Egypt is collapsing!

[American Patriot]

There goes Egypt Michael.

In the past hour tens of thousands have taken to the streets. At least two are dead from clashes, one cop, one protester. They want Hoser Mubaric out of office. Now.

[American Patriot]

Well, of all the countries over there - Egypt is one I've visited - and I think they are less radical about Israel than other countries. Not completely "not radical" but less so.

[BRVoice]

Rick, michael2 and everybody, this thing happened in Egypt is really f****** serious.

This is what the DEBKAfile has to say about the protests


http://www.debka.com/article/20588/


At least 1,000 opposition activists arrested as Egyptian protests continue
DEBKAfile Special Report January 26, 2011, 6:55 PM (GMT+02:00)


Popular anger is directed against President Mubarak.



Hundreds of opposition activists were arrested by Egyptian security forces in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez Wednesday, Jan. 26 in an attempt to quell the stormy anti-government demonstrations which began sweeping Egyptian cities Tuesday, before they got out of hand. Official sources said 500 arrests were made, while debkafile's Middle East put the figure closer to 1,000, including journalists.

This morning, the day after four people were killed in the anti-Mubarak rallies, the interior ministry in Cairo banned public gatherings, street protests and marches, warning that anyone defying the ban would be detained and prosecuted.Nonetheless, by nightfall Wednesday, demonstrators were again out on the streets of Cairo and Suez. Foreign correspondents reported that hundreds congregated outside the Egyptian Journalists Association building in central Cairo and clashed with police forces. In Suez, protesters gathered around the local morgue and demanded the body of the demonstrator killed Tuesday.

Police tried to disperse them with water cannon and tear gas.

Mohamed ElBaradai, former director of the UN nuclear watchdog who is considering running in the next presidential election, called on the Egyptian masses to join the street rallies against President Hosni Mubarak

According to an earlier debkafile report, Egyptian and Arabic internet sites were reporting Wednesday that Hosni Mubarak's son and chosen successor as Egyptian president secretly took himself and family out of the country Tuesday by way of the military airfield in West Cairo at the peak of anti-government riots in Egyptian cities.

Twitter also carried an unconfirmed report that Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt's first lady, was identified by airport workers on arrival at Heathrow airport, London. No source was cited.

If confirmed, Gemal Mubarak's defection would attest to deep cracks in the 82-year old president's regime, the reverse of the prevailing view in the West and Israel that the regime is in no danger of being overthrown by the protest movement sweeping the country. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she believed the government was stable. Yet Wednesday, the Egyptian pound fell sharply against the US dollar and the stock market tumbled more than 4 percent.

Twitter's service was blocked in Egypt early Wednesday. But this did not stop opposition leaders from calling for the demonstrations to continue. They were heartened by their success Tuesday in getting tens or even hundreds of thousands out on the streets to demand the president's resignation and even more by Gemal's reported desertion.

With tension running high in Cairo, most observers report to debkafile their sense that in the last two years, the Mubarak regime had lost its momentum. Grave domestic problems and economic hardships were neglected or addressed sluggishly. Even after 30 years in power, the president heaped obstacles in the path of a choice of successor and an orderly handover of power. He kept his son Gemal dangling without a final decision and denied him the chance to prepare himself for the task.

In the parliamentary poll of December 2010, opposition parties were kept off the ballot by Egyptian security services headed by Intelligence Minister Gen. Omar Suleiman.

Opposition organizations were therefore more than ready for a showdown with the government when the spark from Tunis appeared to help ignite the street.

Tuesday night, debkafile reported:

More than 100,000 turned out Tuesday, Jan. 25 in central Cairo and other Egyptian cities for stormy demonstrations such as Egypt has not seen for more than a quarter century. Airing many grievances, they called on President Hosni Mubarak to resign after 30 years in power. Officials said three people had been killed in clashes between stone-throwing demonstrators and policemen using tear gas, water cannon and night sticks – two demonstrators and a policeman. debkafile's sources report the number is higher and, while no figure was given for the injured, our sources estimate that there were at least 150.

After dark Tuesday, the authorities announced that Mubarak's supporters would mount a counter-demonstration the following day. A collision between the two camps might well lead to further upheavals.

The anti-government movement mustered its biggest show of strength at central Cairo's Liberation Square. The authorities estimate the figure at 10,000. debkafile sources say it was at least 30,000. Some 10,000 also rallied in Alexandria with thousands more in the cities of the Delta and along the Suez Canal.

The government and security forces were not prepared for these numbers, the extent of the unrest or the force of the demonstrators' anger. They had counted on their warning Monday night that all demonstrators faced arrests to deter many from joining the protests. Instead of making good on this warning, the Egyptian police at first stood by quietly and watched the protesters sounding of. But when hundreds broke through the police phalanx and ran toward the parliament building, they were told to use rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

A mass melee resulted such as Cairo has not seen since 1977 when mass riots forced Anwar Sadat to back down from bread price hikes.

debkafile's Cairo sources report that the organizers plan to keep their protest going non-stop to absorb all the non-religious opposition elements in the country. So far, the Islamic parties led by the Muslim Brotherhood have ordered their followers not to join in. If this order is changed, the Mubarak regime will be in trouble.

Further north, Tuesday also saw fierce Sunni-Christian riots across Lebanon against Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati, who was attacked as a pawn of Hizballah and Iran. Anti-government outbreaks also continued in the streets of Tunisia and Jordan. For the first time in decades of Middle East history, Arab streets are willing to battle incumbent regimes and brave the security forces ranged against them.

[BRVoice]

This is a note of the blog Once Upon a Time in the West


Africa/Middle East Files: Protests, riots inspired by Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution” erupt in Algeria, Yemen, Egypt, demand removal of dictators

- Tunisia’s Main Trade Union “Instrumental” in Downfall of Ben Ali Regime, Organizes “Caravan of Liberation” March to Oust Interim Government

- Self-Immolations Spread to Algeria in Defiance of 50-Year Rule of National Liberation Front

- Yemeni President Denies Authoritarian Nature of Regime, Contends with Marxist Separatists in South, Six Soldiers Killed in Ambush

This past Friday, relatives of Tunisia’s ousted president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, arrived in Canada, an official of Ottawa’s Citizenship and Immigration Department told Agence France-Presse and Postmedia News in an email. However, Canadian official Douglas Kellam made it clear that the Ben Ali clan is persona non grata: “Mr. Ben Ali, deposed members of the former Tunisian regime and their immediate families are not welcome in Canada.”

One of Ben Ali's many brothers-in-law arrived in Montreal aboard a private jet accompanied by his wife, their children, and a governess, Kellam related. Ben Ali's wife, Leila Trabelsi, has several brothers, but it was unclear which one had arrived in Canada. Members of Ben Ali’s family reportedly checked into a hotel in Montreal.

The deposed president's daughter, Nesrine Ben Ali, and her husband, businessman Sakher El Materi, purchased a US$2.5-million home in the upscale, English-speaking Montreal neighborhood of Westmount two years ago. The stately house is currently uninhabited and partly under construction. Tunisia’s central bank seized El Materi’s own bank last week.

Ben Ali himself has sought refuge in another authoritarian regime, Saudi Arabia, where Christians and Jews can be executed for spreading their beliefs, even though Western countries have welcomed hate-spewing Islamic radicals and terrorists with open arms.

On Saturday, hundreds of mutinous police officers joined thousands of protesters in Tunis in a rally against interim Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi. They called on the new government to quit because of the presence of old regime figures in key posts, including Ghannouchi, as well as the defense, interior, and foreign ministers. Pictured above: More anti-government protests in Tunis on January 24.

At the same time, a protest march backed by the Tunisian General Workers' Union, which has played an instrumental role in the recent upheaval, departed central Tunisia for the capital in a bid to topple the interim government. Participants dubbed their protest a “Caravan of Liberation” and spent their first night in Regueb, a town 265 kilometers south of Tunis, and claimed their march would gather momentum as it moved toward the capital.

Meanwhile, protests and riots inspired by Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution” have spread to other Arab countries with authoritarian regimes, such as Algeria, Yemen, and Egypt.

In Algiers, police, armed with batons and tear gas, clashed with 300 pro-democracy protesters on Saturday, leaving multiple casualties, as they blocked a march on parliament. The opposition said at least 42 people were injured during the six-hour standoff, including two seriously. The Interior Ministry insisted that the number of injured was only 19, including 11 protestors or passers-by, and eight police.

Said Sadi, head of the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy, admitted the protest was organized in defiance of a government ban. The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights warned that “the blanket government ban on peaceful protest could cause social upheaval” in the North African country. “The fact of banning peaceful marches undertaken by the parties and civil society is leading us towards an explosion,” ALDHR president Mostefa Bouchachi told the AFP news agency.

Also on Saturday, Karim Bendine, 35, died in a hospital in Douera, a suburb of Algiers, where he was admitted earlier last week with most of his body covered in third-degree burns. Bendine had set himself alight near the town hall of Dellys, near the capital, for unknown reasons. Seven other Algerians have immolated themselves since January 12, apparently inspired by the self-immolation in Tunisia of 26-year-old Mohammed Bouazizi, whose protest suicide against unemployment unleashed a wave of violent protests that ended in the ouster of strongman Ben Ali. Another protest self-immolation took place in Boukhadra on Monday.

The pro-Soviet socialist National Liberation Front (FLN) has effectively ruled Algeria since 1962, although its dominance was challenged in 1991, when the Islamic Salvation Front won the first round of an election that was later cancelled by the ruling authorities. This led to the Algerian Civil War and finally the defeat of the Islamic Salvation Army and the Armed Islamic Group. FLN cadre Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been president of Algeria since 1999.

Elsewhere in the Arab world, hundreds of Yemeni students held protests at Sanaa University, with some demanding that the president to resign. Since the Tunisian uprising, Yemenis have frequently called for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s decades-long rule, which extends back to his stint as president of North Yemen in the 1980s. “No to inheritance, no to extension, learn from the Jasmine Revolution,” read a banner carried by the students.

The long-ruling pro-Soviet Saleh was re-elected in September 2006 for a seven-year mandate. A draft amendment of the constitution, under consideration in the parliament dominated by Saleh’s General People’s Congress, could further extend his tenure by allowing a lifelong mandate. In a recent televised rant, Saleh lashed out at his critics, who have accused him of planning to transfer power to his son: “Talking about hereditary rule is an impudent symphony, we are a republican and democratic system and we are against hereditary rule. We are against hereditary rule of villages, of tribes, of power, of unity, of ministries, we are against hereditary rule.”

Last year, Saleh, with Saudi military intervention, put down an Iranian-backed Shia Muslim insurgency in northern Yemen. However, he still faces a violent upheaval in the southern part of the country where the Yemeni Socialist Party, which once ruled South Yemen, is demanding the restoration of the People’s Democratic Republic. In fact, on January 8, Marxist separatists attacked a checkpoint in the town of Radfan in Lahj province, killing six soldiers and wounding four others. Lahj is a key stronghold of the Southern Movement. Faysal Jubran, who has led the movement since March 2007, told Xinhua that the clash left one of his followers wounded.

In Egypt, oppositionists called for a “national day of action” to take place on January 25 by all groups seeking to end the 29-year regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who succeeded Anwar Sadat after the latter’s 1981 assassination by Islamic fundamentalists. “If the Tunisians have done it, Egyptians should get there too,” Mohamed El Baradei, a leading Egyptian opposition figure and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told German news magazine Der Spiegel.

Last summer, police dragged Khaled Said, a small businessman in the historic city of Alexandria, from an Internet café and beat him to death in the street. Although Said was not politically active, the unprovoked police attack was in obvious retaliation for Said’s decision to post a video on his blog of crooked cops pocketing the contents of a drug bust. Shortly after the murder, an anonymous administrator created a Facebook page under the name “We Are All Khaled Said.” As of January 21, 2011, nearly 69,000 people visited the Facebook page to sign up for the January 25 protest.

Egypt’s traditional opposition groups have joined the call for protest on Tuesday. El Baradei stopped just short of backing the demonstration. On Thursday night, he finally offered tacit support, if only via Twitter: “Fully support call 4 peaceful demonstrations vs. repression.”

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

[BRVoice]

http://www.debka.com/article/20590/


Mubarak's defense minister bids for US backing in Washington
DEBKAfile Special Report January 27, 2011, 10:15 AM (GMT+02:00)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sent his defense minister Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi to Washington with an urgent request for US backing for his embattled regime against the street protest movement which gained in violence on its second day, Wednesday, Jan. 26. debkafile's Washington sources report that in secret meetings, the Egyptian defense minister put the situation before President Barack Obama and a row of top US political, military and intelligence officials. He warned them that by advocating a soft hand with the demonstrators and responsiveness to their demands, American officials were doing more harm than good. Without a crackdown, he said, the regime was doomed.

Tantawi also warned that the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which has stood aside from the opposition protests, was merely biding its time for the right moment to step in and take over. He asked the Obama administration for an urgent airlift of advanced riot control equipment.

The American response to the case presented by Tantawi is not known. Disclosure of his trip to Washington might well add fuel to the fires of disaffection burning in cities across Egypt. The protests are spearheaded by a youth opposition coalition whose members are proud of their Arab and Egyptian identity. Evidence of the regime's collaboration with a foreign power may well heighten their resolve to battle the regime and the million security services agents which Mubarak put on the streets Wednesday.

Slogans of "US out" and "Death to the US" have begun to appear on anti-Mubarak placards.

Wednesday night, debkafile reported:

The level of anti-government protest and violence escalated in the streets of Egyptian cities Wednesday night, Jan. 26 even after President Hosni Mubarak ordered a million security officers to back up the police and for the first time open fire on rioters in the town of Suez, leaving scores of dead and wounded. Western sources told debkafile that security forces lost control of the situation in the main Suez Canal port after protesters managed to break through a line of police defending the suburb housing government institutions and set them on fire.

They torched police headquarters and the regional premises of Mubarak's ruling NDP.

The president who has not been seen in public since the outbreaks broke out Tuesday has placed four armored divisions on emergency standby and cancelled all leaves – two on operational preparedness outside Cairo and two near the towns on the banks of the Suez Canal. Officers and men on furlough were ordered back to their bases.

Security forces have made some 2,500 arrests of opposition activists without managing to quell the unrest. debkafile's sources report that the situation in Cairo Wednesday was extremely tense after thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets and made for the Tel Talat Harb Square on the way to Liberation Square city center, where 30,000 protesters gathered Tuesday. A demonstrator and a policeman were killed in clashes, raising the number of fatalities in two days to six, as police failed to stem the advancing tide.

Our sources also report from Western sources in Cairo that some 500 journalists are locked in the building of the press association in the capital, including many foreign correspondents. Security officers burst into the building, collected the journalists in the lower flowers of the building and prevented them from covering events, reporting or taking photos.

[BRVoice]

Guys, things are getting uglier in Egypt, especially in Suez. Fore a lotmore information follow this link

http://tweetgrid.com/search?q=%23egypt+%23jan25

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/alshaheeed

1. Seriously, if Obama's brother was ruling #Egypt he would have probably told him off. Why not Mubarak? #Jan25 8 minutes ago via web
2. Minxysshoes RT @Ghonim: Pray for #Egypt. Very worried as it seems that govt is planning war crime 2morrow against people. We are all ready to die #Jan25 about 1 hour ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by Alshaheeed and 27 others
3. weddady OVERWHELM THE WHITE HOUSE SWITCHBOARD DEMAND ACTION NOW #Jan25 202-456-1414 about 2 hours ago via Tweetie for Mac Retweeted by Alshaheeed and 73 others
4. 3:20am Cairo time: Many known activists have just been arrested in the past hour from their homes. #Egypt #Jan25 Plz support #Egyptians about 1 hour ago via web
5. BobBrigham Politicians, too. RT @seanpaulkelley: Now is the time when the real journalists earn our respect. #jan25 #egypt about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by Alshaheeed and 7 others
6. Police agents are pouring petrol in all main squares to light them up during protests. Please retweet & Share #Egypt #Jan25 about 1 hour ago via web
7. SOS: Internet & Landlines cut. They will massacre us. Please spread this video & RT http://apne.ws/eEC1I5 #Egypt #Jan25 talk to ur Reps about 2 hours ago via web
8. bencnn Communications cut, protests supressed, crashing stockmarket, fleeing tourists, arrests, journalists attacked. #Egypt "stable?" #Jan25 about 2 hours ago via Mobile Web Retweeted by Alshaheeed and 100+ others
9. SOS: Police agents are setting cars in streets on fire. No one understands why. Everyone sure Egyptians will be massacred #Jan25 #Egypt about 2 hours ago via web
10. abuPessoptimist This is very serieus stuff. RT New on Arabist: Arson and agents provocateurs in Central Cairo http://arb.st/h1mj6k v @arabist #jan25 #Egypt about 2 hours ago via web Retweeted by Alshaheeed and 16 others
11. I am not exagerating: A massacre in Egypt is about to take place if the world doesn't interfere. #Egypt #Jan http://apne.ws/eEC1I5 about 2 hours ago via web

[BRVoice]

Guys, it's very serious the situation in Egypt, please enter in this link of Associated Press

http://video.ap.org/?f=None&pid=oT7q...wok4_irYjJ2R8Z

[BRVoice]

http://www.debka.com/article/20598/


Muslim Brotherhood joins Egyptian protesters. Three cities locked down
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 27, 2011, 10:47 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Mubarak regime was badly shaken Thursday night, Jan. 27, when Egypt's most powerful opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, ordered its teeming membership to join the protest movement raging in Cairo and other cities since Tuesday after Friday (Jan. 28) prayers.

debkafile's Cairo sources report that the capital's poor districts, like Shubra which houses four million inhabitants, were bustling Thursday night with preparations for street action the next day. The question on all lips now is: Can the security forces control the many millions of protesters expected to suddenly pour into city streets across the land as of Friday and defend the regime against them.

The police, almost a million security officers and units of the Interior Ministry's special units, have been on their feet for three days quelling outbreaks. They are exhausted and demoralized. They managed to keep the demonstrations from getting out of hand, but not to suppress them. Now that millions of Muslim Brotherhood loyalists have been told to throw in their lot with the protest movement, the beleaguered 82-year old President Hosni Mubarak can no longer avoid sending the army in to stem the unrest, which looks increasingly like turning into a popular revolution.

The trouble is that no one can be sure of the army's total loyalty to the regime. The president cannot be sure that officers will agree to order their men to shoot demonstrators if need be, or whether the soldiers will obey such orders.

Even after three days, debkafile's sources report signs that the president and his immediate circle of advisers and ministers have not grasped the extent of their peril. For hours, security forces commanders begged the president to sign curfew decrees for the most troubled cities, but he refused. In the end, they clamped curfews down on their own initiative in Suez and Ismailia on the banks of the Suez Canal and across the canal in the northern Sinai town of El Arish close to the Israeli and Gaza borders. During the day, violent clashes between police and rioters occurred in all three towns, whose combined population is 1.7 million, eaving casualties whose numbers are unknown. Thursday night, their streets of the three towns were deserted except for heavy security patrols. No one was allowed to leave without a special permit.

The ministry responsible for mosques and preachers Thursday night issued directives to the imams who are state employees to focus their sermons Friday on calls to keep the peace and not participate in the anti-government demonstrations.

But those preachers, although their pay checks come from the public purse, are unlikely to go against the popular mood or dare defy the Muslim Brotherhood.

Later Thursday, rumors were floating around Cairo that President Mubarak was about to sack the government and promise early parliamentary elections. Neither was confirmed.

[BRVoice]

Reports from AlJazeera are saying that the opposition leader Mohammed El-Baradei was arrested by the egyptian security forces

[catfish]

Ok, I'm worried, most revolutions seem to end bad. Not to mention the multiple variables this part of the world has. Now the brotherhood has stepped in, great. Also, I've been reading reports of riots in Jordan and Yemen over the past few days. Self immolation appears to be a common denominator in all these countries, it appears that's what may have sent Tunisia over the edge.

[catfish]

Another danger is who will end up taking over in Egypt. Depending on who rises to power could have major consequences for the peace treaty with Israel.

[BRVoice]

catfish I'm seen the live coverage of AlJazeera and they are saying that maybe ten to hundred thousand are in the streets protesting, the numbers are uncertain because of the blockade of Internet in Egypt

[BRVoice]

They are protesting in many cities across the Egypt. Also, there is security forces infiltrated in the manifestations and beating the protesters

[BRVoice]

Scenes of the protests are coming to the world thoughout the Twitter and films on YouTube

[BRVoice]

El-Baradei was in an mosque praying when the security forces enter firing indiscriminately in the crowd in the mosque and arresting many including him

[BRVoice]

The people in the street are very anger and the security officers are dispersing the crowds with tear gas

[BRVoice]

Journalists are using Twitter to let information out of Egypt.

[BRVoice]

Al-Jazeera is saying that 40,000 are protesting in Cairo.

[BRVoice]

From http://tweetgrid.com/search?q=%23egypt+%23jan25


Twitter Username: Password:

Auto-Updating... Unpause KHALEDHISHMA: RT @Umm_Issa: RT @RuwaydaMustafah: Demonstrations in Gaza, thousands supporting egyptians & their struggle for freedom. #egypt #jan25
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:37 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


TauxFu: RT @Shoruk_K: Tear gas flowing into AlJazeera offices #egypt #jan25
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:37 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


AMiller1023: Uhmm Patrick Henry? RT @BrightQuote: “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” Benjamin Franklin #egypt #jan25
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:36 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


f_almutairi: RT @Dima_Khatib: أوقف بث الجزيرة مباشر على القمر نايل سات بشكل كامل.. يستخدمون كل الوسائل المتاحة .. خوفهم كبير جدا #egypt #jan25
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:36 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


thomasbjork: RT @THEREALSHAKER: I have just seen a video on cnn, police units are standing down in Suez #Egypt #Jan25
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:35 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


QTPIE913: RT @officialdjx: I commend the citizens there for standing up to corruption and injustice. If only we were bold enough to do the same here. #Egypt #jan25
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:35 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


Sonja_Jo: #Jan25 - RT @AmnestyUK: In solidarity with all #Egypt protestors exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:35 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


MahdMarz: RT @Dima_Khatib: إصابة مراسل بي بي سي بجروح، وهناك إصابات عدة لا يعرف تفاصيلها ولا عددها في عدة أنحاء تشهد اشتباكات، وقمع من الشرطة #egypt #jan25
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:34 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


Mayousef: turn to euroNews RT @sara055: If u can receive #EuroNews I urge you to turn it on NOW! Footage keeps pouring out of clashes in #Egypt #Jan25
sexta-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2011 10:51:34 [Reply] [ReTweet] [Favorite]


chaos_kind: http://bit.ly/fWEWP0 <--------- VODAPHONE mail them !!! plz RT #Jan25 #egypt