By John and Kat (These links are mostly from Kat, Newshoggers' secret weapon.)
?Strikes in Egypt add to pressure from protests
Hundreds of slum dwellers in the Suez Canal city of Port Said set fire to part of the governor's headquarters in anger over lack of housing.
Workers "were motivated to strike when they heard about how many billions the Mubarak family was worth," said Kamal Abbas, a labor leader. "They said: 'How much longer should we be silent?'"
This column reads like a screenplay but it's non-fiction. When I came across the mention of the "slums" I had a flashback to the remarks of Robert Fisk and Jonathan Wright.
The dramatic night photo of a tank in candlelight is from this link. Click for a larger image to read the caption.
?The Middle East does not need stability by Gideon Levy in Ha'aretz
Don't let anyone tell you that Israel speaks with one voice advocating the status quo. Lots of Israelis see what's happening through the same lens as those of us in America supporting the uprising, no matter what, letting the chips fall where they might. What's the point of standing up for what is right unless you really believe it?
But let us remember that when Israel was established, this signified a huge disturbance to the region - one that greatly undermined its stability and posed the greatest danger; but it was a just disturbance, to us and to the West. Now the time has come to disturb the peace some more, to undermine the worthless stability in which the Middle East is living.
The peoples of Tunisia and Egypt have begun the process. The United States and Europe stuttered at first, but quickly came to their senses. They also finally realized that the region's stability is not only unjust, it is misleading: It will be undermined in the end. When the tank invades our lives, stones must be thrown at it; the infuriating stability of the Middle East must be wiped out.
?Egypt: Strike! Strike! Strike! Global Voices online.
Go here for a couple of short videos of strikers. (less than half a minute each)
?Egypt's economy close to meltdown. Strikes shut down whole sectors
I may be misinformed but over time my impression of Debka is something of a Fox News of the Middle East, never missing a chance to discover terrorist threats or worse behind any new developments.
Tuesday, Feb. 8, debkafile reported: A fresh surge of popular anti-Mubarak protest ripping across Egypt Tuesday, Feb. 8 has brought the country closer to a military coup to stem the anarchy than at any time since the street caught fire on Jan. 25.
Vice President Omar Suleiman warned a group of Egyptian news editors that the only choice is between a descent into further lawlessness and a military takeover in Cairo. The distinguished political pundit of the 1960s and 1970s Hasnin Heikal saw no other way out of the crisis but a government ruling by the army's bayonets.
The arrival of US naval, marine and air forces in the Suez Canal's Greater Bitter Lake indicated that the crisis was quickly swerving out of control.
To get a rich appreciation of how events unfolding now across the Arab world are giving Christian Zionists a frisson of excitement, check out Rapture Watch grabbed this report and featured it with a spectacular picture of a US aircraft carrier. If the name doesn't tell you enough about Rapture Watch, check out their home page. (Mute your sound first. This is one of those sites that starts audio without any action from the visitor. I suppose it's for people who only look at the pictures.)
?Steve Martin Tweet.
This next link has a Twitter widget running and when this came past I had to grab it.
?Egypt - where will it end? From Radio Netherlands.
The Egyptian government-owned media, and in particular the TV stations , lost all credibility and integrity with their emphatic down-playing and ignoring of the revolution right in front of them. For a while the government media were reporting that the demonstrators are a handful of innocent youths exploited by the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Iran and Israel.
The legendary influence of Egyptian media inside the country and the rest of Arab world started to decay long ago thanks to the new vibrant satellite TV stations from the tiny, rich Gulf states. But the performance of the government med ia during the present crisis has almost alienated it from its audience.
~~~Bingo!~~~
?King warned Obama Saudi could fund Egypt -paper
Short and not-so-sweet from Reuters.
American carrots are not the only ones in the game.
A quiet word from the king of Saudi Arabia is almost as important as signals from China. Both places have a lot of loot these days. The US is not the world's only Sugar Daddy any more.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah told U.S. President Barack Obama that his country would prop up Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak if the United States withdrew its aid programme, The Times said on Thursday.
Abdullah told Obama not to humiliate Mubarak, who is under pressure from protesters to quit immediately, in a telephone call on Jan. 29, the newspaper said, citing a senior source in Riyadh.
?Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture' from Chris McGreal in Cairo, The Guardian
Let no one be deceived. Despite appearances, the Egyptian Army is not a bunch of pussy cats. Remember, Egypt is and has been for years a military dictatorship. All that talk of constitutions, parliament and stuff is to real democracy what the Uniform Code of Military Justice is to civilian law in our country. (Why does anyone think there is such a flap about civilian trials for detainees -- a euphemism for political prisoners -- versus military tribunals?)
The Egyptian military has secretly detained hundreds and possibly thousands of suspected government opponents since mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak began, and at least some of these detainees have been tortured, according to testimony gathered by the Guardian.
[...] One of those detained by the army was a 23-year-old man who would only give his first name, Ashraf, for fear of again being arrested. He was detained last Friday on the edge of Tahrir Square carrying a box of medical supplies intended for one of the makeshift clinics treating protesters attacked by pro-Mubarak forces.
"I was on a sidestreet and a soldier stopped me and asked me where I was going. I told him and he accused me of working for foreign enemies and other soldiers rushed over and they all started hitting me with their guns," he said.
Ashraf was hauled off to a makeshift army post where his hands were bound behind his back and he was beaten some more before being moved to an area under military control at the back of the museum.
"They put me in a room. An officer came and asked me who was paying me to be against the government. When I said I wanted a better government he hit me across the head and I fell to the floor. Then soldiers started kicking me. One of them kept kicking me between my legs," he said.
"They got a bayonet and threatened to rape me with it. Then they waved it between my legs. They said I could die there or I could disappear into prison and no one would ever know. The torture was painful but the idea of disappearing in a military prison was really frightening."
Ashraf said the beatings continued on and off for several hours until he was put in a room with about a dozen other men, all of whom had been severely tortured. He was let go after about 18 hours with a warning not to return to Tahrir Square.
Of all these links this last one is most unsettling. It should not be forgotten that Mubarak and his "vice-president" go way back. And without their military roots they would not be in power. As for all that US aid, the "carrots" we mention, the primary beneficiaries wear military uniforms. Anything eventually getting into other Egyptian hands is what we call "trickle down" economics. These guys know which side their bread is buttered on and you can be sure they won't willingly put that revenue stream at risk.
Issandr El Amrani, The Arabist, posted The tide is changing for the army referring to this link. He concludes with this. This is important.
Word of this is going to spread and will begin to counter the dominant narrative in Egyptian media about the people and the army being one. The longer this crisis persists, the more difficult for the army to continue either playing a double game or sitting on the fence. With Omar Suleiman's threats of coups and the protests spreading to work stoppages across the country, decision time will be coming for the protestors to make up their minds about the army (or launch a more pronounced campaign to persuade commanders), for the army's leadership to decide how it will proceed in a context where it is losing control, and for rank-and-file in the military to decide where they stand in all this.
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