Fearless Mohamed ElBaradei fighting for Egyptian freedom against dictator Hosni Mubarak
This time the pictures, the demonstrations about democracy and freedom, are from Tahrir Square in Cairo. This time the opposition leader is a brave, learned man named Mohamed ElBaradei, standing up over these past few days the way the heroes always do in these moments.
He has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in his distinguished life and served as the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. And in the runup to George Bush's war in Iraq, ElBaradei stood up there, too, telling Bush and Dick Cheney that he did not believe Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction.
They didn't listen to him, because they didn't want to hear from anybody who didn't believe Saddam was about to nuke Cincinnati.
But this weekend the American President who succeeded Bush, Barack Obama, heard ElBaradei from Cairo, because the world heard him. This is what ElBaradei said to the protesters in Cairo Sunday night: "What we have begun cannot go back."
This is what he said on CBS' "Face the Nation," talking about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a dictator on his way out of power now and out of Egypt, even though U.S. money keeps rolling in there: "The American government cannot ask the Egyptian people to believe that a dictator who has been in power for 30 years would be the one to implement democracy."
ElBaradei is not afraid. He was not afraid to go back to Egypt even after threats on his life, not afraid to talk about a national unity government, instead of a government run by Mubarak's army for much too long.
Mohamed ElBaradei's country is a dangerous place right now, with thousands injured and 74 dead through yesterday and prisons emptied and prisoners, thousands of them, suddenly on the loose, some of them militant Muslims. Egypt has been a dangerous place for a week as so many have taken to the streets, so many of them students. ElBaradei went back anyway.
He briefly lived in New York once, downtown, getting his Ph.D. in international law from NYU. That is enough for the city to claim him, proudly.
Here is something else he said yesterday, taking his message from one television network to another and then back to Tahrir Square: "It is better for President Obama to appear that he is the last one to say to President Mubarak, 'It's time for you to go.'"
ElBaradei wasn't afraid to tell the truth to Bush and Cheney; he wasn't going to back down from anybody yesterday, even with Mubarak's fighter jets flying low over Cairo. People say he hasn't spent enough time in Egypt enough to be president. He sure was there this weekend.
This time the pictures, the demonstrations about democracy and freedom, are from Tahrir Square in Cairo. This time the opposition leader is a brave, learned man named Mohamed ElBaradei, standing up over these past few days the way the heroes always do in these moments.
He has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in his distinguished life and served as the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. And in the runup to George Bush's war in Iraq, ElBaradei stood up there, too, telling Bush and Dick Cheney that he did not believe Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction.
They didn't listen to him, because they didn't want to hear from anybody who didn't believe Saddam was about to nuke Cincinnati.
But this weekend the American President who succeeded Bush, Barack Obama, heard ElBaradei from Cairo, because the world heard him. This is what ElBaradei said to the protesters in Cairo Sunday night: "What we have begun cannot go back."
This is what he said on CBS' "Face the Nation," talking about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a dictator on his way out of power now and out of Egypt, even though U.S. money keeps rolling in there: "The American government cannot ask the Egyptian people to believe that a dictator who has been in power for 30 years would be the one to implement democracy."
ElBaradei is not afraid. He was not afraid to go back to Egypt even after threats on his life, not afraid to talk about a national unity government, instead of a government run by Mubarak's army for much too long.
Mohamed ElBaradei's country is a dangerous place right now, with thousands injured and 74 dead through yesterday and prisons emptied and prisoners, thousands of them, suddenly on the loose, some of them militant Muslims. Egypt has been a dangerous place for a week as so many have taken to the streets, so many of them students. ElBaradei went back anyway.
He briefly lived in New York once, downtown, getting his Ph.D. in international law from NYU. That is enough for the city to claim him, proudly.
Here is something else he said yesterday, taking his message from one television network to another and then back to Tahrir Square: "It is better for President Obama to appear that he is the last one to say to President Mubarak, 'It's time for you to go.'"
ElBaradei wasn't afraid to tell the truth to Bush and Cheney; he wasn't going to back down from anybody yesterday, even with Mubarak's fighter jets flying low over Cairo. People say he hasn't spent enough time in Egypt enough to be president. He sure was there this weekend.
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