Busted: Pro-Mubarak Thugs Are Police Officers
Objects are burned at a roadblock in protest of the
fatal shooting of a Bedouin protester. (Reuters)
It should surprise no one that some if not all of the violent pro-Mubarak forces are plain clothes police officers. The Guardian notes:
Sharif Kouddous, a prolific Egyptian tweeter and blogger in Cairo, describes "a brutal and coordinated campaign of violence" by the Mubarak regime, in an article posted on Democracy Now's website:
"Suddenly, rocks started falling out of the sky," said Ismail Naguib, a witness at the scene. "Rocks were flying everywhere. Everywhere." Many people were hit. Some were badly cut, others had arms and legs broken. The mob then charged in; some rode on horseback and camels, trampling and beating people. Groups of them gathered on rooftops around Tahrir and continued to pelt people with rocks.
Some of the attackers were caught. Their IDs showed them to be policemen dressed in civilians clothes. Others appeared to be state sponsored "baltagiya" (gangs) and government employees. "Instead of uniformed guys trying to stop you from protesting. You've got non-uniformed guys trying to stop you from protesting," Naguib said.
This is just like when the British police attacked the non-violent protesters led by Gandhi, or the police in towns in the South of the United States attacked the peaceful protesters led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Note: The police were also the ones doing most, if not all, of the looting. See this and this.
Al Jazeera: Live Stream
flickr: ID Cards of Arrested Thugs in Tahrir Square February 2nd
Raw Story: Protesters run Mubarak thugs out of Tahrir Square: reports
KavkazCenter/Al Jazeera: Mubarak sends in his police thugs dressed in civilian clothes. Clashes break out
Reuters: Mubarak supporters open fire at demonstrators in Cairo
Daily Mail: Secret police blamed as peace protesters are gunned down in the siege of Cairo
Twitter: Soldiers given orders NOT to protect protestors
Al Jazeera: Live blog Feb 3 - Egypt protests - One of our Web producers reports that almost everyone in the square seems injured, is bandaged and limping. The mood there is "pretty fatalistic" with the anti-government protesters certain that the pro-Mubarak forces are "there to eliminate them".
Belfast Telegraph: 'Fighting was so terrible we could smell the blood' - It was vicious and ruthless, bloody and well planned, a final vindication of all Mubarak's critics and a shameful indictment of the Obamas and Clintons who failed to denounce this faithful ally of America and Israel.
LA Times: Death toll grows in Egypt protests (Video) "I wanted to remove my president." she whispered. "Now I will become a terrorist."