All you can can say --- is you knew better....so now civilization will pass judgment.

William Bryan Jennings, Morgan Stanley’s bond-underwriting chief in the U.S., was charged with a hate crime in the stabbing of a New York City cab driver of Middle Eastern descent over a fare. 

Mohamed Ammar said the banker attacked him Dec. 22 with a 2½-inch blade and used racial slurs after a 40-mile ride from New York to the banker’s $3.4 million Darien, Connecticut home.

Jennings, who had attended a bank holiday party at a boutique hotel in Manhattan before hailing the cab, refused to pay the $204 fare upon arriving in his driveway, the driver said. When Ammar threatened to call the local police, Jennings said they wouldn’t do anything to help because he pays $10,000 in taxes, according to a report by the Darien police department.

Ammar, a native of Egypt, said he then backed out of the driveway to seek a police officer. The banker called him an expletive and said “I’m going to kill you. You should go back to your country,” according to the report, filed in state court in Stamford. A fight ensued as they drove through Darien, and Jennings, 45, allegedly cut Ammar, 44, police said.

The banker, who eventually fled the cab and turned himself in two weeks later after a vacation in Florida, was charged with second-degree assault, theft of services and intimidation by bias or bigotry. He faces as long as 5 years in prison on the assault charge.

The Cancer of Mubarak plagues the Egyptian Body Politic and Legislature

The Egyptian prosecution’s summary of the case against at least 16 Americans and others from five democracy and human rights groups focuses largely on the testimony of their accusers, with evidence primarily limited to proof that their organizations used American and other foreign funds for payrolls and rent.

The prosecution’s dossier also shows leaps of logic in a case that has imperiled a decades-old alliance with Washington and threatened Egypt with the loss of $1.5 billion in aid. The case, for example, cites documents seized in December from one group, the International Republican Institute, that included Wikipedia maps of Egypt showing the country divided into four parts. While Egypt is typically described as comprising four regions — upper and lower Egypt, greater Cairo and the Suez Canal and Sinai region — the prosecution suggested that the maps showed a plan to dismember the country. 

The summary, compiled by the Office of the Investigating Judge of Egypt’s Ministry of Justice, sets the stage for the group trial, scheduled to begin on Sunday. A copy was given to The New York Times by a person close to the investigation on the condition of anonymity because of legal restrictions. 

The primary force behind the prosecution is a holdover from the Mubarak era, Fayza Abul Naga, who has continued to press the case against the democracy groups, despite opposition from military rulers worried about losing American aid, most of which goes to the armed forces. She is foremost among the 13 accusing witnesses, most of them also formerly officials under Hosni Mubarak, the president who was toppled a year ago. Some are underlings of Ms. Abul Naga, who as minister of planning and international cooperation is in charge of dealing with foreign aid. 

Ms. Abul Naga’s central accusation is that the groups were unregistered under Egyptian law, and that the American groups were receiving some $150 million in aid diverted from the larger American aid package to Egypt. They are the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute — which have ties to Congressional party leaders — Freedom House and the International Center for Journalists. The fifth group, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, is German, and receives money from that government. 

More than 40 defendants have been indicted on charges of illegal activity by foreign agents, and face penalties of up to five years in jail. Three of the six accused Americans who are still in Egypt have taken refuge in the American Embassy, including Sam LaHood of the Republican Institute. He is the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. 

Democratization has been a goal of the Obama administration in Egypt, and the case against the Americans has infuriated many in Congress and the administration. 

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, the chairman of the board of the International Republican Institute, arrived Monday in Cairo, where he met with the military leader Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and other officials and came away with assurances of a speedy resolution to the case. “We’re not making threats,” Mr. McCain said. “There’s plenty of time to make threats.” 

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who was part of the McCain delegation, was sharply critical of the case. “As an American, I’m offended that people would say things about these organizations,” Mr. Graham said, calling the charges “ridiculous.” 

“The person who brought this forward I think has an agenda that’s not helpful,” he said. 

Senator Graham also praised the moderation of the Muslim Brotherhood officials the delegation had met and said they were sympathetic to the plight of those facing prosecution under laws enacted during the Mubarak government.

Arab League to send troops to topple Syrian government...meanwhile Mohamed El Baradei will not run for Egyptian President due to military interference

Arab troops should be sent to halt Syria’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, the emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, said in an interview to be broadcast tonight on the U.S. television network CBS.


Elsewhere in the region, attacks on demonstrators continued in Syria yesterday.

“Some troops should go to stop the killing” in Syria, the Qatari emir said in the interview with the program “60 Minutes,” according to the CBS website.

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei said he wouldn’t run for president of Egypt.

In Egypt, ElBaradei said his withdrawal as a candidate for president was to protest the continued military control of the country, according to The New York Times.

“My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a real democratic system,” he said, according to the Times.

ElBaradei won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for his work as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Egypt: You think getting $1 bln in aide from the USA might make you slightly interested in human rights .... "nah"

Officials said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson spoke December 30 with senior Egyptian officials to stress Washington's concern about the raids on the organizations, which include three groups funded by the United States.



State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Egyptian authorities told Patterson that the raids would stop, and that seized property would be returned to the groups.


The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Panetta had spoken about the issue in a telephone call to the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

On December 29, Egyptian police raided a number of non-governmental organizations, including the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House.

Egypt’s government receives more than $1 billion in aid annually from the U.S.

Fight now or be a slave forever; Women of Egypt do not give up!!!

Egyptian police and soldiers fired guns and teargas to try to clear protesters from Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday, the fifth day of clashes that have killed 13 people and drawn a stinging rebuke from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.



Clinton condemned as "particularly shocking" incidents such as one in which two Egyptian soldiers were filmed dragging a woman protester on the ground by her black full-body veil, exposing her bra, then clubbing and kicking her.


"Women protesters have been rounded up and subjected to horrific abuse. Journalists have been sexually assaulted. And now women are being attacked, stripped and beaten in the streets," Clinton said in a speech at Washington's Georgetown University on Monday.

"This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonors the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people ...


"Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago."

The Quran makes it clear women of Egypt = you are equal among men....

[3:195] Their Lord responded to them: "I never fail to reward any worker among you for any work you do, be you male or female - you are equal to one another. Thus, those who immigrate, and get evicted from their homes, and are persecuted because of Me, and fight and get killed, I will surely remit their sins and admit them into gardens with flowing streams." Such is the reward from GOD. GOD possesses the ultimate reward.

Military crackdown in Cairo; is Mohamed ElBaradei the way forward?

Egypt’s interim military rulers battled a reinvigorated protest movement calling for its ouster Sunday, as thousands of demonstrators forced troops to retreat from Tahrir Square for a second night in a row.

Many compared the breadth and intensity of the new battles for the square — the iconic heart of the Egyptian revolt and the Arab Spring — to the early days of the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak, only this time the target of the protesters’ ire was the ruling military council and its leader, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

The military-led government’s attempts to beat back or squash the protests appeared to only redouble their strength. After using tear gas, rubber bullets and bird shot to beat back a day of continuous attacks on the headquarters of the interior ministry, hundreds of soldiers and security police in riot gear stormed the square from several directions at once at about 5 p.m., raining down rocks and tear gas as they drove thousands of demonstrators out before them.


But after less than half an hour they had retreated, having succeeded only in burning down a few tents planed in the middle of the square. And after another half an hour the crowd of protestors had more than doubled, packing the square as ever more demonstrators marched in from all directions chanting for the end of military rule.


The protests against military rule spread to at least seven other cities, including Alexandria and Suez. The health ministry said at least three were killed Sunday, after one died Saturday, and the number of seriously injured grew to over 900. A makeshift field hospital the protestors had set up in a mosque near the square treated a steady stream of hundreds bloodied by birdshot and rubber bullets and recorded at least one of the fatalities.

Mubarak, Sadat's Assassin?

Roqaya al-Sadat, the daughter of former president Anwar Sadat, has accused ousted president Hosni Mubarak of involvement in the assassination of her father at the hands of Islamists in 1981.


In a report she filed with the attorney general, al-Sadat said new evidence has emerged to prove the complicity of Mubarak, after former minister Hasaballah al-Kafrawi made statements at a recent seminar about the assassination.

The report calls for referring Mubarak for criminal trial and the death penalty, according to Egyptian state media.

Al-Kafrawi claimed Sadat was not killed by bullets fired by Khaled Islambouli, the military academy student accused of the assassination in official accounts. Al-Kafrawi added that bullets were also fired from the podium where Sadat and Mubarak were standing together when Sadat died.

He said Mubarak had an interest Sadat's assassination.

Ramadan TV soap operas: Now starring former dictator and torturer Hosni “Ozymandias” Mubarak of EGYPT

Mubarak appeared inside the courtroom in a caged defendants' box, along with his sons, Gamal and Alaa, who face corruption charges.

Mubarak, who is charged with conspiring in killing of protesters and abusing his power to amass wealth, answered, "present", when the judge called his name.

Hundreds of riot police stood guard outside the court surrounded by those demanding that Mubarak be held responsible for those killed in the final weeks of his rule.

Defence lawyers have called for hundreds of witnesses to testify in the case, including the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who was Mubarak's defence minister for two decades.

Tantawi's possible testimony on the former president's role in trying to suppress the 18-day uprising, in which about 850 people were killed, is considered critical by many to the outcome of the case.

"Tantawi's testimony would help the court determine whether Mubarak gave orders to interior minister Habib al-Adly to fire at protesters or whether Adly was acting independently," said one member of the defence team, who asked not to be named.

Lawyers for the families of those killed have also demanded Tantawi testify in the trial.

"The defence team sees Tantawi as a compurgator, or a witness whose testimony would exonerate Mubarak," another lawyer handling the case said.

"The plaintiffs' lawyers, however, expect him to testify that he received orders to fire, which is necessary to convict Mubarak."

Meanwhile, Mubarak laid on the stretcher looking composed and stern, with hands clasped over his chest.

Amr Shalakany, a professor at Cairo University's law school, said the trial scenes were a "circus" full of drama often seen on "Ramadan TV soap operas".

"One, he does not look that sick and the whole stretcher business is once again, like what you see on Ramadan TV soap operas," Shalakany told Al Jazeera.

"[Mubarak's] hair is being dyed black, which doesn't indicate any kind of deep depression that he has said he suffers from.

"His facial expressions are those of not just defiance but fundamentally looking down at the entire process."

Mubarak made his first court appearance on August 3 in a case that has gripped the Arab world.

The first Arab head of state to stand trial in person since popular uprisings swept the Middle East, the former air force commander faces charges that could carry the death penalty.