

    Stupid and useless rich people are apparently not confined to the West.

  25. 25.

    sparky

    February 8, 2011 at 10:11 am

    Another complete waste of time from Greenwald. Boy should stick to what he’s competent at.

    ahh, i love the reek of toadyism. so clever, so zealous in its unconscious, mad desire to kiss the garments of power. but then, that’s what courtiers do.

    1789, 1848, or 1945? or perhaps a new storming of the keep is in order….

  26. 26.

    El Cid

    February 8, 2011 at 10:26 am

    I hope that few are insane enough to mistake the nature of Suleiman and the military regime which dominates and has been dominating Egypt and the US backing for him and above all a continuation of the military regime (albeit with a democratic superstructure) simply because G. Greenwald quoted other sources in writing about it.

  27. 27.

    El Cid

    February 8, 2011 at 10:50 am

    In a sure sign that the Universe is about to end, Bill Kristol is right about Glenn Beck and the role of authoritarian regimes throughout the Mid East and Muslim world in originating terrorism.

    When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.
    __
    Nor is it a sign of health when other American conservatives are so fearful of a popular awakening that they side with the dictator against the democrats. Rather, it’s a sign of fearfulness unworthy of Americans, of short-sightedness uncharacteristic of conservatives, of excuse-making for thuggery unworthy of the American conservative tradition.
    __
    It was not so long ago, after all, when conservatives understood that Middle Eastern dictatorships such as Mubarak’s help spawn global terrorism. We needn’t remind our readers that the most famous of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta, was an Egyptian, as is al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al Zawahiri. The idea that democracy produces radical Islam is false: Whether in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian territories, or Egypt, it is the dictatorships that have promoted and abetted Islamic radicalism. (Hamas, lest we forget, established its tyranny in Gaza through nondemocratic means.)
    __
    Nor is it in any way “realist” to suggest that backing Mubarak during this crisis would promote “stability.” To the contrary: The situation is growing more unstable because of Mubarak’s unwillingness to abdicate. Helping him cling to power now would only pour fuel on the revolutionary fire, and push the Egyptian people in a more anti-American direction.

    I am truly frightened by the prospect of Bill Kristol violating all of our fundamental laws by being correct.

    Beck, expectedly, wasn’t happy with Kristol’s ‘analysis’ of him, something which arrives precisely years after everyone familiar with Bircher history had already noted the Bircher nature of the entire modern conservative movement.

    “I don’t even know if you understand what conservatives are anymore, Billy,” Beck said in his extended, sarcastic attack on Kristol. “People like Bill Kristol, I don’t think they stand for anything any more. All they stand for is power. They’ll do anything to keep their little fiefdom together, and they’ll do anything to keep the Republican power entrenched.”

    The collapse of the Universe by unknown means has been rapidly accelerated by the completely visible dark energy emitted by Glenn Beck also being correct.

    Steve Benen sees positive prospects in this Universe-threatening feud:

    In the case of U.S. policy towards Egypt, the dynamic is well beyond left vs. right. Instead we’re seeing (a) those in the U.S. who support the protesters, their calls for sweeping democratic reforms, and Mubarak’s ouster; (b) those who support Mubarak and fear his unknown replacement; and (c) those who believe caliphates run by zombie Islamists, the Illuminati, and the Loch Ness Monster are coming to steal your car.
    __
    Joe Klein noted over the weekend that he’s “heard, from more than a couple of conservative sources, that prominent Republicans have approached Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes about the potential embarrassment that the paranoid-messianic rodeo clown may bring upon their brand. The speculation is that Beck is on thin ice.”

    In fairness, an entire political and media establishment ushered us to war with stories that Saddam Hussein was about to give nuclear weapons to Al Qa’ida to blow up the rest of American cities and rape our blond white daughters as well.

  28. 28.

    RP

    February 8, 2011 at 10:57 am

    Yeah…I don’t get the complaints about this article. It isn’t defending Ezz or suggesting he’s a victim. And I think it’s an interesting window into Egypt and the protestors’ anger.

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