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

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Egypt Update, July 26

The new counterrevolutionary strategy: The junta is attempting to demonize the protesters. And fifth-columnists within the movement are playing their part.

Egypt party calls for halt to Friday’s protest

Gama’a Islamiya, a leading Salafist Islamic group, said last Friday that they intended to march to the central Cairo square with other Salafi groups to “cleanse the square.”

The group’s statement called the protesters “traitors” and “drug users” and has resulted in controversial reactions and condemnations from other Islamic groups and parties including al-Nour Party, a Salafist party and The Freedom and Justice party, the off-shoot political party of the Muslim Brotherhood.


The GI was staunchly anti-Mubarak and many of its members were tortured and imprisoned by the regime. Every revolution has its right and left wings, and the Salafi's, who in my opinion are overcriticized, may have political differences, even profound ones, with the left, but the accusations attributed to them above are suspect. I doubt real Salafis would tell such obvious lies, particularly as they serve the interests of their enemy, the military dictatorship. Every government tries to infiltrate and co-opt political factions whose efforts and influence may weigh upon the government's ability to rule. I don't know, I cannot know, but this new anti-protester stance smells of duplicity.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37348



The government is using disinformation against the April 6th Youth Movement, which it accuses of working in cahoots with foreigners to undermine Egyptian unity.

This was Gaza Not Serbia

So the Egyptian TV published a photo for April 6th Youth Movement spokesperson Mohamed Adel claiming that it was taken in Serbia where he received a military training , he was standing with a big gun.

Well it seems that the Egyptian TV is still doing what it is best at : Lying

That photo was already cropped to show Adel only without the old lady standing besides him, whom by all measures can’t be a Serbian not to mention that the date of the picture and its story proves the innocence of Adel from that training.

Given Israel's universal unpopularity among Egyptians, the government has moved his "training" from Gaza to Serbia as his association with Palestinian resistance will add to his stature with the Egyptian rank and file, thus making him more difficult to discredit.

Clearly, just as before, the regime controls the media.

And publicizing this photo with the image of the woman removed was a nice Stalinist flourish. It seems the Mubarak-Regime-Sans-Mubarak has mastered the black arts of criminal statecraft.

I recommend this article.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/this-was-gaza-not-palestine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail



Postponements, postponements, postponements.

Breaking: Egypt’s Adly trial postponed

CAIRO: The trial of former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly has been postponed on Monday morning, before it even began. Eye witnesses at the court said that the judge never even appeared before the announcement that it would be postponed until August 3.

August 3 is also the day scheduled for the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak to begin. Both are charged with the killing of civilians during the January 25 revolution that ousted the Mubarak government of 31 years.

At a local cafe, workers who had been glued to the television waiting for the trial to begin, were obviously perturbed by the delay, saying it was typical of the state of affairs for Egypt.

“What did we expect? I guess this is Egypt,” one of the waiters told Bikyamasr.com


Adly appears in court for his cameo.


These two postponed in addition to the trial of the cops who tortured and murdered Khaled Said. The Mubarak-Regime-Sans-Mubarak is too busy for justice.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37373



Somebody is smuggling weapons into Egypt.

RPGs confiscated at checkpoint

CAIRO: An Egyptian newspaper reported last week that rocket propelled grenade launchers belonging to two alleged weapons dealers have been confiscated by the Public Administration for Drug Control (PADC).

Daily youm7.com reported that the RPGs were secured in 6th of October city and the suspects have confessed to trading in weapons in order to maintain their drug operations.


Now that last sentence is really funny. Not enough money in drugs (you know, the economy being so bad), so the poor poison peddlers have to sell grenade launchers to make ends meet. Now that made me laugh!

Whether this is a government fabrication for propaganda purposes, or a legitimate gun-running operation busted is unknown, but where there are "drugs and guns," there are Western intelligence operatives involves.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37382