Liberated from Gaddafi, Eastern Libya Looks to the Future (Time.com)

Tobruk is about an hour and a half from Libya's border with Egypt, a drive through flat, sparsely populated scrubland along the Mediteranean coast. The communities along the route are scattered and sparsely populated in low, rectangular block buildings, many painted a decaying, sand-battered white with green doors and shutters. As darkness settles over Libya on Tuesday, the towns almost disappear into pitch black darkness, with electricity limited, despite many power lines. Sporadic lakes of sewage break up fields of garbage. "You see how Libyans are living here," says my guide, Emat al-Maijri, an activist, pointing to the buildings. "And with all this oil!"

But the men of Tobruk are proud to have been among the first to push Gaddafi's regime out of their city. There were only three or four fatalities here, with about 50 injured, residents say. That's because Tobruk, in Libya's far east, fell fast. It was part of the domino collapse of Libya's eastern towns - the first to fall to the anti-government protesters. "All of Libya is against Qaddafi," says Gamal Shallouf, a marine biologist turned activist here in Tobruk. But he says the east was the first to fall because it has long felt neglected by a ruler who focused development projects on the capital and his home town of Sert. People here also feel a closeness to Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the site of past uprisings in the country's history. "Maybe because Benghazi started it and so we supported Benghazi. After just two days, every town was burning. Gaddafi never cared about eastern Libya. He doesn't care about Libya at all, just his own city, Sert." (See "The Rule of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi")

Tawfik al-Shohiby, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Tobrouk says Benghazi lies at the uprising's epicenter because it was the site of regime brutality in 2006. Feb. 17 was the date of protest announced on Facebook, he says. But they chose the date for a reason. "You know this date in 2006 - 14 people were killed outside the Italian consulate in Benghazi. They were out protesting against the cartoons of [the Prophet] Muhammad. They were protesting and the police killed them. The first one who died was a child." He adds, "This was our first opportunity to say 'No' to a dictator."

But what are Libyans going to do if and when they rid themselves of Gaddafi? For one, the activists in Tobruk feel a lot more fighting has yet to take place. Sert, parts of Tripoli, and the south are believed to be under Gaddafi loyalist control still; and there are still reports of intense fighting between hired mercenaries and residents. There are reports of labor strikes on oil fields in Misla and Nafoora. But people on the border and in Tobruk say confidence is rising in the east of the country where the country is under control of "the people." (See TIME's Exclusive Photos: Turmoil in Egypt)

But are the people really united? In their speeches, both Muammar Gaddafi and his son (and assumed heir) Saif warned that Libya's tribalism would tear the country apart without their dynasty's firm rule. "Libya is not Egypt or Tunisia," the son warned again and again on Sunday night. But the residents of Tobruk say the Gaddafis created the tribalism. Says Shallouf the marine biologist: "Gaddafi made the tribes here. He made it tribal. After Gaddafi brought down our king, he established governance at the tribal level. He thought it was a good idea. But it was a devilish idea. He created tribal governments. He supported some not others. But we didn't feel this was right. We now feel we have only one family - the Libyan family."

Still, even the activiss wanted only so much change. Libya, they explan, is more traditional than its neighbors Tunisia and Egypt. They say they want to see a new government that preserves Libyan culture; they don't want democracy imported from elsewhere. Shaiby says: "I have one soul. I will give it for this revolution. Not just for money. But for freedom. We want freedom, but democracy that fits with our culture. Not just any democracy. One that respects our religion. Libya is 100% Muslim and Sunni, and 100% original Libyan. So we need to make our own democracy. We need support from outside - the US and U.K. - but not to tell us what to do. We just want advice."

Shallouf wants to see a government that gives back to its people. Many others echo the complaint that the people don't see enough of Libya's oil revenues. "We have so much money but our government makes business in Africa for Gaddafi and his sons only," says Shallouf. "I am the manager of a marine biology research center. Do you know how much the government gives me a month? Only $300. I have just one child, a girl. If I had another, I don't know what I would do." (Egypt's Uprising: Complete Coverage)

Shallouf complains that European and U.S. companies have their hands too deep in Libya's oil. "OK," he says, "we respect all deals, but I think the money from the oil should be for us and the oil should be for us. It should go toward development. Libya needs human development. Gaddafi broke [the] sciences here, and health. And he broke the police. They made us hopeless. So that we need all kinds of development."

Shaiby doesn't think that the current crisis will devastate Libya's oil economy as the Gaddafis have threatened. "Every company and country wants to work in Libya," he says. "After Gaddafi is down and the situation is better, it will be better than good." Shallouf agrees, "We trust that foreign people in all countries hate Gaddafi and don't trust him because he's crazy and has made many troubles in the world with our money."

(See TIME's photogallery "Mass Demonstrations in Egypt.")

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Uncertain future for US policy as Egypt shifts (AP)

WASHINGTON – The United States faces an intensely uncertain future in Egypt, a stalwart ally of decades in the volatile Middle East, where key tenets of American foreign policy are now thrown into doubt.

Behind President Barack Obama's praise for Egypt's protesters and the outcome they achieved lie major unanswered questions about what will come next now that President Hosni Mubarak has been overthrown after 30 years of authoritarian rule. For many people in Egypt, they were years of oppression, corruption and poverty; but for the U.S., Mubarak was an anchor of stability at the helm of the world's largest Arab nation, enforcing a peace treaty with Israel and protecting vital U.S. interests, including passage for oil through the Suez Canal.

For now, the military is in charge, but whether, when or how a transition will be made to the kind of democratic society that meets the protesters' demands remains unknown. Speaking at the White House on Friday, Obama acknowledged difficult days ahead and unanswered questions but expressed confidence that the answers will be found.

Most tellingly, as the U.S. warily eyes the days ahead, Obama singled out the Egyptian military for praise in the restraint it showed through more than two weeks of largely peaceful protests. But the president emphasized the military's role as a "caretaker" leading up to elections now set for September and said it must now "ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people."

He said that means lifting Egypt's hated 30-year-old "emergency" police powers laws, protecting the rights of citizens, revising the country's law and constitution "to make this change irreversible and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free."

But just as the U.S. had limited influence during the uprising that seemed to spring almost out of nowhere to overtake Egypt, it has limited influence over what happens next. The U.S. provides some $1.5 billion a year in aid to Egypt, the vast majority of it to the military, and has a good relationship with the Egyptian military, which often sends officers here for training. That doesn't guarantee a commanding U.S. role.

"Do we have leverage or influence?" asked Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast adviser to six U.S. secretaries of state. "Well, did we have leverage and influence over the past few weeks? That's highly arguable."

Miller, now with the Woodrow Wilson Center think tank, said it will take weeks or months to sort things out. And in the end, he said, "I think Egypt will be a far less forgiving place for American interests as democracy takes root — if in fact it does."

Asked about the uncertainty ahead, especially with respect to the role of the military, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs could only answer: "I don't think we have to fear democracy."

Beyond the question of who will end up in control in Egypt and whether the U.S. will still be able to count the country as a firm and stable ally, there are concerns over whether the unrest that brought down Mubarak will spread to other nations in the Middle East, including oil-rich autocratic neighbors.

That prospect looms even as the U.S. handling of the Egypt situation has angered some leaders in the region who thought Washington was too quick to abandon Mubarak — although Obama and his administration studiously avoided ever calling outright for the president's ouster.

On Friday, after Mubarak's resignation was announced, Obama was able to give fuller expression to his views.

"By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people's hunger for change," Obama said, in words reminiscent of his own presidential campaign.

Of the protesters, the president said: "This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied." He compared them to the Germans who tore down the Berlin Wall and to independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi's nonviolent ranks in India.

Mubarak's resignation came less than 24 hours after he'd surprised the White House and many others by delivering a defiant speech Thursday in which he refused to step down, confounding widespread expectations that he'd do so. Obama learned of the announcement of his resignation Friday morning when an aide brought him a note during a meeting in the Oval Office.

Then he spent a few moments, along with the rest of the world, watching the joyous celebrations in Cairo on TV.

"Egyptians have inspired us, and they've done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence," Obama said. "For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence — not terrorism, not mindless killing — but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more."

The protests arose in a country with enormous social problems, with vast differences between the haves and the have-nots. It is a country where more than 50 percent of the adult population is illiterate and some 40 percent live below or close to the poverty line. Rising costs of food were among the leading factors underpinning the protests. Some of the impoverished Egyptians are beneficiaries of U.S. food aid; officials said Friday that U.S. aid to Egypt was not expected to be affected by Mubarak's departure.

It was not clear what role Islamic militant groups such as the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood might play in the new government that emerges. Also of critical importance: whether the evolving new government will continue to honor the landmark 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

The top U.S. military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, will be in Israel on Sunday and Monday, with developments in Egypt expected to be at the top of the agenda. The meeting was previously scheduled. Mullen is also visiting Jordan, another Mideast ally facing the prospect of civil unrest.

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Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Robert Burns, Ben Feller and Mathew Lee contributed to this report.

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Egyptians hopeful but face uncertain future (AP)

CAIRO – Egyptians were hopeful Saturday but faced an uncertain future, with many protesters vowing to stay camped in a central Cairo square until they hear "clear assurances" that their demands for democracy will be met.
Burnt-out vehicles were being towed away and Egyptian soldiers swept the streets and cleared barricades to open at least road leading to Tahrir, or Liberation, Square after a night of jubilant celebration and nearly three weeks of protests that forced President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military.
Protesters were divided. Some took down their makeshift tents and headed home. Others vowed to stay put until the military, which has pledged to shepherd reforms for greater democracy, issues a promised statement on its next steps.
Those could include the dissolving of parliament and creation of a transitional government.
"We have to see how the army will orchestrate a democratic transfer of power. We have to wait and see," said Ali Mohammed, a sales manager camped out on the square.
Under a banner reading "the people managed to oust the regime," two other protesters argued about whether to clear the downtown square near the famed Egyptian museum.
Shopkeeper Gomaa Abdel-Maqsoud says he's been in Tahrir Square since the protests began on Jan. 25 and is ready to go. He says "I have never seen such happiness in peoples' faces before; what else do I want?" he asked.
Nadal Saqr, a university professor, insisted protesters should stay until the army offers "clear assurances" that their demands for democracy are met.
Elsewhere, Egyptians in coffee houses and on the street scoured newspapers for details about the astonishing events from the day before — when hundreds of thousands marched on Mubarak's palaces in Cairo and Alexandria and besieged state TV, leading the military to effectively carry out a coup at the please of protesters.
The 82-year-old former leader, meanwhile, remained with his family in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, according to local officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
Mubarak's downfall at the hands of the biggest popular uprising in the modern history of the Arab world had stunning implications for the United States and the West, Israel, and the region, unsettling rulers across the Mideast.
President Barack Obama's senior military adviser was heading to the Mideast Saturday to reassure two key allies — Jordan, facing its own rumblings of civil unrest, and Israel, which sees its security at stake in a wider transformation of the Arab world.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was stopping first in Amman for meetings Sunday with senior Jordanian officials, including King Abdullah II. Jordan has seen five weeks of protests inspired by unrest in Tunisia and later Egypt, though the numbers of marchers has been decreasing.
He then was to Tel Aviv for meetings and ceremonies Sunday and Monday marking the retirement of his Israeli counterpart, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, and talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. Mullen had no plans to visit Egypt on this trip.
Israel is deeply worried about the prospect that Mubarak's ouster could lead to the emergence of a government less friendly to the Jewish state.
Any break seems unlikely in the near term. The military leadership supports the treaty. Anti-Israeli feeling is strong among Egyptians, and a more democratic government may take a tougher line toward Israel in the chronically broken-down peace process. But few call for outright abrogating a treaty that has kept peace after three wars in the past half-century.
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