re: #54 ggt

Did he have torture chambers, deny food to a certain segment of the population, commit genocide?

There are ranges of dicatators—what exactly did he deny?

Just a taste:

While in office, political corruption in the Mubarak administration’s Ministry of Interior has risen dramatically, due to the increased power over the institutional system that is necessary to secure the prolonged presidency. Such corruption has led to the imprisonment of political figures and young activists without trials,[17] illegal undocumented hidden detention facilities,[18][19] and rejecting universities, mosques, newspapers staff members based on political inclination.[20] On a personnel level, each individual officer can and will violate citizens’ privacy in his area using unconditioned arrests due to the emergency law.

More:

Egypt is a semi-presidential republic under Emergency Law (Law No. 162 of 1958)[22] and has been since 1967, except for an 18-month break in 1980s. Under the law, police powers are extended, constitutional rights suspended and censorship is legalized.[23] The law sharply circumscribes any non-governmental political activity: street demonstrations, non-approved political organizations, and unregistered financial donations are formally banned. Some 17,000 people are detained under the law, and estimates of political prisoners run as high as 30,000.[24] Under that “state of emergency”, the government has the right to imprison individuals for any period of time, and for virtually no reason, thus keeping them in prisons without trials for any period. The government continues the claim that opposition groups like the Muslim Brotherhood could come into power in Egypt if the current government did not forgo parliamentary elections, confiscate the group’s main financiers’ possessions, and detain group figureheads, actions which are virtually impossible without emergency law and judicial-system independence prevention.[25] Pro-democracy advocates in Egypt argue that this goes against the principles of democracy, which include a citizen’s right to a fair trial and their right to vote for whichever candidate and/or party they deem fit to run their country.

And then there is cases like this: sandmonkey.org

(seriously, read sandmonkey.org, it’s worth it)