Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

[beeline]

Hi Alice-Any truth behind this article?


EGYPT’S U.S-BACKED MILITARY REGIME IS BRUTALIZING STUDENT PROTESTORS

BY MURTAZA HUSSAIN @mazmhussain

Just a few short months after John Kerry disingenuously congratulated Egypt’s military junta for “transitioning to democracy”, the young students who helped galvanize the 2011 Egyptian Revolution are back protesting its increasingly draconian rule. Campus protests have broken out in several major cities calling for the release of imprisoned student activists and for the removal of new limits on academic freedom imposed by the regime.

As part of wide-ranging campaign to stifle popular dissent, the government of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has recently given itself broad powers to directly appoint university heads, dismiss faculty without the possibility of appeal, and force students to sign documents promising “not to participate in political activities” in their housing applications. Private security firms have also been hired to enforce order on campus and monitor activists.

Predictably, these measures have led to outrage among students – and equally as predictable, their protests have been met with harsh retribution from the military regime.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 100 students have been detained since the start of the school year on October 11th. Video shot by student activists has shown images of protestors teargassed and brutalized by baton-wielding riot police.


Despite this, the Obama administration has remained steadfast in its support of the Egyptian government. Indeed, in the face of an escalating campaign of repression by the Sisi regime – including a Tiananmen Square-scale massacre of protestors, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings and torture – the American government has seemingly doubled down on its support for him.

Earlier this year the U.S. concluded a major arms deal with the Egyptian government, even as popular activists once heralded as the vanguard of democracy languished in prison. In response to rampant human rights abuses, the American government has remained tactfully mute, even offering inexplicable praise at times for the Egyptian government’s non-existent commitment to “democracy”.

While the crackdown originally targeted its fury at supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi, it has now extended itself to left-wing groups and civil society activists. Major NGO’s have been forced out of the country, and journalists have been imprisoned after public show trials.

The sad truth behind all this is that the U.S. has always been a committed enemy of democracy in Egypt. Apart from a few short weeks in 2011 when global media coverage of popular demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square made such a position politically untenable, the U.S. has consistently supported Egyptian dictators willing to align with American policies in the region - particularly support for Israel and Gulf Arab dictatorships.

The reality of this has not been lost on Egyptians, who have seen successive American governments help impose military rule upon them and stifle their hopes for a democratic future.

It’s worth remembering that the ideology which inspired Al Qaeda was itself born in the torture chambers of Egyptian government prisons. And when the military under General Sisi last year intervened to annul democratic elections – killing, torturing and imprisoning Muslim Brotherhood political activists in the process – it made clear that peaceful political participation was not an option available to Islamist groups.

While heretofore such groups have largely eschewed a violent response in the (likely misplaced) hope that the international community will eventually intervene on their behalf, it’s difficult to imagine them continuing on this path indefinitely in the face of escalating repression.

Abboud al-Zumar, a former member Egyptian Islamic Jihad who spent 30 years in prison for his role in the assassination of Anwar Sadat, said upon his amnesty after the 2011 Revolution:

“The revolution created a new mechanism, the mechanism of strong, peaceful protests…the climate for armed action is finished and the main reason is the atmosphere of freedom we are now establishing… violence breeds violence.”

Those avenues of peaceful democratic protest and representation have now been violently shut. As many analysts have pointed out, the repression of the Sisi regime in many ways dwarfs that of even Mubarak or Sadat.

It remains to be seen what these policies – both tacitly and actively condoned by the Obama administration – will eventually give rise to in response. But if history is any guide, the answer will not be good.

Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Email the author: murtaza.hussain@theintercept.com

[stefano]

What it says about the way the student protesters are getting treated is true. That's clearly a partisan article though - Sisi didn't "annul elections" at all, he pulled off a coup against an out-of-control regime. Which had been elected, true, but that was beside the point a year later. And the article doesn't spell out that the campus protest are being co-ordinated by Muslim Brotherhood fronts. Nor do we get the name of even one of the "many analysts" who think Sisi is worse than Mubarak... quite a lazy bit of writing come to think of it.

The extent to which the government is "US-backed" is less clear-cut. Alice would tell you the US backs the Muslim Brotherhood and thus indirectly the campus protests; my reading is still that the US military and arms dealing constituency back the government, while the State Department and White House are hedging their bets. State has certainly not been "tactfully mute" - when HRW came out with a report on the Rabaa killings that Jen Psaki responded at length and to Al Jazeera's correspondent, when she could have taken questions from someone else. And the weapons they're talking about have yet to be delivered.

I think the Gaza war changed the calculus to some extent by showing that Hamas is the only outfit that can rein in the Israelis to any extent, which makes it more difficult for the US and its allies to keep backing the MB. Qatar expelled some MB high-ups recently, that's new.

[beeline]

Thanks Stefano, did not pass the smell test upon my first read, either.

[beeline]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/egypt-army-checkpoint-sinai-blast-20141024143652927899.html

Dozens killed in Sinai army checkpoint blast
Egyptian president calls defence meeting after at least 26 soldiers are killed and 28 injured in gun and bomb attack.

At least 26 soldiers have been killed in an attack on an army checkpoint in Egypt's North Sinai, state media has reported.

The attack on Friday afternoon hit an army checkpoint at Karm al-Qawadeis, southwest of Sheikh Zuweid.

Egyptian sources told Al Jazeera that a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives near the checkpoint's magazine, causing it and an army vehicle to explode. Fighters then attacked the site with guns and rocket-propelled grenade.
The source said the group attacked as soldiers were on break inside their tents. State media reported that 28 people were wounded, several of whom were in critical condition.

"Most have been seriously injured and not all of them have been taken to hospital yet," health ministry official Tareq Khater told the AFP news agency.

Army helicopters were sent to transfer the injured to hospitals, the head of North Sinai's doctors syndicate told the private satellite TV station CBC.

Local media said that the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, ordered a meeting of the government's national defence council following the blast.

The council is made up of the prime minister, the head of the parliament, the minister of defence and the commanders of the Egyptian armed forces, and is chaired by the president.

The attack is one of the deadliest since Sisi overthrew Mohamed Morsi from the presidency and declared his Muslim Brotherhood movement a terrorist organisation.

[seemslikeadream]

Alice?

Is Egypt’s Sinai going the Way of Syria? 30 Troops Killed by Militants
By Juan Cole | Oct. 25, 2014 |

By Juan Cole
The Arabic newspaper Ilaf reports that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has declared a state of emergency for 3 months in parts of the province of North Sinai after two attacks by Muslim radical groups in that province left 30 Egyptian soldiers dead. Ilaf says that al-Sisi is blaming Egypt’s intelligence services for not forestalling these attacks.

Egypt’s government also closed the border checkpoint with Gaza at Rafah from Saturday on, until further notice. Egypt’s government blames Hamas in Palestinian Gaza for radicalizing the clans of the Sinai.
These steps came after a car bomb attack on an army checkpoint near El Arish in North Sinai that killed at least 30 troops, in which a large quantity of high-powered explosives completely destroyed the small garrison. The checkpoint lay between El Arish and Rafah on the border with Gaza.
A few hours later, in a separate attack, militants shot at another checkpoint south of El Arish, killing an officer and wounding a soldier.
The Egyptian military is using Apache helicopters to monitor North Sinai.
Muslim radicals in Sinai blame the military for overthrowing the Muslim fundamentalist president, Muhammad Morsi, on July 3, 2013. Though, to be fair, the militants were active against the Egyptian army during Morsi’s tenure as president, as well. The last big attack of this sort, in December 2013, left 14 police dead, in the wake of the coup against Morsi.

[stefano]

As I read it, "sabotage" is going to include any kind of political activity. Also in the news is that students expelled from State universities for political activity may not enrol in private schools, so ensuring that a reservoir of intelligent, furious young people is maintained.

Student saboteurs to be tried by military courts: Egypt PM
New law empowers military courts to try schoolchildren and university students accused of 'sabotaging' educational facilities
Ahram Online, Tuesday 28 Oct 2014

Schoolchildren and university students accused of sabotaging educational facilities will be tried by military courts under a new law issued on Monday.

The law also stipulates that soldiers will assist the police in guarding vital "public facilities and institutions."

Those who attack or sabotage such institutions will be referred to the military prosecution and tried by military courts.

Universities and schools are considered public facilities under the new law, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said on Monday during a phone interview with private broadcast channel CBC Two.

"[The law] is the will of the people, their opinion, and [public facilities] are their money," Mahlab added.

The new law was issued by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who holds legislative powers in the absence of a parliament, which authorities say will be elected by the end of this year.

It comes days after a deadly attack in North Sinai left 31 army personnel dead and 30 others injured.

Protests as well as clashes have been frequent at public universities since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. Hundreds of students have been arrested and detained on charges that include destroying public property and violating the protest law.

Since the start of the new semester on 11 October, police have stormed at least five universities and arrested over 180 students, despite Mahlab saying police would not enter campuses.

One student died at Alexandria University after being wounded by birdshot during clashes with police. While a bomb exploded at Cairo University last week injuring 11.

[stefano]

Mada Masr is explicitly partisan, affiliated with April 6 and that whole current. That said, there's no reason to doubt Fadl's sincerity, the truth of the anecdotes or the picture that emerges of the national mood now as well as under Nasser and Sadat. Good history, pity the previous bits haven't been translated (or maybe they have - I'll poke around). Excerpts, my bold, check the original for some good stuff on ideological purity in the 60s and 70s.

In Translation: Belal Fadl on Egypt becoming "A Nation of Snitches"

When a ruler depends solely on the power of oppression and completely impedes rational thinking, he no longer concerns himself with ensuring that there is an informant for every citizen. Rather, he seeks to drive each and every citizen to become an informant of his or her own volition.

Some weeks ago, Abdel Rahman Zaidan, coordinator of the Revolutionaries Front in East Cairo, published a testimony on his Facebook page that soon became widely shared. In this testimony, Abdel Rahman states that as he was riding a microbus [shared taxi-van] home, he was surprised to hear a middle-aged woman begin to fiercely criticize Sisi, the current government, and the Interior Ministry, much to the shock of those riding in the microbus with her. One of the other passengers, encouraged by what the woman was saying, joined her in openly attacking Sisi, the government, and the Interior Ministry. Before Abdel Rahman could join the discussion, the woman suddenly asked the driver to pull over next to a church along the way. As soon as the microbus stopped, the woman stuck her head out the window and called to the church guards, shouting, “Save me! There’s a Muslim Brotherhood terrorist in the microbus!” The guards rushed over, began beating the young man who had criticized Sisi, and pulled him from the microbus. The woman also got out of the microbus in order to accompany them and to testify to the heinous act that the young man had committed. She shot a sharp glance back at the other passengers, as if defying them to intervene, and stated proudly, “We’re cleaning up this country!” The remaining passengers, shocked at what had happened, sat frozen in their seats as the microbus drove away. Abdel Rahman concludes his testimony by advising his colleagues – who are busy defending their comrades who are among the students who have been detained, providing for their needs, and publicizing their cases – to refrain from talking about politics on public transportation in order to focus their efforts on what is most important. He urges them to avoid falling into this new security trap, set to ensnare anyone who expresses opposition to what is happening in Egypt.

Unfortunately, the woman from the microbus probably didn’t become an informer and begin to trick microbus passengers in order to hand them over to the police because she was recruited by one of the security bodies. Rather, I believe that she did this because she felt a sense of responsibility to protect her country, which drove her to participate in “purging” Egypt of the traitors who are ostensibly obstructing the country’s progress and undermining its stability. It should not be forgotten that this phenomenon emerged nearly a year and a half ago, when the state announced the establishment of telephone hotlines and urged “honorable citizens” to use them to report neighbors and acquaintances belonging to or supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood. Following the Rabaa massacre, the regime’s wanton incitement of “honorable citizens” expanded to target those who have been labeled in the media as “the fifth column,” including all who object to the foolish and violent manner in which the country has been managed, even if they are opposed the Muslim Brotherhood. In order to understand what would drive an ordinary person to act as the woman from the microbus did, we must take into account the vast number of radio and television programs that host supposed strategic and security experts and indomitable presenters who constantly advise millions of citizens – just like the woman from the microbus – not to hesitate to inform the police of anyone seeking to undermine the Egyptian state, and claiming that any citizen who fails to do so will be an accomplice in such crimes. Since this incitement began, we have heard of appalling incidents in which family members, relatives, neighbors, and colleagues have reported each other to the police, including an incident in which a mother turned in her son and insisted that he be detained because of his affiliation with the April 6 movement. Most recently, some “court” sheikhs issued fatwas claiming that it is the duty of believers to report even their family members if they are found to be plotting against the Egyptian state. The language used in these fatwas is vague enough that it may be stretched to include anything from creating bombs to speaking ill of the mothers of state officials.

In considering all of this, we must ask ourselves an important question: Would any Egyptian citizen feel shame at turning in a loved one to the police for being an Israeli spy? Of course not -- in such a case, any Egyptian citizen would feel proud to have carried out his or her duty to protect the country. As such, why should Egyptian citizens not feel the same pride at turning in an individual – whether a relative or a stranger – for criticizing Abdel Fattah el-Sisi while using public transportation, sitting in a café, or even attending a private gathering? Has the media – with all its announcers, experts, writers, and intellectuals, including many who fiercely opposed Mubarak and who were major figures of the revolution – not convinced the average Egyptian citizen that (as Sisi himself put it) there is a vast international conspiracy seeking to overthrow the Egyptian state and to divide the Egyptian people from the army and the police? Why, then, do citizens wait to catch their relatives, neighbors, or friends red-handed, holding explicit proof of their direct involvement in espionage? Are Egyptian citizens still not convinced that there is something called fourth generation warfare, and that all those who engage in criticism, sarcasm or opposition are participants in this war? Do our citizens still not see that this war is no less serious than the wars that use tanks and planes? Why, then, should not each citizen become a soldier in the defense of his country, to the best of his ability? Why don’t we consider that every microbus, every café and every home has become a battlefront, in which we should strike down the traitors who plot against Egypt? Why don’t we see that these plots begin with mere insults, even if it has been scientifically proven that “insults don’t stick”?
[...]
Nasser dealt with the citizen as a brick which does not have the right to object to the place where it is laid by the master architect within the building of the nation. This same mentality was similarly followed by all regimes that crushed the freedoms of the individual for the sake of “higher” and “greater” purposes. Indeed, these regimes built a “popular structure” which appeared great and mighty from the outside, but whose fragile hollowness was not made evident until the country faced serious challenges, whereupon it precipitously collapsed, leaving everyone to pay the price – including those who willingly relinquished their freedoms, believing that by doing so they were protecting their country from enemies and traitors who may be as close as friends, relatives, neighbors, and even fellow passengers on the microbus.

[stefano]

What happened to this thread? Is everyone over Egypt now?

More sneaking and snitching... This is exactly what Tunisia was like in the old days. Needless to say if it weren't Alain Gresh the interior ministry would have been considerably less polite.

Le Monde editor talks politics in Cairo cafe, briefly detained by police

Woman overhead conversation, ran outside and got the police, says French-Egyptian editor Alain Gresh [I'm pretty sure he's just French, although he was born in Egypt - s]
Mohammed Saad, Tuesday 11 Nov 2014

The French-Egyptian journalist Alain Gresh, chief editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, says he was interrogated by police in downtown Cairo on Tuesday after a patron in a cafe heard him speaking about politics with two other reporters.

Gresh told Ahram Online that he was in a cafe near the British embassy in the Garden City district with two Egyptian female journalists, discussing Egypt's current political situation, when a lady at the next table screamed at them: "You want to destroy the country."

She then went outside and spoke with police officers, who stopped Gresh and his colleagues when they were leaving and asked for his ID and passport, said the editor.

The area by the British embassy is heavily patrolled with security forces, as the US embassy is also down the street.

Gresh says he and the two journalists were detained in the street for an hour-and-a-half, while Gresh had to answer many questions, such as where he lived in Egypt. He says he contacted both the French embassy in Cairo and the head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate Diaa Rashwan, who used his government contacts to make sure all three persons were released.

Gresh says the interior ministry invited him at 6pm to meet the minister's assistant for human rights, who apologised to the editor for the "misunderstanding."

He told Ahram Online that the security forces were polite with him and the two other journalists – but that the incident was a bad sign of things to come.

"What is alarming about this is not that we were stopped by the police, but that a civilian woman went mad at us and reported us to the police because of a conversation about politics. That's what is alarming," he said.

[stefano]

The Court of Cassation reduced on Tuesday [25 November] a fine Mubarak-era's steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz was ordered to pay for steel monopoly from 100 million to 10 million Egyptian pounds.

The same fine was also reduced, in the same amount, to Alaa Abul Kheir, from the Ezz Dekheila Steel Company, said Ezz's lawyer Farid al-Deeb.

Deeb told Aswat Masriya that the court also fined Samir Noman, the company's sales manager, 500 thousand pounds.

Ezz has already paid 40 million pounds, Deeb said, adding that his client will take the necessary measures to reclaim the 30 million pounds he is now owed following Tuesday's sentence.

The steel tycoon was released from custody on August 8 after paying the first installment of his 100 million pounds steel monopoly fine.

Ezz was arrested in 2011 following the January uprising against toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

The businessman and steel tycoon was the secretary general of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP), which was headed by Mubarak.

[Nordic]

I have a question. WTF was up with Egypt's support of Israel during the last slaughter in Gaza?

There must be a lot of Egyptians pretty fucking furious about that.

[stefano]

I have a question. WTF was up with Egypt's support of Israel during the last slaughter in Gaza?

There must be a lot of Egyptians pretty fucking furious about that.

It tends to overlap with their views on domestic politics. Many are furious, but those who were most vocal about it were the Islamists, who cynically tried to tie the Palestinian cause into their anti-government message. That made it easier for most Egyptians to ignore those voices. Many others, who support the army, saw the whole thing as Hamas's fault, blamed Hamas for the civilian deaths and approved of the strikes against Hamas militants. There was a really startling tweet by al Al-Ahram journo at the time which said "Thank you Netanyahu, and God give us more like you to destroy Hamas"... I think a lot of people started to lean towards this view - not approving the assault, I mean, but seeing it as Hamas's fault.

[Nordic]

I guess that makes it easier to ignore it.

[stefano]

Yes, that's why it's the Israelis' propaganda tune - 'we really hate using tanks to blow kids up in school, but you must understand those insane jihadists made us do it.'

[Nordic]

Yes, that's why it's the Israelis' propaganda tune - 'we really hate using tanks to blow kids up in school, but you must understand those insane jihadists made us do it.'

[stefano]

Some action about this on Saturday night but I don't think those protests have legs, especially as the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to ride on that wave after its own protest thing fell flat. Mubarak is still in detention but as I have it he is not 'serving time' - he has been in jail for more than the three years he got for corruption and now that the murder thing has been squashed I understand he is free to spend his last days by the seaside.

Court drops case against Mubarak over complicity in killing protesters

Saturday, November 29, 2014 11:27 AM

CAIRO, November 29 (Aswat Masriya) – The Cairo Criminal Court dropped on Saturday the case against Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak over complicity in the killing of protesters during the 18-day January 2011 uprising which toppled his regime.

The court also acquitted Mubarak's Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and four of his aides on charges of inciting and aiding the killing of 238 protesters. The acquitted aides are; Ahmed Ramzy, Adly Fayed, Hassan Abdel Rahman and Ismail al-Shaer.

The five defendants, alongside other aides Osama al-Marasi and Omar Afifi, were also acquitted of the charge of harming their work-place.

The sentences were met with applause in the courtroom.

The trial was held at the Police Academy amid heavy security presence.

The court also acquitted Mubarak and Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem of the graft charges related to the exportation of gas to Israel. Salem is being tried in absentia.

Mubarak and his two sons Alaa and Gamal were accused of exploiting their influence in Salem's favour after the latter granted them five villas in the Sinai resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. The judge heading the trial, Mahmoud al-Rashidi said that the statute of limitations in this case has expired, and therefore the court lacks jurisdiction to rule on it.

The verdict can still be challenged at the Court of Cassations.

The judge said that during the retrial, the court was able to count the death toll for the clashes which erupted during the uprising and until January 31, 2011. The day marks the last day of Adly's reign in the ministry of interior; he was removed from the ministry the next day.

According to the judge, 238 protesters were killed in 10 governorates nationwide during this period of time, as well as 1588 injured. Rashidi added that there were 36 protesters injured during this time who died later due to their wounds.

Rashidi reminded that those who would later comment on the verdict have not read the reasons of the verdict. He said that the draft of the verdict was made up of 1430 pages.

The judge had postponed the verdict on September 27, citing the need for extra time to prepare the reasons for judgment.

When testifying on his own behalf, the former president denied he ordered the killing of protesters who participated in the January 25, 2011 uprising.

"Mubarak, who stands in front of you, would never order the killing of protesters ... or any Egyptian under any conditions," Mubarak said on August 13. The former president also denied he was behind the security vacuum which started on January 28 in 2011 following an unprecedented wave of protests. Mubarak dismissed as well financial corruption charges leveled against him.

Mubarak's sons, Alaa and Gamal waived their right to testify on their own behalf in court, according to their lawyer Farid al-Deeb. The remaining seven defendants tried in session all denied the accusations they are facing.

Mubarak and his interior minister were sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for the same charges before an appeals court ordered their retrial. The retrial began in April, 2013.

In May, a Cairo court sentenced Mubarak to three years in prison on embezzlement charges, while his two sons were sentenced to four years in prison for the same charges.

He is serving time in a military hospital in Cairo.

Mubarak supporters outside court: