Posted on 05/11/2006 12:29:28 PM PDT by catholicfreeper
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration offered some friendly public advice to Egypt, one of its closest allies in the Arab world, when the State Department spokesman told Cairo to lighten up on protesters. After thousands of riot police broke up pro-reform protests in Cairo and roughed up demonstrators, spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement read to reporters at the department's daily media briefing, "we are deeply concerned." The protests were in support of two Egyptian judges facing disciplinary action after they blew the whistle on election fraud. McCormack coupled concern with a warning that "we will be following up with the Egyptian government regarding our concerns and we will continue to push for political reform and freedom of speech and press." The U.S. friendship with Egypt is rooted in the landmark Egyptian peace treaty with Israel in 1979, which triggered U.S. gratitude in the form of approximately $2 billion dollars in aid every year. The treaty cracked a solid anti-Israel front among the Arabs and sparked more widespread peacemaking in the region. As the Bush administration pushes its democracy program in the Middle East, and often comes in conflict with fundamentalist Muslim governments, Egypt under President Hosni Mubarak as well as the Egyptian populace stand out as pro-U.S. in their attitude and behavior. But the Egyptian government has taken a tough new line against pro-democracy activists who have rallied around the judges and accuse Mubarak of retreating from promised reforms. In recent weeks, 48 activists have been arrested during demonstrations to support the judges. McCormack said that reports of Egyptian police tactics against demonstrators and journalists covering the event were "particularly troubling." And, he said, the U.S. government also was troubled by reports that detention of many of those arrested has been extended and new charges filed ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Today's demonstration has about 2000 people so far, MB mixed with Kifaya and union members, and they were demonstrating in support of the judges today.For the first 20 minutes or so, the police just let them demonstrate peacefully. And then, all of a sudden, all hell broke loose.
The Riot Police, alongside thugs and plain-clothed police officers went and attacked the demonstrations with batons on Adly street, and then started arresting them. A group of protesters got trapped in front of the engineer's syndicate on Ramsis street, and the police is beating them up, dragging them on the street and arresting them. The Police also reportedly beat up another group of protesters from the pharmacists syndicate and also attacked some US journalists who were taking pictures and broke their cameras. Another group of MB that was demonstrating at the Al Fatah mosque is currently also getting beat up and in the process of getting arrested. This is bad!
Updates will follow..
Update: Aljazeera just mentioned 6 riot-police solders were killed and 20 injured when their transport lost control over the 6 October bridge near Abbaseia in the Eastern end of Cairo. It is also covering the story :
Plainclothes policemen dragged away cameramen from news organisations, including Reuters and Al Jazeera television, and confiscated their cameras.
An Al Jazeera cameraman was badly beaten, an Al Jazeera correspondent said.
Plainclothes police dragged 15 demonstrators from a crowd of around 300 marching in Cairo in support of the judges and beat them badly. At least one activist was seen bleeding from the face after he was held against a wall and beaten.
Other demonstrators dispersed when the security forces began their crackdown. The demonstrators had included supporters of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood and secular activists.
Update: New demonstration broke out at the intersect of Talaat harb and the high court. 150 demonstraters, look like Mulsim Brotherhood. Theyalso gotten broken up by the Security forces.
Update: A couple more demonstrations popping up all over the place. They are all following the same pattern: People gather and demonstrate, chant for like 5 minutes, police comes and breaks it up, arrests 5 people, chases away the rest, who regroup in another location and start another demonstration, always near the Darr al qadaa al ally (the High court building). They are spreading like wildfire and the police seems helpless and unable to put them out, so they are just beating and arresting people. War is declared in Downtown Cairo and it seems that dozens, if not hundreds, will be arrested today.
Update: The security re-enforcments have arrived. There are about 10,000 of them in downtown cairo, and they still can not contain the situation. The demos are still spreading like wildfire, and the moment they put one out, 2 more prop up in 2 different locations in its place. The Police got so frustrated, they shut down all the doors to the Metro (The Underground) at the Ramses station stop, except one, to stop more people from coming thorugh there and joining the protests. This is getting kind of funny!
Update: The Judges have stopped their sit-in at the High Court and are now moving to the Judges club. I don't know what's going on with that, but I guess the situation got really hairy down there!
Update: The court session on the Judges case was canceld today, which is why the Judges left the High court and went to the Judges club to reconvene and figure out what their next move is. The police is heavily surrounding the Judges club at the moment and it's really hard to get close to it if you are not a judge. At the same time, a number of Kifaya leaders got arrested , amongst them Mohamed Abdel Quddos and Abdel Aaziz Al Husseiny. People are still doing the wildfire demonstration dance with the police in downtown cairo regardless though, so the situation is still hairy. This- 2 and a half houres and counting- is not over yet!
Update: About 700 Judges are at the Judges club protesting, but the media is not allowed to get inside and cover it because of the police. There are rumors that 10 Judges (the leaders: Bastawesy and co.) will strike and not go to court until all of those arrested today get released. If this is confirmed, it would be huge, because other judges will surely follow, and with the Judicial branch on strike, well, the country really can not function. This might get really interesting.
Well, Egypt is the birthplace of beer....
Let's teach them about democracy there too, so the ISLAMIST can take over there too!!!
Brilliant!
muslim Brotherhood acting up? Ready for a change in gov'ts? Is Mubarak going on a sudden vacation? He should have done what Jordan's Hussein did many years ago: kill the mBs and cleanse the country.
"Other demonstrators dispersed when the security forces began their crackdown. The demonstrators had included supporters of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood and secular activists."
Muslim Brotherhood... lets help them out!
The muslin brotherhood is invlved but its just not them. Many non radical elements are involved as well. The muslim brotherhood has of course something to gain from this. Its a tough situation. If democracy had allowed to form in the 70's the muslim brotherhood would have been a party thats all imho.
"Well, Egypt is the birthplace of beer...."
I thought that recent research put it in Mesopotamia.
I just got back from a (regrettably) unsucessful business trip to Cairo, and I could see this pot about ready to boil over about a week ago … but I, too, am surprised by the lack of coverage here in the United States.
I was treated well in most places, but the situations in which I was treated dishonorably make me not want to go back to Cairo … and seeing this rioting certainly doesn't make me want to go through a 25-hour flight again.
Thank you for bringing this to the attention of our fellow FReepers!
Ah, just another street party in Islamoville!
(cue punk soundtrack)
Because I'm made of flesh
You can wear my armor down
Because I'm made of flesh
You can wear me, wear me down
You just pound
pound
pound
pound
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