Rebels in Libya Gain Power and Defectors

ZAWIYAH, Libya — The Libyan rebels challenging Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi demonstrated their increasing military coordination and firepower on Sunday, as defecting officers in the east took steps to establish a unified command while their followers in this rebel-held city, just outside the leader’s stronghold in the capital, displayed tanks, Kalashnikovs and antiaircraft guns.

In a further sign of their strength, the rebels also talked about tapping revenue from the vast Libyan oil resources now under their control — estimated by some oil company officials to be about 80 percent of the country’s total. And in recognition of the insurrection’s growing power, Italy’s foreign minister suspended a nonaggression treaty with Libya on the grounds that the Libyan state “no longer exists.” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States was reaching out to the rebels to “offer any kind of assistance.”

The most striking display of strength was seen here, 30 miles from Colonel Qaddafi’s Tripoli redoubt. Zawiyah is one of several cities near the capital controlled by rebels, who have repulsed repeated attempts by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces to retake them. And the arsenal they displayed helped to explain how the rebels held Zawiyah.

“Army, army, army!” excited residents shouted, pointing to a defected soldier standing watch at Zawiyah’s entrance as he raised his machine gun in the air and held up two fingers for victory.

A few yards away a captured antiaircraft gun fired several deafening salutes into the air, and gleeful residents invited newcomers to clamber aboard one of several army tanks now in rebel hands. Residents said that when Colonel Qaddafi’s forces mounted a deadly assault to retake the city last Thursday — shell holes were visible in the central mosque and ammunition littered the central square — local army units switched sides to join the rebels, as about 2,000 police officers had done the week before.

And on Sunday, scores of residents armed with machine guns and rifles joined in a chant that has become the slogan of pro-democracy uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and across the Arab world: “The people want to bring down the regime!”

The opposition’s display came as a global effort to isolate Colonel Qaddafi and possibly force his resignation gained momentum over the weekend, with the United Nations Security Council moving to impose punitive financial sanctions and NATO allies discussing steps that included a possible no-fly zone over Libya.

But with their increasing firepower, the rebels appeared to break the pattern of nonviolent revolts set by neighboring Egypt and Tunisia and now sweeping the Middle East — just as Colonel Qaddafi has shown a willingness to shed far more of his citizens’ blood than any of the region’s other autocrats.

The maneuverings by both sides suggested they were girding for a confrontation that could influence the shape of other protest movements and the responses of other rulers who feel threatened by insurrections. Colonel Qaddafi’s militias, plainclothes police and other paramilitary forces have kept the deserted streets of Tripoli under a lockdown.

And residents of Zawiyah said Sunday that his forces were massing again on its outskirts. As a caravan of visiting journalists left Zawiyah, a crowd of hundreds of Qaddafi supporters waving green flags and holding Qaddafi posters blocked the highway for a rally against the rebels. “The people want Colonel Muammar!” some chanted.

In interviews with ABC News, two of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons appeared to mix defiance and denial. “The people — everybody wants more,” said Saadi el-Qaddafi, apparently dismissing the public outcry for a more accountable government. “There is no limit. You give this, then you get asked for that, you know?”

He described the uprisings around the region as “an earthquake” and predicted, “Chaos will be everywhere.” If his father left, he said, Libya would face a civil war “one hour later.”

His brother Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi seemed to challenge journalists to look for signs of unrest. “Please, take your cameras tomorrow morning, even tonight,” he said. “Everything is calm. Everything is peaceful.”

But when government-paid drivers and minders took visiting journalists on an official tour to visit here Sunday morning, they found a town firmly in rebel hands, where Libyan officials and military units did not even try to enter. It was the second consecutive day that an official tour appeared to do more to discredit than bolster the government’s line, and questions arose about the true allegiance of the official tour minders, who appeared to mingle easily with people of rebel-held Zawiyah. Some suggested that the Qaddafi government might in fact have believed its own propaganda: that the journalists would discover in Zawiyah radical Islamists or young people crazed by drugs supplied by Osama bin Laden.

But the residents showed little interest in Islamist politics or hallucinogenic drugs. They mocked Colonel Qaddafi’s allegations, painted the tricolored pre-Qaddafi flag that has become the banner of the revolt on the side of a burned-out government building, and chanted, “Free, free, Libya.”

Several said that on Thursday morning the Qaddafi forces had blasted peaceful protesters gathered in the square with machine guns and artillery, pointing to holes in the sides of pillars and even a mosque. They showed journalists seven fresh graves dug in the square to bury those killed in the fight.

But the battle had made them even more confident of their power, they said, because military units had joined their cause instead of fighting against them. Some said that in the fights against Italian occupation and other battles in Libya’s pre-Qaddafi history, their city of 300,000 had earned the nickname “the silent lion,” and was living up to it again. “When Qaddafi killed people, Zawiyah became like a volcano,” said Tariq Mohamed, a resident.

They said the city was now under the control of a committee of prominent citizens — doctors, lawyers, judges, engineers and the like — who were organizing its public services and continued defense. “We are a very patient people,” said Ahmed el-Hadi Remeh, an engineer standing in the square. “We kept silent for 42 years, and when we do start to speak, he shoots us with a 14.5 millimeter.”

In Benghazi, the eastern city where the revolt began, rebels said that Libyan soldiers had joined the rebels in securing vital oil industry facilities around that part of the country. Some oil industry workers fleeing across the Tunisian border in recent days said they had seen Libyan soldiers fire their weapons to drive off foreign mercenaries or other security forces who had approached oil facilities not far from here.

Hassan Bulifa, who sits on the management committee of the Arabian Gulf Oil Company, the country’s largest oil producer, said that the rebels control at least 80 percent of the country’s oil assets, and that his company, based in Benghazi, was cooperating with them. The company resumed oil shipments on Sunday, loading two tankers at a port in Tobruk, Mr. Bulifa said. The ships — one bound for Austria and the other for China — represented the company’s first shipments since Feb. 10.

Although the revenue from those sales goes the company’s umbrella organization, Libya’s National Oil Company, Mr. Bulifa said Arabian Gulf Oil had ceased any coordination with the national company, though it was honoring oil contracts. And he insisted the proceeds would ultimately flow to the rebels, not Colonel Qaddafi. “Qaddafi and his gangsters will not have a hand on them,” he said. “We are not worried about the revenues.”

Some in Washington, including Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, urged the Obama administration to consider military action and recognize a rebel government. But the rebels themselves seemed far from ready for international relations.

On Saturday, the country’s former justice minister, Mustafa Mohamed Abd al-Jalil, said in an interview on Al Jazeera that he would head a transitional government, with the aim of holding elections within three months. But on Sunday, another figure in the rebel movement, Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, seemed to dismiss that claim, saying a national council had been formed to manage the “day-to-day living” of the “liberated” territories.

The Qaddafi government implicitly acknowledged for the first time on Sunday that it feared elements of its military falling into rebel hands, as Colonel Qaddafi’s son Seif said in the television interview that the Libyan government had bombed its own ammunition depots in the east.

And Gen. Ahmed el-Gatrani, a former senior commander who now leads the rebel forces, said his troops were awaiting a call for support from the capital. “Our brothers in Tripoli say: ‘We are fine so far, we do not need help.’ If they ask for help we are ready to move,” he told Reuters. Many rebels in the west, however, said they believed General Gatrani was trying to hide the true rebel plans. Mr. Ghoga, for his part, vowed Sunday that Tripoli and other Libyan cities would be liberated using “our national army.”

The bloody price of Mubarak 'stability'

Khaled Fahmy is the chairman of the history department at the American University in Cairo.

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- The events of Wednesday offer a brutal example of President Hosni Mubarak's disastrous security-driven policy. For nine days, pro-democracy demonstrators had taken to the streets asking for nothing less than a complete change of the regime.
On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of people congregated on Tahrir Square at the center of the city asking Mubarak to leave and effectively saying that they had had enough of his bankrupt, soulless and dull leadership. Eventually, Mubarak appeared on TV on Tuesday night, offering not run for re-election in September.

But rather than allow this limited concession to have its course and for people to mull it over, he resorted to what he knows best: a heavy-handed, security-informed tactic. On Wednesday, I witnessed hundreds of men ranging in age from perhaps 20 to 40, being given directions as to where to meet and which routes to take to reach Tahrir Square.
This happened on Galaa Street to the north of the square. I also saw these men then being put on small trucks, which headed toward Tahrir Square. They were carrying placards and distributing leaflets that were obviously prepared. Their attitude was aggressive, and although some passers-by seemed to agree with the slogans being shouted, none joined these groups on their way to the square.

All in all, it was clear to me that these people had been organized -- most probably by the ruling National Democratic Party -- but not at all clear that they actually believed or understood the slogans that they were shouting. By midday, thousands of thugs had descended on the peacefully demonstrating pro-democracy crowd in Tahrir Square with whips, sticks and knives. A bloody confrontation ensued that reportedly resulted in five deaths and more than 800 wounded.
State-controlled media portrayed the tragic outcome as the result of confrontation between the forces of stability and chaos. This was vintage Mubarak policy: suspending political dialogue, resorting to violence and abrogating the basic rights of assembly, association and speech -- all in the name of stability and security.

Indeed, for 30 years, Mubarak has presented himself to his own people as well as to the West as a pillar of stability in a turbulent region. During his five terms in office, he survived many assassination attempts, maintained close ties with the United States, upheld the peace treaty with Israel and kept the Islamist opposition under tight control.

Yet this has come at a high cost. The ongoing dramatic events in Egypt have clearly demonstrated that Mubarak has been ready to sacrifice not only basic constitutional, legal and human rights but also, and paradoxically, the vaunted stability of Egyptian society.

To ensure it, during his tenure he has repeatedly argued that the pace of political, economic and social reform needed to be slowed. He has argued that Egypt had to adopt a tight security policy to combat terrorism; that the forces of political Islam do not understand anything but the language of force and a strong government grip.

As a result, the security forces have been given a say in all aspects of Egyptian life. For example, university appointments have to be approved by state security forces; political parties and civil society institutions were tightly controlled and prevented from establishing grass-root connections lest they be "infiltrated" by Islamists; and parliamentary and presidential elections were repeatedly rigged to prevent the Islamist opposition from gaining control.
All of this, Mubarak argued, was a fair price that Egyptians have to pay to be secure.
However, the dramatic events that Egypt has been witnessing have proven the fallacy of this logic. For prioritizing security over all other concerns did nothing but undermine all major institutions upon which the modern Egyptian state has been built.
The policy has eroded Egyptian universities, parties, professional associations, the press and the judiciary. Furthermore, and in the most ironic twist, the Egyptian police itself have been undermined and de-professionalized by systematically resorting to torture and casting aside all constitutional, legal and moral considerations.

Wednesday's events provided an ugly, bloody illustration of where this has all led.
These shortsighted tactics have thrown the country into an even deeper crisis. Whatever limited trust that remained between Mubarak and his people has now evaporated. If there were some who were willing to believe that he could be trusted to put in place a system that can guarantee free and fair elections in September, they have now been proven wrong by the tragic events Wednesday.

Egypt's political crisis has many deep causes: a stagnant political system, rising unemployment, rampant corruption and a disenfranchised, youthful population.
Above all, however, the dangerous situation Egypt finds itself in is a direct result of 30 years of prioritizing stability and allowing security to trump all calls for reform.
Mubarak's regime, its strong ties with the U.S. and Egypt's peace treaty with Israel all stand to suffer -- paradoxically -- from Mubarak's unimaginative, cautious attitude -- one that has forsaken the true aspirations of the Egyptian people and undermined the stability of Egyptian society.

What's your advice for Afghan women, Hillary Clinton?

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talk while walking in a private Georgetown garden in Washington, DC, May 2010.

The Afghan Women's Writing Project began in May 2009 with the goal of nurturing the often-silenced voices of Afghan women. This article is a call to the US government from one of the first writers to join the project.

Dear Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,

My name cannot be shared here. I am an Afghan woman of many struggles, now in hiding in my own homeland. I finally had an opportunity to go to a university in the United States in January and continue my education. But at the US Embassy in Kabul, my visa was rejected after the interviewer asked me, "Do you have the intention to come back to Afghanistan?" When I said no, she told me, "I am sorry; it is against the law. We can't give you any visa."

Secretary Clinton, I am against the law in my country, too. I am against the culture and customs of my country, against the respect of the elders, against those Afghan males who proudly deny the freedom of others. I refused to marry my 40-year-old uneducated cousin who wanted to pay money to my family and buy me like a piece of cloth. My uncle, the father of that cousin, has threatened my life because I defied him. I have held onto my courage to stand up against them, with the support of American friends who helped me buy freedom and then helped me get a scholarship and find a host family in the United States.

Of course, I want to return to my country, my home, and help other women like me. I want to write about the real lives of Afghan women who have suffered more than me and who have not been heard. I want to live in every province of our country, and to discover how our women can make a change in their lives. I also know we need educated women in Afghanistan. I want to be an independent woman and work for Afghanistan and our generation. I want to do this, but I also want to be safe. If I cannot do this, then I will feel I have finally failed.

I know I am not the only Afghan woman who suffers from this kind of situation, and the United States can't help every Afghan woman gain her education. On the other hand, I know that only with a storm of knowledge and wisdom can we escape from violence. Only after we bring a change in our lives, can we save the lives of others.

I am tired and can't explain the entire story of this bare life of mine, but I did want to share these latest efforts with you. I don't write to you only because you are the secretary of state of the United States of America. I write to you because you are a woman. As a woman, what do you advise me? And your president is the father of two daughters. If I were his daughter, what would be his advice for me? Should I continue to fight?

Sometimes, I ask myself, why? Why do I want so much to study? Why can't I accept what is considered enough in our country? Why can't I be a good mother, serve my family, make a happy home? Dad wanted me to be a doctor. He said in this way, I could help other women, because in most of the Afghan provinces, women are not allowed to visit a male doctor. I tried, but I couldn't become a doctor. Though I failed at that, I found I could write. And then I understood I could heal with my writings.

Inside my heart, there is a war, and it is part of the same war that your country began fighting here after 11 September 2001. Although my life has been as a thunderstorm without end, I want my freedom, and I trust my courage and strength. With hopeful hands, I write; with worried legs, I walk to try to find a new tomorrow and, with my arms, to dig a grave to bury the violence against the women of my country.

I love the people of your country, but I don't think enough has been done by your government to secure freedom for Afghan women. As long as stories of cruelty against Afghan women remain in newspaper headlines, we can't stop. We can't be satisfied.
As I try to find a new direction for myself and other Afghan women, I hope for counsel from you.

White House, Egypt Discuss Plan for Mubarak's Exit

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military, administration officials and Arab diplomats said Thursday.

Even though Mr. Mubarak has balked, so far, at leaving now, officials from both governments are continuing talks about a plan in which Mr. Suleiman, backed by Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, chief of the Egyptian armed forces, and Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the defense minister, would immediately begin a process of constitutional reform.

The proposal also calls for the transitional government to invite members from a broad range of opposition groups, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, to begin work to open up the country’s electoral system in an effort to bring about free and fair elections in September, the officials said.

Senior administration officials said that the proposal was one of several options under discussion with high-level Egyptian officials around Mr. Mubarak in an effort to persuade the president to step down now.

They cautioned that the outcome depended on several factors, not least Egypt’s own constitutional protocols and the mood of the protesters on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities.

Some officials said there was not yet any indication that either Mr. Suleiman or the Egyptian military was willing to abandon Mr. Mubarak.

Even as the Obama administration is coalescing around a Mubarak-must-go-now posture in private conversations with Egyptian officials, Mr. Mubarak himself remains determined to stay until the election in September, American and Egyptian officials said. His backers forcibly pushed back on Thursday against what they viewed as American interference in Egypt’s internal affairs.

“What they’re asking cannot be done,” one senior Egyptian official said, citing clauses in the Egyptian Constitution that bar the vice president from assuming power. Under the Constitution, the speaker of Parliament would succeed the president. “That’s my technical answer,” the official added. “My political answer is they should mind their own business.”

Mr. Mubarak’s insistence on staying will again be tested by large street protests on Friday, which the demonstrators are calling his “day of departure,” when they plan to march on the presidential palace. The military’s pledge not to fire on the Egyptian people will be tested as well.

The discussions about finding a way out of the crisis in Cairo take place as new questions are being raised about whether American intelligence agencies, after the collapse of the Tunisian government, adequately warned the White House and top lawmakers about the prospects of an uprising in Egypt.

During a Senate hearing on Thursday, both Democrats and Republicans pressed a senior Central Intelligence Agency official about when the C.I.A. and other agencies notified President Obama of the looming crisis, and whether intelligence officers even monitored social networking sites and Internet forums to gauge popular sentiment in Egypt.

“At some point it had to have been obvious that there was going to be a huge demonstration,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence.

She said that intelligence agencies never sent a notice to her committee about the growing uprising in Egypt, as is customary in the case of significant global events.

Stephanie O’Sullivan, the C.I.A. official, responded that the agency had been tracking instability in Egypt for some time and had concluded that the government in Cairo was in an “untenable” situation. But, Ms. O’Sullivan said, “we didn’t know what the triggering mechanism would be.”

Because of the fervor now unleashed in Egypt, one Obama administration official said, Mr. Mubarak’s close aides expressed concern that they were not convinced that Mr. Mubarak’s resignation would satisfy the protesters.

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour of ABC News, Mr. Mubarak said that he was “fed up” with being president but that he could not step down for fear of sowing chaos in the country.

“The worry on Mubarak’s part is that if he says yes to this, there will be more demands,” said Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. “And since he’s not dealing with a legal entity, but a mob, how does he know there won’t be more demands tomorrow?”
A number of high-level American officials have reached out to the Egyptians in recent days. While administration officials would not offer details of the alternatives that were being discussed, they made it clear that their preferred outcome would be for Mr. Suleiman to take power as a transitional figure.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke by phone to Mr. Suleiman on Thursday, the White House said in a statement, urging that “credible, inclusive negotiations begin immediately in order for Egypt to transition to a democratic government that addresses the aspirations of the Egyptian people.”
Mr. Biden’s phone call came after a mission by Mr. Obama’s private emissary, Frank G. Wisner, was abruptly ended when Mr. Mubarak, angry at Mr. Obama’s toughly worded speech on Tuesday night, declined to meet with the envoy a second time, officials said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has made three calls since the weekend to Egypt’s powerful defense minister, Field Marshal Tantawi, who served on the coalition’s side in the Persian Gulf war of 1991.

Pentagon officials declined on Thursday to describe the specifics of the calls but indicated that Mr. Gates’s messages were focused on more than urging the Egyptian military to exercise restraint.

Officials familiar with the dialogue between the Obama administration and Cairo say that American officials have told their Egyptian counterparts that if they support another strongman to replace Mr. Mubarak — but without a specific plan and timetable for moving toward democratic elections — Congress might react by freezing military aid to Egypt.

On Thursday, the Senate passed a resolution calling on Mr. Mubarak to begin the transfer of power to an “inclusive, interim caretaker government.”

Anthony H. Cordesman, an expert on the Egyptian military at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that a transition government led by Mr. Suleiman and the military, with pledges to move toward democratic elections, was in his mind “the most probable case.” But he said the administration had to proceed with extreme caution.

“Everybody working this issue knows that this is a military extremely sensitive to outside pressure,” Mr. Cordesman said.

Even as the Obama administration has ratcheted up the pressure on Egypt, it has reaffirmed its support for other Arab allies facing popular unrest.

The White House released a statement saying that Mr. Obama called President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen on Wednesday to welcome Mr. Saleh’s recent “reform measures” — the Yemeni president promised not to run again in 2013.

And on Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called King Abdullah II of Jordan to say that the United States looked forward to working with his new cabinet — recently announced — and to underline the importance of the relationship between Jordan and the United States.

Philip J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, declined to say whether Mrs. Clinton had enlisted King Abdullah in an effort to ease out Mr. Mubarak. But Mr. Crowley praised the king for responding to the unrest in Jordan.

“He’s doing his best to respond to this growing aspiration,” Mr. Crowley said. “And we appreciate the leadership he’s shown.”

Questions about quality of intel ahead of Mideast unrest

Washington (CNN) -- The violence from the streets of Tunisia to Egypt, and the U.S. struggle to find the right diplomatic response, is raising questions about whether the U.S. intelligence community failed to predict things were about to boil over.
The White House denied suggestions that the president was displeased with the level of intelligence he got ahead of the uprising in Tunisia.
The White House spokesman wouldn't discuss the private conversations between President Barack Obama and his aides, but said the president is satisfied with the intelligence he is receiving.
"The president expects in any case he'll be provided with relevant, timely and accurate assessment -- that's what he received," spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday. "Rest assured that there are volumes of reports that have been read by this administration and past administrations about the potential for instability and unrest in Tunisia, in Egypt, and throughout the world," Gibbs said at the White House briefing.

A U.S. official privy to the information provided to policymakers insisted that the U.S. intelligence community warned after unrest in Tunisia that "the unrest could gain momentum and threaten the status quo."

However, Adm. Mike Mullen, America's top military officer, acknowledged on The Daily Show on Thursday night that the tsunami of protests across the Mideast caught U.S. officials in the wave. "To a great degree I think the timing of it certainly caught us as it moved from Tunisia and sort of across to the really difficult challenge that sits there right now in Egypt," said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
In fact, U.S. military officials have been telling CNN for days they have limited understanding of what is happening inside the Egyptian government. The military are depending partially on television broadcasts around the clock to get their latest information.
Congress also entered the fray. Some senators wanted to know if the intelligence agencies failed to realize tens of thousands of Egyptians would rebel after years of massive unemployment, social unrest and dissatisfaction with an authoritarian regime.
"I've looked at some intelligence in this area, which indicates some lacking," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-California, at a Thursday hearing.
Questioning a senior intelligence official, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said: "You can't just gaze into a crystal ball and try to guess what can't be predicted, but I do want to get a general sense of when you all told the president that we were faced with something that was as serious as what we have seen in recent days."
Appearing in front of the committee, CIA Associate Deputy Director Stephanie O'Sullivan said some recent events could not be predicted. "We warned of instability. We didn't know what the triggering mechanism would be for that, and that happened in the end of last year," said O'Sullivan at the hearing to consider her nomination to be the Deputy Director of National Intelligence.
The ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, asked the intelligence community to provide a timetable within 10 days of what Obama was told about the developments in Egypt.

"While no one would expect that the IC (intelligence community) could have predicted the specific event that led to the initial unrest in Tunisia, the IC should have been able to provide assessments of the broader implications of that unrest, and we want to make sure that occurred," Chambliss told CNN on Friday.

Rep. Mike Rogers, the new Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a former FBI agent, cautioned against calling this an intelligence failure.
"Intelligence clearly helps us understand developments in places like Egypt, but is not a crystal ball. We've got to be realistic about its limits especially regarding the complex and interactive behavior of millions of people," said Rogers.

Top Ten Accomplishments of Egypt Demonstrators

The protest movement in Egypt scored several victories on Friday, but did not actually succeed in getting President Hosni Mubarak to step down. Their accomplishments include:

1.The hundreds of thousands (the Egyptian Arabic press is saying a million nationwide) of demonstrators showed that they had not been cowed by the vicious attacks of Ministry of Interior goons on Wednesday and Thursday, which killed 7 and wounded over 1,000.

2. By their determination and steadfastness, they put the Egyptian army in the position of having to protect them from further attacks by the petty criminals and plainclothes secret police deployed by the Interior Ministry. The alternative would have been a bloodbath that could have destabilized the country and would have attracted further international condemnation.

3. They showed that they still have substantial momentum and that the cosmetic changes made in the government (switching out corrupt businessmen for authoritarian generals as cabinet ministers) have not actually met their demands for reform.

4. They showed that they are a broad-based, multi-class movement, with working-class Egyptians clearly making up a significant proportion of the crowd in Tahrir Square.

5. They demonstrated that they are a nation-wide movement, bringing hundreds of thousands out in Alexandria, Suez, Ismailiya, Mansoura, Luxor, Aswan and elsewhere.

6. They put pressure on the Obama administration to hold Mubarak’s feet to the fire about an early departure.

7. They so reassured Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that they are the future of Egypt that he took the risk of calling for Mubarak to step down.

8. By making a Mubarak departure seem sure, they tempted new presidential candidates into the arena, as with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, who visited the crowds at Tahrir Square to some acclaim.

9. The optimism created by crowd actions caused Nobel prize winner Mohamed Elbaradei to make an about-face and affirm that he would be willing to run for president if drafted.

10. Gave cover to to Ayman Nur of the Tomorrow (Ghad) Party and other leaders of opposition political parties to continue to demand Mubarak’s departure.

Suspected attack on Egyptian gas pipeline halts supply to Israel

Gas explosion rocks the Sinai peninsula as anti-government unrest continues across the country.

An explosion went off at a gas terminal in Egypt's northern Sinai peninsula early this morning, setting off a fire that could be seen dozens of miles away, officials and witnesses said.

No injuries were reported and the blaze was quickly brought under control after the gas flow was shut off. The governor of the region, Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, said he suspected "sabotage", but provided no details.

The blast came as a popular uprising engulfs Egypt, where anti-government protesters have been demanding the ousting of longtime president Hosni Mubarak for the past two weeks.

The Sinai peninsula, home to Bedouin tribesmen, has been the scene of clashes between residents and security forces. It borders both Israel and the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas.

The blast went off early this morning at a gas terminal in the northern Sinai town of el-Arish, several hundred metres away from the local airport.

Mabrouk told Egypt's Nile News TV that the fire was brought under control by mid-morning, after valves allowing the flow of gas from the terminal into pipelines were shut off. The pipelines transport gas from Egypt's Port Said on the Mediterranean sea to Israel, Syria and Jordan.

There were unconfirmed reports about the cause of the blast. Israel Radio quoted officials at the terminal as saying that a small explosive device had been detonated.

The blaze was visible from rooftops of homes next to the Gaza-Egypt border, about 44 miles away. A steady pillar of flames rose high into the air, but there was no smoke, and the fire died down by mid-morning, residents said.

The gas pipelines have come under attack in the past. Bedouin tribesmen attempted to blow up the pipeline last July as tensions intensified between them and the Egyptian government, which they accuse of discrimination.

Israel relies on the gas pipeline to meet its energy needs and spends billions to bring natural gas from Egypt. Israeli officials said it was not clear whether the explosion affected the pipeline leading to Israel.

"At this stage, the gas supply to Israel was stopped according to procedure in emergency scenarios," said Chen Ben Lulu, spokesman of Israel's infrastructure ministry. "We are not sure what caused the explosion."

Egypt has potential natural gas reserves of 62tn cubic feet (1.7tn cubic metres), the 18th largest in the world. It began providing Israel with natural gas in February 2008 under a deal by which it will sell Israel 60bn cubic feet a year for 15 years.
The deal raised controversy at home, with some in the Egyptian opposition saying the gas was being sold at below-market rates. Others resent Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and say Egypt shouldn't supply energy to Israel.

"The deal [to sell gas] was a blow to the pride of Egyptians and a betrayal," former diplomat Ibrahim Yousri told Associated Press today.

Yousri led a high court challenge to try to halt Egypt's sale of gas to Israel. Although the high court ruled in his favour in February 2010, the ruling was widely ignored by the government.

Traditional papers didn't know how to handle WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks cables shed light on the wisdom of US troops' presence in Aghanistan - but this was too often overlooked.

With condolences to the iPad and Sarah Palin's Twitter account, WikiLeaks is the media story of our time. Since the one-two punch of the release of military reports about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and November's trove of diplomatic cables, the government, the media, and the public have been playing catch-up with the implications of this new media frontier.

Much of the traditional media has seemed lost on how to handle this hi-tech interloper. As a result, too much of the coverage has been meta – focusing on questions about whether the leaks were justified – while too little has dealt with the details of what has actually been revealed and what those revelations say about the wisdom of America's ongoing effort in Afghanistan. There's a reason why the Obama administration has been so upset about these leaks.

As has too often been the case since 9/11, the WikiLeaks controversy has found a great deal of the media once again on the wrong side of the secrecy debate. As Harvard's John Perry Barlow tweeted: "We have reached a point in our history where lies are protected speech and the truth is criminal."

Whether old or new, the media's job, as Simon Jenkins wrote in the Guardian, isn't to protect the powerful from embarrassment. Its job is to play the role of the little boy in The Emperor's New Clothes – brave enough to point out what nobody else will say. And when the press trades truth for access, it is WikiLeaks that acts like the little boy.

Without that little boy, we get truth-for-access traders like Judith Miller, whose breathless, spoonfed – and ultimately inaccurate – accounts from Iraq help lead America to war. When her facts proved wrong, Miller shrugged it off by saying: "My job isn't to assess the government's information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of the New York Times what the government thought about Iraq's arsenal." In other words, her job is to tell citizens what their government is saying, not what their government is doing.

The establishment media may be part of the media, but they're also part of the establishment. And, with WikiLeaks, they've been circling the wagons. They conflate the secrecy that governments use to operate and the secrecy that allows governments to mislead us. Nobody, including WikiLeaks, is promoting the idea that governments should exist in total transparency, or that, for instance, all government meetings should be live-streamed and cameras placed around the White House like a DC-based spin-off of Big Brother.

But a government's legitimate need for secrecy is different from the government's desire to get away with hiding the truth. Conflating the two is dangerously unhealthy for a democracy. This is why it's especially important to look at what WikiLeaks is doing, as distinct from what its critics claim it's doing.

It's also important to look at the fact that even though the cables were published in mainstream outlets such as the Guardian, the information first went to WikiLeaks. "You've heard of voting with your feet?" said New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen. "The sources are voting with their leaks. If they trusted the newspapers more, they would be going to the newspapers."

And what of the WikiLeaks themselves? Instead of one smoking-gun, bombshell revelation, the leaks have added to a consistent drip of damning and embarrassing details about the Afghanistan war and the brass tacks of diplomacy. For one thing, it turns out that the world of diplomats and ambassadors, which we always supposed to be a realm of intrigue, is kind of like high school. So it has been drip, drip, drip, and the effect has been cumulative – not unlike mercury poisoning.

If any of the WikiLeaks revelations remind us why bringing allied troops home from Afghanistan quickly needs to be more – much more – than "aspirational" (as the Pentagon recently termed the goal of being out by 2014), then the advent of the WikiLeaks era, and its implications for the wider media, will be a very good thing indeed.

This is about our future. For our democracies to survive, citizens have to be able to know what their government is really doing. We can't change course if we don't have accurate information about where we really are. Whether this comes from a new media website or an old media newspaper – or both – doesn't matter a lick.

Egypt protests - Saturday 5 February

Rolling coverage of the latest events in Egypt as protests continue into the 12th day.

The proposal being promoted by a group of Egyptians calling itself the "The Council of Wise Men" involves Suleiman assuming presidential powers for an interim period pending elections.
But some opposition figures argue that would mean the next presidential election would be held under the same unfair conditions as in previous years. They want to first form a new parliament to change the constitution to pave the way for a presidential vote that is democratic.
The "Wise Men" proposal is based on article 139 of the constitution that would allow Mubarak to hand his powers to his deputy while staying on as figurehead.
"Under debate now is article 139 which transfers the president's executive powers to Omar Suleiman and Mubarak remains as a figurehead until September," Diaa Rashwan, an expert at the al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies and one of the "Wise Men", told Reuters.
Handing power to Suleiman offers a potential compromise between protesters' demands for Mubarak to leave office immediately and his stated decision to stay on until the end of his term in September.
Rashwan said all opposition factions and forces, including the influential Muslim Brotherhood, were invited to Saturday's talks. He said some groups have expressed reservations about the president staying on even in a symbolic role.
"Consultations are continuing to find an end to this crisis," he added.
The main opposition groups comprise the Brotherhood, the National Coalition for Change led by Nobel peace laureate and former IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, the Kefaya movement and youth represented by the April Sixth Movement, the liberal Wafd party and the leftist Tagammu party.
Even if they all agree on the proposal, article 82 of the constitution could present a legal complication. It says that while the president is able to delegate powers to a deputy, that person is not allowed to request constitutional amendments or dissolve the parliament or shura councils.
If that article holds, it would be impossible for a Suleiman-led administration to carry out the constitutional reforms promised by Mubarak in response to the protests.
Without constitutional changes, a presidential election in September would have to run under the same rules that opposition parties say stack all the cards in favour of Mubarak's ruling party and effectively rule out an effective rival bid.
The Brotherhood said discussions were still taking place a among the factions to seek a common ground.

"Until now there is no agreement among the various parties and factions on one scenario," Mohammed Morsy, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Reuters.
He said his Islamist group was proposing that the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court takes over power as stipulated by the constitution since parliament has been effectively suspended since the unrest erupted last month.
"The head of the supreme court will then call for parliamentary elections and the elected parliament can amend the necessary clauses in the constitution in order to conduct fair and honest presidential elections," Morsy said.
"Most of the clauses in the constitution concern the president ... The president has to go. We are trying to find a constitutional way out if the president is no longer in his post."

Obama to Mubarak: Listen to Egyptian people

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama said Friday that talks between the Egyptian government and its political opponents were in the initial stages, but warned that the mere "pretense of reform" would not be enough to resolve that country's deepening crisis.
The transition of power "must begin now" and lead to "free and fair elections," he declared. Negotiations must "include a broad representation of the Egyptian opposition," he told reporters.

Asked if embattled President Hosni Mubarak needs to step down now -- as opposed to waiting for a successor to be chosen in Egypt's September elections -- Obama said Mubarak needs to consult with advisers and listen to what's "being voiced by the Egyptian people."
The Egyptian leader is "proud" but also a "patriot," Obama said. Mubarak needs to make a judgment about his legacy and the best "pathway forward." Violence and repression have no role in the "orderly transition process," he added. "The whole world is watching."
Obama noted he has had two conversations with Mubarak since the crisis began.

The U.S. government has encouraged talks between Mubarak's government and its opponents over the past few days, in part out of recognition that an orderly transition to democracy could prove difficult if Mubarak suddenly steps down without laying any groundwork first.

"We can't dictate what an orderly transition means, but it's time for both of them to roll up their sleeves," one senior State Department official said earlier Friday.

Members of the opposition, a disparate group of at least six factions and political groups nominally headed by Mohamed ElBaradei, are still "jockeying," the official said, hedging their bets on how events will play out, and some are refusing to negotiate unless and until Mubarak steps down.

The official said the administration believes Mubarak's vice president -- Omar Suleiman -- is sincere in his willingness to talk with the opposition, although talks are still in the initial stages.

U.S. lawmakers chimed in Thursday, with foreign policy veterans Sens. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and John McCain, R-Arizona, among those calling for Mubarak to step aside.
Thursday night, the U.S. Senate gave unanimous approval to a resolution calling for Mubarak to "immediately begin an orderly and peaceful transition to a democratic political system, including the transfer of power to an inclusive interim caretaker government, in coordination with leaders from Egypt's opposition, civil society, and military, to enact the necessary reforms to hold free, fair, and internationally credible elections this year."
Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, have condemned a string of attacks against journalists, human rights activists, and protesters in Egypt.
The United States continues "to be crystal clear that we oppose violence as a response to this crisis," Obama said Friday. On Thursday, Clinton called such incidents "a violation of international norms" and "unacceptable in any circumstances."
"It is especially in times of crisis that governments must demonstrate their adherence to (core universal) values," she said.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday that the administration continues "to receive very disturbing reports" of "systematic targeting" of journalists in Egypt.
The increasingly urgent push for reform comes as the Egyptian government pushed back on what it called "vague" statements from the Obama administration about the pace of transition.
One Egyptian government official told CNN the United States has shown support for its "road map" for transitioning to democracy by the end of Mubarak's term in September, but said Obama's call for an "orderly transition" are at odds with his call for an immediate one.
The official said Mubarak is seen as a "receding figure" in Egyptian politics, but deposing him immediately would lead to a murky political process, which would prevent the free and fair elections the protesters are calling for. According to the Egyptian constitution, the presidency would be transferred to the speaker of the parliament if Mubarak leaves power without enacting certain legislative and constitutional reforms.
"Institutionally, there is support in Egypt for this road map among the military, vice president and prime minister," the official said. "The bureaucracy thinks it has a degree of legitimacy and if the objective continues to be deposing the president now, they clearly don't understand the advantage that this road map will create a constitutional and administrative voice to the transition and is not going to lead to confusion."
U.S. officials describe an opposition that is not altogether unified on whether to begin a dialogue with the government. Some, like former foreign minster and Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa, said concessions made by Mubarak present an opportunity to build upon. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood had said that no talks should take place until Mubarak steps down.

"There are some people who see what is required to hold the type of elections they want to hold. They are looking at the administrative questions that have to be answered, and realize that will take a bit of time," the senior State Department official said. "They are focusing on elections and transformation of the system, rather than on Mubarak."
The Egyptian official said conversations with Washington suggest the United States understands this process, but public statements from Obama, Clinton, and U.S. government spokesmen have sent mixed messages.
"We understand the need to be vague and play to the street, but this is hardly the time," the official said.

The United States continues to reach out to every country in the Middle East, not only to solicit their analysis and advice, but also to assure nervous allies that the United States stands with them during this tumultuous time in the region, the official said.
"We are in a phase where the Mubarak era is ending in Egypt, either now or in September, and something this significant hasn't happened in the region in some time," the official said. "We are giving them the chance to give us their views and letting them know how significant this is."

Journalist organization, Obama condemn attacks on reporters in Egypt

(CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the attacks on journalists in Egypt Friday amid mounting criticism that the assaults were being orchestrated by President Hosni Mubarak to suppress international coverage of bloodshed by pro-government operatives against peaceful protesters.
"We continue to be crystal clear that we oppose violence as a response to this crisis," Obama said. "We are sending a strong, unequivocal message: Attacks on reporters are unacceptable. Attacks on human rights activists are unacceptable. Attacks on peaceful protesters are unacceptable."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday that the administration continues "to receive very disturbing reports" of "systematic targeting" of journalists in Egypt.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has excoriated Mubarak for "an unprecedented and systematic attack" on international reporters.

"This is a dark day for Egypt and a dark day for journalism," CPJ executive director Joel Simon said. "With this turn of events, Egypt is seeking to create an information vacuum that puts it in the company of the world's worst oppressors, countries such as Burma, Iran and Cuba."

"We hold President Mubarak personally responsible for this unprecedented action," said Simon, "and call on the Egyptian government to reverse course immediately."

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit committee promoting press freedoms worldwide, said Friday it has recorded at least 101 direct attacks on journalists and news facilities this week. The anti-press activities include assaults, detentions and threats, the committee said.

Friday's attacks weren't as severe as Thursday's peak offenses, but the hostilities against a free press remain at "an alarming level that must be halted," the committee said.
Plainclothes and uniformed agents reportedly went so far as to even enter journalists' hotels and confiscate equipment, the committee said.
A journalist shot a week ago while covering a demonstration died Friday, a state newspaper reported, according to the committee.

It was the first reported journalistic death during the weeklong uprising, it said.
Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud of the newspaper Al-Ta'awun, published by the state-owned Al-Ahram Foundation, died from a sniper's bullets fired while he was filming confrontations between demonstrators and security forces January 28 in central Cairo's Qasr al-Aini area, adjacent to Tahrir Square, Al-Jazeera and the semi-official Al-Ahram reported Friday, according to the committee.

The Mubarak regime hasn't discriminated in which sorts of journalists are being attacked: Egyptians and other Arabs, Russians, Americans, Europeans and South Americans all have been targeted, the committee said.

German official retracts assassination report

Vice President Omar Suleiman has been working to initiate government transition.

Munich, Germany (CNN)
The German diplomat who said there was an assassination attempt against Egypt's new vice president has retracted his comments.

"I was led to believe that we had a confirmed report but in fact we didn't," Wolfgang Ischinger told CNN, adding the information he received was based on an unsubstantiated source.
Ischinger, the host of the Munich Security Conference, told a plenary session of the meeting that there was an assassination attempt against Omar Suleiman and several people were killed.
At the time, he didn't provide any more detail about the incident.
The vice president, appointed last week amid widespread cries for President Hosni Mubarak's ouster, has been working to initiate a government transition.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is attending the conference, said it's important to support the Suleiman-led transition process.

Suleiman had been an intelligence chief and a powerful behind-the-scenes player for a long time, and his appointment was seen widely as an attempt by Mubarak to restore order.

Holocaust denier in charge of handling Moscow cables

Extract from WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy discloses the antics of Israel Shamir, who pilloried the Swedish women who complained of rape .

Julian Assange's security over the diplomatic cables, which he once described as worth at least $5m to any foreign intelligence agency, seemed less than watertight. At Ellingham Hall, the Norfolk country house where he is staying while on bail, Assange was seen handing over batches of them to visiting foreign journalists, including someone who was simply introduced as "Adam".

"He seemed like a harmless old man," said one staffer, "apart from his habit of standing too close and peering at what was written on your screen." He was introduced as the father of Assange's Swedish crony, journalist Johannes Wahlström, and took away copies of cables from Russia and post-Soviet states. According to one insider, he also demanded copies of cables about "the Jews".

This WikiLeaks associate was better known as Israel Shamir.

Shamir claims to be a renegade Russian Jew, born in Novosibirsk, but currently adhering to the Greek Orthodox church. He is notorious for Holocaust denial and publishing a string of antisemitic articles. He caused controversy in the UK in 2005, at a parliamentary book launch hosted by Lord Ahmed, by claiming: "Jews … own, control and edit a big share of mass media." Internal WikiLeaks documents, seen by the Guardian, show Shamir was not only given cables, but he also invoiced WikiLeaks for €2,000 (£1,700), to be deposited in a Tallinn bank account, in thanks for "services rendered - journalism". What services? He says: "What I did for WikiLeaks was to read and analyse the cables from Moscow."

Shamir's byline is on two previous articles pillorying the Swedish women who complained about Assange. On 27 August, in Counterpunch, a small radical US publication, Shamir said Assange was framed by "spies" and "crazy feminists". He alleged there had been a "honeytrap". On 14 September, Shamir then attacked "castrating feminists and secret services", writing that one of the women involved, whom he deliberately named, had once discussed the Cuban opposition to Castro in a Swedish academic publication "connected with" someone with "CIA ties".

Subsequently, Shamir appeared in Moscow. According to a reporter on Russian paper Kommersant, he was offering to sell articles based on the cables for $10,000 (£6,300). He had already passed some to the state-backed publication Russian Reporter. He travelled on to Belarus, ruled by the Soviet-style dictator Alexander Lukashenko, where he met regime officials. The Russian Interfax news agency reported that Shamir was WikiLeaks' "Russian representative", and had "confirmed the existence of the Belarus dossier".

According to him, WikiLeaks had several thousand "interesting" secret documents. Shamir then wrote a piece of grovelling pro-Lukashenko propaganda in Counterpunch, claiming "the people were happy, fully employed, and satisfied with their government".

Assange subsequently maintained he had only a "brief interaction" with Shamir: "WikiLeaks works with hundreds of journalists from different regions of the world. All are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and are generally only given limited review access to material relating to their region."

One can only speculate about whose interests Shamir was serving by his various wild publications. Perhaps his own personal interests were always to the fore. But while the newspapers hammered out a deal to handle the cables in a responsible fashion, Shamir's backstairs antics certainly made WikiLeaks look rather less so.

Egypt crisis:

Report of assassination attempt not confirmed, diplomat says

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Opposition leaders and intellectuals met with Egypt's vice president Saturday to discuss avenues for easing embattled President Hosni Mubarak from power, the number one demand of of tens of thousands of demonstrators.
Among the proposals under discussion is Article 139 of the constitution, which allows for the vice president to assume control if the president is no longer able.
At least one opposition group, the leftist Tagammu party, is asking the government to activate the article's powers so that Suleiman can take charge immediately and allow Mubarak to make a graceful exit.
A member of the self-declared Committee of the Wise, told CNN that Suleiman was willing to listen.
The group of independent elites -- intellectuals, artists, diplomats and businessmen -- wants to be at the table during crucial government transition talks.
They called on protests to continue at Tahrir Square every Tuesday and Friday until Mubarak "resigns and makes true the demands of the people."

Mubarak, said the committee, can remain as a symbolic leader but should delegate to Suleiman responsibility for the transition period.
Saturday's talks were taking place as crowds massed again in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square for a 12th day of protests demanding an end to Mubarak's 30-year authoritarian rule over the Arab world's most populous nation.
After chaos and bloodshed earlier in the week, Cairo remained calm Saturday.
Cars traveled over a nearby overpass in the central city. Outside the Egyptian Museum, people prayed as soldiers stood guard. Protesters who had spent the night swept sidewalks with palm branches and bought food from carts stationed in the square.
The justice minister announced that courts would reopen Sunday and the government eased its daily curfew now imposed from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.
"We're in better shape," Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said on state television. "And we can sense that day by day."
Heavy military presence persisted on the streets of central Cairo. Interior Ministry spokesman Ismail Othman said "the army remains neutral and is not taking sides because if we protect one side we will be perceived as biased.... our role is to prevent clashes and chaos as we separate the opposing groups."
But in a scene exposing how volatile the situation remains, demonstrators formed a human chain to prevent tanks from passing through the barricades into the anti-Mubarak enclave in Tahrir Square.
A witness said scuffles broke out when an army general asked demonstrators to take down their make-shift barricades of corrugated steel and debris, put up during the 48 hours of fighting near the landmark Egyptian Museum.
And hours earlier, gunshots rang out as protesters said scores of Mubarak defenders tried to assault the square early Saturday morning. Troops fired into the air to disperse them, according to the protesters.

Meanwhile, Mohamed ElBaradei's National Association for Change and the Tagammu party's leader announced a newly formed opposition group of 10 people, including ElBaradei, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Beltagy and liberal Ghad party leader Ayman Nour.
They called for Mubarak's immediate resignation and the right for peaceful demonstration.
"We have been in agreement right now that we'd probably have a presidential council of three members including somebody from the army," ElBaradei told CNN. "We have a caretaker government ... who would then run the country for a year, prepare the grounds for the necessary changes in the electoral process to ensure that we will have all what we need for a free and fair election," he said.
Tagammu and the liberal Wafd party met with Suleiman Saturday, buoyed by the government's promises to investigate the bloodshed at Tahrir Square.
At least 11 people were killed and more than 900 injured, according to the Health Ministry. Many believe the violence was instigated by government provocateurs.
But some opposition groups are refusing to come to the table until Mubarak steps down.
"The so-called dialogue is the first step to exhaust this revolution. The president must go," said Mohammed Habib, deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, an opposition Islamist umbrella group that if officially banned but tolerated in Egypt.

The group reported that a security force accompanied by a "gang of thugs" stormed the office of its news website Friday and arrested the journalists, technicians and administrators. The Al-Jazeera news network reported a similar attack on its Cairo office.
Those attacks came after two days of violence and a government crackdown on journalists and human rights activists bearing witness to the crisis.
Some had predicted the demonstrations might lose their momentum. But Friday, dubbed the "Day of Departure" saw massive crowds gather in Cairo and other Egyptian cities to demand change.

Investors showing keen interest in horticultural produces of Assam

The tradition, diversity, potentiality and high demand of horticultural produces of Assam has able to draw tremendous interests of investors, traders and general visitors in the Horticultural Stall of Directorate of Horticulture & Food Processing, Assam of ongoing India International Trade Fair held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 14th November last. This fair will conclude on November 27 next.

The stall displaying wide range of fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, tuber crops, nut crops, medical and aromatic crops besides various kinds of value added products like pickle, squash etc.

Several investors showing their keen interests in Bhot Jolokia ( Capsicum chinense Jacq.), Assam Lemon or Nemu( Citrus limon), Carombola or Kordoi ( Averrhoa carombola L), Passion fruits or Lota bel ( Passiflora edulis), Olive or Jolphai ( Elaeocarpus floribundus), Eleppant Apple or Ou-tenga, Birds Eye Chilli or Kon Jolokiya, Bamboo shoots or Bahor Gaj, Ginger, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Anthurium, Orchids etc.

Entrepreneurs participated in the stall also benefited by sale of their own farm produce and value added horticultural products.

JB Patnaik opens Assembly session: Gogoi to table vote of thanks

Assam governor JB Patnaik says that his government has done a lot to ensure development all on fronts. Opening the Assam assembly session on Tuesday Patnaik claimed that peace is back to the state to boost the process of development. But the opposition parties didnot allow the governor to continue his speech. With festoons a section of AGP and BJP members raised to register protest. They said the government has done only corruption and nothing else. This has forced Patnaik to cut short his speech. Later on Tuesday chief minister Tarun Gogoi who is holding the finance portfolio will table vote on account. Several bills would be moved in this session to be concluded on February 8.

'First-aid' needed for 5,000-year-old Somali cave paintings

(CNN) -- Prehistoric paintings of antelope, snakes and giraffes that have survived for around 5,000 years are now under threat from looting and a lack of protection.
The rock paintings, which include renderings of dogs and sheep as well as human figures, were discovered at Dhambalin, in a unique sandstone shelter close to the Red Sea in Somaliland, a breakaway state from war-torn Somalia.
They were found by Dr. Sada Mire in 2007, in what she says was first ever survey initiated and led by a Somali archaeologist in the region. Since then, Mire has discovered 100 cave and rock art sites across Somaliland, but they need desperately to be preserved.
Mire said the sites are not only vital to the understanding of pre-history across the Horn of Africa, but also important in bolstering cultural pride in the people of Somaliland.
"That gives them a sense of dignity and that they are not totally desperate, they have something that the world thinks is very valuable," she said.

But Somaliland is in need of help and infrastructure to safeguard its ancient heritage.
Although it declared independence from Somalia in 1991, Somaliland is not internationally recognized as a separate state. This means that its sites cannot be granted World Heritage status by UNESCO.
According to Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture, Somalia is one of the few member states not to have ratified its 1972 World Heritage Convention, meaning that its sites are not eligible for World Heritage status.
Heritage workers in Somaliland therefore face a dilemma, said Dr. Dacia Viejo-Rose, a Researcher at the Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict project at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, part of the University of Cambridge in the UK.
"They can choose to protect their heritage as Somalian and lobby the government and the ministry of culture in Somalia to present (their case) to UNESCO," she said.
Or, they can "stick to the fact that it's not Somalia's heritage but Somali land's," in which case they can't then follow that path.
"The question is, which is the priority? To protect the distinctiveness of Somaliland or to protect the heritage no matter what and who is claiming it?" she continued.
Another problem faced by Mire is the lack of museums in which to store objects. Mire writes on her website Somali Heritage and Archaeology, that museums in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, and second largest city Hargeisa, have suffered severe looting during the ongoing civil war. Somaliland still lacks a museum.
"At the moment we do not do any excavations because we are not able to host objects," said Mire. She believes that there are many sites in Somaliland awaiting discovery.

"The best way to protect (objects) is to take them straight to a laboratory (in a museum) and give them first aid," she continued
Educating Somalis about their heritage is another important task for Mire, who heads Somaliland's Department of Antiquities, a branch of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which she helped establish.
While human sweat is enough to damage the delicate rock paintings, burial sites nearby are often looted for artifacts that are sold on to illicit antiquities traders. Looting tends to be done by locals, who are unaware of the archaeological significance of their sites, Mire said.
"You have a whole base of very, very poor people digging sites and getting peanuts for it," Mire said.
Despite these issues, though, progress is being made. Mire is creating an inventory of sites across Somaliland and drafting antiquities laws to protect them.
"We just drive away for weeks and disappear into the desert," she said.
"Usually we take albums and show locals pictures of the sites we are looking for," she added.
She has elected local Somalis to be custodians of the sites and hopes that they can benefit in future from tourism.
In her eyes, it is important for the people to feel that their heritage belongs to them.

WikiLeaks:

How US political invective turned on 'anti-American' Julian Assange.
Extract from the Guardian book charting a unique collaboration with WikiLeaks demonstrates how 'US blood on hands' of website's founder got fainter and fainter

As the cables rolled out day by day, an ugly, and in many ways deranged, backlash took place in the US. A vengeful chorus came mostly from Republicans. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, darling of the unhinged right, denounced Julian Assange's "sick, un-American espionage" and came close to inciting his assassination: "Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders? … He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands."

But it was Senator Joe Lieberman, Senate homeland security committee chairman, a foreign policy hawk and maverick Democrat, who was the most practical attack dog. Lieberman described the leak in apocalyptic terms as "an outrageous, reckless and despicable action that will undermine the ability of our government and our partners to keep our people safe and to work together to defend our vital interests".

He stopped short of denouncing Assange as a "terrorist" but said: "It's a terrible thing that WikiLeaks did. I hope we are doing everything we can to shut down their website."

Contrary to the bloodcurdling claims made in public about the crimes of WikiLeaks, senior state department officials appeared to have concluded by mid-January that the WikiLeaks controversy had caused little real and lasting damage to American diplomacy. Reuters news agency reported on 19 January 2011 that in private briefings to Congress, top US diplomats admitted the fallout from the release of thousands of private diplomatic cables across the globe had not been especially bad.

One congressional official briefed on the reviews told Reuters that the administration felt compelled to say publicly that the revelations had seriously damaged American interests in order to bolster legal efforts to shut down the WikiLeaks website and bring charges against the leakers. "I think they want to present the toughest front they can muster," the officials said.

The tacit retraction of Hillary Clinton's lurid claim that the release of the WikiLeaks cables had been an attack on the entire international community followed the equally low-key admission that Assange did not in fact have "blood on his hands" from the release of the earlier Iraq and Afghan war logs.

That may have been thanks to the learning curve imposed on Assange by his mainstream partners. Assange eventually agreed to make extensive redactions in what he published on the Wikileaks site, to prevent reprisals against individuals. But his initial attitude had been very different.

Declan Walsh, the Guardian's Islamabad correspondent, recalls one tense evening: "We went out to a Moorish restaurant, Moro, with the two German reporters. David Leigh broached the problem again with Julian. The response floored me. 'Well, they're informants,' he said. 'So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it.' There was, for a moment, silence around the table. I think everyone was struck by what a callous thing that was to say."

Major setback awaits AGP as Sonowal to join BJP

AGP is set to receive a major setback. Sarbananda Sonowal is ready to join BJP. That too three months before the assembly polls. According to sources available with Assamtimes, the AGP firebrand who took the lead in getting IMDT repealed by supreme court, will formally join BJP on February 5 at a meeting to be attended by Varun Gandhi in Dibrugarh. But AGP leaders are still tightlipped on the uneasy development.

CEC confident of free and fair polls in Assam

The Election Commission is confident of a free and fair Assembly polls in Assam. Talking to media people in Guwahati on Thursday, Chief Election Commissioner Dr S Y Qureshi said the Commission has given the Assam government a slew of measures to make help them hold the upcoming polls a free and fair.

According to Dr Qureshi, the poll panel told chief secretary N K Das and his senior colleagues to arrest all criminals already released on bail. Moreover, director general police police Shankar Baruah was also directed to sized licensed arms with immediate effect.
Besides, the election commission has instructed the government to complete all recruitment and transfer procedures within this week.
Dr Qureshi said the all voters in the state will get an identity slip before they proceed to excercise their franchise. Election Commissioners V S Sampath and HS Brahma were also present before in the press conference. The full bench of the poll panel on Wednesday reviwed poll preparations of the state and talked to the district civil and police heads before returning to New Delhi.

WikiLeaks founder Assange out on bail

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been freed from custody, just a few hours after a judge in London ruled he should be released on bail.

Assange is free while he fights extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

Assange said Thursday as he thanked his supporters, backers and legal team from the steps of the High Court: "Well, it's great to smell the fresh air of London again,"
He said he hoped to continue his work and continue "to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal, as we get it … the evidence from these allegations."

Assange did not take questions after his statement.

Earlier, Judge Duncan Ouseley rejected a prosecution appeal of a lower-court decision from earlier this week that granted Assange his freedom and set conditions on his release.
Prosecutors tried to argue that Assange was a flight risk prior to his extradition hearing in January, but Ouseley disagreed.

"He would diminish himself in the eyes of many of his supporters," Ouseley said of Assange in court."I don't accept that Mr. Assange has an incentive not to attend [court]. He clearly does have some desire to clear his name."

Assange smiled and gave a thumbs-up to the packed courtroom as he was led out following the judge's ruling.
Following the ruling, Assange's mother, Christine, thanked supporters of her son and said she was "very, very happy."

WikiLeaks: the latest developments

WikiLeaks rallies in Australia, US congressman writes to Robert Gates about Bradley Manning's "cruel and unusual" punishment and more of today's WikiLeaks news and views.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange outside Beccles police station in Suffolk.

Some recent developments:
A pre-recorded message from Julian Assange has been played to pro-WikiLeaks rally in Australia. He said he wants to return home to Sydney Melbourne and compared WikiLeaks to the peace movement, environmentalism and feminism. He said:"For the internet generation this is our challenge and this is our time. We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state."

The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security and opaqueness. Surely it was only a matter of time before citizens pushed back and we asserted our rights.

Australia's ABC adds that he called on Australia's prime minister, Julia Gillard, to take "active steps to bring me home".

• Bradley Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, has posted the following statement on his blog about the US army private's citizenship:

PFC Manning does not hold a British passport, nor does he consider himself a British citizen. He is an American, and is proud to be serving in the United States Army. His current confinement conditions are troubling to many both here in the United States and abroad. This concern, however, is not a citizenship issue. Instead, it is one involving a basic fundamental right not to be unlawfully punished prior to trial.

PFC Manning is not being held like any other detainee at Quantico. He is in Maximum Custody and under Prevention of Injury watch over the repeated recommendation of brig forensic psychiatrists. There has been no stated justification for PFC Manning's confinement conditions. It is the hope of the defense that through the various inquiries into the arbitrary nature of his confinement status, he will soon receive relief from these onerous conditions

• Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, a candidate for his party's nomination in the last two presidential elections, has suggested in a letter to the US defence secretary that Manning could be being subject to "cruel and unusual" punishment in military jail. His phraseology is important - "cruel and unusual" punishment is in violation of the US constitution.

Since his arrest in May, Manning has been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "Maximum Custody Detainee", the highest and most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on himNow, reports indicate that the Army has taken Pfc. Manning, a soldier with documented mental health problems, and confined him under conditions that are almost guaranteed to exacerbate his mental health problems. If true, the Army's treatment would obviously constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The Telegraph has published cables on homegrown UK terrorism. In one, a US congressional delegation (which included Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman shot last month in Tucson) is told the following by a member of MI6 (name redacted):


The internal threat is growing more dangerous because some extremists are conducting non-lethal training without ever leaving the country. Should these extremists then decide to become suicide operatives, HMG intelligence resources, eavesdropping and surveillance would be hard pressed to find them on any "radar screen." XXXXXXXXXXXX described this as a "generational" problem that will not go away anytime soon

For half a century, from 1946 to 2005, this use of transnational networks to get around national controls was asymmetric: governments could use this technique to surveil citizens, but not vice-versa. In 2006, WikiLeaks launched, holding out the possibility of evening up the odds, however slightly, in favour of the citizens. For the first three years of its existence, this change was more potential than actual, but in 2010, with the release of the Collateral Murder video, the Afghan war logs, and, most significantly, the US embassy cables, increased oversight of the state by citizens became real

3pm: The Cutline blog has a report on an event last night in New York with New York Times executive editor Bill Keller and the Guardian's editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger. The two said Assange would have their support if the US were to bring a criminal prosecution against him:
"If, God forbid, ever this came to court, I would be completely side-by-side with him in terms of defending him with respect to what he did," said Rusbridger, one of the panelists, acknowledging that Assange and WikiLeaks should be afforded the same protections as journalists when it comes to the publication of government secrets. "Completely shoulder to shoulder," Rusbridger continued. "I've got great admiration for him in a lot of stuff he's done."

And Keller?

"In terms of his right to be protected for publishing secrets, I think we do stand by him," said the Times chief, though he was a bit less unequivocal in his response. "I think the Times' lawyers would prefer I not declare what I'd do in a court of law. Outside a court of law, I agree it would be very difficult to come up with a prosecution of Assange in a way that wouldn't be applicable to us."

This isn't the first time reforms have been promised in the country, and Aftenposten's own report (translation here) notes that Abdullah "has also promised reforms before – without having to implement them."

The cables discusses barriers to reform, such as tribal leaders with an interest in the status quo, but also whether Abdullah can implement it. When the prime minister most recently fired was appointed in 2009, US diplomats noted that "while the king's enthusiastic push for revitalised reforms and expressed anti-corruption sentiment is noteworthy, his designation letter to the new premier is a tall order for a cabinet and a parliament not yet formed, much less proven."

This is a US assessment from April 2009:
While the King promotes democratization indirectly, he has proved reluctant to spend political capital on pressing directly for reforms which could encroach on his power base of conservative tribal elites. We continue to push for changes to Jordan's electoral system, increased political space for civil society and the press, and the promotion of women´s rights.