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Egypt's Protest: "...government-hired thugs will make sure that nothing about tomorrow is peaceful"

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Turborama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:22 AM
Original message
Egypt's Protest: "...government-hired thugs will make sure that nothing about tomorrow is peaceful"
Edited on Fri Jan-28-11 02:27 AM by Turborama

This work is licensed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Imagining a new Egypt
By Adam Makary in Middle East
on January 28th, 2011.



Almost two thirds of Egypt's population have been born since President Hosni Mubarak came to power. Many of them have found it hard to imagine anything but his rule - until now.

Across the nation people of all kinds - old and young, Christian and Muslim, rich and poor - have taken to the streets and they're refusing to back down until their voices are heard.

Their demands are few but basic. They ask for a better minimum wage and the end to the emergency law, the resignation of Egypt's longest serving minister Habib el-Hadli, and the right to practice freedom of expression.

But their calls for change are calling for deaf ears.

As unprecedented protests broke out in downtown Cairo on the first night of demonstrations across Egypt, state television chose to air a documentary about the pyramids.

There was no mention of the chaos which had ensued overnight. And on the following day, headlines in all the state-owned newspapers focused on developing stories in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon.

Independent newspapers however carried graphic images of injured Egyptians and headlines in big red letters using words such as "warning".

But perhaps the silence of the Mubarak government is much louder than it seems.

Today Safwut el-Sherif, the secretary-general of Mubarak's ruling party, said in a press conference that he was concerned about the youth. He said they were misguided and gave no concessions for the hundreds of people that have been injured since January 25 when protests started.

Thousands of Egyptians are planning to take part in peaceful marches and sit-ins in major cities. Mohammed ElBaradei, who has offered to become an interim leader, will be attending a major demonstration after Friday morning prayers in downtown Cairo.

But already I have started getting reports from citizen journalists that government-hired thugs will make sure that nothing about tomorrow is peaceful. They say that in several low-income parts of Cairo and Alexandria, government-hired thugs were seen to be splashing petroleum over parked cars. This to prepare for protests in which they'll light vehicles on fire when the time is right for them.

They've also heard rumours that the intelligence services will release a separate group of thugs under the name Akhwan al- Haq, or Brothers of Truth, a trumped-up extremist group, that will charge through the streets with swords and caustic acid to splash on the protesters - thus placing all the blame of a peaceful uprising gone violent on a certain kind of Islamic extremism.

SMS services have been blocked by all phone providers and phone services are expected to be severed throughout the day. The internet appears to be down in many parts of the country.

Who knows what will happen but one thing is for certain - people are fed up.

From: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/28/imagining-new-egypt
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:31 AM
Response to Original message
1. I've seen tweets that police are vandalizing cars
and no one knows why, that they are pouring gasoline to light up main squares? No idea what that is about.

People seem to be using the ISP that the stock exchange is on, Noor, that's still up. Also foriegn SIM cards are said to still work somewhat.

The big protest starts in about 2.5 hours.
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:58 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. Reposting some of those so we have them in this thread
Vieth12 RT @alshaheeed: Police agents are pouring petrol in all main squares to light them up during protests. Please retweet & Share #Egypt #Jan25


hushhush812 RT @NewsOfMideast: Police thugs setting cars on fire in the streets of #Cairo to blame it on peaceful protesters. Spread the word. #Egypt #jan25 #FreeMideast


blandliketheman RT @sorsar2011: #Jan28 Egyptians plan the 1 million march, gov't preps snipers & the army... re-tweet let the world know that #Egypt needs your help #Jan25

FYI, this link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cairodowntown can hear chanting and drums and whistles (police whistles?)


k1k4_t0w RT @alshaheeed: SOS: Police agents are setting cars in streets on fire. No one understands why. Everyone sure Egyptians will be massacred #Jan25 #Egypt


Charles__Ellis RT @EDSETIADI: "Egyptian Christians said they will guard the Muslims from the police while they on Friday Pray." Amazing solidarity. #Egypt #Jan25 less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®


Leatang RT @Farrah3m: Snipers have already started killing protesters and all communication with friends and family members has been lost; #egypt #jan25 #jan28 half a minute ago via web


# Hope_normal Runrunnah RT @cindyragab: Aljazeera confirms: In parts of Cairo and Alexandria, gov't-hired thugs were seen to be splashing petroleum over parked cars. #egypt #jan25 half a minute ago via web


Taken from Sabrina's thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x289368
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:32 AM
Response to Original message
2. Link to list of solidarity protests:
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:34 AM
Response to Original message
3. Bookmarked. This is fully supported by all the tweets.
Edited on Fri Jan-28-11 02:34 AM by Catherina
This is fully supported by all the tweets here http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x290311


Should we post the government violence tweets in this thread tomorrow? This here, your thread, I mean.
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Turborama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:39 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. That would be really good if you could
Having them all aggregated in one thread would make it easier to follow and it would give proof to the author's predictions. Also, he might even follow this thread himself.
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:44 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Agreed. I'll post this plan in the other thread so people know.
How much longer are you gonna be up tonight? Cerridwen is gonna rest for a few hours.
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Turborama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:46 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. It's mid afternoon here
So I'll be up for ages! LOL

I have to do some work at some point this afternoon, though. But I will be popping in and out.
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 03:07 AM
Response to Reply #6
9. Ok good. I think we have this covered then.
I took a nap this afternoon so I'm good for the next few hours (2AM here) and then I think the adrenalin will keep me up. Mubarak better pack his bags and not hurt those protesters. If he does, all bets are off for the Middle East and North Africa. There will be angry, violent protests everywhere and most of those dictatorships will fall.

Jordan is shaking in its boots right now trying to push through "speedy reforms" ahead of today's demonstrations.




Jordan king urges speedy reforms ahead of Friday’s demos
By ABDUL JALIL MUSTAFA | ARAB NEWS

Published: Jan 28, 2011 00:57 Updated: Jan 28, 2011 00:57

AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdallah on Thursday urged the government and the parliament to speed up "comprehensive" political, economic and social reforms.

The monarch’s remarks came 24 hours before a coalition of opposition parties, trade unions and activists said they planned to stage demonstrations after Friday prayers to press their demand for genuine reforms.

...

He said that all cases of alleged corruption and favoritism should be addressed in a satisfactory manner.

"All files should be opened to the public, doubts should be cleared and mistakes corrected,” the monarch said.

...

Thousands of Jordanians demonstrated across the country on the last two Fridays despite a decision by the government to subsidize basic goods and cancel taxes on certain types of fuel.

http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article244421.ece


These reforms might not be "speedy" enough, kind of like a Tsar throwing banana peels to starving Russian peasants.
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sabrina 1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 04:46 AM
Response to Reply #6
12. I'm not going to last much longer, another hour or so ~
So I'm glad you and Catherina will be around to keep things updated. It's 2.00 AM here and I am tempted to stay up the way I did when Hurricane Katrina hit.

I hope we can get news with everything down, and I don't really trust the MSM.

If Al Jazeera has reporters there we'll get some good reporting.

Thanks for all the links and threads Turborama.
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 05:05 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. You go to sleep then. I might fade in a few hours
and I'll feel better knowing you can cover. Cerridwen should be back by then too. :hi: And thanks for your wonderful threads.
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Turborama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 05:13 AM
Response to Reply #12
14. Al Jazeera English were just reporting from there live
Edited on Fri Jan-28-11 05:28 AM by Turborama
The sound of morning prayer could be heard in the background and they were saying when the prayers have finsiehd that's the time it'll all start.

If you don't have the link, it can be watched here (they're talking about Tunisia right now): http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/


You're most welcome, thank you for all yours, too. :hi:

I saw this earlier and imagined all of them kicking off as soon as they finished what they were doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMIuC_z11hU

If you do crash out, sleep well and see you here when you get back on.
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sabrina 1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 02:01 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Thanks, Turborama. I am surprised to see the coverage here
has increased. They are reporting that Mubarak will be speaking soon and there has not been the violence people were expecting.

I was watching on the 'business' channel and they are very worried about the market. Egypt's stock exchange did go down two days ago, I believe. Even after it went back up it was down so if nothing else will influence what happens to Mubarak, money always comes first.
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pacalo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 03:07 AM
Response to Original message
8. K&R.
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 04:24 AM
Response to Original message
10. baseball bats , Foreign journalists not allowed to leave their hotels, Acid
Edited on Fri Jan-28-11 04:25 AM by Catherina
arabist RT @astroehlein: RT @bencnn: Just saw blue fiat entering main tv building in Maspiro. guards opend trunk, full of baseball bats. Car allowed in #egypt #jan25 less than a minute ago via TweetDeck



chaoticbr RT @hilalchouman: RT @ArabRevolution: RT @najibcherif #Egypt:Foreign journalists are not allowed to leave their hotels #jan25 less than a minute ago via TweetDeck


# Avatar_normal 8s RT @Karoli: via @RickSanchezTV reports of govt. thugs posing as extremists to splash acid on protesters. #jan25 #praynot http://bit.ly/foEKqK less than a minute ago via Echofon
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-11 04:37 AM
Response to Original message
11. Fires burning in Alex, Cairo all set by police
Edited on Fri Jan-28-11 04:40 AM by Catherina
# Twit_normal sarahfenix RT @sweethabibi: Fires are burning in Alex and Cairo all set by police. #egypt #25jan #jan25
half a minute ago via web



# Notactuallyhere RT @eacusa: #Jan25 #Egypt please spread: gasoline is being poured on cars in downtown cairo near by policemen, to blame tomorrow fires on protesters
half a minute ago via Facebook
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Turborama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-29-11 11:40 AM
Response to Original message
16. No police on the streets and reports of lots of "looting by criminals" going on
Regime officials going on TV talking about "looting".

The agenda is becoming clear.
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