This interview is excerpted from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of February 4th. The original is available here.
Juan Cole, Professor of History, blogger and author of Engaging the Muslim World, discusses the ramped-up protests in Egypt following the military’s renewed protection against the goon squads and secret police; why Egypt’s conscript army would not likely cooperate with direct attacks on protesters; whether the protesters can hold out longer than Mubarak — who faces a domestic economic crisis and internal and external pressures to resign; Vice President Omar Suleiman’s solid anti-fundamentalist (and pro-torture) credentials; how US bribe money successfully kept Egypt out of Israel/Gaza/Lebanon conflicts for a generation; and why protests are most likely to succeed in non-oil producing states that can’t afford to bribe their citizens into quiescence.
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