Al-jaz and BBC are the only TV channels that have managed to get livefeeds out since the government has shut down all internet and cell phone connections.
NBC has had one too. Richard Engel has some big brass balls. All there is to see though is a lot of cars burning, and clouds of teargas rolling down the streets like fog off the Scottish moors. Supposed reports and claims of live ammunition being used, by police or protesters or both, and police striping off their uniforms to join the crowd. The army has certainly been called in for manpower support, and the Cairo party headquarters palace has been set on fire. However, all cell-phone and Internet service has been deactivated, land-lines are intermittent at best, and the government is actively trying to jam broadcast signals, including al-Jazeera's.
I'd hate to say it but the USA TENDS to be on the side of the dictatorships.
Not because they hate people or anything but if my Teacher is to be believed it is because the USA is "Pro-government" or rather they have a tendency to take the sides of government.
"Pro-Stability" might be a better way of putting it. The first name being bandied around in all this is Islamic militants joining the action, and an increasingly religious flavor in the protests (e.g. mass prayers in front of the riot-wall, to dare them to attack praying people). The Bush administration actually had a rocky relationship with the Egyptians, when Bush kept talking about the flowing of democracy across the region and Egypt kept saying "hey, keep that shit on the downlow, or we won't be such a 'moderate dictatorship' for long".
Basically, the Egyptian government has always had to walk an increasingly sharp edge between keeping a tight enough reign on the country to suppress the militants to the contentment of the their allies (since the government's budget heavily relies on American aid money), without pissing off their populace enough to be dethroned. The result was a slightly scary place to live, with a brutally efficient law enforcement and prison system with control over expression, but no wars for thirty years and a relatively solid economy. And now everyone's got it into their heads to rock the boat.
Probably the biggest sign is that the White House and State Department have tacitly said they'll accept and live with any outcome, and have strenuously "urged" the Egyptian government to keep the cell-phones on, biggest weapon of the protesters that they are.
Further stuff: The closest thing to a "leader" the protesters have put forth as a replacement head of state is Mohamed Elbaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and one of the most respected and successful diplomats in the world. He returned to the country a couple days ago, has had firehoses turned on him, and is now under house arrest.
Author
Topic: Egypt and the world and Libya - Now without Ukraine! (Read 374536 times)