Source: CBS
Egyptian officials announced they plan to prosecute 19 Americans for their involvement in the funding of pro-democracy groups, one of whom is the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Norah O’Donnell reports.

This article titled “Egypt’s cabinet offers to resign as protests against junta grow” was written by Jack Shenker in Cairo, for The Guardian on Monday 21st November 2011 21.17 UTC

Egypt’s interim government has tendered its resignation following a third day of deadly violence in Cairo, throwing the country into fresh turmoil less than a week before nationwide parliamentary elections are due to begin.

The possible exit of the beleaguered prime minister, Essam Sharaf, and his cabinet came as anti-junta protesters announced plans for a “million-man” occupation of Tahrir Square on Tuesday, and after the use of live ammunition by security forces on demonstrators was confirmed for the first time.

At least 33 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured in the ongoing clashes, prompting a range of revolutionary movements from across the political spectrum, including leftist, liberal and Islamist organisations, to throw their full weight behind the protests.

“We confirm our readiness to face all the forces that aim to abort the revolution, reproduce the old regime, or drag the country into chaos and turn the revolution into a military coup,” said a joint statement by 37 groups.

As the crowds in Tahrir Square swelled on Monday evening, it seemed unlikely that the dismissal of Sharaf and his ministers – which had yet to be confirmed by the military council – would be enough to calm the unrest. The protesters’ main demand remains the return of the country to civilian rule, not just a change of the personnel operating on behalf of the ruling generals. But the resignations, if accepted, could pave the way for a compromise, with the armed forces appointing a new government of “national salvation” and offering a clearer timetable for their own departure from power.

“I don’t think this crowd cares at all about the government,” said Khalid Abdalla, an actor and activist who has been demonstrating in Tahrir Square. “This is about a battle on the streets in which people are being killed.”

Earlier in the day a last-ditch effort by the junta to stem the violence by offering concessions to their critics – including the passing of a long-awaited “treachery law” that would bar former members of Hosni Mubarak’s now-disbanded ruling party from running in the upcoming elections, which are now less than a week away – appeared only to galvanise resistance.

“The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [Scaf] only have two choices – they obey the will of the people, or Egypt burns,” said Ramy el-Swissy, a leading member of the April 6th youth movement, which will be joining the sit-in on Tuesday. “People on the streets are so angry; no matter what certain ordinary people may have thought of the protests initially, they are now seeing endless TV footage of innocent Egyptians losing their lives at the hands of the security forces. Everyone knows that this is not what we launched a revolution for, and they are standing with us.”

Despite continued denials by the authorities, evidence has emerged that some police or army units are using live ammunition on protesters.

Researchers from the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights, a Cairo-based human rights organisation, told the Guardian they had confirmation that the bodies of four people killed by live bullets were in the city’s main morgue. The victims were all aged between 19 and 27.

William Hague, the British foreign minister, said the violence was of “great concern” but added that the UK would not be taking sides.

The US urged Egypt to go ahead with the elections and called for restraint on all sides. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said: “The United States continues to believe that these tragic events should not stand in the way of elections.” His comments came as clashes continued in the side streets off Tahrir Square, with the frontline between revolutionaries and armed police shifting back and forth throughout the day.

At one point teargas was fired by the security forces into a makeshift field hospital off the central plaza, forcing volunteer doctors and wounded protesters to flee. Nearby mosques and churches opened their doors to the injured, though medics said they were vastly under-resourced and struggling to keep count of the casualties.

Some demonstrators took to writing the contact details of their families on their arms before joining the fray so they can be identified if killed. Meanwhile Tahrir’s main holding station for fatalities said it had run out of coffins, and appealed for a fresh supply.

“People have political demands – specifically for civilian rule and the end of the military council – but right now this is simply a fight between the police and the people, and you can only stand on one side,” said Ramy Raoof, a prominent activist.

“And now through the statements of the government and the fact that the soldiers attacked Tahrir yesterday, it’s clear that Scaf and the army stand with the police. There is now one enemy, and when you have that situation people get mobilised and come down from their homes to join.”

He said elections, now only six days away, should go ahead but that they must be accompanied by Scaf withdrawing from politics. “Right now that seems like the only scenario that would work,” said Raoof, 24. “But other alternatives could be proposed.”

Beyond the capital, unrest has spread to almost every major urban centre in the country, including Ismailia on the Suez Canal and the strategically important town of al-Arish in the northern Sinai peninsula. In Egypt’s second-largest city, the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, thousands of students took to the streets after the death of a second protester.

Amid mounting calls for the formation of a new civilian government as a way of ending the crisis and appropriating power back from the armed forces, the country’s largest organised political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, issued a statement condemning Scaf for the bloodshed and vowed to push for the prosecution of those responsible for the attacks.

But in a sign that it was not yet ready to give up on the “transition” timetable – which is likely to see it emerge as the biggest winner in next week’s parliamentary vote – the Brotherhood refused to endorse the protests or follow several liberal and leftists in calling off its parliamentary campaign, though it did promise to suspend electoral activities temporarily.

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This article titled “Egyptian army retakes Tahrir Square” was written by Jack Shenker, for The Guardian on Monday 1st August 2011 17.10 UTC

Egypt’s army has violently retaken Cairo’s Tahrir Square from protesters, less than 48 hours before the former president Hosni Mubarak is to stand trial in the capital.

Armed riot police and soldiers fired into the air as tanks moved in on Tahrir, which has been occupied by demonstrators for more than three weeks. Witnesses said some protesters were taken away.

Activists accuse Egypt’s ruling military generals of dragging their feet on any meaningful reform in the country and warned that the revolution that toppled Mubarak earlier this year was in danger of being hijacked by conservative forces.

Eyewitnesses reported swarms of security personnel storming the square from several directions, smashing tents and stalls before dragging away some protesters into military detention. Egypt’s cabinet office said “thugs” had been arrested.

Some locals cheered as the sit-in was dispersed, highlighting a growing division over tactics at the heart of the protest movement. Around 30 of the political forces participating in the occupation had decided to suspend their involvement throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on Monday. But several hundred hardcore demonstrators remained in Tahrir, including some relatives of those killed in the anti-government uprising this year, vowing only to leave when Mubarak had faced justice.

“When normal people beat us in Abbasiya, that was painful,” wrote one activist on Twitter, referring to clashes last week which left dozens injured. “To hear that people are cheering [today] because the army beat martyrs’ families, that’s devastating.”

Local news outlet al-Shorouk said military personnel went on to destroy a series of recently installed revolutionary artworks inside Sadat metro station, which lies underneath the square. The move is likely to further exacerbate tensions between revolutionaries and the supreme council of the armed forces (SCAF), which has been forced to defend itself in recent weeks against claims that it is not truly committed to democratic transition or the holding of former regime officials to account.

On Sunday night the army’s chief of staff, Sami Anan, denied suggestions that SCAF had cut a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood, guaranteeing the country’s largest Islamist group a strong showing in November’s parliamentary elections in exchange for the organisation providing political support to the military. Anan accused some media outlets of fuelling sedition and insisted the military was seeking to return to barracks as soon as possible.

He also responded angrily to repeated allegations from protesters and human rights groups that some pro-change demonstrators were being held in military detention and tortured, calling on those making the claims to furnish proof. Several local and international campaign organisations have published details of arbitrary arrests and subsequent military abuses since the fall of Mubarak more than six months ago.

The latest unrest comes as the nation gears up for the beginning of Mubarak’s trial, which is due to open on Wednesday. At the weekend the attorney general, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, issued a formal summons ordering the toppled dictator to be transferred to Cairo from his current location, a hospital bed in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, where the 83-year-old has been under detention since April.

Mubarak will answer a series of charges relating to economic fraud and the unlawful killing of protesters, and will stand in the dock alongside his two sons, his former interior minister, Habib El-Adly, and a number of other senior regime officials. The court case will be heard in a tightly secured police academy on the outskirts of the capital, and broadcast live on state television.

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This article titled “Battle breaks out in Tahrir Square, once again” was written by Jack Shenker in Cairo, for The Guardian on Wednesday 29th June 2011 00.46 UTC

Clashes between protesters and security forces engulfed Cairo once again on Tuesday night, as the fiercest street battles since the fall of Hosni Mubarak left dozens injured.

Fighting began after dark, following earlier protests by relatives of those killed during this spring’s uprising.

Armed central security police showered Tahrir Square with tear gas canisters and fired bullets into the air as several thousand demonstrators amassed and called for the resignation of Egypt’s de facto head of state, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

Some members of the crowd tore up paving stones and threw them towards police lines.

The Guardian witnessed successive volleys of tear gas launched into the square and surrounding streets by government forces, including towards areas where ambulances had congregated to treat the wounded. Injured protesters, mostly with head wounds and gas inhalation, were carried to safety on the shoulders of fellow demonstrators.

“Mubarak was nothing – this is the revolution,” said one man caught by tear gas.

The interior ministry blamed a group of “thugs” for the unrest, claiming that they had disrupted an event held earlier in the day to commemorate the martyrs of the revolution and went on to attack the ministry headquarters.

Protesters vociferously denied that suggestion, insisting that the police had attacked unarmed relatives of the martyrs – an account seemingly backed up by unverified videos posted on YouTube.

The violence came after the trial of the former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, on the charge of unlawfully killing pro-change protesters had been delayed by a judge this week, with no reason given to the public. “People are saying that we’ve replaced one Habib al-Adly with another,” said Mostafa Hussein, a 30-year-old activist in Tahrir.

“They believe the interior ministry has returned to its former incarnation under the Mubarak regime.”

Also on Tuesday, an administrative court ordered the dissolution of Egypt’s 1750 municipal councils, a form of local government that was almost entirely controlled by the old ruling NDP party and was a key tool of control for Mubarak’s dictatorship.

Revolutionary activists have long demanded that the councils be disbanded, pointing out that in “elections” held in 2008 over 99% of open seats were awarded to Mubarak allies. However it is not yet clear whether the interim government will implement the judicial ruling.

Almost 1,000 people are believed to have died in the year’s 25 January revolution, in which Mubarak’s black-suited central security troops were beaten off the streets by a mass uprising. Since the resignation of the former president, Egypt has been run by the armed forces who have promised a swift transition to a democratic civilian government. But many fear that the pace of change has been too slow, accusing generals of hijacking the revolution and failing to hold members of the old regime to account.

“For those that had loved ones killed in January – and indeed all those who lived through that time – just the sight of the Amin al-Markazi [central security forces] on the streets is a provocation in itself,” a doctor who had been treating the injured told the Guardian.

“People are shouting ‘our revolution is being stolen’. The situation is very tense.”

In the early hours of the morning, Tahrir Square remained shrouded in gas with the battle continuing. Activists took to Twitter and other social media sites to call for medical supplies and people to join the gathering.

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Here’s a newly released documentary from Frontline about the ongoing revolution in Egypt.

This is very disturbing video. The Bahrain royal family ordered the military to fire on protesters.

This article titled “Iranian warships turn back from Suez canal” was written by Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 17th February 2011 12.38 UTC

Two Iranian warships have withdrawn their application to to sail through the Suez canal after Israel described the move as a provocation.

An unnamed canal official told the Associated Press no reason was given for the decision.

The official identified the two vessels as a frigate and a supply ship, and said they were en route to Syria. He said they were now in an area near the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia.

Egypt’s official Mena news agency, however, quoted Ahmed al-Manakhly, a senior Suez canal official, as denying that the waterway’s management had received any requests by Iranian warships to sail through the canal.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told a conference of American-Jewish organisations in Jerusalem that the two vessels were due to pass through the Suez canal.

“Tonight two Iranian warships are supposed to cross the Suez canal on their way to Syria into the Mediterranean Sea which is something that has not happened for many years,” he said.

“This is a provocation that proves that the self-confidence and impudence of the Iranians is growing from day to day … Regrettably the international community shows no willingness to deal with these repeated Iranian provocations.”

He said the international community needed to understand that Israel could not ignore such provocations forever.

Israel suspected the ships were carrying weapons intended for eventual delivery to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamist organisation and ally of Iran.

Israel’s alarm at the presence of Iranian ships in the region comes amid unrest sweeping across Arab countries. Israel is deeply concerned about instability in neighbouring countries and fears that Islamist organisations are growing in influence.

The defence minister, Ehud Barak, said Israel was “attentively monitoring” the ships’ progress.

Under international law, only ships from countries at war with Egypt are barred from passing through the Suez canal. But warships need prior permission from Egypt’s defence and foreign ministries.

The US state department spokesman PJ Crowley confirmed that Iranian ships were in the area of the canal, but declined to comment further. “There are two ships in the Red Sea,” he said. “What their intention is, what their destination is, I can’t say.”

Last month, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that Iranian navy cadets were embarking on a year-long training mission in the Mediterranean, passing through the the Red Sea and the Suez canal. It said the purpose was to train to defend Iranian ships against the threat of Somali pirates.

The Suez canal is the key sea passage between Europe and the Middle East and Asia.

Since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as Egypt’s president last Friday, Israel has been deeply concerned about the future of relations between it and its closest ally in the region. Egypt’s ruling army council has said the 31-year-old peace treaty between the two countries will be maintained, but Israel remains anxious about whether a future government which is likely to include the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood would review the accord.

Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has warned that the country must “prepare for the worst”.

Although Israel hoped to see genuine democratic reform in Egypt, he said, it and other countries needed to be alert to “possible dangers that may lie ahead”.

At least 1,500 workers from the Suez Canal Authority protested on Thursday in three Egyptian cities along the waterway, demanding better pay and working conditions. The workers, however, said their protest would not disrupt canal traffic.

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This article titled “Egyptian activists condemn brutal attack on CBS reporter in Tahrir Square” was written by Jack Shenker in Cairo, for The Guardian on Thursday 17th February 2011 01.37 UTC

Women’s rights activists and pro-change protesters in Egypt have rallied to condemn a serious sexual assault on an American news reporter, Lara Logan, which took place in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in the moments following Hosni Mubarak’s resignation last Friday.

“Lara Logan … and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration,” Logan’s employers, CBS news, said in a brief statement. “It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

“In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.”

Logan, a 39-year-old foreign correspondent, had previously been detained by the Egyptian police while covering the anti-government uprising. She has now flown back to the US and is “recovering at home”, CBS said. The incident has provoked a storm of comment in both the Egyptian and American blogospheres, with many protesters in Cairo keen to show that Logan’s attackers were not representative of the pro-change crowds.

“It’s incredibly sad that this has happened, and it’s something that the spirit of Tahrir and the spirit of revolution was resolutely against,” Ahdaf Soueif, an author who spent a great deal of time in Tahrir Square, told the Guardian. “Women in the square were rejoicing that they felt freedom on the streets of Cairo for the first time, and [this is] definitely something that we want to stamp out alongside corruption and all the other social ills that have befallen Egypt during Mubarak’s regime.”

Mahmoud Salem, a well known Egyptian blogger, was one of many 25 January activists to express outrage. “Lara Logan, what happened to you was reprehensible, I hope u don’t judge the egyptian people or Tahrir because of it,” he tweeted under his moniker Sandmonkey.

Some activists have suggested that the assault was the work of pro-Mubarak gangs, whose use of sexual harassment as an intimidation tactic was extensively documented during the revolution, as was their targeting of foreign reporters.

But the investigation and prosecution of sexual harassment cases is already low in Egypt, and the detention of those responsible amid the country’s current institutional turmoil appears unlikely.

The harassment of women on the streets has long been a major issue in Egyptian society, although efforts to curb the problem have often met resistance from government officials.

Scepticism about the extent of the harassment extended as far as the former first lady, Suzanne Mubarak, who once accused the media of exaggerating the problem to tarnish the country’s reputation.

A survey by the independent Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights in 2008, however, revealed that 83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women had been exposed to some form of sexual harassment, including groping, verbal abuse, stalking and indecent exposure.

Contrary to popular opinion, the incidents did not appear to be linked to the woman’s style of dress, as three-quarters of victims had been veiled at the time.

Throughout the 18 days of mass unrest that brought millions to Tahrir Square, many women reported that the level of sexual harassment there was far lower than they had expected. Protesters maintained a disciplined internal security system and, apart from clashes with police and pro-Mubarak militants, no violence was recorded inside the square.

“We Egyptian youth are so proud of this revolution, and the first thing we will do is demand that all people stop sexual harassment,” said Marwa Mokhtar, a women’s rights campaigner. “This is our country now, not Mubarak’s country, and we will not allow harassment to continue in the new Egypt.”

An Egyptian Facebook group set up to condemn the attack on Logan carried similar sentiments. “We should have continued guarding Tahrir even in the day of celebration,” posted Ahmad Fahmy, a pro-change demonstrator. “I don’t know what to say. Nothing we can do or say can make up for what happened. I guess for now I can just say ‘Sorry’ to Lara and for all women Egyptians or non-Egyptians who were harassed or assaulted in Egypt before.”

Another group of bloggers set up an online petition headlined “Walk Free! Stop Sexual Harassment in Egypt & Apology to Lara Logan“.

The White House said that President Barack Obama had called Logan on Wednesday but gave no details of the call. In the US, debate over Logan’s assault has been fierce, after some commentators made light of the incident.

Nir Rosen, an American journalist, was forced to resign from his fellowship at New York University following a series of posts on Twitter which drew jokey comparisons between Logan and CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper, who was assaulted by thugs in Egypt earlier this month, claiming “it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too”. He has since apologised for the remarks.

Rightwing blogger Debbie Schlussel also drew ire, after a post on her website blamed Logan herself for the attack.

“So sad, too bad, Lara,” wrote Schlussel. “No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows …”

Her words were met with a chorus of objections and outrage online. “Lara Logan’s assault is horrifying, but shouldn’t be an excuse for the rightwing to twist this into a story about Arab misogyny,” argued the Democracy Now correspondent Anjali Kamat on Twitter.

An article published in the Colombia Journalism Review in 2007 claimed that the sexual abuse of female foreign correspondents is under-reported because many victims do not come forward for fear of losing out on future assignments.

“In the mounting rhetoric, what is getting lost is the fact that a reporter has been sexually assaulted,” said Laila Lalami in the Nation magazine. “[By coming forward] Lara Logan has broken a powerful taboo.”

Heather Blake, of Reporters Without Borders, said that the incident should not be used to prevent female correspondents from going out into the field.

“Female journalists have distinct voices to male journalists and it is vital that those very different concerns and outlooks continue to be heard,” she argued. “The attack on Lara Logan highlights the fact that there needs to be gender-specific protection and training of journalists.

“At the moment, female and male journalists have the same training. The truth is that female journalists need to be taught about different cultures and the ways in which men behave in those cultures. They need to know about gender-specific expectations in different countries, from what they wear to how they interact with those they met.”

Paul Steiger, chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, of which Logan is a board member, said: “We have seen Lara’s compassion at work while helping journalists who have faced brutal aggression while doing their jobs. She is a brilliant, courageous, and committed reporter. Our thoughts are with Lara as she recovers.”

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This article titled “CBS News’s Lara Logan suffered ‘brutal’ attack in Tahrir Square” was written by Richard Adams, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 16th February 2011 03.23 UTC

CBS News journalist Lara Logan is recovering in hospital this week after being violently attacked and sexually assaulted by a mob in Egypt’s Tahrir Square on Friday, according to a statement by CBS.

Amid the celebrations on the night of Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, Logan was reporting on the scenes in Tahrir Square for the news programme 60 Minutes when the South African-born journalist, her camera crew and security staff were overwhelmed by what the US television network described as “a dangerous element … a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy”.

“In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers,” CBS said in its statement released on Tuesday evening.

“She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.”

Logan joined CBS in 2002, after a television news career that included a spell at GMTV covering the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and is a veteran of reporting from warzones including Iraq and Kosovo.

CBS’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, Logan had previously been detained by the Egyptian military for a day, as part of the Mubarak regime’s crackdown on foreign journalists.

Logan serves on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which documented 140 attacks on journalists in Egypt during the protests this month.

“We have seen Lara’s compassion at work while helping journalists who have faced brutal aggression while doing their jobs. She is a brilliant, courageous and committed reporter. Our thoughts are with Lara as she recovers,” said Paul Steiger, chairman of the committee.

CBS said it will make no further comment. “Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time,” the network said in its statement.

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From CBS News:

On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a “60 Minutes” story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

That is really awful. I will post updates as they become available.