Gord's Notebook : Egyptian Military Detaining abusing and Torturing Protesters & Coptic Christians, Labor , Doctors & Lawyers Take Part In Egyptian Revolution

UPDATED & EDITED : 7:13 PM, Feb. 11, 2011.

The crisis in Egypt
Another American puppet dictator under pressure
Whitehouse and American hypocrisy
Will the Whitehouse apologize to the Egyptian people for the thousands of Egyptians incarcerated , abused , tortured , killed or disappeared by the Mubarak Regime while the US governments stood by with full knowledge of these crimes.
In fact the US used Egypt as a dumping ground for Terrorist suspects where they could be tortured without American involvement. But by refusing to speak out the U.S. government can be held responsible for these actions and their failure to stop such activity.
As for freedom of the press , the freedom of information or even the freedom of assembly and the right to privacy have all been trampled upon by the residents in the whitehouse especially since 9/11.

Protests Strikes Continue In Egypt-Al Jazeera
Cairo's Tahrir Square still occupied by Anti-government Protesters

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Cairo, witnessed scenes of violence during his detention by the army Feb. 10, 2011.

Rachel Maddow Berlin Wall Moment for Egypt

Anderson Cooper of CNN still angry about how the Mubarak regime is treating journalists and Egyptian citizens protesting.
Did Anderson Cooper forget that Mubarak's Regime according to the Whitehouse over the last 30 years is one of America's best friends and a champion of democracy and human rights and an ally in the fight against terrorism. Its to be expected even Obama , Clinton, Gibbs want to drop those embarrassing facts down the old Memory Hole. Up til a few weeks ago Obama et al kept covering for Mubarak and his torture regime. Because how can Obama or any US president condemn Mubarak for doing what the US government , the Pentagon, the CIA and FBI are doing-that is disappearing people /renditions, detaining people with little or no proof of any criminal activity, ignoring due process and the rights of the accused to not be abused , beaten, raped and tortured and murdered while in incarceration or just assassinated in extra-judicial killings.
And meanwhile Obama is none too fond of the press and nor was Bush they believe the Press should only report what the government allows unless they work for Fox News.
Anderson Cooper forgets that Bush and Obama also manipulate the media insisting for instance journalists be embedded with US military in Iraq or Afghanistan etc.
Obama et al also want to shut down Wikileaks and Julian Assange by any means necessary.
And the Obama administration has been complicit in various war crimes and complicit in those committed under the Bush/Cheney regime by not investigation and then prosecuting all of the offenders. Under US law and International Law failure to investigate diligently and prosecuting such offenders is deemed as a crime in itself.

Anderson Cooper: Mubarak Is 'Stepping On The Blood Of The Egyptian People' (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post Jack Mirkinson
First Posted: 02/10/11

Anderson Cooper continued his condemnation of the Mubarak regime on Thursday, as he reacted harshly to President Hosni Mubarak's speech--in which Mubarak refused to step down.

"This is a slap in the face," Cooper told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "This is stepping on the grave and the blood of the Egyptian people that has been spilled for more than two weeks now."

Blitzer said that Mubarak had only agreed to transfer "some" powers to his vice president.

"It's all lies," Cooper cut in. He then cut in again after Blitzer had talked some more.

"They [the Egyptian government] were trying to manipulate and create a crisis," Cooper said. "The chaos has been caused by the Mubarak regime. These are lies which this regime continues to try to sell, not only to the people of Egypt, but to the world."

Egyptian army 'torturing' prisoners Human rights groups allege that pro-democracy protesters have been detained or tortured in an "organised campaign". 10 Feb 2011 Al Jazeera

The Egyptian military has been secretly detaining and torturing those it suspects of being involved in pro-democracy protests, according to testimony gathered by the British newspaper the Guardian.

The newspaper, quoting human rights agencies, put the number of people detained at "hundreds, possibly thousands," since protests against Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, began on January 25.

While the military has said it is playing a neutral role in the political unrest, the newspaper quoted human rights campaigners as saying this was no longer the case, accusing the army of being involved in an organised campaign of disappearances, torture and intimidation.

Egyptians have long associated such crimes with the country's much-feared intelligence and security services, but not with the army.

"Their range is very wide, from people who were at the protests or detained for breaking curfew to those who talked back at an army officer or were handed over to the army for looking suspicious or for looking like foreigners even if they were not," Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told the Guardian.

"It's unusual and to the best of our knowledge it's also unprecedented for the army to be doing this."

The country's army has denied the charges of illegal detention or torture.
"The armed forces denies any abuse of protesters. The armed forces sticks to the principle of protecting peaceful protesters and it has never, nor will it ever, fire at protesters," an armed forces source told Reuters.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Safwat El Zayat, a retired general in the Egyptian military, categorically denied the allegations made in the Guardian report, saying that the report was "aimed at damaging the reputation of the army, which always stands by the people and not the regime".

Egyptian professionals doctors , Lawyers and Middle Class join protesters in Tahrir Square or "Freedom Square" Cairo.

"Workers to continue Egypt strikes Thousands of doctors are among those expected to join workers' strike as anti-Mubarak demonstration enters its 17th day."Al Jazeera Feb. 10, 2011

Egyptian labour unions held nationwide strikes for a second day, adding momentum to the pro-democracy demonstrations in Cairo and other cities.

The move comes as the demonstrations calling for President Hosni Mubarak's immediate ouster enters its 17th day.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Cairo, said about 5,000 doctors and medical students were expected to come out on Thursday.

Lawyers, public transport workers and the artists syndicate were also among those who joined the strikes, Al Jazeera correspondents reported.

"It's certainly increasing the pressure on the government here. I think it's worth making the distinction that the strikes going on are more of an economic nature, they are not necessarily jumping on the bandwagon of the protesters in Tahrir Square," Dekker said.

"Many of them are not actually calling for the president to step down, but fighting for better wages, for better working conditions."

Our correspondents reported that around 20,000 factory workers had stayed away from work across Egypt on Wednesday.

"[Strikers] were saying that they want better salaries, they want an end to the disparity in the pay, and they want the 15 per cent increase in pay that was promised to them by the state," Sherine Tadros, reported from Cairo.

Some workers were also calling for Mubarak to step down, she said.

Culture minister quits

Meanwhile, Gaber Asfour, the recently appointed culture minister, resigned from Mubarak's cabinet on Wednesday for health reasons, a member of his family told Reuters.

But the website of Egypt's main daily newspaper Al-Ahram said Asfour, a writer, was under pressure from literary colleagues over the post.

Asfour was sworn in following the start of the protests on January 31, and believed it would be a national unity government, al-Ahram said.
...There was also a renewed international element to the demonstrations, with Egyptians from abroad returning to join the pro-democracy camp.

Our correspondent said an internet campaign is currently on to mobilise expatriates to return and support the uprising.

Protesters are "more emboldened by the day and more determined by the day", Ahmad Salah, an Egyptian activist, told Al Jazeera from Cairo. "This is a growing movement, it's not shrinking."

Meanwhile, 34 political prisoners, including members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, were reportedly released over the past two days.

Our correspondent said that there are still an unknown number of people missing, including activists thought to be detained during the recent unrest.

Egypt Strikes Continue As Doctors, Lawyers Join Protests Huffington Post Feb. 10, 2011

Doctors in white lab coats and lawyers in black robes streamed into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Thursday as labor unrest across the country gave powerful momentum to Egypt's wave of anti-government protests. With its efforts to manage the crisis failing, the government threatened the army could crack down by imposing martial law. The protests in their 17th day - which have focused on demanding President Hosni Mubarak's ouster and the end of his regime's heavy hand on power - have tapped into the even deeper well of anger over economic woes, including inflation, unemployment, corruption, low wages and wide economic disparities between rich and poor.

The protests in their 17th day – which have focused on demanding President Hosni Mubarak's ouster and the end of his regime's heavy hand on power – have tapped into the even deeper well of anger over economic woes, including inflation, unemployment, corruption, low wages and wide economic disparities between rich and poor.

For the second day, crowds angry over lack of housing rioted in the Suez Canal city of Port Said. On Thursday, they set fire to the local headquarters of state security, the main post office and the governor's offices, which had already been partially burned the day before. It appeared police and soldiers were not intervening.

The spread of labor unrest was in part in direct response to calls from protesters as strikers expressed their support for the political movement. But there also seemed to be another element – locals unleashing long pent-up resentment at symbols of the state, whether it was an unpopular local police chief, a state factory seen as stiffing workers or a governor failing to follow through on promises.
The government warnings raised the prospect that the energized protests could bring a new crackdown.

Speaking to the Arab news network Al-Arabiya on Thursday, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that if "adventurers" take over the process of reform the military "will be compelled to defend the constitution and national security ... and we'll find ourselves in a very grave situation."

The night earlier, he was more explicit, saying in an interview with "PBS NewsHour" that there would be chaos if Mubarak stepped down immediately. "Do we want the armed forces to assume the responsibility of stabilizing the nation thru imposing martial law, and army in the streets?" he said. It was the second coup warning this week, with Prime Minister Omar Suleiman making similar threats Tuesday.
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from AOL online an article on Egyptian Christians hopes and fears:

"What Egyptian Christians Think?" Lauren Frayer Contributor AOL online

Egypt’s Coptic Christians are divided over whether to back beleaguered President Hosni Mubarak, whose secular government gave them certain protections but whose iron-fisted rule left them as broke and powerless as their Muslim neighbors.
Many Christians have flung themselves into street protests calling for Mubarak’s ouster, saying new freedoms would be worth the risk that Muslim factions might eventually take power and deliver blows to the rights of religious minorities.
For 30 years, Mubarak kept his government mostly secular, banning the largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, and preventing the nation’s majority Muslims from writing their religious values into Egypt’s laws.

But his authoritarian regime left Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population, just as poor and victimized as the rest of Egypt’s 80 million people. They have also faced attacks and discrimination under Mubarak’s rule, and many of them have begun wondering whether the Egyptian president has benefited them at all.
Egypt’s Copts are the Middle East’s largest Christian community and trace their heritage back to Roman times, when Christianity dominated the region in the fourth through sixth centuries. Egypt is dotted with ancient Christian ruins and monasteries, like those of Saints Anthony and Paul, left over from that era.
Scenes like those in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Sunday — where Christians and Muslims held hands in joint prayer, and Muslims formed a human chain around a group of Christians holding a open-air service — might have seemed impossible just a month ago.

...“It’s good to see Muslims and Christians in the same place with the same goal,” Tamara Scander, a Coptic high school student, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview in Tahrir Square. She was with her best friend, a Muslim classmate. “We all want the same thing,” she said.

At one point Sunday, a Coptic priest led prayers among the faithful gathered in Tahrir, and Muslims joined in. Addressing Mubarak, the priest called out, “Our churches were attacked when you were in power.

“Now that there are no police in the street and we have revolution, our churches are safe, our people are safe,” the priest said, according to The Irish Times.
But as the euphoria of the protests dies down slowly and some semblance of normal life returns to Egypt this week, some Christians are voicing fears about what’s next.

Egypt’s new vice president, Omar Suleiman, held talks with select opposition leaders on Sunday, including representatives of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group. Some Christians fear the Brotherhood’s influence. In the past, the Brotherhood has said that if it were to rule Egypt, it would impose certain Muslim rules on the country, including one that would require Egypt’s president to be a Muslim. That scares some Copts, wary of discrimination.
“We are afraid these people will take the authority of Egypt and damage the rights of women, the rights of Christians,” Marianne, a 25-year-old doctor who refused to give her full name, told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. “I am all for greater democracy, but what if concessions mean the Brotherhood takes over?”
That fear has led some Copts to back Mubarak.

The official head of Egypt’s Christians, Pope Shenouda III, also backed Mubarak in the early days of the street protests, encouraging his faithful to follow suit in order to “safeguard the security and stability of the country,” state TV reported.

And conspiracy theories abound. Even though Egypt’s 14-day popular uprising appears to be mostly leaderless — fueled by angry, unemployed youth rather than organized by special interest groups — some local Christian leaders see the hand of the Brotherhood secretly at work.

“Though some of the primary opposition leaders in this revolt appear to be modern secular reformers, church leaders believe the main engine fueling and organizing the demonstrators is the Muslim Brotherhood,” Issam Bishara, an Egyptian representative of the Pontifical Mission, a Catholic aid group with ties to the Vatican, wrote in a Feb. 3 report to Catholic officials. “They fear that the Brotherhood intends to seize power through future elections, compromising all patriotic and ideological parties participating in the protests.”

That Egypt’s Christians are joining the protest movement at the same time some of their leaders are still supporting Mubarak shows how divided the country’s Christians are. It would be a mistake to think that just because Copts share a common faith they also share the same politics, Maha Azzam, an Egyptian political scientist at London’s Chatham House think tank, told AOL News.

“They’re a cross section of society, just like Muslims. You have among them an elite that’s educated and Westernized, but you also have many in Upper [southern] Egypt that are poor like other Egyptians,” Azzam said. “They’re a reflection of the society in which they live.”

Azzam said most of Egypt’s citizens would like to see Mubarak gone, and that’s probably true of the country’s Christians as well, despite their pope’s stance.
“The official position [of Shenouda] doesn’t reflect the reality on the ground. What we’ve seen in Tahrir is a coming together of Muslims and Copts in opposition to the regime, to bring down Mubarak,” she said. Azzam credited the Muslim Brotherhood for taking care not to alienate Christians during this time of national upheaval.

“The Brotherhood has reiterated time and again that this protest isn’t Islamic, it’s all Egyptians against the regime. This has done much to calm fears among all sectors, including the Copts,” she said. “There’s a general consensus across all social divisions that the goal is regime change. Especially after the attack on the church [on New Year], it says a lot about how both Muslims and Copts did not want this attempt at sectarian division.”

It’s unclear what will happen in the coming days, as Suleiman continues talks with opposition leaders and protesters continue to camp out in Tahrir Square. Some of those demonstrators are from the Coptic Youth Movement, which has complained about being excluded from opposition talks.

“Things are moving so fast, and nobody knows what to expect next — everything is up in the air,” Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub told the website Christian News Today. “Copts are desperate that an Islamic outcome should be avoided.” But he added that he believes his fellow believers “all say yes to change.”