Egypt Boiling Over

[samii]

Not just in Bahrain, it's happenning in Libya and Yemen. I also heard that a call for demonstrations in China as well. Who knows, could be the effect of the approach of The Wave.

 

[Aeneas]

Not just in Bahrain, it's happenning in Libya and Yemen. I also heard that a call for demonstrations in China as well. Who knows, could be the effect of the approach of The Wave.

Could also be the Secret Team trying to make hay while the sun shines. No doubt that they are busy trying to use the spontaneous demonstrations in some countries to make more "colour revolutions". To hear Obama and Hillary Clinton cheering protest in Iran on so that "they can have similar democratic rights as people in Egypt are calling for", is an example of this cynical game being played by the big players. OSIT.

 

[WhiteBear]

I believe Israel is sparking these revolts, so they will be surrounded by volatile new fundamentalist Islamic regimes, for the sole purpose of projecting the illusion of "defenselessness" that they've used repeatedly in the past to justify aggressions.

In light of the following news piece, I thought I'd revisit my original assessment of the situation to see if everything still lines up. IMHO, it still makes sense to me.

_http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030101320.html

Yemeni president says US and Israel behind unrest

By AHMED AL-HAJ
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 1, 2011; 8:16 AM

SANAA, Yemen -- Yemen's embattled U.S.-backed president accused Washington on Tuesday of instigating protests against his regime, as hundreds of thousands marched in cities across Yemen in the largest rallies yet seeking the longtime ruler's ouster.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh's allegations, unprecedented in their harshness, signaled a growing rift with the United States that could hurt a joint campaign against the al-Qaida terror network in Yemen.

Saleh's comments Tuesday, including charges that the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Sanaa is giving instructions to the protesters, appeared to be part of an attempt to silence the calls for his resignation. Saleh has come under mounting pressure to step down since anti-government protests erupted a month ago.

Opposition parties joined for the first time Tuesday, and organizers said they brought hundreds of thousands into the streets in cities across Yemen for the largest turnout yet.

In Sanaa, tens of thousands rallied near the university, chanting "the people want the downfall of the regime."

Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, considered by the U.S. be linked to the al-Qaida terror network, led noon prayers and warned the government not to use force against demonstrators. " We hail the peaceful revolution of the youths and their legitimate demands and rights," he said.
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Yaseen Said Nouman, leader of the Socialist Party, which ruled south Yemen before merging with the north in 1990, also joined the rally. The Socialist party is the biggest opposition party in the south.

About 6,000 government supporters held a counter march in Sanaa, raising pictures of Saleh and shouting "No to anarchy, no to destruction."

Yemen is a key battleground against al-Qaida, and Saleh has been a weak, but important partner for Washington. His government, which receives millions of dollars in U.S. military aid, has allowed American drone strikes on al-Qaida targets.

However, in a speech to about 500 students and academics at Sanaa University, Saleh appeared to be turning on his ally, claiming the U.S., along with Israel, is behind the protest movement.

"I am going to reveal a secret," he said. "There is an operations room in Tel Aviv with the aim of destabilizing the Arab world. The operations room is in Tel Aviv and run by the White House," he said.

He said opposition figures meet regularly with the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa to coordinate efforts.

"Regrettably those (opposition figures) are sitting day and night with the American ambassador where they hand him reports and he gives them instructions," Saleh alleged.

"The Americans also talk with the government officials about this (the protests), but they tell them `allow these people to demonstrate in the streets'," Saleh said. "We say that this is a Zionist agenda."

The wave of political unrest sweeping across the Arab world is a "conspiracy that serves Israel and the Zionists," he added.

Saleh accused President Barack Obama of meddling in the affairs of Arab countries. "Why is he interfering? Is he the president of the United States or the president of the Arab world?" Saleh said.

The president reiterated that he will not relinquish power and lashed out at the opposition for rebuffing his call Monday to set up a national unity government. "The opposition is bankrupt and possesses no programs," he said.

Saleh has said he will not step down before presidential elections in 2013.

Tuesday's large turnout at the anti-government rallies was driven, in part, by a decision of key opposition parties to join the protests. Last week, Saleh was also abandoned by chiefs from his own tribe.

Protester organizers reported crowds of tens of thousands each in five locations. A total of eight protesters were hurt in clashes with police in the provincial towns of Hudeidah and Sayoun.

I understand that there's a possibility that the dictators currently under pressure to step down may find it "fashionable" to blame their problems on the US and Israel, however, that doesn't remove from my mind that it could be true.

 

[Stevie Argyl]

Is there any discussion on the current Sun activity and Gurdjieff's cosmic law of Solioonensius ?
Are we witnessing a 'noble' uprising or an automatic reaction to cosmic conditions?

 

[clerck de bonk]

Is there any discussion on the current Sun activity and Gurdjieff's cosmic law of Solioonensius ?
Are we witnessing a 'noble' uprising or an automatic reaction to cosmic conditions?

How about "an automatic reaction to cosmic conditions" that turns into "a noble uprising" ? :D Wishful thinking perhaps...

 

[Ellipse]

Blog reporting Egyptians events: http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/03/night-capital-of-hell-fell-down.html#more

 

[GRiM]

As Jesse Walker reported on Saturday, angry protesters stormed various State Security buildings throughout Egypt over the weekend after hearing reports that officials were destroying files that could shed light on various abuses over the years. While Human Rights Watch yearns for a "procedure" for publishing the documents that were saved from State Security's shredders, Egyptians opted for the WikiLeaks model. Scans of files have been appearing on Facebook and image hosting sites like Yfrog ("problematic," says HRW), and the Twitter hashtag #AmnDawla has been flooded with discussions and links to the documents since Friday.

Documents published so far, assuming they're real (and the Obama administration seems to be acting as if they are), have unearthed everything from Skype snooping to a whole room full of compromising sex tapes. But perhaps the most incendiary files posted have been those tying the Interior Ministry to attacks supposedly perpetrated by terrorists. Disgraced former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly had already been widely suspected of being involved in the New Year's Eve Coptic church bombing, but the appearance of a file on "Mission No. 77" seems to confirm regime critics' most damning accusations. McClatchy says that the document describes how State Security used a jailed Islamist to carry out the attack (which had been attributed to al-Qaeda), and, perhaps more ominously, they claim that there are at least seven more files on church attacks among the pilfered documents.

Aside from the New Year's Eve attack, which was already under scrutiny before the storming of State Security offices, the documents also point to a similar conclusion with regards an earlier bombing in the seaside resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. The 2005 attack, which killed 88 and was initially blamed on Bedouin terrorists, was actually a plot by el-Adly and Gamal Mubarak to get back at one of Gamal's business rivals, according to a leaked document (partial English translation here).

And beyond these two attacks documented in the leaked files, questions have been raised about the Nag Hammadi church attack in early 2010. The allegations were apparently serious enough that an Egyptian official felt the need to deny the rumors to American diplomats, while at the same time conceding that the official explanation for the attacks "doesn't seem to fit."

Up until now, claims of terrorism have been the most effective way for Arab dictators to get sympathy and support from the US. (The Yemeni regime, which is now teetering on the edge of collapse, saw its aid double after the Christmas 2009 attempted underwear bombing.) American policy in the region has been predicated on the Faustian bargain that we overlook Arab dictators' shoddy human rights record and continue to prop them up in exchange for stability and a hard line on Islamic terrorism. But the Egyptian State Security archives suggest that not only were the Mubaraks not delivering an end to Islamic radicalism, but the regime itself may have been the source of much of Egypt's terrorism and sectarian strife.

first step towards prosecutions?
Egyptian protesters hope the records seized from state security buildings will lead to prosecutions of officers.

The protesters who stormed the offices of Egyptian state security this weekend say the buildings are proof of "the greatest privacy invasion in history", filled with transcripts of phone conversations, surveillance reports and stark reminders of the torture carried out inside.

Hundreds of protesters seized the state security building - a prominent symbol of the Egyptian government's brutality - after hours of protests in 6th of October City on Saturday night.

They were at first blocked from entering the building for several hours, and some demonstrators started to show up with tents and food supplies; one said he expected it to become "another Tahrir Square", referring to the downtown plaza where protesters camped out for weeks to force president Hosni Mubarak to resign.

But the Egyptian army allowed them to enter at around 8pm on Saturday evening, and arrested many of the state security officers working inside.

The takeover was the climax of several days of protests outside other state security buildings.

Protesters broke into the building in Alexandria on Friday night, after clashing with security forces, and on Saturday they entered the headquarters in the central city of Assiut.

They also seized a state security office in eastern Cairo's Nasr City neighbourhood.

In 6th of October, some of the most incriminating documents have already been destroyed.

One photo from inside the state security building showed a room full of shredded papers, the pile reaching almost to the ceiling.

Egyptians who entered the building also found computers and hard drives that had been destroyed.

And a video posted on YouTube shows the charred remains of a massive pile of documents that state security apparently set on fire in the courtyard of the building. Fires have also been reported at other state security offices in recent days.

"We found out from neighbours that the burning has been taking place for four days now," said Mosa'ab el-Shamy, a pharmacy student who was among the protesters.

"But it really started to pick up after the protests in Alexandria."

Evidence of vote rigging

Thousands of documents were intact, though, and many have now been handed over to the public prosecutor, who received a warm welcome when he visited the building on Saturday night.

Photographs of dozens of documents have also been posted on Facebook and Twitter, though witnesses said the army searched people leaving the building to make sure they did not take documents with them.

Some of them show surveillance of prominent Egyptians: There are transcripts of phone calls made by Mohamed ElBaradei, for example, or by Hamdi Kandil, a journalist who was a fierce critic of Mubarak's regime. Other files documented the lives of ordinary citizens.

"There were files about political activists," el-Shamy said. "And I saw one about a Somali living in Egypt. He was under observation; the file noticed that he prayed a lot, it had information about his family, how long he has been in Egypt."

Documents described by protesters also showed evidence of vote rigging during last year's parliamentary elections in Egypt (which many observers at the time called fraudulent). The documents contained lists of candidates from particular districts, and the number of votes each candidate would receive.

Several Egyptians reported finding a whole room full of what appeared to be sex tapes. A photo posted on Twitter showed one tape labelled: "Sexual encounter between a Kuwaiti princess and an Egyptian man."

The building also contained stark evidence of the torture and abuse many detainees suffered inside. One photograph from Twitter showed a man holding up an electric baton and a cache of handcuffs. Another photo showed a barren cell, with nothing but a toilet in the floor and a tap against the wall for drinking and washing.

El-Shamy said protesters found a closet full of "belly-dancing outfits", which he speculated were used for some kind of "psychological torture".

It was a moment of catharsis for many of the protesters, some of which endured detention and abuse within these very buildings.

"Entering the building was a very emotional moment. I worked as a psychiatrist in the Nadim centre for the rehabilitation of victims of torture for three years, and I have heard so many stories of abuse and torture on the hands of normal police and state security," said Mostafa Hussein, one of the protesters who stormed the 6th of October building.

Hossam al-Hamalawy, an Egyptian activist and blogger, tweeted about finding the detention centre where he was once held.

"Entered the small compound where I was locked. Man, I can't believe it still," he wrote. "Many are literally crying. We can't find the interrogation rooms. This is a citadel."

Protesters say they hope the documents are used to prosecute state security officers - starting with Habib al-Adly, the former interior minister now on trial for corruption. The public prosecutor has said he will "examine" the documents.

Egypt's new interior minister, Mansour El-Essawy, pledged on Sunday to "take all necessary measures to restore confidence between the citizens and the police".

The country's new prime minister, Essam Sharaf, urged protesters to return any documents they took from the state security buildings, warning of the "dangerous nature of their contents".

"I don't think it's in any way less historical than when Germans stormed the Stasi headquarters and took control of the files," Hussein, the protester, said.

Very confidential
Date: 7/6/2005
To be showed to the minister
Report number 1 about the prosecution of the mandate number
231/29/1/2005
This documents says the following:
We met yesterday at 14.30 with Mohamed Hashem, Osama Mahmoud, Ra’fat Moseilhy, Zeyad Abdelreheim, and we agreed on the plan set for the mandate number 231 with the date 29/1/2005 and we agreed that 3 cars filled with bombs should explode in the area of Na’ma bay, Sharm Elsheikh the first one should explode at the Moevenpick entrance, the second one at the resort which is close to the hotel and the third one inside the resort. which is owned by Mr.Hussein Salem
And the head of the group Mohamed Hashem agreed that they would prosecute the plan with their supervision and they will plan, get the equipment as well as the men to do it. We agreed that the time 0 should be at 1 am on 23/7/2005. and we agreed that no one else should know about this mission except people who are here which they themselves will be inside the cars when they explode and by this the plan will disappear forever.
we ordered Mohamed Hashem to be ready with their equipment ready in Sharm Elsheikh on 20/7/2005 at the meeting point that is ready for their arrival under our supervision.