Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

[vanlose kid]

AJ: captured police id's belonging to pro-govt "supporters" shown live; analyst sees a concerted attempt on the part of the regime to split the opposition.

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[vanlose kid]

1.33pm: The CNN reporter, Anderson Cooper, has reportedly been attacked by pro-Mubarak posters.


George Hale, English editor of the Maan News Agency, tweeted:

Anderson Cooper punched 10 times in the head as pro-Mubarak mob surrounds him and his crew at Cairo rally - CNN manager

1.24pm: Mubarak supporter came in on camels and horses, according to AP.

Several thousand supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, including some riding horses and camels and wielding whips, attacked anti-government protesters today as Egypt's upheaval took a dangerous new turn.

In chaotic scenes, the two sides pelted each other with stones, and protesters dragged attackers off their horses.

The turmoil was the first significant violence between supporters of the two camps in more than a week of anti-government protests. It erupted after Mubarak went on national television the night before and rejected demands he step down immediately and said he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term.

In the early afternoon around 3,000 Mubarak supporters break through a human chain of anti-government protesters trying to defend thousands gathered in Tahrir.

Chaos erupted as they tore down banners denouncing the president. Fistfights broke out as they advanced across the massive square in the heart of the capital. The anti-government protesters grabbed Mubarak posters from the hands of the supporters and ripped them.

The two sides began hurling stones and bottles and sticks at each other, chasing each other as the protesters' human chains moved back to try to shield the larger mass of demonstrators at the plaza's centre.

At one point, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels rushed into the anti-Mubarak crowds, swinging whips and sticks to beat people. Protesters retaliated, dragging some from their mounts, throwing them to the ground and beating their faces bloody.

Protesters were seen running with their shirts or faces bloodied, some men and women in the crowd were weeping. A scent of tear gas wafted over the area, but it was not clear who had fired it.

The army troops who have been guarding the square had been keeping the two sides apart earlier in the day, but when the clashes erupted they did not intervene. Most took shelter behind or inside the armored vehicles and tanks stationed at the entrances to Tahrir.

1.23pm: Spain's Cadena SER radio station's reporters in Cairo are reporting that their car has been surrounded and attacked by pro-Mubarak thugs and they have had to take refuge in a building protected by the army, writes Giles Tremlett in Madrid.

1.11pm: Anti-Murbarak supporters are holding their ground in Tahrir Square, Jack Shenker reports, as "very injured people" are carried to safety.

Anti-Mubarak protesters have seized a pro-Mubarak supporter, he says. "So far we are not seeing any lynchings because a number of responsible citizens are shepherding them [pro-Mubarak supporters] to an army checkpoint," he says.


12.59pm: The writer Ahdaf Soueif emails to express concern.

This is urgent news: the Mubarak thugs are now suddenly out in force. I say 'thugs' because their behaviour immediately is radically different from everything we have seen in the last week.

They are in microbuses and trucks and are keeping up a deafening wall of sound with their claxons. They are armed with sticks and various bits of weaponry and are waving them and shouting and honking their horns. They carry large well-made banners - replicas of the banners that are used in the rigged elections, proclaiming for Mubarak.

In Tahrir Square, the army has pulled its positions well back into the square instead of at the peripheries and have stopped guarding the entrances to the square. The army s no longer checking the IDs of those who enter the square nor are they checking them for weapons.

A few minutes ago the Mubarak "supportrs" started attacking our press area in the square where activists have been collecting photo and video evidence of people who have been tortured under the Mubarak regime. As I write this the activists are being attacked with stones and sticks.

12.49pm: "It's all kicked off and it's getting very ugly," Jack Shenker reports from a side street off Tahrir square. Some of those involved in the violence have been dragged away by the army, he says.

"People continue to run away from the square. Many of them have got blood wounds. I could saw one man just brush past me carrying a child ... there appeared to blood on his chest," Jack said.

One pro-Mubarak supporter yelled "liars and Jews" at journalists.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/201 ... s#block-32

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[crikkett]

let me explain that, i hate, always have, these monuments to tyranny that exist and are made so much of in the world, expecially because it's never mentioned that they are the product of of the grossest forms of tyranny. i'm thinking about the pyramids in egypt, SAmerica, wherever, the "Great" Wall of China, all this stuff. they're like dust to me. they stink. they make my blood curdle.

Why we idolize material structures in the first place strikes me as odd, such as the fascination with tall buildings/skylines. It seems like we idolize even more these ancient structures that were built on the backs of thousands of slave laborers. Can't help to think that this metaphysically represents the situation in the world today.

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Sorry, this is from waaay back on p22.

Aren't we working off of assumptions about what 'slave labor' means in terms of the ancient cultures that produced these structures, and guessing about how they were built in the first place? Maybe they were made on the backs of paid workers or otherwise willing participants? Was there even money?

[82_28]

Alright, I have decided to wade in and see what the American right wing o'sphere is saying about all of this.

*crickets*

I went to the "Anti-idiotarian Rottweiler" and began clicking on blogroll after blogroll, this is literally the only news-out-of-Egypt post I could find. Seriously check it out to see how fucking stupid the right is and always will be. Utterly incurious:

http://www.thebigfeedblog.com/2011/02/p ... ng-in.html

Sure, it's only circumstantial, but I view this small unscientific experiment as proof that as far as the right-wing anywhere, they are eagerly awaiting their marching orders from their leaders -- i.e. unable to think and synthesize data on their own outside of the rudimentary reactionary cruelty they have been programmed to run with when in doubt. They clearly are not concerned with the plight of people anywhere on their own and are clearly not tuning into what Obomba and the current US .gov is doing. They express no interest in the crazy weather happening worldwide. They seem to be simply in standby mode as they await their totalitarian messiah.

If I were to take a guess with a "how-would-I-write-this-in-a-dystopian-novel" approach. Something could potentially go down in and around the Superbowl this Sunday. (would the PTB not be idiots to at least not use this to their advantage -- let alone that all this in Egypt wasn't also engineered?)

A terrorist attack on that shit in any way and of any magnitude could easily be spun into having "something to do with this anger in Egypt"/Muslims/Arabs/Middle East. Let us watch intensely how much of an "anti-American" vibe this takes on in the US or western media in the coming days. Watch a brutal crackdown begin to occur very soon in Egypt.

They have already floated the whole extreme precautions being taken this year for the game and for visitors to *DALLAS* to be aware of increased Homeland Security presence. Apparently more so than usual.

http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/story/0900 ... owl-sunday

If anything happens at the Superbowl, the for the moment, quiet right wing of the USA would begin to soon froth. From watching the behavior of "the crowd" from the long shots on Al Jaz lo these past few days, the US could easily be facing a fake ass right wing uprising and soon. It would be just what the doctor ordered.

[vanlose kid]

AJ: gunfire heard; pro-govt supporters armed with sticks, knives, machetes; clashes intensifying.

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2.00pm: The Egyptian interior ministry is denying charges by anti-government protesters that plainclothes police have been involved in the violence, Channel 4 News reports.

1.53pm: Mohamed ElBaradei has told BBC Arabic the clashes in Tahrir Square are a "criminal act done by a criminal regime".

1.49pm: In the clashes at and near Tahrir Square people are literally grabbing anything at hand, rocks, sticks to hurl at their opponents.

Anti-government protesters have shown al-Jazeera the ID cards of plain clothed security police they say they seized from attackers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/201 ... s#block-35

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@elbaradei tells BBC Arabic clashes in Tahrir Square are "a criminal act done by a criminal regime." #egypt #jane25
15 minutes ago via HootSuite
Retweeted by 15 people

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[seemslikeadream]

we ain't seen nothin' yet

the thugs have been sent in

[82_28]

Now it appears that protesters have now taken over tanks in the square.

Yah, whatever. They let it happen. What kind of protocol does the Egyptian military have when they deploy a tank? They just let it sit there and get taken over? Oh, c'mon.

Also, the draw down in Iraq means the US corporate security force gotz hundreds of thousands of troops sitting relatively idle in their 10 billion dollar bases in the hinterlands of Iraq.

This seriously could all be strategy in the long game. But like a hemorrhoid, it's just now popped to the surface for all to see.

[seemslikeadream]

Egypt restores internet access


I suppose so Mubarak can communnicate with his thugs

[vanlose kid]

Reports of at least one #AlArabiya correspondent being stabbed by pro-#Mubarak protesters. #Cairo #Egypt

RT @BooDy: It's a f***ing battle, just like old times, police vs the people #Egypt #Jan25

RT @etharkamal: "He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security." - Benjamin Franklin #jan25 #egypt

RT @afaramawy: One of the sadest days in my life. The sadest day in my life. #Egypt

RT @NoraYounis: #jan25 #egypt army letting promubarak protesters into tahrir, news thousands more on way from mohandesin & maspero. I

"@Zeinobia: Help Egypt , Help us I am going to cry they are killing the protesters , they are using camels and horses" #jan25 #egypt #25jan

RT @epicpharaoh: People need to realise that the "pro mubarak" group ARE NOT CITIZENS. They are either opposition members, or were paid to fight. #egypt

RT @Mamoudinijad: RISE ABOVE THE MASSES EGYPTIANS! DON'T LET THEM DIVIDE YOU! RISE ABOVE THE MASSES! #Egypt #Jan25 #Tahrir

RT @AlMasryAlYoum_E: Pro-Mubarak protesters pledge to 'liberate Tahrir Square with blood' http://ow.ly/3ONUW #Jan25 #Egypt

RT @NoraYounis: #jan25 #egypt I think army will watch clashes erupt then use force to disperse all. they want tahrir clean before friday

RT @Gazamom: Media should stop referring to these criminals as "pro-mubarak demonstrations"-call them what they are, paid gangs #jan25 #Egypt

@stahlblu but it is so serious. Egyptians are killing each other for Mubarak!!! What the hell is that? #Egypt #Mubarak

RT @ramyraoof: by the way, the tear gases which was shot on us by the ministry of interior police officers is made in: USA & CHINA. #Egypt #Jan25

RT @tabulagaza: extreme crackdown at tahrir on road leading to bab al-louq, need cameras. #jan25 #egypt

RT @weddady @aonahrawy: “@esraa_ali: Confirmed news...100 EGP is the price for the person who will go with #Mubarak fake demo#jan25 #Egypt

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[Canadian_watcher]

extremely powerful stuff right now on the live stream. wow. heartbreaking. thugs, violence, what a shame.

[seemslikeadream]

Rise Above it - one and all - i and i




I saw it in a dream
It was another time
Everything was true
Everything sublime

[bks]

AJ: situation growing more violent. Insurance building on fire.

Peaceful protesters allegedly not being permitted to leave square, despite wanting to.

[82_28]

AJ: situation growing more violent. Insurance building on fire.

Peaceful protesters allegedly not being permitted to leave square, despite wanting to.

Yup. This is how it is done. Oh well. Nice try freedom fighters. Now it is time for pure brutality.

This will grow. It will also necessitate WWIII. The state, the empire, the technofascist elite are more than willing to go the distance.

[Canadian_watcher]

AJ: situation growing more violent. Insurance building on fire.

Peaceful protesters allegedly not being permitted to leave square, despite wanting to.

Yup. This is how it is done. Oh well. Nice try freedom fighters. Now it is time for pure brutality.

This will grow. It will also necessitate WWIII. The state, the empire, the technofascist elite are more than willing to go the distance.

it was all a ruse - not, of course, the spirit of the peaceful protesters, but everything else.

the West can play the hero now, and go in to 'save' the protesters one way or another. This is hideous.

[vanlose kid]

AJ: situation growing more violent. Insurance building on fire.

Peaceful protesters allegedly not being permitted to leave square, despite wanting to.

Yup. This is how it is done. Oh well. Nice try freedom fighters. Now it is time for pure brutality.

This will grow. It will also necessitate WWIII. The state, the empire, the technofascist elite are more than willing to go the distance.

it was all a ruse - not, of course, the spirit of the peaceful protesters, but everything else.

the West can play the hero now, and go in to 'save' the protesters one way or another. This is hideous.

i can see it. US troops moving in to bring "democracy" to Egypt.

AJ: increasing gunfire.

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