Revolution in Motion

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Update

'The Arab Street' is demanding liberty and democracy, but it needs a civil society first (though this is stemming hopeful). Without it, it will be the second coming of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas was voted into power. The Muslim Brotherhood or AlBaradei holding the reigns in Egypt will make a dangerous neighborhood seem an Islamofascist Gaza on steroids.

This just in! Yeah, remember the darned Neocons? Elliott Abrams: "George W.Bush was right about freedom in the Arab World" -

The Telegraph: "Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising"

The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change” for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned. (...) >>>

Who is the young dissident who attended a US-sponsored Alliance of Youth Movements summit for activists in New York?  On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011. The secret document in full. He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph. Commentary by DebkaFile.

While we're still trying to figure out if the fascist collective headed by Mubarak will be replaced by an Islamofascist collective of Shiite or Suni making, or a Marxist one, the activist action plan has surfaced.

The Atlantic at this stage has managed to translate a few pages. Keep watching that space, as it's an ongoing project:

• The Atlantic: "Egyptian Activists' Action Plan: Translated"

Egyptian activists have been circulating a kind of primer to Friday's planned protest. We were sent the plan by two separate sources and have decided to publish excerpts here, with translations into English. Over Twitter, we connected with a translator, who translated the document with exceptional speed.

What follows are side-by-side translations of nine pages from the 26-page pamphlet. They were translated over the last hour and pasted up in Photoshop to give you an idea of what's in the protest plan. While the plan itself contains specifics about what protesters might do, these excerpts show how one might equip oneself for clashes with riot police. (...) >>>

The British Guardian has a brief synopsis:

• The Guardian: "Egypt protest leaflets distributed in Cairo give blueprint for mass action"

Egyptians have been urged to come out after Friday prayers tomorrow and demand the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's government, along with freedom, justice and a democratic regime.

Anonymous leaflets circulating in Cairo also provide practical and tactical advice for mass demonstrations, confronting riot police, and besieging and taking control of government offices.

Signed "long live Egypt", the slickly produced 26-page document calls on demonstrators to begin with peaceful protests, carrying roses but no banners, and march on official buildings while persuading policemen and soldiers to join their ranks.

The leaflet ask recipients to redistribute it by email and photocopy, but not to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which are being monitored by the security forces. (...) >>>

The hooligans of Wikileaks fanning the flames (they would, of course):

• Forbes: "Amid Digital Blackout, Anonymous Mass-Faxes WikiLeaks Cables To Egypt", by Andy Greenberg

Egypt has dropped a digital iron curtain over its Internet. So WikiLeaks’ fans are using an analog tool to smuggle the secret-spilling site’s latest scandals into the country: fax machines.

On Friday afternoon, the loose hacker group Anonymous began a campaign to fax thousands of copies of WikiLeaks’ latest missives–a series of State Department cables revealing human rights abuses under Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and tacit U.S. backing for his administration–to Egyptian numbers.

Since Thursday night, Egypt has blocked its four largest Internet service providers, Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, and Etisalat Misr. But landlines remain connected–and so, Anonymous believes, do landline-connected fax machines. “We stand up for the little guy as well as fighting the government,” one source within Anonymous writes to me. “We believe the people need to see the truth, which is why we’re faxing locations in Egypt (especially schools) with copies of a relevant WikiLeaks cable; due to the majority of Egyptian Internet being down, the public cannot access this vital information.”

On a crowdsourced document that the group uses for planning, members listed fax numbers of half a dozen Egyptian schools as their first targets. “The idea is to distribute the information to students, who can then share it with others,” says another source within Anonymous. “Right now they need to know that the police cannot be trusted and the wikileaks cables are just more proof of that." (...) >>>

Keep an eye on how the Egyptians are bypassing the Internet black out, reads a caveat emanating from the ever watchful Hillbuzz. I think we can all benefit from that advice. The answer to date seems to be, fax machines!

Our Twitter list for developments in the Middle East. Hashtags: #Egypt #Jan25

! Oh, and while we are watching the Egyptian revolution in motion, let's keep our eye on the ball in Lebanon too. Hezbollah is now running it as an Iranian eparchy and Rami G. Khouri at the Daily Star thinks they should be given a fair chance!

Updating as more information becomes available.

Related

Who Lost Egypt?

- Caroline Glick: "The Pragmatic Fantasy" (On the dangers of Kifaya and Muslim Brotherhood tool and leader in waiting, ElBaradei)

Support Free Speech in Lebanon

Beirut Spring: "Support Free Speech in Lebanon" - Hap Tip: Atlas Shrugs (includes video material)

Please spread the word: The real target of Hezbollah’s vicious campaign is free media in Lebanon. Hidden under the coverage of explosions, smoke and gunmen roaming Beirut is the real story: Hezbollah and its backers in Syria and Iran can’t stand any voice that freely express a different point of view.

The guns were dispatched to silence the voice. All over Lebanon, in Beirut, In Tripoli, in Saida, and in Bekaa, Iranian and Syrian allies are targeting the media organizations that are critical of their regimes. This is an orchestrated, pre-planned campaign that includes dismantling hardware, destroying archives and intimidating Journalists.

Regardless of where we stand politically, we have to make it clear to the world that we will not accept tampering with the free exchange of ideas, the main foundation of any democracy.

Please do everything you can to spread the word and be part of this:

Bloggers and Website owners: Please include one of the (...) >>>

Regular folks and activists:

1- The above vertical banner will make a great facebook profile picture (please also link to this post)

2- You can send an email with the text below to politicians, newspapers and anyone you know who might have access to international media. (...) >>>


Beirut Spring: "So, What Can We Learn From What Happened?"

Pundits are starting to analyze the meaning of what happened in Lebanon. First, here’s my absolute favorite metaphor of the situation, courtesy of Hot Air:

…The government [was] temporarily brought to its knees to remind it who’s boss. Think of it as a visit from mafia goons to some poor bastard who’s late in repaying his debt to a loan shark — they broke a couple of fingers this time to let him know they can break his neck if he doesn’t play ball.

So, what lessons can the West learn from what happened in Lebanon? Noah Pollak in Contentions suggests an answer:

What does the crisis in Lebanon teach us about Hezbollah? It teaches us the same lesson we learned from Hamas when it took Gaza: Islamic supremacist groups, despite their claims to the contrary, cannot be integrated into states or democratic political systems. […] The Hezbollah rampage in Lebanon that we are witnessing should make it obvious to any sentient observer that Hezbollah’s claims to democratic political legitimacy have always been intended only to manipulate the credulous. (...) >>>

- Filed on Articles in "Levantine Intricate Tricks" -

Lebanon: Back to the War by Proxi, Hezb take Control

Today's news item on Times Online and a recent backdrop article on World Security Network stand out, shooting the theofascist proxi war back into the limelight.

Times Online: "Spectre of war returns to haunt Lebanon - Gunbattles erupt in Beirut as strike turns into violent confrontation between Government and opposition led by Hezbollah"

Gunbattles erupted on the streets of Beirut yesterday as a general strike turned into a violent confrontation between the Government and the opposition, led by the militant Shia group Hezbollah. The rattle of automatic weapons and the crump of exploding rocket-propelled grenades echoed around the streets of the Lebanese capital as thick plumes of smoke rose from barricades of burning tyres. In scenes grimly redolent of the 1975-1990 civil war, gunmen were seen inching down empty streets and firing rifles at windows to a backdrop of burning cars.

The strike was called by the leading Lebanese trade union in protest at rising prices and over a demand for an increase in the minimum wage. But it was overshadowed by the worsening crisis between the Western-backed Government and Hezbollah, which many Lebanese fear is about to reach a showdown after 16 months of political gridlock.

“This is a turning point. There can be no more cohabitation between the Government and the opposition. All trust is gone,” said Amal Saad Ghorayeb, a Lebanese political analyst and expert on Hezbollah. The latest crisis erupted over the weekend when Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Druze and an outspoken critic of Hezbollah, launched an attack on the Shia party, accusing it of monitoring Beirut airport with security cameras for a possible attack or kidnapping.

He also accused Hezbollah of setting up its own private telecommunications network to eavesdrop on calls made in Lebanon. On Tuesday the Government said that Hezbollah's telephone network was “illegal and unconstitutional” and referred the dossier to the judiciary.

Hezbollah has installed an elaborate fibre-optic telephone system that it uses to maintain contact between its headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut and its cadres in south Lebanon and elsewhere. It enabled Hezbollah to maintain communications during the month-long war with Israel (...) >>>
World Security Network: "Lebanon - the never ending story of internal stalemate and external pressure," by Manuela Paraipan

(...) This time I traveled more within the country, especially in the areas known as Hezbollah's strongholds - from Bint Jbeil to the Blue Line and to the Bekaa Valley. The echoes of political tension were to be found within the society. However, in spite of all of the propaganda - and make no mistake, both blocks deserve to be nominated for the biggest prize here - most of the people I met, talked to and spent time with were eager to get on with life.

It is true that I found a hard core in each and every party - individuals and groups whose ideology, beliefs and loyalty cannot be changed. However, even within these groups I noticed the willingness to sit down and find a solution through dialog. This is crucial. If Lebanon is to get through this storm in one piece, then dialog is the only way to do it.

The terrific momentum Lebanon had back in 2005 is now almost completely lost. All parts share the guilt for this. Back then, the Cedar Revolution was in full swing and important leaders in the international community from both the West and the East expressed considerable support (...) >>>

Update: ...imagine, theofascist thugs taking control of your streets ...












CNN: "Hezbollah militias assume control of western Beirut"

Western Beirut fell under the control of opposition Hezbollah militias Friday in what amounted to an army-negotiated surrender of pro-government positions, Lebanese Internal Security Forces and Western military observers said. The "dramatic development" is a major blow to the democratically elected and pro-Western government of Lebanon, CNN's Brent Sadler said. (...) "I think ... it's a coup," Jumblatt told CNN in a phone interview. "The Lebanese army is in total paralysis."Rather than fight, the army has stayed above the fray. With its own political factions, taking sides could throw the military into disarray. >>>

- Filed on Articles in "Levantine Intricate Intrigues"