People power forces change in Tunisia

[Laodicean]

WATCH: Journalist Arrested and Beaten Alongside Protesters in Egypt, Secretly Records Ordeal

Guardian reporter Jack Shenker. He was arrested and beaten by plainclothes police on Tuesday night and shoved into a truck with dozens of other people.

http://www.alternet.org/world/149695/wa ... ds_ordeal/

[AlicetheKurious]

ElBaradei returns to Egypt calling for democracy
By JPOST.COM STAFF
01/27/2011 09:23

Self-exiled opposition leader publishes manifesto for toppling Mubarak regime: "It is time for a change; the only option is a new beginning."

Democracy activist, Mohamed ElBaradei, is expected to return from Vienna to Egypt on Thursday following this week's protests, laying out his manifesto for change in Newsweek.

"I am going back to Cairo, and back onto the streets bcause, really, there is no choice," ElBaradei wrote. "So far, the regime does not seem to have gotten that message."

Al-Baradei started out in a very promising way, when he first moved to Egypt. He is NOT "self-exiled" -- he's been living here since he retired as head of the IAEA, although he travels a lot. Unfortunately, he has lost credibility due to his nasty habit of urging young activists to put themselves on the line and then taking off for trips to Europe while they stay behind and face the regime. Also, I find his periodic release of Youtube videos where he sits in a comfy chair and preaches his little sermons highly irritating and patronizing. He's trying now to climb on the backs of the brave Egyptian youth to take credit he doesn't deserve.

It's really sad to see all the opportunists jostling to appropriate this intifada and to pretend that they weren't as surprised by it as the regime was, proving how out of touch they are from the people they're supposed to represent. That includes the Muslim Brotherhood as well as most of the rest of the "opposition", although the Western media and the regime both share with the Brotherhood an interest in vastly exaggerating their (non-existent) role, for different reasons, of course.

[vanlose kid]

ElBaradei returns to Egypt calling for democracy
By JPOST.COM STAFF
01/27/2011 09:23

Self-exiled opposition leader publishes manifesto for toppling Mubarak regime: "It is time for a change; the only option is a new beginning."

Democracy activist, Mohamed ElBaradei, is expected to return from Vienna to Egypt on Thursday following this week's protests, laying out his manifesto for change in Newsweek.

"I am going back to Cairo, and back onto the streets bcause, really, there is no choice," ElBaradei wrote. "So far, the regime does not seem to have gotten that message."

Al-Baradei started out in a very promising way, when he first moved to Egypt. He is NOT "self-exiled" -- he's been living here since he retired as head of the IAEA, although he travels a lot. Unfortunately, he has lost credibility due to his nasty habit of urging young activists to put themselves on the line and then taking off for trips to Europe while they stay behind and face the regime. Also, I find his periodic release of Youtube videos where he sits in a comfy chair and preaches his little sermons highly irritating and patronizing. He's trying now to climb on the backs of the brave Egyptian youth to take credit he doesn't deserve.

It's really sad to see all the opportunists jostling to appropriate this intifada and to pretend that they weren't as surprised by it as the regime was, proving how out of touch they are from the people they're supposed to represent. That includes the Muslim Brotherhood as well as most of the rest of the "opposition", although the Western media and the regime both share with the Brotherhood an interest in vastly exaggerating their (non-existent) role, for different reasons, of course.

i figure some of egypts' "friends" in the west asked him to return. a "peace partner" so to speak. -- [edit: reining in the opposition. them say: "we'll give the people a leader we can trust".]

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[AlicetheKurious]

THE TUNISIANS DID IT!!!!

Breaking news on Al-Jazeera: A new national unity caretaker government has been announced, composed of independents unrelated to the old regime, including the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Defense, the Finance Minister and the Foreign Minister.



The Tunisians have been braving more police violence, including tear gas and beatings for nearly two weeks after Ben Ali's flight, to demand that the new government not be dominated (or even include) representatives of the old regime. The prime minister (who had been prime minister under Ben Ali) was the first to resign, but the other four had refused, claiming that they needed to stay in their positions in order to guarantee "a smooth transition" until elections could be held.

[AlicetheKurious]

Tips for staying safe in a demonstration

[Joe Hillshoist]

Tips for staying safe in a demonstration

I know people who recommended having a pair of swimming goggles, like Olympic racers have, and to practice putting them on in uncomfy situations beforehand. They reckon it gives them a better chance of escape. Doesn't help with seeing anything but it does offer enough protection to get away. Never done it myself.

Wearing a cricket box or cup, some sort of groin protection, especially if you are a guy, and unobtrusive knee and elbow pads under loose clothing is also very useful if you come across riot squad cops with batons. Its not very comfy tho, but its a lot more comfy then being hit with a baton on the elbow. I'm thinking late 80s under pads for ramp skaters specifically. When you see cops jump on protesters and drag them off often they have managed to temporarily incapacitate them first, usually with a baton strike somewhere painful.

Also .. especially in real hard core situations like this it may not be appropriate, not so much anti globalisation type protests and union stuff, if you can get people out of divvy vans - where the cops stick people before driving em to a lock up - its not easy but I know of a couple of cases where, apparently anyway, it happened.

I've heard rumours its even possible, sometimes to sneak up and get people out if you time it right and have someone distracting the driver and crew.

All that stuff is "fun" somewhere like Australia, cos we didn't have brutal regimes back in the 90s by any real standard of brutality. In Egypt its probably deadly serious. Even if you get caught here its gonna mean at least 15 minutes of personal attention from a couple of big nasty bastards and their phone book, I imagine they take it more seriously when there's a regime at stake.

Then again the consequences of being dragged away in a van are a lot more serious in Cairo now than they ever were in melb.

[barracuda]

Egypt Leaves the Internet

Confirming what a few have reported this evening: in an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet. Critical European-Asian fiber-optic routes through Egypt appear to be unaffected for now. But every Egyptian provider, every business, bank, Internet cafe, website, school, embassy, and government office that relied on the big four Egyptian ISPs for their Internet connectivity is now cut off from the rest of the world. Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and all their customers and partners are, for the moment, off the air.


At 22:34 UTC (00:34am local time), Renesys observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet's global routing table. Approximately 3,500 individual BGP routes were withdrawn, leaving no valid paths by which the rest of the world could continue to exchange Internet traffic with Egypt's service providers. Virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide.

This is a completely different situation from the modest Internet manipulation that took place in Tunisia, where specific routes were blocked, or Iran, where the Internet stayed up in a rate-limited form designed to make Internet connectivity painfully slow. The Egyptian government's actions tonight have essentially wiped their country from the global map.

What happens when you disconnect a modern economy and 80,000,000 people from the Internet? What will happen tomorrow, on the streets and in the credit markets? This has never happened before, and the unknowns are piling up. We will continue to dig into the event, and will update this story as we learn more. As Friday dawns in Cairo under this unprecedented communications blackout, keep the Egyptian people in your thoughts.

Update (3:06 UTC)

One of the very few exceptions to this block has been Noor Group (AS20928), which still has 83 out of 83 live routes to its Egyptian customers, with inbound transit from Telecom Italia as usual. Why was Noor Group apparently unaffected by the countrywide takedown order? Unknown at this point, but we observe that the Egyptian Stock Exchange (http://www.egyptse.com) is still alive at a Noor address.

Its DNS A records indicate that it's normally reachable at 4 different IP addresses, only one of which belongs to Noor. Internet transit path diversity is a sign of good planning by the Stock Exchange IT staff, and it appears to have paid off in this case. Did the Egyptian government leave Noor standing so that the markets could open next week?

[Luther Blissett]

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comm ... ompletely/

http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comme ... ide_egypt/

[Nordic]

And you can bet your biffy that's why Obama wants that internet "kill switch". To do the same to us, if we get all uppity and whatnot.

[WakeUpAndLive]

And you can bet your biffy that's why Obama wants that internet "kill switch". To do the same to us, if we get all uppity and whatnot.

More and more I want to.

[8bitagent]

I'm crossing my fingers for revolution in Saudi Arabia. If ANY Arab country in the region needs a total overthrow of the government, it's that country.
Heck, I'd love to see the Somalis rise up to resist and take out both Al Shabab and the UN, for Sudanese to throw out the government in Khartoum, and for massive revolution worldwide
from England to Myanmar/Burma. Hopefully the replacement governments will resist the US/CIA/Western meddling and control, and throw counter efforts.

IF these are truly organic grassroots revolts by the people, than I am all for them. all for the Egyptian overthrow too, as long as both the US/Israel junta and fanatics of the Qutbist strain don't try and co-opt it.

[vanlose kid]

all you need to know about "our friend" Egypt courtesy of CNN.

*

U.S. cables: Mubarak still a vital ally
By Tim Lister, CNN
January 28, 2011 -- Updated 0740 GMT (1540 HKT)

A CNN analysis of secret and confidential cables published by WikiLeaks and its media partners reveals U.S. frustration with Mubarak's lack of succession planning, concerns over stuttering economic reform and private criticism of the Mubarak government's hard line toward domestic opponents.

But the cables also show that Washington sees Egypt as an important and -- until now -- stable ally on issues, including Iran's nuclear program, promoting negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and making life difficult for Hamas in Gaza.

And above all, Egypt is regarded as a moderate bulwark against Iranian-sponsored Islamist fundamentalism.

The cables show that Mubarak has taken a persistently hard line toward Iran, telling U.S. diplomats in 2008 that he had warned Tehran "not to provoke the Americans" on the nuclear issue and insisting Egypt could never accept a nuclear-armed Iran.

Mubarak has also repeatedly warned of Iran's influence with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in a cable from February last year, was quoted as describing "Tehran's hand moving with ease throughout the region, from the Gulf to Morocco."

A 2009 cable noted that with "the discovery of a Hezbollah cell in Egypt, the Egyptians appear more willing to confront the Iranian surrogates and to work closely with Israel." To that end, the cables describe the Mubarak government as a helpful partner in stopping smuggling into Gaza from Egypt. A cable from 2008 quoted a senior Egyptian military figure as stating that Egypt had spent approximately $40 million to purchase the steel for an underground wall on the Gaza border, "and Egypt was paying the cost of this wall in terms of public opinion both within Egypt and the region."

There is no guarantee that any "successor" to the Mubarak government would take such a hard line with Hamas.

For the U.S., the alliance between Egypt and Saudi Arabia has also been an important counterweight to growing Iranian influence on the "Arab street" and among states such as Syria and Qatar.

Egyptian officials, from Mubarak down, have also repeatedly impressed upon visiting Americans -- military, diplomatic and Congressional -- that it alone among Arab states can play a mediating role between Israel and the Palestinians. [Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and Mubarak has resisted popular opposition to it.]

Ahead of Mubarak's visit to Washington in May 2009, Ambassador Margaret Scobey wrote from Cairo that "the Egyptians want the visit to demonstrate that Egypt remains America's indispensable "Arab ally."

Scobey continued that Mubarak was "a tried and true realist, innately cautious and conservative, and has little time for idealistic goals."

He viewed himself as "someone who is tough but fair, who ensures the basic needs of his people."

At the same time, the Mubarak government has been very sensitive to any perceived slight from Washington. It has complained about cuts in U.S. economic aid and a stagnant level of military aid "because it shows our diminished view of the value of our relationship" according to one cable.

On pressure to improve human rights, according to one cable from Scobey in 2009, "Mubarak takes this issue personally, and it makes him seethe when we raise it, particularly in public."

In a later cable, she said that Mubarak "harkens back to the Shah of Iran: the U.S. encouraged him to accept reforms, only to watch the country fall into the hands of revolutionary religious extremists."

The Egyptian president relied on his interior minister and intelligence service to "keep the domestic beasts at bay, and Mubarak is not one to lose sleep over their tactics."

The U.S. cables display frustration with Mubarak's reluctance to address human rights issues, with one in 2008 saying: "While Egypt has made some limited gains over the last several years, such as on freedom of the press, progress overall has been slow."

In a later cable, Scobey suggested the new U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton "may wish to lay down a marker for a future discussion on democratization and human rights concerns." But given Mubarak's sensitivities, the U.S. has trodden carefully in pressing the Egyptian government on human rights. A cable from 2009 said the United States now avoided "the public confrontations that had become routine over the past several years" over human rights.

Over the past five years, the cables reveal a growing unease with the lack of a succession plan, and apprehension about the prospect of Mubarak's younger son, Gamal, taking over from his father. As far back as April 2006, one cable observed that Mubarak's wife, Suzanne, was their son's "most ardent booster" but added: "The possibility that Gamal might succeed his father remains deeply unpopular on the street."

It adds that "unlike his father, (Gamal) cannot take the military's support for granted," having never served as an officer. But the same cable laments the lack of obvious contenders to succeed the aging Mubarak -- a situation that appears to hold today.

Scobey wrote in apparent frustration two years ago that Mubarak "seems to be trusting to God and the ubiquitous military and civilian security services to ensure an orderly transition."

Recent events may have eroded that confidence, but one cable in 2007 pointed out that Egypt's internal security apparatus, "an estimated 1.4 million strong, is at least twice the size it was under Sadat ... and makes any kind of violent change of leader unlikely."

That perspective is now being challenged -- and the role of the military may be critical in deciding the outcome. A cable from 2008 cites Egyptian experts as describing a "disgruntled mid-level officer corps" with military salaries falling far behind the civilian sector and the top brass averse to Gamal succeeding his father.

Egyptian commentators also noted that many officers were frustrated that loyalty to the regime trumped competence, and that the best military talent was sidelined in case it should pose a threat to the government. Even so, one cable concludes: "The military still remains a potent political and economic force."
After discussing whether the military might step in to prevent Mubarak from passing the baton to his son, the cable concludes: "In a messier succession scenario, however, it becomes more difficult to predict the military's actions."

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/afric ... ks.cables/

[vanlose kid]

Egypt Shuts Down Internet And Text Messaging Ahead Of Million-Man Protests
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/27/2011 18:52 -0500

Per assorted tweets from the country that is only second (but certainly not last) in experiencing first hand the Genocidal one's [the Ben Bernanke, vk] monetary policies, the Egyptian government has now effectively shut down the internet, text messaging and possibly land lines -link. This includes Facebook and Twitter. Ironically this act of desperation in Egypt which seeks to prevent the ongoing televising of the revolution, would be precisely the match that would set off America on a certain path to revolution: not ongoing banker rape, not Primary Dealers stealing from babies, not Greek president G-Pap robbing your wallet... merely a shutdown of Facebook and Twitter (and possibly cable) and 300 million well-armed American will promptly go apeshit.

More from the HuffPo:

Reports are emerging that Internet has gone down in Cairo and perhaps throughout Egypt, only hours before the largest planned protests yet.

According to a report from The Arabist, "Egypt has shut off the internet."

Multiple Internet Service Providers are affected according to the report, which states:

I just received a call from a friend in Cairo (I won't say who it is now because he's a prominent activist) telling me neither his DSL nor his USB internet service is working. I've just checked with two other friends in different parts of Cairo and their internet is not working either.

The news of the Internet outage came minutes after the Associated Press published a video of an Egyptian protestor being shot.

CNN reporter Ben Wedeman confirmed Internet is down in Cairo and writes, "No internet, no SMS, what is next? Mobile phones and land lines? So much for stability. #Jan25 #Egypt"

The Los Angeles Times is also reporting that BlackBerry Internet has been taken offline in Egypt.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/egypt- ... n-protests



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[Joe Hillshoist]

Obviously the Egyptian govt is right to protect its people from the pernicious influence the cianet. They must be congratulated in their attempts to stop another IMF CIA sponsored revolution.

[vanlose kid]

Egypt's Reality Now
To all the people of world

The people in Egypt are under governmental siege. Mubarak regime is banning Facebook, Twitter, and all other popular internet sites. Tomorrow the government will block the 3 mobile phone network and the internet completely. And there is news that even the phone landline will be cut tomorrow, to prevent any news agency from following what will happen.

Suez city is already under siege now. The government cut the water supply and electricity, people, including, children and elderly are suffering there now. The patients in hospitals cannot get urgent medical care. The injured protestors are lying in the streets and the riot police are preventing people from helping them. The families of the killed protestors cannot get the bodies of their sons to bury them. This picture is the same in north Saini (El-Sheikh zoyad city) and in western Egypt (Al-salom). The riot police is cracking down on protestors in Ismailia, Alexandria, Fayoum, Shbin Elkoum, and Cairo, the capital, in many neighborhoods across the city.

The government is preparing to crackdown on the protestors in all Egyptian cities. They are using tear gas bombs, rubber and plastic pullets, chemicals like dilutes mustard gas against protestors. Several protestors today have been killed when the armored vehicles of the riot police hit them. Officials in plain clothes carrying blades and knives used to intimidate protestors.

All this has been taken place over the past three days during the peaceful demonstrations in Cairo and other cities. Now, with the suspicious silence of the local media and the lack of coverage from the international media, Mubarak and his gang are blocking all the channels that can tell the world about what is happening.

People who call for their freedom need your support and help. Will you give them a hand?

The activists are flooding the net (youtube and other sites) with thousands of pictures and videos showing the riot police firing on armless people. The police started to use ammunition against protestors. 15-year old girl has been injured and another 25 year old man has been shot in the mouth. While nothing of these has appeared in the media, there is more to happen tomorrow. Will you keep silent? Will you keep your mouth shut while seeing all these cruelty and inhumane actions?

We don’t ask for much, just broadcast what is happening

[report comment]
Hijabi of IL @ Jan 27, 2011 23:05:56 PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/co ... nk/9333431

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/201 ... e-in-egypt

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