the Port Said disaster

A useful account from the Egyptian press is HERE. Harrowing descriptions of security forces standing by as the al-Masry fans (from Port Said) stormed the field and attacked the visiting al-Ahly fans (from Cairo). al-Ahly and Zamalek are the two powerhouse teams in Egypt, both of them located in Cairo.

By all accounts, the police did absolutely nothing to intervene, and in the eyes of many, most, or all Egyptians I know, this was a deliberately permitted/arranged massacre. The al-Ahly Ultras are committed revolution supporters, and many helped fight the thugs in the preposterous Battle of the Camel on February 2 last year. This is being depicted as revenge by the authorities against the Ultras. If so, it’s a grisly and inhumane revenge, with al-Ahly fans struck lethally on the head, crushed against gates, or plummeting from upper levels of the stadium in desperate attempts to escape.

We’ve seen incidents of increasing ugliness from the new authorities since last March. At times I thought they would stay in charge indefinitely and nothing would change, but at most times I thought they would push their luck and do something to completely undermine their status with the public. I always assumed that would involved opening fire with automatic weapons on a peaceful crowd, something much larger in scale than anything they had done so far. But what happened last night actually makes more sense, since it allows for a grain of plausible deniability, just as the Battle of the Camel did.

There will now be a new level of hatred towards SCAF, and it was interesting to see that the Muslim Brotherhood (which at times has seemed to be playing footsie with SCAF or at least not openly criticizing them enough) has denounced last night’s police behavior forcefully. That’s a good indicator of where they think public sentiment is.

You might find it interesting to join the “We Are All Khaled Said” Facebook group as a way of gauging pro-revolutionary reaction to the event.

We are all Khaled Said
Whether it is a plan to attack the pro-revolution Ahly fans or it isn’t, in both cases those unelected and responsible for running the country have failed miserably. They need to start the presidential elections now and leave power once a president is elected. We can’t wait until end of June.