uprising

Friday March 16, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday March 16, 2012

Shopping amid a massacre

A cache of e-mails leaked to CNN is giving extraordinary insight into the life of Syria’s first family during the regime’s move to crush a now-year-long civilian uprising.

The e-mails were obtained by CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” from a source in the region after the e-mail accounts were hacked. They appear to shed light on a family often occupied with YouTube videos and shopping while the brutal crackdown continued, and they also apparently reveal some of Iran’s influence over Syria’s president.

Just before Bashar al-Assad delivered a speech January 10, an aide apparently e-mailed him, saying a political adviser to the Iranian ambassador was encouraging al-Assad to use “strong and violent” language.

In that speech, al-Assad then promised to strike the opposition with an “iron fist.”

There are also e-mails from a man named Hosein Mortada, who — according to his Facebook page — is the Damascus bureau chief for two Iranian news networks. Mortada twice offers advice to the president’s aide, who passes it on to al-Assad.

On Christmas Eve, Mortada apparently wrote to an al-Assad aide that al Qaeda should not be blamed for a recent attack.

“I even received calls from Iran and Hezbollah, being the director of several Iranian and Lebanese channels, and they advised me NOT to even mention al Qaeda being behind the incident … because this would be a serious tactical media error,” Mortada wrote, according to the e-mail. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Saturday February 12, 2011

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 12, 2011

Egyptian protesters rejoice at Mubarak’s ouster

Cairo’s Tahrir Square has erupted in an impromptu cacophony of cheering and fireworks as Egyptians celebrate the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak after a historic 18-day wave of pro-democracy demonstrations.

Several hundred thousand protesters packed into the central square screamed for joy Friday, waving Egyptian flags, blowing car horns, jumping up and down and chanting slogans such as: “Egypt is free,” “God is great,” “The people have brought down the regime.”

February 8, 2011

“It’s absolutely incredible … for 18 days these protesters have been involved effectively in an uprising that has turned into a revolution. A stunning development, particularly in this part of the world. Sober thought about what it all means comes tomorrow. A lot of fireworks, people dancing with fireworks, big spotlights being used on the crowd … it’s turned very much into a party atmosphere. And still, thousands of people are pouring into Tahrir Square trying to grab on to this piece of history.”

Egyptians wept and hugged each other. Others clambered on the tanks that have surrounded Tahrir Square.

After 29 years in power, Mubarak reluctantly resigned and handed over power to the military.

The terse announcement was made live on state TV by a grim Vice-President Omar Suleiman at about 6 p.m. local time Friday.

“In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate, citizens, during these very difficult circumstances Egypt is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of president of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country,” Suleiman said in a five-minute address translated into English. “May God help everybody. (CBC) 

 

Tuesday February 8, 2011

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 8, 2011

Hosni Mubarak offers pay rise to buy time

THE Mubarak regime has tried to win over Egypt’s popular uprising by announcing a 15 per cent increase in pay and pensions for public servants.

February 3, 2011

In the first meeting of the cabinet since the uprising began on January 25, the government of President Hosni Mubarak announced yesterday that the increase would begin from April.

In another gesture, the police said they had released Wael Ghonim, the head of Google’s Middle East operations, who has become a figurehead of the revolt after organising a Facebook page for protesters.

He had been detained while taking part in protests and held incommunicado and without charge under the reviled emergency law that has been in place for three decades.

Mr Mubarak also pledged to launch an “independent” investigation into deadly violence between his supporters and demonstrators last Wednesday at Tahrir Square that left 11 dead and nearly 1000 injured, according to official estimates.

The President “has given instructions for the creation of a . . . transparent, independent and impartial investigatory commission,” the official news agency MENA reported. The commission will investigate “the terrible and unacceptable violations that made some protesters innocent victims”, it said.

The pay hike might buy Mr Mubarak some time by reassuring his partisans in Egypt’s large bureaucracy and security forces but there was no sign that the demonstrators were ready to cede ground. Campaigners sat under the tracks of army tanks deployed around the square. Activists also kept up the pressure by barring access to the Mugamma, the heart of Egypt’s bureaucracy, which dominates the square. (The Australia)

 

Thursday February 3, 2011

February 3, 2011

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 3, 2011

Mubarak’s Chaos Theory: Did It Backfire?

“They are trying to create chaos,” said Mohamed Ahmed, one of the Cairo protesters, “This is what Mubarak wants.” 

Usually, it’s the revolutionaries who deliberately instigate disorder. In the early 20th century, the Russian revolutionaries even had a slogan: “The Worse, the Better.” 

Mayhem delegitimized the regime. The greater the disorder, the brighter were the prospects for the revolution. The radicals wanted failed harvests and poverty. They wanted government repression and bloodshed. They wanted to see the roots of society ripped up. 

More recently, al-Qaeda in Iraq adhered to the same strategy, hoping to foment a full-scale civil war. In the smoking ruins of Iraq, they could construct a brave new world. 

As W.B. Yeats wrote in his poem “The Second Coming,” when anarchy is loosed upon the world, “things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” 

But in Egypt there’s been a role reversal. In the main, the protesters have shown restraint. The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood reported that Tahrir Square in Cairo “reminded me of Burning Man,” with children getting their faces painted, and protesters clearing up the trash. 

Instead, it’s the regime that deliberately instigated disorder. The police were withdrawn from the streets of Egypt. Rumors were rife of official encouragement for looting and vandalism. 

And then the regime hurled an army of thugs and camel cavalry against the protesters — Tiananmen Square meets Mad Max. One witness to the violence said: “Mubarak lit the world on fire.” (The Atlantic)