Egypt anti-government protests grow

[IC3D]

Egyptian general admits 'virginity checks' conducted on protesters CNN

"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine," the general said. "These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs)."

"We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place," the general said. "None of them were (virgins)."

WTF

 

[Random]

Hopefully the prestige of the military will crumble. But will there than be a coup by relatively junior officers, to restore the honour of the army?

 

[dylans]

Hopefully the prestige of the military will crumble. But will there than be a coup by relatively junior officers, to restore the honour of the army?

There has already been a coup really. I don't see divisions within the military right now. In fact the prestige of the military has never been higher, sure some in Tahrir are beginning to see their true face but Egypt is 85 million people and they see the military in its classic Nasserist role as saviour of the nation. 100s of thousands in Tahrir may make a good photo but it's actually a fairly insignificant number. For things to move forward they need to mobilise around economic demands and mobilise the working class.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

Hossam El-Hamalawy called before the military to answer to them...tightening by the day...

They had a go alright but as he says himself it's a good sign that they felt they had to release him uncharged. The revolution ain't over quite yet.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

Rees and Nineham speaking at the Cairo Conference today. Not sure in what capacity mind.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

Demo in front of Moi in Ciaro to highlight all victims of regime, particularily Khaled Said

Hossam makes the point that before the revolution he wouldn't even stop in front of the building.

 

[elbows]

Wahey:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13914410

Egypt has dropped plans to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Finance Minister Samir Radwan has said.

The move comes after the planned deficit in the 2011-12 budget was revised down from 11% to 8.6% of GDP, Mr Radwan told Reuters news agency.

An adviser told AFP news agency the decision had been partly a response to the "pressure of public opinion".

Many of those who took part in Egypt's uprising denounced the role of the IMF.

It was seen as bolstering the rule of now-deposed President Hosni Mubarak while imposing harsh economic conditions that benefited the rich more than the poor, says the BBC's Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher.

 

[teqniq]

Now that has to be a result!

 

[treelover]

Grace Petrie song put to video of Egyptian rising

 

[Divisive Cotton]

I'm reading loads of tweets about serious fighting in Tahir Square

 

[quimcunx]

There was a solidarity with the martyrs of the jan25 revolution thing on earlier.

 

[butchersapron]

Looks to me like they're heading for their own version of the July Days - useful round up of what happened last night and why here

 

[Divisive Cotton]

Looks to me like they're heading for their own version of the July Days - useful round up of what happened last night and why here

I love this quote:

I went up close to one of the confrontation points between police and protesters near al Qasr al Aini, one of the entrances to the square. Protesters were throwing stones at the police cars. Someone gave me a stone. I said: "I am a journalist". He said : "Become an activist, try it, throw one at the "pigs" (this is what they are referred to among activists), it is a very liberating experience"

 

[Divisive Cotton]

It seems like the supporters of Ahly and Zamalek where at the forefront again

 

[ernestolynch]

I'm reading loads of tweets about serious fighting in Tahir Square

You need to get a life.

 

[dylans]

Tents are going up in Tahrir square again. footage here from last nights battle. Reports are of 1000+ injured



The clashes started when relatives of the January martyrs protested against the postponement (again) of the trial of former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and were met with arrests and beatings by the Central Security Forces (CSF) last week.The postponement sets the new trial date for Adly and Mubarak for the 2nd day of Ramadan when it is guaranteed to be postponed for another month. Relatives are already denied access to the trial which causes distress and outrage and the postponement caused furious relatives to pelt Adlys courtege with bricks. Clashes started last night when they were also denied admission to an "honorary commemoration of the martyrs" event and their outraged protests were met with brutality. They marched first to the TV station and later to Tahrir where thousands responded to the call for solidarity. The violent repression by the CSF itself then led to people calling for its abolition as well as the resignation of military chief Tantawi. People have had enough of the military stalling and things are coming to a head.

More footage here



Two other things. The verdict on the trial of the two police officers accused of beating to death Khaled Said is due tomorrow and a massive protest already organised for next friday is now more vital than ever and protestors are now reoccupying Tahrir.

 

[butchersapron]

Well, the trial verdict has been postponed once more, but in order (or so it looks) to bump the charges up to torture and murder rather than the current manslaughter,

 

[dylans]

Clashes broke out in Cairo and Suez after police release 10 police accused of killing protestors

Hundreds of Egyptians scuffled with security guards in a court in Cairo and blocked a major road for hours after a judge ordered the release of 10 police officers charged with killing protesters during the country's uprising.

Monday's unrest added to tensions already running high in Egypt over the ruling military council's failure to hold accountable security forces involved in killing protesters during the demonstrations that toppled the former president, Hosni Mubarak.
Relatives of those killed in the uprising blocked traffic for at least six hours on the road from Cairo to Suez, leaving hundreds of cars lined up. The court case involved protesters killed in Suez.

Ramez spoke to Associated Press by phone from the Cairo-Suez road, about 60 miles outside of Cairo. He said truck drivers and Suez residents joined the protesters while the military tried to negotiate the blockade.

A couple of hours after nightfall, El-Ganadi, the spokesman for Suez victims' families, said the protesters had started reopening the road. After clearing the street, they moved to Suez, according to one protester, Ahmed Khafagi. He said traffic has been halted inside two main squares in the city and thousands of people are rallying and chanting slogans, including "Down with the military junta". "People are boiling," an activist, Ahmed Abdel Gawad, said....

Ramez said the court over the past four sessions had rejected demands by families' lawyers to add 41 other police officers to the case. "We provided them with footage and visual evidence that show those policemen holding guns and automatic weapons and hunting down the protesters as if they were hunting birds. But the judge didn't summon them."The spark of the revolution came from Suez and the second revolution will also come out of Suez," he said.

The release of the officers has strengthened plans for a million-strong rally on 8 July to push for fair trials of former regime members, including senior security personnel suspected of giving the order to shoot protesters during the uprising.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/05/egypt-clashes-police-released

 

[Divisive Cotton]

lol there's a story here about how former minister of finance, Youssef Boutros-Ghali, was battered in Hyde Park by an British Egyptian:

http://translate.google.com/transla.../Egypt/Politics/2011/july/4/ghaly_broken.aspx

 

[IC3D]

Saboteurs blow up Egypt gas pipeline to Israel
Explosion takes place in Sinai Peninsula near Suez Canal, in one of a series of attacks on the pipeline, a major source of Israel's gas.

Haaretz

Good for them. its seems Mubarak's been ripping of his countrymen for years through this, what I wonder now is why they can't completely open the boarder to Gaza too.

 

[DrRingDing]

Haaretz

Good for them. its seems Mubarak's been ripping of his countrymen for years through this, what I wonder now is why they can't completely open the boarder to Gaza too.

Excellent.

 

[dylans]

More police released, more anger

Hundreds of protesters pelted the security headquarters in the Egyptian city of Suez with rocks on Wednesday, angered by a court's decision to uphold the release of seven policemen facing trials for allegedly killing protesters during the country's uprising.

Riots and protests have been escalating recently over what many see as the reluctance of the military rulers to prosecute police and former regime officials for the killing of nearly 900 protesters.

Ahmed el-Ganadi, the father of a protester killed in Suez during the revolt, said hundreds of residents had marched towards the government building housing the courts and security headquarters to protest against the court decision.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/06/egypt-riots-erupt-police-released

 

[dylans]

Massive demonstrations today across egypt demanding the sacking of Tantawi in the biggest ever demonstrations aimed against the military.

Egypt's military junta is facing its biggest crisis of legitimacy, as tens of thousands of protesters took control of central Cairo and demonstrations against army rule erupted across the country.

In scenes reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak earlier this year, civilian-run popular committees commanded all entrances and exits to Tahrir Square, while government security forces were nowhere to be seen.

In a massive show of public anger at the slow pace of reform under military rulers, demonstrators chanted repeatedly for the ousting of the country's de facto ruler, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. They called on Egyptians to "reclaim" their revolution. Activists declared the start of an open-ended sit-in, vowing not to leave until post-Mubarak transition was put back in the hands of ordinary people.

"This is not just another Friday protest – it's a message to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [Scaf] that their methods don't work and that we are immune to their tricks and lies," said Wael Eskandar, a 27 year old IT consultant who joined the protests in Cairo. "No matter how much they try spreading disinformation and claim the army is trying to implement the demands of the revolution, Egyptians know the real deal – and that is why you see so many here today."

In Egypt's second city, Alexandria, tens of thousands gathered and held up mock nooses alongside dummies of Mubarak and several of his former ministers, as well as dummies of other regime-era officials who have yet to be removed from their jobs. Large demonstrations took place in the industrial city of Suez, the scene of violent clashes earlier this week between protesters and riot police, while in Luxor thousands more gathered under the city's most famous Pharaonic temple to express their dissatisfaction with the interim authorities.

"It's the biggest show of force against the military thus far," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Centre and an expert on Egyptian politics. "Until recently, the army had very high favourability ratings, and Egyptians had been reticent to criticise it too openly, but now we're seeing the emergence of competing legitimacies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/08/egypt-erupt-angry-protest-military

 

[dylans]

Protests in Egypt are spreading with Tahrir reoccupied, the Mugamma (administration) building surrounded and the road to the Suez canal blockaded.

Protests have brought Egypt's administrative and commercial nerve centres to a standstill , as government attempts to stem a growing wave of opposition to military rule succeeded only in galvanising demonstrators further.

Several thousand people flocked to Cairo's Tahrir Square after Sharaf's speech. Anti-government activists have taken control of the roads there and an open-ended sit-in began on Friday. By Sunday morning, access to the Mugamma – a giant concrete building on one side of the square that serves as the bureaucratic heart of the Egyptian state – had been blocked off, with some employees reportedly joining the protests.

In Suez, another focal point for political unrest, the families of some of those killed in the anti-Mubarak uprising helped protesters cut off the main highway between Cairo and Sokhna port, the main transit point for goods entering and leaving the Suez canal. The canal has also been targeted by strikes and protests in recent days, although officials insisted that international maritime traffic remained unaffected.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/10/egypt-protests-spread-cairo-suez

 

[butchersapron]

A worker in el nasr oil company in Suez has apparently set himself on fire in protest at being fired, died according to a few usually reliable people.

 

[dylans]

Military police disperse Suez protests by force

Military police on Sunday forcefully dispersed a sit-in by thousands of Suez protesters blocking the Suez-Ain Sokhna desert road, reportedly detaining a number of them, Suez Revolution Coalition member Ahmed Abdel-Gawad said.

"The forces first fired in the air then clashed with protesters using electric shock prods when the protesters attempted to set up tents on the road," Abdel-Gawad told Daily News Egypt.

There were conflicting reports as to the exact number of those detained and whether they were released. Some sources said 10 detainees are still in the custody of the military police, while others said that the 25 who were arrested were released less than two hours later.

Once the Suez residents heard the news about the clashes, many reportedly rushed to join others near the Suez Canal authority office in Port Tawfik, where a symbolic sit-in was held earlier.

At about 6 am, a few dozen protesters blocked the main road that connects Suez to the Red Sea province where several factories are located.

Workers and employees failed to reach their workplaces, while others joined the protesters whose numbers swelled to thousands by noon. About 300 cars were backed up on the road because of the blockage.

Popular committees were formed to screen those who wish to enter the city, allowing only trucks carrying food supplies, revolutionaries and reporters to pass through.

The protesters called for the arrest of the seven police officers released on Monday on bail.

The officers were being tried on charges of killing and injuring peaceful protesters during the first days of the Jan. 25 uprising. Seven others are being tried in absentia.

The demonstrators also demanded opening an investigation into complaints filed before the Suez attorney general regarding other policemen involved in similar incidents.

"We moreover call for cleansing the judiciary, sacking the prosecutor general and the Suez attorney general and holding military trials for the policemen charged with killing and injuring protesters," activist Abdel-Aziz Kamel told Daily News Egypt.

The protesters threatened to storm the Suez Canal building in the city and that of the local municipality if their demands are not met within 24 hours.

Army forces cordoned off the area surrounding the canal in a bid to protect it from possible sabotage attempts

http://thedailynewsegypt.com/egypt/military-police-disperse-suez-protest-by-force.html

 

[Divisive Cotton]

what I noticed about Fridays protest was that the Muslim Brotherhood threw their weight behind it a couple of days before which seems to show that the left are setting the agenda at the moment

 

[dylans]

There are reports of protestors from Cairo and Alex heading to Suez to reinforce the sit in and protests. The canal itself is a red line and if protestors move to shut it then fatal confrontation with the military is probably inevitable. Suez was the most militant town during the jan uprising and the first martyrs came from there. Suez is once again the beating heart of the Egyptian revolution. Some footage here

 

[dylans]

what I noticed about Fridays protest was that the Muslim Brotherhood threw their weight behind it a couple of days before which seems to show that the left are setting the agenda at the moment

Yes they supported the friday protest but refused to support the Tahrir occupation or civil disobedience and they packed up and left at 5 0 clock.

 

[dylans]

Excellent article here on the growing protest and strike movement in Suez

On July 2, someone broke into an electricity control room here and threw a switch. Suddenly, Port Tawfiq, the vast shipyard that marks the southern entrance to the Suez Canal, and the southern half of the city of Suez went dark.

Ten minutes later, the lights came back on. But in that short time, disgruntled workers who've been on strike here for the last three weeks had made their point: The Suez Canal, one of the world's busiest transportation hubs, could be paralyzed with very little effort.

"We did not cut the cables, although we could have," said Emad El Sadeq, a technician for the Suez Canal Shipyards, one of seven subsidiary companies run by the Suez Canal Authority. "We had to give them a taste of what we can do."

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/10/3004971/unhappy-workers-threaten-to-shut.html#ixzz1Ro3KAcAX

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/10/3004971/unhappy-workers-threaten-to-shut.html