"[The] country of more than 80 million has become a free-for-all for criminals and.... has made some nostalgic for Mubarak days."
Yeah, as if THEY were NOT a BAND of TORTURING, LOOTING, MURDERING CRIMINALS!!
I'm sorry, dear readers, I am simply finding the propaganda paper too much these days.
I think you can sense that.
Sect members, villagers clash in Egypt
Let me take a wild guess: Christian vs. Muslim
CAIRO — Members of an ultraconservative Muslim sect clashed with villagers south of Cairo over demands that a liquor store and coffee shops be closed, officials said yesterday, a sign of the increasing assertiveness of the fundamentalist Salafi movement....
Yeah, yeah, we all know if Israel doesn't approve of your dictator you are a terrorist.
Salafis were tolerated as a religious group under ex-President Hosni Mubarak to counterweight Mubarak’s top foe, the Muslim Brotherhood group but have gained power as they rise to play a more political role....
Sometime democracy is good, sometimes it ain't.
That has alarmed many of the secular and liberal forces in Egypt because of the group’s extremist discourse and imposition of Islamic Sharia law.
Booga-booga-booga!!!
Dozens of Salafis also staged a protest yesterday in Cairo, accusing a Coptic church of abducting Camilla Shehata, a Coptic priest’s wife who some believe converted to Islam and is being held against her will. Salafis also have accused the police of collaborating with the church by handing Shehata over to church authorities. The woman’s whereabouts are unknown.
Did I call it, or did I call it?
Such protests were held almost weekly by the Salafis over the summer as they accused the Coptic Church of conspiring to “Christianize’’ Egypt, but they largely stopped after a bombing on New Year’s Day outside a Coptic church in Alexandria killed 21 people.
See: Cryptic Attack on Coptic Church
Actually, the propaganda is getting easier to see through because it is so outrageous.
Egypt to vote on a president by November, military says
Amid intense debate about the identity of new Egypt, the new constitution emphasized Egypt’s Islamic identity by stating in Article 2 that the state religion is Islam and the principle of the Islamic Sharia law is the main source of legislation....
Translation: Egypt is now a fundamentalist state.
Israel must have really loved Mubarak.
You know what is me and them, dear readers:
In Egypt, as many as 50,000 people filed into Cairo’s now-celebrated Tahrir Square for a demonstration that had been billed as a “million-man march.’’ Their goal, leaders said, was to “rescue the revolution’’ and protest what many here regard as an attempt to block genuine change following the Feb. 11 ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
But they are nostalgic for him!!
--more--"
Gunmen kidnapped a grandniece of Anwar Sadat and demanded a ransom. In one southern city, robbers didn’t bother to wait until dark to target pedestrians. In another, a brawl between two schoolchildren led to a gunbattle that killed five.
A police state barely three months ago, Egypt has seen crime soar 200 percent since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster from the presidency. Murder, violent theft, and kidnapping are leading the surge, security officials said.
In many ways, this country of more than 80 million has become a free-for-all for criminals taking advantage of a weakened police force and political uncertainty. The spike in crime has made some nostalgic for Mubarak days, when the mostly corrupt and now discredited police force used torture, intimidation, and blackmail to keep crime in check.
Aren't those crimes?
Yeah, the Egyptians want that all back, uh-huh.
Hey, if you live in New England and read the flagship it is what you are getting as "news."
The uptick in crime is part of a broader climate of anxiety and uncertainty gripping Egypt in the post-Mubarak era.
For who? Israel?
The youth groups behind the uprising fear that the generals who took charge from Mubarak are reluctant to dismantle the former president’s legacy. They are frustrated over their lack of action five months ahead of a parliamentary election.
Yeah, didn't the French have to go through like five interim governments before they got it right?
The removal of Mubarak has also allowed militant Islamist groups to operate openly, feeding tensions with the country’s Christian minority and moderate Muslims.
There they go again, cui bono?
This after they all joined hands to get rid of the ogre Mubarak.
The persistent security vacuum in Egypt is the product of a chain of events associated with the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak’s regime on Feb. 11. Three days into the revolt, the police withdrew from the streets in still-unexplained circumstances following deadly clashes with protesters in Cairo and across much of the nation.
Yeah, it's all those damn Egyptians fault, what with wanting their freedom and all.
This stuff is rank, readers!
Last month, new Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy dissolved the country’s hated State Security agency, a key demand of the youth groups behind the uprising.
And because of that we have chaos and crime?
--more--"
Let the nostalgia flow:
Egypt’s protesters stepped up their challenge to the country’s ruling military yesterday, as tens of thousands massed to demand it prosecute ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his family for alleged corruption, and a smaller group tested the army’s tolerance with a march on Israel’s embassy.
Okay, that LAST ONE has to raise SHOCK WAVES in Israel! Now you understand the "terrorists are taking over" slant to the coverage.
As for the "nostalgia" for Mubarak, I suppose some could see it that way.
:-)
Yeah, they are "nostalgic" all right.
The mass rally in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square was the biggest by protesters in weeks, and hundreds remaining there shortly before midnight said they were planning to camp out overnight.
Seems like it is starting over.
A smaller group of more than 1,000 marched on the Israeli Embassy, angered by strikes on the Gaza Strip yesterday, and pushed for Egypt’s new rulers to close the mission and stop Egypt’s natural gas exports to Israel.
Why are they exporting gas to them in the first place?
And God bless the Egyptians for getting out there regarding Gaza.
The march was the first significant anti-Israeli demonstration since Egypt’s upheaval began nearly three months ago, and it was an unusual test of the military, which took power after Mubarak’s ouster on Feb. 11.
Everyone has to suck up to Israel, huh?
The generals have promised Egyptians greater freedom of expression but at the same time have sought to reassure Israel and the United States that the fall of Mubarak would not mean an anti-Israeli turn in Egypt’s foreign policy.
Related: Egyptians Awake
Yeah, they know.
Mubarak’s security forces strictly prevented protests from getting close to the Israeli embassy, located in a residential building overlooking a bridge over the Nile.
And he helped strangle Gaza for so long.
Soldiers yesterday allowed the demonstration to get nearer than others, to a checkpoint yards from the building. At the same time, officers at the checkpoint tried to convince the crowd to disperse....
Israel can not be happy about this.
--more--"
The mask comes off the military:
"Raid on Egypt protest camp fuels anger; In Libya, 8 killed in fierce fighting; Syria strife rages" April 10, 2011|By Maggie Michael, Associated Press
CAIRO — Thousands of demonstrators barricaded themselves in Cairo’s central square with burned-out troop carriers and barbed wire yesterday and demanded the removal of the military council ruling Egypt, infuriated after soldiers stormed their protest camp overnight, killing at least one person and injuring 71 others.
In a sign the confrontation could escalate, the military warned last evening that it will clear Tahrir Square of protesters “with all force and decisiveness’’ for life to get back to normal.
That is why they were out there, dunderheads!
The warning could presage a repeat of the scene before dawn yesterday, when hundreds of soldiers, including a highly trained parachute unit, swarmed into Tahrir Square, firing in the air and beating protesters with clubs and shocking some with electrical batons.
I'm waiting for Obama to clear his throat and bomb.
Troops dragged away protesters, while others staggered away bleeding from beatings and gunshot wounds. Witnesses reported two killed, though the Health Ministry insisted there was only one death.
“It was like a horror movie,’’ said Mohammed Yehia, an activist and university student from the Nile Delta who was among the protesters.
Good thing they are not crimes, though. Then the rates would really be soaring.
The confrontation marks a dangerous juncture in Egypt’s three months of upheaval.
When longtime president Hosni Mubarak was ousted on Feb. 11 after 18 days of mass demonstrations against his authoritarian rule, protesters hugged and kissed soldiers on tanks in Tahrir Square, praising them for protecting their “revolution.’’ Most welcomed the handover of power to the Armed Forces’ Supreme Council, a body of top generals headed by Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Seems like a lifetime ago.
In the weeks since, tensions have been on the rise. Protest leaders have been critical of the military council’s handling of the post-Mubarak transition and the public has been angered by its failure to prosecute the former president.
Why would they want to prosecute when they are nostalgic for the guy?
I don't get it, AmeriKan media?
But both sides also worked to stay on good terms.
The clashes resembled the ugliest moments of the protest movement against Mubarak, with authorities cracking down and protesters calling for the leader’s removal. The violence fed accusations among some protesters that the military — especially Tantawi, a Mubarak loyalist — was only trying to preserve the ousted president’s regime.
Or some form of it.
--more--"
Mubarak, Egypt’s ex-president, denies abuse of power
Holding Mubarak and top officials in his government accountable for the violence is a central demand of the anti-Mubarak movement....
Is that like being anti-Amerikan, anti-Israel, or anti-Germany?
Egyptians fed up with poverty, corruption, and political repression forced Mubarak to leave office on Feb. 11 after 18 days of mass demonstrations.
Who is actually for that among the masses of people and not political elites and their controllers? The "anti-Mubarak" forces?
Friday’s protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square by tens of thousands was the biggest since then.
Think the military is getting the message?
Despite constitutional amendments to allow free elections and other steps toward a more open political scene, many of people in the anti-Mubarak movement are growing impatient with the military council’s leadership and skeptical of its pledges to meet all demands.
Trust in the military suffered a serious setback after Friday’s demonstrations when soldiers stormed the reform movement’s protest camp in the middle of the night, killing at least one person and injuring 71 others.
Yeah, that seems to happen when you attack your own people.
That increased calls for the resignation of the head of the military council, Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, a Mubarak appointee. It also spurred protesters to retake Tahrir Square, shutting down traffic in the heart of Cairo.
Yesterday, hundreds remained barricaded there behind barbed wire and burned-out troop carriers.
Since his ouster, Mubarak and his family have been under house arrest at a presidential palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, their assets frozen. But Mubarak has not been charged.
So the paper decided to report rumors when it said he had gone to Saudi Arabia?
And as soon as he is charged the health problems crop up? Puh-leeze!
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was abruptly hospitalized yesterday for heart problems during an investigation over allegations of corruption and violence against protesters, state TV reported.
In a sign that his ailment might not be very serious, however, Justice Minister Mohammed el-Guindi said Mubarak was questioned in the hospital....
Guindi said Mubarak was being investigated over his role in the violence against protesters during the uprising in which more than 800 people died. The investigation into corruption charges would be carried out later by the Justice Ministry’s anticorruption department, he said.
And a police general said today that Mubarak’s two sons have been detained to investigate their role in violence against protesters and corruption.
What the web cut from the printed account I am looking at on my desk:
Dozens of demonstrators picketed the hospital, denouncing the president and carrying a sign reading "Here is the butcher." They scuffled briefly with supporters of Mubarak amid a massive security presence.
Yeah, why would you webbers need to know that?
