I LOOK OUTSIDE AND IT’S HAPPENING, WITH A [...]]]>
I LOOK OUTSIDE AND IT’S HAPPENING, WITH A PRICE
It’s really history being made. It’s the kind of thing I knew would happen, but I imagined it happening maybe in the future life of my kids.
But I look outside and it’s happening. But it comes with a price, and the price is insecurity now and uncertainty in the future. — Could you hear that? The gunshot?
With regard to Omar Suleiman’s appointment as vice president, I’ve been on the phone with dozens of people, and everyone says the same thing: Nothing has changed. Suleiman has been there for 20 years. And Mubarak still has power.
INSECURITY AWAY FROM KEY SIGHTS, POLICE ‘THUGS’?
It’s bad today. It’s not political; it’s security now. And it’s getting out of control.
A lot of the looters are former low-level secret police that have been cut loose, looting and attacking homes and robbing people. Many of them originally were in plain clothes, because their job was to gather intelligence.
The police are in rebellion now. They are bandit police, and they’re turning against society in general. The police are not functioning; there are no traffic police. I’ve been out all day, and all the police stations are all surrounded by tanks.
I have a firsthand report about clashes between the police and the army in Tenth of Ramadan City, about 60 km northeast of Cairo. Eventually, the army was able to round up a bunch of the police conscripts and imprison them in the police station.
Things were more normal yesterday than today. Look at me: Instead of going downtown, I was scared that my kids and wife would be attacked, so I had to come back early. And this is happening in almost every city, in every district across Egypt.
It’s getting very chaotic and I don’t know what will happen next. See, I’m talking to you now, and I just heard another shot fired. And it’s a very nice area. We were concerned that they were going after the areas that seemed affluent.
I spent all day in Sixth of October City, and I’ve seen more tanks coming on trucks. And some areas are being barricaded by the army. Residential areas are unprotected except for police stations.
There’s no police force now. They were ordered to pull back.
IS MUBARAK PLAYING THE SECURITY CARD?
I think the regime is playing a game, really trying to scare people off of change because of this insecurity. Many of the things that are being done seem organized, especially the looting. (Many of these groups are fighting with the army, too.) The government may be just punishing the people.
Of course, this insecurity will have political consequences: Now, the people’s regime change demand may take a back seat to security. People are turning inward; they just want protection. The TV stations are airing live phone calls from people saying, ‘We are in such-and-such location, send the army. We need help because we are being attacked by thugs.’
The government was putting out some ridiculous things, such as accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of looting. That never gained much traction; no one believed it.
But everything outside takes more time. I went to see why I can’t make international phone calls, and the phone company was closed. The banks are closed and ATMs don’t work. The telecom company is closed. Schools are closed, universities are closed.
The food situation is getting worse. There are lines for every kind of item. All kinds of stores — even food stores — have been looted. I confirmed that Hyper-One, a mega-grocery in Skeikh Zayed City, was looted.
Because we’re in an area that’s not hooked up to the gas grid, we have to buy gas cylinders, and we couldn’t buy that either. And we are only four or five days into the unrest. I have maybe a week worth of cooking gas.
PEOPLE PUSH BACK WITH NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHES
The police are attacking people from one area to the next. Me and my neighbors are keeping sort of a neighborhood watch. Everyone is armed with knives and sticks, lead pipes, whatever they can get.
Shots are being fired everywhere now. Mosques are turning into local radio stations with their megaphones. People in the neighborhoods are stationed in the mosque to warn the area about advancing thugs, the gangs that are looting and attacking people.
It’s a very messy situation, very different than yesterday.
Right now, people are coming together and that’s a good thing. People are trying to patrol the streets with just sticks and kitchenware, because the army and police have a monopoly on weapons in Egypt.
There is sort of a very moderate Muslim independent preacher — a televangelist — named Amr Khaled who volunteered to help people form small groups to help protect and establish security.
People are banding together. Everyone is calling everyone else and giving them tips, telling them how to secure their kids. Many hope the chaos and security problems will not affect the political process.
INTERNATIONALS LOOKING TO GET OUT
The governments of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and others have been giving embassy hotline numbers to local television channels to distribute so that their citizens can get in touch and get help leaving Egypt. America has not posted any number for U.S. citizens that I have seen.
WHAT SHOULD THE U.S. DO?
If Mubarak falls, it is difficult to see how the U.S. will be able to secure any influence in whatever comes next in Egypt unless they organize a clear stance now so Egyptians can see it. It would probably take a strong statement that makes the regime understand that this is the future and that the U.S. wants change.
This is a chance for everyone to not make the same mistakes.
The protesters are not anti-American, so why make them anti-American by backing the wrong side. It’s a pretty clear choice.
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Slow-building protests started out with diverse crowds, including children
From the morning on, the number of protesters was increasing by the hour. Immediately after Friday morning Prayers at Sixth of October City, a suburb of Cairo, 3,000 people were out in the streets. By afternoon prayers, the number doubled. In the crowd there were many women, some with kids in tow.
The crowd appeared to traverse social lines, from people wearing the garb of door-guards to middle-class and affluent people. Even school girls were out.
I took it as a sign that people really want change when they risk taking their children out. But when things got out of hand, a lot of people pulled their kids out of protests.
Also soon after clashes started, residents began stocking up on food, and in the main area of Cairo, shops were closing their doors. People were unable to get around in cars.
Only the protesters, the police, and the army were left on the streets.
Of course, I got hungry. I stopped at a state-run bread distribution center and I jokingly asked the woman selling bread why she wasn’t protesting. She asked how many people were out, and I said about 4,000 so far. She said she’s waiting for more people. She’s technically a government employee.
In downtown Cairo, people in their homes and apartments looking out from their balconies and windows were throwing food and water to the protesters. Protesters were even allowed to go and make landline calls and go back down to the streets (mobile service is down in many areas and for many different services). This is in downtown Cairo, some of it in affluent areas. People would just open their doors to let people in.
Protesters going after symbols of the government
Before I went to Cairo, I was near the protest from a nearby main mosque. They were marching down and singing songs like ‘down with Mubarak.’ On the way, there was a police station. Some protesters tried to get in, but didn’t initially throw stones.
These are the symbols people are focusing on now: pictures of Mubarak, police stations, and NDP offices.
I don’t think there’s sympathy for the government — though people are worried about what’s next and whether things will get out of control.
The protesters are not looking outward at all and not mentioning Israel or the U.S.
They are concerned about better lives in Egypt. There were no religious slogans except for “alluhah akbar,” which is also a general expression of celebration.
Army presence in streets, perhaps military intelligence
The branch of the Army that came to downtown Cario to protect the (state-run) TV and Radio building were from the Republican guard, which is the presidential guard.
There were reports of tanks around the U.S. and other embassies, protecting those diplomatic installations.
There were cars around the city in strategic areas with tinted windows. It’s illegal for civilians in Egypt to have tinted windows. Usually, these cars are some kind of military intelligence.
There also appeared to be a communications tower being set up downtown (for police to communicate). But this sort of activity is usually conducted by the military.
Government blames the Muslim Brotherhood
Basically, what the government was trying to do was say that it was the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) behind the unrest, but most of the leadership of the MB was arrested ahead of the protest.
Instead of having senior officials from Mubarak’s party come out and say its the Muslim Brotherhood, a parade of low-ranking governemnt officials came out and said the MB did this. They were blaming the Brotherhood for the “riots,” and for fires.
Unsubstantiated rumors flew that the government itself had set fires in order to blame the MB. People noted that it took nearly four hours for firetrucks to come and fight the fires; they guessed that the authorities could have easily called in services.
Communication breakdown
At home, people were watching satellite broadcasts like Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, and even Al Hurra, the U.S. government-funded station, which all had good coverage.
Most forms of communicating out are down or suppressed. There is still no Internet service, and mobile phone services are still down. [Mekay was unable to dial the U.S. from his landline.]
People are complaining that landlines are often busy, too. People are phoning into Egypt in terror, trying to call their families.
The authorities cracking down and cutting all communications really infuriated everyone. It was a sign that they might be losing control.
Nervous excitement
When I came back here, there were some intellectuals who were blaming Mubarak for what’s happening.
Everybody’s nervous; you might hear it in my voice. I don’t know if it’s just excitement, but things are boiling. It’s scary in a way, too, because I personally don’t know what’s going to happen next.
There are reports on satellite television of two more protesters dead in Mansour, a city in the northeast Nile River Delta. Al Jazeera just reported that in the main city on the Suez, 11 people died today, on top of the three others that have died in recent days.
The government may react more violently.
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