Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

[wallflower]

Yesterday the NYT published an account of the detention of two NYT reporters. It was very interesting to me for showing some self-consciousness about the sense of entitlement and privilege of the reporters.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/weekinreview/06held.html?pagewanted=all

They were released and here's sentence about that:

They put us in our car with orders to put our heads down. “Look down, and don’t talk. If you look up you will see something you don’t ever want to see.”

They kept their heads down, of course, I would have too. But the message is clear: to look at Fascism is frightful.

[nathan28]

Iraqis took to the streets... to demand that the government supply basic needs to Iraqi citizens living in poverty as unemployment reached 45%... protesting food, water and power shortages.

Religious leaders across Iraq called for social justice, reminding the Iraqi government that Iraq is not immune to the events that have swept other Arab countries.

In the meantime the Iraqi House of Representatives announced its support of the Egyptian people and its demands for democracy yesterday, according to a Radio Sawa reporter in Baghdad.

That seals the deal, then. We'll send Mubarek's senile ass some Apaches, AC-130s and A-10s to "establish an orderly transition". lupercal, his rabies now in its terminal stage, will argue that the imminent use of white phosphorous and neutron bombs in Gaza and Tahrir Sq. actually supports the peace because those millions of Egyptians were getting cash from the CIA and Mossad and Jewish Bankers' Union to weaken the Palestinian cause and aid Republicans in the US Congress anyway, and what with the upcoming global population crisis ("Always just 50 years away every year for the past 200!" --Tom Malthus), who'll notice? I now fully expect Osama bin Laden to receive a pardon, a show on CNN where a different person in a fake beard plays him every night (between alternating decades-old clips full of tautologies) and get brought back onto the payroll (if he ever left it) to help "fight the Global War On Non-Extremist Muslim Socialism".

[Elvis]

Talking out of school...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/world/middleeast/06egypt.html?src=me

. . .Mr. Suleiman has promised repeatedly to reach out to opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, but there were few indications that any genuine dialogue with opposition leaders had begun.

“That takes some time,” Mrs. Clinton said. “There are certain things that have to be done in order to prepare.” Ms. Clinton’s message, echoed by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, appears to reflect worries that rapid change in Egypt could destabilize the country and the region.

At the same Munich meeting on Saturday, Frank G. Wisner, the former ambassador President Obama sent to Cairo to negotiate with Mr. Mubarak, suggested that the United States should not rush to push Mr. Mubarak out the door. He said Mr. Mubarak had a “critical” role to play through the end of his presidential term in September.

“You need to get a national consensus around the preconditions of the next step forward, and the president must stay in office in order to steer those changes through,” Mr. Wisner said of Mr. Mubarak. “I therefore believe that President Mubarak’s continued leadership is critical — it’s his opportunity to write his own legacy.”

A senior administration official quickly sought to distance the White House from Mr. Wisner’s comments. American officials have said that they are seeking privately to nudge Mr. Mubarak out of his executive role ahead of September elections, though they have also said that they do not view his departure as an essential first step toward a transition to a new democratic system in the country.

Mr. Wisner, the official said, had not been supplied with talking points for his remarks to the Munich conference.

“We’re not coming out and making a pronouncement about Murbarak’s future,” this official said. “Frank Wisner was speaking for himself, he was not speaking for the United States government.”. . . .

http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/16011

...Wisner said his mission “was to make sure that we communicated in a respectful manner to a man who has been an old friend of the US but who now faces the huge responsibility of having to lead Egypt through a transition to a new and a different future, and to do so without resorting to force.”

Translation: "to make sure that blah blah blah, nothing, nothing, blah blah, old friend, blah blah, violence yada yada nothing.

[vanlose kid]

wasn't sure whether i should post this, wasn't sure i wanted to view it at first, but i did.

it broke me up. be advised.



*

[wallflower]

Sandmonkey has a piece up "The Way Forward" and is soliciting feedback http://www.sandmonkey.org/2011/02/06/the-way-forward/

@Sandmonkey at Twitter

[wallflower]

http://1000memories.com/egypt

Memorial page for those killed.

[barracuda]

Yusuf al-Misry (Joe the Egyptian):

"The protests in Egypt have reached an impasse and seem now, one day after the "departure Friday" to be turning in a circle. The population is slowly loosing steam and some sectors are turning to a neutral position or to worst. The kids in Tahrir SQ are determined and they still have quite a bit of support but the wind is turning slowly to an unfavorable direction. Mubarak showed an unexpected ability to hold on, and the morale among his aids are improving.

The question now is what will happen in the day after. In similar circumstances the defeat of such an uprising pave the road to a much more authoritarian regime. There are certain consequences to the "explosion" that happened. One important factor that needs to be examined is the position of the Muslem Brotherhood (MBs). While many in and out of Egypt are coming to terms with the fact that it is a political force that should not be ignored, there are two developments that place simultaneously right now. The first is the split in the leadership with the old guard taking a cautious position on the issue of participating in the protests, the other is the younger generation which resulted from the movement in the universities during the 70s which sided with full participation. The first couple of days there was no participation as the intensive debate was going on inside the two wings of the leadership. The continuation of the protest and its intensity settled the debate in favor of full participating. Due to the total lack of experience among the young men who caused this spark, the MBs were increasing gradually their role. The situation was developing - and still is - to a peculiar configuration where the kids (secular and opened) were becoming the junior partner. But the MBs were sensitive not to challenge them in their role of leadership so far as the slogans do not contradict their platform.

The other development on the circle of the the MBs is not related to the leadership but rather to the bases. The younger generation of membership may split after the failure of the uprising and resort to more radical means and ideologies. Contrary to the 70s generation of the the membership the current one is shaped by the general social and economic deterioration of Egypt. They come from lower classes with much less relation to culture or sophistication. Both the MBs leadership and the society overall will face a generation of young member of the movement which tends to more radical positions that may lead them to leaving the MBs and forming new small and radical groups as similar to what happened in the late 80s and 90s.

Overall, the tendency of the regime in the "day after" to be even more authoritarian could enhance the development to violence particularly when all hopes of peaceful reform, or any reform for that matter, disappear in their minds.

The regime will be tempted to crack down. The hated police force will be tempted to increase the dose of humiliation to a population that dared to burn all police stations. The relatively small margin of debate that was there could disappear. This will be one of the worst consequences because simply it will terminate any attempts to get a real economic development plan without which this country will be doomed to decades of instability.

Could the regime introduce a real economic development plan? It depends on the level of understanding of the gravity of what happened and its latent and obvious consequences. The momentum of the "victory" of the regime if it could achieve a real victory may not leave room to restrain or reflection and understanding. Therefore, I believe that the fate of this country for decades to come will be hanging on what the Mubarak regime will do in the coming few months."

[wallflower]

This Podcast (20 min) by Peter Moore , Associate Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University, "The War Economy in Iraq" is quite fascinating. The real centers of power aren't always what we presume they are; that's what I found so chilling about Esam Al Amin's piece in Counterpunch. Anyhow Moore's talk is illuminating. http://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/podcasts/article.asp?parentid=114004

[smiths]

i couldnt find any of this posted before so i thought i'd throw it in

Frank Wisner also works for a PR firm called Patton Boggs

"Ambassador Frank G. Wisner provides clients with strategic global advice concerning business, politics, and international law from the firm’s Washington and New York offices."
http://www.pattonboggs.com/fwisner/

Patton Boggs does Egypt
"Patton Boggs has been active in Egypt for 20 years. We have advised the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and have handled arbitrations and litigation on the government’s behalf in Europe and the US. Our attorneys also represent some of the leading Egyptian commercial families and their companies, and we have been involved in oil and gas and telecommunications infrastructure projects on their behalf. One of our partners also served as the Chairman of the US-Egyptian Chamber of Commerce, promoting foreign direct investment into targeted sectors of the Egyptian economy. We have also handled negotiation of offset agreements and managed contractor disputes in military sales agreements arising under the US Foreign Military Sales Act."
http://www.pattonboggs.com/middleeast/o ... nce/egypt/

Get it. Wisner is the connection between the US military/intelligence/banking complex and the richest, most powerful 1% of Egypts population.

So do you reckon Frank is right about the Egypt plan or the state department?

[AlicetheKurious]

Feeling sickened by all the people calling me to say that this revolution is doomed to fail and the demonstrators should go home and let things get back to "normal", and all the blah-blah-blah about how "the President deserves respect for all he has done for Egypt", I cast caution to the wind and sent out this email:

Mubarak is a torturer, a thief and a killer.

For 30 years he has been destroying Egypt from within, trying to make it into a plantation of ignorant slaves who believe only lies, who pretend it's ok to have a government that rules through fraud and robbery and killing and terrorizing its citizens.

He has no legal or moral right to be the President of Egypt. He has no legal or moral right to appoint his terrorist Mukhabarat Chief as Vice President of Egypt.

This is Mubarak's Egypt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu2s0LQX ... r_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAYFQKrllH8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm8PpFWld5w

How many of Egypt's best have been sacrificed to keep the Mubarak family in power and to allow them to keep the billions they have stolen from this country?

http://1000memories.com/egypt

While his regime was telling Egyptians that LE 400 was enough for them to live on, while 40% of Egyptians are living on less than $1 per day, the Mubarak family was willing to kill and torture Egyptians to stay in power because for them, $40 BILLION is not enough.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/egypt-mu ... d=12821073

Mubarak sells gas to Israel for less than 1/4 of its market price while Egypt suffers acute shortages that caused the regime to deprive Egyptians of electricity in the hot summer month of Ramadan. By selling gas to Israel for this low price, the Egyptian economy loses more than $3 billion every year: more than all the military and economic aid combined that we receive annually from the US.

It makes me sick to hear him called the "father" of Egyptians. It is an insult to real fathers and a slap in the face of all Egyptians. He deserves no respect, but to be arrested and charged with crimes against humanity, along with the rest of his gang.

If my husband knew, he'd kill me. He's already nervous as hell about my big mouth. Frankly, I'm also scared, but that video that vanlose kid posted exposed my fear as cowardice.

Light a candle and pray that this revolution succeeds. Like fear, freedom is contagious.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Nice one Alice.

We're all thinking of you.

Read this:

https://juliansharma.wordpress.com/2011 ... so-anyway/

I wrote it about my dad, when he walked away from a fight, a small one by the scale of whats happening in Egypt.

I'm foolhardy but I'm not a coward, and my first response would be to say to you: "fire up! - get out there and be the Alice thats so formidable on this website. Cos I'll be frank right now the revoloution needs you (and your hubby and your kids)."

But they are your family - they need you too. You are responsible for them. Its a hard line to judge. Listen to your heart, if this is something you'll regret forever because you didn't do it then perhaps you should go all out and give it everything you have got.

Its easy for me to say with an ocean and 2 deserts between us and the trouble. Its your family.

MY dad walked away from a fight to save his family. It broke him but it may have saved my life. Thats what that link is about. You are in the midst of world shaking and historic events right now, and you have the power to help change history - but the cost to your family may be to high. And to you if you get caught.

Honestly sometimes I wish he hadn't walked away, despite the cost it might have been to me, tho I'll always appreciate what he did and how hard it was.

If he was in Egypt, I'd wish he had stayed and fought.

I mean that.

We've had some good fights over the years (mostly about semantics not about the basics of the issue) but I've grown to respect where you are coming from and you opened my eyes to Egypt in a way I'd never have seen.

Whats happening there may the most important thing ever for you and your family and your people.

No easy answers, but I think you know in your heart.

[AlicetheKurious]

No, there are no easy answers. If any consequences would fall just on me, it would be moot, but that's far from the case.

I understand my husband: he's been working for decades, harder than anyone I know, to create an oasis of security for us -- and it's not just us, he has employees and their families to worry about, as well. He's spared no effort to provide an incredibly comfortable life for his family and for the life of him he can't understand why I would risk endangering everything he has built to satisfy my need to speak my mind on political matters over which I have no control anyway.

It perplexes him, and it frightens him as well.

Especially given our shared conviction that only my husband and I stand between our children and the abyss that menaces every vulnerable person in this kind of system.

My concession to this reality is that I stayed away from the demonstrations and took care of my kids and my home while following on teevee, and praying and praying and praying. My defiance of it was to talk until I was hoarse, during hours' long telephone conversations with everybody I know, explaining why this is necessary and how to avoid falling for the regime's tricks.

Telephone calls are monitored, but the internet much more so, so I avoided putting anything in writing until now.

It's so little, but for some people it's too much.

Narus, Boeing-Owned Company, Is Helping Egyptian Government's Web Crackdown in Cairo
By Curtis Cartier, Fri., Jan. 28 2011 @ 12:13PM

​Egyptian police are pulling out all the stops in their attempts to try and squash the mass uprising of protests sweeping through Cairo right now. And besides the high-pressure water cannons, tear gas, and batons, one of the most potent tools being utilized is a crackdown on Internet use. So which Seattle-based company has provided technology to Egypt that helps in such an information war?

You guessed it, Boeing.

Or, at least, a company owned by Boeing.

As the Huffington Post reports today, Narus, a secretive Silicon Valley company, is responsible for creating "NarusInsight," which essentially amounts to an extremely powerful Internet spying device that's supposedly used in the U.S. by the National Security Agency to monitor individual and corporate activity on the web.

Also known as "Deep Packet Inspection," the technology can be used to find out who's viewing what online and track them accordingly.

And Egypt's got it.

Timothy Karr writes on HuffPo:



Narus provides Egypt Telecom with Deep Packet Inspection equipment (DPI), a content-filtering technology that allows network managers to inspect, track and target content from users of the Internet and mobile phones, as it passes through routers on the information superhighway.

Other Narus global customers include the national telecommunications authorities in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia--two countries that regularly register alongside Egypt near the bottom of Human Rights Watch's world report.



As Steve Bannerman, Narus' marketing VP, once bragged about in an interview with Wired:



"Anything that comes through [an Internet protocol network], we can record. We can reconstruct all of their e-mails along with attachments, see what web pages they clicked on, we can reconstruct their [voice-over Internet protocol] calls."



Of course, now the Egyptian government has seemingly shut down the entire Internet and all cell phone service in the country. So people aren't really even able to get online to be tracked by the creepy surveillance technology sold by Narus.

But the fact that the government there is even willing to pull the plug completely on information-sharing means that they likely will have even less hesitation about spying on people once communications are back up again. Link

[Gouda]

"There is a reason why a lot of diplomacy is conducted in secret. There are good reasons for there to be confidentiality in some of those communications. And I think President Mubarak needs to be treated as he deserved over the years, because he has been a good friend,"

-- [Dick] Cheney said at an event commemorating the centennial of President Ronald Reagan's birth.

[AlicetheKurious]

An estimated 2 million people in Midan Tahrir right now, on a very cold, rainy day. One couple is getting married by an imam right in the square. Earlier, Copts held Sunday mass there. I am not worthy to kiss their feet.

[Cedars of Overburden]

Still praying , Alice. My mother showed a lot of guts during the Civil Rights Movement, but she showed a lot of guts for a extremely shy white southern schoolmarm. She stood down one assault and a lot of ostracism. And all she ever did was make her opinion known. (You want to know my childhood trauma and abuse? Blame the fucking segregationists.) Anyway, it was, I'm convinced, as much as she could stand. At 77, she still criticizes herself for not doing enough. I don't know the logistics, I don't anything much about your situation, but you remind me of her. God bless you, Alice.