A freed Mubarak should feel at home in today’s topsy turvy Egypt

The lads from state security are behaving with Mubarak-era ruthlessness

By Robert Fisk

"Mubarak to be freed? Crazy as it may seem, his freedom would be in keeping with the mad tragedy through which Egypt is living. What would seem impossible in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution – hundreds massacred by state security, police cadets slaughtered by desert gunmen, Mubarak out of jail – has acquired a kind of normality.....

On the streets of Cairo there have now appeared thousands of large coloured photographs of Barack Obama with Bin Laden’s beard attached to his chin and a Muslim prayer sign on his forehead. And to the right of Obama is that most handsome of all generals, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Minister of Defence, Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Egyptian army.

So there’s no doubt who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are. State television’s three channels now run a 24-hour banner in English on the top left of the screen: “Egypt fighting terrorism”. And it seems viewers are inclined to believe it

That is putting it mildly. The lads from state security are back in all their Mubarak-like ruthlessness, assisted – as in 2011 – by the hired thugs and ex-prisoners who are used to club protesters with iron bars. So if Mubarak does emerge from the grim confines of the Tora prison complex – wherein his Brotherhood enemies are also being held – he will find the new Egypt of his freedom faintly familiar."

Video: Coup government in Egypt kill political prisoners in Abu Zaabal

Syria chemical attack: something horrific and large-scale has taken place

The Assad regime's likely use of nerve gas in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta reveals the west as ever more reluctant to become entangled in the regional crisis

Peter Beaumont

theguardian.com, Wednesday 21 August 2013

"There are many aspects about the latest reported chemical weapons attack in Syria, on the outskirts of Damascus, that are not in doubt. While the numbers have yet to be nailed down precisely, it is clear that something horrific and large-scale took place.

The attack was consistent with some previous reports of use of chemical agents by the Assad regime – allegations of a mixed attack using a combination of conventional and chemical munitions.
The symptoms, too, appeared largely consistent with the use of a toxic gas. While there have been caveats about exactly what was used, it seems clear that something terrible did occur in Ghouta and that the most likely candidate must be the regime of Bashar al-Assad.....

Given that the balance of probability suggests that the regime did use the weapons, one possible explanation suggests a profound shift in both the regime's analysis of the likelihood of a meaningful international response and a further worrying development in the Syrian military doctrine for the use of chemical weapons.....

International paralysis over the coup in Egypt and growing instability in Libya, and growing tension in Tunisia, is likely to have confirmed the view in Damascus that there is little appetite for intervention. On the ground Ghouta, too, has been a persistent problem, threatening the capital, and apparently resilient to regime efforts to retake it, perhaps encouraging more extreme tactics.

Another explanation put forward on Wednesday is that as much as Ghouta itself, the intended recipient for the message of the attack was the wider community in Syria still backing the rebels. That it was designed to dramatise just how weak and divided the international community is over Syria and emphasise the frightening notion that the regime can act with ever more impunity........"

 

Journalists under threat in Egypt

After a spate of attacks and detentions, the Committee to Protect Journalists has highlighted the targeting of media staff in Egypt

The Guardian

"Press freedom groups have warned that an "unprecedented" number of journalists are being targeted by Egyptian forces during the violent crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters.The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "deeply disturbed" after several reporters for international media groups, including the Guardian, were assaulted or briefly detained in Cairo over the weekend.
A French television crew were held for about 10 hours on Saturday after they covered a siege by security forces on Fateh mosque, in Ramses Square, in the Egyptian capital. The Guardian's Egypt correspondent, Patrick Kingsley, was detained twice on Saturday while reporting from the square.
The incidents followed the fatal shootings of a Sky News cameraman and a reporter for a Gulf newspaper last week as part of days of widespread bloodshed across Egypt.

Sherif Mansour, the CPJ's Middle East and North Africa orogramme co-ordinator, raised the alarm about the apparent crackdown on journalists in the politically-torn country. "The unprecedented number of killings and harassment of journalists in Egypt last week are ominous signs for the Egyptian press," he said.
"A free press is fundamental to the restoration of democracy and to the inclusion of disparate voices in public discourse. Safeguarding press freedom, as promised by the Egyptian interim government, is a key step in that direction and direly needed right now."......."

The Revenge of the Police State

by Wael Eskandar
Jadaliyya

"....
As we confront the question of whether or not Egypt will witness the “return” of the police of the Mubarak era, a number of critical questions arise, such as: Is there any revolutionary fervor left to resist this route? Or have revolutionary commitments been drained through all the blood and the failed attempts at establishing a democratic political order?

Whether or not a new wave of revolutionary mobilization will emerge to push back against the growing power of the security state is an open question. But it is clear that the persistence of the confrontation between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood will only deepen the securitization of politics by reinforcing demands for security solutions. What it will take to reverse the return of the police state, which revolutionary activists have worked hard to resist, is uncertain. One could argue that the brutal injustices that the police are bent on committing will always make resistance structurally inevitable. But that suggests that reviving resistance will come at a high price, one that Khalid Said, Jika, Mohamed al-Guindy, and many others have paid."

Storm on the Nile

AN EXCELLENT PIECE
By Eric Margolis

"Egypt’s US-financed armed forces have gone to war against Egypt’s people. Arab spring has become Arab winter.
So far, army and security police have scored brilliant battlefield victories against unarmed men, women and children, killing and wounding thousands who were demanding a return to democratic government.
The latest Cairo protests by supporters of the elected Morsi government have been scattered by gunfire and huge armored bulldozers resembling the giant vehicles used by Israel to smash Palestinian barricades and protesters. All Egyptians opposing the Sisi dictatorship are now officially, “terrorists.”
Egypt’s generals and hard right Mubarakist supporters have ditched any pretense of civilian government and now rely on the bayonet and tank. The men with the guns make the rules.

This is the third fairly elected Arab government to be overthrown or besieged, like Gaza, by Western-backed military regimes. Unlike Algeria, where the first elected government was crushed, Egypt’s Islamists have no arms and are unlikely to be able to mount serious domestic resistance aside from some pinprick attacks in Upper Egypt and Sinai.
The bloody Mubarakist counter-revolution, financed by Saudi Arabia and some Gulf monarchies, has put the United States, Egypt’s patron, into a serious jam. Washington was forced to denounce the coup and ongoing state repression as “deplorable,” in the words of US State Secretary John Kerry.

However, weeks earlier the clearly confused Kerry had praised the coup that overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected government as “restoring democracy.” He refused to brand the military putsch a coup, for that would have meant cutting off annual $1.3 billion in US payments to Egypt’s armed forces, a key US ally. President Obama has simply ducked the whole issue.
Since Washington preaches democracy, civilian rule, and human rights, it can’t be seen to be openly backing Egypt’s brutal military and security forces. So the Obama administration has been pussyfooting around events in Egypt, pleased to see Egypt’s generals in charge and the Islamists out of power, but unwilling to say so.
US Mideast policy is run from five different power centers: the White House, State Department, Pentagon, CIA and Congress. America’s powerful pro-Israel lobby gives Congress its marching orders over Egypt, controlling financial aid, food supplies and weapons deliveries. In effect, Israel is a sixth player in this game.....

Egypt’s 440,000-man armed forces is joined at the hip with the Pentagon which controls its arms, funding, training, high tech equipment, promotion lists, spare parts and munitions supply, the latter two always kept in short supply.
So Egypt’s generals will soon have to sheathe their swords, withdraw tanks, and fabricate a figurehead civilian government that at least looks somewhat real, instead of the army-installed cigar-store Indians now supposedly running the government.
This will mollify Washington. After all, the US happily backed and financed the brutal Mubarak military regimes for three decades, turning a blind eye to its torture, executions and massive human rights violations. Western media obediently lauded the Mubarak dictatorship as a pillar of Mideast stability (US code talk for status quo).

Expect a rapid return to Mubarakism once the bloodshed dies down, and likely his release from jail. The prisons will fill again, the torturers will work overtime and Egypt will return to full-blown military-police state led, most likely, by General al-Sisi, who looks every inch a modern dictator in his dark sunglasses and medals.

For once, leading Republican senator John McCain got it right: Washington should cut off all military aid to Egypt he urged, as US law mandates. America’s image in the entire Muslim world is at risk. Remember when President Obama called for full democracy across the Mideast?
But Obama is reluctant to move because Israel, its friends in Congress, and the Pentagon brass are squarely behind Egypt’s military regime, as they were behind Mubarak. Egypt, and its US guided armed force, are a pillar of the American Mideast Raj."

Al-Jazeera Video: مئات القتلى بهجوم كيمياوي بسوريا

Real News Video:Mubarak Eyes Release As Egyptian Military Continues To Kill Protestors

Little has changed since 2011 revolution as police and military continue to massacre nonviolent opposition 

Real News Video: Pressure Mounts for US to Cut Aid to Egyptian Military

Robert Naiman: Legally the Obama administration is obligated to cut aid to Egypt after the military coup, and the longer the US waits to take a stand the less influence it yields to stop the Egyptian security forces brutal repression 

Real News Video: Israel, Anti-Semitism, and Negotiations Without End

In Pt 4 of 4 of Reality Asserts Itself, Paul Jay and Max Blumenthal discuss whether some criticism of Israel is racist and analyze the recent peace talks to nowhere 

Hosni Mubarak Release: Court Orders Former Egyptian President To Be Freed

AP

"CAIRO — Officials say an Egyptian court has ordered the release of ex-President Hosni Mubarak, but it's not immediately clear whether the prosecutors will appeal the order.
The Wednesday decision comes in a hearing on charges against Mubarak of accepting gifts from a state-owned newspaper, the last case that has kept the ailing leader in detention.
It raises the possibility that Mubarak will walk free, a move that is likely to fuel the unrest roiling the country after the autocratic leader's successor was removed in a military coup last month. The officials spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to speak to the media....."

Poll: Americans criticize Obama on Egypt, want aid cut off

The Washington Post

"A majority of Americans — 51 percent — now want foreign aid to Egypt to be cut off, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center.

The poll also finds significant unhappiness with President Obama’s response to the increasing unrest and violence in Egypt — a reflection of the tough path forward for the administration as the Egyptian government and protesters continue to clash.

The poll asked respondents whether the United States should cut off funding to apply pressure to the Egyptian government or continue military aid to have an influence on what happens there. Fifty-one percent chose cutting off aid, 26 percent chose continuing aid, and 23 percent said they didn’t know......"

Rabias of the world unite in Egypt

By Ramzy Baroud
Asia Times

""Lord! You know well that my keen desire is to carry out Your commandments and to serve Thee with all my heart, O light of my eyes. If I were free I would pass the whole day and night in prayers. But what should I do when you have made me a slave of a human being?"

These were the words of the female Muslim mystic and poet, Rabia al-Adawiya. Her journey from slavery to freedom served as a generational testament of the resolve of the individual who was armed with faith and nothing else.

Rabia's story is multifarious, and despite the fact that the Muslim saint died over 12 centuries ago, few Egyptians fail to see the centrality of her narrative to their own. In the north of the Nasr City
district, tens of thousands of Egyptians chose the iconic mosque named after her to stage their sit-in and demanded the return to shar'iya (legitimacy) after it was seized in a brazen military coup which ousted elected President Mohamed Morsi on July 3.

Rabia's narrative is essential because it was about freedom. She was born into a very poor family in Basra, Iraq. According to Farid ud-Din Attar who related her story, she was so poor that when she was born the family had nothing to wrap around her, not even oil to light their only lamp. Years later when Rabia was a youth, she was kidnapped and sold into Egyptian slavery as she tried to escape a deadly famine in Iraq.

Rabia didn't exactly challenge her master through organizing strikes and defiant sit-ins. She was alone and dominated by too many powerful forces. So she spent most of the day as a slave, but late at night she would stay up and pray. It was more than praying, but an attempt at reclaiming her humanity, at comprehending the multitude of forces that chained her to earthly relations of slave and master, and in a sense, she tried to discover a level of freedom that could not be granted by a master's wish.

In fact, her true "miracle" was the strength of her faith despite the harshest possible conditions, and her ability to strive for freedom while practically speaking, she remained a slave. It is as if this female poet, a heroin and a saint by the standards of many poor, downtrodden people, managed to redefine the relationship of the ongoing class struggle, and found freedom within herself. It is believed that her inconceivable faith was so strong that her master could not deal with the guilt of holding a saint a slave. So, she was freed.

Regardless of the details, Rabia al-Adawiya's legacy has passed on from one generation of Egyptians to the next. Like her, many of these Egyptians are mostly poor, immensely patient, and are hostage to the same century-old class struggle by which Rabia was defined.

The January 25, 2011 revolution included millions of Rabias fed up with oppression and servitude. But the class division that was highlighted after millions of Egyptians rose against the military coup became clearer than ever. These were the poorest of the poor, long alienated and dehumanized by both the ruling class and the conceited, intellectual groupings of self-described liberals and socialists.

The unprecedented union between Egypt's ruling class and anti-Muslim intellectual elite succeeded, to an extent, in blocking our view from the substantial class struggle underway in Egypt, where the poorest communities - yes, workers and peasants - were leading a historic struggle to reclaim democracy from the upper and middle class intellectuals......"

Recent bloodshed underscores urgent need to halt arms transfers to Egypt

 

Vast quantities of weapons and equipment supplied irresponsibly to Egypt by a handful of countries are being used for excessive force and unlawful killings.

"All governments must suspend the transfer of weapons of the type used by Egypt’s security forces in violent dispersals and unwarranted lethal force against sit-ins and other protests, Amnesty International said today.

The organization has analysed some of the transfers to Egypt in recent years – including tens of thousands of conventional weapons worth tens of millions of dollars. Among the countries supplying weapons and ammunition of the type used during the bloodshed on 14 August are the Czech Republic, China, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the USA.

The supplies include military firearms, shotguns, riot control launchers and corresponding ammunition and projectiles, as well as armoured vehicles and military helicopters.
“Weapons and equipment supplied irresponsibly to Egypt by a handful of countries are being used for excessive force and unlawful killings,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“Deliveries must be frozen until full, prompt and impartial investigations into the recent violence – and similar incidents over the past several years – have been carried out and their findings made public. How could any state continue to deliver equipment used to disperse demonstrations knowing full well the Egyptian security forces’ track record?
“No further weapons should be sent until the Egyptian authorities can demonstrate that the security forces will not use them unlawfully.”....."

Syrian authorities determined to silence activists with bogus ‘terrorism’ charges

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

"The trial of five peaceful activists in Syria on “terrorism” charges tomorrow is further evidence of the increasing and systematic repression against anyone speaking out against human rights violations in the country, Amnesty International said.

Mazen Darwish, Hussein Gharir, Hani al-Zitani, Mansour al-Omari and Abd al-Rahman Hamada from the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), are scheduled to appear before the Anti-Terrorism Court in Damascus tomorrow.

“The Syrian government should not use its overbroad terrorism law to punish peaceful human rights activists for their legitimate work. The authorities must drop all charges against these five activists and release Mazen Darwish, Hussein Gharir and Hani al-Zitani immediately and unconditionally,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty International.
Mazen Darwish, Hussein Gharir and Hani al-Zitani are still in detention while Mansour al-Omari and Abd al-Rahman Hamada were conditionally released in February this year but continue to be on trial....."

Syria crisis: Rebels claim hundreds killed in government chemical weapons attack - live updates

theguardian.com, Wednesday 21 August 2013

Syrian activists inspect the bodies of people they say were killed by nerve gas in the Ghouta region, in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus, on 21 August, 2013. Photograph: Reuters

 

"If today's attack is confirmed as one using chemical weapons, even lower estimates of the number of deaths, would make it the worst chemical weapons attack since Saddam Hussein massacred 5,000 people in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988.

The upper estimate of the death toll from the attacks on the Damascus suburbs now stands at almost 1,200. Leena al-Shami, from a Damascus-based opposition group, claims the total killed has reached 1,188, excluding Mouadamiyeh in western Ghouta. The Guardian has no way of independently verifying the death toll.....

Chemical weapons expert Jean Pascal Zanders writes on The Trench that he has been sceptical about previous claims of their use in Syria but in the latest case "it is clear that something terrible has happened":

The footage from the current alleged attack(s) in the Ghouta district seems to offer more convincing evidence of poisoning through asphyxiation (witness the pinkish-bluish hue on the faces of some of the fatalities). Further elements that seem to confirm exposure to toxicants are the unfocussed and rolling eyes, severe breathing difficulties, in one instance a very erect penis, and possible signs of urination or defecation on trousers (although this is difficult to say, given that the hospital floor is covered with water as staff seems to hose water over every victim). None of the victims appeared to have external wounds from blast, shrapnel or bullets.
I am not sure whether the claims of nerve agent use accompanying the footage and images are correct. The people are not convulsing (except for one man shaking his legs while shouting out, but the remainder of his body does not suffer from involuntary contractions) and I have not seen anybody applying nerve agent antidotes. Nor do medical staff and other people appear to suffer from secondary exposure while carrying or treating victims.

It is clear that something terrible has happened. The scenes could not have been stage managed...."

Hundreds of Civilians Killed by Chemical Weapon Attack in Eastern Ghouta

Beyond The Voice of Battle

A VERY GOOD, LONG PIECE

By Jack Shenker
Jadaliyya

[4 December 2012, protesters spray graffiti on an abandoned Central Security Forces (CSF) truck: "Revolution Rules". Image originally posted to Flicker by Hossam el-Hamalawy]

"....
Egyptians, as the past two and a half years have shown, are giddyingly liable to take to the streets and provoke a crisis in whatever elite settlement is being foisted upon them. Right now, amid an almost fascistic excess of hyper-jingoism, the prospects seem dim for a revolutionary struggle against authoritarianism, one which rejects false binaries and articulates the slogans of the currently tiny Third Square movement—"No Mubarak, no Morsi, no SCAF" (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces). But absurd idealism, not just in Egypt, but in cities across the globe that have been at least partly inspired by Egypt’s turmoil—from Rio to Athens to Istanbul—has astounded us all in recent years. Those hoping that the conditions of audibility have been broken forever should not rest easy in their beds.

In reading some of the moving, melancholic words written by Egyptian friends in the past few days as they reflect on what is happening to their country and mourn the murder of so many, one common theme struck me: The pain of feeling like something ineffable was being robbed from within them. Activist Moataz Attalla once spoke beautifully of Tahrir enabling people to taste a different language, to taste possibility; I think that is what Yasmin el-Rifae is referring to when she writes of how the revolution dislodged her cynicism—and how the current “flaunting of our cruelty as a source of pride” has summoned it back. Likewise, Omar Robert Hamilton recalls how transformative it was, that “belief we all shared, for a moment, in each other.”  He goes on: “In an eternity of disappointment and greed and malice that moment, that moment in which being human was finally worth something, in which having a community was preferable to being alone with a book, had a value that will never be lost.”

They are right to acknowledge how much has been shattered and stolen by this bloodshed, and right as well to believe that this is not the end: Whatever has been robbed can be taken back. For now, those fighting for a better Egypt in Ramlet Bulaq, in Qursaya, in Suez and in a thousand other communities across the country may have been quietened, but they will not remain silent forever. And when they do speak out, they will find that this regime has nothing but bullets and binaries with which to answer them. That will not be enough, and so the revolution will continue. As the Sheikh of Tahsin told me, “I will not live as a third-rate citizen anymore. I have withdrawn my acceptance of the status quo. This is the fruit of 25 January, and there is no turning back.”"

Al-Jazeera Video: في العمق.. مستقبل جبهة الإنقاذ بعد الانقلاب العسكري

Why Saudi Arabia is taking a risk by backing the Egyptian coup

King Abdullah fears the Muslim Brotherhood, which challenges the kingdom's claim to be the protector of Islam

A GOOD COMMENT
David Hearst

theguardian.com, Tuesday 20 August 2013

Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo protest against the ousting of the Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. Photograph: Mahmud Khaled/AFP/Getty Images

 

"It took almost 60 years for the CIA to own up to its role in the British-backed coup that overthrew Iran's prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh on August 19, 1953. But Saudi Arabia's backing for the recent Egyptian coup, which its head of intelligence, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, had worked so tirelessly to achieve, was instantaneous. When Adli Mansour, the former head of Egypt's supreme court, was sworn in as interim president, King Abdullah sent him a message praising the Egyptian army for having saved the country from a dark tunnel.

The Saudi monarch followed this up last Friday with a speech whose bluntness was atypical of the man. "Let the entire world know," he proclaimed "that the people and government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stood and still stand today with our brothers in Egypt against terrorism, extremism and sedition, and against whomever is trying to interfere in Egypt's internal affairs." This was unusual, not only because Abdullah was aiming his words at his other ally, the United States, and the Gulf state's regional rival Qatar, whom he accused of "fanning the fire of sedition and promoting terrorism, which they claim to be fighting". It was rare because the monarch, who prefers behind the scenes diplomacy, was so explicit.

The kingdom has backed its words with money, and oil. It has already put together an $12bn (£7.7bn) aid package along with the UAE and Kuwait which is four times as much as the military and economic grants from the US and the EU combined ($1.5bn and $1.3bn respectively). On his return from meeting the French president at the weekend, the foreign minister, Saudi al-Faisal, vowed to compensate Egypt for any loss of EU or US money. Barack Obama's impotence in the Middle East is being paraded by the US's closest Arab military ally.....


Why has the kingdom, famed for its caution on the diplomatic stage, put all its eggs in one basket, which, considering the volatility in Egypt, remains fragile and unpredictable. Who knows which side in Egypt will prevail, and if that is so, why back the coup leader General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi so publicly? Sisi thanked the kingdom in fulsome terms. He said that the Saudi intervention was unprecedented since the Yom Kippur 1973 war with Israel. Praise indeed.

For Dr Maha Azzam, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, the kingdom's fire-breathing support for the coup comes as little surprise. Not only had they been astonished by Washington's abandonment of the kingdom's closest regional ally in Hosni Mubarak, a point they made very clear during his trial. They had seen him replaced, at the polls, by the Brotherhood, which challenged the kingdom's claim to be the protector of Islam.

Azzam said: "What they had was a lethal equation, democracy plus Islamism, albeit under the Muslim Brotherhood. That was a lethal concoction in undermining the kingdom's own legitimacy in the long run. They know full well they do not want democracy, but to have another group representing Islam was intolerable."

King Abdullah has good reason to fear the Brotherhood, which has been getting unprecedented support in Saudi Arabia since the 3 July coup. Sympathy for Mohamed Morsi has filled Twitter feeds in the country. Support for Morsi on social media has its own emblem, a four-fingered salute, known as the sign of Rabaa.

It is one thing to upset the middle class and the intelligentsia, but quite another to have the country's religious scholars denounce you. A group of 56 of them did so, by issuing a statement describing the events of 3 July as "unquestionably a military coup and an unlawful and illicit criminal act". The king has also been attacked in a sermon by a sheikh at the al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque in Medina, Islam's second holiest site.

The royal family have responded to the campaign they are facing on social media by sacking a Kuwaiti TV preacher with Brotherhood links. Tareq al-Suwaidan, who has more than 1.9 million Twitter followers, was told that there is no place for those who carry deviant thoughts at the Al Resalah channel.

But this is a dangerous strategy. As president, Morsi resisted calling his regional enemies out for the money and support they gave to Egyptian opposition politicians, parties and private television channels for good reason. Up to 2 million Egyptians are employed as guest workers in the kingdom and their remittances were important for an economy on its knees. He feared that the Saudis would kick them out if he accused them of undermining his presidency. However today, Egyptian ex-pats are not the Brotherhood's problem or responsibility. What could well follow is an unrestrained campaign by its members to destabilise the Saudi and UAE regimes.

Azzam said: "For the US and EU, there is very little grey area. Either you have authoritarian regimes, including Assad or you have the Arab spring. The authoritarian regimes are saying: 'If we use enough force, we can quell the tide of democracy.' For Washington it means that there is no regional player that can now mediate with the Egyptian military. No one that can play the role of good cop."

The battles lines have now been clearly drawn throughout the Arab world. The military coup in Egypt, and Saudi support for it, represents an attempt to turn the clock back, to halt the wave of democratisation heralded by the toppling of Arab dictators. It is unlikely to be the final word or battle in what promises to be an epic struggle.

The Dictatorship is Dead......Long Live the Dictatorship, by Khalil Bendib

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

The Egyptian Military Massacre and its Aftermath

Al-Jazeera Video: Empire : The Brief: The Empire of Secrets

"As revelations of systemic snooping continue to hit the headlines, who is watching the watchers? Watch this additional footage about America's Empire of Secrets.More on www.aljazeera.com/empire."

Real News Video: Max Blumenthal: Something Snapped when Israel Attacked Gaza

In Pt 3/4 of Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Max Blumenthal talks about the affect on him of Israel's attack on Gaza and his break with American liberalism 

الإذاعة الإسرائيلية:مبعوث إسرائيلي زار القاهرة سرا

arabs48.com

"
ذكرت الإذاعة الإسرائيلية ظهر اليوم أن تقارير مختلفة أفادت بأن مبعوثا سريا عن الحكومة الإسرائيلية زار القاهرة، اليوم الثلاثاء، ومكث فيها عدة ساعات أجرى خلالها محادثات مع القادة العسكريين في مصر. وقالت محللة الشؤون العربية في صحيفة يديعوت أحرونوت سمدار بيري في مقابلة معها في الإذاعة العبرية، ريشت بيت، إنه كان من المهم للحكومة الإسرائيلية، إعلان هذا النبأ للتأكيد على مواصلة التنسيق الأمني بين إسرائيل ومصر تحت قيادة السيسي.

ولفتت سمدار بيري إلى أن هناك تعاونا وتنسيق أمني متواصلين بين القيادة العسكرية في مصر، وبين إسرائيل، وأن هناك مصالح مشتركة بين إسرائيل والمؤسسة الأمنية في مصر، خاصة ما يتعلق بحفظ الأمن في شبه جزيرة سيناء، وضمان استمرار استقرار يبقي على معاهدة السلام الإسرائيلية المصرية.

وفي هذا السياق كانت تقارير غربية وأخرى إسرائيلية لفتت في الأيام الماضية إلى أن القيادات الإسرائيلية، السياسية والأمنية على حد سواء بذلت في الأيام الأخيرة جهودا كبيرة لدى الإدارة الأمريكية لحثها على الوقوف إلى جانب حكم السيسي وعدم اتخاذ اية خطوات عقابية ضد مصر على خلفية مذابح رابعة العدوية وميدان النهضة.

كما شنت الصحف الإسرائيلية هي الأخرى في الأيام الماضية حملة إعلامية، أكدت فيها على حيوية المصالح الأمنية والدولية المشتركة بين الولايات المتحدة والمؤسسة الأمنية والعسكرية المصرية، وفي مقدمتها كون مصر الدولة الوحيدة بين حلفاء الولايات المتحدة التي تجيز للأخيرة استخدام الأجواء المصرية وقناة السويس بشكل حر ودون حاجة لتنسيق مسبق، خلافا للحال مع دول أخرى حليفة في المنطقة.....
"

From Azmi Bishara

"من لا يبدي حساسية تجاه قمع الرأي الآخروالتحريض على منعه وتخوين صاحبه؛ من لا يعترض على تهديد المخالف بالرأي بلقمة عيشه؛ من لا يشمئز من التحريض على الهوية سواء أكانت طائفة أو مكان سكن، من لا يثير غضبه قتل معتصمين، وضرب معتقلين قبل اعتقالهم؛ من لا يستفز مشاعره إطلاق ضباع من البلطجية لضرب نساء متظاهرات بالهراوات؛ من لا ينفر من قتل معتقلين؛ من لا يثير اشمئزازه سياسيون فاشلون يراهنون بحقد على العسكر ليصفي خصومهم؛ من لا يعترض على التحريض الديني على الآخر وتكفيره ... تكفيني هذه لأعرف اي نوع من الناس هو، ولا يهمني عن أي قضية يدافع وعن أي حزب، ولصالح من؟

"

Al-Jazeera Video: ElBaradei referred to trial on charges of 'breaching national trust

"Khaled Dawoud, former spokesman of National Salvation Front, told Al Jazeera that complaint against Former Vice President Mohamed El Baradei on 'breaching national trust' is 'ridiculous' and the prosecutor general who referred to the case is probably falling under this atmosphere of polarization in the country.Egypt's former vice president has been referred to trial in September on charges of breaching national trust over his resignation from the government."

And now, a message from our (Saudi) sponsors

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"The Egyptian junta is about to let former despot Hosni Mubarak out of the box in the name of defending the interests of the "Egyptian people". Take it as a message from the House of Saud, which loves Mubarak as one of its own. ... "Arab Spring? What Arab Spring?"......"

Egypt's Tragedy: Military Dictatorship Takes Shape on Nile

Last Wednesday's massacre marked the beginning of a new phase of repression in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is on the defensive, and the country is threatened by the return of a military dictatorship. It could be the end of the Arab Spring. By SPIEGEL Staff

Der Spiegel

"....
But a return to military dictatorship may not just mean a return to pre-2011 conditions, but in fact a return to even darker times. "Under the regime of Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood was repressed, but the repression was never total. The Brotherhood, as the country's largest opposition force, was allowed room to operate, to contest elections, and to have seats in parliament," writes political scientist Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution, the Washington-based think tank. "The current military government is much more ambitious, with its aim to dismantle the Brotherhood and destroy it as a political force." To achieve this, Hamid continues, the generals have "tapped into real, popular anger against the Brotherhood. ... Continuous civil conflict, in turn, will be used to justify permanent war against an array of internal and foreign enemies, both real and imagined."

There are plenty of indications that this is indeed the case. Even before Egypt's bloody Wednesday, dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members were locked up, and former President Morsi has also been held, in an undisclosed location, for the last seven weeks. On the day before the massacre, the government released the names of the new provincial governors. Two-thirds of them are generals. The old state security service is also back in business. And shortly after the massacre, the military announced a state of emergency, claiming that it would only last for one month. But the last time a state of emergency was declared, it lasted 30 years. And under a state of emergency, arbitrary arrests and expedited trials are once again possible.

All Terrorists

The media, at any rate, has fallen back into its old propaganda role. On Thursday morning, the state broadcaster announced that the protesters in the tent camps were all terrorists and had shot themselves to death.

But the Muslim Brotherhood is also spreading conspiracy theories, including the claim that 75 percent of pro-army demonstrators in recent weeks were Christians who had only taken to the streets at the behest of the Coptic patriarch. This apparently resonated with Islamists in southern Egypt, as evidenced by the rise in attacks on Christians. .....

Al-Jazeera Video: مصر بين الإقصاء السياسي والجسدي للمعارضين

Egypt: Security Forces Used Excessive Lethal Force

Worst Mass Unlawful Killings in Country’s Modern History

Human Rights Watch
August 19, 2013

"(New York) – Egyptian security forces’ rapid and massive use of lethal force to disperse sit-ins on August 14, 2013 led to the most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history.       

The ongoing Human Rights Watch investigation indicates that the decision to use live ammunition on a large scale from the outset reflected a failure to observe basic international policing standards on use of lethal force and was not justified by the disruptions caused by the demonstrations or the limited possession of arms by some protesters. The failure of the authorities to provide safe exit from the sit-in, including for people wounded by live fire and needing urgent medical attention, was a serious violation of international standards.

Based on first-hand documentation and interviews with health workers by Human Rights Watch, and lists of the dead obtained by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, the death toll during the dispersal of the Rab’a sit-in appears to be at least 377, significantly higher than the latest Rab’a death toll of 288 announced by the Health Ministry.

With the death toll rising day by day, Egypt’s military rulers should urgently reverse recent police instructions to use live ammunition to protect state buildings and use it only when strictly necessary to protect life.   

“This excessive and unjustified use of lethal force is the worst possible response to the very tense situation in Egypt today,” said Joe Stork, acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Egypt’s military rulers should rein in police forces to prevent the country from spiraling into further violence. The military should not be encouraging police to use even more lethal force.”......"

THE EGYPTIAN DISAPPEARED

HEY, HEY SISI BEY........

HOW MANY EGYPTIANS DID YOU DISAPPEAR TODAY??

US aid to Egypt is not for Egypt but Israel, JJ Goldberg explains

By Philip Weiss on August 16, 2013

 

"At the Forward, JJ Goldberg gets to the bottom of US policy: he says US aid to Egypt cannot be withheld because it's "bad for the Jews."

 

the course of action that seems self-evidently proper to right-minded Americans — punishing the Egyptian military, ending military cooperation, suspending aid — will almost certainly have a catastrophic impact on Israel’s peace with Egypt....
America’s billion-dollar-plus annual aid package to Egypt does not exist for Egypt’s benefit, but for Israel’s. It’s the carrot, or bribe, that keeps Egypt faithful to its peace treaty with Israel, despite its enormous unpopularity on the Egyptian street. That treaty is critical to Israel.

 

I think Goldberg is right; and this is the reason that the US will not suspend aid. I have often stated here that the US supported a dictatorship in Egypt for decades because of US support for Israel-- that the self-determination of 80 million Arabs counted for nothing when it came to the US determination to maintain a Jewish garrison state that was established by war and preserved by force. "

Human rights leaders call for action by Egyptian authorities

"There must be a full, impartial and effective investigation into the shocking loss of life that has taken place in Egypt over the last week, with full accountability for whoever committed or ordered the unwarranted lethal crackdown, said Amnesty International’s leaders from across the globe as they came together in Berlin today.

“The interim government has already stained its human rights record – first by breaking its promises to use non-lethal weapons to disperse pro-Morsi sit-ins and allow for the safe exit of wounded and then by justifying their actions despite the tragic loss of lives,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“The response of the international community has been weak and ineffective, even as everyone leaps to condemn the horrific loss of life. The international community must act decisively to send a message that no government can behave this way and retain any credibility.”

“Even if violence was employed by some of the pro-Morsi protesters, that could never justify such a disproportionate response. It should also not be used as a pretext to crackdown on all supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, without making a distinction between those using and inciting violence, and those simply expressing their opinion.  In what country could the security forces act in such a brutal and reckless fashion without taking decisive action?”......"

Hosni Mubarak to be freed within days, lawyer says

Link

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president overthrown in the 2011 revolution, is likely to be freed from detention within days.

Judicial authorities ruled on Monday that he had already spent too long in custody after one of the charges against him was dropped.

News of Mubarak's imminent release looks likely to inflame a highly volatile mood in Egypt. It comes after the army's clearance of two Cairo protest camps last week, which sparked bloodshed in which at least 900 people have been killed, and unprecedented polarisation following the military's removal of the elected Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, last month.

On a day in which 26 policemen were gunned down in the Sinai peninsula, apparently by a jihadi group, and furious responses to the deaths on Sunday of 36 detained members of the Brotherhood, Mubarak's lawyer, Fareed el-Deeb, said his client would be freed after the Cairo criminal court ordered his release in one of the remaining corruption cases against him.

Mubarak and his two sons were charged with embezzling funds for presidential palaces.

"All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours. He should be freed by the end of the week," Deeb said. State TV reported later that Mubarak's sons Gamal and Alaa would remain in custody.

Al-Jazeera Video: آثار تعذيب وحروق على أجسام قتلى أبو زعبل

"قال علي كمال محامي ذوي المعتقلين الذين قتلوا أمس في سيارة كانت تنقلهم إلى سجن أبو زعبل، إن موكليه اكتشفوا عند توجههم إلى مشرحة "زينهم" آثار تعذيب على وجوه وأجساد الضحايا."

Sharif Abdel Kouddous: In Modern Egypt’s Bloodiest Period, "New Horrors Are Brought Every Day"

Democracy Now!

"Mass violence continues in Egypt amidst the bloodiest period in the country’s modern history. Around 900 people have been killed since state forces attacked Muslim Brotherhood protest encampments five days ago. At least 173 people were killed in a "Day of Rage" protest called by the Brotherhood on Friday followed by at least 79 deaths on Saturday. Around 90 police officers and soldiers have died in the violence but Islamist supporters of the Brotherhood and ousted President Mohamed Morsi account for the bulk of the victims. On Sunday, at least 36 prisoners were killed in Cairo after guards said they tried to escape while being transferred. But the Muslim Brotherhood accused state forces of a "cold-blooded killing" and demanded an international probe. And earlier today at least 24 police officers were reportedly killed in the northern Sinai after coming under attack by militants. "New horrors are brought every day, nightmarish scenes that Egyptians could never have imagined," Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports from Cairo. "It’s not a Cairo that many people recognize. With both sides vowing to escalate, worse days surely lie ahead."...."

Ahdaf Soueif: Amidst Egypt’s Bloodshed, "We Are Trying Keep the Discourse of the Revolution Alive"

Democracy Now!

"As reports emerge that former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak could be released this week, we speak to the acclaimed Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif. A prominent backer of the 2011 Tahrir Square, Soueif reflects on the state of the revolution and the growing divide in Egypt. "One of most depressing things that we’ve seen has been how a strand of what what was the revolution, and what was either progressive or liberal, has so completely backed, endorsed, egged-on the military and the police and have completely, unrelentingly demonized the Brotherhood and Islamist currents," Soueif says from Cairo. "And I think that is part of why we’ve had an escalation of violence. It’s as if everyone is playing out a role that is expected of them." We’re also joined by Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Chris Toensing, executive director of the Middle East Research and Information Project......"

Real News Video: US Foreign Policy: The Moral Hazard of "Relative Evil" Necessary to Fight "Absolute Evil"

In Pt 2 of 4 of Reality Asserts Itself, Paul Jay and Max Blumenthal discuss US foreign policy from Bush to Obama and the concept that in "defense of civilization", every crime is acceptable 
ANOTHER GREAT SEGMENT

Israel is quietly and carefully watching the turmoil in Egypt while maintaining close contacts with the Egyptian military

AP

"Israel is quietly and carefully watching the turmoil in Egypt while maintaining close contacts with the Egyptian military amid concerns that the escalating crisis could weaken their common battle against Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula, reports AP.
As the week's death toll in Egypt rises, this alliance has put Israel in a delicate position. Wary of being seen as taking sides in the Egyptian military's standoff against Islamist supporters of the ousted president, Israel also needs the Egyptian army to maintain quiet along their shared border and to preserve a historic peace treaty.
The 1979 peace treaty, Israel's first with an Arab country, has been a cornerstone of regional security for three decades. It has allowed Israel to divert resources to volatile fronts with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. For Egypt, it opened the way to billions of dollars in US military aid.
Although diplomatic relations have never been close, the two militaries have had a good working relationship. These ties have only strengthened since longtime President Hosni Mubarak was ousted two and a half years ago. With both armies battling extremist Jihadi groups in the Sinai Peninsula, near the Israeli border, Israeli security officials often say that relations with their Egyptian counterparts are stronger than ever.
With so much at stake, Israel has remained quiet since the Egyptian military ousted Mubarak's Islamist successor, Mohammed Morsi, last month.
Israel has not commented on this week's bloodshed, in which the Egyptian troops killed hundreds of Morsi's supporters who were rallying against the coup and demanding that he be reinstated.
Giora Eiland, a former chairman of Israel's National Security Council, said:

Israel does not have to support the (Egyptian) regime, especially not publicly. It is not our place to defend all the measures taken, this is not our business.

At the same time, Eiland suggested the international condemnations of the Egyptian military's actions have been excessive. He said Israeli and Western interests were "much closer" to the interests of Egypt's military leader, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and his secular allies.

Even if we don't share the same values, we can share the same interests. The Israeli interest is quite clear. We want a stable regime in Egypt."

Bloody Coup in Egypt

Pavel Constantin, Cagle Cartoons, Romania

Egyptian Media Silences Protests

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

"CAIRO, Aug 16 2013 (IPS) - As Egypt’s political crisis escalates, supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi accuse the local media – both state-run and private – of ignoring pro-Morsi demonstrations and covering up massive rights abuses.

Egypt Junta Suffocates 38 Detainees in Police Van

Interior Ministry Claims Captive Protesters Were Trying to Escape

"The death toll at the hands of Egypt’s military junta continues to rise today, after 38 captured protesters were suffocated to death in the back of an overcrowded police van in Cairo.

Egyptian officials offered two different stories which both involved the detainees killed while attempting to escape from prison, but other sources later confirmed that they were dead in the back of the van.

The deaths fueled more condemnation from around the region, but especially from the Muslim Brotherhood, whose civilian government was ousted by the military last month.

“The murders show the violations and abuses that political detainees who oppose the July 3 coup get subjected to,” the Brotherhood added in a statement. The overall death toll since Wednesday’s massacres in a matter of considerable dispute, but the official Health Ministry figures put it around 850 killed, while most analysts agree it is now well over 1,000. The Brotherhood has suggested it is several thousand, though it is impossible to verify any of the figures as the situation gets more and more chaotic.

Courtesy of antiwar.com.

THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION CONTINUES: Hosni Mubarak free within 48 hours, claims lawyer

Former Egyptian president overthrown in 2011 uprising will be released from jail this week, according to his lawyer

theguardian.com, Monday 19 August 2013

"Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president overthrown in an uprising in 2011, will be released from jail in the next 48 hours after a prosecutor cleared him in a corruption case, his lawyer has said.

Fareed el-Deeb was speaking after judicial authorities ordered the release of Mubarak in one of the remaining corruption cases against him.


The only legal grounds for Mubarak's continued detention rest on another corruption case that will be cleared up later this week, Deeb said.


"All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours. He should be freed by the end of the week," Deeb said......"

More From Azmi Bishara

"حول المصطلحات:

1. 
   1. العلمانية شرط اللبرالية. هذا إذا كان تعريف العلمانية بالحد الأدنى هو تحييد الدولة في الشأن الديني. وإذا كان المقصود باللبرالية موقف فكري سياسي يضع الحريات (المدنية والسياسية ) في مركز اهتمامه، وعلى رأس جدول أعماله.
   2. هنالك بالطبع علمانيون لبراليون. ولكن ليس كل علماني لبراليا. فثمة علمانيين لا يفقهون معنى الكلمة، وثمة علمانيين معادين للديمقراطية والبرالية في الغرب والشرق والأنظ...مة الفاشية والشيوعية أمثلة على ذلك؛ وكذلك الدكتاتوريات العسكرية في بلدانا.
   3. إذا تحولت الحركات الدينية الى حركات جماهيرية أيديولوجية شمولية تحاكي الحركات الشمولية العلمانية تصبح الفاشية الدينية ممكنة.
   4. اللبرالية الاقتصادية التي تضع الملكية الخاصة وقوانين السوق فوق كل شيء ليست بالضرورة لبرالية سياسية، وهي لا تدفع باتجاه الحريات المدنية بالضرورة. ففي مراحل تاريخية كثيرة تتحالف مع الفاشية السياسية وقمع الحريات لتأمين مصالح الطبقات العليا اذا لزم. ما من حديث هنا عن لبرالية. بل عن فاشية تؤمن بقوانين السوق والملكية الخاصة.
   5. في التاريخ لبرالية سياسية غير ديمقراطية، بمعنى لا تؤمن بمشاركة الشعب ولا بحكم ممثلي حكم الأغلبية.
   6. في التاريخ حالات ديمقراطية غير لبرالية، تؤمن أنه من حق حكم ممثلي الأغلبية السياسية أن يقمع الحريات.
   7. في عصرنا لم يعد الحديث ممكنا عن لبرالية غير ديمقراطية (اي من دون مشاركة الشعب في صنع القرار) ولا عن ديمقراطية من دون لبرالية (أي من دون حماية الحريات المدنية والسياسية).
   8. التحدي الكبير في الديمقراطية المعاصرة لا سيما في دول العالم الثالث هو الجمع بين اللبرالية السياسية والديمقراطية والعدالة الاجتماعية.

   
   

   "

From Azmi Bishara's Facebook Page

"المفكر العربي الدكتور عزمي بشارة

5 hours ago

 

 

1. مضمون الخطاب السياسي المؤيد للانقلاب ونبرته التحريضية الاجتثاثية وتكفيره للآخر وتساهله المنقطع النظير مع القتل اسوأ من خطاب مرحلة مبارك.2. الثورة المضادة عموما تحمل خطابا أسوء من الوضع السابق على الثورة. لأنها تعبوية وتحريضية وانتقامية.
3. من يخطط لاجتثاث مليون شخص بتهمة الإرهاب، لا بد أن يشك بعشرة ملايين ومن يشك بعشرة ملايين يجب أن يراقب مائة مليون، والنتيجة كم أفواه واستبداد.
4. ثمة من يؤيد... القتل والقمع والإبادة ولكنه يناقش في التفاصيل. مثل هذا لن تقنعه الحجة، فهدفه ليس الحقيقة بل تبرير القتل.
5. من يعتبر الغاية تبرر الوسيلة لا تناقشه حول الكذب والوقائع والحقائق. فالكذب عنده أسهل الوسائل في خدمة الغاية. وغايته حقيقته الوحيدة.
6. من يعتبر أعمال حقيرة مثل حرق الكنائس وغيرها مؤامرة لتشويه صورته عليه ان يحارب مثل هذه الأفعال كأنها مؤامرة سواء أرتكبها مندسون أو متطرفون (ولا ينقص متطرفون عنصريون في مجتمعاتنا ولا يجوز التهرب من محاربتهم). حتى في ظروف ثورة مضادة، فهم جزء من الثورة المضادة قولا وممارسة.

 

"

Egypt on the brink of a new dark age, as the generals close in for the kill

World View: Compromise is no longer feasible, and the army controls the levers of power. But can its victory be conclusive?

By Patrick Cockburn

".....
In other words, there is going to be a fight to the finish with both sides believing the other has bitten off more than it can chew. The army and security forces control most of the instruments of power and are very unlikely to lose, but can they emerge as an outright and conclusive winner? For all their expressions of dismay at last week's bloodbath, the US and the EU states were so mute and mealy-mouthed about criticising the 3 July coup as to make clear that they prefer the military to the Brotherhood. Given that 500 Egyptian military officers a year – including General Sisi and the air force head General Reda Mahmoud – train in the US they will be well-attuned to what America wants or will accept.

Unsurprisingly, generals and security men prescribe military solutions for political problems. And, if force at first fails, they are likely to see this as a reason to use more force rather than seek compromise. This is a lesson of the Turkish military coup in 1980 in which hundreds of thousands were jailed and tortured, and likewise of the Algerian military takeover in 1992, designed to avoid an election victory by an Islamic party. Military dictatorships often succeed by their own lights, but at horrendous cost to the societies they are supposedly trying to protect. Egyptians will be lucky if they are not at the start of a new dark age of military repression."

Al-Jazeera Video: حديث الثورة 17/8/2013

Al-Jazeera Video: ما وراء الخبر.. محاولات وصم مؤيدي مرسي بتهمة "الإرهاب"

Real News Video: Why are Egyptian Liberals Celebrating a Massacre?

A SUPERB VIDEO; DON'T MISS IT!

Pt 1 of 4. In a new episode of Reality Asserts Itself, Paul Jay and Max Blumenthal discuss how the Egyptian military has manipulated the revolution and the Muslim Brotherhood to reestablish a dictatorship by the generals
 

Egyptian Government Slams Foreign Press As Journalists Come Under Assault

The Huffington Post

"CAIRO -- Facing a wave of international condemnation for its approach to a Muslim Brotherhood protest movement, and the soaring violence that followed in its wake, Egypt's government opened a sustained broadside against Western journalists over the weekend, accusing them of ignoring facts and "biased coverage."

"Egypt is feeling severe bitterness towards some Western media coverage that is biased to the Muslim Brotherhood and ignores shedding light on violent and terror acts that are perpetrated by this group in the form of intimidation operations and terrorizing citizens," one statement from the official foreign press coordination center said.

The criticism from officials within the government -- including statements or media appearances, much of them in English, by the presidential spokesman, the foreign minister and the press center -- came as several journalists found themselves subject to attacks on the streets of Cairo as they attempted to do their jobs.

On Saturday alone, half a dozen reporters faced intimidation, assault and detention by both authorities and unofficial vigilante gangs, as the journalists attempted to cover the siege of a mosque in downtown Cairo, where Muslim Brotherhood supporters had holed up ever since fighting broke out on Friday.
Matt Bradley, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and Alastair Beach, a correspondent with the Independent, both came under attack from the unruly mobs that had swarmed around the mosque, seeking to take out their frustration with the Brotherhood. Both men were eventually pulled from the crowd by nearby Army soldiers and suffered minimal physical damage, although Beach was hit in the head by an assailant with a long stick.
In a dramatic moment captured live on the television cameras of Al Jazeera, the two men could be seen being shielded by a group of sympathetic bystanders who formed an arm-linked chain, while the soldiers put the two reporters into an armored personnel carrier for their protection.....

In an even more harrowing experience, Patrick Kingsley, the Egypt correspondent for the British paper the Guardian, documented on Twitter a series of captures and releases over the afternoon at the hands of several different gangs of individuals downtown, some of them police, others seemingly unrelated to the authorities. His laptop computer and cellphone were also taken from him in the process.

Earlier in the week, officials at the Press Center, which regulates and accredits foreign journalists, announced that no visiting journalists would be issued press identifications without prior approval from the intelligence services, a break from long-standing practice.
In a statement put out on Friday, Sherif Mansour, the Middle East and North Africa coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, called the situation facing reporters in Egypt unprecedented. "Journalists are in more danger than they were under Hosni Mubarak," he said......"

New Egyptian "Democracy"

By Signe Wilkinson

Fully Engaged in "Restoring Democracy"

FULLY ENGAGED IN "RESTORING DEMOCRACY;" ANY DOUBTS??

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

Do you support the charges of the Egyptian government that those opposed to the coup are engaged in terrorism?

With about 3,000 responding, 92% said no.