Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Egypt anti-government protests grow

I know the military is still in power. I know this is just a bone thrown by the military to pacify the streets. I know that nothing will really change as a result of it ...But it is good to see the bastard in a cage. (a cage that he introduced)
seconded - I never thought I'd see this day
 
Unlike this image which is apparently the former minister of the Interior, who is on trial, being rather chummy with the men in uniform:

 
According to various tweets, it sounds like there has been tension due to a protest outside the Israeli embassy. Protesters tore down barriers (not 100% sure on this detail), tense standoff, with lots of riot police and then army arriving.

Some examples:

adamakary Adam Makary

A third bus with riot police has just arrived #israeliembassy #egypt yfrog.com/gy32oeqj

adamakary Adam Makary

Military officers trying to speak with protesters, but they just chant back "no to military trials" #israeliembassy #egypt
adamakary Adam Makary

Now protesters are telling the military officers who are trying earnestly to engage in dialogue - to leave #israeliembassy #egypt

 
According to various tweets, it sounds like there has been tension due to a protest outside the Israeli embassy. Protesters tore down barriers (not 100% sure on this detail), tense standoff, with lots of riot police and then army arriving.

Some examples:

adamakary Adam Makary

A third bus with riot police has just arrived #israeliembassy #egypt yfrog.com/gy32oeqj

adamakary Adam Makary

Military officers trying to speak with protesters, but they just chant back "no to military trials" #israeliembassy #egypt
adamakary Adam Makary

Now protesters are telling the military officers who are trying earnestly to engage in dialogue - to leave #israeliembassy #egypt

It's because Israel has launched a major attack on Gaza in retaliation for the attacks on Israel from Sinai which killed 8 Israelis. At least 8 are dead in Gaza including a 5 year old boy and 5 Egyptian police are dead in Sinai.
 
Yeah I assumed it may be because of that, but hadn't checked the details yet. I did have a very quick look for a thread on the Sinai-Gaza killings before I posted to this one instead, as I couldn't find one. So thanks for filling in some important gaps.
 
Egypt has withdrawn its Ambassador from Israel after Israel killed 5 Egyptian border police.

The Egyptian government has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel in protest over a cross-border shooting incident on Thursday that left five Egyptian security personnel dead.
The cabinet has also summoned the Israeli ambassador in Cairo to provide answers on how an Israeli helicopter apparently accidentally killed Egyptian border police while chasing armed men whom Israel suspected of being connected to an attack near the port city of Eilat earlier that day.
The increased diplomatic pressure on Egypt's neighbour came after Prime Minister Essam Sharaf led the cabinet in a special meeting on Friday and hundreds of protesters lay siege to the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

Footage of the Israeli embassy demonstration here

 
Apparently someone managed to remove the Israeli flag from the embassy, replacing it with an Egyptian one. This caused a lot of excitement on twitter, with #Flagman tags galore.
 
Witness briefly arrested for changing story when giving evidence in Mubarak trial. Looks like witnesses are being leant on.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/09/20119714646235172.html

And some interesting witnesses have been ordered to appear:

Wednesday's hearing adjourned with the judge summoning the top brass in Egypt's new ruling military council and his former vice-president to testify in closed sessions on Mubarak's role in quelling protests against his rule.
Ahmed Rifaat, the presiding judge, summoned Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi, who was Mubarak's defence minister and is now the military ruler, to testify in a closed session on Sunday.
"[Ahmed Rifaat,] the presiding judge, has decided that these sessions will take place daily, [starting Sunday] on every work day," Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reported from Cairo.
Also summoned were the military chief of staff and Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's vice-president and intelligence chief, who will testify next week.
Many Egyptians believe that their testimony is key in determining whether Mubarak ordered the use of lethal force against the uprising.
"We will hear for the first time from Tantawi about the relationship between the military, the government and state security during the revolution, what the conversations were taking place between Hosni Mubarak and Tantawi," Tadros said.
 
According to the We are all Khaled Said Facebook group...

Witnesses number 8 and 9 in Mubarak's trial have come up with evidence and testimony that incriminates Mubarak and his interior minister Al-Adly (torture minister). Both witnesses are police officers and the 9th witness is an Egyptian police general. The 9th witness confirmed that ex-minister Al-Adly in a meeting one day before the Friday of anger protests ordered the use of plan 100 which includes using live ammunition on protesters.
 
Sentences for corruption have started to arrive:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14933704

A court in Cairo has sentenced a steel magnate who was closely associated with former President Hosni Mubarak to 10 years in prison for corruption.
Ahmed Ezz, who had denied the charges, was also told he must pay a fine of 660m Egyptian pounds ($111m; £70m).
He was accused of collaborating to grant licences without paying fees.
Amr Assal, former head of Egypt's Industrial Development Authority, was convicted of the same charge and was also given 10 years in jail.
And former Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid was sentenced to 15 years in absentia.
 
As I feared the military are using the incident at the Israeli embassy to unleash all the forces of repression. The military have announced the broadening of emergency law legislation. (we should remember that the lifting of emergency law was one of the key demands of the revolution) Already Al Jazeera has been closed down and we can expect the military to move against strikes and demonstrations too.The counter revolution is now being unleashed

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has ruledEgypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak this year and has promised to hand over to an elected civilian government in November, announced it was broadening the application of emergency law following clashes at the Israeli embassy in Cairo last Friday.
The suspension of normal civilian rights and the existence of special "security courts" were a hallmark of the Mubarak regime, which maintained a permanent emergency law throughout the former dictator's reign.

......
Activists fear the legal clampdown will be used to further stifle popular dissent against military rule. The new military decree extends emergency law to cover a glut of vaguely defined transgressions that could easily be applied to legitimate protest, including "infringing on others' right to work", "impeding the flow of traffic", and "spreading false information in the media".
Amnesty have called the measures the most serious attack on human rights in Egypt since the fall of Mubarak.

"These changes are a major threat to the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and the right to strike," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and north Africa. "We are looking at the most serious erosion of human rights in Egypt since Mubarak stepped down. The military authorities have essentially taken Egypt's laws back to the bad old days."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/16/egyptians-rally-tahrir-square-laws
 
Interesting side story that jumps into life as a result of events in Egypt:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14981672
The documents seen by the BBC were found at the looted headquarters of the Egyptian state security building earlier this year.
They describe an offer by Gamma International UK Ltd to supply a software programme called Finfisher.
Finfisher is described as a toolkit "used by many global security and intelligence services" for secretly gaining access to people's computers.
The files from the Egyptian secret police's Electronic Penetration Division described Gamma's product as "the only security system in the world" capable of bugging Skype phone conversations on the internet.
They detail a five-month trial by the Egyptian secret police which found the product had "proved to be an efficient electronic system for penetrating secure systems [which] accesses email boxes of Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail networks".

Parp parp quack:
The foreign secretary says he will "critically" examine export controls.
William Hague, who speaks for the government on computer security issues, said: "Any export of goods that could be used for internal repression is something we would want to stop."
 
Seems Tantawi finally gave evidence. Perhaps we could speculate about the nature of the evidence based on a reported finger gesture from Gamal?

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/499609

An Interior Ministry official has summoned Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egypt's former president, following complaints made by lawyers representing the families of revolutionary martyrs that he made an offensive finger gesture at them during a court session on Saturday, according to state-owned newspaper Rose al-Youssef on Monday.
Hosni Mubarak and his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six of his former top aides are standing trial before the Cairo Criminal Court on several charges, including their involvement in the killing of protestors during the 25 January revolution.
News website Muheet reported: “Gamal Mubarak made the finger gesture after the head of Egypt's interim ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces , Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi completed his testimony."
According to the Rose al-Youssef website, an official from the Interior Ministry summoned Gamal from his prison cell on Sunday morning and warned him not to repeat the gesture in upcoming trial sessions.
The website added that the unnamed official gave him a final warning before placing him in solitary confinement.
 
Seems likely that the finger gesture probably was an indicator that Tantawi's evidence did not incriminate Mubarak & co.

This should not be surprising since the regime was, at most, temporarily decapitated. And they seek to preserve the severed head.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15145704
Egypt's military ruler Field Marshal Tantawi has said former President Hosni Mubarak never asked the army to shoot activists during the uprising earlier this year.
The comments, made during a ceremony south of the capital, come a week after Field Marshal Tantawi testified in secret at the former president's trial.
Mr Mubarak is charged with the killing of protesters during the 18-day revolt which forced him from office.
Some 850 demonstrators were killed.
"The armed forces fight for Egypt and not for just anyone, whoever it may be," said Field Marshal Tantawi, who served as defence minister under Mr Mubarak for 20 years.
"I testified before God and I told the truth," he said.
Media blackout
"Nobody asked us to open fire and nobody will open fire" on the people, he added.
A strict media blackout was imposed before Field Marshal Tantawi's appearance at Mr Mubarak's trial on 24 September.
His testimony was seen as vital in the trial where the former president faces charges of ordering government forces to fire on protesters. Mr Mubarak, who denies the charges, could face the death penalty if found guilty.
 
scaled.php

livestream here
http://www.livestation.com/channels/131-al-jazeera-mubasher-misr-arabic

Reports of several dead and lots injured. Army opening fire and gangs of locals and thugs attacking demonstrators.some reports of weapons siezed and some firing back from demonstrators. This is caused by the burning and destruction of a church that many believe was instigated and encouraged by the fuckwit governor of Aswan Mustapha Al Sayed who said the church was illegal. Now a peaceful demonstration has been violently attacked by thugs and army.
 
It's looking like a massacre. Lots of dead. Lots of live fire, lots of injuries, The bridge is in flames, bullets, molotovs, gangs of armed thugs attacking demonstrators with impunity.This is a plot by the army to increase its hold on power and justify further repression. Reports of Egypt TV calling on people to go to Maspero to support the army.
025c92734560aa30825acc1211e65058_view.jpg
 
The military are attempting to incite sectarian, communal violence. This is a clear strategy, by the time they are finished they hope Egyptians will be applauding more repression
 
Some tweets.

evanchill Evan Hill

"bring down the field marshal" RT @lilianwagdy: a huge march now is chantimg al sha3b yurid esqat el moshir as they head to
waelabbas Wael إفّندي Abbas

by evanchill

Army soldiers smashing parked cars to blame on protesters!!!
evanchill Evan Hill

RT @kristenchick: There are three more bodies. Total of 17 dead here at Coptic hospital #egypt #maspero
Firas_Atraqchi Firas Al-Atraqchi

by adamakary

Egypt TV clearly and undeniably blaming Copts for 3 deaths of soldiers, 30 wounded #maspiro
hadeelalsh Hadeel Al-Shalchi

Alahram ctr expert on state radio being cut off by announcers for saying army started firing on civilians #egypt #Maspero
adamakary Adam Makary

Riot and military police are running from confrontation, hitching a ride with anyone who will drive them away from #maspero #egypt #copts
onjensen Jon Jensen

by hadeelalsh

State TV broadcasting pictures of Egypt police hurling rocks at protesters outside Maspero. Protesters tossing rocks too.
TravellerW Mohamed El Dahshan

by BaghdadBrian

Put your TV on mute. Don't listen to the commentary. Don't be fooled. Today is #Jan25. This is the Army vs. the Egyptian People. #egypt
betsy_hiel betsy hiel

by BaghdadBrian

al arabiya shows footage of army truck running down protesters in Maspero #egypt #copts
Sandmonkey Mahmoud Salem

Street battle between muslims vs. Muslims & copts. #masperoyfrog.com/g0xlvuj
Sandmonkey Mahmoud Salem

The army started the battle, then withdrew and is leaving muslims & christians fighting. #maspero
 
Back
Top Bottom