Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

[Laodicean]

[nathan28]

But by working with even a flawed constitution, the opposition would be helping to entrench and deepen a constitutionalist principle that has been steadily eroded. And with its built-in deadlines, the constitutional route also makes it harder for the military to draw out the transition and consolidate its hold... It has often been said in recent days that the United States can do nothing to affect the progress of democracy in Egypt, but the military’s dependence on American money and matériel suggests that this is untrue. The more the United States can make clear that continued military support depends on how the Egyptian Army conducts itself during this transition, the more likely the military is to play midwife to democracy.

Because if Mubarek steps down and the US holds funding cuts over the head of the Egyptian military, the opposition groups couldn't appoint their own transitional gov't and couldn't draft their own constitution for popular ratification?

Let me guess, we're gunning for a "bipartisan compromise".


On edit, Masoud is just another Harvard goon:

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/commentary/gamal-mubarak-egyptian

Is Gamal Mubarak the best hope for Egyptian democracy?
September 20, 2010
by Tarek Masoud

Instead of the democratic dream, the reality is that we are faced only with unappetizing options: an inherited transition, a sixth Mubarak term, a handover to some stony-faced apparatchik-like intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, or a military coup. And when comparing these eminently uninspiring alternative futures, it is hard not to conclude that Gamal Mubarak is the best bet if you care about Egypt's long term democratic prospects.

A few short months ago, this was not the case. Muhammad ElBaradei, the Nobel Laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had captured imaginations with his calls for political reform and an end to emergency law. But he has so far been a disappointment. Already we read of dissension in his ranks over how little time he has spent inside Egypt since announcing his "campaign" for change. His online petition seems to be inching toward his declared target of a million signatures (with a major assist from the Muslim Brotherhood), but it's hard to think of countries that have democratized by petition. ElBaradei is now calling for an opposition boycott of the November, 2010 parliamentary elections, but it's not clear what this will achieve either. After all, every Egyptian opposition party (save the leftist Tagammu) boycotted the 1990 parliamentary contests, and yet the ship of state sailed on undisturbed. (And at this particularly sensitive time, the NDP might even welcome the prospect of a quiet election free of the usual opposition headaches.)

If a democratic revolution is unlikely, so too is a military coup. The armed forces are loyal to Mubarak (if not to his son) and conservative enough not to risk reaping the kind of whirlwind that an overthrow of the existing order would entail. (Unless, of course, they were provoked by the prospect of losing all their prerogatives, which is why calls to reduce U.S. aid to Egypt -- most of which goes to the military -- are a bad idea right now)...

Gamal Mubarak, on the other hand, would represent a departure from this depressingly familiar routine. If he were to run and win in 2011, he would be the first leader in Egypt's modern history never to have worn a military uniform, never to have been what Samuel Huntington called a "specialist in the application of violence." (Sufi Abu Talib, a legal academic and the speaker of the People's Assembly from 1978 to 1983, was acting president for a week after Sadat's 1981 assassination, but his job was to keep the seat warm for Mubarak.) Of course, the fact that Gamal is a civilian would not necessarily make him gentler than his predecessors (or than someone like Omar Suleiman) or less willing to visit the implements of coercion upon his opponents. But it might make him less able to do so, since he would lack the kind of blind loyalty the armed forces deliver to one of their own. Moreover, there is something to be said for the purely symbolic value of elevating to Egypt's highest office someone who does not emerge from what the Egyptian analyst Dia' Rashwan extolled as the "solid and strong heart in the apparatus of the state" -- if only because it helps to establish the principle of civilian authority in a country hitherto bereft of it...

Wrong then, wrong now.

[vanlose kid]

WORLDWIDETAHRIR
One Tahrir Square in every city
World Wide Tahrir

EVERY CITY IN THE WORLD WILL HAVE ITS TAHRIR SQUARE!



We won’t free the embassies till Mubarak leaves!



Join us in a world wide sit-in on your nearest egyptian embassy and show Egyptians that the whole world is supporting them.
From Friday 4th Feb at 20:00 local time in your city(!!!), till Mubarak leaves



We will do it in solidarity with the Egyptian people at Tahrir Square. Like them, we will be prepared to stay untill Mubarak leaves. Go to your nearest city with a New Tahrir Square, or start yourself a new one in your city.

We all will be together in this!

http://worldwidetahrir.wordpress.com/

*

[justdrew]

so what ever became of the "US evacuates Americans in Egypt" moment? I was actually thinking that's when the marines would wade in and frog march mubarak out. Is there a contingent of US military in country right now?

[Jeff]

Received via Facebook:

*Please Forward Widely

A Statement from the protesters at Cairo's Tahrir Square to the Egyptian people

The President's promises and the bloody events of Wednesday February 2

We the protesters who are currently on sit-in at Tahrir (liberation) square in Cairo since January 25, 2011 strongly condemn the brutal attack carried out by the governing National Democratic Party's (NDP) mercenaries at our location on Wednesday February 2, under the guise of "rally" in support of President Mubarak. This attack continues on Thursday February 3. We regret that some young people have joined these thugs and criminals, whom the NDP is accustomed to hire during elections, to march them off after spreading several falsehoods circulated by the regime media about us and our goals. These goals that aim at changing the political system to a one that guarantees freedom, dignity and social justice to all citizens are also the goals of the youth. Therefore we want to clarify the following.

Firstly, we are a group of young Muslim and Christian Egyptians; the overwhelming majority of us does not belong to political parties and have no previous political activism. Our movement involves elderly and children, peasants, workers, professionals, students and pensioners. Our movement cannot be classified as "paid for" or "directed by" a limited few because it attracted millions who responded to its emblem of removing the regime. People joined us last Tuesday in Cairo and other governorates in a scene that witnessed no one case of violence, property assault or harassment to anyone.

Secondly, our movement is accused of being funded from abroad, supported by the United States, as being instigated by Hamas, as under the leadership of the president of the National Assembly for change (Mohamed El-Baradie) and last but not least, as directed by the Muslim Brotherhood. Many accusations like these prove to be false. Protesters are all Egyptians who have clear and specific national objectives. Protesters have no weapons or foreign equipment as claimed by instigators. The broad positive response by the people to our movement's goals reveals that these are the goals of the Egyptian masses in general, not any internal or external faction or entity.

Thirdly, the regime and its paid media falsely blame us, young demonstrators, for the tension and instability in the streets of Egypt in recent days and therefore for damaging our nation's interests and security. Our answer to them is: It is not the peaceful protesters who released the criminal offenders from prison to the unguarded streets to practice looting and plundering. It is not the peaceful protesters who have imposed a curfew starting at 3 o'clock PM. It is not the peaceful protesters who have stopped the work in banks, bakeries and gas stations. When protesters organized its one-million demonstration it came up in the most magnificent and organized form and ended peacefully. It is not the protestors who killed 300 people some with live ammunition, and wounding more than 2,000 people in the last few days.

Fourthly, President Mubarak came out on Tuesday to announce that he will not be nominated in the upcoming presidential election and that he will modify two articles in the Constitution, and engage in dialogue with the opposition. However the State media has attacked us when we refused his "concession" and decided to go on with our movement. Our demand that Mubark steps down immediately is not a personal matter, but we have clear reasons for it which include:

His promise of not to run again is not new. He has promised when he came to power in 1981 that he will not run for more than two periods but he continued for more than 30 years.
His speech did not put any collateral for not nominating his son "Gamal", who remains until the moment a member of the ruling party, and can stand for election that will not be under judicial supervision since he ignored any referring to the amendment of article 88 of the Constitution.
He also considered our movement a "plot directed by a force" that works against the interests of the nation as if responding to the demands of the public is a "shame" or "humiliation".
As regards to his promise of conducting a dialogue with the opposition, we know how many times over the past years the regime claimed this and ended up with enforcing the narrow interests of the Mubarak State and the few people who control it.

And the events of Wednesday proved our stand is vindicated. While the President was giving his promises, the leaders of his regime were organizing (along with paid thugs and wanted criminals equipped with swords, knives and Molotov bombs) a brutal attack plot against us in Tahrir square. Those thugs and criminals were accompanied by the NDP members who fired machine guns on unarmed protesters who were trapped on the square ground, killing at least 7 and wounding hundreds of us critically. This was done in order to end our peaceful national popular movement and preserve the status quo.


Our movement is Egyptian - Our movement is legitimate- Our movement is continuing

The youth of Tahrir Square sit-in

February 3, 2011 at 11:30am

[DrVolin]

Those guys know what they're doing. They didn't crack down right away. They contained the revolt for a few days, long enough to let opposition leaders reveal themselves or emerge. Even the Okhrana didn't figure that one out. But then look what happened to them.

[justdrew]

Those guys know what they're doing. They didn't crack down right away. They contained the revolt for a few days, long enough to let opposition leaders reveal themselves or emerge. Even the Okhrana didn't figure that one out. But then look what happened to them.

they've got to not let the movement be constrained as being "only the people in the square" There MUST be extensive reporting about marches elsewhere in the city and country, urgently.

[Joe Hillshoist]

I'm freaking out: there is now a complete blackout on live images from Tahrir Square. I shouldn't be surprised, this morning the Egyptian state tv stations had broadcasters sneering about "Al Jazeera's latest lies that there was gun-fire in Tahrir" (how would they know? Al Jazeera's been shut down here). Then, by just switching to BBC Arabic or CNN, there it was, live coverage of Tahrir Square with unmistakable gunfire, molotov cocktails and rocks raining down on pro-democracy demonstrators' heads.

All foreign news bureaus overlooking Tahrir Square have been shut down either by the army or the regime's thugs and journalists' cameras have been confiscated or broken. They don't want anybody to see what they are doing.

Tomorrow's demonstrations are supposed to be huge, all over Egypt. It's being called "the Day of Departure". I know people who are already downtown (it's after midnight here) and others who are planning to go. They know what the regime has been doing and that it's planning something terrible for tomorrow, but they're going anyway.

Bloggers are being kidnapped, journalists are being beaten and peaceful demonstrators are being killed. A huge supermarket near where I live was set on fire today, shortly after my husband had left it this afternoon. Thugs have been set loose and invited to go on a rampage. I've seen Youtube videos of some of the thugs captured by pro-democracy demonstrators say that they were released from jail by officers from the Ministry of Interior and promised LE 5000 (a huge amount for them) if they could get rid of the protesters.

Looking at the "pro-Mubarak demonstrators", it's obvious that the Ministry of Interior has emptied out the worst shanty-towns and is using hardened "baltagis" -- hired thugs with criminal records, police informants and police in civilian clothes. State tv keeps talking about how much money the Egyptian economy has lost and how many years it will take just to get back to where it was before January 25, in between old patriotic songs and wall-to-wall interviews with the new, smiling and friendly prime minister and the stern, scary vice president, both insisting that the demonstrators' demands have all been met and they should go home before "these destructive demonstrations do irreparable damage to the nation we all love". Wall-to-wall propaganda instead of news coverage, associating the demonstrations with chaos and loss and truly bizarre conspiracies contrasted with constant paternalistic appeals to security and stability and 'normalcy'.

People are exhausted, anxious and running out of money. Many who lived from payday to payday are now out of work or unable to do their jobs. For many, especially in the middle class, the chance to build a new system based on freedom and democracy and civil rights doesn't seem worth all this upheaval and insecurity.

If this revolution doesn't succeed, I think that Egypt will witness an even more horrific wave of violent repression and revenge from Mubarak's regime. They'll do everything possible to make sure this can't happen again. Next time, if there ever is a next time, peaceful demonstrations organized by smart young people won't cut it -- it will be the even worse nightmare of civil war, and the anti-regime forces will have to be hardened, armed warriors ready to kill and be killed. God forbid.

Never, in Egypt's long history, ever, has a government treated its people so savagely. Mubarak can be proud that he has added to his record for unprecedented corruption this black stain on Egypt's history with his name on it. I think he's literally become insane.

Alice I quoted that here:

http://coldestmonster.wordpress.com/201 ... gypt-2011/

There's nothing up there that hasn't been repeated already on this thread, and I haven't updated for a while cept to put that comment.

[AlicetheKurious]

Quick question for Alice or anybody else: would it be ok, if you're ok with it Alice, if I block quoted your post anonymously on another completely unrelated forum I frequent?...

Of course it's ok. This is a public forum.

This morning I woke up to the news on BBC Arabic that the army has surrounded Tahrir Square with barbed wire "to prevent violent clashes between the two sides".

Nearly all foreigners have been ordered to leave; UN officials and diplomats have been ordered to get their families out.

The specific targeting of foreigners is stunningly out of character for this regime, which has made it a priority above all to present a positive image of itself in the West. To give but one small example, when there are grave road accidents, Egyptians who call the emergency number know to say that there are foreigners involved, otherwise the ambulances will take their time if they bother to come at all. Mubarak himself, who has not appeared in person before Egyptian citizens for decades, has several times mingled and schmoozed with foreign tourists in places like Sharm el Sheikh.

The arrogant tone Mubarak has been using towards Obama and the American administration is unprecedented, unimaginable before this. The only explanation I can think of is that he feels empowered by something new, and I believe that something is the strong practical and moral support, even solidarity, of the Israelis, which makes him feel invulnerable. The regime's targeting of foreign journalists and terrorizing of foreigners in order to minimize witnesses smells like Israel -- very alien to this regime, which has been as painfully obsequious to foreigners as it has been contemptuous of Egyptians. Now something has made it feel invulnerable enough to shit on both, and confident enough to tell the US administration and Congress and the EU to talk to his ass.

[Plutonia]

3 February 11

We’ve compiled a list of all the journalist who have been in some way threatened, attacked or detained while reporting in Egypt. When you put it all into one list, it is a rather large number in such a short period of time. (UPDATED - send us more stories if you get them)

APTN had their satellite dish agressively dismantled, leaving them and many other journalists who rely on their feed point no way to feed material.

ABC News international correspondent Christiane Amanpour said that on Wednesday her car was surrounded by men banging on the sides and windows, and a rock was thrown through the windshield, shattering glass on the occupants. They escaped without injury/ (wires)

And ABC Producer and Cameraman driving were carjacked at a checkpoint and driven to a compound where they were surrounded by men who threatened to behead them. They were able to convince the men to release them without any harm.

A group of angry Egyptian men carjacked an ABC News crew and threatened to behead them on Thursday in the latest and most menacing attack on foreign reporters trying to cover the anti-government uprising. Producer Brian Hartman, cameraman Akram Abi-hanna and two other ABC News employees / (link)

ABC/Bloomberg’s Lara Setrakian also attacked by protesters

CNN’s Anderson Cooper said he, a producer and camera operator were set upon by people who began punching them and trying to break their camera. Cooper and team were targeted again on Thursday. “Situation on ground in Egypt very tense,” Cooper tweeted Thursday. “Vehicle I was in attacked. My window smashed. All OK.” / (wires)

Another CNN reporter, Hala Gorani, said she was shoved against a fence when demonstrators rode in on horses and camels, and feared she was going to get trampled/ (wires)

A photojournalist for CNN-IBN, Rajesh Bhardwaj, was detained in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the site of bloody clashes between supporters and opponents of President Hosni Mubarak. He was taken away by the Egyptian Army and later released, but only after his identification card and tapes were destroyed / (link)

Fox Business Channel’s Ashley Webster reported that security officials burst into a room where he and a camera operator were observing the demonstration from a balcony. They forced the camera inside the room. He called the situation “very unnerving” and said via Twitter that he was trying to lay low / (wires)

Fox News Channel foreign correspondent Greg Palkot and producer Olaf Wiig were hospitalized in Cairo after being attacked by protestors.

CBS News’ Katie Couric harassed by protesters (link)

CBS newsman Mark Strassman said he and a camera operator were attacked as they attempted to get close to the rock-throwing and take pictures. The camera operator, who he would not name, was punched repeatedly and hit in the face with Mace. / (wires)

CBS News’ Lara Logan, was detained along with her crew by Egyptian police outside Cairo’s Israeli embassy. / (link)

Two New York Times journalists have been arrested. (A Times spokeswoman said that the two journalists were “detained by military police overnight in Cairo and are now free.” ) (link)

Washington Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl wrote Thursday that witnesses say Leila Fadel, the paper’s Cairo bureau chief, and photographer Linda Davidson “were among two dozen journalists arrested this morning by the Egyptian Military Police. They were later released.” / (link)

Wall Street Journal photographer Peter van Agtmael said he was attacked Wednesday by a group of supporters of Mr. Mubarak near Tahrir Square, where several clashes have broken between backers of the regime and protesters demanding Mr. Mubarak’s resignation after nearly 30 years in power / (link)

BBC’s Jerome Boehm also targeted by protesters / (link)

BBC also reported their correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes’ car was forced off the road in Cairo “by a group of angry men.” He has detained by the men, who handed him off to secret police agents who handcuffed and blindfolded him and an unnamed colleague and took them to an interrogation room. They were released after three hours. / (link)

BBC reporter Wyre Davies in Alexandria – Attacked and driven off by locals several times in the past few days / (link)

BBC foreign editor Jon Williams said via Twitter that security forces seized the network’s equipment in a Cairo Hilton hotel in an attempt to stop it broadcasting / (link)

Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times of London said she was approached by a gang of men with knives in Imbaba, a poor neighborhood of Cairo. Another group of men, who also were strangers to her, pushed her into a store and locked it to protect her, she said/ (link)

Joan Roura, a correspondent for TV3, a Catalan public television station, was attacked by men who tried to steal his mobile phone while he was conducting a live broadcast for the 24 hours news channel. Assaults were also reported against Sal Emergui, a correspondent for Catalan radio RAC1; Gemma Saura, a correspondent for the newspaper La Vanguardia; and Mikel Ayestaran, a correspondent for the newspaper Vocento

/ (link)

Reporter Jean-Francois Lepine of Canada’s CBC all-French RDI network said that he and a cameraman were surrounded by a mob that began hitting them, until they were rescued by the Egyptian army / (wires)

CBC Radio’s Margaret Evans was on air Thursday morning reporting that her crew’s camera equipment had been seized by police and that they were stuck in their hotel, reporting from a balcony that overlooked Tahrir Square / (link)

The Toronto Globe and Mail said on its website that reporter Sonia Verma and Patrick Martin said the military had “commandeered us and our car” in Cairo. / (link)

Two Associated Press correspondents were also roughed up. AP’s Nasser Gamil mentioned in one article (unclear if he was one of the original 2 mentioned) / wires and (link)

Reuters’ Simon Hanna tweeted today that a “gang of thugs” stormed the news organization’s Cairo office and smashed windows / (link)

Voice Of America reporters in the capital were surrounded by several people who prevented them from traveling to Tahrir Square / (link)

Vice magazine’s Cairo correspondent Rachel Pollock gets roughed up trying to cover the protests / (link)

David Degner, a Cairo-based photographer, said five of his journalist friends has been “beaten and had their equipment confiscated” as clashes between the two groups escalated

Andrew Burton, a photographer on assignment, wrote this account of being engulfed and beaten by a pro-Mubarak crowd yesterday. “I dont know a single journalist heading out on the ground today,” he says / (link)

The website of Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper said Belgian reporter Serge Dumont, whose real name is Maurice Sarfatti, was beaten Wednesday / (wires)

Jon Bjorgvinsson, a correspondent for RUV, Iceland’s national broadcaster, but on assignment for Swiss television in Cairo, was attacked on Tuesday as he and a crew were filming/ (link)

Danish media reported that Danish senior Middle East Correspondent Steffen Jensen was beaten today by pro-Mubarak supporters with clubs while reporting live on the phone to Danish TV2 News from Cairo / (link)

Two Japanese freelance photographers were attacked while covering the protests in Cairo, and one of them was slightly injured, the Kyodo News agency reported/ (link)

Two Swedish reporters (from Aftonbladet tabloid) / (link)

epa photojournalist; German ZDF; German ARD / (link)

A reporter for Turkey’s Fox TV, his Egyptian cameraman and their driver were abducted by men with knives while filming protests Wednesday, but Egyptian police later rescued them, said Anatolia, a Turkish news agency / (link)

Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT, said its Egypt correspondent, Metin Turan, was beaten / (link)

Several Turkish journalists were attacked by Mubarak supporters, according to news reports. Cumali Önal of Cihan News Agency and Doğan Ertuğrul of the Turkish Star Daily were attacked and beaten by pro-Mubarak supporters on Wednesday. Both were in stable condition today / (link)

The Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini said one of its reporters, Petros Papaconstantinou, was beaten by protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Papaconstantinou was clubbed in the head with a baton and stabbed in the foot, either with a knife or a screwdriver / (link)

A Greek freelance photographer punched in the face by a group of men who stopped him on the street near Tahrir Square and smashed some of his equipment / (wires)

In addition, five Chinese journalists were briefly detained after authorities found bullet proof vests in their luggage, along with more than 20 walkie-talkies and satellite phones, the officials said. They were allowed to leave after the equipment was confiscated. / (wires)

RT TV crew injured (link)

A correspondent and a cameraman working for Russia’s Zvezda television channel were detained by men in plainclothes and held overnight Tuesday, Anastasiya Popova of Vesti state television and radio said on air from Cairo / (link)

French international news channel France 24 said three of its journalists had been detained while covering protests in Egypt and were being held by “military intelligence services”. (link)

French photojournalist from SIPA Press agency Alfred Yaghobzadeh is being treated by anti-government protestors after being wounded during clashes between pro-government supporters and anti-government protestors / (link)

Police arrested four Israeli journalists for allegedly violating the curfew in Cairo and for entering the country on tourist visas, according to news reports. / (link)

Al Jazeera reported Thursday that two of its reporters were attacked en route to Cairo airport, along with cameraman being assaulted near Tahrir Square / (link)

al Arabiya’s Ahmed Abdullah (and station was stormed) / (link)

ALSO - Al-Arabiya correspondent, Ahmed Bajano, in Cairo, was beaten while covering a pro-Mubarak demonstration. Another unidentified correspondent was also attacked. Another network reporter said on the air that her colleague Ahmad Abdel Hadi was seized by what appeared to be pro-Mubarak supporters near Tahrir Square, forced in a car, and driven away. / (link)

Men in plainclothes surrounded the office of Sawsan Abu Hussein, deputy editor of the Egyptian magazine October after she called in to a television program to report on violence against protesters (link)

A group of men described as “plainclothes police” attacked the headquarters of the independent daily Al-Shorouk in Cairo today, the paper reported. Reporter Mohamed Khayal and photographer Magdi Ibrahim were injured/ (link)

Bloggers, too, have become targets: The popular Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey has reportedly been arrested (it’s unclear by whom) / (link)

- Compiled by ABC’s Erin McGlaughlin and Joanna Suarez

[Jeff]

Berlusconi calls Mubarak wise man, urges continuity

Fri Feb 4, 2011 11:09am GMT

BRUSSELS Feb 4 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday praised Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as a wise man and said he should remain in place during the country's transition to democracy.

"I hope there can be continuity in government," he told reporters.

"I hope that in Egypt there can be a transition toward a more democratic system without a break from President Mubarak, who in the West, above all in the United States, is considered the wisest of men and a precise reference point," he said.

....

http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews ... VU20110204

recalling:

As well as allegedly using an underage prostitute, Berlusconi is also under investigation for alleged abuse of power in getting Ruby out of a scrape with Milan police on the night of May 27-28, judicial sources said.

Berlusconi allegedly asked for Ruby to be released after an allegation of theft because she was, he said, the granddaughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Berlusconi's lawyers have said he believed the girl when she previously said she was Mubarak's granddaughter and told him she was 23.

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/berlusc ... -sex-probe

[DoYouEverWonder]

Israel shocked by Obama's "betrayal" of Mubarak

JERUSALEM, Jan 31 (Reuters) - If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday.

Political commentators expressed shock at how the United States as well as its major European allies appeared to be ready to dump a staunch strategic ally of three decades, simply to conform to the current ideology of political correctness.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told ministers of the Jewish state to make no comment on the political cliffhanger in Cairo, to avoid inflaming an already explosive situation. But Israel's President Shimon Peres is not a minister.

"We always have had and still have great respect for President Mubarak," he said on Monday. He then switched to the past tense. "I don't say everything that he did was right, but he did one thing which all of us are thankful to him for: he kept the peace in the Middle East."

Newspaper columnists were far more blunt.

One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was entitled "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam." It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks.

Who is advising them, he asked, "to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president ... an almost lone voice of sanity in a Middle East?"

"The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations ... is painfully naive."

Obama on Sunday called for an "orderly transition" to democracy in Egypt, stopping short of calling on Mubarak to step down, but signaling that his days may be numbered.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/31/us-egypt-israel-usa-idUSTRE70U53720110131

[Seamus OBlimey]

Well I never thought I'd find myself at friday prayers with millions of muslims..

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

[vanlose kid]

12.55pm: Our correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who is based in Beirut, has sent this analysis of how the events this week in Egypt are playing out across the region:

Massive waves of euphoria are sweeping through the region now, my friends in Baghdad, Sanaa, Beirut and Damascus tell me as they sit glued to their TV screens.

Tunisia was the start but Tunisia was far away, people said; it's small and relatively educated compared to the rest of the Arab world – but Egypt is something else. For almost two centuries Egypt was the heart of the Arab world, influencing it with cinema, music, journalism and ideology.

A Yemeni official I talked to yesterday was so enthusiastic he called what is happening "the great Arab revolution" that will sweep away corrupted regimes – including his own, he said. "Those regimes that have been running their states like fiefdoms, looted by army generals, tribes and the sons and cousins of the president will go. After decades of stagnation the people are awake now and the days of these decayed presidents are numbered."

The Iraqis I have talked to all expressed a sense of shame. A friend told me on the phone from Baghdad: "We Iraqis looted and gutted our museum in 2003 while the Egyptians protected theirs. They protected houses and public buildings while Baghdad was reduced to rubble within days of the fall of the regime. Egyptians love their country; they are patriotic; we weren't."

One Egyptian embassy official put his hands on his knees and said with a shy smile: "You know the president thinks he is like a big father. He treats the people like they are his children: 'go to sleep', and they all sleep, 'wake up', and they all wake up. Things have changed: the people are no more children, and you can't boss them around. If you don't talk to them in the language of democracy you will be swept away."

Arab kings and presidents are scrambling to appease their people: Jordan's king dismissed his government, Algeria's president said he will end emergency laws, the Yemeni president pledged not to run again. But for us Arabs, the biggest change has already happened. The holy image of his deity the ruler, surrounded by fearless, mustachioed mukhabarat officers, has been shattered.

12.41pm: From the comments, hszmnedz again; she has been speaking with her husband in Tahrir Square.

Eyewitness reports in Tahrir Square confirm the presence of Amr Moussa in the square with the pro-democracy demonstrators. He is the current secretary general of the Arab League and former minister of foreign affairs, is a liberal politician.

The Catholic Cardinal in Egypt was witnessed hand in hand with a Muslim cleric, both in their religious dress with the pro-democracy demonstrators. He was speaking about national unity, stating that the myth of sectarian strife is only made by the failing government security apparatus and urge people to unite as Egyptians. The Muslim cleric also stated the same.

12.35pm: I've just spoken to Peter Beaumont, whose efforts to get into Tahrir Square have been frustrated by both the army and armed vigilantes. He and Jack Shenker were picked up by the army, made to kneel facing a wall and interrogated. They then had to deal with machete-wielding vigilantes. Although the square itself is calm, he says, things around the periphery are very different.

We were taken at a checkpoint and led to the ministry of the interior … We were held for two hours … and we were both warned that if we came anywhere near the square again, things wouldn't go so nicely for us.

Peter's report comes as Reuters files a story saying that the Egyptian army has been instructed to assist foreign media and help protect them from groups who have attacked and beaten journalists. Britain and the US have criticised what the US called a "concerted campaign" to intimidate foreign reporters.

Magdy Rady, a spokesman for the Egyptian cabinet, said:

I spoke to the prime minister about journalists' problems. He was very much disturbed. He contacted the armed forces and instructed them to facilitate the job of the foreign media and stop any interference in their job. The army will help you in areas where you have contact with people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/20 ... e#block-57

*

[nathan28]

Those guys know what they're doing. They didn't crack down right away. They contained the revolt for a few days, long enough to let opposition leaders reveal themselves or emerge. Even the Okhrana didn't figure that one out. But then look what happened to them.

they've got to not let the movement be constrained as being "only the people in the square" There MUST be extensive reporting about marches elsewhere in the city and country, urgently.

I hate to get all Leninist-Trotskyist, considering how bad the Bolsheviks did the job post-1920 or so, but what's going on in Tahrir shows the importance of having stronger support among the enlisted men and officers--the democratic activists clearly have substantial support, but what with the barb wirings and the continual rumors of the military enforcing checkpoints etc. the activists could stand to have more.