solid machine gunfire from near the museum for two hours

[click image]

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That's the first thing I heard as I snapped al Jazeera back on just now.

I'm going to have to snap it back off pretty soon, because I can't stand listening to them sound as though any of this "Mubarak supporters" crap has any veracity whatsoever. "Not so much pro-Mubarak as they are anti-protestors and anti-al-Jazeera..." "Five people confirmed dead and fifteen injured by gunfire." "If the world cares so much, how can this be happening?"

So you can see why I might not be able to stand this very long.

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I have to ask: How easy would it be to hire "counter-protestors" in a country where most people try to live on two dollars a day? Dirt easy.

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Midnight in California... I mustered the fortitude to turn it back on and have been listening for the past couple hours. The official word is: 5 killed and 800 injured and 86 hospitalized. IDs found on the "pro-Mubarak" forces show that they are party members and police out of uniform. The battle at Liberation Square lasted fifteen or sixteen hours, and was a couple hundred men armed with sticks and bottle bombs and rocks and knives and at least one of them with a gun against a few thousand people in the square. Women and old men and children were kept in the middle of the square while young men fought off the aggressors. They say they finally managed to beat them all back and secure the ingress to the square against more, but it seems more likely that the aggressors simply went off shift... or were ordered back. The army did nothing to prevent any of it beside shoot in the air when combatants got too near.

I only broke down and sobbed once, when one of the men sworn to hold the square was recounting his experience. He said he didn't think, since they were willing to die for it, that they could lose. And they ARE willing to die for it. They ARE dying for it. People in the square are all bloodied and bandaged and limping. The rest of the time I have kept my analytical cool.

Of particular note, al Jazeera has been reporting over the last over an hour that "Secretary Clinton has told the new vice-president to hold those responsible for the violence accountable." I suppose this doesn't necessarily mean she actually told him to do it. I'm sure, if questioned, she would say she told him the United States expects Egypt to prosecute criminals, or some such, but it's telling that al Jazeera would keep reporting it to sound as though she were ordering him around. Then one must consider: Who does she think is responsible for it? Or, well, who does she want us to think she thinks is responsible for it? Everyone on the square seems pretty damn certain who is behind it and some now say they want Mubarak tried and executed for it.

I'd say it's only 50/50 whether it was Mubarak or our covert ops behind it. I wouldn't give that much weight to Mubarak except for two points: [1] he's clearly fighting the powers who are ousting him, under no illusions about that, and wanting to make them suffer more; and [2] he's clearly such a megalomaniacal narcissist, who has let an insane number of people to be damaged badly and killed behind his own pride, he could well be trying to enhance the consolation of those numbers it took to get him out.

In any case, this is being extremely well-managed. Everyone they managed to subdue from their attackers had their IDs taken from them, so there will be people to hold responsible, to prosecute, as a symbol of the glorious new "rule of law" in "democratic" Egypt.

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12:35am... Things are starting up again now. They found a pro-Mubarak guy in the crowd and a bunch of them started hitting him and dragging him out. The crowd is yelling to them to be peaceful, not hit him.

Human Rights Watch spokesman says there's no doubt the aggression was ordered by Mubarak.

ElBaradei says Mubarak will be held personally responsible if there is any more violence.

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An entirely lamentable Mubarak supporter....

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You guys... it's quarter after eleven in the morning in Cairo. All the entrances to the square have been closed off, except one. People are filling the square after their IDs are checked and they are searched for weapons... by the resistance, not cops, not army... self-policing.

Even after the epic battle that lasted into the wee hours, with all those casualties, thousands and thousands are people are filing into Tahrir Square right now. I hope someone is keeping a timeline of this. We need it as a manual for our uprising. We need to know what to do, what to expect, how to support the gorgeous young men and women putting their lives on the line.

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The new prime minister is going to make a statement soon. He's asked for cameras to follow him into a cabinet meeting. Rumors the new vice-president is talking to opposition people, despite his vow not to until the square was cleared and their vow not to until Mubarak steps down. "More than a thousand people injured." "Up to seven people dead."

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I don't know what these women are on, but, well, it's kind of uplifting, so I thought I'd throw it in....

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love, 99
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