The Conservative Cloakroom: Muslim Brotherhood joins protests against Mubarak

This is an update to my original post

After sitting out the initial protests against the Egyptian President, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has ordered their members to join the unrest. This is an important development, because the MB is the most powerful opposition group within Egypt and most certainly has ties to the terrorist regime in Iran. Iran has much to gain if the MB overtakes the current government and the world has much to lose. If this tragedy were to happen, Iran would have troops by proxy on Israels Egyptian, Gaza, and Lebanon borders.

Look for this unrest to spillover to Jordan. The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood formed in 1942 and has formed a strong political party (Islamic Action Front) within Jordanian politics. Hezbollah may also take advantage of the worlds attention with the unrest in Egypt to violently takeover of the whole of Lebanon. The Obama White House hasn't shown much leadership in this developing crisis, but lets hope they have contingency plans in place when it comes to the control of the Suez Canal. We cannot allow allies of Iran to control this important waterway and we need to do everything in our power to prevent that. Here are the latest headlines coming out of Egypt:

Almost a million security officers and units of the Interior Ministry's special units, have been on their feet for three days quelling outbreaks. They are exhausted and demoralized. They managed to keep the demonstrations from getting out of hand, but not to suppress them. Now that millions of Muslim Brotherhood loyalists have been told to throw in their lot with the protest movement, the beleaguered 82-year old President Hosni Mubarak can no longer avoid sending the army in to stem the unrest, which looks increasingly like turning into a popular revolution. DEBKAFILE

Mubarak declared a night-time curfew after a day of running street battles between police and demonstrators unprecedented in his 30 year-rule. But clashes continued into the evening and a Reuters witness said shots were heard in central Cairo. Dozens of people were wounded during the day when security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon at crowds and baton charged them. The protesters hurled back stones and shouted "Down, Down, Hosni Mubarak." REUTERS
Internet and cell phone services, at least in Cairo, appeared to be largely cut off since overnight in the most extreme measure so far to try to hamper protesters form organizing. However, that did not prevent tens of thousands from flooding the streets, emboldened by the recent uprising in Tunisia — another North African Arab nation. Even Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the country's leading pro-democracy advocates, was under house arrest after joining the protests. AP
Thousands of people in Jordan have taken to the streets in protests, demanding the country's prime minister step down, and the government curb rising prices, inflation and unemployment. In the third consecutive Friday of protests, about 3,500 opposition activists from Jordan's main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organisations gathered in the capital, waving colourful banners reading: "Send the corrupt guys to court".
The crowd denounced Samir Rifai's, the prime minister, and his unpopular policies. Many shouted: "Rifai go away, prices are on fire and so are the Jordanians.'' ALJAZEERA
Tanks began deploying around Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, the official MENA news agency reported, after a day of violent clashes between police and protesters demanding an end to Mubarak's rule. A number of police members removed their suits and joined protests against the regime, according to Al Arabiya. Egypt's four main Internet service providers (ISPs) cut off international access to their customers in a near simultaneous and unprecedented move, an Internet monitoring company said. "Virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide," said James Cowie of Renesys, a New Hampshire-based firm which monitors Internet routing data in real-time. AL ARABIYA

Stay tuned for further developments. I am getting many visitors from Egypt, if any of my Egyptian readers have photos or stories that they wan't to share-contact me at www.thecloakroom04@yahoo.com

UPDATE-02-08-11
Pro-democracy supporters attempt to topple a van driven by a Mubarak backer after he had targeted the crowd with his bus at high speed. Close up footage shows the crowd dragging the driver away after pulling him from his van. His fate is unknown.