3rd Week begins – and the movement grows

Days 14, 15 and 16 (February 7, 8 and 9) of the Egyptian uprising experienced some significant ‘turns’, in an ever developing context, that will likely have long lasting implications.

Since the beginning of the uprising, on the 25^th of January, a friend and I have been wondering, waiting, to know when and if the strikes would start. I tried numerous times to reach colleagues who were likely pushing for labor participation, but to no avail. And I waited. When the general strike that was called for the second week didn’t happen and the state instated a ‘back to normalcy’ façade this week, I knew that if the strikes were to be on, this would be the time. And it certainly is!

On Tuesday the 8^th the Suez Canal Company workers went on strike in several cities – Suez, Ismailia, Port Said. After 24 hours they were still striking. The next day thousands of factory workers go on strike – in Mahalla, Suez, Helwan. Egypt’s three independent unions organized a demonstration in front of the state-backed General Federation of State Unions. Also, court workers called strikes and sit-ins throughout Cairo.

Later on in the day the strikes appeared to have grown, with at least 6,000 in Cairo alone, including 3,000 national railways (ENR) employees, according to Al Jazeera English. More strikes are planned for today, including bus drivers. Labor now appears to be on board, and this will bring significant momentum to the opposition movement.

Also, significantly, Tuesday the 8^th, the 2^nd week anniversary of the uprising, witnessed was one of – if not the – largest showings in Tahrir. More than a million showed up. Demonstrators streamed in and out of the Square, all the way past the Qasr al-Aini bridge, past the Opera. Streams and streams of demonstrators, going to and from the Square. Standing in the street I felt such joy, with thousands of young people and families holding Egyptian flags and chanting and chatting. There was a festive atmosphere, with cars lining up on the Zamalek side of the Nile and horse carriages taking people for carriage rides.

News reports were that many people participated for the first time – especially in the spotlight, civil society workers including university professors.

One of the chief online protest organizers of the 25^th of January demonstrations, Wael Ghonim, who had disappeared during the first week of the uprising, was released from police custody the day before. In an interview on one of Egypt’s most popular television shows, Ghonim gives a sincere and passionate defense of the movement. Many are attributing his release and appearance to the huge turnout on Tuesday and widening support for the opposition.

His defense put a badly needed human face to the movement that has been systematically slandered by the state media and state officials. In the interview Ghonim repeated with such emotion that he and the others involved in the demonstrations are not traitors. Throughout his police detention the officers claimed that he was being influenced by outside forces, that someone was using him and others to infiltrate the Egyptian political scene and create instability. He repeated that they are not foreign spies, that they are doing this for Egypt, out of their love for Egypt.

It became so clear how damning the state propaganda has been in branding the opposition as traitors, as foreign spies, as selfish youngsters. The state media campaign has systematically tried to take away the dignity and respect of those involved. By the 2^nd week it became clear how much the state was resorting to these ‘othering’ tactics, as person after person and report after report claimed that the demonstrations were infiltrated by foreigners and that the demonstrators were destroying the economy. Even Vice President Suleiman publicly accused a combination of Hamas, Iran, Israel and the US for destabilizing Egypt. Western commentators seem to think that in this speech Suleiman was nonsensical, but in Egypt such conspiracy theories are rather believable.

Then, Suleiman made another statement condemning the demonstrators, stating that they were putting the country at risk of a “coup.” According to the Guardian, a large group of (unspecified) human rights organizations yesterday accused the Minister of Information, Anas al-Fiqqi, of being responsible for the death of protestors for accusing them of treason.

Before showing the audience pictures of demonstrators who have been killed, the TV interviewer with Ghonim stated to the audience that these pictures illustrate that those involved in the demonstrations are not looking to gain personally, reiterating Ghonim’s defense. When pictures of what they are calling ‘martyrs’ were shown, Ghonim completely broke down, as I did and I am sure many others. His last plea: It is not our fault that these young people have died, it is the fault of those who will not give up their power.

Ghonim is now considered by at least some to be the spokesperson for the demonstrators, and whether or not he will be, it is clear that his testimony has been crucial in breaking the ferocious state media campaign demonizing the opposition.

And the movement spreads. In Cairo demonstrators are now stationed not just in Tahrir Square but in front of the Parliament. New towns are being enveloped – Wadi Al-Jadid, in the southwest of the country.

Western Hypocrisy? The West and the Undemocratic

Let’s briefly recap on the US government’s response to the revolution in Egypt:

In the afternoon on the first day of the uprising, Tuesday the 25^th of January, the US Secretary of State confirms her faith in the stability of the Mubarak regime. Like most European government spokespeople, Hilary Clinton urges ‘restraint on both sides’.

The following day, after mass arrests and killings on the part of the police, US officials continue to maintain that Mubarak remains a close ally in the region. Later the same say, on Wednesday the 26^th, the Obama administration does an ‘about face’ and calls for quick reforms as the opposition in Egypt continues to grow and shows resolve.

Demonstrations continue throughout the country through the week, and on Sunday the 30^th the US acknowledges the need for a new government, and defends the US government’s record as a human rights defender and promoter of civil society in Egypt.

On Tuesday, February 1^st, the day of the “Million Man March” US diplomats meet with El Baradei, an opposition spokesperson. That day US President Obama urges Mubarak not to seek re-election in the presidential elections in September – a statement soon proceeded by an announcement from the Egyptian government that Mubarak’s second public statement will be televised later that night. In that statement Mubarak does none other than state clearly that he will not run, and was not planning to run, for re-election.

On the 2^nd of February, the day after what turned out to be a “march” of millions throughout the country, White House spokesperson Gibbs says that the administration was expecting the ‘transition’ in Egypt to happen yesterday (meaning the day of the Million Man March), not in September.

On Thursday, following twenty-four hours of clashes in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo that left at least 7 dead and hundreds wounded, the US announces that it is preparing a proposal for Mubarak to step down.

On Saturday and Sunday, the 5^th and 6^th of February, the US fumbles. White House officials throw their support behind Vice President Suleiman, and then distance themselves from the remarks of US envoy to Egypt, Frank Wisner, who stated support for Mubarak’s “continued leadership.”

These last thirteen days in Egypt perhaps reveal for some the hypocrisy of the US (and the Western world generally) as the image of the US as a defender and promoter of democracy and development shatters before a fumbling, reticent reaction to a mass democratic movement confronting an authoritarian Mubarak regime. Such hypocrisy on the part of the West has not only just become apparent of course, even in the West. And in the Majority World Western hypocrisy is known and has been known, although I must admit that I cease to be surprised by how many people I have met here and elsewhere in the Majority World/Global South who are blinded by the Western-sponsored human rights/civil society industry. If the hypocrisy is acknowledged, though, it is easily defended: For the sake of stability, security, peace.

The Mubarak regime held (as of a couple of days ago) the dubious position as a great Western ally in the region, ostensibly for keeping the peace with Israel. Israel came out publicly with its known worries that a change in the Egyptian government would lead to a government less ‘friendly’ to Israel, thereby seriously threatening Israel’s safety in the region. More than this, the US’s position is defended inside and outside of the pro-Israel US political arena on the grounds that the Mubarak regime, like the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, is secular and protects the large Christian minority in Egypt as well as the US and other Western countries against extremist Jihadists and their ‘reign of terror’.

The idea that authoritarianism promotes stability and security finds itself deeply embedded in the Arab world, a pervasive discourse promulgated by Arab states and internalized by populations – AND seriously challenged now as the Tunisian revolution has heralded a paradigm shift in ‘what is possible’ in the region. Not only Tunisia and Egypt, but as I write Jordan, Yemen and Algeria are experiencing major protest activity as populations en masse shed this disbelief and distrust in ‘others as themselves’. As Noam Chomsky has been arguing for years, this “disdain for the population” is a guiding principle of the US, domestically and internationally, and is glaringly reflected in the US and European Union’s publicly-declared narrow vision of ‘the desired’ in Egypt – free and fair elections. As members of the opposition in Egypt responded, their movement is much bigger than a desire for free and fair elections. This movement has much bigger dreams – and do we in the West? Have we not swallowed this false hallowed vision of democracy?

The revolution in Egypt not only plainly illustrates Western hypocrisy, but provides a valuable opportunity to understand the West’s role in building, promoting and maintaining undemocratic political orders throughout the world. Riding on the fear-provoking ideology (of instability and terror in the absence of a coercive authority) is the West’s underlying reason for supporting authoritarian and dictatorial regimes throughout the world: the perpetuation of an undemocratic socio-economic order premised on the West’s control over key resources (material, intellectual, genetic, strategic).

Central to this socio-economic order are the gamut of liberalization and privatization policies undemocratically pursued in countries like Egypt and part and parcel of the growth and spread of a vast military-industrial complex, which now can hardly be called “American.” As is documented and widely cited, the US has given billions in aid to Egypt in the last decades, mostly funneled to the military. But this “aid” has been in the form of loans that have added drastically to Egypt’s debt and benefited private US military contractors with a large, steady and dependent ‘market’. Since the dawn of the neoliberal era, in the mid-1970s, under Sadat’s “open door” policy American aid has led to the mushrooming of the Egyptian military, consolidating the military’s position as a prominent actor in all major sectors of the economy[1]. This has had the effect of creating a professional officer class, which has a strong presence in the ranks of the middle and upper-middle classes.

The last thirty years of neoliberalism have mushroomed the upper-middle class in Egypt, made up not only of military officers but of a politically powerful business class (often the two intersecting, as officers have used their patronage networks to consolidate business holdings). Liberalization and privatization policies have created monopolies and an extremely wealthy business elite that has propped up and enriched the Mubarak regime – as well as large profits for American and European businesses, particularly since the dawn of trade agreements and public-private partnerships. By as early as the 1980s, the US became the largest importer of goods into Egypt, and despite a jump in exports during the last five years, Egypt’s trade deficit has grown.

One clear marker of neoliberalism, the ‘revolving door’ between government and business, is alive and well in Egypt: For example, in 2004, under the Nazif administration, the head of Unilever Mashreq (a Middle East Foods and HPC (Home and Personal Care) Division of the Unilever Group International) became the Minister of Trade and Industry, Rachid M. Rachid. The Rachid family is one of the wealthiest and politically influential families in Egypt. Another well-known example is Ahmed Ezz, a steel monopoly tycoon, parliamentary member and former (as of last week) leading member of the ruling National Democratic Party.

The Mubarak regime’s peace alliance with Israel quickly reveals itself as a convenient business alliance. Of foreign agribusinesses operating in Egypt Israeli companies rank fourth in their country presence (of all countries with foreign agribusinesses operating), with ninety-eight companies as of May 2010[2]. And as was spotlighted on February 5 with the coordinated attack on the natural gas pipeline in the Sinai, supplying Israel and Jordan with gas, Egypt is a main supplier of natural gas to Israel.

The revolution in Egypt may be understood as the culmination of deepening discontent with a police state that has become the 1990s IMF “poster child,” following years of regular protests and sit-ins by Egyptian workers reduced to the working poor and the steady emergence of political reform movements (such as Kefaya and the National Coalition for Change). Deep anger and frustration have shown their faces clearly not just in Cairo and Alexandria, but in places like Suez, where vast profits generated from the Suez canal have not translated into local development, and Al-Arish in the North Sinai, where residents are not benefiting from large gas and tourism revenues generated locally.

One of the reported slogans of the demonstrations has been Bread! Freedom! Justice! Despite the media’s narrow focus on the Mubarak regime’s human rights violations, the political and civil reasons for the uprising cannot be separated from the social and economic. However, revealing is that one of the first responses to the uprising on the part of the regime was a quick shift from the business elite to the military elite at the top decision making posts in government. Mubarak brought in two military men to fill the post of Vice President and Prime Minister. And after sacking his Cabinet, the first declared measures of the new Cabinet were decidedly interventionist – an economic assistance package for the poor, price controls, continued subsidies.

Also, revealing is that Ahmed Ezz, who immediately left the NDP during the first days of the uprising and whose office was completely ransacked, was not allowed to flee the country. Reports also surfaced that the former Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid is not allowed to leave the country. And there has been lots of talk about Gamal Mubarak. He disappeared and then ‘reappeared’ this week only to resign from the NDP. Now the focus is on the timely release by the Guardian of the Mubarak family fortune, estimated to be as much as USD 70 billion[3]. The family used their position within the military and then later in political office to accumulate wealth, often in deals with western companies.

As long as the financial system is running and Western corporations are profiting and Western ‘expertise’ is respected and sought after, in order to maintain its control over markets, the West will continue and change their support for foreign governments. At a time of uprising, though, it is not clear in which direction “security” will be maintained – “security” meaning the maintenance of the Western-sponsored socio-economic order that privileges large businesses and a global consumer class, and spawns widespread state repression and corruption. Hence, the US government vacillates and contradicts. Rather than being merely hypocritical, its role as the maintainer of an unjust, hierarchical and deeply undemocratic global order becomes known.

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[1] Mitchell, T. 2002. Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[2] GAFI (General Authority for Foreign Investment) internally-circulated document

[3] Inman, P. 2011. Mubarak family fortune could reach $70bn, say experts. Guardian, 4 February. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/04/hosni-mubarak-family-fortune [Accessed on 6 February 2011].

Days 8 and 9

Days 8 and 9

Tuesday the 1^st of February is the Million Man March. The opposition planned for protestors to convene at Tahrir Square and then to march to the presidential residence in Heliopolis, but this did not happen. Reports were that 100 tanks were lining the main street leading to the residence and that it was heavily guarded. March organizers decided not to take the March through so many road blocks – a march that would be largely symbolic anyway since the president is likely not at his residence in Heliopolis.

By early afternoon hundreds of thousands – Al Jazeera English was reporting perhaps as many as two million – demonstrators show up in and around Tahrir Square. Protests surface against the US and West’s silence.

The state closes the train network in order to stop people from entering Cairo. And demonstrators in Tahrir protect their demonstration, in coordination with the army, by setting up cordons on all routes leading into the Square. They organize to stop pro-regime demonstrators and secret police from entering.

Millions protest in other cities throughout Egypt – in Alexandria, Mansoura, Damanhour, Suez, Tanta, Sinai. 250,000 are reported to join demonstrations in Al-Arish, the city in North Sinai. Hospitals in Alexandria are reported to be overwhelmed.

International ‘monitors’ come out with total numbers of those who have died in the uprising thus far: Human Rights Watch confirm that at least 129 have died, the UN High Commission apparently announces that more than 300 have died.

On Tuesday there are conflicting numbers circulating – of the actual numbers of protestors in Cairo and throughout Egypt, and of the total number who have died since the 25^th of January when the revolution began.

El Baradei makes a public threat: Mubarak must resign before Friday. And he reportedly meets with US Ambassador to Egypt Scobey and another US visiting diplomat (name?).

The IMF warns of devastating inflation, while the Finance Minister announces an economic assistance package for needy Egyptians and a temporary hold on taxes on food imports, among other interventionist measures.

Today fears seem to circulate around the potential transition and a new government run by the Muslim Brotherhood. An Israeli diplomat (former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt) is interviewed on an international news network and confirms that there is much worry in Israel concerning events in Egypt. He asserts that Egyptians are not ready to govern themselves democratically, and if Mubarak steps down ‘suddenly’ Egypt will be destabilized.

Sometime later in the day it is announced that Obama is urging Mubarak not to seek re-election in presidential elections, scheduled for December. And then it is announced that Mubarak will give a public speech, to be televised later at night.

At around 11 at night Mubarak’s second speech to the nation is broadcast, and he declares that more concessions will be made to address the protestors’ concerns. The parliament will review articles of the constitution, the regulatory committee will investigate ‘irregularities’ in the last parliamentary elections (in November), and he will in fact not seek re-election in this year’s presidential elections. He was not in fact planning to run for re-election anyway, but now he is promising to ensure a peaceful transition following the presidential elections.

He makes it clear to the Egyptian people: You have a choice between chaos and stability. He has reached out to the opposition but they are refusing to be in dialogue. The protestors are unfortunately being “manipulated by political forces.” And in the midst of all of the unrest he as their president has taken immediate steps to restore calm, stability and security. He repeated over and over that in his few remaining months in office he will work with all opposition parties to ensure a peaceful transition to a new government.

He ended by emphasizing his many years of service and the sacrifices he made in defense of its soil. And he asserted that he will die on its soil.

Protestors in Tahrir were generally unhappy stating that this is not enough. Predictions are quickly made that a split would form, between those who want to keep Mubarak to his word and those who want Mubarak and those who are a part of his regime to leave immediately. And in the early morning hours clashes between anti-regime and ‘pro-regime’ protestors began in Tahrir. Opposition protestors apparently beat the pro-regime protestors, one among them severely.

However, by 10 the next morning, on Wednesday the 2^nd, everything in and around Tahrir, in downtown Cairo, seemed fairly calm. We walked around, many people were talking. Many were occupying the square. Women and men, young and middle aged, were entering the Square, some with food for the protestors. We talked to a number of people on the street, all expressing a wish that Mubarak stay until his term is ended, under the assumption that he fulfill his promises.

The Ministry of Defense tells people to go home. Their demands have been met and internet is restored (for the first day since last Thursday). Although phones have been back on for the last few days, instant messaging services have not resumed. That day, “EgyptLovers” sends an instant message calling on people to participate in a massive pro-Mubarak rally – obviously a group from the regime, using its control over the mobile companies to send instant messages to the companies’ customers.

We knew then that sentiments were splitting even among the demonstrators. And by early afternoon violence erupted in and out of the Square. Pro-regime ‘thugs’ got into the Square with camels and horses, posing as opposition demonstrators, only to unleash on the protestors inside with sticks, knives, pistols and Molotov cocktails. Clashes erupted in and out of the Square as ‘gangs of Mubarak’ harassed and beat up demonstrators and pedestrians, and used the cocktails.

The international community responds to the violence. Evidence emerges that the organized thugs who have unleashed violence in downtown Cairo are from or sponsored by the government. One report apparently from captured ‘thugs’ is that they were offered a 5,000 LE reward if they take over the Square. Another report is that they were from an Alexandria prison and the police offered them a release if they stormed the Square to break up the protest. Still other reports seem to be surfacing.

A White House spokesperson comes out and says that the White House was expecting the ‘transition’ to happen yesterday, not in September.

Violence continues throughout the night. The army does not intervene. By Thursday morning 7 people have died in Tahrir and 830 are reported injured.

The First Week of The Egyptian Revolution

These entries are day by day accounts of the uprising in Egypt that began on the 25^th of January. They are select and not comprehensive – and do not include much of an analysis, which will hopefully come later. Since I am based in Cairo and did not have access to Internet for the seven days recorded here (and the entry to be added above), the daily accounts are based on television reports and eyewitness accounts (either of my own, my friends or friends of friends). Therefore, not all of this information can be considered ‘confirmed’ as a report. Please feel free to add to and correct what I have written.

There seems to be a wave in the protest activity – intense demonstrations one day, continued but simmered down demonstrations the next, a resumption of major protest activities the day after, so on and so forth. And the same goes for the emotions – a wave of undulating emotions – fear, hope, anger, elation.

On Friday, the 28^th of January, protestors call for a million plus demonstration. And it is massive. The police respond with force and after the nightfall some protestors even died in Tahrir Square. There are clashes between protestors and the police throughout the day and night. Police installations – stations, posts, vehicles – seem to be the main targets of protestors. In our neighborhood major clashes break out between protestors and the police in front of the Dar El Salaam police station, down the street from our building. Protestors attack the police station, using what seems like petrol bombs to set the building on fire and smashing the windows of the station. Protestors charge the station with sticks, glass, stones – and then retreat when police respond. It sounds as if police are responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.

At some point in the night the police are disbanded and the army comes in to take their place. At around 3 in the morning Mubarak gives a public, televised speech stating that he will create a new government. He fires his Cabinet, including the prime minister, and tries to distance himself from the police, stating that he and his army will protect the people.

The next day, Saturday the 29^th, in the morning we go down to the streets to see the destruction. There is debris all over, some evidence of blood spilt, some vandalism (an ATM machine, for instance) and four or five tanks stood in front of the battered police station. The station had been burning on both sides of the building, the glass windows in front are all smashed. People stand in front of the soldiers and tanks and take pictures. There is a feeling of anxiety, anticipation, and hope in the air.

Reports throughout the country are that people are embracing the military – giving flowers to soldiers, kissing soldiers. Demonstrators begin to chant that the people and the military are hand-in-hand.

Mubarak signs in a vice president, Omar Suleiman, head of intelligence and key negotiator with Israel, and then appoints a new prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, former air chief. Both are military men. On Saturday reports also surface that eighteen prominent businessmen fled Egypt on private jets. The rumor is that among them was a nineteenth businessman, Ahmed Ezz, the steel magnate and prominent member of the ruling National Democratic Party, who the day before quite the NDP and was not permitted to leave the country. These developments clearly signal a shift from the business elite to the military in decision making ranks – a shift from the (false and failed) promise of neoliberal economic dreams to the (again, false) promise of stability and security by the military.

Fears of looting gangs begin to surface. Reports surface of looters/vandalizers in different parts of Cairo. There is repeated television footage in both the state and international media of the Egyptian Museum after it had supposedly been ransacked, with soldiers ‘performing’ as guards inside the Museum. It was so obviously staged by the Ministry of Antiquities, with the Minister claiming that men came into the Museum through the roof looking for gold. Instead, they randomly destroyed artifacts. There was no evidence that the ‘looters’ had actually looted anything.

A Ministry of Defense spokesperson addresses the public in a televised address, telling them to stay inside and observe the second day of curfew. He assures the public that the military will protect the people from looters, but he urges young people to be vigilant in protecting their families and neighborhoods throughout the night. And that is exactly what neighbors did that night – they set up popular committees to ‘secure the peace’—setting up road blocks with anything they could find, taking shifts throughout the night to keep watch over the streets and securing themselves with sticks.

Apparently 6,000 prisoners ‘escaped’ from a prison just outside of Cairo, and reports later surfaced of prisoners from other jails throughout Egypt escaping or trying to escape. The authorities dismantled the police and then apparently left the prisons ‘unguarded’, although there are mixed reports of how ‘unguarded’ they actually were. Repeatedly television news networks report that prisoners are on the loose and heading into Cairo.

And that night on Al Jazeera English there are ‘confirmed reports’ that a group of neighborhood vigilantes captured ‘would-be looters’ in Heliopolis, an upscale neighborhood of Cairo, and found security service IDs on them. Public suspicion begins to surface that the security services are behind this, as ‘criminal gangs’ and their relations with the police throughout Egypt are not unknown; plus, demonstrators in Tunisia were similarly confronted with a government strategy to vandalize select places and cause panic and fear among the public.

On Sunday, the 30^th, the opposition creates a 10-person committee for a ‘transitional government’. The committee is composed of different opposition parties (including El Baradei’s National Coalition for Change, the leftist Nasser Party, the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the youth leading the protests online, among others). The Muslim Brotherhood comes out to publicly support El Baradei as ‘spokesperson’ for the opposition, and El Baradei comes out to join the protestors in Tahrir Square and speaks before them, rallying the cause of the opposition.

Protests continue not just in Cairo but throughout Egypt – in Port Said, Suez, Alexandria, among other smaller cities. The main demand of the protests on Sunday continued to be Mubarak out! إرحل مبارك, mimicking the protestors in Tunisia.

The curfew is extended by one hour, starting at 3pm not 4pm. Demonstrating its control even more, at the time of curfew the military flies fighter jets over downtown Cairo (including Tahrir Square), so low that the entire area shakes. Following the fighter jets is a presidential helicopter, flying even lower over the crowds, only to then fly away.

Mubaraks first directive to the new Prime Minister Shafiq is to cut inflation, cut prices and keep subsidies!

On Sunday the United States government is being more vocal about the need for a new government, and that it prefers any democratic government except one dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Obama and Clinton begin to defend the US’s position to Egypt vis-à-vis the regime’s human rights violations.

Fears of a financial crisis – a run on the banks – loom. The banks and stock exchange are closed and will continue to be.

Fears continue of nighttime raids by ‘looters’ and ‘escaped’ prisoners. Television reports show government offices, shops and offices being ransacked. One of the main offices of Ahmed Ezz, the steel magnate and NDP stalwart, is completely dismantled. The commercial heart of Mohandiseen – with its many regional and international food and clothes shops – is also heavily ransacked.

Gunshots are heard throughout the night, into the early morning. In our area, where we were staying, the shots likely came from the nearby, local prison. Accounts from one neighborhood vigilante are that the army and prisoners were clashing; as prisoners tried to escape the prison the army lambasted the prisoners within. Some prisoners who escaped are severely beaten (one to death) by the army, and then taken to the military prison. The vigilante believes that the rest of the prisoners stuck inside were likely killed.

Other (word of mouth) non-television news is of prisoners escaping from prison after being stuck inside with no food for three days. People were helping the prisoners by feeding and clothing them.

We were expecting the police to come back to Cairo on Monday, the 31^st, as the Ministry of Interior called for the police to return to their posts the day before, but it appears that only the traffic police returned to key intersections in the downtown area, as they were not spotted in other areas of the city.

Protests in Cairo seem to remain calm throughout the day, but in Alexandria things heat up. Apparently, the army gets involved (‘firing into’ the crowds?), and Marshall Law is imposed in the city. A “million man” march is called for on Tuesday, headed by the youth April the 6^th movement. The opposition reject the new Cabinet that has been appointed and is seen on television meeting with President Mubarak.

Israel begins to speak out about events in Egypt, expressing concerns. Netanyahu gives a public address supporting Mubarak. The Israeli government gives the go-ahead for Egypt to move tanks into (North?) Sinai.

There appear to be rumors circulated by the Egyptian state that non-Egyptians are behind the vandalism and looting. US media as well as Egyptian state television are circulating these rumors. One in the US television media is that Iraqis are coming into Egypt to infiltrate the demonstrations. Another in the US internet media was of Bedouins taking over a police installation, stealing weapons, and charging onto Cairo to take over the government. Egyptian state media is pressing that those creating ‘havoc’ are non-Egyptian (possibly tied to Al Qaida, hence the Iraqi rumor?).

Fears of food shortages generate intense momentum on Monday. News reports of food shortages spark fears and fears spark long bread lines, shortages of tomatoes – and yet, prices appear to be relatively stable.