It is damned hard to keep track of what is happening on the streets of Cairo — in great part because the main eyes we have is still the main-stream-cable media.  They do not time and date stamp the video clips they keep showing and re-showing, and they show what is most “exciting,” not what is most current.  As a result, the footage being shown this morning in the US, while it is near dusk in Cairo, I recognize as being from dawn in Cairo, 12 hours earlier, and which I have already seen.  What is happening now, for pete’s sake!

Are government sponsored thugs still attacking anti-government demonstrators, or has the army effectively, and late, inserted itself between the two sides?  Does the report of the Prime Minister’s public and profuse apology for the attacks with guns, knives, machetes, horses, mean anything?  When did it happen?  What has occurred since?

Will the scenes in Tahrir Square turn into Tianamin Square of 1989, when so many young people were shot to death and crushed by tanks, and the movement for openness in China effectively stopped? [And note that Chinese censors are filtering incoming news for all references to Egypt!]  Or, will the end be more like the people’s victory in 1986 the Philippines when Corazon Aquino took over from the disgraced and fleeing Marcos?

There’s very little most of us can do to affect the outcome except to call on our own government to stand up for the peaceful and not contribute money or support to the violent and dictatorial.  It would help us all if the on-going narrative were kept straight by those reporting.  Time and date stamp all video.  Don’t show yesterday’s riot when talking about today’s apology.  Always remind us — this is what is happening now, following that which happened yesterday.

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The story line, as best I understand it, Thursday morning on the West Coast, Thursday evening in Cairo, is that some separation between pro and anti government protesters has been achieved by the army. However, the attacks that began on journalists yesterday, most high profile being the filmed attack on Anderson Cooper of CNN, have continued, both from civilians, and by the government

Journalists in Egypt – domestic and foreign – are increasingly under siege, with Egyptian authorities detaining reporters and gangs of young men roaming the streets looking for anyone with camera equipment.

Some of the pressure has come from the government: Six Al Jazeera journalists were detained for several hours earlier this week, and while they were eventually released, their equipment remains with the police.

Two New York Times reporters were reportedly arrested – or “taken into protective custody”, as the government termed it.

Spotters stand outside many hotels, watching balconies with high-powered binoculars. When they see balconies with camera equipment or photographers, they use radios to call in the details.

Egyptian police sources say that information from those spotters has been used to conduct several raids on journalists’ hotel rooms in recent days.

Al Jazeera

Anderson Cooper was attacked again, today

Nicholas Kristof, a print reporter for the New York Times, has a report of courage and grace in the midst of the knife wielding thugs.

Kristof is posting updates on his Facebook page.

I can’t find the quote at the moment but Kristof is worried about what the government/interior ministry is planning which they don’t want the journalists to see.

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