Solidarity

Politico reports:

MADISON, Wis. — Someone in Egypt has been paying attention to what’s happening in Madison and wanted to send a message of solidarity from across the globe — so they ordered pizza.

It might seem like a small gesture, but it’s overwhelming to the staff at Ian’s on State Street — a campus staple mere blocks from the Capitol — where in the last few days, they’ve fielded calls from concerned citizens of 12 countries, and 38 out of 50 states looking to donate money to provide free pizza to the Wisconsinites who have congregated here.

Happy V-Day!

Anonymous Hacks the Hackers

One little-mentioned aspect of the Wikileaks saga is that it appears that from the beginning, t.p.t.b. have led the hacking offensive against WL and Anonymous – i.e., the US government and its contractors started trying to hack WL and Anonymous before Anonymous began any DDoS or other efforts in support of WL.

Here's the latest volley, from the category of don't start what you can't finish, apparently written by a recently outed Anon:

On the Saturday before last, an article appeared in Financial Times in which a certain Aaron Barr, head of US federal contractor HBGary Federal, claimed to have identified by name what he termed Anonymous's "leadership." [Anonymous] responded with a press release conceding defeat. The next day, our hackers infiltrated Barr's personal data as well as that of HBGary Federal and its parent company HBGary, thereafter releasing tens of thousands of company emails, as well as the very document that Barr had planned to sell to the FBI – a document that turned out to be both hilariously inaccurate and not-so-hilariously destined to get some undetermined number of innocents raided by government agents, despite them not having any connection to Anonymous whatsoever. We then released all of these materials ourselves, and in doing so revealed documents that included plans to collect information on the family members of political opponents of the US Chamber of Commerce, as well as a proposal to attack WikiLeaks and key supporter Glenn Greenwald by means of a range of unethical and possibly illegal tactics now being reported by media outlets world wide.

Much more at The Guardian. (Image by Espen Moe.)

Alan Dershowitz Advising Assange's UK Attorneys

. . . esp., re- First and Fourth Amendment issues; this is a good thing.

Mubarek Resigned.

I probably won't have time to invent this wheel myself, but I'd be v. interested in an informed comparison between the Egyptian revolution and the uprising in India led by Mahatma Ghandi.

Pictures of a Revolution

"Egyptian anti-government protesters sleep [between] the tires of a military tank stationed on Tahrir (Liberation) Square, which for the past two weeks has been the center of a sit-in protest by thousands of Egyptians demanding the government step down from power. Protesters created a human shield and barricades to fend off pro-Mubarak supporters from getting into the square and to prevent the military from an overnight attack to clear the square from the protesters." Photo by Laura El-Tantawy; more at burn.

Statement from the protesters in Tahrir here.

Egypt: Who's Getting to Talk; Etc.

Suddenly it's all about the Muslim Brotherhood – today, even AlJazeera was pre-occupied with news re- discussions between the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak's recently-appointed V.P., Omar Suleiman.

Mubarak wants it to be about the Muslim Brotherhood, and the US wants it to be about the Muslim Brotherhood; because they can each use the Muslim Brotherhood to scare their respective citizens into thinking the uprising is Islamic. And the Muslim Brotherhood isn't going to walk away from a place at the table when offered.

But the Muslim Brotherhood had little to do with this uprising. They didn't start it, and there have never been any Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Tahrir. The protesters as a whole don't consider that the Muslim Brotherhood represents them or has anything to do with what they want. The Muslim Brotherhood doesn't represent anyone except its own members, who constitute a minority both within and outside the square.

The protesters have elected their own representatives. And they and Nobel laureate Mohamed Elbaradei, who joined the protesters in the square early on, have refused to enter talks with Egyptian authorities unless Mubarak's immediate departure is agreed to (see here).

Meanwhile, the military has been trying to crowd the protesters into a smaller area surrounded by barbed wire. Today, entry to Tahrir was limited to one, single-file checkppoint, and the line of protesters seeking to join those already in the square extended half-way across Kasr El Nile Bridge. No cameras were being allowed in, and journalists continued to be obstructed, harassed, and detained.

And from Press TV, "[t]he US is sending warships, including one with 800 troops, and other military assets to Egypt as the revolution in the North African country gains momentum. Officials in Washington have stated that the move is to be prepared in case of an evacuation of Americans from Egypt." More likely, the US wants everyone to know it's positioned to intervene if necessary.

And The Guardian has a good article on the economic context:

Under sweeping privatisation policies, [Mubarak and his "clique"] appropriated profitable public enterprises and vast areas of state-owned lands. A small group of businessmen seized public assets and acquired monopoly positions in strategic commodity markets such as iron and steel, cement and wood. While crony capitalism flourished, local industries that were once the backbone of the economy were left to decline. At the same time, private sector industries making environmentally hazardous products like ceramics, marble and fertilisers have expanded without effective regulation at a great cost to the health of the population.

A tiny economic elite controlling consumption-geared production and imports has accumulated great wealth. This elite includes representatives of foreign companies with exclusive import rights in electronics, electric cables and automobiles. It also includes real estate developers who created a construction boom in gated communities and resorts for the super-rich. Much of this development is on public land acquired at very low prices, with no proper tendering or bidding.

It is estimated that around a thousand families maintain control of vast areas of the economy. This business class sought to consolidate itself and protect its wealth through political office. The National Democratic party was their primary vehicle for doing so. This alliance of money and politics became flagrant in recent years when a number of businessmen became government ministers with portfolios that clearly overlapped with their private interests.

More at the link. The high-rank military are part of this elite – in fact, the military owns much of the non-military economy.

And here's audio re- the roles played to-date by Facebook and Twitter, among other things.

Protesters

Photo at right taken 3 hrs. ago by Mahmoud M. Khattab in Tahrir Square.

Egypt Remembers is a website commemorating those killed in the protests.

Per a recent tweet, journalists trying to enter Egypt via the Cairo airport are being turned back. This regime does not understand the fundamentals of civilized society, let alone human rights, sufficiently even to fake it for the brief period needed until the world's attention turns elsewhere. It cannot possibly be entrusted with a transition to democracy.

Under US Plan, Egyptian Protesters to Be Thrown Under the Bus?

UPDATE: The BBC is reporting, "US special envoy Frank Wisner has said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should remain in power to oversee a transition to democracy." As I've mentioned, this would give Mubarak eight more months in which to track down and eliminate those who have opposed him, destroy evidence, further enrich himself and his friends, and otherwise improve his own position.

(At right, the banner lists the protesters' demands.)

Yesterday I caught part of a radio program on NPR, "To the Point," featuring Robert Springborg, Prof. of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, and Samer Shehata, Prof. of Arab Politics, Georgetown U., among others. Here's a rough transcript of remarks starting about 9 min. in:

Springborg: US negotiations are on track; its intent is to retain the Egyptian military in power, without Mubarak; but Frank Wisner's probably done what he was assigned to do, i.e. to come to terms with the military, because our intent is to retain the military in power. It would have been far better to open discussion with the opposition so as to legitimate them, but no doubt Pres. Obama instructed Wisner NOT to do that, and so as time goes by the opposition will become not only marginalized but they'll fear for their lives because they're being left in the lurch.

Q: But what about the idea of a civilian democracy?

Springborg: We didn't entertain that. To entertain that, Wisner would have had to publicly embraced the opposition, but he didn't do that. Ambassador Margaret Scoby held little sessions with them on the side but those were meaningless. The military will of course have some kind of civilian face, and so we saw Amr Moussa show up in Tahrir Square, who now when he's asked come elections can say he was there; and he's someone the military can live with. And he's Sec. General of the Arab League, and he's known to be someone who's had a bit of a tiff with Mubarak; so he's the most acceptable face that the military's going to allow.

Q: How can the Egyptian government get away with killing of the opposition?

Springborg: Just yesterday, security forces rounded up members of the Center for Legal Rights, from their office right on Tahrir Square, right out in the open, and they haven't been seen since. Two hours ago we were told, Mohamed Rashid has been arrested, passport taken, assets seized – a prominent, independent thinker with real integrity, opposed to some of the things the military's done. And if they can do this to these people, they can do it to anyone, and they will.

Q: Why would the US want the military to remain in power?

Springborg: Because they've done our bidding. We do not trust the pro-democracy protesters. What we see is fascist behavior by the military. Yet we are making it possible. We pledged continuation of foreign assistance to the military. Our Vice President has been speaking directly to the military, etc.; our lines of communication are entirely with them.

Next, Prof. Shehata agrees and adds his own thoughts, well worth listening to. (As of last night, you could hear the program online at the link above.) Springborg went into more detail in an article just brought to my attention, in Foreign Policy.

What Springborg and Shehata said rings only too true, given the otherwise unaccountable failure of the military to protect the protesters from Mubarak's hired thugs, among other things.

Re- the relationship between the US and the Egyptian military, see The Guardian.

So it seems El Baradei et al. never had a chance . . . and the US should probably offer asylum to the protesters, or at least to their leaders . . . but we won't, because that would be inconsistent with our denial of the truth, that we threw them – and their aspirations for democracy – under the bus. Does the US imagine that oppressed peoples of the world won't notice?

Meanwhile, the US cables published by Wikileaks say, "Egypt's military is in decline"; "sole criteria for promotion is loyalty"; "fire officers it perceives as being 'too competent.'"

Note that the US government is, from an Assange-ist p.o.v., conspiring with the Egyptian military insofar as both authorities are saying one thing to their people and doing something else.

One more thing: this does not mean I think it's hopeless to continue to support efforts toward democracy. One must of course know what one's up against; I believe many of the protesters do.

Nothing is inevitable, except defeat for those who give up without a fight. – "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1961), script by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett.