some bracing footage from February 2

I posted it the next day, but it’s worth watching again. Huffington Post labelled this as footage of pro-Mubarak protestors throwing rocks, but it’s almost certainly anti-Mubarak people– judging by their appearance, but even more importantly judging by the geography of the scene. These people are behind the Museum throwing rocks to the north, directly into the area in front of the Ramses Hilton that was the staging ground for the regime thugs.

That flyover you see leads to/from the October 6 Bridge across the Nile, which is just a block to the left of the stone-throwers. Hours later, shortly after 4 A.M. on February 3, the protestors charged the flyover and captured it as well.

I love these guys. That nice little drumming intro gives a French Revolution feel to the scene as well.

another grim reminder of February 2

MohammedY:

“Pro-Mubarak thugs r throwing molotoves and huge slabs from rooftops on protestors #jan25”

another one from February 2

You’ll have to get the book and read them all. They’re very dramatic, especially on that day (the internet had just been restored in Egypt that morning).

TravellerW:

“I am seeing –not reporting, seeing– Mubarak ppl throwing molotov cocktails on demonstrators, and on shops #Egypt #jan25”

These are not going to look good in the courtroom whenever the trials begin.

a grim tweet from the evening of February 2

From Tahrir eyewitness monasosh:

“Cut wounds, fractures, rupture eyes. Weapons used glass, coke bottles, knives, swords #jan 25”

#jan25

Going back through that book of tweets from Tahrir, it looks as though the #jan25 Twitter hashtag was in use as early as January 21. It may be one of the few cases where political upheaval was successfully scheduled in advance. The reason January 25 was chosen is that it was a national holiday (Police Day, ironically) which made a large pool of protestors available in a way that would not have been the case on a normal workday.

For the same reason, there was a brief gap on January 26-27, with the strategy being to keep the streets unstable long enough for the first Friday protests on January 28. After that, things were serious enough that there was always a willing mass of protestors on any day of the week.

report from Tora prison

By the NY Times, HERE.

Plenty of regime inmates now, in a truly shocking development that none of us would have believed in early January. Gamal Mubarak seems to be in the worst state of shock, according to the story. I hadn’t heard that Fathy Sorour was in prison as well; that’s the first I’d heard of his fate. Once I was at a party where he showed up, and that became a disturbing memory when I first read that his staff may have been the paymasters for the camel/horse thugs of February 2. I’ve still seen no proof of that, but no doubt the attack on Tahrir will be examined thoroughly in court, and we will eventually know the whole story.