New York Times: Mubarak seems to have decided to crack down on the democracy movement using thugs.

[Better Believe It]

The View From Tahrir
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
February 2, 2011

Today President Mubarak seems to have decided to crack down on the democracy movement, using not police or army troops but rather mobs of hoodlums and thugs. I’ve been spending hours on Tahrir today, and it is absurd to think of this as simply “clashes” between two rival groups. The pro-democracy protesters are unarmed and have been peaceful at every step. But the pro-Mubarak thugs are arriving in buses and are armed — and they’re using their weapons.

In my area of Tahrir, the thugs were armed with machetes, straight razors, clubs and stones. And they all had the same chants, the same slogans and the same hostility to journalists. They clearly had been organized and briefed. So the idea that this is some spontaneous outpouring of pro-Mubarak supporters, both in Cairo and in Alexandria, who happen to end up clashing with other side — that is preposterous. It’s difficult to know what is happening, and I’m only one observer, but to me these seem to be organized thugs sent in to crack heads, chase out journalists, intimidate the pro-democracy forces and perhaps create a pretext for an even harsher crackdown.

I have no idea whether this tactic will work. But the idea that President Mubarak should make the case that he is necessary for Egypt’s stability by unleashing violence and chaos on his nation’s youth — it’s a sad and shameful end to his career. And I hope that the international community will firmly denounce this kind of brutality apparently organized by the government.

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/the-view-from-tahrir/

[hlthe2b]

1. to their credit, most MSM are reporting these thugs as Mubarak's

and quite a few have pinpointed them as being part of Mubarak's security forces.

[Better Believe It]

3. When their correspondants are being threatened and attacked they have to!

But, it's good they are reporting this.

[applegrove]

4. Good that the real story came out at almost the same time as the violence errupted.

Sometimes I love me the internet and insta-news.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Thats the backwards part and downward spiral of a security state.

It creates a thought of the need for what it says it fights, and becomes what it is against.

Violence and suppression is wrong, if an agenda is correct, then people can learn what that agenda is and they will agree with it.

Hence why the consolidations are a problem, since anyone that sees them knows they are unjust, and they create the need for the security state that uses bad means to stop the corrections to those wrongs.

And to keep people from seeing the injustice that can be corrected, numbing and dumbing down the people, and secrecy is used with deception. Hence why transparency is better, but it is hard to find a lover that wont blow your cover, since lovers also stand for justice and compassion.