Frederick Douglass

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them..." Frederick Douglass

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Counterrevolution Alert Egypt: The Return Of "Mubarak's" Thugs

Remember them? They were the barbarous beasts who attacked Anderson Cooper of CNN and punched him in the head 10 times, but left no marks. They also attacked the protesters, then in favor with the international media (now not so much). Well once a dictator, always a dictator. Even from deep within a coma he has sent his boys into the streets to stir up trouble. Wouldn't you know it.

"Civilians," as they are now being called, attacked the protesters with stones and knives.

A crowd estimated at around 10,000 people set out from downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square but was stopped from reaching the military headquarters in the eastern Abbasiyah neighborhood by a line of army barricades. Along the way, they chanted slogans against the military council's delay in implementing their demands.

Bands of men armed with knives and sticks set upon them from side roads, setting off pitched street battles in which both sides threw punches and hurled rocks. Gunfire was heard, but it was unclear who was shooting.

It was not clear who the attackers were. Similar groups of men have tried to break up other protest rallies, and Mubarak's regime often used hired thugs to attack protesters. Some witnesses said they might have been residents or shopkeepers angry at the loss of business as a result of the protests.

These "witnesses" go unnamed of course. I don't know who they were but if the events occurred as described above, this attack on the protesters was well planned and coordinated with the army.

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/22/1820721/egypt-protest-numbers-decline.html





In Alexandria the police fired shots into the air and beat protesters who refused to disperse.

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, July 22 (Reuters) - Egyptian military police fired shots in the air and beat demonstrators blocking a main road in Alexandria on Friday, witnesses said, a move which could further sour relations between the army and civilians.

They said the clash erupted after hundreds of protesters blocking the coastal road near the army's northern command headquarters refused to leave the area. Police fired shots in the air and charged demonstrators who hurled rocks at them.

"The military police are firing in the air. They are also beating protesters with batons and kicking them hard," a witness told Reuters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/22/egypt-protests-alexandria_n_907351.html



Since the Western media has spun the Egyptian Revolution as an anti-Mubarak, anti-corruption movement, it now has to go into re-spin mode. The people who attacked protesters before Mubarak slithered off to Sharm al Sheikh were called thugs, now they are called (of all things) civilians, as in "clashes between civilians and protesters." This suggests the protesters are a martial force, which of course is ridiculous.

The Cairo protesters were assaulted as they approached the Ministry of Defense building. Just about every account I read said they were marching "to" the MoD. American state media, namely VOA, changed the preposition:

The unrest took place in Cairo as about 1,000 demonstrators were marching near the Defense Ministry to press their demands for political reforms.


Near? Also the smallest estimate of crowd size I've encountered was a thousand, which is the number VOA used .

And VOA's version suggests the the violence was reciprocal from the start rather than retaliatory on the part of the protesters:

Witnesses say the protesters and civilians who had gathered along the course began throwing bottles and stones at each other.


More unnamed witnesses chewing the army's cud.

Some protesters said this week's Cabinet reshuffle stopped short of meeting their demands.

On Thursday, the government swore in a new Cabinet, in which about half of the ministers are new. But some activists wanted Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to replace the key interior and justice ministers, both of whom kept their posts.

Demonstrators have urged military rulers to purge all officials who served under former President Hosni Mubarak from the government and prosecute those linked to violence and corruption.


"Demands." "Purge."

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Egyptian-Leader-Promises-Democratic-Reforms-126060053.html



But by far the worst of all came from NBC's ace broadcast journagandist Richard Engel, the voice of Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, the embed code link is broken so I can't post it, but please, please, do follow the link.

Engel asserts:

1, The military regime is reacting favorably to the people's demands. He cites the recent cabinet reshuffle which didn't remove the most despised figures from Mubarak's government.

2, The regime recently postponed elections in order to give protesters more time to prepare.

The shameless liar then goes on to contrast the responsive, principled, Egyptian military dictatorship with Assad in Syria, whose government, Engels reports, killed some protesters. Engels makes no mention of the Mubarak-Regime-Sans-Mubarak's reign of terror and torture, including the violence, albeit non-lethal, against protesters that very day.

Gotta be seen to be believed:

[Eureeka! It's working]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41236104/ns/world_news-africa/



Here's the blog from Egyptian Chronicles:

SCAF has just posted a new statement on its official Facebook regarding the clashes between protesters and military police in Suez, Alexandria and Ismailia.
Unsurprisingly in statement 69 SCAF denied that it dispersed the protesters in Suez , Alexandria or Ismailia or any other city but shockingly SCAF officially accuses April 6th Movement of attempting to turn the people against the army !!
SCAF has accused April 6th movement officially !!
This is the most dangerous SCAF statement , alarming SCAF statement ever issued.


Zeinobia was originally pretty favorably disposed to the army, and, I think, generally pretty conservative, but now she's seeing the light too. The army represents international capital, it represents reaction, it represents counterrevolution.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/scaf-declares-war-on-april-6th-youth.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Long live the Egyptian Revolution!