Who will be next to walk like an Egyptian?

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

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Egypt protests - live updates

• Protesters claim one million people have taken to streets
• Army pledges it will allow 'legitimate' protest 
• Protesters play down role of Muslim Brotherhood

guardian

10.51am: Judges have joined the demonstration, according to Heba Morayef, from Human Rights Watch, who is in Tahrir Square.

A group of senior judges have joined the demonstration with a banner which reads: "The Judges and the People are one Hand together" One senior judge made a speech from a loud speaker in which he called for the Minister of the Interior and others to be held accountable and for an end to state of emergency (loud cheer) and for free elections under full judicial supervision.

10.43am: The organisers claim that a million people have joined the protests, al-Jazeera reports. Tahrir Square is more packed than it has ever been since the protests started, it said.

This image only represents a third of those people gathered, its reporter claimed.

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9.10am: Israel remains very twitchy about events in Egypt, and some feel betrayed by the Americans.

One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was headlined "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam", according to Reuters. It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks. 
Who is advising them, he asked, "to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president ... an almost lone voice of sanity in a Middle East?"

Even the usually moderate Ha'aretz newspaper chose to splash (left) with a picture of an angry Muslim being held aloft in Cairo.

 

8.57am: "Everyone is coming" a protester in Tahrir Square predicts in this video shot yesterday. "We are not going anywhere until our demands our met," she said.

To watch the video in full turn off the auto-refresh button at the top of the pageAljazeera English:10:54am Security officials say authorities have shut down all roads and public transportation to Cairo, where tens of thousands of people are converging to demand the ouster of President Mubarak.-------------------------------Tony Blair, the Middle East peace envoy, warned that Egypt might take a backward step "into a very reactionary form of religious autocracy". ________________Standard & Poor's has just downgraded Egypt's credit rating by one notch to BB , S&P is concerned that the government will "eventually take measures to alleviate poverty by increasing food and fuel subsidies", thus pushing up its budget deficit ._________________The most powerful opposition in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood,_________________Many non-Copts in Egypt want shariah law. ___________________

Anarchy in Egypt. Time for Mubarak to Act or Leave.

"It was deeply amusing to Egyptians that Obama – in Cairo itself, after his election – had urged Arabs to grasp freedom and democracy. These aspirations disappeared entirely when he gave his tacit if uncomfortable support to the Egyptian president on Friday. "


I thought it strange seeing tanks parked on the streets without paratroopers or marines forming a cordon around them. Surely young tankers being surrounded by protestors would establish relationships amongst the mob and in a day or two would become ineffective, isolated from the command and control structure necessary for military cohesion of a fighting unit. Their officers must know that. What is going on?

Today, there are reports of the police being missing in action, rioters and looters have moved from state targets and are now attacking the private property of business and middle class neighborhoods. Museums and mosques are being looted. There are reports of neighborhood private security being formed to hold back the mobs.

Public support for protesters of injustice will end quickly when the protesters turn to marauding mobs. It is time for a good dictator to fire up the tanks, use the political cover of  the rioting and reestablish order. Short of that, get on a plane and get out of Cairo.
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Egypt protests - live updates  

the Guardian

11.45am: The Middle East analyst Juan Cole analyses why the Egyptian state has lost its legitimacy.

The present regime is widely seen in Egypt as a state for the others– for the US, Israel, France and the UK– and as a state for the few– the Neoliberal nouveau riche. Islam plays no role in this analysis because it is not an independent variable. Muslim movements have served to protest the withdrawal of the state from its responsibilities, and to provide services. But they are a symptom, not the cause. All this is why Mubarak's appointment of military men as vice president and prime minister cannot in and of itself tamp down the crisis. They, as men of the System, do not have more legitimacy than does the president– and perhaps less.

11.33am: Hospitals are urging people to donate blood, according to the latest email update from Human Rights Watch's emergencies director, Peter Bouckaert, in Alexandria. He has also been told of that prison break out.

Hospitals in Alexandria and Cairo are requesting that people come in and donate blood.

The Cairo-Alexandria desert road is blocked because of a prison outbreak at Wadi el-Natroun- several thousand prisoners released. The army is deployed. Residents of local villages say the prison had 8,000 inmates.

The old Cairo-Alexandria "agricultural road" is open and traffic is running smoothly. People in Menoufeyya say criminals stopping cars at night demanding money. But day travel is safe.

11.26am: Mosques are being transformed into sickrooms for protesters with bullet wounds, according to this report from Jack Shenker and Peter Beaumont.

They write:

This place of worship is little more than a partially-roofed narrow passage between two tall buildings; now it has been transformed into a makeshift hospital, with blood soaking through the prayer mats. The muezzin's microphone – normally used to send out the call to prayer – pressed into use by a thick-set, bearded imam who is shouting out instructions to the medics. Occasionally, he prays.

11.03am: 34 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including seven leaders, have escaped from prison, according to Reuters.

Relatives stormed the prison in Wadi el-Natroun, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Cairo, and set free several thousand of the inmates, Brotherhood office manager Mohamed Osama told Reuters. No one was hurt, he added.

An Observer Q&A on the protests has this background on the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the moment, the Muslim Brotherhood is playing catch-up with a young, leaderless protest movement. But chaos always opens opportunities and years of oppression by the government has angered and frustrated ordinary people. The brotherhood has enormous support among the poor, encouraged by the network of charities it runs. Observers have been debating the sincerity of the brotherhood's apparent moves towards real political reform, and point to its inability to directly challenge Mubarak's government.

10.56am: Al Jazeera has just been taken off the air in Egypt, according to its reporter Ayman Mohyeldin.

Another al-Jazeera staffer Abdurahman Warsame tweets:

BREAKING: Al Jazeera Arabic signal is down. The screen is frozen. Has the satellite (Nilesat) been blocked? Jammed? #Aljazeera #press #Cairo

10.45am: Thousands of prisoners have escaped from jail in the Wadi Naturn prison, north of Cairo, according to AP.

Australia's Herald Sun has this AP report:

Inmates overwhelmed guards during the night, breaking out of the facility which holds many Islamist political prisoners, and spilling out into nearby towns and villages, as nationwide riots demanding the end of the regime gave way to looting.

It cited a "security official" for the information.

6,000 prisoners escape from #Abu Zaabel prison #egypt #jan25 (via phone)

10.38am: The US is offering its citizens evacuation flights out of Egypt.

"The US Embassy in Cairo informs U.S. citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the Department of State is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Europe," a statement said, according to Reuters.

The evacuation flights will start tomorrow.

10.14am: The Foreign Office is advising Britons to leave Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, Britain's foreign secretary William Hague told Sky News.

He also talked of the danger of "extremism" taking hold in Egypt. "There is a great danger of violence running out of control," he said.

Hague also urged the Egyptian government to show restraint and to allow freedom of expression. He condemned the closure of al-Jazeera's bureau in Cairo.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice on Egypt. It says:

We advise against all but essential travel to Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Suez. We recommend that British nationals without a pressing need to be in Cairo, Alexandria or Suez leave by commercial means where it is safe to do so. British nationals in other areas of Egypt where there are demonstrations should follow the advice below and stay indoors wherever possible.

9.58am: One of the Guardian's Middle East experts Brian Whitaker reflects on the latest rumours in Cairo. Writing on his own blog, he says there are reports that Mubarak's sons, Alaa and Gamal, have fled, but also that there will be could be an army crackdown today.

He writes:

Rumours have been circulating that the army will take a much tougher line with protesters today – what some are calling the Tiananmen Square option. However, I am sceptical about that. For one, thing, the US has warned strongly against it, and though Mubarak may not listen to Washington I think his commanders are more likely to.

9.51am: There are more signs of Israeli nervousness, following those comments by Netanyahu. Our Jerusalem correspondent, Harriet Sherwood reports:

Israel Army Radio said this morning that the Israeli military is preparing for the possibility that militants in Gaza may take advantage of the chaos in Egypt to bring in weapons from the Sinai.

Meanwhile, it's being reported in Gaza that three Palestinian prisoners being held in Al-Arish jail in Egypt have escaped and made their way back to Gaza through the tunnels.

The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt has been closed until further notice, a Hamas official said.

9.46am: Al Jazeera has denounced the closure of its Cairo bureau. In a statement it said:

Al-Jazeera sees this as an act designed to stifle and repress the freedom of reporting by the network and its journalists. In this time of deep turmoil and unrest in Egyptian society it is imperative that voices from all sides be heard; the closing of our bureau by the Egyptian government is aimed at censoring and silencing the voices of the Egyptian people...

Al Jazeera Network is appalled at this latest attack by the Egyptian regime to strike at its freedom to report independently on the unprecedented events in Egypt."

9.38am: The government plans to shut down al-Jazeera's operations in Egypt, according to Reuters, citing the state news agency Mana.

"The information minister ordered ... suspension of operations of al-Jazeera, cancelling of its licences and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff as of today," a statement said.

The New York Times reports on the influential role of al-Jazeera in the protests.

The station was the first to report that the governing party's headquarters were set on fire. Breathless phone reports came in from Jazeera correspondents in towns across Egypt. Live footage from Cairo alternated with action shots that played again and again. Orchestral music played, conveying the sense of a long-awaited drama.

Al Jazeera kept up its coverage despite serious obstacles. The broadcaster's separate live channel was removed from its satellite platform by the Egyptian government on Friday morning, its Cairo bureau had its telephones cut and its main news channel also faced signal interference, according to a statement released by the station. The director of the live channel issued an appeal to the Egyptian government to allow it to broadcast freely.

9.27am: The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has expressed concern about "stability and security" in the region, in his first comments on the Egyptian unrest.

Photograph: Reuters

"We are following with vigilance the events in Egypt and in our region ... at this time we must show responsibility and restraint and maximum consideration. Our efforts have been intended to continue to preserve stability and security in our region.

"I remind you that the peace between Israel and Egypt has lasted for over three decades."

More from The Guardian 

Obama Shooting His Mouth off on Egypt

What business is it of Obama telling Egypt how to run their country? What concern is it of the US or Obama on how they deal with rioters and an insurrection? Will we ever learn? This is  regime change as in Iran. It is an Egyptian issue. Obama's meddling is Carteresque. We should mind our own business. We have enough problems of our own and Egypt does not need the unsolicited input of Barack Hussein Obama.

Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising

The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change” for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

By Tim Ross, Matthew Moore and Steven Swinford 9:23PM GMT 28 Jan TELEGRAPH

The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret fromEgyptian state police.

On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.

The secret document in full

He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph.

The crisis in Egypt follows the toppling of Tunisian president Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, who fled the country after widespread protests forced him from office..

The disclosures, contained in previously secret US diplomatic dispatches released by the WikiLeaks website, show American officials pressed the Egyptian government to release other dissidents who had been detained by the police.

Mr Mubarak, facing the biggest challenge to his authority in his 31 years in power, ordered the army on to the streets of Cairo yesterday as rioting erupted across Egypt.

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in open defiance of a curfew. An explosion rocked the centre of Cairo as thousands defied orders to return to their homes. As the violence escalated, flames could be seen near the headquarters of the governing National Democratic Party.

Police fired rubber bullets and used tear gas and water cannon in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

At least five people were killed in Cairo alone yesterday and 870 injured, several with bullet wounds. Mohamed ElBaradei, the pro-reform leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was placed under house arrest after returning to Egypt to join the dissidents. Riots also took place in Suez, Alexandria and other major cities across the country.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, urged the Egyptian government to heed the “legitimate demands of protesters”. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she was “deeply concerned about the use of force” to quell the protests.

In an interview for the American news channel CNN, to be broadcast tomorrow,David Cameron said: “I think what we need is reform in Egypt. I mean, we support reform and progress in the greater strengthening of the democracy and civil rights and the rule of law.”

The US government has previously been a supporter of Mr Mubarak’s regime. But the leaked documents show the extent to which America was offering support to pro-democracy activists in Egypt while publicly praising Mr Mubarak as an important ally in the Middle East.

In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for “regime change” to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year.

The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked “confidential” and headed: “April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt.”

It said the activist claimed “several opposition forces” had “agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections”. The embassy’s source said the plan was “so sensitive it cannot be written down”.

Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an “unrealistic” plot could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The embassy helped the campaigner attend a “summit” for youth activists in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.

Cairo embassy officials warned Washington that the activist’s identity must be kept secret because he could face “retribution” when he returned to Egypt. He had already allegedly been tortured for three days by Egyptian state security after he was arrested for taking part in a protest some years earlier.

The protests in Egypt are being driven by the April 6 youth movement, a group on Facebook that has attracted mainly young and educated members opposed to Mr Mubarak. The group has about 70,000 members and uses social networking sites to orchestrate protests and report on their activities.

The documents released by WikiLeaks reveal US Embassy officials were in regular contact with the activist throughout 2008 and 2009, considering him one of their most reliable sources for information about human rights abuses.

Egypt on the Brink of What?

We have seen this before in East Germany, Hungary, Poland and in all of Eastern Europe. People, tired of subjugation, overthrow tyrants. In East Europe, there was a happy ending. Not so for Iran under the Shah, where religious fanatics and bigots became bigger and more fearsome tyrants. The question for Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen is what will follow?
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Egypt protests: Fresh protests could leave Egypt on brink of revolution

A fresh wave of mass protests could leave Egypt teetering on the brink of revolution on Friday after police warned the president they could soon lose control of the demonstrators demanding his overthrow.

By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent 7:14AM GMT 28 Jan 2011
TELEGRAPH

Hosni Mubarak's grip on power was slipping on Thursday and momentum appeared to be shifting rapidly in favour of pro-democracy activists.

Undeterred by a violent police response and the deaths of at least seven people after three days of clashes in Cairo and other cities, organisers said they planned to make today's marches the biggest yet. Yesterday police shot dead a protester in north Sinai.

They were given a further boost after Mohamed ElBaradei, one of Mr Mubarak's fiercest critics, returned to Egypt from Vienna to join the protests, providing opponents of the regime with a potential figurehead to rally around.

Desperately trying to avoid a repeat of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolt, which saw President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali ousted from power earlier this month, Mr Mubarak's ruling party convened in emergency session.

The interior ministry declared on Thursday night it would take “decisive measures” against anyone protesting on Friday.

In a further blow to his attempts to retain the office he has held for nearly 30 years, sources in Egypt said Mr Mubarak, who is 82, was told by police commanders that any demonstration attracting more than 70,000 protesters could not be contained.

A page announcing Friday's protest on Facebook, one of the social networking websites that has played a leading role in mobilising opposition supporters, drew over 56,000 supporters in 24 hours.

However early on Friday morning, many internet connections went down across Cairo, leading some to accuse the government of cutting them to prevent social networking sites being used to coordinate protests.

While many of those are likely to stay at home, analysts say the regime's failure to break the protests will only embolden more Egyptians to join them. Yesterday, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood – Egypt's largest opposition group – also threw its support behind the protests, which have been mainly secular so far.

Its supporters could give the protests a major numerical boost.

"It's over, I think, for the Mubarak regime," said Maha Azzam, an Egyptian-born associate fellow at the think-tank, Chatham House.

"It may take a couple of months or longer, but I think there will now be a consistent challenge to him." If the police are unable to quell the demonstrations, Mr Mubarak will be left with no choice but to turn to the army. Although Egypt's generals have been unquestioning in their loyalty to the president, they may baulk at the prospect of ordering their troops to open fire at unarmed protesters and turn against him. It was the loss of the army's support in Tunisia that prompted Mr Ben Ali to flee.

"If there is a situation where they are forced to kill people, top generals will put their foot down," said Hisham Kassem, a prominent Egyptian publisher and analyst.
In what could be a sign of things to come, some army units in Suez, the eastern city that has seen some of the worst of the violence, reportedly refused orders to disperse protesters yesterday.

Seeking to escalate the pressure on the president, Mr ElBaradei, who is a former chief of the UN's nuclear watchdog, offered to lead a transitional government.
"If people, in particular young people, if they want me to lead the transition, I will not let them down," he said.

Although he has been a leading Western ally, Mr Mubarak was also facing growing international isolation as the United States and Britain both called on him to heed the grievances of his people by instituting reforms.

So far, there has been little sign that the president – who has not been seen in public since the protests began â " is listening.

His security forces have arrested nearly 1,000 people and injured hundreds. There were further deaths, too, as police shot dead a protester in Sinai yesterday, a region of the country that had previously been quiet.

The growing unrest has unnerved investors and the Cairo Stock Exchange was briefly forced to close after share prices fell by more than seven per cent. London-listed shares in gold miner Centamin Egypt and Egypt-focused Circle Oil also fell.

Where Goes Egypt?

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Egypt Arrests 19 Al-Qaida Suspects

VOA News 25 January 

Authorities in Egypt have arrested 19 people with suspected links to al-Qaida.

Egypt's interior minister said in an interview with the state-owned Al-Ahram daily on Tuesday that the group includes Tunisians and Libyans.

Habib al-Adly said the group was using Egypt as a transit point from which they would travel to Iraq to join al-Qaida groups there. He added that security forces had confiscated weapons and ammunition.

The interior minister did not say when or where the arrests occurred, but he added that the group was not behind a church bombing on New Year's Day that killed 23 people and wounded nearly 100 others in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria.

On Sunday, al-Adly announced that the government believes the church attack was carried out by the Army of Islam, a Palestinian group linked to al-Qaida.

The Army of Islam denied any involvement, in a swift response to the allegations.
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Egyptian protesters who took to the streets in their tens of thousands to demand an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule are regrouping and preparing for fresh demonstrations.
Violent clashes in the early hours of the morning in Cairo's central plaza, Tahrir Square, and reports suggest four people died in yesterday's protests, but opponents to the Mubarak regime appear undeterred.
It remains unclear as to how the scale of the protests will compare to yesterday (which was a national holiday) but the mood last night was defiant. Protesters had vowed to occupy Tahrir Square until the regime fell but were dispersed by security forces using tear gas, water cannon and firing on demonstrators, according to eyewitness accounts. Security forces have said they will not permit protesters to reassemble today.