Gaza's Islamist rulers hounding secular community

WASHINGTON POST - Gaza's Islamist rulers hounding secular community

By DIAA HADID
The Associated Press
Friday, February 25, 2011; 3:31 AM

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- After nearly four years of Hamas rule, the Gaza Strip's small secular community is in tatters, decimated by the militant group's campaign to impose its strict version of Islam in the coastal territory.

Hamas has bullied men and women to dress modestly, tried to keep the sexes from mingling in public and sparked a flight of secular university students and educated professionals. Most recently, it has confiscated novels it deems offensive to Islam from a bookshop and banned Gaza's handful of male hairdressers from styling women's hair.

The Hamas push toward religious fundamentalism is especially striking at a time of great change in the Middle East. With the Iranian-backed group firmly entrenched in power, Gaza seems unlikely to experience the type of pro-democracy unrest that has swept through much of the region.

In Gaza, defense of human rights and democracy has traditionally been the role of people whose world view is not shaped solely by Islam. Their shrinking influence could undermine those values.

Some argue that the case of Gaza could also be a warning sign for those pushing for quick democratic reforms in the region. Hamas rose to power in part by winning internationally backed parliamentary elections held in 2006.

Hamas officials say claims that they are trying to Islamize Gaza are meant to help deter the international community from recognizing their rule. "This isn't true," said Yousef Rizka, senior Hamas government official. "We respect freedom."

Gaza, a tiny sliver of land squeezed between Egypt and Israel, always had a significant Islamic flavor, but once tolerated bars and cinemas, especially during Egyptian rule from 1948 to 1967. A conservative religious movement began to take hold in the 1980s, as part of a larger, region-wide religious awakening and because of intensifying conflict with Israel, which occupied the territory from 1967 to 2005.

The trend accelerated with the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 1987, which coincided with the founding of Hamas. In June 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza after ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In Gaza, whose 1.5 million people are overwhelmingly devout Muslims, "liberal" and "secular" are loose, interchangeable terms. They apply to women who exchange modest Muslim headscarves for Western clothes, men who don't observe obligatory Muslim prayers, as well as those who call for separation of faith and politics.

Because the terms are used loosely, it's hard to know how many Gazans are actually secular. They dominate Gaza's human rights organizations, art collectives and youth groups.

Since the Hamas takeover, their numbers appear to have shrunk. There are no firm statistics, but their public profile has certainly diminished. Many left to study abroad and never returned. Others obtained refugee visas in Europe or found work in the Gulf.

"In the end, the people who think differently are leaving," said Rami, a 32-year-old activist in one of Gaza's few secular groups. He refused to give his last name, fearing retribution.

The Gallery Cafe, one of Gaza's last secular spots, is a freeze-frame of their lonely fortunes.

About a dozen chain-smoking men and three women swigged nonalcoholic beer and sugary mint tea on a recent night as they debated the protests sweeping the Arab world. They huddled on plastic chairs under a marquee, pummeled by chilly wind.

The trend toward religious fundamentalism preceded the Hamas takeover. In recent years, hard-liners have burned down the cinemas. Their charred remains are still visible in Gaza City. Militants blew up the last bar in 2005.

Gaza women, whose attire once varied from Western pants and skirts to colorful traditional embroidered robes, began donning ankle-length loose robes. Women with face veils, once rarely seen in Gaza, are now a common sight.

After winning the 2006 election, Hamas vowed it wouldn't impose Islamic law. But within two years, bureaucrats began ordering changes that targeted secular Gaza residents.

During the summer of 2009, plainclothes Interior Ministry officials on beach patrols ordered men to wear shirts.

Today, plainclothes officers sometimes halt couples in the streets, demanding to see marriage licenses. Last year, the Interior Ministry banned women from smoking water pipes in public. Islamic faith does not ban women from smoking, but it is considered taboo in Gaza society.

In November, officials shuttered the U.N.-funded Sharek Youth Forum, Gaza's largest youth organization and a popular hangout for secular youth.

Sharek employees say they were interrogated over pornography found on some staff computers. They said it was the personal material of some employees and offered to punish them for inappropriate behavior.

In January, the Culture Ministry confiscated two novels from Gaza City's dusty Ibn Khaldoun bookshop. They said residents complained the books offended Islamic values.

One described the lives of Egyptian immigrants in the U.S. and has been criticized for portraying a romantically involved unmarried couple. The other, an 18-year-old book by Syrian writer Haidar Haidar called "A Banquet for Seaweed," was deemed blasphemous in parts of the Muslim world because it contains phrases describing God as a "failed artist" and the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer.

Pockets of dissent remain. Gaza human rights groups frequently and publicly denounce Hamas campaigns.

One group of Gaza youth issued a call for support on Facebook, raging against their Hamas rulers, the U.N., and Israel. Most people who joined the effort live abroad.

Jamal Sharif, an English-language lecturer, said many Gazans live two lives: They submit to Hamas rules on the streets, but keep their own, more secular, ideas alive at home through the Internet and satellite TV.

"That's where we learn to be cultured," Sharif said.

Rights group: Bedouin smugglers rape African women in Egypt trying to reach asylum in Israel

Rights group: Bedouin smugglers rape African women in Egypt trying to reach asylum in Israel

By: Diaa Hadid, The Associated Press

23/02/2011 12:04 PM

JAFFA, Israel - An Israeli rights group said Wednesday that Bedouin smugglers in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula have raped dozens of African women who they promised to smuggle into Israel over the past year.

At least 86 women from Eritrea reported they were raped while in Sinai, which borders Israel, said Ran Cohen, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.

"Some of them are held separately just for this cause (rape)," said Azizet Kidane, an Eritrean nun who interviewed the women on behalf of the organization. None of the women agreed to talk to reporters.

Kidane said the number of raped women was likely higher because many women were ashamed to discuss sexual violence.

Thousands of African migrants cross Egypt's Sinai desert each year in hopes of reaching Israel. Their numbers have increased in the past year as Mediterranean countries make it harder to get into Europe by boat, Cohen said.

The migrants include Africans searching for work and refugees fleeing violent governments. Israel is grappling with the issue, torn between helping the migrants and worrying about the effects of the presence of growing numbers of non-Jews on the character of the state.

The rights group said male migrants were chained, whipped, deprived of water, buried in the sand, prodded with electric rods and left in metal containers. The group based its findings on interviews conducted with around 220 Eritrean asylum seekers.

"They call the families (of the asylum seekers) on satellite phones and make them hear their sons and daughters scream," Cohen said.

Yemane Tesfom, a 32-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker, said he and a group of several dozen other men were held in chains at a Sinai compound. They were only released to work.

Tesfom said he saw eight men die from dehydration, exhaustion and beatings. He showed the AP scars on his leg from where he said he was beaten so badly he needed to be hospitalized for five months in Israel.

The rights group is asking Israel's government to allow the Africans access to health services.

Israel's government expects about 13,000 illegal migrants from Africa will enter this year, joining about 20,000 others who came between 2006 and 2009. Israel is building a fence along its desert border with Egypt to cut down smuggling and infiltrations by migrants and militants.

Gazans hope new Egypt regime will end blockade

FILE - In this Feb. 12, 2011 file photo, Palestinians celebrate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, in Gaza City. A rare euphoric mood is sweeping through the Gaza Strip, with residents hoping Egypt's new rulers will ease an Israeli blockade on the coastal territory that was backed by deposed President Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa, files) (Hatem Moussa - AP)

WASHINGTON POST - Gazans hope new Egypt regime will end blockade

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and DIAA HADID
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 22, 2011; 2:14 PM

RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- A rare euphoric mood is sweeping through the Gaza Strip, where people are hoping the downfall of Hosni Mubarak will give the coastal territory a chance to get out from under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has stifled the economy.

Throughout the Middle East, the Egyptian president's ouster Feb. 11 has been greeted as a sign of hope - mostly by pro-democracy activists trying to topple their authoritarian rulers. But in Gaza it's seen as a chance to ease the widespread unemployment and international isolation residents believe is caused by the blockade that began in 2007.

"We have been waiting for this day for years," said Jamil Saher, a 22-year-old university student.

Signs of celebration dot the tiny territory, which is squeezed between Egypt to the south and Israel to the north and east.

Small black-red-and-white Egyptian flags flutter from cars and shop entrances. Pro-Hamas television broadcasts obsessively about Egypt - which ruled Gaza from 1948 to '67 - in its current affairs programs.

A group of Gazans even created 300 wood-and-glass displays honoring protesters killed in the revolt. "The blockade on Gaza must end" was emblazoned on each piece, which the group gave to Egyptian border police, asking they be passed on to the victims' families.

Their hopes for an end to the blockade could well be dashed, and at least in the short-term it seems doubtful Egypt will change its policies. The military ruling council that stepped in after Mubarak is slowly moving the country toward promised elections - it announced a new Cabinet on Tuesday - but is probably disinclined to jump into foreign policy.

And a new government would have reasons to keep the border tightly guarded, even though the blockade is unpopular with the Egyptian public.

Egypt's new rulers haven't contacted officials from Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Islamist movement, group spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, adding that he expects they've been consumed by internal affairs.

To Gazans, Mubarak was a critical figure in a regional strategy with Israel to weaken Hamas, particularly after it seized power in the territory in 2007. Mubarak "culminated his betrayal of the Palestinian people by colluding with Israel ... prompting many people to ask: Who is tormenting Gazans, Israel or Egypt?" said pro-Hamas commentator Mustafa al-Sawaf.

Each country had its own reason for the blockade. For Israel, Iranian-backed Hamas is a major threat, having vowed the destruction of the Jewish state, killed hundreds of Israeli citizens and used Gaza as a base to fire rockets at Israel's south. In Mubarak's Egypt, Hamas was viewed as a strong source of opposition to his rule.

The blockade was eased somewhat in May after a botched Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that killed nine Turkish activists and focused world attention on the Gazans' plight. But residents still can't import key construction and raw materials for factories, nor can they export most finished goods. Many of Gaza's 1.5 million residents survive from U.N. food and cash handouts.

For now, Israeli defense officials say Egypt's caretaker government is upholding the blockade.

But the future is uncertain, and they fear weapons or militants could enter Gaza if the blockade is lifted. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.

In a preliminary gesture, Egypt has reopened its passenger crossing with Gaza, which was closed for much of February during the protests.

Emad Gad, an expert on Egyptian relations with Israel at Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, predicted that a new Egyptian government would be unlikely to maintain a blockade which voters don't like. Despite more than 30 years of peace, relations with Israel are cool, and many Egyptians loathe Israel and embrace anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews.

Still, this does not mean that Egypt will embrace Hamas.

Gad said the peace treaty with Israel is an important part of Egypt's security and foreign policy. The army has no interest in hostilities with Israel, and preserving relations with the U.S. - Israel's close ally and a key source of aid for Egypt - is crucial.

Egyptian security officials also don't want to make moves that could allow more weapons to enter Gaza, where they could potentially find their way back into Egypt via Islamic groups more extreme than Hamas, said Omar Shaban, an independent analyst in Gaza.

"Gaza is in the backyard of Egypt's national security," Shaban said.

Egypt could try loosening the blockade by easing travel restrictions and strengthening trade ties, Gaza-based analysts and businessmen said. Residents of the territory now smuggle in goods like gas, concrete and wood through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. That trade could be formalized and go overland.

Gazan exports could also be shipped out of Port Said, in Egypt's neighboring Sinai peninsula. Presently, Gaza businessmen must use Israeli ports, where movement is snarled by strict Israeli security checks. Businessmen often keep goods locked in warehouses for long periods as they obtain approval for it to enter Gaza.

Behind all its calculations, Egyptians also want to avoid becoming caretakers for Gaza, Palestinian political analyst Mukheimar Abu Sada said.

The territory was meant to be part of the Palestinian state envisioned by the United Nations in 1947. As events unfolded, Egypt ruled Gaza for some two decades until Israel seized the territory in 1967 and held it until 2005. But Egypt never tried to get Gaza back, saying its status must be resolved as a part of a wider Palestinian peace deal with Israel.

"Egypt will not fall into the trap," Sada said. "Gaza will not become an Egyptian problem."

-----

Hadid reported from Jerusalem.

US restricts travel by staff in West Bank

BOSTON GLOBE - US restricts travel by staff in West Bank

 

By Diaa Hadid

Associated Press / February 20, 2011

 

JERUSALEM — The US consulate in Jerusalem restricted personal travel for staff members in some areas of the West Bank yesterday, a day after the Obama administration vetoed a UN resolution that would have condemned Israel.

 

At the same time, Palestinians demonstrated against the United States for vetoing the Arab-backed Security Council resolution. Its sponsors sought to condemn Israel for continuing to build Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank.

 

A US consular official said the travel restrictions were a precaution to avoid attacks, and that there had been no violence so far. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of consular rules.

 

The ban prohibits staff from personal travel to Jericho, the use of some West Bank roads, and using a border crossing to Jordan frequented by Palestinians for the next three days.

 

Palestinians say Jewish settlements prevent the emergence of a viable state by cutting up the West Bank, one of the chief territories they seek.

 

"Oh Obama, hateful one, settlements will not last,'' chanted hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.

 

In Tulkarem, a few hundred demonstrators marched to the nearby Israeli separation barrier and hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers. More demonstrations were planned for today.

 

The militant Islamic group Hamas, which rules Gaza, also condemned the veto.

Palestinians to hold elections by September

WASHINGTON POST - Palestinians to hold elections by September

 

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH

 

The Associated Press

Saturday, February 12, 2011; 12:06 PM

 

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinians will hold presidential and legislative elections by September, a top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas announced Saturday, a surprise move apparently prompted by the political unrest spreading in the Arab world.

 

Also Saturday, the longtime chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said he resigned from his post. The decision came after damaging leaks by the pan-Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera detailed some of the inner workings of negotiations with Israel.

 

Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo did not give a firm date for elections, but said the chief Palestinian decision-making body, the Palestine Liberation Organization, was already making preparations.

 

"We call on parties to put aside all of their differences and to focus on conducting the elections by September at the latest," he told a news conference.

 

The call was quickly met with derision by Abbas' chief rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas, whose officials said they would not participate. Hamas said Palestinians need to heal their deep rifts before they can go to elections.

 

Abed Rabbo spoke a day after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in response to nearly three weeks of mass protests against his 30-year rule. The Egyptian protests and another successful revolt in Tunisia in January have inspired calls for democratic reform throughout a region dominated by autocratic governments.

 

Palestinian elections were meant to be held last year, but the vote was put off because of the split between Abbas' government in the West Bank and the rival Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

 

Hamas rose to power in parliamentary elections in 2006. A year later, the militants seized Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement. Since then, both sides have resisted calls for new elections as repeated attempts to reconcile failed.

 

The Palestinians hope to turn Gaza and the West Bank, located on opposite sides of Israel, into an independent state, with east Jerusalem as their capital. The internal divisions are a major stumbling block to any future deal.

 

In Gaza, a Hamas official said Saturday that the movement would not allow elections in the coastal strip.

 

"The timing is to divert people's attention from the corruption of the (Palestinian) Authority," said a spokesman, Ismail Radwan.

 

Erekat, meanwhile, said he resigned as chief negotiator because the internal documents about negotiations with Israel were leaked by someone from his office. Al-Jazeera has said it obtained more than 1,600 documents it alleged showed that Palestinian negotiators secretly offered far-reaching concessions to Israel.

 

 

 

 

The documents showed that during peace negotiations with Israel in 2008, the Palestinians were prepared to make significant concessions on the final borders of a Palestinian state and on the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

 

------

 

Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

 

 

Egypt protesters fear revenge if Mubarak holds on

KANSAS CITY STAR - Egypt protesters fear revenge if Mubarak holds on

 

By DIAA HADID and HADEEL AL-SHALCHI

 

Associated Press

 

The trappings of a determined protest movement - chanting, flags and raised fists - fill Tahrir Square, the hard-won enclave of those who seek a new Egypt. But some there fear an enemy in their midst.

 

After the initial euphoria over their defiance of a state once thought impregnable, protesters are increasingly uneasy that President Hosni Mubarak or leaders he has chosen may hang on to power.

 

If they do, there is a growing fear that the entrenched regime will try to exact revenge in the way it has done so many times before - mass arrests and abuse of detainees.

 

Many in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests in Cairo, have noticed some in the crowds who look out of place. They hold mobile telephones aloft, recording video of the panorama. The protesters suspect these are undercover police documenting who is attending the protests and fear that if they don't win far-reaching concessions soon, an emboldened security establishment will identify and round them up, one by one.

 

"We've heard about plainclothes security milling about in the crowd," said Salih Abdul Aziz, 39, who first joined protests at the square on Jan. 28, a day of intense clashes with riot police. "We are careful in what we say to each other. And we don't talk politics very much to people we don't know."

 

For decades, Egyptians have endured brutality and corruption at the hands of police, and fear is a part of their fiber. A 30-year-old teacher who has met with government officials to discuss reforms said one of the protesters' main demands is the annulment of Egypt's repressive emergency laws, which the government has promised to lift eventually.

 

"This must happen. Otherwise we are not safe. We can be arrested anytime," said the teacher, who only gave her first name, Heba, for fear of government retribution.

 

The emergency laws expand police powers and sharply curtail rights to demonstrate and organize politically. The restrictions were imposed after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, which led to Mubarak taking power.

 

A Human Rights Watch worker said she had heard of recent detentions involving "lower-level harassment" of people approaching Tahrir Square with blankets and other supplies, or for alleged violations of a nightly curfew.

 

"There are new reports every day," said rights activist Heba Morayef. "It's not all targeted."

 

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information, an Egyptian group, said a prominent Egyptian blogger has been missing since Sunday night.

 

Abdel Kareem Nabil disappeared after leaving Tahrir Square, said Gamal Eid, a group activist. Nabil was released in November after four years in jail for writings deemed insulting to Islam and for calling Mubarak "a symbol of tyranny."

 

Eid said his group has recorded around 40 people missing, and believed to be in detention, since Jan. 28. He said it was not a comprehensive list and that his group was still compiling data on missing people.

 

On Monday, the government freed Wael Ghonim, a Google Inc. executive who was behind a Facebook page that rallied support for the protest movement. The government has promised to release other detained protesters, though it has not commented on the numbers and location of people it is holding.

 

Talking to an Egyptian station, station Dream 2 TV, Ghonim described how he met the new head of the ruling National Democratic Party after his release and urged him to quit because his party was "rotten."

 

In the interview, Ghonim joked: "It looks like I might be kidnapped again after this."

 

Though they have not reached their ultimate goal of pushing Mubarak out, two weeks of protests have already brought the most far-reaching concessions the regime has ever offered. Mubarak sacked his Cabinet and appointed a new one, including the first vice president he has ever designated. He promised he would not seek re-election later this year and the government also assured protesters his son Gamal would not run, as many had feared. The leadership of the ruling party was purged.

 

In addition, the new vice president, Omar Suleiman, offered to embark on a far-reaching set of reforms to include amending the constitution to provide for greater political freedoms and competition in elections for both parliament and the presidency.

 

However, many protesters are deeply mistrustful of those promises.

 

Ahmed Hosni, a 38-year-old disabled man, said he lost his leg to an accident in 2003 because when he was moved to a hospital, there was not enough equipment to treat his simple injury and he was left bleeding.

 

"We cannot leave the square because we don't trust the regime," he said. "For 30 years, we have been mistrusting the regime. If we leave, the police will come back."

 

Many just do not believe the government will deliver. They have heard similar promises before, but the changes never came to pass.

 

And they see a basic conundrum in the promises of reform: How can those who created an autocratic system, built on privileges for the few and the repression of many, be responsible for dismantling it?

 

Within the same week, the government made extraordinary pledges not to harass protesters and to investigate election fraud and official graft while hinting darkly at foreign influence in the protests.

 

That was a slap to a movement that, by most accounts, is homegrown even if it drew inspiration from the revolt in Tunisia, another North African Arab nation.

 

Suleiman, who has been managing the crisis, is just an extension of the problem for many denizens of Tahrir Square. They see the former intelligence chief and army general as an incarnation of his boss.

 

In this shifting landscape, it is hard for protesters to know whether they are winning or losing, whether the concessions amount to a real victory as long as the president of nearly three decades is still in his palace.

 

"What motivated me, and so many other people, was to make Mubarak go," said Ahmad Issam, a 31-year-old engineer in a suit and tie who came to protest in Tahrir Square after work. "Then the brainwashing attempts: the rumors, the media, showed that the regime hasn't changed."

 

Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report.

 

Egypt demonstrators entertain to keep morale high

MIAMI HERALD - Egypt demonstrators entertain to keep morale high

By DIAA HADID

Associated Press

CAIRO -- Two rows of men greet demonstrators at the main entrance to Tahrir Square, clapping as people enter, and chanting in the rhythms of a traditional Egyptian wedding procession.

"We are becoming bigger!" they shout. "God is Great!"

Inside Cairo's main square, musicians stroll, a man reads poetry to the crowd and vendors hawk potato chips, tea, hot food - even socks.

Tahrir Square, the scene of deadly battles with firebombs, rocks, horses and camels just last week, has taken on a carnival mood in the past few days as demonstrators try to establish an enduring presence, complete with food and entertainment, in their campaign to demand Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

Fruit vendor Ashraf Gaber, 30, asked people to express themselves in a few words, then wrote their thoughts on pieces of A4 paper he placed on a stack besides him.

Volunteers added it to a collage that spread out before Gaber in a a series of rows held down by rocks.

"We have to make the people happy!" Gaber shouted. "Express what is in your hearts!" he told the crowd.

"Oh Mubarak, you are a shoe!" read one - a particularly stinging insult in Arab culture.

"An Interior Ministry of Thugs!" read another.

Nearby, crowds of young men and women cheered and sung as Fadi Mikhael, 29, strummed an oud - or Arabic lute - to a Western beat.

"We won't be quiet! Raise your voice!" he sang on a stage, his voice amplified by four powerful speakers. The crowd clapped and repeated the chorus.

Poetry writing and recitation is a popular Arab pastime, a manifestation of pride in a language that's rich with subtle shades of meaning and unifies a people of different ethnic backgrounds and two major faiths.

There is a regional satellite television talent show just for poets - with viewers in the millions - and others dedicated to poets mocking each other in verse.

On another impromptu stage, a middle-aged man read poetry into a microphone as another crowd clapped at his ability to cleverly rhyme the stanzas.

"I am a peasant with a sheaf of wheat/I give it to the people generously," he read.

Nearby, demonstrators used stones, once used to repel pro-Mubarak supporters, to spell out slogans on the ground.

The command "Leave!" in Arabic spelled covered a few square feet (meters) of the square. The latest addition: "70 Billion" - the Mubarak family's rumored wealth.

Vendors sold dates, plastic cups of hot tea, socks - three pairs for $2 - sesame-seed snacks, potato chips and juice. Young men and women gathered in circles, debating the day's events. Before Jan. 25., Egyptians would not have dreamt of discussing politics so openly.

"We are learning a culture of respectful disagreement here," said Nashat Cross, 28, a Christian who works as a translator. "The level of cultured discussion is something I really admire."

From time to time, somebody in the crowd would begin chanting anti-Mubarak slogans, and hundreds of others joined in, clapping.

Men sometimes bellydanced on the side to the rhythm of the chants.

Another procession of men stood at the exit, waving the red-white-and-black Egyptian flag, banging drums, blowing on harmonicas and singing, again, like an Egyptian wedding procession.

"You'll come back, wont you?" they chanted. "You'll come back to liberate us!"

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/07/2054467/egypt-demonstrators-entertain.html#ixzz1DkGNDBmZ

Fight for Tahrir Square: Street combat turns civilians into fighters

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - Fight for Tahrir Square: Street combat turns civilians into fighters

By: Diaa Hadid,Sarah El Deeb, The Associated Press

Posted: 02/3/2011

CAIRO - It was a makeshift army, civilian protesters thrust into combat against backers of President Hosni Mubarak in the fight for Tahrir Square. Some were rooftop sentries. Others were runners who ferried rubble to front-line stone-throwers, or cheerleaders who banged on metal to harden their comrades' nerve.

And they held their ground.

Some of the scenes seemed almost medieval: mass charges by men on horses and camels, brandishing swords and whips, as a peaceful protest encampment on the central Cairo Square was transformed into a bloody battleground.

Clerks, lawyers and students fashioned makeshift helmets from cardboard or ringed their heads with plastic soda bottles to deflect the stones. As firebombs rained down, they held aloft traffic signs as shields.

The fight was modern, too. Anti-government protesters said three in their ranks were fatally shot by pro-Mubarak gunmen, while the military, parked in tanks nearby, did little to stop the combat.

At least eight people have been killed and hundreds injured since the clashes erupted Wednesday; they continued into the night Thursday.

The pro-Mubarak group was a mix of ruling party loyalists, private-sector employees and Egypt's poorest. Some Egyptians believe anti-government protesters are fomenting chaos and should give Mubarak time to prove he is serious about reform.

"We are Egyptians together, but those who are occupying Tahrir Square now are not," said Ali Kamal, a 30-year-old sales manager. He accused protesters of religious extremism.

The violence amounts to a battle for Egypt, and the outcome could resonate far beyond the borders of this regional heavyweight. It's a war between the old order and those who want a new one — right now.

For some, it is history in the making, with slogans to match. "Blood is the fuel of the revolution," declared Waheed Hamad, a 40-year-old teacher.

For those caught up in the smoke and screams, defending their camp in Tahrir Square, it felt like a battle for their lives, with all the attendant emotion: fear, rage and exhilaration.

The combat was an impromptu showcase for the fluid power of people to organize, many for the first time. While some anti-government protesters fought police during deadly clashes last week and knew the taste of tear gas and truncheons, a large number were novices and hardly militant. They were the anonymous faces of Egypt's vast, fraying middle class, the pillar of the campaign to oust Mubarak after nearly 30 years in power.

The protesters in Tahrir Square had no formal leadership, no lieutenants and no spokesmen, but they quickly set up a system for the skirmishes that unfolded.

There were six fronts, all on routes leading out of the vast plaza. On each, pro- and anti-government groups took cover behind sheets of corrugated iron or traffic barricades.

The most active front was at the northern entrance to the square, near the Egyptian Museum and under a flyover that gave Mubarak partisans the advantage of high ground even though they were outnumbered.

Anti-government protesters set up a kind of rock depot in their midst, and volunteers ferried rubble to forward positions where fighters used it as missiles.

Some fighters broke up the sidewalk, others divided the chunks by size and still others filled containers of all kinds, including a fast food delivery box, for relay to the front lines. Women brought water in plastic bags to the stone-throwers. Three or four women joined in lobbing stones.

"It was a whole industry in place, a production line," said 29-year-old Tarek Shalaby, who described himself as a "social media consultant."

Over 16 hours, he flitted between tasks, hurling stones and beating metal railings with sticks to rally the resolve of comrades. He suffered a burn on his hand from a firebomb.

Shalaby described the loose ranks of a civilian army, with four or five medics in a mid-range position to swiftly remove the injured. Further back, men gave orders to stone-throwers.

"They would be shouting to us from the back: 'Aim right!' 'Aim left, behind the museum!'" Shalaby said.

The organizing force behind the pro-Mubarak fighters remains a mystery, though the fact that they roamed at will around the square suggests at least the tacit approval of the government, or sections of it. They were dressed in civilian clothes, and spoiling for a showdown.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq apologized for the chaos, acknowledging it "seemed to have been organized" and promised an investigation. Mubarak, who has pledged not to run again for office, still has support within his government as well as among Egyptians who feel the anti-government protesters are causing too much disruption.

With two bandages on his head — one for a rubber bullet wound early in the week, the other for a rock injury on Wednesday — 26-year-old Ahmad Hassan described sentries posted on roofs and balconies to spot attackers.

During the fighting, one man waved his arms like a traffic controller on an airport runway, directing demonstrators to a road near the Egyptian Museum where pro-Mubarak forces were believed to be trying to infiltrate.

Hundreds of men grabbed chunks of paving stone and raced forward. But then another man waved his hands across his chest in a horizontal motion.

The crowd understood: false alarm. They melted back into the square.

Early Thursday, it was easier to identify the front-line combatants of the anti-government crowd. Many wore grubby bandages of cotton padding on their faces, arms and legs. They had clumps of debris in their hair.

A large number had the trimmed beards of Muslim conservatives, a sign of how the Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed opposition group, played a major role in the fight. "This is a peaceful jihad," one protester said.

At sunset, calm settled in as groups of up to 100 stopped to pray. "God, please don't let us leave this location until we are victorious," they intoned. "God, take revenge on those who hurt us."

But for many, there was no religious dimension — just years of resentment toward the government for Egypt's ills: poverty, corruption and brutality. Fury fueled a kind of pride.

"Young people, head to the entrances," exhorted a young man with a microphone at the peak of the fighting. "You, youth of Egypt, be brave."

As the sun rose Thursday, fighters curled close to each other, asleep in the crowded square. One man slept in a doorway, a scruffy kitten nestled on his chest.

___

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael and Hadeel al-Shalchi contributed to this report.

Pro-Mubarak forces take anger to streets of Cairo

WASHINGTON POST - Pro-Mubarak forces take anger to streets of Cairo

By DIAA HADID and SARAH EL DEEB
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 2, 2011; 4:07 PM

CAIRO -- Thousands of Egyptians gathered on one of Cairo's main commercial boulevards Wednesday to cheer on President Hosni Mubarak in the first mass counter-demonstration after more than a week of calls for him to resign.

Many said Mubarak was Egypt's best chance for maintaining stability. They praised him for keeping the country at peace after a series of wars with Israel. Others said they felt personally humiliated by anti-Mubarak demonstrators jeering a man they saw as a symbol of the nation.

"I feel humiliated," said Mohammed Hussein, a 31-year-old factory worker. "He is the symbol of our country. When he is insulted, I am insulted."

The mood was angry and defiant but the protest was mostly peaceful, in contrast to the scene in Cairo's main square, where hundreds of young pro-government supporters attacked thousands demanding his ouster.

There were widespread accusations by anti-Mubarak protesters - and some evidence - of an official role in the gatherings supporting the president.

The pro-Mubarak crowds in Tahrir Square were mainly working-class men in their 20s and 30s. Many said they were street vendors and occasional laborers. A smaller number were professionals and shop owners. One group carried pieces of cardboard proclaiming them to be residents of the lower-income neighborhood of Dweika who had come out in support of Mubarak.

Deliveryman Emad Fathi, 35, said that he had not gone to work since the demonstrations began more than a week ago.

"I came here to tell these people to leave," he said. "The mosques were calling on people to go and support Mubarak."

Anti-Mubarak protesters at Tahrir Square accused the regime of paying their attackers - a tactic that security forces have used in the past. They also contended there were plainclothes police among their attackers, showing police ID badges they said were wrested off them.

A different scene presented itself on the central boulevard in the middle-class, heavily commercial neighborhood of Mohandiseen. Men in designer sunglasses and women with expensive hairdos joined government employees, including a few dozen nurses in white dresses and stockings who jumped and chanted, "We love you Mubarak!"

Younger men carried portraits of Mubarak and shouted in support. Children had their faces painted in the black, white and red colors of the Egyptian flag.

Pro-Mubarak protesters also gathered in other middle-class Cairo neighborhoods and the Nile Delta town of Luxor.

There was evidence of government involvement in the organization of the largest pro-Mubarak rally.

Over the last four days, at least two of Egypt's three main cell-phone service providers - MobiNil and Vodafone - have ceased transmitting virtually all text messages. The exceptions were at least two labeled as messages from the armed forces, which urged people to calm down and cooperate with the military to end the looting on the streets.

On Wednesday, one woman at the Mohandiseen rally showed an Associated Press reporter a Vodafone-transmitted text message from a group called Egypt Lovers that had urged her to attend.

In dozens of interviews, pro-Mubarak demonstrators in Mohandiseen expressed fears of chaos and violence engulfing the country. They said they feared for Egypt's plummeting currency and the shortages of food and gasoline gripping the country's major cities.

"We have been a stable country since the days of the Pharoahs. These demonstrators want to turn us into Somalia: poor and at war with itself," cried Samir Hamid, a 58-year-old war veteran. He said he recalled struggling to find bread in the pre-Mubarak years, and the wailing of women who lost their sons in wars against Israel.

Many in Mohandiseen said they were middle- and working-class people victimized by looters who had smashed up their shops and stolen their wares. They blamed the protesters for setting off the political uncertainty that led to the violence.

"Those youth in the square must go home," said 30-year-old butcher Ahmad Khalil. "Women in our homes are scared. We need peace," he said.

Many said they did not necessarily support the Egyptian president, but said the anti-Mubarak demonstrators should have been satisfied by his Tuesday night pledge to step down from power in seven months, after the country holds elections.

"It's not like Mubarak can rub Aladdin's lamp and pull out a genie who will fix everything," said Fatima al-Shal, 41, waving her hands that were bedecked with two heavily jeweled diamond rings. "We have to give them time to peacefully change power."

Gatherings of Mubarak supporters were generally more hostile to journalists and foreigners. Two Associated Press correspondents and several other journalists were roughed up in Mohandiseen and Tahrir Square.

State TV reported Tuesday night that foreigners were caught distributing anti-Mubarak leaflets, apparently trying to depict the movement as foreign-fueled.

---

Associated Press reporters Maggie Michael and Michael Weissenstein contributed to this article.

Mubarak backers, protesters clash in Egypt; 1 dead, nearly 600 hurt

BRANDON SUN - Mubarak backers, protesters clash in Egypt; 1 dead, nearly 600 hurt

 

By: Hadeel Al-Shalchi and Sarah El Deeb, The Associated Press

 

CAIRO - Thousands of supporters and opponents of President Hosni Mubarak battled in Cairo's main square Wednesday, raining stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in scenes of uncontrolled violence as soldiers stood by without intervening. Government backers galloped in on horses and camels, only to be dragged to the ground and beaten bloody.

At the one of the fighting's front lines, next to the famed Egyptian Museum at the edge of Tahrir Square, pro-government rioters blanketed the rooftops of nearby buildings and dumped bricks and firebombs onto the crowd below — in the process setting a tree ablaze inside the museum grounds.

 

At each of the six entrances to the sprawling plaza, the two sides pummelled each other with hurled chunks of concrete and bottles. Some among the more than 3,000 government supporters waved machetes as their anti-Mubarak rivals filled the air with a ringing battlefield din by banging metal fences with sticks. Within the square, dozens of men and women from the anti-Mubarak camp pried up the sidewalk with bars, broke it into pieces and ferried the piles of ammunition in canvas sheets to their colleages at the front.

 

The health minister announced one dead — a person in civilian clothes who may have been policeman, who fell off a nearby bridge — and nearly 600 injured. Bloodied young men staggered or were carried into makeshift clinics set up in mosques and alleyways by the anti-government side.

 

Protesters pleaded for protection from soldiers stationed at the square, who refused. Soldiers did nothing to stop the violence beyond firing an occasional shot in the air and no uniformed police were in sight. Some protesters wept and prayed in the square where around 10,000 had massed Wednesday morning and where only a day before they had held a joyous, peaceful rally of a quarter-million, the largest yet in more than a week of demonstrations demanding Mubarak leave power.

 

Protesters contended there were plainclothed police among their attackers, showing police ID badges they said were wrested off them. Others, they said, were paid by the regime to assault them — a tactic that security forces have used in the past.

 

"After our revolution, they want to send people here to ruin it for us," said Ahmed Abdullah, a 47-year-old lawyer in the square. "Why do they want us to be at each other's throats, with the whole world watching us."

 

Another man shrieked through a loudspeaker, "Hosni has opened the door for these thugs to attack us."

 

In the evening, state TV ran an order — without saying from whom — for "all demonstrators to evacuate Tahrir Square" immediately. From the other side, senior anti-Mubarak figure Mohamed ElBaradei issued a statement demanding the military "intervene decisively to stop this massacre."

 

The clashes marked a dangerous new phase in Egypt's 9-day-old upheaval: the first significant violence between supporters of the two camps. Clashes began, first in the port city of Alexandria, just hours after Mubarak — the country's authoritarian ruler for nearly 30 years — went on national television Tuesday night and rejected protesters' demands he step down immediately. He defiantly insisted he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term.

 

That speech marked an abrupt shift in the deteriorating crisis. A military spokesman appeared on state TV Wednesday and asked the protesters to disperse so life in Egypt could get back to normal. That was a major turn in the attitude of the army, which for the past few days allowed protests to swell.

 

Also, the regime for the first time Wednesday began to rally its supporters in significant numbers to demand an end to the unprecedented protest movement.

 

Some 20,000 pro-government demonstrators held an angry but mostly peaceful rally across the Nile River from Tahrir, saying Mubarak's concessions were enough and demanding protests end now that he has promised not to run for re-election in September, named a new government and appointed a vice-president for the first time.

 

Their gathering was shot through with bitterness at the jeers hurled against the 82-year-old Mubarak over the past nine days.

 

"I feel humiliated," said Mohammed Hussein, a 31-year-old factory worker. "He is the symbol of our country. When he is insulted, I am insulted."

 

Having the rival sides on the streets is particularly worrying because there do not appear to be anywhere near enough police or military to control resurgent violence. The anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests to force him out by Friday, and the scenes of violence may have aimed to intimidate people from joining.

 

International concern was also mounting. A day after President Barack Obama pressed Mubarak to loosen his grip on power immediately, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. "deplores and condemns the violence that is taking place in Egypt" and called for restraint.

 

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Egyptian authorities must accelerate their political reforms and said that "if it turns out that the regime in any way has been sponsoring or tolerating this violence, that would be completely and utterly unacceptable." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, meeting Cameron in London, also condemned the violence as "unacceptable."

 

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the assault on the protesters "raises the urgent question whether the political leaders of Egypt understand the need for rapid democratic reform."

 

The violence began after nearly 10,000 anti-government protesters massed again in Tahrir on Wednesday morning, rejecting Mubarak's speech as too little too late and renewing their demands he leave immediately.

 

The rally was peaceful, but Mubarak supporters began to gather at the edges of the square, and protesters formed a human chain to keep them out. In the early afternoon, around 3,000 pro-government demonstrators broke through and surged among the protesters, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

 

They tore down banners denouncing the president, fistfights broke out, and protesters grabbed Mubarak posters from the hands of the supporters and ripped them to pieces.

 

From there, it escalated into outright street battles as hundreds poured in to join each side. They tore up chunks of pavement and grabbed ammunition from a nearby construction site, hurling stones, metal rods, concrete and sticks at each other and chasing each other.

 

At one point, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels rushed into the anti-Mubarak crowds, trampling several and swinging whips and sticks. Protesters dragged some from their mounts, throwing them to the ground and beating their faces bloody. The horses and camels appeared to be ones used by the many touts around Cairo who sell rides for tourists.

 

The main battle line next to the Egyptian Museum — the famed treasury of pharaonic antiquities and mummies — surged back and forth repeatedly for hours. Anti-Mubarak protesters held up sheets of corrugated metal ripped from the construction site as shields from the hail of stones.

 

Some tried to charge into the buildings where government supporters on the roofs were pelting them with stones, but they were stopped by plainclothes security forces at the entrances. Several firebombs from the roof landed in the museum grounds, setting a tree ablaze. Soldiers tried to put it out with a hose.

 

Protesters were seen running with their shirts or faces bloodied. Scores of wounded were carried to a makeshift clinic at a mosque near the square and on other side streets. Doctors in white coats rushed about with bags of cotton, mercurochrome and bandages. One man with blood coming out of his eye stumbled into a side-street clinic.

 

As night fell, some protesters went to get food, a sign they plan to dig in for a long siege.

 

The army troops who have been guarding the square for days had been keeping the two sides apart earlier in the day, but when the clashes erupted they did not intervene. Most took shelter behind or inside the armoured vehicles and tanks stationed at the entrances to the square.

 

"Why don't you protect us?" some shouted at soldiers, who replied they did not have orders to do so and told people to go home.

 

"The army is neglectful. They let them in," said Emad Nafa, a 52-year-old among the protesters, who for days had showered the military with love for its neutral stance.

 

The new tensions began to emerge immediately following Mubarak's speech Tuesday night. Later in the night, clashes erupted between pro- and anti-government demonstrators in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, while in Cairo groups of Mubarak supporters took to the streets, some carrying knifes and sticks.

 

Gatherings of Mubarak supporters were more hostile to journalists and foreigners. Two Associated Press correspondents and several other journalists were roughed up during various such gatherings. State TV reported Tuesday night that foreigners were caught distributing anti-Mubarak leaflets, apparently trying to depict the movement as foreign-fuelled.

 

The violence could represent a dangerous new chapter after a series of dramatic and unpredictable twists in Egypt's upheaval.

 

After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by unrest in Tunisia took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable series of demonstrations across this nation of 80 million. Initially, police cracked down hard with deadly assaults on the demonstrators. Then police withdrew completely from the streets for the day, opening a wave of looting, armed robberies and arson — largely separate from the protests themselves — that stunned Egyptians.

 

But since Sunday, the army moved in to take control and the situation became more peaceful. The military announced it would not stop protests. As a result, the demonstrations swelled dramatically, protesters gained momentum and enthusiasm and many believed Mubarak's immediate fall was at hand. The United States put intense pressure on Mubarak to bring his rule to an end while ensuring a stable handover.

 

Wednesday's events could mean the regime has had enough, and that it and the military aim to ensure the end of the unrest to let Mubarak shape the transition as he choses over the next months. Mubarak has offered negotiations with protest leaders over democratic reforms.

 

As if to show the public the crisis was ending, the government began to reinstate Internet service after days of an unprecedented cutoff. State TV announced the easing of a nighttime curfew, which now runs from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. instead of 3 p.m. to 8 a.m.

 

Mubarak supporters were on the street in significant numbers for the first time on Wednesday. Across the Nile River from the chaos in Tahrir Square, around 20,000 pro-government demonstrators held a rally in front of Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque in the upper-class neighbourhood of Mohandiseen, after notices on state TV calling for attendance.

 

They waved Egyptian flags, their faces painted with the black-white-and-red national colours, and carried a large printed banner with Mubarak's face as police officers surrounded the area and directed traffic. They cheered as a military helicopter swooped overhead.

 

Some appeared to be the sort of young toughs that the opposition accuses the regime of paying to be its fist in the streets.

 

But the large majority were middle-class families, some of whom said Mubarak's concessions were enough and that they feared continued instability and shortages of food and other supplies if protests continue.

 

"I want the people in Tahrir Square to understand that Mubarak gave his word that he will give them the country to them through elections, peacefully, now they have no reason for demonstrations," said Ali Mahmoud, 52, who identified himself as middle-class worker from Menoufia, a Nile Delta province north of Cairo.

 

The movement against Mubarak, meanwhile, was working to prevent any slipping in its ranks after the speech and resist any sentiment that the concession may have been enough.

 

One protest organizer said the regime was going all out to pressure people to stop protesting.

 

"Starting with the emotional speech of Mubarak, to the closure of banks, the shortage of food and commodities and deployment of thugs to intimidate people, these are all means to put pressure on the people," said Ahmed Abdel-Hamid, a representative of the Revolutionary Committee, one of several youth groups that organized the protests.

 

The movement is fueled by deep frustration with an autocratic regime blamed for ignoring the needs of the poor and allowing corruption and official abuse to run rampant. Tuesday's massive rally in Tahrir showed a large cross-section of Egyptian society.

 

In his 10-minute speech Tuesday night, Mubarak emphasized the theme that he has often used in justifying his rule during his nearly three decades in power — that he can keep stability. Now he was promising to do so as he heads out the door.

 

The president, who almost never admits to reversing himself under pressure, insisted that even if the protests demanding his ouster had not broken out, he would not have sought a sixth term in September.

 

Sombre but firm — without an air of defeat — he said he would serve out the rest of his term working "to accomplish the necessary steps for the peaceful transfer of power." He said he will carry out amendments to rules on presidential elections.

Egyptian protesters are conflicted over US role

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE - Egyptian protesters are conflicted over US role

 

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press

 

Monday, January 31, 2011  

 

CAIRO — One of the insults flung at President Hosni Mubarak by Egyptian protesters seeking his ouster was: "Mubarak, you coward! You American collaborator!"

 

Hostility toward the United States is widespread among the crowds in Cairo's streets, who feel Washington's alliance with Egypt - along with billions of dollars in military aid through the years - has helped Mubarak's authoritarian regime keep its grip on power for nearly three decades.

 

But there's also a yearning for U.S. support.

 

Among the tens of thousands of Egyptians who have gathered in Cairo's main square in the past week, there's a general belief that the administration of President Barack Obama could be a key factor in helping to push Mubarak out. So behind the angry chants, there are hopes for solidarity.

 

"America has to support us - not the oppressors of the people," said protester Abdel-Salam Hassan, a 51-year-old unemployed man.

 

"The Americans believe in democracy. Now they have to show us," said Hassan, who stood in Cairo's downtown Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, a focal point of protests of economic hardship, government corruption, police brutality and political restrictions.

 

Washington has urged Mubarak to allow an orderly transition to democracy, giving a strong impression that it believes he will have to go. But it has not called outright for him to step down, and it has seemed wary of chaos and a power vacuum if he leaves. Obama administration officials say Washington is pressing Mubarak to institute a set of key reforms, including a lifting of emergency laws in place since 1981 and the holding of credible presidential elections in September, preferably without the 82-year-old leader as a candidate.

 

The demonstrators have a multilayered perception of America, a reflection of the complicated feelings widespread among the Egyptian public, where many often express respect for freedoms they see in the United States but anger at what they see as domineering policies in the Middle East.

 

Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and in some cases, live fire, in the early demonstrations that erupted a week ago, many of which turned deadly. But demonstrators said they believed the police response would have been even more violent were it not for strongly worded calls of restraint by Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

 

They noted with bitterness, however, that some of the weaponry used against them appeared to be U.S.-made.

 

"Look at this!" one man shouted in a makeshift emergency room in a mosque near Tahrir Square on Saturday, as doctors treated bleeding demonstrators and other volunteers removed the bodies of slain protesters. He held up tear gas canisters emblazoned with "Made in the USA."

 

Another man shook a fistful of bullet casings at reporters. "America! This is America!" he shouted.

 

A military helicopter that swooped over Tahrir Square and warplanes that buzzed Cairo on Sunday highlighted the conundrum once again. Protesters shook fists at the two low-flying planes and declared that they were obtained with U.S. military aid.

 

The United States gives some $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt every year, along with $200 million in economic aid. But the aid is viewed by many Egyptians with mixed feelings, seeing it as a tool to keep their government subservient to American foreign policy - for example by supporting the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and by maintaining ties with Israel.

 

The United States has often called for reform and an end to abuse in Egypt - and for a period in the mid-2000s it increased the pressure, seeking to make Egypt a showcase for a policy of greater democracy in the Middle East. But the pressure eased. Many in Egypt believe Washington shelved the demands to ensure Mubarak's secular government as a close ally in efforts to contain Islamic extremism and deal with regional issues.

 

To ensure that stability, they say a succession of U.S. administrations has tolerated Mubarak's tightening grip on power, including elections believed to have been rigged and indications that he may have been grooming his son, Gamal, to succeed him.

 

"America is worried about instability in Egypt, so they'll try find a new leader they like and anoint him to work for their interests," said Muslim preacher Ahmad Abdullah, 40, who was sleeping in Tahrir Square.

 

"They will keep stepping on our heads," he said.

 

The U.S. is in a further bind, said political activist and analyst Mohamed el-Dahshan.

 

Egyptians have long viewed any foreign inference in their affairs with deep resentment - even if it matches their own goals, el-Dahshan said. He noted that U.S. pressure helped secure the release of several jailed human rights activists in recent years, though at the same time the pressure tarred them among some Egyptians as American stooges.

 

The U.S. has refrained from outwardly supporting Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose frequent travel in the West has tainted him with suspicion among some Egyptians.

 

"People are aware the current regime can't survive without the support of the Americans," el-Dahshan said. "But they are hoping that (the United States) will allow Mubarak to be toppled, and then stand aside."

 

The Associated Press