Author: Carsten Agger

Arabisk revolution: Next stop Libya?

As’ad Abukhalil, også kendt som Angry Arab, videregiver budskabet om 17. februar fra en libysk bekendt:

Also for some background information on why the 17th of Feb. copied from a news group that i belong to: 3. The Feb. 17th date comemmorates the following, so make sure you talk
about it in your tweets.

– In 1987 a group of shabab were executed–their bodies dragged through the
streets of Benghazi and left outside for days–for killing Ahmed Mufda’ Werfelli. Werfelli was one of Gaddafi’s executionners. He was known to smile and laugh when he put nooses around the people’s neck he executed. He was also known for going through the markets, bullying people and gnerally being a jerk. A group of young men followed him and killed him. They were executed for their role. – In 2006 the government called people into the streets, in front of the Italian embassy, to protest the Italian ambassador wearing a t-shirt with the infamous cartoon of the prophet.

When people went to the embassy they began to riot…quickly the security forces turned against the people–beating them, etc. The chants then transformed into chants against the regime and gaddafi himself. 18 people were confirmed dead…more were probably killed, they were all young people with one being 15 years old. And 700 were imprisoned, many of which are still in jail. The protests spread through the region–reaching Tobruk. We are commemorating these brutal attacks on the people. 4. Gaddafi yesterday gathered a bunch of people, activists, bloggers, etc…to tell them, among other things, that if anybody joins these protests that their tribes will be punished. In hopes that the tribes will keep people quiet.

He also said that all of these things were CIA and Mossad conspiracies to tear down Libya. He said that Mubarak wasn’t a rich man…he borrowed his clothes from people. He said a lot of delusional things, but mostly he wanted to scare people and to get the tribes to restrain people. 5. One of the Revolutionary committees (Gaddafi’s vanguard) called people to the streets to protest on 17th…as if Gaddafi was going to join them and demand his rights too. Today they organized a protest in Tripoli in front of the Main building of the People’s committee in Tripoli. They were blaming AlBaghdadi, the secretary of the committee, for everything in Libya….so you can see where this is all going.

Torture in Egypt – to journalisters øjenvidneberetning

Souad Mekhenet og Nicholas Kulish er to journalister fra New York Times, der blev taget til fange af Mubaraks frygtede hemmelige politi, Mukhabarat.

De led ikke selv nogen overlast under deres fangenskab, men de fik et uhyggeligt indtryk af, hvordan regimet i disse dage slår ned på almindelige mennesker, der vover at udtrykke deres utilfredshed i de store demonstrationer:

Our discomfort paled in comparison to the dull whacks and the screams of pain by Egyptian people that broke the stillness of the night. In one instance, between the cries of suffering, an officer said in Arabic, “You are talking to journalists? You are talking badly about your country?”

Captivity was terrible. We felt powerless — uncertain about where and how long we would be held. But the worst part had nothing to do with our treatment. It was seeing — and in particular hearing through the walls of this dreadful facility — the abuse of Egyptians at the hands of their own government.

For one day, we were trapped in the brutal maze where Egyptians are lost for months or even years. Our detainment threw into haunting relief the abuses of security services, the police, the secret police and the intelligence service, and explained why they were at the forefront of complaints made by the protesters.

The Mukhabarat has had a working relationship with American intelligence, including the C.I.A.’s so-called rendition program of prison transfers. During our questioning, a man nearby was being beaten — the sickening sound somewhere between a thud and a thwack. Between his screams someone yelled in Arabic, “You’re a traitor working with foreigners.”

Egyptian journalists had a freer hand than many in the region’s police states, but the secret police kept a close eye on both journalists and their sources. As the protests became more violent, a campaign of intimidation against journalists and the Egyptians speaking to them became apparent. We appeared to have stumbled into the middle of it.

Ms. Mekhennet asked her interrogator, “Where are we?” The interrogator answered, “You are nowhere.”

Link: 2 Detained Reporters Saw Secret Police’s Methods Firsthand

Som Nicholas D. Kristof, som også er i Cairo for New York Times, udtrykker det: I dag er vi alle ægyptere.

A divided Egypt

Karim Sabet lagde dette på Facebook i morges og sluttede med ordene: Share if you care. Hans beretning er værd at høre.

I have not been able to sleep from what I think may be a day I hope I will never get to see again. I need to make one thing very very clear to all of you guys watching what is happening from your TV screens. Having spent 8 hours in Tahrir square yesterday, I can say that the majority of the people throwing rocks from the anti-Mubarak demonstrators were not the people I want representing me. Yes i am asking for the president to go, yes I am asking for changes to be made, and yes I will continue to go back there every day for the same cause but I will NOT accept that religious groups hijack what we have been doing for their own agenda.

A large group of the ones organizing them yesterday were people in galabeyas and long beards shouting “Al Jihad fe Sabeel Allah (Jihad in the name of Allah), you have to continue fighting, we will win this war, if you die here today, you will be a martyr and go straight to heaven, don’t stop, fight, fight, fight”.

NO! This is NOT why we werein the streets on Friday being tear gassed and dodging rubber bullets and it is not why we have been going to Tahrir everyday to be heard. The reason why this revolt went through and became successful was because it was not religiously or politically charged. Don’t let the ones who have been watching this unfold in the shadows ride this wave and hijack what you have been fighting for. I saw on Monday Taalat El Sadat (a dodgy fame hungry politician) ask people in the square to get aggressive. He was met with one loud message by everyone, “Selmeya, Selmeya” (Peaceful, Peaceful) – which is how all of us want it.

This President (who needs to go because enough is enough) has lost all credibility with every single person on this planet. After coming out on Monday night promising swift reform, he sends thugs and under cover cops (I took a pic of one of the IDs, posted on my wall last night) to provoke the ones in Tahrir. For every action, you will always get a reaction ya zift and probably this is what he  is looking for – to divide his own people. If you send them to Tahrir, you will get a war (especially since the police have been in hiding since Friday night) however I do NOT want this country to fall in the darkness of the abyss. I am hoping that the Muslim Brotherhood stay out of this although I know that this is impossible at this point.

The above is just to get you guys thinking… and only time can tell us what will really happen. What is happening to my Egypt right now is heartbreaking.

For the time being, only one message is clear…. Mubarak, please leave – how much more blood are you looking for?

Egypt today

Sandmonkey skriver:

We managed to get over 2 million protesters in Cairo alone and 3 million all over Egypt to come out and demand Mubarak’s departure. Those are people who stood up to the regime’s ruthlessness and anger and declared that they were free, and were refusing to live in the Mubarak dictatorship for one more day. That night, he showed up on TV, and gave a very emotional speech about how he intends to step down at the end of his term and how he wants to die in Egypt, the country he loved and served. To me, and to everyone else at the protests this wasn’t nearly enough, for we wanted him gone now. Others started asking that we give him a chance, and that change takes time and other such poppycock. Hell, some people and family members cried when they saw his speech. People felt sorry for him for failing to be our dictator for the rest of his life and inheriting us to his Son. It was an amalgam of Stockholm syndrome coupled with slave mentality in a malevolent combination that we never saw before. And the Regime capitalized on it today.

Today, they brought back the internet, and started having people calling on TV and writing on facebook on how they support Mubarak and his call for stability and peacefull change in 8 months. They hung on to the words of the newly appointed government would never harm the protesters, whom they believe to be good patriotic youth who have a few bad apples amongst them. We started getting calls asking people to stop protesting because “we got what we wanted” and “we need the country to start working again”. People were complaining that they miss their lives. That they miss going out at night, and ordering Home Delivery. That they need us to stop so they can resume whatever existence they had before all of this. All was forgiven, the past week never happened and it’s time for Unity under Mubarak’s rule right now.

To all of those people I say: NEVER! I am sorry that your lives and businesses are disrupted, but this wasn’t caused by the Protesters. The Protesters aren’t the ones who shut down the internet that has paralyzed your businesses and banks: The government did. The Protesters weren’t the ones who initiated the military curfew that limited your movement and allowed goods to disappear off market shelves and gas to disappear: The government did. The Protesters weren’t the ones who ordered the police to withdraw and claimed the prisons were breached and unleashed thugs that terrorized your neighborhoods: The government did. The same government that you wish to give a second chance to, as if 30 years of dictatorship and utter failure in every sector of government wasn’t enough for you. The Slaves were ready to forgive their master, and blame his cruelty on those who dared to defy him in order to ensure a better Egypt for all of its citizens and their children. After all, he gave us his word, and it’s not like he ever broke his promises for reform before or anything.

Then Mubarak made his move and showed them what useful idiots they all were.

You watched on TV as “Pro-Mubarak Protesters” – thugs who were paid money by NDP members by admission of High NDP officials- started attacking the peaceful unarmed protesters in Tahrir square. They attacked them with sticks, threw stones at them, brought in men riding horses and camels- in what must be the most surreal scene ever shown on TV- and carrying whips to beat up the protesters. And then the Bullets started getting fired and Molotov cocktails started getting thrown at the Anti-Mubarak Protesters as the Army standing idly by, allowing it all to happen and not doing anything about it. Dozens were killed, hundreds injured, and there was no help sent by ambulances. The Police never showed up to stop those attacking because the ones who were captured by the Anti-mubarak people had police ID’s on them. They were the police and they were there to shoot and kill people and even tried to set the Egyptian Museum on Fire. The Aim was clear: Use the clashes as pretext to ban such demonstrations under pretexts of concern for public safety and order, and to prevent disunity amongst the people of Egypt. But their plans ultimately failed, by those resilient brave souls who wouldn’t give up the ground they freed of Egypt, no matter how many live bullets or firebombs were hurled at them. They know, like we all do, that this regime no longer cares to put on a moderate mask. That they have shown their true nature. That Mubarak will never step down, and that he would rather burn Egypt to the ground than even contemplate that possibility.

Læs det hele. Read it and weep.

Update: Sandmonkey er åbenbart anholdt, og hans blog er nede. Ifølge dette link ringede hans far til hans mobil, og Mubaraks Gestapo-folk tog telefonen. Lisa Goldman skriver:

Sandmonkey, Egypt’s most famous English-language blogger, was arrested on 3 February 2011 while attempting to deliver medical supplies to Tahrir Square. About one hour later, his blog was suspended. The obvious conclusion is that his arrested was not at all random – that Hosni Mubarak’s security forces were following him online and planned his arrest (the Sandmonkey tweeted that he was on his way to deliver medical supplies to Tahrir shortly before he was arrested).

The crackdown has begun. Du kan læse hele det oprindelige indlæg på Lisas blog.

Update, II: Sandmonkey er nu åbenbart løsladt igen. Check ham evt. på Twitter.