A welcome at the White House

It's time, people!

Let's do away with all of them

Comment is free: A welcome at the White House:

"Gamal Mubarak, son and probable successor of the Egyptian president, visited the US last week, allegedly to renew his pilot's licence. While in Washington, he happened to be passing the White House and decided to drop in and say hello. It's only courteous, and I must try it myself sometime.

Gamal - or Jimmy as his friends call him - had a chat with Steve Hadley, the president's national security adviser, and also met vice-president Dick Cheney and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

While he was having his cup of tea with Mr Hadley, President Bush 'dropped by to greet Mr Mubarak and convey his best regards to his father, President Hosni Mubarak', according to a White House spokesman.
What exactly was going on here is still a mystery. 'Jimmy' holds no government post in Egypt, though he is assistant secretary-general of the ruling party - not the sort of post that usually opens doors to all the highest people in the United States.

But what on earth was President Bush doing, passing on 'his best regards' to the Egyptian pharaoh just 24 hours after riot police and government thugs had been beating up demonstrators and journalists in Cairo? That's hardly in line with Mr Bush's 'forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East', is it?"