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| Africa: North | |
| Egyptian MP to sue France, UK over Suez | |
| 2003-11-04 | |
An Egyptian member of parliament on Saturday said he would sue Britain and France for USD 15 billion in compensation for their invasion of the Suez Canal zone in 1956. Al-Badri Ferghalli, from Port Said on the northern tip of the canal, told AFP he has began forming a committee to "collect documents and witness accounts" on the invasion to back the lawsuit. "The aggression caused thousands of deaths among the city residents and destroyed whole neighbourhoods," he said. He said he would ask the Egyptian parliament and government to back the lawsuit, but did not specify the court he would appeal to.
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| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #16 Ike was idealistic, Imperialism was wrong and he took a stand. Wrong time and place to take a stand. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-4 9:11:03 PM |
| #15 JFM's right. Ike got either righteous or wobbly and I'm still not sure which.... still paying for that FU. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-11-4 7:54:45 PM |
| #14 The Egyptians at great expense and effort built the canal, therefore they should benefit from it ... oh wait! |
| Posted by: A Jackson 2003-11-4 6:53:32 PM |
| #13 The Egyptians have been apid many times over. I have been through the Suez in each direction. The Brits were totally right about Egyptian pilots - they suck. You not only have to pay an Egyptian pilot, but treaties also require you to take aboard linehandlers that you don't need. We made the whole village of them hang out on the focastle where they could be watched. You also had to save you worst line to throw to their tugs as the tug boat guys would take aboard as much as possible, cut your line at the end of the trip and then sell the line. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-4 6:27:26 PM |
| #12 JFM, you are right, and Ike's move caused the Europeans to dump any responsiblity for the middle East leaving the US to fill in the gaps. A position that has not been all wine and glory for Uncle Sam. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-4 5:24:14 PM |
| #11 Regarding the Copts. How practical would it be to allow any non-Muslims living in Muslim countries to get expedited US Visa's. Certainly folks could lie about their religion and all, but it would be nice to help these folks (if they were willing to move) and if that means they get the slots of some Muslim's I'm willing to accept that. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-4 5:17:03 PM |
| #10 Steve White: In other words it was the US who initiated the policy of appeasement toward the Arab world and made them feel "victorious". Lack of reaction by Reagan, Bush I and Clinton to terrorist attacks led bin Laden to conclude he could get away with 9/11 but forgive me if I think the very first step was Eisenhower meddling in the 1956 war. Appeasement has never worked. |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-11-4 5:01:45 PM |
| #9 The pressure from the US forced the Brits and French to halt the invasion, which was meant to secure the entire canal. They were upset over the canal being nationalized by Nasser, and used the pretext that "Egyptian canal pilots weren't qualified to lead ships through a long, straight ditch" to justify the invasion. According to the history I read, Eisenhower was livid over this. He got the Brits' attention by ending all special privileges and contacts between their military/intel services and ours (the French, strangely, had no such access with our people in the first place), and then told the Brits and French that if they didn't withdraw, the US would intervene on the side of the Egyptians (!!!). That worked, and the invasion ground to a halt even before securing the entire causeway at Port Said. One interesting tidbit: the Brits were concerned that the Arabs wouldn't react well to the French, given their colonial history, and as an euphemism for this problem used the phrase "French smell factor" in their internal discussions. Gotta love it. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-11-4 3:43:12 PM |
| #8 Texas_Trainer, tahnks for the info. Sorry for the mispell. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-4 2:49:19 PM |
| #7 The Christians of Egypt are called "Copts" , not 'Copse' and are under 10% of the population. They have suffered under dhimmitude (subjugation of non-Moos-slims) for way over 1000 years. Moos-slims regularly abuse this community. I have a good friend who is a Copt and we often discuss how beastly and vicious Moos-slims are. He moved here over 30 years ago and is a fine, pro-Israel American. I know about the Moos-slims from growing up in soddystan from 1958 to 1970. |
| Posted by: Texas_Trainer 2003-11-4 1:20:05 PM |
| #6 They're GASP! taking on some aspects of The Great Satan! |
| Posted by: Anonymous-not above 2003-11-4 12:54:11 PM |
| #5 October 31, 1956: Hey, it was Halloween! It got out of hand! Lighten up, will ya Fergy? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-11-4 12:52:08 PM |
| #4 Sometimes nations do things that make you question the sanity of their people. Have the failed to remove the lead from Egyptian drinking water or something? These people have no clue... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-11-4 12:05:13 PM |
| #3 As they continue to whale on the Copse population. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-4 12:03:54 PM |
| #2 Are the Egyptians watching too much court TV? They are also trying to get Jews to repay them for when they fled slavery. Is Johnny Cochran over there? Got to love that World Court! Great litigation going on! Thank god we opted out! |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2003-11-4 12:01:34 PM |
| #1 People's Court, Judge Wapner presiding.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-11-4 11:49:15 AM |