Egypt Military Beats Protesters, Fires Shots

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Egypt military beats protesters, fires shots
CAIRO | Fri Apr 8, 2011 10:04pm EDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - Military police dispersed hundreds of protesters remaining in Cairo's Tahrir Square from of the biggest demonstrations since Hosni Mubarak was ousted using tasers and batons late on Friday night, a witness said.

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied during the day to pile pressure on the interim military rulers to meet demands including the prosecution of Mubarak.

But after the curfew, set from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m., military police and state security officers surrounded the square, fired shots in the air, used tasers and batons and arrested protesters to break up the crowd, a witness told Reuters by telephone.

"They are moving in on us with very aggressive force, I can see people running in every direction," Mohamed Fahmy, 29, said, while the sound of screaming and gun shots, which he said were fired by the police into the air, sounded in the background.

Read more: http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE73754M20110409?WT.tsrc=Social%20Media&ca=rdt

[aquart]

1. Who wasn't expecting this?

[villager]

2. "Get on my knees and pray... We don't get fooled again!"

n/t

[Purveyor]

3. Amazing to me that the 'west' ever thought they could reinstall a 'puppet gov't' in any of these ME

countries.

[AndyTiedye]

5. I Don't Know Why We'd Bother Installing another Puppet in Egypt

Egypt hasn't got any oil, and all sides there are committed to peace with Israel.

[Purveyor]

6. "and all sides there are committed to peace with Israel." Not the last I read out of Egypt. eom

[sabrina 1]

8. Why? Because the 'new' Egypt is planning on restoring

friendly ties with Iran after 30 years.

[melm00se]

11. suez canal

without the Suez canal ships have to travel a much farther way than with it.

it's a vital choke point.

we invaded panama for the same reason protect a strategic canal.

[No Elephants]

12. The Egyptian military is not our puppet?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. What? Mubarek is back in power?

Or, no, wait .... this is the guys that we backed.

Damn, we're good at jumping into mideast affairs, and at picking which horse to back.

[sabrina 1]

9. No, we did not back these guys. The revolution was the first step

as all those involved said repeatedly. These are the remnants of the old regime which was very big and it will take time to dismantly it. The people of Egypt know they cannot stop what they were doing, which is why they still go to Tahrir Square every week to make sure that the changes they fought for and many died for, actually happen.

The fight to accomplish that is just beginning, but I have faith in those people. The can cross 'dictator out' off their list, now they have a long list of other issues to take care of, one of them being the top brass in the military.

So far though, they have accomplished a lot. They had their first free election a couple of weeks ago. There are no more 'secret police' checking everyone when they fly anymore and many of them have reported on the incredible sense of freedom they feel just being able to go places without government harassment.

However, they cannot stop what they started out doing, and they don't intend to. They are very aware that they will have to be super vigilent, and as these events show, the are right about that.

[joshcryer]

10. Hey, that sounds a whole lot like another Arab country...

...that was fucking thrown under the bus around here. :puke:

Not saying I disagree with you, of course.

[sabrina 1]

18. It's very different since there never was any doubt about

Egypt's top military generals. The revolutionaries know how wealthy they are, how much they were a part of the problem and how later, they would have to deal with them also.

The rank and file of the Egyptian military were not a part of that.

And no one threw Libyan revolutionaries under the bus. They are being used mostly by outside forces, and once that became apparent, many people became concerned for their safety, now many of them realize it themselves.

[joshcryer]

20. But the Libyan's can have their revolution coopted but the Egyptians can't?

:puke:

[sabrina 1]

22. The Egyptians knew their revolution could be coopted, and they

never expected it to be over with the removal of Mubarak, which is why they are still revolting. They are very organized and are as expected, in constant conflict with the remnants of the regime. It may take years to rid the country of all of them, but the revolutionaries were realistic about that.

As they said from the start, the removal of Mubarak was 'just the beginning'. They were not armed, are still not armed, another difference. 500 or more were killed before Mubarak was persuaded to step down.

Today, two people were killed in Tahrir Square in Egypt. Tens of thousands of people had gone there yesterday to sit in once again to protest the fact that the police and certain members of the military were still operating as if there had been no revolution.

They are going to have elections shortly and they want the military, who are temporarily in charge, out after that. Also, they have people with experience ready to run for office.

As one of them said recently 'the Dictator is gone, but the Dictatorship is still here' and that is their next goal, dismantling the dictatorship.

[No Elephants]

14. Our military and pols were all over the media, praising the Egyptian military,

saying how many members of the Egyptian military had attended West Point and saying we had lines of communication with them and were therefore able to keep them from hurting the demonstrators. And our corporate media fell in line, showing military and demonstrators sharing food and beverages and so on.

[sabrina 1]

17. Yes, and they were correct. But they were not talking about

the rank and file, they were talking about the Generals. None of the revolutionaries were unaware of the difference nor of the fact that they would have to deal with them also once Mubarak was gone. They had no illusions about the top Generals, and anyone following the story knows that.

[riderinthestorm]

19. The US isn't going to allow anyone near the Egyptian power controls who isn't friendly to Israel

The top military brass knows that and knows that even if Mubarak were allowed to be deposed, the US (and Israel) will ensure loyalty to the peace accords.

I think the Egyptian people are facing an extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible climb. Perhaps the Egyptian military junta will take some reforms to heart...



...but I'm not counting on it. When the women's day protest ended so badly, and people were stoned trying to vote recently, and the military let it all slide by indicates that the same old bullshit leadership is going to keep the status quo imho.

[sabrina 1]

23. I am sure that the Western powers are backing the military

generals and hoping to get a friendly government 'elected'. However, Egypt has restored friendly relations with Iran after thirty years of backing the U.S. in relationship to that country. So, that is a good sign, imo. They are not totally coopted so far.

It will be hard, there is too much at stake for the old colonialists. No doubt the U.S. will try to get a friendly government, and they will urge reforms as they know that if it returns to the way it was, the country will become completely unstable as the people will not accept that.

But, I agree with you, there are many forces working against them. As far as Israel, the revolutionaries want to retain friendly relations with everyone, but they will probably want to recognize Palestine also. It could get very interesting. The U.S cannot control every country in the world, and this reminds me very much of what happened in South America not so long ago. They seem to have succeeded in extricating themselves finally from the Global Capitalist influences. Not that they still don't try to destabalize those countries either, it is always hard work to keep the greedy, capitalists at bay and they have to be ever vigilant, but so far they are doing okay.

If it was just one country, I would be more concerned, but the whole world is sick of these interfering western powers and while the odds may seem to be against them, when people decide en masse, that they've had enough, the human spirit can be a powerful force that even Empires have been unable to stop.

[tahrir]

7. Meet the 'New' Boss

the elite were very clever to throw Mubarak under the bus but perserve the military institution, by creating the drama of Mubarak refusing to go, and then the military riding in to 'save' the day, to thunderous applause.

so sad.

[BOG PERSON]

16. not so clever imo

by taking mubarak out of the picture (no public humiliation, no show trial, no nothing) they effectively took away the buffer of blame that existed between the army and the rest of the population. now there's nobody left to blame but the army.

[MisterP]

21. just like Menem, João Figueiredo, José Sarney nt

[FLPanhandle]

13. Mubarak was only a frontman for the military anyway.

The Egyptian "revolution" left the real leaders still in charge.

[Baclava]

15. Seems so - the military junta controls the tanks now

Anger flares at Egypt army for lethal protest raid

CAIRO – Demonstrators burned cars and barricaded themselves with barbed wire in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, demanding the resignation of the military's chief Saturday hours after troops violently dispersed a protest there, killing at least one and injuring 71.



In the pre-dawn raid on the square, hundreds of soldiers beat protesters with clubs and fired into the air in the square, highlighting the rising tensions between protesters and the military leaders whom they praised in Tahrir two months ago when President Hosni Mubarak fell from power.

Several thousand protesters, some armed with sticks and other makeshift weapons, had moved back into the square by Saturday afternoon. They vowed not to leave until the defense minister, Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, resigns. Tantawi, a Mubarak appointee, leads the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which rules Egypt now and is made up of the military's top generals.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110409/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt