Seems the Obama Administration had their hand on the pulse of the Egypt uprising since last August. According to reporting from The New York Times, President Obama ordered a secret reportĀ detailing areas of unrest in the Arab world, and ways to assist the people of this region to peacefullyĀ absolve the Ā political conflict. The report, called The Presidential Study Directive, focused on Egypt and other places, including Yemen and Bahrain.
The Times report states;
In Yemen, too, officials said Mr. Obama worried that the administrationās intense focus on counterterrorism operations againstĀ Al Qaeda was ignoring a budding political crisis, as angry young people rebelled against PresidentĀ Ali Abdullah Saleh, an autocratic leader of the same vintage as Mr. Mubarak.
āWhether it was Yemen or other countries in the region, you saw a set of trendsā ā a big youth population, threadbare education systems, stagnant economies and new social network technologies likeĀ Facebook andĀ Twitter ā that was a āreal prescription for trouble,ā another official said.
The White House held weekly meetings with experts from the State Department, the C.I.A. and other agencies. The process was led byĀ Dennis B. Ross, the presidentās senior adviser on the Middle East;Ā Samantha Power, a senior director at theĀ National Security Council who handles human rights issues; and Gayle Smith, a senior director responsible for global development.
The administration kept the project secret, officials said, because it worried that if word leaked out, Arab allies would pressure the White House, something that happened in the days after protests convulsed Cairo.
Read the Times Report here.