Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

[hava1]

Is Al Jazeera the only people doing live video feed? Where else have you guys found good video feed?

the israeli tv sent a few peope but they are arrested. (technically for visa violations).

[23]

I feel emotionally drained from affixing my eyes, these past few days, on the images they see on AJ. But watch I must; it is their duty to watch. Draining as the experience may be.

I am increasingly struck by how evil the military are too.

Most folks I know, who are watching AJ too, are quick to identify the pro-Mubarak thugs as evil.

But it is the absence and inaction of the military that empowers them.

And that disturbs me the most.

The mouth of the river of evil from which all tributaries flow.

[ninakat]

Loosing the Goons: The Mubarak-Obama Move to Crush Egypt’s Uprising
Written by Chris Floyd
Wednesday, 02 February 2011 16:47

I must agree with As’ad AbuKhalil: The violence we are seeing in Egypt today (Wednesday) is a direct result of a green-light from Washington to “do what it takes” to preserve the Cairo regime. Today we have suddenly seen hundreds of “pro-Mubarak” goons pouring into the public squares to attack the non-violent demonstrators. The Egyptian Army – whom most of the demonstrators had lauded and looked to for protection from the police – is now apparently refusing to interfere with the attacks by the goon squads against the unarmed protestors. The UN reports that at least 300 people have already been killed in violence against the demonstrators since the uprising began: this number will now rise, perhaps sharply.

What is happening seems clear: Mubarak, backed by Obama, has decided to foment a storm of bloodshed, chaos and fear in order to provide a justification for “restoring order” – i.e., crushing the uprising by force. This course could not have been adopted without the support of the Cairo regime’s patrons and paymasters in Washington. None of this should come as a surprise. From the very beginning, the administration of Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been killing people – most of them defenseless civilians – all over the world to advance a brutal agenda of militarist domination and the enrichment of corrupt elites.

For decades, a pliant regime in Egypt has been a linchpin of this thoroughly bipartisan agenda. Obama’s task now is to preserve this arrangement if at all possible. Mubarak himself doesn’t matter; he’s now become a liability to the operation of business as usual. But the power structures in Washington and Cairo can’t afford to have him simply forced from office by popular will; what kind of example would that set? Instead they will seek to use the months until Mubarak’s envisaged retirement in September to beat down the uprising by overt means – as we are seeing on the streets of Egypt’s cities today – and covert means, with the piecemeal arrest of various dissident leaders and other crackdowns on activities that might “threaten public order.”

Whether they will succeed in this is still an open question; but things have taken a decidedly darker turn in Egypt. And a great deal of that darkness is being cast by the ever-looming shadow of Washington’s Domination Machine. *AbuKhalil has provided some of the most insightful and informed observations on the uprising in Egypt. Below are a few excerpts from several of his recent posts that throw light on the current situation.

A Western correspondent in Cairo told me that Mubarak goons targeted many reporters and that they also sexually harassed female protesters. Those goons and criminals are the linchpin of Obama's Middle East policy. ...

There are a lot of similarities already between Iran of 1953 and Egypt of 2011. Don't forget what happened in 1953 in Iran. The CIA then hired armed goons and thugs to defeat the pro-democracy movement. This time around, the armed goons are hired by the regime itself. ...

... I just read the speech by Obama: it confirmed my suspicion, that basically Mubarak was permitted by the US to do with the Egyptian people as he would like. Every drop of blood that is spilled in Egypt from this day onwards should be blamed on Obama because he has embraced this new strategy of letting Mubarak defy the popular will of the Egyptian people.

I don't trust the Egyptian army: the top brass is hand picked by the US/Israel [coalition] and can be easily bought off by a combination of bribes, gadgets, and perks. They could care less about the Egyptian people. This is part of the ruling group of this tyrant. ..

The US is now arranging for a coup against the will of the Egyptian people. ... This move by Obama towards Egypt can be described as criminal because it will lead to blood on the streets. I wonder if Obama during his talk with Mubarak discussed numbers like: just don't kill more than 50 or 60 a day, or something like that. His unprincipled cynicism reminds me of the conspiracies of the 1950s. I am so glad that I resisted all efforts by my liberal and leftist friends who were urging me to vote for this personification of the Bush Doctrine.

[stefano]

Tony Blair has described Hosni Mubarak, the beleaguered Egyptian leader, as "immensely courageous and a force for good".

[Project Willow]

Concerning Mr. Silly Man...

Egypt - U.S. intelligence collaboration with Omar Suleiman “most successful”

By Richard Smallteacher, Wikileaks staff 1 February 2011

New cables released by Wikileaks reveal that the U.S. government has been quietly anticipating as well as cultivating Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian spy chief, as the top candidate to take over the country should anything happen to President Hosni Mubarak. On Saturday, this expectation was proved correct when Mubarak named Suleiman to the post of vice-president making him the first in line to assume power.

An intelligence official who trained at the U.S. Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg, Suleiman became head of the spy agency in 1993 which brought him into close contact with the Central Intelligence Agency. Recently he took up a more public role as chief Egyptian interlocuter with Israel to discuss the peace process with Hamas and Fatah, the rival Palestinian factions.

In recent years most political analysts have assumed that the heir apparent was Gamal Mubarak, the president’s younger son, but the U.S. embassy in Cairo came to a different conclusion more than five years ago. On 15 June 2005, a memo (05CAIRO4534) written for Timothy Pounds, the director for Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and North Africa at U.S. National Security Council, noted: “(A)ll agreed that the most likely candidate to be appointed to the post (of vice-president) was General Omar Soliman, Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service (EGIS).” (State department officials use a different spelling of Suleiman’s name)

Almost a year later, another diplomatic memo (06CAIRO2933) written on 14 May 2006 made it clear that the U.S. government was working closely with Suleiman on key regional matters such as figuring out how best to marginalize Hamas in Palestine: “(O)ur intelligence collaboration with Omar Soliman, who is expected in Washington next week, is now probably the most successful element of the relationship.”

The diplomatic memo, which was written by Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr. (the U.S. ambassador to Egypt) to brief Robert Zoellick (then Deputy Secretary of State) who was visiting Cairo at the time, notes that “Omar Soliman also told us he would be glad to see you (Zoellick), if schedules permit - he will be working the Israeli and PA delegations in Sharm” – referring to a meeting being held in the Egytian resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh.

...

More at the link

[Hammer of Los]

I am increasingly struck by how evil the military are too.

Most folks I know, who are watching AJ too, are quick to identify the pro-Mubarak thugs as evil.

But it is the absence and inaction of the military that empowers them.

And that disturbs me the most.

The mouth of the river of evil from which all tributaries flow.

Perhaps not. BBC Radio 4 reported this morning that a senior serving egyptian military officer had told them that the military was now prepared to fire upon the mubarak supporters* who were attacking the demonstrators.


*Thats what the Beeb call them. I would call them hired thugs and murderers of a repressive state.

[Hammer of Los]

Mohamed ElBaradei looks like a great candidate to me.

I wonder how long it will be before the Beeb is forced to start talking about him. None of the R4 news bulletins I've heard has mentioned his name.

But then, I guess he's the last person the West wants in charge. Of course, I rather like him.

But the idea of the current spy chief taking over is more than a little silly at this point, isnt it? Well, that's my hope. Of course, such have often been dashed before.

I also hope the violence ends. The people of Egypt are very brave. I hope they support Baradei.

[AlicetheKurious]

Hi everybody. The internet came back yesterday, but things were too hectic to post until now. My family and I are fine and safe because we live quite far from any major cities.

I'm deeply ashamed to say that I have made no contribution at all to the heroic Egyptian uprising (some are calling it a revolution, but that, unfortunately, remains premature). My husband was in Germany when it all went down (nobody believed it could be this big or last this long) and I was alone with the kids until yesterday afternoon, when he was finally able to make it back home.

Even though I've left the house only once in the past 10 days, I've slept very little; I can hardly think straight, let alone write, so maybe later I will add a few details to this outstanding thread. The past week, when the regime opened the prisons and released tens of thousands of prisoners, some of them hardened murderers and rapists on death row, the people in our neighborhood had to organize ourselves to be able to secure our homes and our families. Some of my neighbors came to sleep at my house because it's safer than theirs. It's hard to describe the campaign of terror that this regime has unleashed on the people. My neighbors who tried to leave their homes a couple of days ago saw corpses on the Alexandria Desert road. For days the country was shut down: no internet, no ATMs, the banks closed, food delivery trucks prevented from reaching the city, no trains, flights canceled, no cell-phone service, criminals unleashed by the security forces to loot and pillage and set fires, etc., etc. Almost all of the teachers at my children's British and American schools, as well as the principals, have left the country and there's no telling when and if the schools will reopen.

Tomorrow, Friday, is supposed to be another big day for demonstrations. Please pray for the honorable Egyptian people.

You guys are doing a great job.

[Gnomad]

Good thing that you are ok.
Best wishes, both for you and all egyptians. Hope you will be succesful.

[stefano]

Great to hear from you! Glad you are all ok and sorry it wasn't as quick as we were all hoping it would be. Good luck Alice.

[DoYouEverWonder]

Glad to see you back! I know a lot of people here have been worried about you.

Please stay safe and try to let us know what's going on when you can.

[vanlose kid]

Is Al Jazeera the only people doing live video feed? Where else have you guys found good video feed?

CNN live feed:

http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=1

Al Arabiya:

http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/b1577.htm

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/ ... 36086.html

AJ on cable etc:

9.39pm GMT: One side-effect of the tumult in Tunisia and Egypt has been to massively raise the profile of al-Jazeera English in the US, where the news channel has been carried by very few cable TV providers (Washington DC residents are a lucky exception) thanks to hostility dating back to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Now, though, Link TV has announced it is showing 12 hours of Al Jazeera coverage on its DirecTV satellite channel (owned by a Mr R Murdoch), which for those of you with DirecTV is on channel 375:

Link TV, an independent broadcaster seen primarily on the DirecTV and Dish satellite systems, said Wednesday it is simulcasting about 12 hours a day of live Al-Jazeera coverage to about 33 million of the nation's nearly 116 million homes with televisions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/201 ... s#block-95

Link TV:

http://www.linktv.org/

*

[vanlose kid]

alternate AJ feeds:

http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-a ... ra_english

http://www.vingo.tv/login.php?jump=view ... channelID=

http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish

*

hi Alice, good to hear you're ok.

*

[vanlose kid]

*

[vanlose kid]

Egypt army moves to stop assault on protesters
(AP) – 3 hours ago
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian army tanks and soldiers cleared away pro-government rioters and deployed between them and protesters seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, as the prime minister made an unprecedented apology Thursday for the assault by regime backers that turned central Cairo into a battle zone.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told state TV that the attack Wednesday on the anti-government protesters was a "blatant mistake" and promised to investigate who was behind it.

The protesters accuse the regime of organizing the assault, using paid thugs and policemen in civilian clothes, in an attempt to crush their movement.

Government supporters charged central Tahrir Square Wednesday afternoon, sparking 15 hours of uncontrolled chaos, with the two sides battled with rocks, sticks, bottles and firebombs as soliders largely stood by without intervening.

The military began to move with muscle for the first time to stop the fighting early Thursday after a barrage of automatic gunfire hit the anti-government camp before dawn, killing at least three protesters in a serious escalation.

Four tanks cleared a highway overpass from which Mubarak supporters had hurled rocks and firebombs onto the protesters. Soldiers on the streets carrying rifles lined up between the two sides around 11 a.m. Several hundred other soldiers were moving toward the front line.

Thursday morning, more protesters streamed into the square, joining the thousands of defenders who spent the chilly night there, hunkered down against the thousands of government supporters in the surrounding streets.

A sense of victory ran through the protesters, even as they organized their ranks in the streets in case of a new assault. "Thank God, we managed to protect the whole area," said Abdul-Rahman, a taxi driver who spent the night in the square. "We prevented the pro-Mubarak people from storming the streets leading to the square." He refused to give his full name.

The apology by Shafiq, who was appointed by Mubarak over the weekend, was highly unusual from a leadership that rarely makes public admissions of a mistake. His promise to investigate who organized the attack came only hours after the Interior Ministry issued a denial that any of its police were involved.
"I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday because it's neither logical nor rational," Shafiq said. "What happened was wrong, a million percent wrong, whether it was deliberate or not deliberate ... Everything that happened yesterday will be investigated so everyone knows who was behind it."

The anti-Mubarak movement, which has carried out an unprecedented 10 days of protests bringing as many as quarter-million people into Tahrir, has vowed to intensify protests to force him out by Friday. In a speech Tuesday night, Mubarak refused to step down immediately, saying he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term — a halfway concession rejected by the protesters.

The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, whose vigil in Tahrir Square had been peaceful for days, prompted a sharp rebuke from Washington, which has considered Egypt its most important Arab ally for decades, and sends it $1.5 billion a year in aid.
"If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&n ... iM&topic=h