Egypt's military seeks to restore stability/and a new dawn for the Egyptian people

David Cameron, British PM, becomes the first western leader to visit post Mubarak Cairo today, to show solidarity with the people

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/20/egypt.officers.arrested/index.html

Report: Egyptian police officers arrested

Egyptians urge release of prisoners

Thousands of Egyptian protesters have called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, as people continue keeping up with their demands

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166245.html

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166355.html

Cairo reopens the Egyptian Museum

Announcement of Cabinet reshuffle - good article - to summarize quickly what changed:

PM Ahmed Shafiq stays (there's word ppl will go to Tahrir Tuesday to oust him - why is in the article), 2 Christian Ministers - 3 Ministers of official opposition parties - 1 Minister (who's rumored to have connection with a Muslim Brotherhood, but not confirmed). Ministry of Information was scrapped - WOOT - this should allow free press finally. Plus to my huge surprise, a NEW Ministry was formed for "Egyptian Expats" which is headed by a Dr. Georgette which leads me to believe that this is the 2nd christian Minister in the new cabinet beside the newly appointed Minister of Tourism. I'm very satisfied with these 2 positions.

I recommend reading the article, gives good insight to the background for some of the newly appointed Ministers.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-interim-cabinet.html#more

Babsi wrote:Announcement of Cabinet reshuffle - good article - to summarize quickly what changed:

PM Ahmed Shafiq stays (there's word ppl will go to Tahrir Tuesday to oust him - why is in the article), 2 Christian Ministers - 3 Ministers of official opposition parties - 1 Minister (who's rumored to have connection with a Muslim Brotherhood, but not confirmed). Ministry of Information was scrapped - WOOT - this should allow free press finally. Plus to my huge surprise, a NEW Ministry was formed for "Egyptian Expats" which is headed by a Dr. Georgette which leads me to believe that this is the 2nd christian Minister in the new cabinet beside the newly appointed Minister of Tourism. I'm very satisfied with these 2 positions.

I recommend reading the article, gives good insight to the background for some of the newly appointed Ministers.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-interim-cabinet.html#more

TY Babsi, hope all is OK with you.

The article is really good and there are some strong members on the cabinet and I particulaly like that there is a minister for expats too.

I saw this at the bottom -

"P.S There is a strong word in the street that Egyptians will return back to Al Tahrir square next Tuesday to down Ahmed Shafik."

This is now confirmed Strawberry - Tuesday demonstrations to take down Shafiq.

Once they did that, they should sniff out where Sillyman is hiding and take care of him too...rumored he's still working, but away from the public eye, which I don't like at all.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought he was in on the military commission, Babsi?

Babsi wrote: Sillyman .

Good luck to all your Egyptian friends and all of Egypt for tomorrow and stay safe Babsi

FlyingInTheLight wrote:Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought he was in on the military commission, Babsi?

He is an Ex-General yes, but he was a Minister and later appointed VP by Mubarak. So officially he has "no job" at this point. He is not member of the High Council of Armed Forces. But we have not heard a peep from him since he announced the end of Mubarak's Presidency. And that is what disturbs me and makes me think he's being kept in he background and still operating. But he is gone...like that house guest who broke something and disappeared. We shall see if and when he surfaces.

Tahrir Square just got completely cleared


http://twitter.com/MinaNaguib90
Military soldiers are removing all the tents at #Tahrir and dispersing the people by force

Military dispersing protesters in #Tahrir and their alibi is the curfew although they let us in tahrir after curfew since day1

Correction: Attackers are masked wearing military uniform to avoid being sued later with torturing via @wnawara

#Tahrir Square has been completely evacuated !!!

They waited for all the media to go and then they did what they wanted to do a long time ago!


-----------------
http://twitter.com/AymanM
eyewitnesses telling me that #egyptian army trying to break up peaceful protests in #tahrir, crowds pushed back by "special riot units"

http://twitter.com/monasosh
PLZ SPREAD: Masked ppl wt walkie talkies and machine guns along wt military police in Tahrir
square trying to shut down the strike

Let me be clear, the machine guns weren't used but they were obviously there to intimidate ppl

Military police r threatening us now, they have orders to evacuate, ppl should either leave or risk getting detained

They snatched 2 of us

They released the detained, and the big shot army guy is apologizing and hugging him!!!!

The army is now asking ppl to leave, 1st nicely, then now angrily in the mic

Here we go again, they r pissed and they encircled us again

Beating and electric teasers , we've been evacuated

kidnapped another we insisted we won't leave wtout him, young officer was abusive then a bigger 1 came & shouted at them to get boy

strife within the military?

Egypt's army apologizes for overnight clashes with protesters

Feb 26, 2011, 9:04 GMT

Cairo - The Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces issued an apology on Saturday after clashes erupted between protesters and the army during the night.

Full:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1622163.php/Egypt-s-army-apologizes-for-overnight-clashes-with-protesters

Babsi: When you are around could you tell us please how things are going over there? with all eyes on Libya, I don't want us to turn away from Egypt

Janey wrote:Babsi: When you are around could you tell us please how things are going over there? with all eyes on Libya, I don't want us to turn away from Egypt

I was just thinking about Babsi. She went away for a few days to NE of Egypt to visit friends. Ill send her a PM asking if shes back

The Egyptian army has used force to disperse activists gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak loyalists from the interim cabinet.

Egyptian soldiers fired in the air and used batons in the early hours of Saturday to disperse the crowd, the Reuters news agency reported.

Demonstrators had also gathered in front of the parliament building in Cairo, where police beat protesters and used tasers to suppress the crowds, an Al Jazeera producer in the capital reported.

The people had gathered to celebrate two weeks since the removal of Mubarak from power and remind the country's new rulers of their promise to guard against a "counter-revolution" of the people's power.

Activists urged the military, who had promised there would be "no return to the past" of the Mubarak era, to overhaul the cabinet.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m75367&hd=&size=1&l=e

Hi everybody,

sorry I am a bit busy since my trip. I was actually West of Alexandria. The situation there is the same as Cairo. On the way up I encountered tanks strategically placed at toll stations, entrance towards Alexandria and other cities, as well as heavy tank presence in front of Carrefour shopping Center in Alexandria.

At night I would hear shooting, neighborhood vigilantes signaling each other or military.

Regarding Cairo, the incident with the police officer was described as follows in the news paper:
A police officer was with his 12 year old son on the way to the hospital to get x-rays done. On his way, a microbus blocked the road. He got out of the car and asked him to move. The microbus driver noticed he has a gun halter, the driver tried to take it from him. A scuffle happened and the gun went off and shot the microbus driver in the shoulder. At this point, other microbus drivers came and started beating the cop and his son!!!! They also demolished his car.

Well, for my personal opinion. Microbus drivers are considered very low class/criminals, they used to be "employed" more or less by police which was corrupt as you all know. They are quite ruthless. The cop was in civilian and just wanted to go to the hospital. He also offered to take the microbus driver to the hospital with him but was beaten by the mob of other drivers. This makes me very upset - I feel all these drivers should be arrested. Police is still widely mistrusted, that is a big part why this happened imo. I will post now some updates re: Cairo politics.

The Military has issued an apology regarding the violence on Friday to clear out Tahrir Square. It said it has not ordered any violence and whoever was doing that will be brought to justice.

3 Members of the High Council of Military has given a 4 hour interview on a talk show. They also took many calls from egyptians who had questions. I did not see the interview and have not found one with english subtitles. What my friends told me was that they answered all questions very professionally and speaking always directly to the people.
For me, one of the most interesting questions asked by a caller was "Where is Omar Suleiman? Will he be working in the current interim or later on in the government?". One of the Military Council Members answered that he was VP to the "former" President, therefore he has no job. He is at home - and he will not be part of the current decision processes nor in the future. Lets hope we can believe that is true. However I found it interesting.
Another things is that they will do everything to meet peoples demands. But asked for patience, as now priority is stability, security and economy.

Regarding the Constitution Ammendments - they are with the Military Council for review at this point. A national vote will be expected in the next 4-6 weeks if they agree. One major point is a change in Presidential Terms which was set to be changed at 4 years with max. 2 terms served if elected. Same system as the US basically.

The Military also announced that current PM Ahmed Shafiq will not be overseeing election processes. He is still seen as a loyal to the old Regime and people demand his removal.

Al Adly trial to begin March 5th:

To my disappointment so far only on trial for money laundering and corruption. However, he is still under separate investigation regarding his role in the Alexandria Church bombing New Years Eve as well as for the police brutality during the Revolution.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=28796

Mahmoud Wagdy - new Minister of Interior, has given a great interview on state tv 3 days ago.

Translated by my friends he made the following announcements:

12 prisons are destroyed - therefore there are many prisoners right now cramped. He is in the process of reviewing cases and releasing people who were either imprisoned for political reasons or imprisoned without reason.

He called upon prisoners (est. 11,000 still unaccounted for and free), to please turn themselves in. He promised them to treat them with dignity, return of all personal items and rights and pardon their sentences if doing so.

He said no more arrests are being made as previous under Adly. Police will arrest people who are committing crimes and are a danger to society, they will be brought in front of the Prosecutor and can expect fair trials and sentencing. Also no longer will they be called prisoners, but instead "inmates".

He is revamping the Police Force completely including training. Only few police men have been reinstated so far, others are being re-trained. The logo was changed to "Police under the service of the people" - no police will be using torture and making arrests for no reasons or asking for bribes as under the older Regime. Training is totally changed now and he is asking for patience until the country has a good amount of security forces deployed again.

Emergency Law is something he personally does not believe in and is his highest priority to end it as soon as possible. However due to the fact that there is not enough security and with a large number of prisoners still on the run, he can not do so. But he stressed that it will be lifted as soon as forces are deployed all over the country and security and safety for the population is restored.

Further he said that he will also after having rebuilt the prisons start a kind of correctional facility in the current prisons. Meaning, letting people learn a profession and work while serving sentences so they can be integrated into society after having served their sentences.



I must say I found all these points made very significant, especially the latter re: implementing correctional facilities, rather than just throwing people into prison and then letting them loose after a while and they start going back into their old habits. He is so far very much liked by the people and my friends are quite satisfied and hopeful with this Minister. However, they still want justice to be done for Adly. Even police is calling for his head, they want to see him executed in public! That should speak for itself.

That's all I can think of so far. If anybody has questions, please ask me and I'll try to answer

AMR MOUSSA - finally publicly announced he will run for Presidency

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/6580/Egypt/Politics-/Amr-Moussa-to-run-for-president.aspx

Here are some pictures from my trip to Alexandria - I drove on the Cornish passed a huge crowd gathered during the Friday Demonstration. I could not take very good or many pictures as I was driving . The others are tanks I encountered on the way up there and in the City.

ok guys this is getting silly, we are going to migrate everyone over to the new board. We will keep this one open until everyone gets the word and we have all shifted across. We will also preserve the mails here

A couple of things to note that are really important.

In response to requests we have merged some categories. We still have the same content, but some areas have merged to make the homepage list smaller as per requests.

Secondly, there is a hot off the wires section. That section will be a rolling page of the most important threads we are running with. So you can ALWAYS go there to see the latest important stuff in a rolling page format - so we have the best of both forum types.

What we dont have yet is final artwork for the site, so please bear with us! We are moving a couple of days early because of the issues here.

Without further a do please head over to

WWW.JANEYSNEWS.COM

You can skip the splash screen and go directly to the forum itself at

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