Egypt: Internet down, police counterterror unit up

Just in!

Some looters captured in Cairo were secret police agents in plain clothes and had security forces id-cards and government type pistols.

english.aljazeera.net...

Apparently, the totalitarian security forces are trying to spread chaos to make the public popular uprising to look bad!

Wow! the people around Mubarak are really getting desperate to control the situation - the military is still passive but have according to information from the people started to help some neighbourhoods to arrest these thugs.

Chevalerous

here's one of those reports
www.allvoices.com...
is it true or false?

i'm not exactly sold on the idea that al jazeera is any more truthful than any other media source.

reply to
This is from today
post by AcesInTheHole

i'm so curious which two mummies were destroyed.
i bet there's a reason for those mummies in particular. why go to all the trouble to break in and only destroy 2 mummies, rifle the ticket office and smash some glass cases. what the freak is going on over there. this is getting BIG, in a thousands of years, type of way.

Originally posted by undo
Chevalerous

here's one of those reports
www.allvoices.com...
is it true or false?

i'm not exactly sold on the idea that al jazeera is any more truthful than any other media source.

edit on 29-1-2011 by undo because: (no reason given)

Why not?

Of course there are REAL CRIMINALS and thieves who are looting as well! but just think about it, the totalitarian security forces and the secret police are gone from the streets today - where are they?

Why wouldn't these security forces who are loyal to Mubarak do some undercover looting, create some additional bad chaos to get an excuse to destroy this popular uprising, to give it a bad name?

I don't now about the museum though, they could've been just ordinary thugs perhaps, but I have no doubt that agents from the security forces actually could be in the mix among the looters in other reported parts of Cairo/Egypt.

reply to post by Chevalerous


i agree that it could be literally anything and i don't put it past certain parts of governments to do unscrupulous things but WHY mummies and why only 2 mummies and what would cause a government that makes oodles of money off tourism because of mummies, harm their own source of income? something is extremely weird about all this. i can see a ton of conspiracy theories coming out of just this event alone.

More and more people from Cairo twitter about thugs, who were identified as people, who were sent by the party or the police.

It is a tactic, which is used even in demonstrations over here in Europe, to heat up the movement and make aggressive response acceptable to the world.

Of course, looting is a kind of "natural" side effect in such cases, but it also is a mean to justify forceful reaction. Luckily the military seems to cooperate with the people and vice versa. The military got active against looters now and there are also reports that people handed over looters to the military.

an interesting page on the subject, with people reporting on the events from various parts of the world,. the page is really long. lots of comments past the original article, including a photograph of the broken glass case. no photo of the damaged mummies tho.
hyperallergic.com...

oh here's more photos of the damage. a whole page of them.
hyperallergic.com...

If it was my country and I was protesting there would be no way in hell I would let any royals leave via airplane. Why the protesters don't flock to those sensitive areas is beyond me, because when stuff like this happens the rich always head to the airports and flee...

Originally posted by jaynkeel
If it was my country and I was protesting there would be no way in hell I would let any royals leave via airplane. Why the protesters don't flock to those sensitive areas is beyond me, because when stuff like this happens the rich always head to the airports and flee...

i dunno. killing people just because they have money,
doesn't sound right to me.

reply to post by IsraeliGuy


en.ammonnews.net...

About the swearing in...not much...but a beginning of the research.

Suleiman...a sobering curriculum vitae

Americans need to stay away from this, Egyptians are apparently very upset with our complicity. The Egyptian American community is protesting in solidarity now in front of the UN building in New York.

Vodafone's actions are truly disgusting.

They are the largest telecom provider in Egypt, mobile network and internet. In their press releases so far, they have only touched upon the mobile phone part of their operations, defending their actions with the 'it's the law, we have to comply' argument.

1. It seems they had no qualms breaking the law in a number of contries in the past. Just google 'Vodafone fined' and you'll get everything from a phone hacking scandal in Greece to tax evasion in the UK.

2. At least one Egyptian ISP, Noor Group, has not complied with the blackout.

As of today, Vodafone's mobile phone network seems to be back up. No word from them on internet access though.

Vodafone restored voice services to our customers in Egypt this morning, as soon as we were able. We would like to make it clear that the authorities in Egypt have the technical capability to close our network, and if they had done so it would have taken much longer to restore services to our customers. It has been clear to us that there were no legal or practical options open to Vodafone, or any of the mobile operators in Egypt, but to comply with the demands of the authorities. Moreover, our other priority is the safety of our employees and any actions we take in Egypt will be judged in light of their continuing wellbeing.

What a load of BS!

You know, you can be damn sure that any Western company doing serious business in a corrupt country, is very actively involved in that corruption. Doling out bribes, taking money from shady investors, employing government stooges and infiltrating government departments, it's all business as usual.

Now, whereas this is of course a scandal in any industry, in the case of the communications technology and the internet additional questions should be asked. Most of the internet infrastructure is run by private companies, but they provide a public service, in a public space.

This entails a public responsibility, and it seems that more and more companies these days are struggling to take this on board. The answer is pretty straight forward: either they acknowledge this responsibility and act accordingly, or they prove that they are not trustworthy. In that case, the public service they provide needs to be taken away from them.

What's it going to be, Vodafone?

Originally posted by angelwrangler
Suleiman...a sobering curriculum vitae

Americans need to stay away from this, Egyptians are apparently very upset with our complicity. The Egyptian American community is protesting in solidarity now in front of the UN building in New York.

our complicity? i had nothing to do with it.
this is the kinda crap that drives me bonkers.

Update on solidarity protest in New York (1,000 people from multiple States along the East Coast):

Ahmed Fehti, spokesperson for the Egyptian Freedom Alliance, told MSNBC Suleiman's swearing in was "cosmetic" and unacceptable. He said that the people have chosen and the names of the new leaders were not ready to be discussed yet.

Also, did not know, but do now, there are protesters in front the White House, seems smaller and less organized.

reply to post by undo


Part time American? Our soldiers do not get that choice...they fight no matter what and so do I. Yes, our complicity. One for all and all for one. Wake up!

Originally posted by Iamschist
There was a news broadcast earlier tonight in my area that "Human rights advocates" were using fb, twitter and the blackberry deally to coordinate protesters changing a few protesters to thousands in minutes, also avoiding police. I can't find that story, but this one is close:

tvnz.co.nz...

This is why they closed access to those sites, to try and control the protests. That and arrests did work in Iran if you remember, unfortunately.

The entire thing is a setup by the global elites to legitimize a authoritarian oppressive central bureaucracy.

I guess obama gets his internet ID and kill switch now. (engineered) Problem (calculated) Reaction, (prepared) Solution.

Same ol' mass manipulation different country.

Originally posted by angelwrangler
reply to post by undo

 

Part time American? Our soldiers do not get that choice...they fight no matter what and so do I. Yes, our complicity. One for all and all for one. Wake up!

when you go to the hospital for a broken toe, does someone from another state show up to take your place because it's all the same toe? when you want a divorce, does the whole country show up to take your place because it's all the same divorce? or better yet, when someone down the street pokes someone else in the arm, do you get blamed for it? how about when your relative yells at the grocer, is that your fault? just extend that globally and you'll see how ridiculously untrue your "our complicity is." don't even go there.

Originally posted by Chevalerous
Just in!

Some looters captured in Cairo were secret police agents in plain clothes and had security forces id-cards and government type pistols.

That is not surprising.

What a sick group of people.

I mean, watch this fella driving the military van at about 1:30. How could someone sanely drive through a group of people? Especially considering they were unarmed and confined to the side of a bridge.

www.liveleak.com...

They are OBVIOUSLY not looking out for the safety of the people.

Disgusting.

2:50 made me literally vomit



make sure to watch the end, it is really inspiring to see such a large group of people demanding to be heard.