Ahmed Moor: The people are undaunted, they have held Tahrir, anything less than Mubarak’s ouster means nighttime arrests by the secret police
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- Published: 02 February 2011 02 February 2011
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Ahmed Moor: The people are undaunted, they have held Tahrir, anything less than Mubarak’s ouster means nighttime arrests by the secret police
by Ahmed Moor
Ahmed Moor in Cairo spoke today to Phil Weiss.
The people who started the violence today were secret police. We know this because often they were caught and their ids were found. The method was, they would try to start problems-- these muhabarat-looking guys--and the protesters set upon them very quickly
Do pro-Mubarak protesters represent a real strand of public opinion?
No. Their objective is to redirect the narrative. Most of these people are policemen, people with interests in the current regime. Some of these people were wearing civilian clothing for the first time. Convoys of these people were directed into Tahrir Square. I felt it was coordinated from the top, calculated. I don’t think this is a legitimate segment of Egyptian society. Some rode in on horses, one on a camel, wielding sticks. They were subdued. It would have been a lynching if others hadn’t intervened. People would step in and say, No you can’t do that to them. There is a real effort on the part of lots of the protesters, to keep things peaceful.
I'm happy to say that I don’t think any of the animals were hurt. But we are galvanized by it.
We got very scary reports today from Tahrir, including the word massacre. How bad was it?
I just got back [at 8 p.m. Cairo time]. These clashes lasted from 3 to 6:30. There were lot of head wounds, caused by rocks, people throwing rocks at one another. But Tahrir square remains with the anti-government demonstrators. There are way more of us than there are of them.
At the north end of the square there was a lot of action: that arcade was filled with skirmishers, and the army was near the museum, not participating. Pro-gov't forces climbed one of the buildings and threw down rocks, flower pots, miscellaneous items. And anti-gov't forces used the army trucks as barricade. You had a kind of front, and people at the back were bringing stones to the front. They brought them in boxes and crates. Or they had blankets, four men holding the ends, filled with rocks.
This was going on for several hours. We held Tahrir.
There is anxiety on the part of people around the world who are on your side that these tough measures will break the democracy movement.
These are tough people. You have to remember that the regime started clamping down last Wednesday, and we overturned the police force even when they were using rubber bullets, sticks and live ammo. These people are not about to relinquish this space due to a gang of motley thugs. You have to remember Tahrir Square was taken by force to begin with.
Has the storyline changed? Is there doubt and demoralization?
The story line is not at all changed. What I’ve said is that this is a zero sum game. The moment that people decide we are going to play ball with Mubarak, the muhabarat will come back, the secret police will come back and seize people in the night. 'We saw you January 25, 26, 27, 28.' There will be a day of reckoning. That is the risk in anything other than Mubarak's ouster. Anyone on tv who has expressed an opinion or carried a sign is vulnerable.
We’re not talking about forgive or forget. There is no reason to expect Mubarak to forgive and forget. Last night we saw him contrite and conciliatory on tv. Those are generous words. In fact today we see again his forceful measures. He started the violence.
You are saying that people are undaunted?
People are undaunted in Cairo. Utterly undaunted. They've put all their eggs in this basket. They've put everything they’ve got into this movement, and there is no going back at this stage.
What's next?
Ok so what's next for the protesters is-- Mubarak get out. After that people want elections. I don’t see this ending in any other way. Mubarak has to leave. It seems that he's very reluctant to leave in an undignified way. The protesters are aware of that and they don't want him to get a dignified exit. The time for forgiveness is past.
Could Obama permit Mubarak to save face and leave?
I don’t see how. Mubarak set out his terms yesterday. He wants to stay until September. We know what this means. In period of intense social discontent, he pretends to make reforms, uses flexibility as a tool of his regime. He makes a token concession, and as soon as that crisis is surmounted, the concession is repealed immediately. People just don’t trust him.
Do people talk about a coup?
I've heard nothing about a coup to be honest.
Do they talk about Obama?
Not so much. One of the difficulties, this is the first day with the internet back. Al Jazeera is blocked. The focus isn’t really on the Americans. John Kerry’s statement was positive. But I cant tell you what people think about obama.
Is the joy and excitement still there?
We’ve reverted to the rage of the early days, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. Over the weekend, there was exuberance, the sense of confidence at taking the square, a million plus showed up. And this morning things seemed more normal, shops were open, there were carts in the street. Then at 2 or 3 o'clock it all broke down.
People’s perceptions are, if the regime can do this in such a sleazy and underhanded way-- it just got people angry all over again. I'd be astonished if we don’t see masses of people on the street tomorrow.
What about the army's position?
There is confidence among people on the street that the military is committed to not playng an active role on the ground. And the feeling is, If you stay out of this, we can do this on our own.
What about dragging Mubarak out of his palace?
State institutions-- and we don't know if he’s in Cairo or Sharm?-- but the state institutions are surrounded by tanks.There's no going in and breaking into the parliament or his palace. Saturday, when the ministry of interior was burned, I saw three bodies in the street from clashes, young men trying to break in. Well the police were very entrenched Saturday, and then the military took over Sunday. I don’t think another institution will be taken again. Unless people decide to.
How important is international opinion?
International opinion is important to the extent that it impacts the regime. Look, there aren’t many people in the world who thought of Mubarak very highly. We’ve known the west relies on him. Does the west rely on him any less now? Can he convince people that he’s the best bet? We hear that Netanyahu is calling Europe and the U.S., do what you can to support Mubarak, we’re not going to get anyone better. People are angry about that.
Do you hear talk of the Israel/Palestine conflict in Egypt?
I have an accent, and so people ask me where I'm from. I'm Palestinian, from Gaza. So I have been hearing a lot about it. They say, 'You know what, this is the first step to the liberation of Palestine, this is the first domino. Once Mubarak goes we’re going to lead the Arab world again, and liberate Palestine.'
There is a feeling that Egypt is going to be redeemed and take its historical role on the Arab stage as a leader, and through that, Arabs will be redeemed. This is the Egyptian national mythology-- Nasser, 1973-- Egypt as the cultural beacon for the Arab world, and the leader economically and militarily. That is part of Egyptian pride. So I've seen that on the street. Watch-- when we take our gov't back, the rest of you will also benefit. This is the first step.
The triviality of US Mideast policy
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- Written by Robert Grenier Robert Grenier
- Published: 31 January 2011 31 January 2011
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The triviality of US Mideast policy
US Mideast policy has been irrelevant and fails to accommodate the current movement that is sweeping across the region.
US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said of the events unfolding in Egypt that the US will be "watching and responding", similar to their stance on the recent protests in Tunisia [CC - Center for American Progress]
"Watching and responding."
That was the phrase used by PJ Crowley, the US state department spokesman, in his recent interview with Al Jazeera.
In the midst of the startling and compelling events taking place in the Middle East since the advent of Tunisia's ongoing "jasmine revolution", with people taking to the streets in Algeria, in Yemen, in Jordan, and, most importantly, shaking the foundations of the Mubarak regime in Egypt - the US, he said, is passively "watching and responding".
It all reminds me somehow of my poor old headmaster. A tall, unbending, flinty New Englander, he had presided over my boarding prep-school - what the British would call a "public school" - since 1949.
One sunny spring Sunday in 1970, while delivering a routine lecture at chapel services, he must have sensed something amiss. Pausing from his text to peer out over his spectacles, he was nonplussed to see that all the boys had stood up in unison, and were silently filing out.
Not sure what else to do, he meekly fell in behind, following as they marched up Main Street. The student ringleaders, seeing the angular, loping figure of the headmaster tagging along behind, sent word to ask if he would like to join them at the front.
He complied. The next day's headline in the local newspaper read: "Headmaster leads students in anti-Vietnam War protest." To my knowledge, it was the beginning and the end of Mr. Stevens' career as a political agitator.
This mildly humorous episode merely underscored what we had already known. It was not that the headmaster was a bad man, or uncaring, or hostile to student sentiments: Much the contrary.
It was simply that he had become irrelevant. His mental architecture was adjusted to a world which had long since faded.
He could hardly comprehend, much less constructively engage on the questions and challenges of a new time. And so it is with America.
Events in the Middle East have slipped away from us. Having long since opted in favour of political stability over the risks and uncertainties of democracy, having told ourselves that the people of the region are not ready to shoulder the burdens of freedom, having stressed that the necessary underpinnings of self-government go well beyond mere elections, suddenly the US has nothing it can credibly say as people take to the streets to try to seize control of their collective destiny.
All the US can do is "watch and respond", trying to make the best of what it transparently regards as a bad situation.
Our words betray us. US spokesmen stress the protesters' desire for jobs and for economic opportunity, as though that were the full extent of their aspirations. They entreat the wobbling, repressive governments in the region to "respect civil society", and the right of the people to protest peacefully, as though these thoroughly discredited autocrats were actually capable of reform.
They urge calm and restraint. One listens in vain, however, for a ringing endorsement of freedom, or for a statement of encouragement to those willing to risk everything to assert their rights and their human dignity - values which the US nominally regards as universal.
Yes, it must be acknowledged that the US has limited influence, even over regimes with which it is aligned and which benefit from US largess. And yes, a great power has competing practical interests - be those a desire for counter-terrorism assistance, or for promotion of regional peace - which it must balance, at least in the short term, against a more idealistic commitment to democracy and universal values.
But there are two things which must be stressed in this regard.
The first is the extent to which successive US administrations have consistently betrayed a lack of faith in the efficacy of America's democratic creed, the extent to which the US government has denied the essentially moderating influence of democratic accountability to the people, whether in Algeria in 1992 or in Palestine in 2006.
The failure of the US to uphold its stated commitment to democratic values therefore goes beyond a simple surface hypocrisy, beyond the exigencies of great-power interests, to suggest a fundamental lack of belief in democracy as a means of promoting enlightened, long-term US interests in peace and stability.
The second is the extent to which the US has simply become irrelevant in the Middle East. It is not that US policy is intentionally evil: After all, regional peace and an end to violence against innocents are worthy goals.
Instead it is that, like my old unfortunate headmaster, the US's entire frame of reference in the region is hopelessly outdated, and no longer has meaning: As if the street protesters in Tunis and Cairo could possibly care what the US thinks or says; as if the political and economic reform which president Obama stubbornly urges on Mubarak while Cairo burns could possibly satisfy those risking their lives to overcome nearly three decades of his repression; as if the two-state solution in Palestine for which the US has so thoroughly compromised itself, and for whose support the US administration still praises Mubarak, has even the slightest hope of realisation; as if the exercise in brutal and demeaning collective punishment inflicted upon Gaza, and for whose enforcement the US, again, still credits Mubarak could possibly produce a decent or just outcome; as if the US refusal to deal with Hezbollah as anything but a terrorist organisation bore any relation to current political realities in the Levant.
Machiavelli once wrote that princes should see to it that they are either respected or feared; what they must avoid at all cost is to be despised. To have made itself despised as irrelevant: That is the legacy of US faithlessness and wilful blindness in the Middle East.
Robert Grenier is a retired, 27-year veteran of the CIA’s Clandestine Service. He was Director of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center from 2004 to 2006.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Biden on the Wrong Side of History: Vice President Denies Mubarak Is a Dictator
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- Written by John Nichols John Nichols
- Published: 30 January 2011 30 January 2011
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Vice President Biden: “Look, Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things and he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interests in the region: Middle East peace efforts, the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing the relationship with Israel. And I think that it would be—I would not refer to him as a dictator [2].”
Read more: Biden on the Wrong Side of History: Vice President Denies Mubarak Is a Dictator
In Egypt and in Israel: Controversial tear gas canisters made in the USA
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- Written by CNN CNN
- Published: 29 January 2011 29 January 2011
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(CNN) -- A thick pall of chemical smoke hung over a crowd in Cairo on Friday afternoon. People ran, covering their noses and mouths to escape yet another volley of tear gas.
The same scene was being played out elsewhere in Cairo, in Alexandria and Suez. And several weeks back, Tunisian police used tear gas to try to quell protests there. It is one of the most common ways to used to disperse protests -- but not everyone runs.
In both Tunisia and Egypt, some protesters stopped to pick up canisters, and posted photographs online. A few inches long, blue and silver, they include warning labels and then a set of initials: CSI, followed by "Made in the U.S.A."
The photograph posted in Tunisia was of a 40 mm riot CS smoke projectile, made by a company called Combined Systems Inc., which describes itself as a "tactical weapons company" and is based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania.
CSI's website describes the projectile as "a launched burning extended-range single projectile round that dispenses smoke or chemical agents via rapid burning. Used effectively during riots at safe stand-off distances to disperse groups or deny areas."
Its warning label reads: "Danger: Do not fire directly at person(s). Severe injury or death may result."
That warning is apparently not always followed. Lucas Mebrouk Dolega died in Tunisia on January 17, three days after being hit by a tear gas grenade at close range. The 32-year-old was a photographer for the European PressPhoto Agency.
On Thursday, a similar picture was posted on Twitter by a someone in Egypt, only this time it was of a grenade, not a canister. It, too, was made by CSI. The grenade appears to be an "Outdoor 52 Series Large Grenade" that "discharges a high volume of smoke and chemical agent through multiple emission ports. Specifically for outdoor use," the website says.
CSI's website (www.less-lethal.com) bills the company as the "premier engineering, manufacturing and supply company of tactical munitions and crowd control devices globally to armed forces, law enforcement, corrections and homeland security agencies." Clients include the U.S. Army, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and the U.S. Department of State, as well as Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israeli Military Industries -- both of which are weapons companies based in Israel.
On January 1, Jawaher Abu Rahmah died in the West Bank during a weekly protest against a security barrier being built in Bilin. Israel considers the protests violent and illegal. Rahmah died of severe asphyxiation and cardiac arrest after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters into the crowd.
In April 2009, Rahmah's brother was killed participating in the same weekly protest when a tear gas canister struck him directly in the chest.
A spokesman for CSI says the company is operating well within the law by selling tear gas to countries like Tunisia and Egypt.
According to the Chemical Weapons Convention, riot control agents are not considered chemical weapons unless used during a time of war. This means that it's perfectly legal to manufacture and sell tear gas, so long as countries don't stockpile a large amount of the chemical compounds.
The spokesman declined to say how much tear gas CSI had sold to countries in northern Africa, but said it is a small company. He also said CSI could not control how its products are used once sold.
Social media reaction to the "Made in the U.S.A." label on the canisters was scathing, with some suggesting it meant the U.S. government itself was somehow involved in suppressing the protests.
Some Twitter users demanded to know "why so many weapons used against Egyptian protesters read 'made in the USA'." Others advised "Maybe U.S. weapons manufacturers should stop printing "made in USA" on their weapons especially the ones we send to brutal autocrats."
Whether CSI is operating within the law hasn't stopped protestors from voicing their dissatisfaction with the company.
After Rahmah died in Israel, demonstrators gathered outside Point Lookout Capital Partners' Manhattan offices. Point Lookout owns a majority interest in CSI. The protesting group -- the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel -- demanded that CSI stop providing tear gas that could be used on Palestinians by Israeli forces.
Israeli authorities are still investigating Jawaher Abu Rahmah's death.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are several compounds that are considered to be riot-control agents. Two of the most common are chloroacetophenone (CN) and chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS). Others include chloropicrin (PS), bromobenzylcyanide (CA), and dibenzoxazepine (CR).
Riot control agents temporarily disable those affected by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin. Long-lasting exposure to these compounds can cause blindness and chemical burning of the throat and lungs resulting in death, as well as respiratory failure, which can also result in death.
Portland Stands In Solidarity With the People Of Egypt
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- Written by AUPHR AUPHR
- Published: 28 January 2011 28 January 2011
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Time: Saturday, January 29 · 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Location: Pioneer Courthouse Square
COME STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT!
Inspired by the successful ouster of the tyrant of Tunisia and the continued mobilizations in that country for justice, the masses in Egypt have engaged in huge rallies for two days straight, fighting off vicious police attacks and mass arrests. They have shown they will not give up ? even in the face of guns, tear gas and other weapons supplied and paid for by the United States.
A free Egypt is the key to justice throughout the Arab world.
Come stand in solidarity with the brave people of Egypt!
Invite your friends on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=586573518#!/event.php?eid=184702604895795