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Discussion PolicyThursday, February 3, 2011; 3:28 PM
Violent protests continued for a second day in Egypt as Will Englund, Griff Witte and Debbi Wilgoren reported:
As bloody attacks on anti-government demonstrators in central Cairo continued for a second day Thursday, Egypt's new vice president appealed for patience in implementing reforms but warned against unspecified conspiracies and flatly rejected opposition demands that President Hosni Mubarak leave power immediately.
The remarks came amid a growing chorus of international condemnation as dozens of foreign journalists and human rights workers were arrested while reporting on violent clashes following attempts by Mubarak supporters to break up anti-government demonstrations.
Omar Suleiman, a former intelligence chief and Mubarak confidant who was appointed vice president last week, said in an interview on state television that Mubarak would keep his word not to run in the next presidential election, to be held no later than September. Suleiman said Mubarak's son Gamal, who had been considered his heir apparent, also would not run.
BlogPost: Follow live coverage of the tenth day of Egypt protests
Foreign journalists were caught up in the protests, and several were detained by military police, as David Nakamura explained:
A day after journalists were beaten by pro-government supporters in Cairo, at least two dozen reporters, including two Washington Post staff members, have been detained according to multiple witnesses. Based on reports from witnesses, they were in the custody of the military police in Cairo as of 3 p.m. EET (8 a.m. EST). Early reports that they were in the custody of the Interior Ministry appear to have been incorrect.
Leila Fadel, the Post's Cairo bureau chief, Linda Davidson, a staff photographer, Sufian Taha, their translator and a longtime Washington Post employee, and Mansour el-Sayed Mohammed Abo Gouda, their Egyptian driver, were among those who have been detained, said Douglas Jehl, the Post's foreign editor. Fadel and Davidson have since been released, but Taha and Abo Gouda are believed to still be in custody.
Three Al Jazeera journalists also have been detained and another is reported missing, according to a statement from the news network. Meantime, the Associated Press reported that its correspondent saw "eight foreign journalists detained by the military near the prime minister's office, not far from Tahrir Square."
Video: Egyptian army still undecided where their loyalties lie
Mohamed ElBaradei has become the unlikely face of the anti-government protesters, as Colum Lynch and Janine Zacharia reported:
Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize-winning former United Nations bureaucrat, has emerged this week as an improbable revolutionary, clamoring for the overthrow of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
On Wednesday, as pro-Mubarak mobs attacked protesters in Tahrir Square, ElBaradei appealed to the Egyptian army to break with the nation's aging leader and defend the demonstrators. "This is yet another symptom, or another indication, of a criminal regime using criminal acts," ElBaradei said, according to al-Jazeera. "My fear is that it will turn into a bloodbath."
Earlier this week, he scolded the United States for refusing to withdraw its support for Mubarak.
ElBaradei's transformation from a high-profile U.N. official with a home in Vienna to a key player in Egypt's popular uprising follows a lackluster year-long campaign to enter his native country's politics, both as an advocate of democracy and as a possible presidential candidate in this year's elections.
OTTAWA — Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon on Thursday called on the Egyptian military to guarantee the safety of foreign journalists covering clashes between partisans and opponents of Egypt's embattled president.
Canada is "very concerned" about the safety of Canadian journalists in Egypt, he said, after public broadcaster CBC, Radio-Canada and the daily Globe and Mail reported that their correspondents had been intimidated or attacked in Cairo.
Cannon called on the Egyptian military to "guarantee their safety."
On Wednesday, media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders condemned as "shocking" attacks in Cairo against foreign media by partisans of Egypt's embattled president.
"These attacks seem to have been acts of revenge against the international media for relaying the protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak's resigning," Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary general for the Paris-based group, said in a statement.
Clinton condemns attacks on reporters, protesters
By ASSOCIATED PRESS02/03/2011 23:53
Without directly blaming Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's regime, she said, "It is especially in times of crisis that governments must demonstrate their adherence to these universal values."
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She said Egypt's government and army must provide protection and hold accountable those responsible for the attacks. Clinton said journalists must be allowed to report on the demonstrations.
She urged Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman to include a "broad and credible representation of Egypt's opposition" in a transition toward free and fair elections.
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman's meetings with opposition figures so far "are not broad enough, not credible enough."
Crowley said the US wanted Egypt's government to do more. And he urged the opposition to participate in dialogue.
He also said there were strong indications that attacks on journalists in Cairo were part of a concerted effort to stifle reporting on the crisis. He did not blame Mubarak or the government, though.
The White House also sharpened its criticism of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's teetering regime and expressed outrage over violence against protesters, declaring that its once-close partner should set a brisk course for new elections.
US President Barack Obama began his remarks at Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast with pointed hopes for better days ahead: "We pray that the violence in Egypt will end and the rights and aspirations of the Egyptian people will be realized."
Aboard Air Force One Thursday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs condemned the violence on the Egyptian streets. "The government of Egypt has to ensure that peaceful protests can take place," as he accompanied Obama on a trip to Pennsylvania.
Gibbs offered a strong denunciation of reports of "systematic targeting" of journalists in Egypt, saying those actions are "totally unacceptable."
"Any journalist that has been detained should be released immediately," Gibbs said. "I think we need to be clear that the world is watching the actions that are taking place right now in Egypt."
In Egypt, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq acknowledged that the attack on anti-government protesters "seemed to have been organized." He promised an investigation into who was behind it.
Gibbs, in response, said he hoped that Shafiq's "acknowledgement that anybody that is involved in this will be held accountable is something that the government is serious about."
A day after Obama pressed Mubarak to loosen his three-decade grip on power immediately, clashes between protesters and pro-government supporters Wednesday further alienated Egypt's besieged government from its longtime patron, the United States.
The administration decried the fighting that started when several thousand Mubarak supporters, including some riding horses and camels and wielding whips, attacked anti-government protesters. Demonstrators dragged some of the attackers to the ground and beat them bloody, and the two sides rained stones and bottles down on each other.
Crowley also drew attention to the increasing attacks on foreign reporters covering the upheaval. "There is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting," he said in a Twitter post. "We condemn such actions."
The administration's comments aim to keep the pressure on Mubarak amid fears that the Egyptian government was trying to outlast the protesters' calls for democratic change with cosmetic changes that don't meet the need for real reform. They echoed Obama's call for change to "begin now" after Mubarak announced he would not run for re-election.
"We don't know who unleashed these thugs on the streets of Cairo," Crowley said, but called it a clear attempt to silence Egyptian voices of dissent. "The use of violence to intimidate the Egyptian people must stop."
Vodafone: Egypt forced us to send text messages
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A man takes pictures with his cell phone on Tahrir, or Liberation Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday Jan. 31, 2011.
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Egyptian authorities forced Vodafone to broadcast pro-government text messages during the protests that have rocked the country, the U.K.-based mobile company said Thursday.
Micro-blogging site Twitter has been buzzing with screen grabs from Vodafone's Egyptian customers showing text messages sent over the course of the demonstrations against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old regime.
A text message received Sunday by an Associated Press reporter in Egypt appealed to the country's "honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honor." Another urged Egyptians to attend a pro-Mubarak rally in Cairo on Wednesday. The first was marked as coming from "Vodafone." The other was signed: "Egypt Lovers."
In a statement, Vodafone Group PLC said that the messages had been drafted by Egyptian authorities and that it had no power to change them.
"Vodafone Group has protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable," the statement said. "We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator."
The company also said its competitors — including Egypt's Mobinil and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat — were doing the same. Etisalat, known formally as Emirates Telecommunications Corp., declined comment.
Vodafone said the texts had been sent "since the start of the protests," which kicked off more than a week ago. Vodafone did not immediately return an e-mail asking why the company waited nearly 10 days to complain publicly. Its statement was released only after repeated inquiries by the AP.
The company declined to reveal how many such messages it had sent, or whether it was still pumping them out.
Vodafone has already come under fire for its role in the Internet blackout that cut Egypt off from the online world for several days. The company said the order to pull the plug on its Egyptian customers could not be ignored as it was legal under local law.
Vodafone was able to restore its data services on Wednesday — five days after it suspended all services in the country, according to company spokesman Bobby Leach.
The company, however, was still unable to provide mobile phone text message services as of Thursday evening, he said.
Hackers train sights on Yemen after Egypt
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The loose-knit group of online global hackers known as "Anonymous" has trained its sights on Yemen following cyber attacks on government websites in Tunisia and Egypt.
The website of Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh, presidentsaleh.gov.ye, was inaccessible on Thursday following calls by Anonymous members for attacks on the site.
Luis Corrons, the technical director at PandaLabs, the malware detection laboratory for computer security firm Panda Security, said Anonymous members "feel that somehow they have to support the people in those countries."
"It is a worldwide thing," Corrons told AFP. "They think the goal is obtaining freedom for those countries."
Valleywag, a Silicon Valley blog owned by the Gawker network, said the cyber attacks on official Yemen government websites had been dubbed "Operation Yemen" in Anonymous chat rooms.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis staged a "day of rage" in Sanaa on Thursday against President Ali Abdullah Saleh as clashes and protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were continuing in Cairo.
The attacks on Yemeni websites came a day after Anonymous "hacktivists" resumed attacks on the websites of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party, the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Information and others.
The hackers first began attacking Egyptian government websites on January 26, according to computer security experts, as part of a campaign dubbed "Operation Egypt" before the authorities there shut down the Internet.
Those sporadic Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on official Egyptian websites resumed on Wednesday after the country went back online but most Egyptian sites were accessible on Thursday.
"Welcome back to the Internet #Egypt. Well except http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg -- you stay down," members of Anonymous said on the Twitter feed @AnonymousIRC.
Anonymous last month managed to shut down the Tunisian government's official website, the national stock exchange site, and other sites during a popular uprising that led to the ousting of the country's dictator.
In a typical DDoS attack, a large number of computers are commanded to simultaneously visit a website, overwhelming its servers, slowing service or knocking it offline completely.
In December, members of Anonymous attacked the websites of Amazon, PayPal, Mastercard, Visa and others for withdrawing their services to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website.
PandaLabs' Corrons said he was not in a position to say how many people were involved in the latest attacks, but the highest number seen during the attacks on companies seen as taking steps against WikiLeaks was around 5,000.
British police arrested five people last month and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation launched raids across the United States in connection with the wave of WikiLeaks-related cyber attacks by Anonymous members.
The defense of WikiLeaks was an extension of "Operation Payback," a movement which began on the Internet message board 4Chan in September.
Operation Payback involved attacks on the websites of the Motion Picture Association of America, Recording Industry Association of America and others over their vigorous copyright protection efforts.
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