9:24am The state news agency MENA says Egyptian military leaders have held an "important"' meeting and will issue a statement to the people. MENA says the chief commander and defence minister Hussein Tantawi chaired the meeting of the Armed Forces Supreme Council.

9:51am: An army officer joining protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square says 15 other middle-ranking officers have also gone over to the demonstrators.

"The armed forces' solidarity movement with the people has begun," Major Ahmed Ali Shouman tells Reuters.

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of Israel's Labor Party says he spoke with Mubarak just hours before the president's speech yesterday in which he transferred authorities to his deputy but refused to step down.

Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio that Mubarak knew "this was the end of the road" and wanted only to "leave in an honorable fashion."

CIA Director Leon Panetta helped touch off an avalanche of erroneous expectations Thursday when he testified that there was a "strong likelihood" that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would step down by the end of the day.

Within minutes, senior aides to Panetta sought to tamp down the impact, saying he was merely referring to media reports. But by then, the comments had ricocheted around the Internet, underscoring U.S. confusion about events unfolding in Egypt, as well as the perils of publicly weighing in on such developments while serving as director of CIA.

I don't think anyone really knows how things will break in the next 12-36 hours.  It seems pretty clear that most people, from the Obama administration to Egyptian government and opposition leaders, expected Mubarak to announce his departure tonight -- and that they had good reasons to believe that.   That turned out to be wrong.   As I just mentioned on the BBC, I don't think anybody knows what's going on inside Mubarak's head right now, though he certainly seems out of touch with what is really going on.  I suspect that his decision may have changed from earlier in the day, and that people inside the Egyptian military and regime are themselves scrambling to figure out their next move.   If the military has any plans to step in this would be a good time -- especially after the military's communique #1 seemed to suggest that it was breaking in the other direction. 

Plus:

UPDATE, 9:30pm:   The Cable has posted the full text of President Obama's statement following the Mubarak speech.  It is a strong statement:  "The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity. "  The calls to restrain violence and listen to the voice of the Egyptian people are also important.  Let's hope that the message gets through before things get (more) out of control.

11:09am: Massive crowds in Tahrir are chanting "the people and the army are hand in hand".

HERE.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

"I went down and I said I am not coming back, and I wrote on every street wall that I am not coming back.

"All barriers have been broken down, our weapon was our dream, and the future is crystal clear to us, we have been waiting for a long time, we are still searching for our place, we keep searching for a place we belong too, in every corner in our country.

"The sound of freedom is calling, in every street corner in our country, the sound of freedom is calling..

"We will re-write history, if you are one of us, join us and don't stop us from fulfilling our dream.

You can't be me, I'm taken

Egypt's powerful army said on Friday it would lift emergency law "as soon as current circumstances end," conceding a key demand to anti-government protesters but indicating it wanted them off the streets. The army said in "Communique No. 2" that it "confirms the lifting of the state of emergency as soon as the current circumstances end," a promise that would remove a law imposed for 30 years that protesters say is used to stifle dissent.

Communique No 2 from the Armed Forces: "A message from the Armed Forces to the Noble Egyptian People: our next Communique to you will be No 3."

An army of midgets, in awe of the old man. Who is too full of himself to accept his destiny.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Pro-democracy protesters in Egypt are calling for "millions" to take to the streets across the country in what could become the largest protests so far, a day after President Hosni Mubarak repeated his refusal to step down.

Massive crowds gathered in Tahrir Square ahead on Friday, chanting "the army and the people are one, hand in hand"

I sure hope this ends well.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

Mubarak RickRolls Protesters

Heckuva job, Spookies.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate, dear fellow citizens, my sons, the youth of Egypt, and daughters, I am addressing you tonight to the youth of Egypt in Tahrir Square, with all of its diversity. I am addressing all of you from the heart, a speech from the father to his sons and daughters. I am telling you that I am very grateful and am so proud of you for being a symbolic generation that is calling for change to the better, that is dreaming for a better future, and is making the future.

4:39pm The Egyptian presidency is to make an "urgent and important" statement shortly, state television says.

Since elsewhere it is being reported Mubarak handed over authority to Suleiman, what does the "Egyptian presidency" now mean?

(from Al Jaz blog)
4:53pm Military helicopters arrive at Cairo's Presidential Palace ahead of expected statement - more details soon.

4:39pm The Egyptian presidency is to make an "urgent and important" statement shortly, state television says.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

6:03pm: He's gone. He's resigned. 30 years of Mubarak rule is over. Omar Suleiman says:

President Hosni Mubarak has waived the office of president

How proud they must be of their revolution.  They were so inspiring - peaceful, civic-minded, determined.

They have given the world a good example to fight the stereotype of the Islamic terrorist that so many right wingers in the West use to impose fascism on their own citizens.

I wish Egypt all the best in their new lives!

and I hope they can forgive the USA for what they have been subjected to.

3:48pm The prime minister of Denmark, Lars Rasmussen, has become the first European Union leader to call for Mubarak's resignation... saying he is, quote, "history".

That's really sticking his neck out! Visionary! More than two hours ahead of his time!

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Who cannot get Al Jazeera. I got it this morning via Shoutcast on my Roku box.

Just in time to see Suleiman make the announcement.  I haven't seen this much enthusiasm since Super Bowl 19.

Poor quality picture, but the message was really clear.

Suleiman has long been favoured by the US government for his ardent anti-Islamism, his willingness to talk and act tough on Iran - and he has long been the CIA's main man in Cairo.

Mubarak knew that Suleiman would command an instant lobby of supporters at Langley and among 'Iran nexters' in Washington - not to mention among other authoritarian mukhabarat-dependent regimes in the region. Suleiman is a favourite of Israel too; he held the Israel dossier and directed Egypt's efforts to crush Hamas by demolishing the tunnels that have functioned as a smuggling conduit for both weapons and foodstuffs into Gaza.

According to a WikiLeak(ed) US diplomatic cable, titled 'Presidential Succession in Egypt', dated May 14, 2007:

"Egyptian intelligence chief and Mubarak consigliere, in past years Soliman was often cited as likely to be named to the long-vacant vice-presidential post. In the past two years, Soliman has stepped out of the shadows, and allowed himself to be photographed, and his meetings with foreign leaders reported. Many of our contacts believe that Soliman, because of his military background, would at least have to figure in any succession scenario."

From 1993 until Saturday, Suleiman was chief of Egypt's General Intelligence Service. He remained largely in the shadows until 2001, when he started taking over powerful dossiers in the foreign ministry; he has since become a public figure, as the WikiLeak document attests. In 2009, he was touted by the London Telegraph and Foreign Policy as the most powerful spook in the region, topping even the head of Mossad.

In these difficult circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the position of the presidency. He has commissioned the armed forces council to direct the issues of the state.

Mubarak steps down, signs with Vikings

Omar Suleiman says:

President Hosni Mubarak has waived the office of president

The United States and its allies have spent the better part of the last decade, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and countless lives, fighting wars to establish democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that the youth of Cairo, armed with nothing but Facebook and the power of their convictions, have drawn millions into the street to demand a true Egyptian democracy, it would be absurd to continue to tacitly endorse the rule of a regime that has lost its own people's trust.

Egypt will not wait forever on this caricature of a leader we witnessed on television yesterday evening, deaf to the voice of the people, hanging on obsessively to power that is no longer his to keep.

What needs to happen instead is a peaceful and orderly transition of power, to channel the revolutionary fervor into concrete steps for a new Egypt based on freedom and social justice. The new leaders will have to guarantee the rights of all Egyptians. They will need to dissolve the current Parliament, no longer remotely representative of the people. They will also need to abolish the Constitution, which has become an instrument of repression, and replace it with a provisional Constitution, a three-person presidential council and a transitional government of national unity.

The presidential council should include a representative of the military, embodying the sharing of power needed to ensure continuity and stability during this critical transition. The job of the presidential council and the interim government during this period should be to set in motion the process that will turn Egypt into a free and democratic society. This includes drafting a democratic Constitution to be put to a referendum, and preparing for free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections within one year.

We are at the dawn of a new Egypt. A free and democratic society, at peace with itself and with its neighbors, will be a bulwark of stability in the Middle East and a worthy partner in the international community. The rebirth of Egypt represents the hope of a new era in which Arab society, Muslim culture and the Middle East are no longer viewed through the lens of war and radicalism, but as contributors to the forward march of humanity, modernized by advanced science and technology, enriched by our diversity of art and culture and united by shared universal values.

1719: Swiss foreign ministry says government freezing potential Mubarak assets in Switzerland, Reuters reports.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

21 years ago - Nelson Mandela released from prison in South Africa.

Autocratic leaders should fear 11 February.

you are the media you consume.

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب

Don't get me wrong: US and Saudi Arabia will now rush with bags of gold and cash to influence all members of the military command council.  The beauty of that is that there is no one person: it is a collective leadership (even if this rules for a transitional period) and the momentum of the Egyptian people will restrict their powers, notwithstanding wishes to the contrary by US/Israel/Saudi Arabia.  One person in the council will emerge; we don't know who: and there will be leaks and back stabbing and plots and conspiracies.  There will be chaos in Egypt: which is good.  People will come from nowhere: don't memorize the news names of this developing news story: you will hear of new names soon.  This is a big strategic development: if Tunisia affected Egypt: Egypt is destined to affect the entire region (unless you believe that the announcement of cash bonuses from the Bahraini King this morning was a pure act of charity.  Israel is in deep trouble, as is the US; Egypt was an intelligence and sabotage center.  The entire country and its dyamics are now unleashed on the word.  There will be new ideas and new current and trends.  Certainly, the freer the Arabs are, the more trouble for the US/Israel/Saudi Arabia.

The Egyptian people know they ousted Mubarak in spite of Washington, Brussels, or Tel Aviv.  The entire Arab world knew from the beginning that all those parties, especially the US, were singularly obsessed with one pathetic question throughout: whether the next Egyptian leadership would continue to support the peace agreement with Israel.

The American blinders were far narrower than the masses at Tahrir Square could have possibly appreciated.  As they stood outside day and night there was no time for them to watch episodically interested American networks. Spotty internet service probably denied them the ability to peruse the latest WikiLeaks revelations. If they had, they would have noted, perhaps to no surprise, that their unelected vice-president Omar Suleiman was so eager to do the US-Israeli bidding that in December 2007 he advocated seeing the people of Gaza (fellow Muslims no less) "go hungry but not starve" in response to the election of Hamas. There are much worse anecdotes in our recently released Palestine Papers.  How about that freedom agenda, America?

That logic taken further, it means the same Suleiman would do far worse to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood within Egypt, which is especially what the American Right and the eager-to-prove-their-security-credentials Left would like.  "The Muslim Brotherhood is a mortal enemy of our civilization," says Newt Gingrich, the revered Republican party strategist.  Even if they were, and they most clearly are not, Gingrich and any other US political parties will have to come to terms with a reality they have so far failed to grasp. The Arab and Muslim world are making changes with their feet. They draw their strength and power from the numbers they bring and the righteousness of their causes. They are unafraid and unshackled to take on the status quo.  

These are the same people who will determine their destiny, arbitrarily chosen for them by Westerners with last names like Sykes and Picot and by DC-based lobbies and think tanks that once mattered in the scheme of things but don't so much any more.

This is not a time in history to fear, though many would like us to. The devil we have known has not been good to the world either.

3:11pm Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has just issued its fourth communiqué broadcast live on state television.

In the announcement, the country's new military rulers promised to hand power to an elected, civilian government. They also pledged that Egypt would remain committed to all international treaties - in an apparent nod to its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

A hopeful sign.  

If they abide by the election results then this will be a true Revolution and not a mere 'changing of the guard.'


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre