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Serious stuff coming in:
cOMING IN:
Starting with the Guardian, links are here, h\constantlyu updated:
gypt protests - live updates
• VP says election brought forward to August
• 13 people have died as running battles continue
• Arrests of and attacks on journalists
• Egyptian PM apologises for violence
• Read a summary of key events
• Protesting in Egypt? Call +44 203 353 2959 to tell your story
• Turn off auto-refresh to watch videos or listen to audio
ترجم هذه الصفحة إلى العربيةThis page will update automatically every minute: On | OffOpposition supporters throw rocks during rioting with pro-Mubarak supporters near Tahrir Square in Cairo today. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
5.25pm: My colleague Adam Gabbatt sends this article, which he explains here:My colleague Charles Arthur, the Guardian's technology editor, argues that the Vodafone texts controversy (see 12.05pm) may do the company lasting damage.The Guardian has teamed up with Der Spiegel and Le Monde to bring reports on the shockwaves the events in Egypt are sending through the middle east. This series of audio reports from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan and Lebanon is the first pooled dispatch from the team of foreign correspondents, with more to come over the next few days.
And courtesy of my colleague Sam Jones here's a statement from Hilton about why security staff at the Ramses Hilton have been confiscating cameras from film crews staying there. Members of the international press have reported staff knocking on the doors of their rooms and demanding they hand over their equipment.
Due to the gravity, immediacy and dynamic nature of the situation in Cairo, our hotel is implementing additional measures to ensure the ongoing safety and security of our guests and employees, as this remains our highest priority. These measures include a request not to film from the property due to the threat this poses to the reporters themselves as well as others on property. We appreciate your understanding and support during these challenging circumstances.My colleague Simon Jeffrey has been analysing how the rightwing US media are covering the protests.
Here's a taste (this one from Michael Savage):
Grievances? Here is the community organiser [Barack Obama] now using community organisational mentality for a nation of Egypt, which is flooded with the Muslim Brotherhood. This is astounding. We are listening to the biggest mistake in US diplomatic history. This fool. This pinheaded fool running this country either doesn't know his history or is on the side of radical Islam. There's no two ways about it.Also in highly questionable taste is this tweet from Kenneth Cole, the clothing company, which I will quote in case it gets taken down: "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC."
(The company has since apologised, saying: Re Egypt tweet: we weren't intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment -KC.)
5.23pm: Suleiman criticised certain – unnamed – countries for "interfering in our domestic affairs" and warned this would have "a negative impact on our relations with them ... It's very surprising to hear them interfere in our affairs."He added: "I blame certain friendly states who are hosting unfriendly TV stations who charge the youth against the state."
Suleiman ended his interview with these slightly toe-curling remarks:
I would say to the youth: we thank you for what you did; you were the spark that ignited reform in this time ... Do not succumb to the rumours and satellite TV stations raising you against your country.
5.08pm: "The presidential elections will be carried out in August or September," Suleiman said – September had previously been the only date mentioned."It will not go beyond that limit, during which [time] certain constitutional amendments will be carried out."
He added: "The youths were demanding for the dissolution of the people's assembly ... It means we would not be able to really examine or debate ... on the constitutional amendments ... September is a time limit which must be observed, otherwise we will have a constitutional vacuum."
He said two political parties had rejected dialogue, but the Muslim Brotherhood is "hesitant but not rejecting".
Having praised the January 25 movement Suleiman then described the people in Tahrir Square as "representatives of certain political parties, including foreigners".
He promised to hunt down the perpetrators of the violence, which he described as a "conspiracy".
He said the armed forces did not intervene because they were uncertain and not used to such intervention, but they would now be engaged in "implementing the curfew, and protecting civilians against thugs".
4.58pm: Suleiman blamed the violence on "some other opportunists carrying their own agenda. It might be related to outside forces or other domestic affairs". He said it was "a conspiracy".This approach was predicted in this morning's Guardian by the novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who wrote:
Their next trick will be to say that the young people in Tahrir are "foreign" elements, that they have connections to "terrorism", that they've visited Afghanistan, that they want to destabilise Egypt. But by now the whole world knows that this regime lies as naturally as it breathes.Suleiman said: "The object behind this was to create the maximum degree of instability, intimidation and defeat the people of Egypt," but he added: "The 25 January movement is not a destructive movement."
Of the army, he said: "Now the armed forces are changing their duties, hand in hand with the people, to protect the people."
He said Hosni Mubarak had discussed how the protesters' demands could be met:
President Mubarak, when he found out the demands expressed by the January 25 were lawful and objective, he discussed how these needs ... could be met ... He has responded to all the lawful demands. We could also have accepted other demands ... However the time limit is thin and tight.
4.49pm: Vice-president Omar Suleiman is on state TV. He has held out the prospect of the presidential election taking place in August (previously September has always been cited as the date it would be held) but holding it any earlier would leave a "constitutional vacuum".He says the wishes of the January 25 movement are "acceptable" and blamed outside forces for trying to foster instability.
Photograph: BBC News
4.38pm: Ian Black, our Middle East editor, writes:Omar Suleiman and Ahmed Shafiq, the newly appointed Egyptian vice-president and prime minister respectively, met opposition figures in Cairo today for a meeting that was described as "cordial but inconsequential" by diplomats.
The opening session of the "national dialogue" called for by Suleiman produced a "road map" and a timetable for political reform. It was agreed to form three committees to look at constitutional change, the economy and law and order, but no decisions of substance were taken.
Several opposition movements, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, did not attend the meeting, presumably because they firmly oppose dialogue with the government until Hosni Mubarak steps down.
But the feeling in the Egyptian capital today is that Suleiman and other leaders are now digging in behind the embattled president. "They are rattled and under pressure but there is no sign of them giving up in the face of the criticism from foreign capitals," one western official said. "There is a sense of disconnect."
4.34pm: British student Simon Hardy (see 3.53pm) travelled to Cairo out of solidarity with the protesters and to witness a historic event.Speaking on the edge of Tahrir Square, as gunshots sounded, he said:
These shots rang out about 45 minutes ago and it seemed like two protesters were killed. I don't know who they were ... Some of us are out here from Britain; we wanted to come out and experience what is happening in Egypt. It is the Middle East's 1989. It is important that people can come out here and really see what's going on, because this is absolutely historic.Hardy, who is a 29-year-old student of international relations and politics, said: "I am experiencing politics as it is," as more shots rang out.
It is not protest tourism, it is a basic act of solidarity. People are glad we are here. It is bit like the international brigades who went to Spain to fight Franco. I don't think those people were tourists.Asked if he was concerned for his safety, he said: "A little bit, but I've been on demonstrations in Britain in the last few months, when riot police beating people up and acted in a terrorising way."
4.31pm: On Twitter, Wael Abbas is reporting:Snipers on top of Hilton RamsisWael Abbas
waelabbas
4.20pm: Protesters in Gaza have been showing their support for opponents of President Mubarak's regime, Reuters reports. Hamas, which rules the territory, had previously banned any gatherings in support of the Egyptian demonstrations, even though Hosni Mubarak is not an ally of the group.4.13pm: More journalists have been subjected to heavy-handed treatment:BBCWorld:
Egyptian security seize BBC equipment at Cairo Hilton in attempt to stop us broadcasting #Egypt
4.10pm: Reuters has compiled a round-up of international reaction to the situation in Egypt:German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle:
I spoke to representatives of the opposition including [Mohamed] ElBaradei, and it's completely obvious that this is a matter for the political opinion makers in Egypt to decide for themselves who shapes the democratic transition and how. This requires beginning with a direct exchange of ideas, a peaceful dialogue, and we are counting on progress here today since otherwise I am afraid that - in view of Friday prayers tomorrow - there will be another escalation of the situation.US president Barack Obama:
We pray that the violence in Egypt will end and that the rights and aspirations of the Egyptian people will be realised and that a better day will dawn over Egypt and throughout the world.Michael Spindelegger, Austrian foreign minister:
I urge the Egyptian leadership not to let batons do the talking nor to block the media, but to be responsible and to deal with the demands of the demonstrators. The demonstrators and their valid demands cannot be silenced by violence. The political forces in the country must to everything to avoid a further escalation.Greek prime minister George Papandreou:
Egyptian people want change, democratic rights, liberties. All these need to be established, also constitutionally. It is necessary that this transition to democracy, these changes take place with credibility, stability, that they happen quickly and without violence.International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson:
We just don't know yet how the economic situation will develop because it is not yet clear how the political situation will develop. There is an issue of who is in charge of what now.EU foreign affairs chief Lady Ashton:
I urge the Egyptian authorities to immediately take the necessary measures to ensure that the law enforcement authorities protect the demonstrators and their right to assembly freely. I have made clear that it is the responsibility of the army and law enforcement to protect its citizens. Last night we were sending messages to the Egyptian authorities in phone calls and other messages, saying: "Look, you have to get the army in to protect the people, you have to make sure that we've got ambulances able to get in and out of the square."Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - joint statement:
We are observing a deterioration of the situation in Egypt with extreme concern. We condemn all those who use or encourage violence, which will only worsen Egypt's political crisis. Only a rapid and orderly transition towards a broadly representative government will allow Egypt to overcome the challenges that it is facing. This process of transition must start now.
4.02pm: Here is Peter Beaumont and Jack Shenker's full report on the clashes in Tahrir Square today.4.00pm: Turi Munthe, the chief executive of international citizen journalism network Demotix, said one of its citizen journalists had been beaten:Foreign journos – and anyone with laptop or camera – are now targets. One of our guys just got smashed up.On the violence: "Before every demo, we were told that the anti-Mubarak protestors searched fellow protesters for weapons. That has now fallen apart because pro-Mubarak gang got through, and it's escalated."
Sounds like even anti-Mubarak protesters have given up on foreign media and assume they're not helping the cause or have their own agenda. Four al-Arabiya reporters have been attacked, possibly because the Arabiya channel is universally seen as pro-Mubarak.
3.59pm: An Amnesty International representative was among those arrested in the raid on Hisham Mubarak Law Centre (see 2.44pm).Amnesty issued this statement:
An Amnesty International representative has been detained by police in Cairo after the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre was taken over by military police this morning.
Amnesty International USA called on President Obama to immediately demand the release of the Amnesty International staff members.
The Amnesty International member of staff was taken, along with Ahmed Seif Al Islam Khaled Ali, a delegate from Human Rights Watch, and others, to an unknown location in Cairo. Amnesty International does not know their current whereabouts.
"We call for the immediate and safe release of our colleagues and others with them who should be able to monitor the human rights situation in Egypt at this crucial time without fear of harassment or detention," said Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty International.
A number of other activists are still being held in the Centre, including a second Amnesty International member of staff.
3.55pm: There is a huge protest going on in Alexandria, which has not yet seen the violence that has been witnessed in the capital.Photograph: Tarek Fawzy/AP
3.53pm: A British man, Simon Hardy, has called in to relay his experiences in Tahrir Square this afternoon. Phone us on +44 203 353 2959 if you are in Egypt and want to tell your story.In the last few minutes some snipers on top of the Hilton roof opened fire, maybe seven or eight gunshots. The protesters are saying two people have been killed, one shot in the head and one in the neck.
There are growing numbers of pro-government protesters on Ramses Street and behind the barricades on our side, still thousands of people in the square.
People are saying: "Is there going to be another attack tonight?" Anti-government protesters are saying that if they survive tonight, the demonstration tomorrow will be massive. They are calling it departure day, the day Mubarak will be kicked out of office. Everything hinges on the next 24 hours.
3.51pm: Here's a summary of key events in Arabic, courtesy of my colleague Mona Mahmood:اندلعت اعمال العنف في القاهرة مرة اخرى بعد ان استمر مؤيدي الرئيس حسني
مبارك في هجماتهم ضد المعارضين له في ساحة التحرير
و لقد قتل خمسة اشخاص و جرح اكثر من ٨٣٦ منذ اندلاع اعمال العنف في
الليلة الماضية و ذلك حسب تصريحات وزير الصحة
المصري و قال احد الاطباء ان سبعة اشخاص قتلوا باطلاقات نارية حيث قتل
احدهم بنيران قناص في الساعات الاولى من الصباح
و بعد النقد الذي وجه للجيش المصري للوقوفه كمراقب لاحداث العنف , ابدى
الجيش بعض الاشارت لتحركه اليوم حيث قام بتشكيل صفوف عازلة بين
المعارضين و المؤيدين للنظام كما قام ايضا بتنظيف بعض الاماكن المخصصة
لمؤيدي حسني مبارك
و قال المحتجون الذين يطالبون بالديمقراطية انهم القوا القبض على اكثر من
.١٢ يحملون هويات تابعة لسلك الشرطة و الحزب الوطني الحاكم حيث تم
الامساك بهم و هم يحاولون مهاجمة معارضي
و بدى الامين العام للامم المتحدة بان كي مون اكثر وضوحا في تصريحاته
عندما دعى مبارك لمغادرة السلطة فورا , حيث قال اذا كان هناك حاجة
لتغيير النظام فيجب ان يجري هذا الان
تجمع الالاف من معارضي الحكومة اليمنية في العاصمة صنعاء اليوم للمشاركة
في يوم الغضب ضد نظام الرئيس علي عبد الله صالح, حيث لم يسهم عرض الرئيس
بالتنحي عن السلطة عام ٢.١٣ في ايقاف التظاهرات
3.50pm: The Egyptian health ministry has updated its toll of the number of casualties from the violence in Cairo over the past two days. It now says 13 people have been killed and 1,200 have been injured.There are also reports a foreigner has been killed in Tahrir Square today:
NOWLebanonBlog:
3.46pm: Horrific video has emerged of a police van running over anti-regime protesters. The van was driven at speed into people peacefully marching. It was uploaded to YouTube today. Warning: contains disturbing content.3.42pm: The Egyptian activist and blogger SandMonkey has been freed, according to his friends on Twitter.RamyYaacoub:
OnPhone W/ @SandMonkey: "We were just released after a 2 hour arrest, the beating came before the arrest" #SandMonkey
OnPhone W/ @SandMonkey: "Massive Chaos ensued before we got arrested, my phone is gone, money, and car is destroyed"
@ajimran he (@SandMonkey) was beaten, glasses broken, car rancked, cellphone taken and medical supplies gone
3.42pm: Washington Post journalists have been arrested, the paper's live blog on the protests reported.We have heard from multiple witnesses that Leila Fadel, our Cairo bureau chief, and Linda Davidson, a photographer, were among two dozen journalists arrested this morning by the Egyptian interior ministry. We understand that they are safe but in custody and we have made urgent protests to Egyptian authorities in Cairo and Washington. We've advised the state department as well.
3.38pm: Pro-Mubarak supporters attempted to storm the Hilton hotel, where several foreign journalists are based, according to various Twitter updates:The BBC's foreign editor Jon Williams confirms that journalists have been targeted in hotels:
Thugs go into Hilton Cairo looking for journalists. #Egypt #Jan25 #AlJazeera
Looks like an ERROR: Update on Hilton. Follow up confirms thugs at the door 'ATTEMPTING' to break in, but UNCONFIRMED they are inside.
Mubarak supporters stormed hotels in Cairo, chasing foreign journalists. Army now securing Hilton hotel...President Mubarak's son Gamal has resigned from the ruling National Democratic party, according to Egypt Daily News.
3.31pm: The Daily News Egypt is reporting on Twitter that, not only is Gamal Mubarak not going to stand for president in September (see 2.33pm), but he has also resigned from the ruling National Democratic Party.
3.17pm: Here is a mid-afternoon summary.• Violent clashes have broken out in Cairo again as pro-government supporters have continued their assault against protesters in Tahrir Square opposed to President Hosni Mubarak (see 9.17am). There has been more gunfire but it is unclear who is shooting and whether all the gunfire is just warning shots.
• There have been a number of arrests and/or attacks on journalists reported – including those from al-Jazeera (see 2.41pm) and the Daily News Egypt (see 12.20pm). The violence against journalists came after Egyptian state TV reported there were Israeli spies in Egypt. Some journalists have supposedly been rounded up for their own safety (see 12.37pm). US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said there was "a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists" (see 1.35pm).
• The Egyptian vice-president, Omar Suleiman, is due to make a statement shortly. He has already told state TV that Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal will not stand in the September elections (see 2.33pm).
• The army, criticised for standing by and watching yesterday's violence, has shown signs of intervening today, forming lines between the two sides and clearing some areas of Mubarak supporters (see 10.59am). However, there have also been accusations that the military is involved in a crackdown against pro-democracy protesters (see immediately below).
• There have been reports of police/army/military police stopping people getting into Tahrir Square and/or taking away food and medical supplies. Between eight and 12 people at the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre were arrested and beaten (see 1.13pm), eyewitnesses said. The activist blogger Sandmonkey was reportedly arrested and beaten (see 11.59am) but has now apparently escaped.
• The Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafiq apologised for the violence in Tahrir Square and said it would not be allowed to recur (see 1.53pm). He said the culprits would be found. Shafiq also said he could not say for certain whether the attacks were organised.
• Five people have been killed and 836 injured since the start of yesterday's violence, the Egyptian health ministry has said (see 7.34am). A doctor said seven people had been shot dead, including one killed by a sniper in the early hours of this morning.
• Thousands of anti-government protesters have gathered in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, to take part in their own "day of rage" against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime (see 8.01am). His offer to step down in 2013 has not pacified the demonstrators.
• Algeria has lifted its 19-year-old state of emergency law, according to al-Aribaya TV.
3.16pm: Sky News reports that Egyptian vice-president Omar Suleiman is about to make an "important announcement". That's all we know at this stage.3.14pm: Jack Shenker has sent this photo by Sandro Contenta showing Egyptian ID cards taken from pro-Mubarak protesters indicating membership of the NDP, the ruling party.
3.06pm: "We are seeing live fire, we are seeing bullets ricocheting off the bridge," Peter Beaumont reports in another update on the battle for flyover.The gunfire appears to have been directed at pro-Mubarak forces on the flyover, he said. "These are pro-Mubarak demonstrators who are trying to throw petrol bombs at the people below them," he said. "We can see someone being carried away who we think has been shot."
It is unclear who is firing the live rounds, Peter said.
3.03pm: Warning shots are fired as Peter Beaumont describes a battle for a key flyover at the entrance to Tahrir Square.The pro-Mubarak supporters are very very broken up. Some of the opposition supporters have put a barricade up from which they are throwing stones at pro-Mubarak supporters.
2.53pm: Here's a link to live footage from Cairo on Bambuser.2.50pm: In the comments, hszmnedz sends this from her husband in Tahrir Square:About 50,000-100,000 peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators are still in Tahrir Square, made up of all walks of life: popular rock singers, lawyers, engineers, youth, religious figures, university professors. There is unity between secular and religious, liberal and conservatives.
All are saying we are not anarchists, we are calling for democracy and the rule of law.
About 400 members of the foreign community in Cairo are participating with the peaceful demonstrators calling for freedom for Egypt, chanting "hurreya", which translates to "freedom". For their safety, we are not saying what they are wearing.
Thank you for every one of them.
A nearby mosque has been transformed to a makeshift hospital.
Army still not engaging.
2.44pm: The writer Ahdaf Soueif reports arrests at a law centre:A good friend just saw eight to 12 people being dragged out of 1 Souq el-Tawfikiyyah Street and bundled into a civilian micro-bus while a military police vehicle waited nearby.
The people were being beaten and the street had been told they were "Iranian and Hamas agents come to destabilise Egypt" so the street was chanting against them.
Number 1 Souq el-Tawfikiyyah Street is the home of the offices of the Hisham Mubarak Legal Aid Centre, The Centre for Social and Economic Rights and The 6th April Youth.
My brother-in-law, the lawyer Ahmad Seif, works at the centre.
2.41pm: More on the arrest of journalists:Al-Jazeera's Gregg Carlstrom tweets that three of his colleagues have been arrested:
Blogger Wael Abbasn tweets:
Swedish TV has lost contact with correspondent Bert Sundström. He was on foot close to Marriot. Seems to be abducted.
2.33pm: My colleagues Peter Beaumont and Jack Shenker in Cairo send the following about the role of the army in Tahrir Square today:They were barely visible at first, a glimmer of tan clothing among the ranks of pro-Mubarak fighters lined on a low overpass above the entrance to Tahrir Square. It was from here that rocks, petrol bombs and bullets had been raining down on the anti-regime opposition defending their barricades below.I'll post the link to the full version as soon as we have it.
At 9am first one, then a second, and then dozens of Egyptian army soldiers – the same military forces who had stood back and watched as last night's bloodshed unfolded – finally appeared at this key strategic flashpoint and began driving back those on the bridge. Before them lay a no man's land carpeted with broken bricks and burnt out vehicles that spoke of the extraordinary violence that had played out in the darkness. This was the morning after the night before.
It was the beginning of a day of to-and-fro street clashes in the densely-populated neighbourhoods surrounding the square, as anti-Mubarak protesters fought close-quarter battles to hold Tahrir and, in a hail of warning shots and automatic gunfire, the army sporadically attempted to establish buffer zones.
One thing was clear after a night of fighting that left over 1,000 injured and several dead from gunshot wounds. That is that despite the denials of Egypt's government and interior ministry who claimed these events were not state-orchestrated, all the evidence strongly suggested otherwise.
2.33pm: Omar Suleiman has confirmed that Gamal Mubarak won't be running for president, according to Reuters citing State TV.
2.32pm: The former minister of the interior, Habib al-Adly, is being questioned for his role in the unrest last Friday, al-Jazeera reports, citing state TV. The minister was responsible for ordering police off the streets, it was reported.Other ministers in the former government are also being investigated. Their assets have been frozen and travel documents removed, the BBC tweets.
2.23pm: Here's Josh Halliday's report on the attacks on BBC, CNN and al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt.And here's a video of some of today's clashes.
And here, from the comments, is protester marwaa, who has had difficulties getting into Tahrir Square today.
Today I am unable to go down to Tahrir to join my colleagues in this struggle because the NDP thugs who are supposedly "pro-Mubarak" supporters have blocked any entrances. I decided then, to communicate with my friends in Tahrir who are suffering and to keep their experiences posted. At the moment, the thugs have blocked any FOOD SUPPLIES, MEDICAL SUPPLIES, and even BLOOD DONATIONS to people in Tahrir. It has reached the point where they would capture the supplies, empty, and urinate on them on the pavement right in front of the people who need it. Now, all the people in Tahrir have been blocked from medical and food supplies and are very much insisting not to leave (at some points they are not even ALLOWED to leave). "We will stay till we starve if that's what it takes."
2.15pm: Pro-Mubarak forces are being pushed further and further back, Peter Beaumont reports from Cairo. He says forces loyal to the president haven't come out in the numbers that they did yesterday. Some of the groups are only a few hundred strong:The army has been trying to put themselves in between them. Tanks are not the greatest crowd-control weapons. Tanks are driving in and swinging their turrets around, trying to intimidate people by waggling round the main gun. Occasionally we'll see groups of soldiers run down trying to break up a knot of people, or we will hear warning shots.
He [the prime minister] should be apologising for the violence. We have seen numerous identity cards taken from people captured by the opposition, identifying them as police.
2.03pm: There has been a scathing response on Twitter to the Egyptian prime minister's apology at a press conference (1.53pm), which was broadcast to the nation:@shmpOngO:
@Zeinobia:
what is this arrogant PM ?? Shafik Ya Ragal !!@BloggerSeif:
Listening to Shafiq via radio at side of Tahrir. Probe? Violence? that was a massacre attempt asshole! #Jan25@H_Eid:
You mother fucker, are blaming us for the shame scene you made on all international TVs, hell no it was you mr PM
1.53pm: More details of the apology by Egypt's prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, for the violence (9.27am), which he has repeated in a press conference. He told State TV:I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday because it's neither logical nor rational. Everything that happened yesterday will be investigated so everyone knows who was behind it.He repeated the apology at a press conference at which he also said:
• The attacks "seemed to have been organised" but "no one had prior knowledge" of them and he could not say for sure they were not spontaneous.
• He was "surprised" to see camels but they must have come from the Pyramids complex and it could have been camel owners upset about the effect of the protests on tourism.
• The banks will be reopened on Sunday.
• The Suez canal will not be threatened.
• No one will be excluded from the dialogue, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
He said: "I promise that what happened yesterday in Meydan Tahrir will not happen again. I'll investigate and promise to publish the results."
1.41pm: Al-Jazeera says two of its reporters were attacked on their way from the airport to central Cairo.1.35pm: The Guardian's Harriet Sherwood referred earlier (12.38pm) to greater involvement by the Muslim Brotherhood in the protests.Karim Sabet, on Facebook, has written a blogpost that also indicates an upsurge in activity by the Islamist group:
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 were in 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.
1.35pm:The US state department spokesman PJ Crowley has condemned the crackdown on foreign journalists:
Democracy Now:
Guests:
Selma al-Tarzi, Egyptian pro-democracy activist in Cairo.
Mona El Seif, Egyptian pro-democracy activist in Cairo.
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* Made in the U.S.A.: Tear Gas, Tanks, Helicopters, Rifles and Fighter Planes in Egypt Funded and Built Largely by the Pentagon and American Corporations
* “The True Face of Hosni Mubarak” Is Now Being Televised Across the World: Democracy Now! Reports Live From Downtown Cairo
* Robert Fisk: Obama Administration Has Been Gutless and Cowardly in Dealing with the Mubarak Regime
* Journalists and Human Rights Activists Arrested and Beaten In Cairo Crackdown
* California Professor Beaten By Pro-Mubarak Forces Minutes After Interview on Democracy Now!
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* Democracy Now! Complete Coverage of the Egyptian Protests
JUAN GONZALEZ: The Egyptian government has launched a violent crackdown on the massive uprising seeking the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. After over a week of unprecedented and peaceful rallies that brought millions into the streets, pro-democracy demonstrators were viciously attacked Wednesday and earlier today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Aided by positions overlooking the crowd and the apparent consent of the military, pro-Mubarak supporters unleashed a barrage of automatic gunfire and Molotov cocktails. Protesters responded with homemade bombs, sticks and rocks. At least seven people were killed and over 800 were wounded before dawn broke. The vast majority of the victims appeared to be on the pro-democracy side. There are widespread reports that many pro-Mubarak supporters were either plainclothes police officers or others paid by the regime.
AMY GOODMAN: Shortly after the first gunfire erupted, Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté reached Egyptian activist Mona Seif in Tahrir square.
MONA EL SEIF: They have rifles. They are shooting live ammunition at us. We’ve already—we’ve had a lot of wounded. I don’t know how many. The ambulance keeps on coming and carrying wounded people and speeding away with them. We have had so far four confirmed deaths. One of them was with a shot right through the head. And it just—it is still going on. And the army is there, and they are not moving, and nobody’s moving. And we keep on sending other of our people to the forefront to try and protect us, and we keep on losing some of them. And that’s how it is.
AARON MATÉ: And what is the military doing?
MONA EL SEIF: The military is not doing anything. On the side, where the main clashes are, where we lost already four people and lots of wounded, there are more than six army trucks, and they are not doing anything. And right now there is—it seems that there is another clash on another of the entrances to Tahrir Square, but I cannot confirm it, like people are running towards it, but I don’t know yet if there is something.
AARON MATÉ: Now, it’s almost 6:00 in the morning there, and it’s obviously very dangerous. Why are you still there?
MONA EL SEIF: Because we cannot leave. We came here peacefully demanding for Mubarak to leave. We were so numerous yesterday. This is not our demand alone. This is the demand of the majority of Egyptians all over the country. We were here peacefully. Yesterday was such a festive day. If you saw the place, you would think it was a park. We had children playing and people chanting and dancing and singing. And now, all of a sudden, it’s this war zone, just because they leashed at us those thugs, with their weapons and their knives and their cocktail Molotovs thrown at us from rooftops. We are here because we’ve lost a lot of people for a certain demand and a certain cause, and we owe it to them to stick it and stay here.
AARON MATÉ: Now, the corporate media here has described what’s happening today as clashes between two sides. What do think of that description?
MONA EL SEIF: It isn’t. It isn’t. If it was clashes between two sides, then you would assume that the two sides had opposing causes and they were equal. It isn’t. Most of the—we have caught a lot of the thugs they have released at us. We have searched them. Most of them were one of two things. Either they had police IDs on them—and we have taken photos of this, and we’ve already sent it out to Twitter and Facebook; you can look for it, the hashtag is jan25—or they were unemployed people that were promised either jobs or money. And we’ve already—we have a testimony of one of them on videotape. We are just waiting for a chance to have internet to show the world what this government is capable of. We know this. We know this since every demo we went to. They always plant thugs and pretend—let them pretend to be civilians, so they can start the violence. I just never saw this amount of violence, this publicly displayed, and nobody stopping it.
AMY GOODMAN: Egyptian activist Mona Seif, speaking after the pro-Mubarak forces opened fire on Tahrir Square. Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté also reached another activist there, Selma Tarzi.
SELMA AL-TARZI: The Mubarak thugs were shooting at us with the machine guns. The army shot back at them. Two of them were killed. One of us was killed. And the army was chased them and took their machine guns away. However, more are coming. And we are so tired. People are so tired. We’ve been fighting for the past 12 hours. And we’re just protesters; we’re civilians. We’re protesters. We’re not—we’re improvising fighting tactics. All we have is stones and sticks. And we’re tired. This is not what we’re here to do. This is not—this is not how—this is a crime of war. They’re killing us.
AARON MATÉ: Tell us what you’re seeing right now.
SELMA AL-TARZI: I’m seeing doctors running left and right, ambulances driving left and right, people carrying wounded people, trying to take them to the place that we set up and made an improvised doctor tent. On the other side, people are sitting on the pavement so exhausted and so tired. And that is us. Some people are trying to lift the morale or encourage people to go and fight. But people are tired. People are tired.
And channels like the BBC are claiming that it’s a Muslim Brother movement and that all the people in the square are Muslim Brothers. We are not Muslim Brothers. I’m not the Muslim Brothers. I couldn’t care less for the Muslim Brothers. They’re everything I work against and I believe against. However, in this fight, we are working together side by side. And there are people from all sorts of ideologies here. It’s a people’s movement.
AARON MATÉ: Who are these forces that have been shooting at you?
SELMA AL-TARZI: These are thugs. These are thugs that are trying to attack the square from all the entrances. Our people are trying to secure the entrances of the square. But these are the Mubarak thugs, and not only Mubarak. And it has to be very clear to everyone that when we say that we want Mubarak out, we mean his whole government, his whole regime, including Habib El Adly, including Omar Suleiman, the chief of intelligence, including the parliament, including the parliament heads that are hiring these thugs to kill us, basically.
There has been live shooting all day. I was helping with the wounded. And I have, myself, seen to a couple of cases of gunshots in their legs, because they’re below. They’re shooting their legs below. They’re not showing the guns. At the beginning, they weren’t. Now that they’re using machine guns, apparently they’re being obvious about it, but at the beginning they were shooting below the—they were shooting the legs. They weren’t showing their weapons. And we did not know where the shot is coming from.
JUAN GONZALEZ: That was Selma Tarzi, speaking from Tahrir Square in the midst of pro-government forces opening fire on the pro-democracy demonstrators.
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* Eyewitnesses to a Massacre: Reports from Inside Tahrir Square as Pro-Mubarak Forces Open Fire on Protesters
* A Battle for Democracy: Sharif Abdel Kouddous Reports on How Anti-Government Protesters Are Resisting the Mubarak’s Regime Crackdown
* California Professor Beaten By Pro-Mubarak Forces Minutes After Interview on Democracy Now!
* Journalists and Human Rights Activists Arrested and Beaten In Cairo Crackdown
* Robert Fisk: Obama Administration Has Been Gutless and Cowardly in Dealing with the Mubarak Regime
* “The True Face of Hosni Mubarak” Is Now Being Televised Across the World: Democracy Now! Reports Live From Downtown Cairo
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Wednesday, February 02, 2011
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* Bloodshed in Egypt: Mubarak Supporters Riding on Horses and Camels Violently Attack Protesters in Tahrir Square, Over 100 Injured
* As Mubarak Pledges To Finish Term, Egyptian Protesters Stay in Streets Demanding Immediate End to Regime: Democracy Now! Reports Live from Cairo
* Noam Chomsky: “This is the Most Remarkable Regional Uprising that I Can Remember”
* Voices of the Egyptian Revolution: Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous Speaks with Demonstrators in Tahrir Square at "March of Millions"
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
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* Media Blackout in Egypt and the U.S.: Al Jazeera Forced Off the Air by Mubarak, Telecommunications Companies Block Its Expansion in the United States
* Millions Against Mubarak: Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous Reports Live from Tahrir Amid Massive Protest
* "Mubarak is Our Berlin Wall": Egyptian Columnist Mona Eltahawy on How the Youth Drove the Uprising in Cairo and Implications for Democracy in the Region
* Digital Darkness: U.S., U.K. Companies Help Egyptian Regime Shut Down Telecommunications and Identify Dissident Voices
Monday, January 31, 2011
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* Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous Live from Egypt: The Rebellion Grows Stronger
* Repression and Poverty Underpin the Uprising in Egypt
* Leading Egyptian Feminist, Nawal El Saadawi: "Women and Girls are Beside Boys in the Streets"
* Made in the U.S.A.: Tear Gas, Tanks, Helicopters, Rifles and Fighter Planes in Egypt Funded and Built Largely by the Pentagon and American Corporations
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Live From Egypt: The True Face of the Mubarak Regime by Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Cairo, Egypt—The Mubarak regime launched a brutal and coordinated campaign of violence today to take back the streets of Cairo from Egypt’s mass pro-democracy movement.
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When Corporations Choose Despots Over Democracy by Amy Goodman
“People holding a sign ‘To: America. From: the Egyptian People. Stop supporting Mubarak. It’s over!” so tweeted my brave colleague, “Democracy Now!” senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous, from the streets of Cairo.
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Noam Chomsky (Part 2): “This Is The Most Remarkable Regional Uprising That I Can Remember”
In recent weeks, popular uprisings in the Arab world have led to the ouster of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the imminent end of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, a new Jordanian government, and a pledge by Yemen’s longtime dictator to leave office at the end of his term. We speak to MIT Professor Noam Chomsky in an extended interview about what these popular uprisings mean for the future of the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in the region, how U.S. fear of the Muslim Brotherhood is really fear of democracy in the Arab world, and what the Egyptian protests mean for people in the United States. [includes rush transcript]
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"I Either Leave Here Free or Dead": Egyptian Protester Refuses to Leave Tahrir Square Despite Violent Attacks by Mubarak Supporters
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Egyptian protester Nazly Hussein describes bloodshed in Cairo and the role of the United States in funding the violent oppression by the Egyptian government. [includes rush transcript]
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"It’s a Massacre": Eyewitness Account of Attack on Peaceful Egyptian Protesters by Pro-Mubarak Forces
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Cairo resident Selma al-Tarzi calls in a report from Tahrir Square, where over 500 people have been injured after pro-Mubarak forces attacked the peaceful protesters. [includes rush transcript]
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February 03, 2011
Eyewitnesses to a Massacre: Reports from Inside Tahrir Square as Pro-Mubarak Forces Open Fire on Protesters
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Just before dawn in Cairo today pro-government forces opened fire at Tahrir Square, the site of anti-Mubarak protests for the past 10 days. Minutes after the attack began, Democracy Now! spoke with Egyptian protesters Mona El Seif and Selma Tarzi inside Tahrir Square. [includes rush transcript]
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Guests:
Selma al-Tarzi, Egyptian pro-democracy activist in Cairo.
Mona El Seif, Egyptian pro-democracy activist in Cairo.
Related stories
* Made in the U.S.A.: Tear Gas, Tanks, Helicopters, Rifles and Fighter Planes in Egypt Funded and Built Largely by the Pentagon and American Corporations
* “The True Face of Hosni Mubarak” Is Now Being Televised Across the World: Democracy Now! Reports Live From Downtown Cairo
* Robert Fisk: Obama Administration Has Been Gutless and Cowardly in Dealing with the Mubarak Regime
* Journalists and Human Rights Activists Arrested and Beaten In Cairo Crackdown
* California Professor Beaten By Pro-Mubarak Forces Minutes After Interview on Democracy Now!
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* Democracy Now! Complete Coverage of the Egyptian Protests
JUAN GONZALEZ: The Egyptian government has launched a violent crackdown on the massive uprising seeking the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. After over a week of unprecedented and peaceful rallies that brought millions into the streets, pro-democracy demonstrators were viciously attacked Wednesday and earlier today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Aided by positions overlooking the crowd and the apparent consent of the military, pro-Mubarak supporters unleashed a barrage of automatic gunfire and Molotov cocktails. Protesters responded with homemade bombs, sticks and rocks. At least seven people were killed and over 800 were wounded before dawn broke. The vast majority of the victims appeared to be on the pro-democracy side. There are widespread reports that many pro-Mubarak supporters were either plainclothes police officers or others paid by the regime.
AMY GOODMAN: Shortly after the first gunfire erupted, Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté reached Egyptian activist Mona Seif in Tahrir square.
MONA EL SEIF: They have rifles. They are shooting live ammunition at us. We’ve already—we’ve had a lot of wounded. I don’t know how many. The ambulance keeps on coming and carrying wounded people and speeding away with them. We have had so far four confirmed deaths. One of them was with a shot right through the head. And it just—it is still going on. And the army is there, and they are not moving, and nobody’s moving. And we keep on sending other of our people to the forefront to try and protect us, and we keep on losing some of them. And that’s how it is.
AARON MATÉ: And what is the military doing?
MONA EL SEIF: The military is not doing anything. On the side, where the main clashes are, where we lost already four people and lots of wounded, there are more than six army trucks, and they are not doing anything. And right now there is—it seems that there is another clash on another of the entrances to Tahrir Square, but I cannot confirm it, like people are running towards it, but I don’t know yet if there is something.
AARON MATÉ: Now, it’s almost 6:00 in the morning there, and it’s obviously very dangerous. Why are you still there?
MONA EL SEIF: Because we cannot leave. We came here peacefully demanding for Mubarak to leave. We were so numerous yesterday. This is not our demand alone. This is the demand of the majority of Egyptians all over the country. We were here peacefully. Yesterday was such a festive day. If you saw the place, you would think it was a park. We had children playing and people chanting and dancing and singing. And now, all of a sudden, it’s this war zone, just because they leashed at us those thugs, with their weapons and their knives and their cocktail Molotovs thrown at us from rooftops. We are here because we’ve lost a lot of people for a certain demand and a certain cause, and we owe it to them to stick it and stay here.
AARON MATÉ: Now, the corporate media here has described what’s happening today as clashes between two sides. What do think of that description?
MONA EL SEIF: It isn’t. It isn’t. If it was clashes between two sides, then you would assume that the two sides had opposing causes and they were equal. It isn’t. Most of the—we have caught a lot of the thugs they have released at us. We have searched them. Most of them were one of two things. Either they had police IDs on them—and we have taken photos of this, and we’ve already sent it out to Twitter and Facebook; you can look for it, the hashtag is jan25—or they were unemployed people that were promised either jobs or money. And we’ve already—we have a testimony of one of them on videotape. We are just waiting for a chance to have internet to show the world what this government is capable of. We know this. We know this since every demo we went to. They always plant thugs and pretend—let them pretend to be civilians, so they can start the violence. I just never saw this amount of violence, this publicly displayed, and nobody stopping it.
AMY GOODMAN: Egyptian activist Mona Seif, speaking after the pro-Mubarak forces opened fire on Tahrir Square. Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté also reached another activist there, Selma Tarzi.
SELMA AL-TARZI: The Mubarak thugs were shooting at us with the machine guns. The army shot back at them. Two of them were killed. One of us was killed. And the army was chased them and took their machine guns away. However, more are coming. And we are so tired. People are so tired. We’ve been fighting for the past 12 hours. And we’re just protesters; we’re civilians. We’re protesters. We’re not—we’re improvising fighting tactics. All we have is stones and sticks. And we’re tired. This is not what we’re here to do. This is not—this is not how—this is a crime of war. They’re killing us.
AARON MATÉ: Tell us what you’re seeing right now.
SELMA AL-TARZI: I’m seeing doctors running left and right, ambulances driving left and right, people carrying wounded people, trying to take them to the place that we set up and made an improvised doctor tent. On the other side, people are sitting on the pavement so exhausted and so tired. And that is us. Some people are trying to lift the morale or encourage people to go and fight. But people are tired. People are tired.
And channels like the BBC are claiming that it’s a Muslim Brother movement and that all the people in the square are Muslim Brothers. We are not Muslim Brothers. I’m not the Muslim Brothers. I couldn’t care less for the Muslim Brothers. They’re everything I work against and I believe against. However, in this fight, we are working together side by side. And there are people from all sorts of ideologies here. It’s a people’s movement.
AARON MATÉ: Who are these forces that have been shooting at you?
SELMA AL-TARZI: These are thugs. These are thugs that are trying to attack the square from all the entrances. Our people are trying to secure the entrances of the square. But these are the Mubarak thugs, and not only Mubarak. And it has to be very clear to everyone that when we say that we want Mubarak out, we mean his whole government, his whole regime, including Habib El Adly, including Omar Suleiman, the chief of intelligence, including the parliament, including the parliament heads that are hiring these thugs to kill us, basically.
There has been live shooting all day. I was helping with the wounded. And I have, myself, seen to a couple of cases of gunshots in their legs, because they’re below. They’re shooting their legs below. They’re not showing the guns. At the beginning, they weren’t. Now that they’re using machine guns, apparently they’re being obvious about it, but at the beginning they were shooting below the—they were shooting the legs. They weren’t showing their weapons. And we did not know where the shot is coming from.
JUAN GONZALEZ: That was Selma Tarzi, speaking from Tahrir Square in the midst of pro-government forces opening fire on the pro-democracy demonstrators.
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AMY GOODMAN: And we just got this message, as messages are coming into us right and left. This is a message from our guest yesterday on Democracy Now!, Noha Radwan. She’s a professor at UC Davis, University of California, Davis, Egyptian American. She’s been in Tahrir Square for days now, part of the protests. We had her on the show. She was in a studio with Sharif, who joined us yesterday from the studio. By the way, they won’t be able to join us from studio today, because the studio is shut down as a result of security concerns. But Noha Radwan was attacked. She said, "I wanted your show to know that as I left the studio to go back to Tahrir, I got attacked by the mob and beaten half to death by the Mubarak thugs, who were happy to snatch my necklaces off my neck and to rip my shirt open. I am now fine, but the big thug must go. Wish us the best. Our Internet comes and goes." Again, that was Professor Noha Radwan after she left the studio yesterday.
We are going right now to Sharif Abdel Kouddous, our senior producer, Democracy Now! senior producer, on the ground. He was supposed to be in the studio in Cairo. That studio has been shut down.
Sharif, describe the whole scene in Tahrir Square right now.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Amy, I’m talking to you—I’m standing on a rooftop near the 6 of October Bridge, just a few hundred yards from where the studio is. It’s impossible to get across. I’m standing basically on the frontlines of the battle between the pro-democracy uprising and the Mubarak regime. There is a lot of rock throwing that is happening back and forth. There are army tanks that are stationed on the bridge. And there’s the crackle of gunfire, and it’s unclear who is firing.
The people in Tahrir that I met throughout the day today were very proud of the fact that they held the square, that they—despite this brutal assault that they came under, that they managed to hold Tahrir. You know, "Tahrir" means "liberation." And what the people say now is that they’re going to stay in Liberation Square until liberation.
And I’m speaking to you right now—the pro-democracy forces seem to have pushed back and keep on pushing back the Mubarak thugs. We were here earlier, and the border was further near Tahrir. And now they seem to be pushing back the Mubarak forces.
Right now, it’s unclear what is going to happen in the evening. Tomorrow, Friday, is going to be a decisive day. Of course, Friday is the day for Muslim prayer, and they expect hundreds of thousands to come to Tahrir. And they want the ouster of the Mubarak regime, and they demand nothing less.
We were walking around Tahrir yesterday. They held the square, but they suffered terribly. There are people—many, many hundreds wounded. I’ve seen broken legs and arms. I’ve seen many people bandaged. They’ve shown me bullets that were fired. There’s a man right now trying to give me bread. We went to a makeshift hospital, where people have been—the doctors have been up for more than 48 hours, tending to the wounded. The numbers of the dead vary, but there’s somewhere between five and 10 people, they say, were shot in the head, people hit by rocks, who died. They said they weren’t allowed to leave the square yesterday and that they were trapped inside.
Another thing is that the army—people are very angry at the army, because they say they were complicit in all of this. You know, in my earlier reports, I said that the Egyptian army—people were convinced that the army wouldn’t harm them. But what they didn’t imagine was that they would just stand by and allow these pro-Mubarak thugs to come in hordes, on horseback and camel, to attack them with rocks and Molotov cocktails and to lay siege to Tahrir to try and make them leave.
But the people here are defiant, and they refuse to leave. And there’s more coming into Tahrir, as I speak. But right now, I’m on the very edge of it, and the battle continues to rage. I can see more Mubarak forces continuing to gather at the foot of one of the bridges. It’s unclear what will happen next. There are rocks absolutely everywhere on the ground, rocks that were thrown from both sides, mostly from the baltaguia, from the thugs. The people in Tahrir point to the square that they were so proud of, that they had cleaned up the garbage and tended to it so well, and now there is trash, there are rocks everywhere, because they had to defend themselves. They say they are forced to throw back, that they don’t want, but they were forced to throw back to defend themselves. And they appear to be holding their ground.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Sharif, you mentioned the role of the military. We did get some reports that when the pro-Mubarak forces started shooting machine guns, that the army did intervene and tried to confiscate those. Are you getting any sense that there’s an increase in the military presence, or does this represent basically conflicting orders that are coming in to the military about what to do in this situation?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Juan, they certainly did let in the pro-Mubarak thugs to come in on horseback and camel, which people are very shocked at. You know, they say, "What are we living in? Barbarian times?" I have heard the same reports, that when machine gun fire started, that the army did come in and pushed back Mubarak’s forces. So, it appears that at a certain point they intervened, but people don’t understand why they let it come to that point. Many were wounded here, hundreds were wounded, and some were killed. And they want the army to do more to protect Tahrir. Tahrir has become the epicenter in all of Egypt for this struggle for democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, we’re going to break, and we’re going to come right back. We’re speaking to Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who is in Tahrir Square. We also finally got Noha Radwan on the line, who was with Sharif yesterday in the studio, who was beaten badly when she left the studio after her interview with Democracy Now!. This is Democracy Now! We’re covering the uprising in Egypt, live on the ground. Stay with us.
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