This amazing video (h/t Blake Hounshell) is from today in Cairo, where tens of thousands of Egyptians have taken to the streets in a day of unprecedented protest. We hope to run an on the ground report later today, but in the meantime you can get news by following #jan25 on Twitter.
Photo of Cairo's Tahrir Square posted on Twitter.
Here is also a rundown that was curated by Al Jazeera English using a web tool called Storify:
Egypt receives the second largest amount of foreign aid from the U.S. after Israel.
And the Republicans plan to cut it.
Once the Israelis point out to them that that aid is paid for the purpose of assuring peace for Israel, maybe the Republicans will change their minds.
I wonder if anyone in congress and/or the MSM will bring up aid to Israel when aid to Egypt is put on the chopping block? Considering aid to Egypt is solely so Egypt backs Israel, this would be interesting. Especially since the aid to both combined is the largest chunk of total foreign aid. Or will cutting aid to Egypt be put off until Cantor gets his bill passed slipping aid to Israel under the US Defense budget? And will this absurdity be pointed out by the MSM press? And how will the timing of any of this be affected by Egypt replacing its aged ruler with likely a less compliant one?
Lots of news about the demonstrations, which are apparently all over Egypt, as well as other Middle East news on this Daily Kos thread: Changes are Coming: News Flashes from the Middle East.
I like this vid: link to youtube.com
And here is one where they tear down Mubarak’s poster: link to youtube.com
Egypt is a tragedy.
If folks did not see this lop sided conference about Iran on CSpan it is worth the watch. More hard core pushing for a confrontation with Iran. Was especially dissapointing that C Span had this conference listed as NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM : Iran. As if there is some hard core proof that Iran all ready has a nuclear weapons program. C span must have some Israeli minders over at CSPAN controlling programming.
Americans sure have some short term memories. And with Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews etc making sure that they do not really inform the American public as to what the facts are in regard to Iran it is not going to get any better.
Cspan
“Iran’s Nuclear, Terrorist Threats and Rights AbusesJan 20, 2011ExecutiveAction
Former officials talked about the nuclear and terrorist threat posed by Iran. Topics included U.S. policy toward Iran and the terrorist designation for the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, a group that opposes the current Iranian regime. Following prepared remarks they answered questions from the audience.
I saw it Kathleen–except for questions from the audience at the end. One after the other, the speakers, a number high up in former US regimes, got up and totally demonized Iran. Woolsey was the slickest (not much of a challenge given the speakers) from what I remember, arguing the most directly for preemptive war on Iran, and solemnly regurgitating the hasbara, “It’s not 1936, it’s 1938.” And that’s what the whole panel believes! Incredibly disturbing. Zionism rules our high white collar government/thinktank world.
Woolsey is nothing but a neocon. You might recall that after Powell’s BS presentation to the UN about Iraqi WMD, Woolsey appears on Fox dexisting it a home run and insisting that only a paid agent of Saddam would dispute the evidence.
It is truly astounding how they never invite scientists or weapons experts to these discussions. Even a hack like David Albright would have expressed reservations about Woolsey’s claims.
It’s as though there is a media blackout barring anyone with contrary views from being allowed to appear. Everyone who spread the lies about Iraq WMD is allowed to weigh in on the Iran debate, while everyone who was right is persona non grata.
’5:16 pm BST — Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has urged all sides in Egypt to exercise restraint in the wake of today’s protests. She said she believed the Egyptian government was stable and looking for ways to respond to its people’s aspirations.’
link to guardian.co.uk
If it were 1989, Hillary would be assuring us that ‘the Erich Honecker government of the German Democratic Republic is stable and responding to the people’s aspirations — there’s no need to throw open the Berlin wall!’
Now that Hillary’s foolishly tied her fate to Mubarak, she may get swept away with him. A liberated Egypt could break the Gaza siege. What a horror for our great democracy to contemplate — people setting themselves free from oppression!
I am sure the torturers at the Giza police station are acting with restraint.
The US lost Iran in 1979. Losing Egypt would be similarly seismic.
I found it interesting that the Egyptian cops’ response seemed fairly restrained by Israeli standards.
Here’s the thing in Israel the army is brainwashed to believe they’re doing God’s work or that Palestinians want to drive them to the sea or some Zionist ideology, blah, blah. In Egypt, the police on the streets are very poor, uneducated and have no desire to work against their people, they only do it for their aish/ bread/ survival.
And the same goes for the Daytonistas.
agree
Note that you can read the Egyptian protesters’ “January 25 Revolution Day” Facebook page and thereby keep up with events by using Google’s Chrome browser, which will translate the page from Arabic to English. (“This page is in Arabic. Would you like to translate it?” at the top of the page.) Very useful.
link to facebook.com
It is yom al ghadab. the day of rage. it looks like it will run.
lysias. …. peace for Israel
No, peace for the USA, they are on the front line so we can sleep well.
What a BS!
we need joooobs! whine whine whine
undermine Iran’s economy
create a situation where young Iranians have not work
but Mr President, we need joooobs.
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
only when our leaders address the moral rot at the heart of the USA will “joobs” be an issue that is any more significant than a bandaid on an amputated arm.
The location looks like Shari? Kasr el Aini in Garden City very near to the Canadian Embassy on Shari? Hariss. It’s a shame that the American University in Cairo has been uplifted from this area, just a couple of blocks away is the massive Mogamaa/ bureaucracy of Egyptian life.
Loved how the Egyptians filming were supporting the man in front of the water cannon with shouts of “gedda3!” hero.
it is all from wust al balad. I wonder what they are thinking in Madinah 6 October and Heliopolis.
And in the Delta and Alex.
Twitter is blocked in Egypt. Here is some live streaming of the protests and live chat. This site has a nice feature you can see how many viewers online at any one time @ 5,000 right and lots of chatter.
link to ustream.tv
tweets are NOT blocked here:
link to samehhady.com
and somebody is suggesting that everybody changes their twitter location to Cairo.
from twitter:
Protesters in Tahrir r not going home. They need food & blankets. Roads r closed so plz anyone lives local 2 Tahrir help #Jan25 #Egypt
video of Egyptian riot police being chased away:
link to youtube.com
from twitter:
People living in tahrir, get your router out in the balconies and give wifi to the protestors #jan25
another twitter:
URGENT: REQUEST to ALL EUROPE & US tweeps on #Jan25 PLEASE ASK YOUR MEDIA TO COVER #EGYPT NOW
The irony of the people rising up against the dictator in maidan at tahrir . Where did the freedom go ?
if Mobarak isn’t removed he is going to rename the square to Baba Hosni Square and plaster his photos everywhere.
rise up, children of the nile
until now
so expendable and powerless
as those who have oppressed you
run off to saudi arabia
their only refuge
know that you will have retaken the dawn
never let go
Wow. The guys standing in front of the water cannon made me tear up. Amazing and inspiring.
yes
i am convinced that Jared Loughner acted out of frustration with the entire political system. If I could figure this out, so did the government. that’s why shills like jennifer rubin were sent out to diagnose Loughner “schizophrenic” and derail the conversation to “mental illness” and gun control and sitting next to each other playing patty cake.
jezus, while those young people are putting their bodies in front of armored water cannons, we’re putting up with, “I’m going to sit next to Sen. Donkey.”.
The US gov’t knows that riots are coming to a town near you — this is one we can’t “fight over there so we don’t have to fight it over here.”
— GOP is cutting all sorts of social programs, Head Start, community development grants, arts and cultural programs, but not Joe Lieberman’s Homeland Security spy network, nor defense.
If US/Israel attack Iran, all hell will break loose in US.
However mentally unbalanced Jarred was/is; it’s clear he views US politics as ineffective and uncaring, and that the US masses are illiterate sheeple. No doubt he had a deep interest in the unresponsive US political system, likely symbolized when he asked a question to a US political leader and was dismissed by her–I think, if memory serves, that she blew him off with a quip rendered in Spanish.
Yeah, that guy–like he stood directly in the path of the mechanical elephant trunk hosing the protesters, and actually held up the “trunk” or hose so that the water shot directly up in the air for a brief time–reminds me of that guy standing in front of the tank in T-Square China back in the day.
more video of protests in downtown Cairo, you can see the Arab League building in the background.
in this report BBC says the police weren’t expecting the turnout they had, usually in Cairo protests the police state outnumbers the protesters.
link to bbc.co.uk
There are unconfirmed reports that Mubarak’s son Gamal and his family have fled Egypt for the UK. Egypt: President’s son and family ‘have fled to the UK’.
Phenomenal coverage you guys, thanks so much!