Mubarak is clearly backed by the Americans. He took some moves after speaking with Obama and a visit by a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner (sp.?).
Mubarak, the army, the Americans and the Israelis are clearly on one side. That’s one camp. [...]]]>
Mubarak is clearly backed by the Americans. He took some moves after speaking with Obama and a visit by a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner (sp.?).
Mubarak, the army, the Americans and the Israelis are clearly on one side. That’s one camp. The people of Egypt (most of them now) are the other.
The Americans want Mubarak to stay on for longer while they look for a suitable successor that would be best for U.S. interests.
Mubarak’s tactic is to make Egyptians choose between “security”, that he supposedly provided over the past thirty years, or insecurity, vandalism, and chaos that he also is also providing now.
Mubarak, with the backing of his secret police force the Amn Dawla, is punishing the society in general for going out against him. Right now, there’s a battle going on by police officers and Mubarak supporters, many of them work for businessmen allied with the regime, and the protesters who are calling for his ouster.
His punishment for the people also includes blocking off roads, essentially making the cost of transportation much higher now. That translates as higher food prices and shortages of literally almost everything.
We had a huge dose of insecurity over the past few days. I had to take my own family out of Cairo after constant gun shots all night long in the city of 6th October which is some 30 kilometers south-east of Cairo.
This will backfire. Some people got scared which means the fear tactic he used over the past 30 years worked again. But many too have turned even further against him. His tactics are clearly so low and some say even “devious”. There will be lots of blood. But the word I hear is that is going to be worth it. Egyptians will be liberated not just from Mubarak but his backers as well.
The U.S. looks set to lose another country in the Middle East for backing Mubarak and trying to buy more time to get another of their men in power.
]]>1 – Some government media figures appear to be joining ranks with the protestors. Mahmoud Saad, a talk show host in the Egyptian state-run TV, has announced that he will no longer appear on TV starting tonight after he came under [...]]]>
1 – Some government media figures appear to be joining ranks with the protestors. Mahmoud Saad, a talk show host in the Egyptian state-run TV, has announced that he will no longer appear on TV starting tonight after he came under pressure from top government officials to report “untruths” about the protests.
Mahmoud Saad, a popular TV host, has told other journalists that his disappearance from his daily show, Masr El-Naharda (Egypt Today), comes in protests against pressure to defame protestors as rioters “destroying the country.”
The state is clearly starting to launch a media campaign against the protests. My guess is that they will try to scare off the rest of Egyptians from joining the protests in the future by labeling protestors “saboteurs.”
2 – Police continued to arrest women in big numbers. This is noteworthy because young Egyptian women, many wearing the veils and many others without it, are taking part in the demonstrations despite the violent crackdown by the police. I expect this to be a major contentious point that could push more ordinary to protest against the government that is arresting “their daughters.” In this generally conservative society, women are often treated with more respect and are often shiled from dealing with the brutal and abuse police members. It shows how nervous the government is. They are starting to cross some extra red lines.
3 – The government has stepped up its security response across the country with dozens of armored vehicles visibly deployed around important buildings in Cairo including the TV and Radio building overlooking the River Nile and several ministerial offices. There will be more beatings, arrests and rubber bullets. More injuries and, worse, even deaths if that pace continues.
4 – The government has co-opted labor unions. Sources inside the labor unions say that they now have directions from the Interior Ministry to work to foil any activities by independent labor leaders.
5 – The Egyptian government hasn’t responded politically to any of the demands of the protestors. The government has cut or removed subsidies for many staple goods in a country where millions survive on less than two dollars a day. Just before the protests broke out on Tuesday, the government was preparing to cut energy subsidies, a move that would have hiked prices even further. The health ministry was also planning to cut its public health care coverage, limiting the hours at public hospitals were patients could be seen for reduced fees. No word on whether that will change or not. For now, they are ignoring all calls for change.
Emad Mekay
Cairo, Egypt
Two journalists were arrested: Yehia Qalash, who is a member of the union board, and Mohammed Abdel Qodoos. Qalash was released later on, but Abdel Qodoos is still in custody.
This is the second day of protests with far more police presence. Security is more intense outside important buildings including the TV and Radio building overlooking the River Nile. Soldiers look ready for a fight today.
In the industrial city of Mahala, police virtually cordoned off the city. My sources in the city tell me the police ordered early dismissal of textile factory workers to preempt any organized protests of workers after work. They also blocked all traffic to some streets leading to the city center square, Al-Shoon Sqaure, where thousands demonstrated yesterday.
The protests are not asking for anything specific this time. They want the government out. It is that general.
]]>What was initially expected to be yet another Cairo day of small protests that police could easily crush is fast turning into massive protests in almost all major towns and cities in the Arab nation of 85-million. There are reports of live shots fired at demonstrations in some cities and towns, on top of the usual Egyptian police tactic of tear gas, clubs and water canons. Several injuries have been reported.
In downtown Cairo, I’ve seen young and elderly women taking part in the protests,many of them challenging riot police face-to-face. That sight encouraged some men to follow suit. And that was when police were showing restraint in the first half of the day.
Video: Mondoweiss contributor Ahmed Moor took this footage of protesters driving back riot police.
Later on, things turned a bit ugly. Police, clearly surprised by the growing numbers of people who turned out, started to act nervously, firing tear gas and using water canons. One young man jumped over an armored police vehicle to try to stop the water canon. The scene again encouraged protesters to throw stones at the police.
As the day progressed, police became more violent and tried to be more restrictive. Riot police blocked all entries to downtown Cairo and stopped several cars at check points. Protesters say they will sit-in throughout the cold night in Midan Al-Tahrir, the Liberation Square, Cairo’s most central area. The police are issuing an ultimatum for them disperse and for citizens to not to take part. Local television stations are broadcasting the warning non-stop.
The government has already blocked several websites that monitor and report on the unrest minute-by-minute. The authorities, which controls all communication in Egypt, started blocking websites beginning late in the afternoon as things on the ground heated up and it became clear that many protesters were using the internet for information.
Aldostor.org, the website of the privately-owned newspaper which often carries articles by opponents of the regime, was blocked. I turned to the site throughout the day for fast developments before it became inaccessible. Alwafd.org, a website for the opposition daily, Alwafd, was also blocked after it reported the death of a protester. (I wasn’t able to verify the report.) And of course the usual suspects: Twitter has been blocked for hours.
These demonstrations are different in many ways from their predecessors:
1 – They happened in so many cities and towns at the same time including Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta, Mahala, Suez, Mansoura, some parts of Sinai and elsewhere. The local Al-Mehwar TV station reported just an hour ago that the only areas that didn’t see protests were Luxor, Aswan and the distant Western Desert city of Al-Wadi Al-Gadeed. By some counts, this the largest protest Egypt has seen since Mubarak took office in 1981.
2 – This the first time I’ve seen so many women involved; young and old were taking part. One protester told me that she came to protest after she heard of the demonstrations from a 15-year-old “Facebook blogger.” A 30-year-old woman in Mahala told me over the phone that she encouraged her husband to “wake up” and go out with her to take part in the protests. She said she only left after she heard shots from the police. “I think they have orders to shoot and kill,” she told me.
3 – The protesters are clearly not afraid of the police. Many threw stones, while others sat on the ground to stop armored police cars from advancing against protesters. The police couldn’t scare them away as they used to in the past. This may be be a result of the Tunisian revolution which eventually toppled the president there.
4 – The protesters were chanting against Mubarak himself. In several instances I saw protesters pulling down pictures of Mubarak.
5 - Twitter, facebook, mobile phones, blogs and the Internet in general are the real heroes of the protests so far. Young people are shooting videos of the protests and posting it everywhere. This is how they are communicating.
Emad Mekay is a contributor to IPS based in Cairo. We’ll continue to post updates from him as they become available.
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