The BBC is to make an official protest to the Egyptian authorities after one of its journalists was assaulted by police in Cairo today. Assad Sawey , the BBC’s Cairo correspondent, was deliberately assaulted by police while reporting on a baton charge during the street protests. When surrounded by men who appeared to be plain clothes security men, he identified himself as a BBC journalist. He was repeatedly hit, taking blows to the head. He reported that they beat him with steel bars , “the ones used here for slaughtering animals.” His camera was confiscated and he was arrested. After being released without charge, he received medical attention for a head wound, and then continued reporting. The BBC’s global news director Peter Horrocks said: “The BBC condemns this assault on one of our correspondents by the authorities. We shall be forcefully protesting this brutal action directly to the Egyptian authorities. “It is vital that all journalists, whether from the BBC or elsewhere, are allowed to do their job of bringing accurate, impartial eye witness reports to audiences around the world without fear.” Source: BBC World Service Journalist safety Egypt Press freedom BBC World Service Middle East Roy Greenslade guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The BBC is to make an official protest to the Egyptian authorities after one of its journalists was assaulted by police in Cairo today. Assad Sawey , the BBC’s Cairo correspondent, was deliberately assaulted by police while reporting on a baton charge during the street protests. When surrounded by men who appeared to be plain clothes security men, he identified himself as a BBC journalist. He was repeatedly hit, taking blows to the head. He reported that they beat him with steel bars , “the ones used here for slaughtering animals.” His camera was confiscated and he was arrested. After being released without charge, he received medical attention for a head wound, and then continued reporting. The BBC’s global news director Peter Horrocks said: “The BBC condemns this assault on one of our correspondents by the authorities. We shall be forcefully protesting this brutal action directly to the Egyptian authorities. “It is vital that all journalists, whether from the BBC or elsewhere, are allowed to do their job of bringing accurate, impartial eye witness reports to audiences around the world without fear.” Source: BBC World Service Journalist safety Egypt Press freedom BBC World Service Middle East Roy Greenslade guardian.co.uk
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Reporting on the creation of a Senate Tea Party Caucus on Thursday's CBS Evening News, congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes declared that while “Conservative crusader Jim Demint, and the freshmen Senators he worked to elect, planted their Tea Party flag,” the movement's “assertiveness has caused some heartburn for GOP leaders.” As evidence of the supposed indigestion, Cordes cited favorite media targets, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin: “Bachmann insisted on delivering a separate Tea Party response to the State of the Union….Tea Party enthusiast Sarah Palin invoked a vulgar acronym to describe the President's speech.” Cordes was referring to Palin's comment that “There were a lot of WTF moments throughout that speech.” Cordes explained how “friction between the Republican Party and the Tea Party doesn't trouble supporters,” followed by sound bite of Kansas Congressman Jerry Moran: “It's my goal to see that Republicans listen to Tea Party activists and others about what government should be like.” However, Cordes quickly touted possible divisions: “Senator Marco Rubio of Florida is one of a couple of new senators who won big in November with Tea Party support, but who steered clear of the meeting today, indicating they're not completely comfortable with taking on the Tea Party mantle.” Anchor Katie Couric wondered: “So where does this new Tea Party Caucus go from here? It is gaining or losing steam at this point, do you think, Nancy?” Cordes skeptically replied: “I think they could make a credible case that they are gaining steam…they say it doesn't really matter that some of their figureheads are lightning rods, when it's their supporters who are so energized.” Prior to the President's State of the Union address Tuesday night, Couric and a panel of CBS analysts fretted over the “militant” Tea Party members of Congress creating a “chasm” within the Republican Party. Here is a full transcript of Cordes' January 27 report: 6:38PM ET KATIE COURIC: To politics now and the growing power of the Tea Party movement. Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reports five Republican senators today attended the first-ever meeting of the Senate Tea Party caucus. JIM DEMINT [SEN. R-SC]: Thank you for sending me some help. NANCY CORDES: Conservative crusader Jim Demint, and the freshmen Senators he worked to elect, planted their Tea Party flag today. MIKE LEE [SEN. R-UT]: We'll do everything we can to fight on your behalf to restore constitutionally limited government.
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Friday brought news of more demonstrations around Egypt on the fourth day of protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. More deaths were reported, but protesters also made some gains in their struggle against state power … Related Entries January 28, 2011 Egypt Declares Curfew, Corrals ElBaradei January 28, 2011 Thousands Take to Streets in Jordan
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We have come together to stop the looting of our country by this regime, writes Ahdaf Soueif in Cairo This is the scene that took place in every district of every city in Egypt today. The one I saw: we started off as about 20 activists, after Friday prayers in a small mosque in the interior of the popular Cairo district of Imbaba. “The peo ple – dem and – the fall of this reg ime !” Again and again the call went out. We started to walk: ” Your se cur ity. Your pol ice – killed our bro thers in Suez .” The numbers grew. Every balcony was full of people: women smiling, waving, dangling babies to the tune of the chants: “Bread! Freedom! Social justice!” Old women called: “God give you victory.” For more than an hour the protest wound through the narrow lanes. Kids ran alongside. A woman picking through garbage and loading scraps into plastic bags paused and raised her hand in a salute. By the time we wound on to a flyover to head for downtown we were easily 3,000 people. The government had closed the internet down in the whole country at 2am. By 9am, half the mobile phones were down. By 11, not a single mobile was working. Post offices said the international lines had been taken down. This is a regime fighting for its life. And fighting for its ability to carry on looting this country. As the protesters walk through Imbaba, we note the new emergency hospital where building has been stopped because of a government decision to turn it into a luxury block of flats. The latest scandal of this kind is the Madinti project. The chant goes up: “A pound of lentils for ten pounds – a Madinti share for 50p.” Now, as I write, the president has announced a curfew from an hour ago. And the army has started to deploy. If I were not writing this, I would still be out on the street. Every single person I know is out there; people who have never been on protests are wrapping scarves round their faces and learning that sniffing vinegar helps you get through teargas. Teargas! This is a gas that makes you feel the skin is peeling off your face. For several minutes I could not even open my eyes to see what was going on. And when I did, I saw that one of my nieces had stopped in the middle of the road, her eyes streaming. One of her shoes lost, she was holding out her arms: “I can’t, I can’t.” “You have to. Run.” We all held arms and ran. This was on 6 October Bridge, just under the Rameses Hilton, and the air was thick with smoke. The thud of the guns was unceasing. We were trying to get to Tahrir Square, the main square of Cairo, the traditional destination of protests. But ahead of us was a wall of teargas. We ran down the slope of the bridge and straight into a line of central security soldiers. They were meant to block the way. We were three women, dishevelled, eyes streaming. We came right up to them and they made way. “Run,” they urged us, “Run!” “How can you do this?” I reproached them, eye to eye. “What can we do? We want to take off this uniform and join you!” We jumped into a boat and asked the boatman to take us closer to Qasr el-Nil bridge, which would bring us near Tahrir. From the river, you could see people running across the bridges. Some young men caught the gas canisters and threw them into the river, where they burned and fizzed on the water. We scrambled on shore under Qasr el-Nil bridge and joined the massive protest that had broken the security cordon and was heading to Tahrir. I cannot tell how many thousands were there. People were handing out tissues to soak in vinegar for your nose, Pepsi to bathe your eyes. Water to drink. People were helping others who were hurt. The way ahead of us was invisible behind the smoke – except for bursts of flame. The great hotels had darkened their ground floors and locked their doors. The guns thudded continuously and there was a new rattling sound. The people would pause and then a great cry would go up and they would press on. We sang the national anthem. Once, a long time ago, my then young son, watching a young man run to help an old man who had dropped a bag in the middle of the street, said: “The thing about Egypt is that everyone is very individual, but also part of a great co-operative project.” Today, we are doing what we do best, and what this regime has tried to destroy: we have come together, as individuals, in a great co-operative effort to reclaim our country. Egypt Protest Middle East Ahdaf Soueif guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …We have come together to stop the looting of our country by this regime, writes Ahdaf Soueif in Cairo This is the scene that took place in every district of every city in Egypt today. The one I saw: we started off as about 20 activists, after Friday prayers in a small mosque in the interior of the popular Cairo district of Imbaba. “The peo ple – dem and – the fall of this reg ime !” Again and again the call went out. We started to walk: ” Your se cur ity. Your pol ice – killed our bro thers in Suez .” The numbers grew. Every balcony was full of people: women smiling, waving, dangling babies to the tune of the chants: “Bread! Freedom! Social justice!” Old women called: “God give you victory.” For more than an hour the protest wound through the narrow lanes. Kids ran alongside. A woman picking through garbage and loading scraps into plastic bags paused and raised her hand in a salute. By the time we wound on to a flyover to head for downtown we were easily 3,000 people. The government had closed the internet down in the whole country at 2am. By 9am, half the mobile phones were down. By 11, not a single mobile was working. Post offices said the international lines had been taken down. This is a regime fighting for its life. And fighting for its ability to carry on looting this country. As the protesters walk through Imbaba, we note the new emergency hospital where building has been stopped because of a government decision to turn it into a luxury block of flats. The latest scandal of this kind is the Madinti project. The chant goes up: “A pound of lentils for ten pounds – a Madinti share for 50p.” Now, as I write, the president has announced a curfew from an hour ago. And the army has started to deploy. If I were not writing this, I would still be out on the street. Every single person I know is out there; people who have never been on protests are wrapping scarves round their faces and learning that sniffing vinegar helps you get through teargas. Teargas! This is a gas that makes you feel the skin is peeling off your face. For several minutes I could not even open my eyes to see what was going on. And when I did, I saw that one of my nieces had stopped in the middle of the road, her eyes streaming. One of her shoes lost, she was holding out her arms: “I can’t, I can’t.” “You have to. Run.” We all held arms and ran. This was on 6 October Bridge, just under the Rameses Hilton, and the air was thick with smoke. The thud of the guns was unceasing. We were trying to get to Tahrir Square, the main square of Cairo, the traditional destination of protests. But ahead of us was a wall of teargas. We ran down the slope of the bridge and straight into a line of central security soldiers. They were meant to block the way. We were three women, dishevelled, eyes streaming. We came right up to them and they made way. “Run,” they urged us, “Run!” “How can you do this?” I reproached them, eye to eye. “What can we do? We want to take off this uniform and join you!” We jumped into a boat and asked the boatman to take us closer to Qasr el-Nil bridge, which would bring us near Tahrir. From the river, you could see people running across the bridges. Some young men caught the gas canisters and threw them into the river, where they burned and fizzed on the water. We scrambled on shore under Qasr el-Nil bridge and joined the massive protest that had broken the security cordon and was heading to Tahrir. I cannot tell how many thousands were there. People were handing out tissues to soak in vinegar for your nose, Pepsi to bathe your eyes. Water to drink. People were helping others who were hurt. The way ahead of us was invisible behind the smoke – except for bursts of flame. The great hotels had darkened their ground floors and locked their doors. The guns thudded continuously and there was a new rattling sound. The people would pause and then a great cry would go up and they would press on. We sang the national anthem. Once, a long time ago, my then young son, watching a young man run to help an old man who had dropped a bag in the middle of the street, said: “The thing about Egypt is that everyone is very individual, but also part of a great co-operative project.” Today, we are doing what we do best, and what this regime has tried to destroy: we have come together, as individuals, in a great co-operative effort to reclaim our country. Egypt Protest Middle East Ahdaf Soueif guardian.co.uk
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• Reports of several killed in battles with authorities • Army sent in as police give up on Hosni Mubarak’s curfew Insurrectionary protests spread from the capital across Egypt today, convulsing the cities of Suez and Alexandria as protesters engaged in running battles with the police, setting fire to buildings and vehicles. Tonight the military moved into both cities as people defied a curfew imposed across the entire country. A number of people were reportedly killed, although no deaths have been confirmed. Eighty thousand people were said to be on the streets of Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez canal. There was fighting between protesters and the police, and a witness said a teenage girl had been killed. Echoes of the extraordinary protests were seen in Jordan, where thousands of people demanded political change in the capital, Amman. Trade unionists calling for political and economic reform joined a protest organised by an Islamic group. In the strategically important industrial Egyptian city of Suez, thousands of protesters demanding the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime overwhelmed police and set fire to a police station, Reuters reported. Police were forced to abandon eight trucks in the face of advancing demonstrators armed with stones and rocks. Tanks were reported to be on the streets after darkness fell. A witness told Reuters that dozens of protesters had climbed on at least five tanks to try to talk to soldiers, who opened fire. Molotov cocktails were thrown as hundreds of people remained on the streets despite the curfew, according to al-Jazeera. Protesters gained control of Suez’s central square by mid-afternoon, the TV station said. “The police have been quite comprehensively defeated by the power of the people,” said their reporter in the city, Jamal Elshayyal. Earlier, a 30-year-old protester, named by witnesses as Hamada Labib, was reportedly shot dead. At least one person was reported to have been killed in Alexandria. According to Rawya Rageh of al-Jazeera, a bloodstained body was carried aloft by protesters chanting: “There is no God but God.” As in Suez, police had lost the control of the city by mid-afternoon, the reporter said. But after dark Rageh reported that soldiers had arrived in armoured personnel carriers. She said she could hear the sound of gunfire. Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, sent a series of dispatches from Alexandria during the course of the day. Protesters left a mosque in the city calling for peaceful action, he said. “They were immediately attacked by police in an armoured car firing teargas. Fierce clashes started then, with exchanges of rock-throwing. About 200 police faced about 1,000 protesters. The clashes lasted for nearly two hours.” A larger crowd appeared from another direction, said Bouckaert. “Police tried to hold them back with teargas and rubber bullets, but they were finally overwhelmed. Then the police just gave up, at about the time of afternoon prayers. Protesters gave water to police and talked to them. It was all peaceful. Hundreds of protesters were praying in the street.” The centre of the city was packed “as far as we can see, people shouting slogans against Mubarak and his son Gamal … It is a very festive atmosphere. Women in veils, old men, children, I even saw a blind man being led. And there are no police anywhere.” The wave of protests also reached smaller cities in Egypt, the Egyptian Association for Change said, adding that offices of the ruling National Democratic party had been destroyed in Dumya/Daniette, 131 miles north-east of Cairo, and al-Mansoura, 90 miles north-east of the capital. The protesters included men, women and children, young and old, and from the middle classes as well as the urban poor. In Cairo, some waved from balconies or threw water bottles to the crowd, as well as onions, which can be used to protect against the effects of teargas. Horns blared in support from cars and motorbikes. Among the thousands who took part in the protests were doctors in white coats, students and professors, hotel workers and shopkeepers. “I’m here because I support it,” said Dr Muhamad Fakhri, a 52-year-old university professor outside the mosque where the march began. “I don’t support any of the opposition leaders. All I want is reform. I’m here because I can see Egyptian people have reached the moment when they must choose. Because people are crushed by the prices of food, because of unemployment, because people should have freedom and democracy. I came to express my opinion against what I believe this government is doing wrong.” A middle-aged employee of a large charity, who requested not to be identified, said: “The reason I am here is to join the revolution. I think the government will fall. I’m really hopeful.” The unrest in Egypt was fuelled by the overthrow two weeks ago of Tunisia’s president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Protests have continued there, and also spread to Yemen. Syria was reported to have imposed restrictions on internet access. Blogs and Twitter have played a key role in the organisation of protests in the Middle East over recent weeks. Despite Egypt’s limited internet penetration, Facebook has been “the main actor”, says Khalid al-Aman, a political analyst at Durham University. Egypt Middle East Protest Peter Beaumont Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Reports of several killed in battles with authorities • Army sent in as police give up on Hosni Mubarak’s curfew Insurrectionary protests spread from the capital across Egypt today, convulsing the cities of Suez and Alexandria as protesters engaged in running battles with the police, setting fire to buildings and vehicles. Tonight the military moved into both cities as people defied a curfew imposed across the entire country. A number of people were reportedly killed, although no deaths have been confirmed. Eighty thousand people were said to be on the streets of Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez canal. There was fighting between protesters and the police, and a witness said a teenage girl had been killed. Echoes of the extraordinary protests were seen in Jordan, where thousands of people demanded political change in the capital, Amman. Trade unionists calling for political and economic reform joined a protest organised by an Islamic group. In the strategically important industrial Egyptian city of Suez, thousands of protesters demanding the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime overwhelmed police and set fire to a police station, Reuters reported. Police were forced to abandon eight trucks in the face of advancing demonstrators armed with stones and rocks. Tanks were reported to be on the streets after darkness fell. A witness told Reuters that dozens of protesters had climbed on at least five tanks to try to talk to soldiers, who opened fire. Molotov cocktails were thrown as hundreds of people remained on the streets despite the curfew, according to al-Jazeera. Protesters gained control of Suez’s central square by mid-afternoon, the TV station said. “The police have been quite comprehensively defeated by the power of the people,” said their reporter in the city, Jamal Elshayyal. Earlier, a 30-year-old protester, named by witnesses as Hamada Labib, was reportedly shot dead. At least one person was reported to have been killed in Alexandria. According to Rawya Rageh of al-Jazeera, a bloodstained body was carried aloft by protesters chanting: “There is no God but God.” As in Suez, police had lost the control of the city by mid-afternoon, the reporter said. But after dark Rageh reported that soldiers had arrived in armoured personnel carriers. She said she could hear the sound of gunfire. Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, sent a series of dispatches from Alexandria during the course of the day. Protesters left a mosque in the city calling for peaceful action, he said. “They were immediately attacked by police in an armoured car firing teargas. Fierce clashes started then, with exchanges of rock-throwing. About 200 police faced about 1,000 protesters. The clashes lasted for nearly two hours.” A larger crowd appeared from another direction, said Bouckaert. “Police tried to hold them back with teargas and rubber bullets, but they were finally overwhelmed. Then the police just gave up, at about the time of afternoon prayers. Protesters gave water to police and talked to them. It was all peaceful. Hundreds of protesters were praying in the street.” The centre of the city was packed “as far as we can see, people shouting slogans against Mubarak and his son Gamal … It is a very festive atmosphere. Women in veils, old men, children, I even saw a blind man being led. And there are no police anywhere.” The wave of protests also reached smaller cities in Egypt, the Egyptian Association for Change said, adding that offices of the ruling National Democratic party had been destroyed in Dumya/Daniette, 131 miles north-east of Cairo, and al-Mansoura, 90 miles north-east of the capital. The protesters included men, women and children, young and old, and from the middle classes as well as the urban poor. In Cairo, some waved from balconies or threw water bottles to the crowd, as well as onions, which can be used to protect against the effects of teargas. Horns blared in support from cars and motorbikes. Among the thousands who took part in the protests were doctors in white coats, students and professors, hotel workers and shopkeepers. “I’m here because I support it,” said Dr Muhamad Fakhri, a 52-year-old university professor outside the mosque where the march began. “I don’t support any of the opposition leaders. All I want is reform. I’m here because I can see Egyptian people have reached the moment when they must choose. Because people are crushed by the prices of food, because of unemployment, because people should have freedom and democracy. I came to express my opinion against what I believe this government is doing wrong.” A middle-aged employee of a large charity, who requested not to be identified, said: “The reason I am here is to join the revolution. I think the government will fall. I’m really hopeful.” The unrest in Egypt was fuelled by the overthrow two weeks ago of Tunisia’s president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Protests have continued there, and also spread to Yemen. Syria was reported to have imposed restrictions on internet access. Blogs and Twitter have played a key role in the organisation of protests in the Middle East over recent weeks. Despite Egypt’s limited internet penetration, Facebook has been “the main actor”, says Khalid al-Aman, a political analyst at Durham University. Egypt Middle East Protest Peter Beaumont Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Even though it fell short of economists’ expectations, a 3.2 percent rise in the GDP during the last quarter of 2010 has rekindled hopes that the U.S. economy may be moving toward sustainable recovery. —JCL The Guardian: The US economy regained momentum in the fourth quarter of last year, boosted by buoyant exports and the strongest consumer spending in more than four years. GDP figures released today raised hopes that a sustainable recovery is under way, which will enable businesses to start hiring again. The world’s largest economy grew at an annualised rate of 3.2% between October and December, according to the US Commerce Department, faster than the third quarter’s 2.6% rate. Economists had expected growth of 3.5%. Read more Related Entries January 28, 2011 Egypt Declares Curfew, Corrals ElBaradei January 28, 2011 Thousands Take to Streets in Jordan
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They say it’s better to be lucky than good. But on Thursday, Fox News host Glenn Beck may have been both. The night before, his pay-for Insider Extreme web site premiered ” Rumors of War ,” an incendiary pseudo-documentary designed to drum up support for conflict with Tehran by claiming, among other things, “now the Iranians are positioning themselves, so they will be able at some point in time, to penetrate the southern borders of the United States with terrorists.” Then almost on cue, the next morning a ” Fox News Exclusive ” ominously reported, “Iranian Book Celebrating Suicide Bombers Found in Arizona Desert.” Immediately picked up by the conservative echo chamber, within hours Beck himself was reporting the story. That extraordinarily happy coincidence for Beck and his right-wing allies started with a new flash from Foxnews.com Thursday morning: A book celebrating suicide bombers has been found in the Arizona desert just north of the U.S.- Mexican border, authorities tell Fox News. The book, “In Memory of Our Martyrs,” was spotted Tuesday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent out of the Casa Grande substation who was patrolling a route known for smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs. Published in Iran, it consists of short biographies of Islamic suicide bombers and other Islamic militants who died carrying out attacks. But while Fox quoted a Homeland Security statement which cautioned, “At this time, DHS does not have any credible information on terrorist groups operating along the Southwest border,” Beck’s employer left out some vital information that might cast some doubt on the growing Iranian threat south of the Rio Grande. Credit: Amazon.com Those omissions included the fact that the worse-for-wear copy of “In Memory of Our Martyrs” was written not in Farsi or even Arabic, but in English . Listed on Amazon.com (pictured here), the book was published by Iranian Ministry of Islamic Guidance in 1982, the short book “contains biographies of Islamic suicide bombers, along with final letters they wrote to their families,” presumably during Tehran’s war with Iraq beginning in 1980. Nevertheless, as CBS affiliate KPHO Channel 5 in Phoenix reported: Still, the story has gone viral on the web, with blog posters suggesting this is proof Islamic terrorists who intend to do harm are using our porous border with Mexico to enter the United States. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., called on the Obama administration to secure the border. “If terrorists ever come across our border with nuclear weapons… they (could) hold an entire city hostage,” Franks said. “This book is a grave reminder of the mindset and intent of the indescribably dangerous enemy we face.” Within hours of the Fox story, the right-wing blogosphere was doing its best to warn of the reading list of the would-be Muslim martyrs in Mexico. Hot Air and Townhall predictably ratcheted up the warning. Then, Glenn Beck’s own web site The Blaze amplified the threat, leading its story with “Fox News has an exclusive report detailing how a book celebrating suicide bombers has been found in the Arizona desert just north of the U.S.- Mexican border .” No surprise, The Blaze added a promotion for the Beck’s ” Rumors of War ” documentary, which just happens to be a jeremiad on the same topic. Editor’s note: A portion of the recent documentary, “Rumor of War,” released by Glenn Beck deals specifically with this topic. It discusses Iran’s infiltration of Mexican drug cartels and the push to enter America through its southern border. That documentary can be viewed here. By Thursday night, Glenn Beck himself completed the conservative news cycle of life on his own Fox News show: I want you to know, there are enemies within our own borders. Did you see this FOX News exclusive today? An Iranian book celebrating suicide bombers has been found in the Arizona desert. Gee, you think? The discovery of that book could be very bad news for the people of the United States of America. Or, given its almost miraculously timed appearance in the Arizona desert, very good news for Glenn Beck. (This piece also appears at Perrspectives .)
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