The Egyptian Revolution – Act II

November 22, 2011

Just to note what's happening in Egypt now.

After a lot of fighting today mostly in the sidestreets Tahrir is again full of people, just like in the first part of this revolution
Street fights in Alexandria – massive, massive use of teargas (CR or CS)
A general was reported to have defected to the protesters (rank not confirmed)
The Muslim Brotherhood did not take part today – that will likely cost them some votes
The top military announced to form a "national salvation government" (this will not be enough)
Head of SCAF Tantawi just live on TV – sounds like Mubarak a week before he had to go ( – still wants sham parliamentary elections in six days (impossible) – "hidden forces" are the cause of the trouble – will never stand against the wishes of the people – will never kill a single of our people (well, then who did?) – no intention to keep power (but nothing on the "constitutional principles" that would keep the military uncontrolled)
Crowed is booing in Tahrir against Tantawi: "go! go!" (he is done)

It seems that the plans the U.S. had for Egypt as a military managed "democracy" are out of the window. What will they come up with next?

Posted by b on November 22, 2011 at 17:47 UTC | Permalink

Comments

“It seems that the plans the U.S. had for Egypt as a military managed “democracy” are out of the window. What will they come up with next?”
I’m hoping the inevitable economic collapse happens before we find out. Because it won’t be pretty. The attitude will be if we can’t have Egypt then no one can. Salafists in Libya will have a new mission.

Posted by: lysander | Nov 22 2011 18:24 utc | 1

Our wonderful State Department is once again exhibiting its concern for American citizens in trouble abroad.
Silly Egyptians, don’t they realize you gotta be Israeli if ya wanna incarcerate, murder, or maim American citizens without a peep of protest from the slithering snake Secretary Of State???
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20111122/5343be06-7abc-455d-9f23-5ffa677017ef
3 students from US arrested during Cairo protests
CHARLES WILSON
From Associated Press
November 22, 2011 1:06 PM EST
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Relatives and school officials said Tuesday they were working with U.S. officials to free three American college students arrested during protests in Cairo, where an Egyptian official said they were throwing firebombs at security forces.
An Egyptian official said the students were arrested on the roof of a university building near Tahrir Square. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to speak to the media.
The U.S. Department of State said it was aware of the detentions of three U.S. citizens in connection with Tahrir Square protests and was seeking access.
continues…..

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Nov 22 2011 18:32 utc | 2

Useful reads:
Tony karon: Tahrir Square Crisis Forces Egypt’s Military to Change its Plans
AlMasry Alyoum: Discord within Brotherhood for not participating in demo
Issandr El Amrani (The Arabist): The Muslim Brothers are left behind, again

Posted by: b | Nov 22 2011 19:32 utc | 3

Seeing pictures the mass of people in Tahrir Square, just a day after people had been sprayed with high proof “tear” gas, been murdered and had their eyes put out with “rubber” bullets, the words came to my mouth – Americans, here is a lesson in democracy and the price of freedom.
Learn, then do!

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Nov 22 2011 20:04 utc | 4

The second (or is this the third or fourth?) plan has been obvious from the start. The Army/MB alliance holds as long as the MB gets the parliamentary elections they desire. US puppets or Saudi puppets it’s just the same.

Posted by: ThePaper | Nov 22 2011 20:40 utc | 5

Violence returns to Tahrir Square
… In addition to high-profile clashes, there has been an unending stream of individual cases, such as last week’s death of an army officer who is associated with the 6th of April Movement, and the death of Essam Atta in police custody. Atta was given a prison sentence in a military court. He died when prison officers sodomised him with a water hose until his heart stopped. He was 23 years old. Atta is only one of nearly 13,000 prisoners sentenced in military tribunals since February, in what is deemed systemised political revenge. In all these incidents, big and small, officials claimed that investigations would take place. There has not been a single report from any investigation nor a single official, soldier or officer implicated in any of those events.
… How can these be free elections when there are thousands of political prisoners? How can these elections be secured when the Ministry of Interior has not been reformed and continues to focus its power against political activity rather than crime and security? How can these elections be reliable when the transitional government that is overseeing it is completely toothless and has proven itself unreliable? And finally, do the elections even matter so long as the SCAF retains an unshakable iron fist on the country’s politics? Democracy does not only mean counting votes. Lest we forget, Mubarak too held elections…

Hm, under the existing(continuing) ‘setup’ Mubarak(USA puppet dictator) ‘won’ 6 elections over 30 years, each time with ~90% of the ‘vote’ …

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 22 2011 21:53 utc | 6

What the US has done and is continuing to do through the systemic suborning of the Egyptian military, a junta, is classic policy, just as before with Chile, Greece, Turkey, Argentina, Guatemala, Iran(Shah) etc … the list goes on …
Without fail the overriding primary focus and objective of all US government to government interaction with its vassals and ‘targets’ is always military to military ‘engagement’ and ‘co-operation’ in order to suborn said military as the real holder of the true levers of state power … should the civil vassal puppets/elite be overthrown, threatened or succumb to democratic/national/populist forces, the backstop is the suborned military …
There is no coincidence that China and Venezuela, for example, flatly refuse any form of military to military co-operation/exchanges with the Pentagon … why assist and facilitate the aggressive and determined short, medium term targeted covert subversion of your own military, especially the systematic identification, targeting and recruitment of key officers … over the long term the systemic indoctrination to varying degrees of the lower ranking officers and NCOs to the primacy of US ‘interests’ …
As with Iran(Shah) SAVAK so to with Egypts ‘Ministry of the Interior’ …
Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights … Truth, Justice, Liberty … The Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis … that was back in 1987 …
I’ve been waiting for something to happen … Jackson Browne – Lives In The Balance

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 22 2011 21:54 utc | 7

On the tear gas being used in Tahrir (CR?)
There is mounting indication that it might be CR gas as opposed to normal tear gas which is CS gas:
…Because of its alleged carcinogenic properties, the United States does not utilize CR for riot control. The U.S. military classification for this chemical agent is combat class chemical weapon causing serious side effects for humans.

Military grade/class chemical weapon being used on civil protesters ? … US supplied perhaps ?
Conveniently, Egypt is not a signatory to Chemical Weapons Convention.

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 23 2011 0:08 utc | 8

Speaking about tear gas, here is an excerpt of a California law currently on the books….
“g) Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county jail not to exceed one year or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment”
And yes, this law applies to so called “peace officers”. One wonders if Chancellor Katehi will see to it that this law is enforced against the criminals in her campus gestapo corps.
http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/dwcl/12401.php

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Nov 23 2011 0:18 utc | 9

Come to think of it, in light of the lawm, mentioned above, one wonders why an arrest hasn’t been made already.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Nov 23 2011 0:28 utc | 10

@Outraged – comment 8
According to the Guardian (I’ve also seen it mentioned on arabist.net and elsewhere – al-akhbar I think) the ‘tear gas’ used is provided by a US company. One site mentions that this kind of weapon is not allowed on the battlefield: Tear gas used in Egypt banned for military use, causes liver, heart damage, miscarriages.

Posted by: Philippe | Nov 23 2011 0:31 utc | 11

Well, maybe it’s just because they still have supplies from last winter – chemicáls of this sort would have a limited shelf-life, I´d suppose.
From the articles I’ve skimmed through, the gas they were using then was CS – but then, that may be a confusion with the name of the company CSI – Combinded Systems International, Jamestown Pensylvania. An Israli owned company in USA.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Nov 23 2011 13:55 utc | 12

What will they come up with next?
Nothing. They will wait and see. Then it will be too late. Things are starting to crack. All over the place.
—————-
As for the MB, I guess it was the only faction/section that the Military could count on. While Religionists – social conservatives with their own power agenda – do often side with or meld with Military Powers, and the Military looks to anything in civil society they can co-opt (in this case by distributing a lot of cash and going for social aid and de facto vote buying thru a non-State channel, which is also a staple), the relationship is often very uneasy and twisted, because while both seek some spheres of dominance their alliance in unholy, in the sense that they have no shared values. (See e.g. Mussolini and the Catholic church.)
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the MB make an about-turn. Not that I expect it to happen – as they cannot on their own do much and will throw their lot in with whomever prevails, it is all very fluid. Which is why they always ‘hold back.’
Oh yeah, three cheers for the Egyptians, and drinks all round.

Posted by: Noirette | Nov 23 2011 15:35 utc | 13

@Phillipe & Chuck Cliff
The CS is well and long documented as ‘Made in USA’ … there is no confusion between CS and CR, however, there is a much more powerful and somewhat more lethal type of gas/particulate (currently not identified) which is much more debilitating, persistant and less responsive to street medic treatment, also being used by Ministry of Interior forces … possibly CR, possibly US supplied also … so far indeterminate.

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 23 2011 15:49 utc | 14

One wonders if Chancellor Katehi will see to it that this law is enforced against the criminals in her campus gestapo corps.
Katehi is originally Greek and has seen to it (not alone, that would be unfair) that the zones protected from military intervention in Higher Ed. Institutions in Greece (instituted after massacres not long ago, 1973) was junked.
see for ex. via *naked capitalism*, by the Mark Ames:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/mark-ames-how-uc-davis-chancellor-linda-katehi-brought-oppression-back-to-greece’
Wiki states she was there (?):
She was present at the military crackdown against protesting students that occurred at that university on November 17, 1973.

Posted by: Noirette | Nov 23 2011 15:59 utc | 15

Interesting development: “@bencnn benwedeman
Saw Army soldiers trying to stop Central Security Forces from throwing rocks, shooting teargas, but they were outnumbered. #tahrir #egypt”

Posted by: b | Nov 23 2011 16:17 utc | 16

I wonder if the protesting students are aware of Katehi’s background?

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Nov 23 2011 16:17 utc | 17

@Chuck the gas they were using then was CS – but then, that may be a confusion with the name of the company CSI – Combinded Systems International, Jamestown Pensylvania. An Israli owned company in USA.
Pictures from Cairo on twitter showed 40 mm CS shells produced by Combined Tactical Systems and the company is indeed at least partly Israeli owned.
But there were also pictures of very old ammunition, some from China, which is years older and should not be in use anymore. That could explain some of the bad effects.

Posted by: b | Nov 23 2011 16:30 utc | 18

Regretfully, CS gas canisters with production dates of 1987 and 1985 verified now. CS gas more than five years old becomes increasingly more chemically toxic with age … CS gas from ’85, that is 26 years old could very readily be LETHAL in significant dosage or repeated exposure …
Obviously a logistical oversight … couldn’t possibly be being deployed in full knowledge of the effects on purpose, surely /snark.

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 23 2011 21:46 utc | 19

Remarkably the Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits use of riot agents (CN, CS, CR, etc) in War, however, Article II section 9.(d) expressly permits it use by law enforcement …

9. “Purposes Not Prohibited Under this Convention” means:
(d) Law enforcement including domestic riot control purposes

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 23 2011 22:57 utc | 20

more dirt on Katehi:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/164783/two-scandals-one-connection-fbi-link-between-penn-state-and-uc-davis
Two shocking scandals. Two esteemed universities. Two disgraced university leaders. One stunning connection. Over the last month, we’ve seen Penn State University President Graham Spanier dismissed from his duties and we’ve seen UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi pushed to the brink of resignation. Spanier was jettisoned because of what appears to be a systematic cover-up of assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s serial child rape. Katehi has faced calls to resign after the she sent campus police to blast pepper spray in the faces of her peaceably assembled students, an act for which she claims “full responsibility.” The university’s Faculty Association has since voted for her ouster citing a “gross failure of leadership.” The names Spanier and Katehi are now synonymous with the worst abuses of institutional power. But their connection didn’t begin there. In 2010, Spanier chose Katehi to join an elite team of twenty college presidents on what’s called the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, which “promotes discussion and outreach between research universities and the FBI.”
Spanier said upon the group’s founding in 2005, “The National Security Higher Education Advisory Board promises to help universities and government work toward a balanced and rational approach that will allow scientific research and education to progress and our nation to remain safe.” He also said that the partnership could help provide “internships” to faculty and students interested in “National Security issues.”

Posted by: Susan | Nov 25 2011 5:58 utc | 21

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