Thursday, January 26, 2012

#occupy STATE OF THE UNION, ETC. #jan25 #Egypt


#occupy STATE OF THE UNION, ETC. #jan25 #Egypt



          How weary can one get with all the B.S. going on is this election year?  Well, as soon as the Super Bowl is over, it’s about all that will be left until April, so have fun.

          The President gave his “State of the Union Speech,” this week and it was really a campaign speech.  Much of what he said sounded like a repeat of what he said during the 2008 election. 

Well, as the great President George the Younger once said (and this is as close as I can come) “Fool me once, and shame on you.  I mean, it’s a same.  I mean you can’t fool me all of the time.”  Frankly, I remember him debating in his original election primary when the participants were asked “Who is you favorite philosopher.”  The only one, the first, who knew what a philosopher was turned out to be Forbes who said “Hobbes.”  To me, that figured.  Then Georgie answered “Jesus Christ.”  What?  Yeah.  Well, it all went down hill from there, to Afghanistan, Iraq, Wall-Street, and so on.

So now we have Barack (or “good luck” in Arabic).  He is intelligent and capable and really screwed up things well.  That is why I had hoped for Rick Perry to become President.  He is feckless enough to mess things up much better and perhaps not do the empire expansion as Obama has.  Well, now we have Newt and Mitt, along with Jesus and Paul.

We thought a few comments on the speech and a few other things were in order, so we have Ralph Nader in a post-speech interview and then another interview of great interest on the Egypt revolution anniversary:



"He Says One Thing and Does Another": Ralph Nader Responds to Obama’s State of the Union Address

Responding to President Obama’s State of the Union address, longtime consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader says Obama’s criticism of income inequality and Wall Street excess fail to live up to his record in office. "[Obama] says one thing and does another," Nader says. "Where has he been for over three years? He’s had the Justice Department. There are existing laws that could prosecute and convict Wall Street crooks. He hasn’t sent more than one or two to jail." On foreign policy, Nader says, "I think his lawless militarism, that started the speech and ended the speech, was truly astonishing. [Obama] was very committed to projecting the American empire, in Obama terms." [includes rush transcript]
Filed under Election 2012, Occupy Wall Street, Financial Meltdown, U.S. Economy, War on Terror
Guest:
Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate and former presidential candidate. His latest book is called Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to Win.
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AMY GOODMAN: We are joined right now by Ralph Nader to talk more about President Obama’s State of the Union address, longtime consumer advocate, former presidential candidate. His latest book is Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to Win."
Ralph Nader, your response to the State of the Union address? It could be President Obama’s last. It could be the beginning of a new President Obama for a second term. What do you think?
RALPH NADER: Well, I think his lawless militarism, that started the speech and ended the speech, was truly astonishing. I mean, he was very committed to projecting the American empire, in Obama terms, force projection in the Pacific, and distorting the whole process of how he explains Iraq and Afghanistan. He talks about Libya and Syria, and then went into the military alliance with Israel and didn’t talk about the peace process or the plight of the Palestinians, who are being so repressed. Leaving Iraq as if it was a victory? Iraq has been destroyed: massive refugees, over a million Iraqis dead, contaminated environment, collapsing infrastructure, sectarian warfare. He should be ashamed of himself that he tries to drape our soldiers, who were sent on lawless military missions to kill and die in those countries, unconstitutional wars that violate Geneva conventions and international law and federal statutes, and drape them as if they’ve come back from Iwo Jima or Normandy. So I think it was very, very poor taste to start and end with this kind of massive militarism and the Obama empire.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And on the economy, Ralph Nader, on the economy, your response to what Obama said last night?
RALPH NADER: A lot of good-sounding words. He’s very good at that. I’m glad he focused on Wall Street abuses on more than one occasion. I’m glad that he focused on renewable energy. But notice that he just mentioned climate change but didn’t go anywhere on that one. He still is not able to use the word "poverty." It’s always the middle class, which is shrinking into poverty. But you’ve got 60, 70, 80 million people living in poverty in the United States, and child poverty.
And the most amazing gap was his promise in 2008 to press for the raising of the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 by 2011. So, he went for equal pay for equal work for women, but millions of people in this country, one out of every three full-time workers, are earning Wal-Mart wages, many of them not far over the $7.25 rate. Now, the $9.50 minimum wage would still be less in inflation-adjusted terms than it was in 1968, when worker productivity was half of what it is today.
So, a lot of his suggestions, like the attitude toward foreign trade—well, he said that in 2008 he wanted to revise NAFTA. He didn’t lift a finger. So how credible are his words vis-à-vis China, for example, in the trade area and importing hazardous products into this country? How credible are his words? How credible are his words when he says he wants to start a financial crimes unit in the Justice Department? I mean, what does that mean, unless he demands a much larger budget for prosecutors and law enforcement officials against the corporate crime wave? Maybe he needs a subscription to the Corporate Crime Reporter to tell him that we’ve been through these kinds of rhetorics before by prior presidents. They’re going to establish an enforcement unit here and there, but without a major budget, it’s going to go nowhere.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me play President Obama’s announcement last night of a new unit devoted to investigating major financial crimes.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We’ll also establish a financial crimes unit of highly trained investigators to crack down on large-scale fraud and protect people’s investments. Some financial firms violate major anti-fraud laws because there’s no real penalty for being a repeat offender. That’s bad for consumers, and it’s bad for the vast majority of bankers and financial service professionals who do the right thing. So pass legislation that makes the penalties for fraud count. And tonight I’m asking my attorney general to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.
AMY GOODMAN: That was President Obama announcing that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will head this unit. I’m going back to the—to August, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman being kicked off a 50-state task force negotiating a possible settlement with the nation’s largest mortgage companies, the move coming just a day after the New York Times reported that the Obama administration was pressuring Schneiderman to agree to a broad state settlement with banks over questionable foreclosure tactics. Ralph Nader, your response?
RALPH NADER: Well, that’s the double standard that he’s such an expert at, Obama. He says one thing and does another. Where has he been for over three years? He’s had the Justice Department. There are existing laws that could prosecute and convict Wall Street crooks. He hasn’t sent more than one or two to jail. So, it is important to strengthen the corporate criminal laws through congressional legislation, but what has he done? This financial crimes unit, that’s like putting another label on a few doors in the Justice Department without a real expansion in the budget.
But then, when he said to the American people, "no more bailouts, no more handouts, and no more cop-outs" — but that’s what’s been going on. And it’s going on today and it went on last year under his administration. Washington is a bustling bazaar of accounts receivable. They’re bailing out and they’re handing out all kinds of subsidies to corporations—handouts, giveaways, transfer of technology, transfer of medical research to the drug companies without any reasonable price provisions on drugs, giveaway of natural resources on the federal lands. You name it, it’s still going on. And as far as a cop-out, how about his deferred prosecution gimmicks with these corporations under the Justice Department, where they never have to plead guilty, they never have to make themselves vulnerable to civil lawsuits so they pay back the American people what they’ve stolen from them?
So, obviously, State of the Union speeches are full of rhetoric, they’re full of promises, but it’s good to measure them against the past performance of the Obama administration and what his promises were in 2008. They don’t really stand up very well.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Ralph Nader, I want to turn to the Republican response to the State of the Union address. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, a former budget director under President George W. Bush, delivered the response to his address, to Obama’s address. He slammed Obama for halting the Keystone XL pipeline project that would transport oil from Canada to Texas, equating the move to a, quote, "pro-poverty policy."
GOV. MITCH DANIELS: The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy. It must be replaced by a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Ralph Nader, your response?
RALPH NADER: Well, first of all, the XL pipeline is basically shipping very dirty Albertan oil down through the United States, over very, very sensitive aquifers and other environmental conditions, down to the Gulf in order to ship it abroad. That’s the big farce of this pipeline project. It’s not going to be brought to make this country more reliant on Canada instead of the Middle East. It’s basically an export pipeline.
And the second is, Mitch Daniels would have done the public a great service, in his speech, if he would have urged the corporations in this country, who are sitting on $2 trillion of cash, like Cisco and Apple and Google, to start giving some of that cash back to shareholders in terms of dividends and to pension funds and mutual funds, which would increase consumer demand and create more jobs, just the way a minimum wage increase would increase consumer demand to create more jobs. Instead, he didn’t say that. And Obama has constantly restricted any kind of stimulant to tax breaks, to tax incentives, to tax reductions, which of course will not do much to build up the government’s resources for a major job-producing public works program in every community, good-paying jobs repairing America— schools, bridges, public transit, drinking water systems—jobs that cannot be exported abroad. So, we need to develop a very concrete critique of these politicians’ statements up against what they could do if they had the courage of their office.
Imagine Obama never mentioning the Occupy movement. Imagine Obama never mentioning the Occupy Wall Street movement, the main citizen awareness movement to be coupled with his alleged concern with Wall Street abuses. And yet he talks about advancing human dignity for all people abroad, and he never talks about a major human dignity initiative, the Occupy initiative, based on peaceful resistance to oligarchy and plutocracy. He’s a political coward. He’s got to repair back to the Oval Office and ask himself why he can’t stand for the people in this country who are really aware and trying to improve our democracy and advance justice and make government and corporations accountable.
AMY GOODMAN: Ralph, you have written a new book called Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to Win. People may be listening to you right now and agreeing with a lot of what you are saying, and also saying, "What is the alternative here? Mitt Romney? Newt Gingrich?" What is your response to that?
RALPH NADER: Well, this is the book, and I’m going to drop it off at the White House soon. I think he should read it, because the left is not making any demands on Obama because they’re so freaked out by the Republicans and their crazed rhetoric on their debates. Well, if that is going to continue for 2012, that means the corporations are pulling on Obama and the Democratic Party. The Republicans are pulling on Obama and Democratic Party, because they’re getting all the media, because they have a vibrant primary process, and there’s no primary challenge to Obama, so the progressive agenda is not getting any media at all, week after week.
So the alternative, Amy, is for the left, such as they are — progressive, liberal people, I like to call them "justice seekers" — to make demands on Obama, to make demands for improving the rights of labor, improving the rights of small farmers, improving the rights of small business, the environmental demands that need to be made, the crackdown on corporate crime, a whole panoply of corporate reform agenda, the kind of crackdown on these global corporations that have abandoned America and shipped jobs and industries to fascist and communist regimes who know how to keep workers in their place.
But there is no pull, because they’re so freaked out by the Republicans. So, one can really say the Republicans could sit around in a smoke-filled room and say, "Let’s be even more crazed. Let’s be even more corporatist." This will create a good vacuum for the Democrats to move into, because both parties are dialing for the same corporate dollars, and it will bring the left to their knees, because they’ll say, "We’ve got nowhere to go."
Well, the reason why this speech was so failing, especially in foreign and military policy, the reason why it was so failing is because Obama doesn’t have to worry about tens of millions of people who call themselves progressives or liberals, because they have signaled to him that they got nowhere to go. Well, I think if they believe they got nowhere to go, that they don’t want to vote for a third party or Green Party, they can at least, in April, May, June, hold his feet to the fire and present him with a set of progressive demands, in order to tell him that they do have a place to go: they can stay home. And that’s what hurt the Democrats in 2010. People can just stay home.
AMY GOODMAN: Ralph Nader, I want to thank you for being with us. His book is called Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to Win.
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 Egypt: Sharif Abdel Kouddous Reports from Cairo as Crowds Mark 1 Year of Revolution in Tahrir Square

As tens of thousands of Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of the start of the revolution that ended Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade reign, we go to Cairo to speak with Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who has reported on the popular uprising since it began. "What happened on January 25th was really an uprising that was 10 years in the making, a growing resistance movement to the Mubarak regime, to a regime that was characterized by a sprawling police apparatus that engaged in quashing of dissent and torture, a paralyzed body politic, and rampant corruption," Kouddous says. "People speak about the barrier of fear being broken, but I really think it was a lack of hope. And that was the gift that Tunisia gave to Egypt: [it] was that here is the dream you can achieve, and here’s the hope that you can change, if you take to the streets." [includes rush transcript]
Filed under Egypt, Mubarak, Protests, Arab Spring, Rolling Rebellions, Police brutality, Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist based in Cairo. He is a correspondent for Democracy Now! and a fellow at The Nation Institute. He is featured in the new HBO documentary, In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution, airing on HBO2 at 8:00 p.m. EST on Jan. 25.
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AMY GOODMAN: We go directly to Cairo. Nermeen?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Tens of thousands of Egyptians are gathering in Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of the start of the revolution that ended Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade reign. Inspired by the uprising in Tunisia, tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on January 25th, 2011. Over the following 18 days, the protests grew across Egypt despite a violent crackdown.
While Mubarak resigned on February 11th, the uprising is an unfinished revolution for many Egyptians. The Egyptian military remains in control one year later. In the first seven months of military rule, nearly 12,000 civilians were tried in military courts—more than the total number during the past three decades under Mubarak.
On Tuesday, the military announced a partial lifting of Egypt’s emergency laws, which have been in place since 1981. Military leader Mohamed Hussein Tantawi made the announcement in a nationally televised address.
MOHAMED HUSSEIN TANTAWI: [translated] Now that the people has voiced its word and has chosen its members of parliament, I have taken the decision to end the state of emergency throughout the republic, except when facing crimes committed by thugs. This decision will take effect as of the 25th of January, 2012.
AMY GOODMAN: Ahmed Maher, one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement, says the protesters and the military have different visions of the revolution that began a year ago today.
AHMED MAHER: [translated] After the difference became clear concerning vision of the revolution’s meaning between the youth and the military ruling council, the youth seized this revolution as being about changing the regime, as being about freedom, dignity, social justice and changing the whole regime. But only the military council sees the revolution simply as preventing the inheritance of the throne by Mubarak’s son and keeping the regime as intact. Of course, that is not what we want. So the protests increased in March and April. The raids in Tahrir Square started, the torture of some activists and many injuries. There was also the killing of protesters.
AMY GOODMAN: Joining us now in Cairo, Egypt, in a studio overlooking Tahrir Square, is Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. He has covered the uprising for Democracy Now! for this entire last year, also now a fellow at The Nation Institute. In a moment, we’ll be joined by the HBO documentary makers who have just done a piece on—a documentary that will air tonight on Sharif covering the revolution.
Sharif, though, describe what you are seeing right now and where you are.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Amy, I’m standing just on the outskirts of Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the Egyptian revolution. And as you can see behind me, it’s an absolutely packed day, that one year after this revolution began, it still is very much continuing.
What happened on January 25th was really an uprising that was 10 years in the making, a growing resistance movement to the Mubarak regime, to a regime that was characterized by a sprawling police apparatus that engaged in quashing of dissent and torture, a paralyzed body politic, and rampant corruption. And that uprising ignited on January 25th. People speak about the barrier of fear being broken, but I really think it was a lack of hope. And that was the gift that Tunisia gave to Egypt, was that here is the dream you can achieve, and here’s the hope that you can change, if you take to the streets. And so, that’s what—that’s what happened. People had hope that they could cause change, and they started this revolution on January 25th, one that really reverberated across the world, one that changed the way, I think, many people think about themselves as citizens in a country and in participatory democracy. And that revolution succeeded 18 days later in toppling Mubarak.
But what happened on February 11th wasn’t the end of the revolution. It was really only the beginning, because, as you mentioned, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces took control of the country on February 11th, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who was Mubarak’s loyal defense minister for 20 years. And what has happened over these past 12 months, as you can see behind me what’s happening now, is that the revolution has really progressed from this uprising against the Mubarak regime into a deeper struggle that is targeting the real backbone of modern autocracy in Egypt, which is the military, the regime that has ruled Egypt for the past 60 years, that enjoys a special political and economic autonomy outside of any kind of civilian control. And this is the regime that SCAF embodies. And so, the revolution has really become much more radical, I think, in targeting that aspect of Egyptian autocracy.
If you remember, right after the 18 days finished, the common chant in Tahrir was "The people and the army are one hand," and the army was applauded for not firing on protesters, which is a dubious accolade in and of itself. But they enjoyed widespread popularity. And over the past 12 months, they’ve seen a real plummeting of authority, a plummeting of legitimacy, due to their really bumbling decision making over the course of the last 12 months in their transitional process, really erratic decision making, and a very—what’s been increasing crackdown on dissent, on protest and on the media. In the past three months alone, over a hundred people have been killed protesting, many of them in the square you see behind me. The bloodiest day of these past 12 months came at the hands of army soldiers, not of police. It was on October 9th, when army soldiers drove armored personnel carriers into a crowd of Coptic Christians and their supporters, killing 27 people in a single day.
So, while we’ve had this kind of crackdown and this more severe suppression of dissent, we’ve also seen growing resistance. So, as you mentioned, perhaps one of the most egregious things that the Supreme Council has done is put 12,000 civilians on military trial. These are really a big deterioration in basic due process rights. But perhaps the most successful grassroots campaign of 2011 was the "No to Military Trials" campaign. The practice has all but been abolished. An extra 2,000 people were just let go, who had been put on military trials today. We’ve also seen a burgeoning, growing independent media movement here that’s really blossoming and engaging in citizen journalism that is countering this clampdown on the media and countering a very vicious propaganda campaign by the SCAF. And so, what you’re seeing behind me is, I think, an embodiment of a revolution that is still going and still has a long way to go.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Sharif, can you say what the response in Egypt has been to Tantawi’s announcement yesterday of a partial lifting of the state of emergency?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, that’s right. Tantawi went on the air yesterday and announced he would lift the state of emergency, but said except in cases of thuggery. So this is a very, very broad exception. Many protesters have been put on military trials over the past 12 months, being called thugs. So it gives them a broad—very broad leeway to exercise the law. It really reminds me of what Mubarak said in 2010 when he said he would only apply the emergency law in cases of terrorism or drug-related offenses. And, of course, as Human Rights Watch said in a statement, this really gives them the leeway to do whatever they want. I think it was seen largely as a way to try and quell the protests, to try and reduce their size, by giving some kind of concession. By releasing almost 2,000 prisoners who had been jailed in military trials, I think was a move, as well, to try and placate the crowd, and also the decision to have the first session of parliament happen two days before the anniversary of the revolution.
Of course, as we know, the Muslim Brotherhood is kingmaker in parliament, capturing about 47 percent of the seats. The ultra-conservative Salafi Nour party has about 25 percent. And a very distant third are an older liberal party called Wafd, and behind that, some of the newer liberal parties. But the parliament is seen as having wide legitimacy in Egypt. Many of the revolutionary youth boycotted the revolution—the elections, but it wasn’t a widespread boycott, by any means. The main charge of this parliament right now is to appoint a 100-member constituent assembly that will draft a constitution. Many people now, what they’re calling for, what they’re calling for in the streets, are for a quicker handover of power, saying that SCAF has—the Supreme Council has no right—no role anymore in the transitional process, now that we have an elected body. And so, they’re asking for a handover of power immediately.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re speaking to Democracy Now!'s Sharif Abdel Kouddous. He's overlooking Tahrir Square in Cairo. When we come back, we’ll continue this discussion and also talk about a new HBO documentary that covered Sharif covering Tahrir in the first 18 days of Egypt’s unfinished revolution. Stay with us.
Creative Commons LicenseThe original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
And:

January 25, 2012

"In Tahrir Square": HBO Doc on Egypt’s Revolution Through Eyes of Democracy Now!’s Sharif Kouddous

Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous is the central character in the new HBO documentary airing tonight, "In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution." The film chronicles the uprising though the reporting of Kouddous, and it looks at what the protest meant for his uncle, Mohamed Abdel Quddoos, a longtime Egyptian dissident who was arrested dozens of times by the Mubarak regime. We’re joined by Kouddous in Cairo, as well as the team behind the film: Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill of Downtown Community Television; and independent filmmaker Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films. [includes rush transcript]
Filed under Egypt, Mubarak, Protests, Arab Spring, Rolling Rebellions, Police brutality, Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Guests:
Jon Alpert, co-director and producer of the new HBO documentary, In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution. He is the co-founder and executive director of Downtown Community Television (DCTV) in New York City.
Matthew O'Neill, co-director and producer of the new HBO documentary, In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution. He works at Downtown Community Television (DCTV) in New York City.
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist based in Cairo. He is a correspondent for Democracy Now! and a fellow at The Nation Institute. He is featured in the new HBO documentary, In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution, airing on HBO2 at 8:00 p.m. EST on Jan. 25.
Jacquie Soohen, co-producer of "In Tahrir Square" and co-founder of Big Noise Films
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Rush Transcript

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
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NERMEEN SHAIKH: Sharif, I want to turn back to some of your original reports that first aired on Democracy Now! during the Egyptian revolution last year.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: In the middle of Tahrir, there’s a patch of grass where people have spent the night here for days. They’ve camped out. You can see some tents. Many have just slept out into the open. There’s rugs. And even though tens of thousands have been here refusing to leave Tahrir Square, there’s very little trash around. People are still picking up. And they are resolute. There’s people handing out water. There’s people handing out food. They’ve kept the place organized and clean. People are so determined to use this as their protest space here in Cairo.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Days later, Sharif reported on the violent crackdown on anti-Mubarak protesters inside Tahrir Square.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: We’re in an alleyway around the corner from Tahrir. And right over here is the hospital where many wounded are being cared for. [...] Inside this hospital, we see many wounded, different kinds of injuries—broken bones, broken hands, broken legs, many head injuries from rock throwing. And over here there’s a whole section for medical supplies that have been brought in. Some have been—many have been donated from people coming in to support this movement and support the struggle against Mubarak’s regime. It is quite a well-functioning clinic, but many, many have been wounded.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: The protests continued to grow in Tahrir Square, leading up to Hosni Mubarak’s resignation.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: So, I’m standing on a stage here, one of the many stages here in Tahrir. There’s just a sea of people behind me, as you can see. They’re giving the peace sign. They’re giving a peace sign for freedom. They’re waiting for Mubarak to leave. There’s electricity in the air tonight. And you can see Tahrir is just packed with people. Shoulder to shoulder they’re standing.
HADLI: My name is Hadli, and I’m one of these people who are here to support the roses that came up in the Egyptian soil. And we’re here to protect them and to protect the revolution. And I’m one of the believers that we should never have any new leaders. The people is the leader. The young people are the leaders.
AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now!'s Sharif Abdel Kouddous is the central character in the new HBO documentary, _In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt's Unfinished Revolution_. The film chronicles the uprising through the reporting of Sharif and looks at what the protest meant for Sharif’s uncle, Mohamed Abdel Quddoos, a longtime Egyptian dissident who was arrested dozens of times by the Mubarak regime. This is an excerpt from the documentary that’s airing tonight, recorded as Sharif reported near Tahrir.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: There’s the sound of gunfire in the air. The military has fired shots. The army is stationed in tanks just at the foot of the bridge. It’s really surreal to see this part of Cairo look like this. The Mubarak forces seem to be pulling back. They’re running back. People are cheering. They’re cheering as they retreat.
PROTESTER 1: [translated] I have a right to elect someone who will represent me in parliament, not someone who rules with thugs.
PROTESTER 2: This country should change! This is enough, enough playing games with us! We need freedom!
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt from the new HBO documentary, In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution. The film premieres tonight on HBO2 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The film was produced by Jon Alpert, Matt O’Neill of DCTV, Downtown Community Television, as well as Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films. Jacquie spent much of the past year in Egypt. All three filmmakers are joining us here in New York, with Sharif Abdel Kouddous himself in Cairo.
I want to start with Sharif in Cairo. Sharif, the experience of being covered covering the revolution?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, it was interesting. It certainly didn’t make things easier, but I think it really helped me also come to terms with how the revolution was affecting me personally as an Egyptian citizen, to, while I was covering the revolution, also kind of look within myself and how it was affecting myself. And you see at the end of the movie, I kind of break down and cry on the last day when Mubarak steps down. So, it was an interesting experience for me, but it was great having Jon and Matt and Jacquie here with me.
AMY GOODMAN: Jon Alpert, talk about why you chose to do this documentary, to head to Egypt and cover Sharif covering the revolution.
JON ALPERT: Well, actually Sheila Nevins of HBO is a fan of Democracy Now!, and she was watching Democracy Now!, saw Sharif and said, "Oh, my goodness, this is a really charismatic, interesting, intelligent person," and called—sort of put together a dream team of me, Matt, Jacquie and Pat McMahon, the editor, and said, "Why don’t you guys try to capture what’s going on by following Sharif?"
AMY GOODMAN: Jacquie, as you look at these images right now, you were right there in the thick of things, when the camels moved in, when the thugs were attacking those in Tahrir. Talk about that experience as you were holding the camera.
JACQUIE SOOHEN: It was amazing to be in a place where I had been years before and see what was going on. You could never have imagined what happened in the streets those days. But the most amazing thing, I think, was the feeling of being in Tahrir Square, which is what the film captures, I think is what it does best. And that’s what people are celebrating today, and celebrating with the idea that this revolution hasn’t stopped, it’s continuing. And the violence that we saw in January and February was intense. But what has happened since, like Sharif mentioned, in October and November and December, it’s gotten even worse. And people are still out in the streets. They’re still fighting. Tahrir lives on.
AMY GOODMAN: Thus, Matt, the subtitle about the "unfinished revolution." At the beginning, you had your camera confiscated, is that right?
MATTHEW O’NEILL: Yeah, we didn’t know what was going to happen when we got there. And when Jon and I came through the airport, we had a strategy. And I had a little, tiny consumer camera that I took apart, wrapped the camera in my underwear, and put the other pieces in other parts of my luggage, so I’d looked like a tourist. And Jon, acting sort of as a decoy, had the big camera with the big reporter bag. And we both tried to go through in separate lines. And Jon had his camera taken away. And I had my camera looked at, and as I insisted I was just a tourist, let through.
AMY GOODMAN: Typical tourist with a camera in your underwear.
MATTHEW O’NEILL: That’s right. Where else to store it?
AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, as you can—if you can describe, even as we’re talking now, because you’re live, you’re right there. We’re talking anniversary, going back a year, but this is a revolution that continues. What is happening right now as you look outside?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Amy, I was on a march earlier today. There’s massive marches coming from working-class neighborhoods across Cairo that are still arriving in Tahrir right now. It really is a massive, massive presence, I think a testament to the fact that many believe the goals of the revolution are still unfulfilled. The chants are still the same, of "bread, freedom and social justice." But one chant that has really—signifies, I think, the clarion call of the revolution is "Down, down with military rule." That is really the vigorous chant that people say right now, because the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, as Jacquie mentioned, really has cracked down very hard on dissent, and especially in the past three months. They’ve used live ammunition, birdshot, astonishing amounts of tear gas on protesters. They have beaten many people. Many are blinded.
And there’s one man called Ahmed Harara who has really become a symbol of the revolution. He lost his left eye on January 28th in the uprising against Mubarak, from being shot by rubber bullets. On November 19th, in the uprising against the Supreme Council, he lost his right eye. And he’s now completely blinded. And he’s become really a symbol of this ongoing struggle against the military here in Egypt.
AMY GOODMAN: Jon, you have been covering revolutions for years, I dare say decades, Jon Alpert, one of the leading documentarians of our time. How did the Egyptian revolution—how do you fit it into this story?
JON ALPERT: I’ve seen good revolutions, I’ve seen bad revolutions. I like seeing successful revolutions. And those 18 days showed us that when people band together, their strength is astonishing. And they moved an immovable object that people said couldn’t budge. And they moved it. That doesn’t mean the work is done, but it’s really exciting. And I’m—I think—we also really admire Sharif and his family, the commitment, what they’ve done to educate us about the revolution. And I’m just curious, Sharif. You could have come back. You could have come back with us. Jacquie and Sharif chose to stay, but you’re still there, Sharif, at some danger to yourself. And why? Would you tell us what’s inside you that makes you want to stay there? Why did you change your life? And what did the revolution do to you?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, I think it—it gave me hope in my country, one that I grew up in here, where I grew up really under one president, with really no hope for change, and seeing millions of fellow citizens come to the streets, most of them much braver than myself. Many of them have died. Many of them have been injured. I’ve had friends who have lost eyes. I’ve seen people killed in front of me. And what’s amazing, I think, about this revolution and is really inspiring is when there is violence against protests, more people come in solidarity to the protests. They don’t run away. Actually, more people come to defend this right of dissent. And so, it’s been a very incredible year for me to rediscover a country that I grew up in. And I am very inspired every day by struggles that continue on the streets, in the labor movement, in the media. And it still has a long way to go, but I’m very, very confident of eventual success. It may take a long time, but I don’t think people will ever back down again here for a while to come.
AMY GOODMAN: Sharif Abdel Kouddous, I want to thank you very much for being with us and for bringing us the story of your country as it unfolds. Sharif joining us from Cairo, Egypt. And thank you so much to Jon Alpert, to Matt O’Neill and to Jacquie Soohen, who co-produced the new HBO documentary, In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution. It airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern Standard Time on HBO. Tell your friends. And I look forward to moderating a panel with you as we watch it live on HBO tonight. For folks in New York, at 87 Lafayette Street at 7:00, join us for a very interesting discussion. Sharif will be joining us from Egypt.
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