Egypt Critical News Update #27 Emergency Call for Support from Tahrir Square!

These were a series of tweets received earlier tonight (late night/early morn Cairo time) from activists that had been demonstrating against the government in Tahrir Square. Including Mona Seif, whose interview I published here a few issues ago.

The most disturbing thing as someone receiving and trying to air these, was the media blackout that came along with the attacks. Al Jazeera was MIA. It has been on Egypt for a while. The Egypt Live Blog has been dormid for days and is now actually not even found in AJ's blogs page. There were NO news networks there on the ground that we know of to report on these attacks. Hours later, AJ finally produced a report, this after tens of us bombarded their Libya live blog with pleas for Egypt coverage!

As a necessary footnote: The Libyan crisis has completely absorbed the news. All eyes are on Libya no matter what else is happening. A human tragedy indeed, but the US and the UK are also so hungry for Libya, they want Libya, and the media has again begun to beat their drums of war. This is Iraq all over again..The media is doing all they can to convince the public there should be nothing short of an "intervention"...Otherwise know as another imperialist invasion for oil and geopolitical control.

When only a few years ago, and in this same region, Israel murdered thousands of Palestinians and then thousands of Lebanese citizens, leveling Gaza, and bombing Lebanon's infrastructure into the dark ages, no one ever thought of intervening...Why? Should the UN also then not have intervened when the US was busy killing thousands of Iraqis? Where was the UN in Rwanda? where is the UN now in Afghanistan? How many civilians dead there every week?

So much blatant hypocrisy, deception and lies, makes it almost impossible to imagine how they can still package it and sell it to millions, but they do...

So...having gotten that off my chest, this is what was forwarded to me on 02-25-11 I believe the time of the tweets reflected here are US pacific. In Cairo, this was happening between 22:00 and 6:00

Mona Seif:
Military police prevented my mother passage to demo and encircled her
This is not good.
They are completely & tightly circled by military police. I can't get to them
Military police removing the tents in Tahrir square now
They threatened wt arresting ppl, ppl r leaving,I insisted I won't leave
wt out my family, I think I will be left alone
Screw them! Screw the military wt all its members! Screw them 4 not
tolerating ppl peacefully protesting
Number is dramatically decreasing by the parliament and military police
encircling the protesters
just received a testimony of a protester who was detained last week.
Beating up, electrocution, and special sexual harassment 2 girls
PLZ SPREAD: Masked ppl wt walkie talkies and machine guns along wt
military police in Tahrir square trying to shut down the strike
Let me be clear, the machine guns weren't used but they were obviously
there to intimidate ppl
They are dispersing ppl wt violence from Tahrir square, ppl r being
chased by military police

Mosa'ab Al Shami:

Keep up your brutality, Egyptian army. We'll be back in millions soon,
setting tents & barricades and finishing what we started.
25 February 2011 15:28
..
Rowan Al Shimi says:

I've been wondering all week why we still have curfew. Now I am sure
it's because they want an excuse to disperse protest.
25 February 2011 15:31

monasosh monasosh
Here we go again, they r pissed and they encircled us again #Jan25
1 minute ago

monasosh monasosh
The army is now asking ppl to leave, 1st nicely, then now angrily in the
mic
They released the detained, and the big shot army guy is apologizing and
hugging him!!!! #Jan25
1 minute ago

monasosh monasosh
They snatched 2 of us #Jan25
3 minutes ago

monasosh monasosh
Military police r threatening us now, they have orders to evacuate, ppl
should either leave or risk getting detained #Jan25
3 minutes ago

Rouelshimi Rowan El Shimi
For those saying these are rumours RT @ahramonline: Military police is
dispersing protesters by force in Tahrir Square. #Jan25
6 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

8 minutes ago
25 February 2011 15:48
Mona Seif tweets:

Beating and electric teasers , we've been evacuated
25 February 2011 15:52

kidnapped another we insisted we won't leave without him, young officer
was abusive then a bigger 1 came & shouted at them to get boy
25 February 2011 15:58

Mona Seif tweets:

We are safe, they released the boy, he was badly beaten up, his face was
bleeding
25 February 2011 16:09

Mona Seif:


We saw them kidnapping one on the side and kicking the crap out of
him,we'd scream &say they r beating him they say no they aren't.
25 February 2011 16:17

Note from Freedom4Yemen:


Today #AlJazeera Betrayed #Yemen protesters, it seems there is too much
Pressure from Gulf countries on them
25 February 2011 16:19
.
Mona Seif:

Some protesters are injured and on the street, @RamyRaoof and other
there sent out for medical help for them.
25 February 2011 16:48

Mona Seif:
Today both the military police & Army officers were less disciplined &
more abusive in their manners & threatening.
The irony of it is 5 mins b4 they beat us they staged a whole
sentimental show of army officer hugging 1 of the protesters
RT @JanoCharbel Army forcefully dispersed protest out Soldiers
punched,kicked,slapped me, clubbed me w/ an electric prod in face

Rowan Al Shimi:

Egyptian news channel "elmasria" has absolutely no news about #tahrir.
They are talking about Lybia.
25 February 2011 17:08

alaa Alaa Abd El Fattah
by moftasa
Military police used electric prods, thistime regular infantry joined in
the beating, many injuries #Jan25
25 minutes ago

alaa Alaa Abd El Fattah
by moftasa
Among the arrested: shadi el ghazaly harb a youth leader who was
involved in talks with the army, and taqadom el khatib a univ prof
#Jan25
27 minutes ago

alaa Alaa Abd El Fattah
by moftasa
The army showed its true face tonight using extreme violence to disperse
the two sitins and arresting many #Jan25
29 minutes ago

Mona Seif:

They released 2 of them, the remaining 4 they kept them, beat them bad &
now falsely accusing them of having a gun.
The guy they falsely accuse of having a gun,is the same guy whom they
beat earlier & released him to us bleeding.
25 February 2011 17:30

Muhammad Abdalfattah:

We were electrocuted, beaten, people passed out. Some sustained
injuries.
25 February 2011 17:38

Muhammad Effat:

Army attacked peaceful protesters using batons, electrifying sticks and
chased us down Al Qasr al eini holding machine guns!!
25 February 2011 17:40

Yusuf Al Kalay:

They are playing the same tricks Musharraf played in Pakistan back in
1999, stalling instead of ceding control over to civilians.
25 February 2011 17:47

Mona Seif:

Via @Maswad
tasered some1 as he was running,fell shaking on ground then
went motionless,heard them say get him,dont know where he is

Video of Army as they forcefully dispersed peaceful protesters in Tahrir
square  #Jan25




Mona Seif:

One of the detainees who was just released say they r detaining alot of
ppl. All are beaten up badly #Jan25
1 minute ago

Reminder:Protesters were out 2day becoz Shafik's Cabinet & emergency law
still exist,state security r back, detainees weren't released
25 February 2011 18:27

Mona Seif:

The army were extremely hostile,constantly threatening us wt detention
but they refrained coz we had an old woman wt us AKA My mother
25 February 2011 18:42

(Thanks to APIC (APICONG) for putting these together and forwarding them as they were receiving them for publishing. http://apicong.blogspot.com/)

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