Egyptian youth protect their communities: Jets and helicopters fly over Cairo

WikiLeaks has released more diplomatic cables confirming what we already know, that the US government has known about the torture and violence committed against the Egyptian population by the Mubarak regime's security apparatus for a long time. The cables also reveal that plan to transfer power from Hosni Mubarak to his son, Gamal, were presented to Washington.

This is a big embarrassment to the Obama administration.  Obama said of Mubarak in August 2009: 
"I am grateful to President Mubarak for his visit, for his willingness to work with us on these critical issues, and to help advance the interest of peace and prosperity around the world."

US Vice President Biden is still referring to this murderous regime as an ally to the displeasure of the Wall Street Journal as we reported yesterday.  Hilary Clinton, has shifted her tone as US capitalism in the face of a popular uprising against it's friend in Cairo is rapidly abandoning a sinking ship.

As far back as January 2009, three years ago one cable reveals,  the US ambassador to Egypt, Margaret Scobey, said that torture by the Egyptian security forces was “routine and pervasive” and that “police using force to extract confessions from criminals is a daily event.” There are "literally hundreds of torture incidents every day in Cairo police stations alone.”  Washington was told.

Military jets flew above Cairo today in a military show of strength but from what I've read, the protestors were not overly concerned.



Al Jazeera bloggers report that there are rumors that Egypt's interior minister has been arrested by the military. The Egyptian military is one of the largest in the world and, like the hated security forces receives a lot of US taxpayer money. The military though is respected in a way the police are not, and, like in Tunisia, some have joined protests and some units refused to fire on demonstrators with live ammunition. This is always the danger when the military, who are workers in uniform, are brought in tot he streets to face their own relatives.

Here are a couple of hourly updates from Al Jazeera bloggers in Cairo.  I read reports that the Al Jazeera offices there have been closed down.  You can read them in depth here

4:39 pm: Hundreds of judges join the protests in Cairo.
4:25 pm: Ahmed Salah, a protester, was in Tahrir square when the fighter jets flew overhead.

"It was extremely loud; it was very shocking, but then we would turn our victory sign to say we are not scared by their actions. The people were shouting, "Irhal - leave!"

4:02 pm: Egyptian television reports the curfew is now in effect.
3:51 pm: At least two military fighter jets fly low over protesters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. The sound is deafening, and the jets keep circling in an apparent show of might, our producer reports.

We want to remind readers again the importance of the information Wikileaks has released over the past month. As we stated, it is not that political people and many workers don't know this information already in the general.  It is that it is made "legitimate"  through these "official" documents being released.  It makes clear why the US government wants to silence Wikileaks and why they have Bradley Manning in solitary and are in effect torturing him.

Defend Wikileaks, free Bradley Manning