Egyptian uprising: Is Obama trying to force Mubarak out?

After a special visit from an Obama envoy Tuesday, the embattled Egyptian leader said he'll step down in September. Is the U.S. elbowing its longtime ally out of power?

Change in Egypt has to begin "now," Obama said Tuesday, the ninth day of the anti-Mubarak protests.
(Image credit: Getty)

The Obama administration sent former Egypt ambassador Frank Wisner to Cairo with a message for embattled President Hosni Mubarak: It is time to start your exit. Later Tuesday, Mubarak said on national TV that he would step down at the end of his term in September, and hours after that, following a 30-minute phone conversation with Mubarak, Obama said Egypt's "orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now." Obama was careful to say that "it is not the role of any other country to determine Egypt's leaders," but is he trying to push its current leader out the door? (See Obama's comments)

Obama's handprints are all over this: So much for all the talk about not meddling in Egypt's affairs, says Keith Koffler in White House Dossier. By sending Wisner to "tell Mubarak he was finished," then calling himself to up the pressure," Obama interfered in the most dramatic way possible." Sure, "Obama made the right move," but his involvement contradicts what the White House said as recently as Monday.

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