Posts Tagged ‘unrest’

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More Reports of the Military Siding With Protesters in Egypt

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Haaretz reports that military men are taking off their helmets and being hoisted by the crowd in Cairo, chanting “the people and the military are one.” (Hat tip: Belmonst Club.)

All the protest factions (including the Muslim brotherhood, who seem quite content to stay in the background for now) have settled on Mohamed ElBaradei as the leader and presumptive transition President should Mubarak fall. ElBaradei is reported to be at Tahrir Square.

Stratfor analyzes the Egyptian military, and the possibility that Islamist sympathizers exist within its ranks.

Here’s a Wall Street Journal report from two years ago on the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s (generally successful) attempts to suppress it.

Once again, the live update sources have changed:

  • NRO
  • BBC
  • The Atlantic
  • Al Jazerra

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »

    More Live Egypt Updates

    Saturday, January 29th, 2011

    Not a lot of news coming out. The longer it takes things to happen, the more likely Mubarak is to hold onto power. Yesterday brought scattered reports that the army may be wavering in support of Mubarak. Today? Not so much. There are sporadic reports of gunfire, and lots of reports that citizens groups are banding together to prevent looting.

    The old links down the page stopped updating at the end of the day. The new links are:

  • The BBC.
  • The Atlantic.
  • Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey’s Twitter feed

    • As for what an actual popular Egyptian government might look like, Michael Totten reminds us that the answer might be pretty ugly:

    In Egypt, 82 percent want stoning for those who commit adultery; 77 percent would like to see whippings and hands cut off for robbery; and 84 percent favor the death penalty for any Muslim who changes his religion.

    Asked if they supported “modernizers” or “Islamists” only 27 percent said modernizers while 59 percent said Islamists.

    Elsewhere in the Middle East, there are reports of unrest in Yemen. Conversely, yesterday’s reports that Syria had also taken down nationwide Internet access appear to have been false.

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    Posted in Global Warming, Jihad, Media Watch | 1 Comment »

    Footage From Egypt

    Friday, January 28th, 2011

    A few relevant embeddable videos I’ve found:

    Not terribly graphic, but it does show someone getting shot (and probably killed):

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    Egypt’s Tipping Point?

    Friday, January 28th, 2011

    Latest update from The live BBC feed:

    1724: BBC Arabic correspondent Khaled Ezzelarab in Cairo reports: “Despite the curfew, demonstrators are surrounding the building of Egyptian radio and TV and trying to break into it. The building is guarded by armed forces, and the demonstrators are cheering for the army, while the latter is not getting into confrontations with the people.””

    The vast majority of modern revolutions are not won by beating the government’s armies in the field, they’re won when the army no longer has the heart to fire on the people. If Mubarak still has the army on his side, he’ll survive the unrest. However, if he doesn’t, as the report above indicates, then it’s all over. The instant a dictator loses the army, he loses power. That’s why the Communist Chinese are still in power and Nicolae Ceausescu died of acute lead poisoning.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy | 1 Comment »

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