The clashes continue across Egypt and reports of gunfire continue to pierce the sky in the capital Cairo. The army has moved in to keep both sides apart, reportedly pushing pro- Hosni Mubarak supporters further away from the square. Ahmed Shafiq, Egypt’s new prime minister, speaking on state television says there will be an investigation in the fighting on Wednesday and the ongoing violence. Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reports.
Continue reading …Tahrir Square sees clashes between Egyptian protesters and Mubarak supporters – video
February 3, 2011 No Comment
Television footage shows Egyptian troops moving between pro- and anti-Mubarak groups in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where violent clashes are continuing
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News organisations warn of danger to reporters from Mubarak supporters as violence escalates in Egyptian capital Journalists from the BBC, al-Jazeera, and other Arab news organisations were today facing fresh attacks from pro-government “thugs” after an escalation of violence in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, overnight. Reporters from a number of media organisations, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper and the BBC’s Jerome Boehm, were targeted yesterday and earlier today as supporters of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak continued their attacks against anti-government protesters. Western broadcasters, including ITN and the BBC, today joined the Arabic networks in warning about the running battles taking place in and around Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Jonathan Munro, the deputy editor of ITV News, told the Guardian that the safety of its reporters was at the “forefront of all our minds” in discussions on how to cover the protests. “Whenever we work in a volatile region, we take safety very seriously,” he said. Channel 4 News reported today that Mubarak’s “secret police” were threatening journalists to keep away from the streets of Cairo. Jonathan Rugman, Channel 4 News’s foreign correspondent, tweeted earlier today : “One journalist punched in face, another stabbed in leg by pro-Mubarak thugs in Cairo this morning. On their way to hospital now.” Jon Snow, the broadcaster’s chief news anchor, added : “Media hotel [is] suffering Mubarak thugs attacking all our attempts to get out to report.” Reuters said one of its television crews was beaten up early today close to Tahrir Square while filming a piece about shops and banks being forced to shut during the clashes. David Degner, a Cairo-based photographer, said five of his journalist friends has been ” beaten and had their equipment confiscated ” as clashes between the two groups escalated. Press freedom groups warn that reporting on the Egyptian uprising is becoming increasingly perilous as the number of journalists injured and arrested continues to rise. “Starting yesterday we saw a surge phase in attacks against journalists,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Middle East and North Africa programme co-ordinator. “This is like a return to the first phase, before the censorship, but far more violent and universal. They are now targeting anybody with a camera, notepad, anybody interviewing people – anyone will get violently attacked, anyone they could get their hands on. If you’re a journalist in Egypt at this late stage in the game, they don’t care if you’re from Mars – they’re going to come after you.” Munro, who has ITV News colleagues reporting from Cairo’s Tahrir Square, said: “When deciding who to send to Egypt, we chose some of our most experienced reporters, producers and cameramen, and asked one of our senior news editors to run the operation there. “They are all used to operating in difficult conditions. Their safety is the first thing we consider when we’re looking at the day’s newsgathering, and it remains at the forefront of all our minds as we discuss how to cover the moving story.” Arabic language news channels al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya appear to have suffered some of the worst of the attacks. Pro-government protesters charged the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news network’s Cairo office yesterday afternoon. Several of its staff were left bloodied and beaten in the assault, and its correspondent Ahmed Abdullah had to be taken to a nearby hospital with severe head injuries. Dan Nolan, al-Jazeera’s United Arab Emirates correspondent, said the there was ” so much anti-Jazeera sentiment ” among the president’s supporters that it was “not safe to be outside” for the broadcaster’s reporters. Cooper, CNN’s star reporter based in Cairo, described how he was “roughed up by thugs” late yesterday in the pro-Mubarak crowd. “It was pandemonium. There was no control. Suddenly a man would come up to you and punch you in the face,” he said . Cooper’s CNN colleague, Hala Gorani, today recounted the incident: “I got slammed against the gates and was threatened by one of the pro-Mubarak protesters who was telling me to ‘get out, get out!’. The pro-Mubaraks, whoever they are, whoever sent them, are being threatening toward camera crews, journalists, anybody who looks like they may be onlookers.” The leaders of France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain today said they view the “deterioration” of the situation in Egypt with “extreme concern”. The attacks on foreign media, which have mostly taken place in and around Cairo’s Tahrir Square, were “unacceptable”, the leaders added in a joint statement. •
Continue reading …Et Tu, Pence? John Boehner Sees the Tea Partiers’ Long Knives Come Out as a National Enquirer Affair Story
February 3, 2011 No Comment
Back in September, intrepid blogger Mike Stark broke a story claiming that Rep. John Boehner was having an affair with a lobbyist for the printers association. At the time, Stark wrote: “Several hundred paper-making jobs were lost in his district and he refused to do anything about it at the same time he was sleeping with a lobbyist for the printing industry that was very happy to get their cheap paper from China. Gotta give it to Lyons though! She’s one hell of a lobbyist! It was greeted with a resounding silence from the corporate media. But today, the National Enquirer will carry the story. enlarge Stark in an interview with Sam Seder today denied speculation (including from our own Howie Klein) that former hate radio host Rep. Mike Pence (IN-6) or someone from his staff was the source for the story. He also posted this on his website : Several days ago, my friend Howie Klein reported at his blog, Down With Tyranny, that Mike Pence was spreading the John Boehner/Lisbeth Lyons story. Normally, I’d not feel the need to respond to what others write, but this case is different. First, I can’t have people assuming that Howie got his information from me, because implicit to that assumption would be the fact that I can’t keep confidences with my sources. Second, to the extent that people may read the two blogs and put together the idea that Howie got his information from me, they would be ill-informed. And since I think I am in the business of more fully informing the public, allowing that misunderstanding to fester cuts against what I am trying to accomplish with StarkReports.com. Look, I’m obviously a partisan. And the idea that Mike Pence may be circulating these rumors makes for some pretty satisfying and delicious palace intrigue. But, as much as I wish it were so, Mike Pence was not a source for my reporting. With that said, as fate would have it, I ran into Representative Pence at a Robert Hurt campaign event over the weekend. I was able to ask him if he was spreading the story. He looked down, pursed his lips and shook his head as if to deny. Most people I know would have taken that as a flat denial, and I’m certain that’s how it was intended. But here’s another secret… In law school, when you are taking depositions, you are taught that the answers to “yes or no” questions must be spoken. I’m not sure if that is because a court reporter cannot record “witness nodded their head in the affirmative” or “witness shook head to indicate the negative” or if it is because sworn testimony must be spoken aloud for it to be a matter of record. Anyway, Washington has definitely jaded me. I have extreme difficulty accepting anything our elected leaders say as gospel; I’m a natural (extreme) skeptic. So all I can do is report what happened and let y’all make up your own mind. Stark also says that he doesn’t think there’s an attempt by members of the House GOP caucus to take Boehner out — mostly based on his own opinion that it doesn’t make sense. From my perspective, this has the signs of a classic hit. We already know the House ideologues weren’t thrilled about having Boehner as Speaker — as conservative as he is, he looks like a flaming liberal compared to some of the new cowboys. It may not have been Pence, but I’ll bet it was coordinated with him — and the nakedly ambitious Eric Cantor, whose relationship with Boehner could be described as “tense.” There’s a definite split in the party. Prominent wingnuts like Jim DeMint and far-right groups like the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation and the American Family Association said they won’t attend. The extremists are feeling their oats. My guess is, they’ll publicly flex their muscle by taking out Boehner. enlarge Boy Culture got hold of an advance copy and posted this yesterday .
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Judging by reports from Cairo, the west does not understand that one of the greatest antiquity collections on Earth is in danger If petrol bombs were being thrown in St Marks Square in Venice , or outside the British Museum , what would reports say? We would never stop hearing about the threat to humanity’s cultural heritage. Yet, as I scan the news sites for the latest reports from Cairo, it is strange how little stress has been placed on the unique importance and fragility of the contents of the Egyptian Museum, which stands at the very heart of the unfolding tragedy. That is why I must reiterate my previous attempt to draw attention to this silent witness and victim of events . No, works of art are not people. The violence to protesters who had been so peaceful is nightmarish. But a nightmare scenario is also unfolding for the antiquities of Egypt . As I already stressed earlier this week, the collection of the Egyptian Museum is one of the greatest on Earth. This is where the golden mask of Tutenkamun is kept; the mummies of the pharaohs, and so much more. The image that has haunted me all week is of a very ancient and very spooky tomb statue in the museum: it keeps coming to mind because I have seen nothing like it anywhere else – and because it is made of wood. Old, dry wood. All these treasures could vanish in smoke so easily. My initial assumption was that the western media were downplaying the museum because it seemed less important than the lives at stake and the future to be won. It was even being said that to draw attention to looting was to do the propaganda work of the regime. But now I am starting to wonder if people in the west even know or care what is in that building. It is a great museum. And it is in peril. Museums Egypt Egyptology Protest Hosni Mubarak Egypt Art Sculpture History and history of art Jonathan Jones guardian.co.uk
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Demonstrators clash with government supporters in Tahrir Square, as political unrest across Egypt enters its 10th day
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Egyptian Mohamed Saad speaks from Alexandria about his involvement in the last 10 days of anti-government protests We are now into our 10th day of demonstrations. I had moved to London to live with my English wife last year, but returned home to Alexandria for the protests to help my family and friends. On the first day, last Tuesday, I was hit with a huge stick on my feet by the police. They turned Technicolor yellow and blue. We made it clear we had come in peace, but it made no difference. All the time we chanted: “Peace, we are demonstrating in peace”. Why do we need Mubarak to step down? Because he has abused his position. Not only has he been president for 30 years, he has used emergency law throughout that time. These laws, which are only supposed to be used in a time of war, gave police the right to check you wherever and whenever they wanted. They often took people off to a secret place, and they would never be seen again. Egypt has been a police state throughout Mubarak’s regime. What we want is simple – democracy. We don’t want Mubarak’s son as the next president; we want free elections and the right to choose the best candidate to be president. The mood here is positive among the young people. We feel we are doing something very great. We feel the country is now ours and that we can change anything. In Alexandria we have had problems with the police. Last Friday the police and the army ran away from the city. After 4pm on Friday you couldn’t find one police officer or soldier in the city. We burnt down all the police stations, except one in our neighbourhood. We also burnt the government building. There was nobody inside, but there were thousands outside with petrol from the cars. With no police in the city, some people went to the shopping centres and to rob everything. Jewellery shops and clothes shops, they took everything and there was a lot of fighting between the looters. Ten people went to one store to steal everything and they ended up killing each other. You can imagine all the young people in the street with the big swords and big thick sticks. My neighbourhood, Mohram Bek, is near the prison Segn el-Hadra which holds 4,000 people. A few days ago, the prisoners were released. Nobody is sure who did it, but we believe it was people close to Mubarek, who wants to create chaos and set Egyptian against Egyptian. Now we have to protect the neighbourhood against looters and former prisoners. On Tuesday evening Mubarak made a speech on TV and he said he will do what the people want, but a lot of people didn’t believe him because he said it in 2000 and 2005. I did believe him because he seemed to be talking with such sincerity. It made sense, too – he is old, and probably doesn’t have time for another period in power. Yesterday I got up at 11am. I hadn’t been to bed ’til 4am because I had been doing shifts guarding our streets. There are around 500 men living in our street and we are like special security. Every two hours we’d change guard. The women stay inside the house and we are on the street. We have checkpoints at the beginning, middle and end of the street and make all passing cars stop for us to check they are ‘clean’. The night before that I didn’t get to bed ’til 8am. We’re all exhausted. So much has happened since the start. Most of the shops are closed now. The ones still open have doubled the price for food. We have enough food at the moment, but plenty of people don’t. If it stays like this for another week it will definitely erupt into civil war, and that is what Mubarak wants. And that’s what happened yeserday. We did fight against each other. There were terrifying sights. In Cairo, men on horses and camels rode into the middle of demonstrators, and hurt many people . They have come in from the neighbourhood of the pyramids, and we all believed they have been paid to do so. The story going round is that they were paid by one of Mubarak’s party £100 each to ride into the crowds with their sticks. They were not dressed in any uniform. What I do know for sure because it happened right in front of me was that people who worked in government were called on their mobile phones and told that they would be paid £100 to go on protest in support of Mubarak. Most refused to go, but some did. The ones who went didn’t have aims or dreams for a new future, they were just looking for the money. One of my friends went, and I don’t think I will be able to have a relationship with him again. He didn’t just sell himself, he sold us out as well. What if someone said: ‘I’ll give you £1,000 to kill your friend’, he would agree. But Alexandria was relatively peaceful compared to Tahrir Square in Cairo. At about 2pm, I went with friends to the hospital to give blood for the injured. It was a good feeling, I’m helping people – giving blood for our people. I gave half a litre, but if they asked for more I would give more. Although the demonstration was peaceful something horrible happened in front of me. There were three guys who were obviously plain-clothed policemen and two girls, and the girls said to them: “Mubarak is a shoe like you”. To be [called] a shoe is a huge insult here. You can imagine how the men reacted. They kicked the girls to the ground, and continued kicking and punching. There was a lot of blood, and then they were taken away in a car. Nobody intervened – everybody knew if they got involved they would be arrested and anything could happen. The police shot teargas at demonstrators and we were burned with what seemed like a form of acid. After we saw this, my friends and I went home. Because the demonstration was finished as far as we were concerned. By now the Mubarak supporters, many of whom we think were bussed in, outnumbered us. These were a mix of people – criminals, some just looking for money and some government workers. When we do guard duty on the streets, my friends and I are carrying swords which are about three foot long. It is the first time I’ve ever carried a sword, and my neighbours were laughing at me and asking what I was going to do with it. Before the uprising the only people ever seen with swords were the bad guys. They asked me what am I going to do with two swords. I said I won’t do anything, and if anything bad does happen I will throw them away and run away to my house. The bad thing now is so many people have weapons. When the police stations were burnt down, people went in to steal all the guns. When things settle down I want police to check bad houses and take the weapons away from people. We are praying that everything will end soon because we are so tired and want to sleep, and we know people are going to run short of food etc. All we want is Mubarak to stand down. On Tuesday when Mubarak said he would stand down in a few months and wanted to make a peaceful transition to new government, I believed him. He spoke so well then, and I accepted that. But after what happened today I can’t accept that. The police used helicopters and guns and acid against their own people. He has to go now. It’s 1pm now. I was on duty ’til 5am last night. I’m on the streets, and I wish you could see what I’m seeing. The police, the army and the people working together to save the country. This is a great sight. We have a saying in Egypt: me and my brother against my cousin, and me and my cousin against any stranger. If people come in from outside we will be united. We don’t want help from anybody outside – we don’t want the Americans involved even if they are on our side. We have to sort this ourselves. • Mohamed Saad was talking to Simon Hattenstone Egypt Protest Middle East guardian.co.uk
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