This is a letter from a Palestinian Child who does not have clear definition for terms like “terrorism” and “peace”.
I am sure the Palestinian children like Gamila, Louai and Samar have similar letters to President Obama.
Please spread this letter to president Obama.
This letter encouraged me to send a message to President Obama:
Dear President Obama as you are working to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp ,I only ask you that the United States would stop exporting incendiary weapons to Israel like the DIME , I do not ask you to stop supporting Israel whether by money or by arms despite I know in this critical time in the American history each penny from the tax payers money the American citizen deserves now more than ever, more than Israel and more than Egypt and Pakistan.
President Obama you are father for two beautiful little girls and I believe you know how it feels when you know that your child is hurt, thousands of Palestinian children have been hurt by weapons like the DIME and WP in which former President Bush made sure to supply Israel with. You correct his mistakes , please correct this mistake
If you do this sir and order that no incendiary weapons will be exported to Israel because they use it against civilians ,then be sure sir that you won’t need thousands interviews like Al Arabiya to send a message to the Arab and Muslim world saying that the American people are not our enemy.
Mr.President you are not our enemy but all what we ask that you would be a fair friend to us as you are to the Israelis.
I really miss Amr Moussa and every time I watch Abu El-Gait speaking in the TV or I read his statements in the Press. Moussa is like a Master compared to Abu El-Gait,after all Moussa is the student of Mahmoud Fawzy. Man I wonder what Fawzy will say if he sees Mr.Knuckles aka Abu El-Gait.
I was missing for Amr Moussa as our FM when I saw him speaking in Davos. As much as I admired the strong angry word and action of Ragab Erodagn , I admired the strong yet quiet word of Amr Moussa. Please re-watch the complete discussion again.
Focus on Moussa’s word this time.
Also do not miss this smart and powerful move of Moussa when he stood up and shook the hand of Erodagn when he was in his way out of the discussion after giving Perez cold shower.
That move made me miss Moussa more and more !!
Damn it !!??
Look some people did not like what Moussa had said in the discussion believing that it was weaker than Erodgan ,well Perez did not provoke Moussa like he did with the Turkish Prime Minister. I would expect that Moussa would lose his temper if Perez and moderator provoked him in the same way . I think the people in the Arab world wanted so much a person who can express in their anger in that moment and the Ottoman Empire descent came in the right moment and place.
Moussa said
Do not expect that the Palestinians will be calm and quiet if they are jailed in a prison
Moussa was a diplomat in his talk , an excellent diplomat. A diplomat we miss and need now more than before in Egypt.
Abu El-Gait ,Mr. Knuckles learn from the Master
Saad El-Din Ibrahim is facing new charges of espionage. The Mubarak regime wants him in jail by all possible way.
Again Ibrahim is facing espionage charges, this time it is not the state but rather the Statesmen or to be accurate the regime’s men.
Lawyers and NDPians Hossam Mustafa Abd El-Rahman and Nabil Luka Babawyaccused Saad El-Din Ibrahim of :
Espionage and contacting Foreign president “G.W Bush”
Transferring Information with a nature that could harm the national security abroad.
Babawy is a former police general who has two PhDs in law and economic. He is known as being a Christian that defends Islam and its history in Egypt. Still Babawy is well known in Egypt as one of the Regime die hard defenders. I do not know how he defends religions if he continually lies to save the regime.
I do not know much about Abd El-Rahman but he will be another a NDP loyal lawyer !!
The two lawyers went to the general prosecutors with these charges.I believe this is just another regime chapter in the war against Ibrahim. Already he faced several lawsuits from that kind.
Ibrahim is living outside Egypt for months now for fear if he returns back he would be either sent to jail or killed by the regime.
I do not agree on every thing Ibrahim says and believes in but it is unfair and unacceptable to be accused of treason just because we are opposing the regime in this way.
By the way Ibrahim published in the weekly edition of Al Dostor this week an article speaking of his student in the AUC“Suzanne Mubarak” ,yes he was her professor. I believe that he is not proud of his student nor her husband !!
The Blue Star ship saga is continuing and I am afraid it is taking to an ugly turn. The news coming from the crew members to their families are scary. The food already has finished from a week ago. There is a crew member who was shot in his leg by the pirates, there is no medical care for him.
It seems that our men in the Egyptian intelligence has lost their tough and could not convince the pirates to lower the ransom. The pirates are insisting on a huge sum of money , it is not sure what the sum is, I found several numbers from $ 5,000,000 to 1,100,000 to 750,000 !!??
It seems that the owners of the ship “Blue Marine” company are refusing to pay more than $ 100,000 according to the families of the crew members !!
The pirates already announced tomorrow Saturday as a deadline ,if their demands are not met , they will blow the ship !! Yes in less than 48 hours the Blue star ship will be bombed and its crew will be killed if the demands of the Somali pirates are not met
There 28 crew members on the board of the Blue star
I do not know where the hell is the Foreign Ministry ?? where are our army and our navy ?? where are our naval special forces ??
I pray to God that the crew members return back to their families safe and the company gives the pirates the ransom they want even if they have to sell the company itself , we are talking about people , if those 28 crew members are killed their blood will be distributed equally between Blue Marine Co.,Foreign Ministry ,the Egyptian Navy and any party who can help them in this crisis and did not do it.
To be honest I am happy with these strikes because enough is enough. The railways workers and the Microbuses drivers strikes are the talk of the town because the people felt them. The railways workers despite the negotiations with the ministry of transportation and Egyptian railways promised that there will be another strike on next Sunday insh Allah. Anyone uses the Egyptian railways will notice how this important means of transportation is suffering from governmental negligence so I am not surprised that the employees and the workers have enough from that negligence. You only have to see the engines they work on to know ,the work environment is terrible. I must mention that the strike is time was led by Signal operators ,the forgotten ones as once symbolized by Wahid Hamd as the average Mohamed in Egypt in Sharif Aref’s film “ Al Mansy” starring Adel Emam and Youssra.
You can find more about the Strike in Arabawy’s del.ici.ous links“This is a good geek idea” Strangely all what they want the same basic needs from salaries raises etc. A Side Remark : interestingly enough I found in Al Wafd Weekly Newspaper an ad in the first page from the general syndication of the railways employees condemning the strike !! It is logic as the general syndication is the official syndication that follows the State. Strikes happen all over the world even in the most capitalistic countries ,it is a right as long as you do not give your employee his basic right , you do not expect him to work as it should without his basic right , it is a basic fact in management and human resources especially in the services where you expect high level of efficiency and productivity. Your employees in any company whether public or private are your inner customers, you need them to be loyal to your company.
The big surprise to me was the strike of the Microbuses drivers in Giza in the last 2 days . About 300 microbuses drivers were on strike objecting the treatment of Police !! Again it is a surprise because usually the microbuses drivers are from a segment that does not understand this strike culture. But they know that the ill treatment of traffic police to them should be stopped and this is very important. Yes the Microbuses drivers are usually hated for their reckless driving and bad attitude yet on daily basis they serve millions of Egyptian citizens and they are humans in the first place.Emad El-Kabeer is a microbus driver if I am not mistaken. You will make them follow the laws and rules by treating them like animals !!
I remember before the 6th April strike I talked with an activist whom I know personally and she told me that the strike would be a powerful one if the taxis,microbuses and train drivers joined it just like abroad. Well I believe this can happen in the next strike ish Allah if there are plans for the coming 6th April 2008 ;)
Of course you may have known that Recep or Ragab as we pronounce it in the Arab world and Egypt made history in Davos today when he withdrew from the world Economic forum after a very hot discussion or rather a clashy confrontation with Shimon Perez !!
Here are the links from the CNN and BBC World. I notice that CNN did not give the news the size it deserves unlike the BBC.You can watch the whole historical incident or rather moment.
Ragab slammed Israel calling the war barbaric. Already he wanted to answer back what Shimon Perez said in the discussion and it seems that Perez was very nervous and spoke directly to Ragab as it were their own debate. David Ignatius the journalist from the Washington post was moderating the case for the Middle East’s Peace discussion in this year’ world Economic forum. Ignatius was so provocative giving Perez 25 minutes alone to rant about the right of his country to kill civilians …etc where as he did not give a chance to Ragab.
Here is the complete session from the World Economic forum’s channel in Youtube
I respect Ragab for he has done and how he withdrew and slammed not only Israel but also the world economic forum without losing respect of others regardless of what you may think.
Ragab’s anger was my anger and anyone’s anger for what happened and is still happening in Gaza.
I wish that Mubarak and his regime would learn from Ragab , the Turkish-Israeli relations are much more powerful and more natural than the Egyptian- Israeli relations and yet our Egyptian regime is so submissive to Israel despite it is not about Gaza but it is about our national security.
I do not know how the Egyptian official regime media will cover this incident, will they attack him ?? or will they mock him “believe they can do it “ ??
They do not consider Turkey as far as I know from the naughty axis in the region that works too hard to move Egypt from the leadership of the MENA region !
I am happy ,I won’t deny it and I won’t hide. Ragab expressed all what I felt in wanted to say in those few seconds he said.Also I like what Amr Moussa had said but this would be in another post.
If Perez was nervous ,well he surely forgot that he should not mess with a Turk , because Turks are well known from losing their temper , it is better known in Egypt as the “Zorbona Turki”
BY the way Perez later phoned Ragab to apologize for the misunderstanding.
I know this confrontation will open a door from hell on Ragab but I do not think as a Turk he will give a damn.
We turned to be the world's biggest wheat importer after all !!We became No.1 in something Children of the Nile !! Egypt still hopes to buy imported Ukrainian Wheat on the condition that the quality and price are acceptable.
Last year there was a huge scandal the government try to keep it low when it turned out that the wheat we imported from Ukraine did not meet the Egyptian specification of quality , it was considered a corrupted wheat shipment.
Call me what ever you want but I feel sad when once upon time we were from the main exporters of wheat in this world ,OK this is a little ancient , but once upon time we had our "Wheat Day" and Abdel Wahab sang for this day along with Laila Fawzy , this was so from 50 years ago only. Yes our population is increasing but on the other hand you got a lot of resources from land,irrigation sources and climate that can increase your domestic production of wheat to the level you can export it.
You waste your land and water in useless luxurious compounds and useless golf courts.
It is not a matter of economy or food supply but it is rather of national security nature. I am afraid the government does not do any effort to try to increase our domestic production of wheat in order to reach the level of self-sufficiency ,instead it relies on importing and other wicky solutions from leasing agricultural land in Sudan,Canada and East Europe !! Yes can you believe the land of the Nile leases pieces of land from other countries to get wheat !!??
New two H5N1 hot spots were found in Alexandria : Maamoura and Khorshid negihbourhoods.
There are 2 citizens transferred to the hospital in Alexandria for the suspicion of being H5N1 victims.
The victims are Kowathar Mohamed "housewife" and her son Bassiouny Reda Bassiouny "3yrs old". It is not confirmed yet that H5N1 positive.
I am quite surprised because Alexandria suffered less than the less of the country from H5N1.
It seems that the pigs farms are going to be transferred whether the raisers like it or not to the 15th May city in Helwan Governorate away from Cairo and Giza.
I wonder if this is really going to happen or not .
I do not need to say that those labels are for the students who were killed in the Gaza war
Israel destroyed several schools from the UNRWA’s 211 schools in the sector. Already it targeted the UNRWA schools with WP.
Still there is a hope the UAE donated to rebuild the UNRWA damaged schools.
More than 437 child were killed in the war and You can double this number for the injured. Many Palestinian Pupils in Gaza can’t attend schools now because of their injuries like Gamila and Louai.
Again I end with Nizar Qabbani’s words:
O’ pupils of Gaza Care not . . about our broadcasts . . And hear us not . . Strike . . Strike . .
With all your powers And firmly in your hands take matters And ask us not . . We the people of arithmetic . . And of addition . . And of subtraction . . Your wars do carry on.. And abstain from us . . We’re the deserters from the service, Your ropes do bring And hang us . . . We’re mortals . . Who possess not tombs And orphans . . who possess not masters We kept already to our rooms . . And we asked you To fight the dragon . . We’ve diminished, before you A thousand century . .
May be there was a contamination that took place and they fixed the matter but are afraid to admit it for fear of accountability , there is no smoke without fire.
The problem is that you do not have other choice except to believe them and pray to God that they are honest,where else you can get blood !!??
I hope that they fix what ever problem they have in the main blood bank because we do not need any other disaster in this country !!
Well the source is ABC News and so no one will come and say “what are these lies you are publishing ??”
CIA Station Chief in Algeria is accused of raping two Algerian women and filming them !!??
I do not know which is more alarming : The rape itself or the fact that the United States is speaking about its CIA Station in Algeria as if it is a normal thing !!?? Well I do not have to bet that the CIA station in Algeria is a branch of some American company either an oil American company or a trade company. In either ways I do not think that this news will find this way to the Algerian newspapers tomorrow ,it is not the kind of news political regimes like to share with their people especially like our people.
I know that normally in a country like Algeria with its wealth , ethnics and war against terrorism you will find the CIA and its sisters. It is not about the war on terrorism by the way.
Of course I forgot to tell you that the Justice department decided to broaden its investigation to include EGYPT !! The sex manic used to work in Egypt !!
On the other hand I respect so much that fact that the Justice department has opened an investigation regardless the sensitive position of this rapist.
I do not mean to be rude and again I respect the Algerian people so much but that incident should make them more angrier than the official Egyptian regime position from the Gaza war.
The WP and DIME were certainty used in the invasion of Gaza thanks to the clear as the sun evidences from photos to victims to remains itself.
Still I believe there were other prohibited weapons , new mass destruction weapons used against the civilians of Gaza. Yes I described them as mass destruction weapons.
After all what kind weapon from hell that turns a baby in to this ??
This footage was shot by Ramattan during the barbaric Nazi attack , I know it is shocking and hard but it is not fake , it is real, it happened
I won’t apologize for this tough graphic content because this is the least thing I can do to expose those war criminals in Tel Aviv in all possible ways.
Think in this way : It is for the sake of humanity that these weapons used to kill children in that way to be damaged and those people who are using them should be punished.
Already I do not know who ever made such weapons can sleep at night !!??
Dr. Mohamed El-Baradi ,the director general of the IAEA cancelled an interview with BBC objecting on the decision of the network not to air the Gaza aid call. Thank you Dr. El-Baradi. I am so proud of him , this man is an Egyptian.
Already I forget to mention that that IAEA dispatched a team of its inspectors to our borders to know whether Israel has used depleted Uranium or not . Yes Israel May have used depleted Uranium on our borders !!
I think I posted this Palestinian Blog from Gaza before but it won’t harm if I re-posed it again “Gaza Strip : The untold Story” , Sameh, the owner of the blog wrote a post about Loaui, whom he already met. He met him before he was transferring in Saudi Arabia and before the sad news came from there that he won’t see again !!
"I hope you visit me again and you will go with me to take footage and photos of the place where the car was hit. I will also make a scene for you about how I flew. But I need you to help me recover quickly so I can go to school again and play with some of my friends. I don't know if they are alive or not."
Loaui said these words to Sameh,I do not want to imagine how he received the news he will not see again.
Believe it or not sometimes I believe that he ,Gamila and Samar will make it in the future and they will be successful and famous despite what we think as their disabilities , they are not disabled but those who hurt them like that are the real disabled. Insh Allah they will
At last President Mubarak remembered a person called Dr. Mustafa El-Said who should be honoured officially. Mubarak today has decorated Dr. Mustafa with the highest Egyptian medal : The State order for Sciences and Arts from the first degree
Well it is never too late to honour this scientist in every possible way.
Anyhow I am happy for Dr. Mustafa despite I wish that he would have been decorated by the Nile Sash which is higher that then the State order, I do not know why they did not decorate him with the Sash !! He is not less than Dr. Zowail or Dr. Al Baradei !!
Ahmed Abu El-Gait is proving that he is one of a kind of minister,I do not know how we can call him diplomat.
Last night on the National TV "Ch1"* Cairo Today show on Orbit network he admitted that Egypt was behind the failure of the Gaza summit at Doha !!
Of course we all know that Egyptian regime worked so hard to the last 24 hours before the summit to sabotage it and we know that Mubarak visited Saudi Arabia suddenly to have a strong backup from the KSA but to say this directly on TV !!??
Abu El-Gait said that Egypt made the summit fail to save the unity of the Arab unity !!?? I do not know if that was a joke or what because the main result of the Kuwait summit is that we became more divided than before. This is the Kuwait economic summit Mubarak's regime supported.
The minister should not be proud by his achievement. He should not open his mouth when the American navy search ships in our territorial waters and the IAF comes and goes as it wants
Any good diplomat won't announce this huge achievement because he believes in the end sooner or later our relations with the rest of the Arab countries will return back , in fact this is what he should do.
Saying these statements and doing these actions do not prove that we are strong or influential in the region, these are not the action of a leader but rather a bully !!
Of course I did not mention the part regarding Amr Moussa and I do not want to !!
This is not the act of a diplomat but rather a bully "I will repeat it again" * I am sorry for the mistake above I wrote this post in the early morning as soon as I read what he said not, did not pay attention on which channel the interview was , strangely I though that he made an interview with Lamis El-Hadidy ,the wife of Amr Adib ,the TV host of Cairo Today Show !!
Technorati Tags: Egypt, Qatar, Summit, Arab, Politics, Mideast, Middle East, News, Abu El-Gait, Gaza, Media
FYI Sheikh Zowaid according to the Camp David Accords is from the C Zone where flying is restricted even for the Egyptian side.
So technically the IAF broke the international laws and Camp David Accords too !! I do not know why we do not break the Camp David Accords too !!??
Or May be for the Israelis the Camp David Accords were for 20 years only and they have not renewed with us and thus they are free to do what ever they want ??
It will be great actually because then we will be able to send our army to Sinai in the same way !!??
From two days ago an Egyptian citizen was killed by the Israeli fire near the borders .
May be Israel will apologize but it will be useless they will do it over and over again because simply they do not respect the Egyptian regime and believe it will do nothing in the end of the day!!
No one can ignore or deny this fact we are losing more sovereignty day by day , in fact now I remember that in last Ramadan a group of Pathetic African rebels hijacked Egyptians and tourists from our land ,from our territories so why I am angry that the IAF made shows in our skies !!
Did not Mubarak and his FM make it clear to us and to the world publicly that our national security represented in our borders and territories including the sea is a red line not to be crossed and that we are not obliged by the the security agreement between the United States and Israel ??
Then what is this crap I read earlier this morning !!??It happened in our territorial water !!?? and they asked Egypt to conduct another search once the ship is in Port Said !!??
Samar is just like Gamila , Halima and Loaui , She is a Palestinian girl from Gaza . She is 2 years old. According to the BBC report she is in Al Arish hospital
Samar and here family were shot down in a war crime.
They were civilians mainly women and children“ Samar’s mom, grand mom and her other two sisters” rising white flags and yet they were shot directly by Israeli soldier. Her two sisters were killed and grand ma was badly injured. Samar was lucky enough to survive the mini carnage , she took a bolt that damaged her spinal cord :(
Samar may not walk again
She does not understand this yet , because if she understood she may not smile this beautiful smile with hope in her eyes full of joy. She does not understand and thank God she does not understand,may be that will help her to coup with her pain.
If this is not a war crime , I do not know what a war crime can be !!??
It seems that the Honeymoon is over , Obama is the president ,he spoke to the people of the Mideast and the Islamic world and so Israel will launch another round against the people of Gaza , of course it won’t be like the first one. There are warnings here and there saying it will be more than one raid and the UN is still keeping that refugee camp in Rafah just in Case.
I want to say that I am so proud with our doctors who crossed the borders to help the Palestinian injured and God knows how many they are. I want to thank Dr. Mohamed Ghonam because he was our best Ambassador in this crisis.
As much as I feel that my country Egypt thanks to its regime did not stand with Gaza this time as it should ,officially I am so happy with how the world is standing with Gaza. I am so proud and happy with what is happening in UK ,who could believe all that public anger happens in UK !!
In Scotland the angry protesters occupied the HQ of BBC in Scotland ,objecting the network refusal to broadcast the SOS relief Call to Gaza. TO be honest I do not understand how the BBC will lose its objectivity if it airs this relief call !! For God sake their reporters were the best witnesses on how this city is suffering , their reporters were witnesses on the war crimes against women and children in Gaza, I do not get it !!
I won’t comment on Sky News because it is not about solidarity with the BBC in my opinion but it is rather the administration of the channel that owns Sky News in UK and Fox News in USA !!
Even the sport stars protested for Gaza and some even demanded that Israel would be sacked out of the European cup “check the comments from the Guardian ,well I do not know why they play in the European Cup and they are in Asia to be honest,may be it is because its Arab neighbours”
Speaking about the Guardian ,I respect their coverage from the first day , some of course will consider it bias but it was objective in showing the truth.
BY the way Youssef Islam aka Cat Stevens will dedicate a single to the Children of Gaza , get ready to download it insh Allah in iTunes and Amazon.com when it is released.
It seems that there are serious steps whether Officially “Amr Moussa” or unofficially “the Arab NGOs” in suing the IDF for committing war crimes against civilians in Gaza , there are much proof in Gaza this time and it is well documented.
Of course Olmert understands that this time his fighters can face a lot of trouble if they are accused by war crimes and thus he vowed to protect his fighters with state protection !! The Israeli regime is officially protecting its war criminals !!??? Well Nazis would have done the same , in fact they had done it , they considered their war criminals as war heroes !!
In the end I just want to thank all those in the west who stood and are still standing beside Gaza in this crisis , believe me it means so much to us in the Arab world , for the first time we believe that we are not third degree citizens in the world and our voices are heard even if the leaders of the world do not hear it.
President Obama has not wasted any time and is trying hardly to restore the relations with the Islamic and Arab world. It is enough that his first formal television interview as a president was with an Arab network directed to the Arab and Muslim world "Mainly Arab world to be accurate"
I like what he said ,it was moderate and respectable.
He chose an excellent timing to show that he is serious in mending the relations but the choice of the channel was bad one in my point of view.
president Obama's first interview in an Arab network was with Al Arabiya Channel
I expressed my views regarding Al Arabiya before but this time I will say something , if the American administration wants to deliver a direct powerful message to the Muslim and Arab population ,it should not have chosen a channel that is perceived by most of the Arab viewers as a Pro-American channel.
Al Arabiya despite what they are claimed are highly criticized for being biased to the American administration and its allies in the region.
The American administration should have chosen either BBC Arabic "couple of other benefits" or Al Jazeera "of course Al Jazeera can be a controversial choice"
I prefer BBC Arabic despite it is not originally an Arabic network but if Obama wants to send a message to the Muslim world regarding Peace, mutual relations and Iran ,what would be better than BBC Arabic and its newly young sister BBC Farsi !!?
Anyhow It is a scoop for Al Arabiya , yet I doubt it will make me watch them as I watch BBC Arabic or Al Jazeera "despite the later attack on Egypt" Links :
There were some news circulating in the last couple of days that there was a delegation from the People's Mujahedin of Iran aka MKO visiting in Cairo and that they would meet Egyptian officials to give them support against the current regime in Tehran. In other words Cairo was conspiring against the Islamic Republic in Iran !!
For some it is logic and it fits the current so-called cold war between Egypt and Iran.
Yet the visit was over and it turned out that MKO visited the Egyptian human rights organizations in order to gain support against the Iraqi government that wants to expel them from the Iraqi territories , the Iraqi government does not want to make its powerful neighbor angry. Of course I wonder what kind of support the MKO will receive from our human rights organizations that need support in the first place.
Officially the foreign ministry denied any meeting with the delegation. Well I do not believe that the Egyptian regime is smart enough to play this dangerous game.The Egyptian Regime of Mubarak is not as powerful as the Egyptian regime of Nasser that played this game perfectly.
Already in 1960s Nasser supported a group of Iranian socialists against the Shah and the Egyptian intelligence hold meetings with them in Cairo yet the meetings reached to a dead end and the support was cut because of a very silly mistake already we are doing it again.
The Iranian socialists were just like MKO Iranian socialist nationalists who could not stand more from the Arab Nationalism talk Nasser was calling to and the fact that the Mideast map in the intelligence service meeting room over their heads recognized the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf. They were Persians and they were proud to be so.
Nasser and his really clever intelligence failed to understand and respect the Persian ego and thus the plan to turn Iran in to a friendly socialist republic in 1960s failed.
Even if Mubarak is thinking of supporting the MKO , he is rewinding the mistake even in sillier and more stupid way with his media machine attacking Iran and its Persian greed in the regime day and night in the most worse ways ever that reached to an attack on the Shiite sect itself.
To be honest I do not think that MKO can change anything ,for God sake Saddam hosted them in Iraq and gave them support more than we can ever do and yet he and them failed.
I think the delegation visit was just a tease news to provoke the Iranian regime after the news that came from Tehran saying that there was a 6 numbers price tag on the head of Mubarak from the revolutionary guards.
It is worth to mention that officially Iran denied that news but MKO published the news in their official website "despite I can't find it in the English section anymore" , in fact they publish all our officials' attack on the current regime in Tehran as a kind of support to their cause against the IR !! It is a weak support in the end .
SurelyYesterday was an important day for the MKO because the EU agreed to take the MKO off the terrorist groups list.
I am against sending journalists and reporters to court for what they write, I believe they can be debated by the same medium they use yet there are some journalists and writers in Egypt that should be sent to the court and should be punished for insulting the profession of journalism. Those journalists are meanly the regime journalists who work in the official and unofficial but pro-regime Journalists. It is from my ultimate wishes that they will be punished if we will ever become a democratic county. Already I have a list in my mind : 1- Abdallah Kamal. 2- Karm Gabr 3- Momtaz El-Kut 5-Osama Saria. 6-Ali Ibrahim. 7-Magdy El-Dakak. 8-Ahmed Moussa. 9-Khairy Ramadan. 10-Tarek Hassan. 11-Samir Ragab. 12-Ibrahim Nafea.
Do you have any other names to be added in this list ?? Be my guest, I am sure there are more
I do not suggest that they would be sent to jail despite some of them should because of the financial corruption and also for the crimes they are committing against our country and future from blind support and continual hypocrisy I wish that they will be banned from all means of media for the rest of their lives. By the way I do not need to bet anything but if this regime falls all those names with no exception will attack Mubarak and his dictatorship regime . By the way Ahmed Fakry "I have not read for him before" wrote an excellent essay about that kind of journalists especially about Abdallah Kamal ,the chief in editor of Rosa Al Youssef. Kamal is attacking the Arab countries for the last three weeks like a manic. Fakry believes that Kamal and co. are more dangerous and harmful to the President's than his enemies. You must know Kamal is doing his best in this crisis to ensure a better position in the official press despite the losses of Rosa Al Youssef Magazine and Newspaper that are increasing day by day
On the 26th of January 1952, about 12 PM in the commercial heart of Cairo in Down Town a huge fire started. It was a fire that continued for about 12 hours destroying more than 700 commercial shops and administrative offices. Old generations still remember this fire that came in a very critical time in the Egyptian modern history pre-1952 revolution.
Since the 27th of January 1952 up till now no one knows for sure who is behind the grand Cairo fire; it is a classical Egyptian X-File by all means. There are too many theories and too many suspects starting from the King to the British Forces to the 1940s parties to the free officers themselves up to the favourite banned group in Egypt: The Muslim brotherhood. “It is something classic!!”
I do not have a doubt in my mind that one that was behind this fire was the British forces. It is not the palace not it was the palace and the British forces hand by hand operation on the contrary, the British could not stand Farouk.
You only have to read the sequence of events.
During that time Egypt was on the break of something big, the British forces made it clear that they did not intend to leave the Suez Canal nor Egypt. PM Mustafa Nahas was in a clash with the British occupation forces from one side and the king from another side, of course the king and also Nahas were stupid enough to be enemies anyhow both paid the price later heavily!! This beside the battle that Farouk thought he had won: The officers club elections, it was one single battle and in the end he lost the war against the army officers who could not take it anymore.
The beginning of January 1952 was an indicator that the month would not end except by a disaster. On the 4th of January some churches were burned and Christians were killed in the Suez Canal cities, the British forces did not waste any time and accused the Egyptian resistance using their propaganda machine to give bad image to the resistance from one side and to divide the Egyptian society in sectarian way from another side. Still the Egyptian society was much wiser, the Christian Egyptians whether Orthodox or Catholic came out in the newspapers suspecting the identity of those who done those series of terrorist acts. In fact it turned out according to the people of the Canal who lived that era that the British forces hired couple of guys who worked in their camps along with the thugs in the cities to do such terrorists act!! “Man I see a history repeating!!”
The resistance operations did not stop then regardless of the propaganda machine that was working perfectly abroad. Already on the 25th of January 1952 there was a battle between the Egyptian Police officers in the Ismailia governorate building and the British forces. The battle was tough and the Egyptian police officers despite their small number and arms compared to the whole British army fought bravely up to the early hours of the 26th of January. For history Fouad Serg El-Din, the interior minister and the entire Al Wafd cabinet headed by Mustafa Pasha El-Nahas supported those officers back then in Suez Canal.
In the morning of the 26th of January 1952 there were protests from the high schools and the universities in Egypt in solidarity with the officers in Suez. About 12 PM fire started down town Cairo.
Now how the fire did not start, when, and where up till is debatable but according to what I believe it was not random, nor it was thugs’ work. It was well organized and pre-planned as emergency plan. This is more like an intelligence plan. I am not going to believe the naïve story once been told by Salah Eissa that it started randomly, it was more than that.The plan was to use the protests and the anger of the public as a cover to launch these terrorist acts , yes I am using the modern terms to describe the acts. To turn it from protests to riots to terrorist acts.
I do not need to read secret documents to know that the propose of this fire was to divert the attention from what was happening in Suez Canal, the British Forces feared that things would go out of control after the 25th of January and there is no way to gain control except through a huge public attention diversion. Think about the financial losses not only about the fire, the financial losses of that day then would estimated now by billions. Shepherd hotel was completely burned to the ground and this was just one example. “The old Shepherd was too big to be compared by the current Shepherd”
Before
After
There are more photos in the slideshow for Shepherd after the fire.
On the same day King Farouk was celebrating with his new born crown prince Ahmed Fouad II, he invited all the statesmen, ambassadors..Etc in to a luncheon. The fact that the king was against the Cabinet and he did not react on what happened in those 72 hours gave the impression that he knew in advance and some even goes far and says that he was behind. Farouk was not behind it because if he were behind something so sophisticated and organized, his son would be ruling us right now!! Already all the sources that came after the revolution accusing him of the fire were mostly from books that trashed him by the orders of the revolution itself.
The government after the fire accused political leader and former MP Ahmed Hussein, the leader of “Misr Al Fa’ta” party of it despite he denied totally. The court ordered his execution and by a miracle he survived the death penalty, he was saved by the coup of 1952. By time Hussein proved to be innocent and other names and parties began to appear as I said every group and party were accused from the King to the communists to the Muslim brotherhood even to the Free officers who were unknown yet to most parties.
Who did it from the Egyptian party is the ultimate “X” in our file here that historians want to find because they know that there were two parties involved in this fire : The British and Egyptian traitor “x” so who will it be ??
In our modern definition, this fire would be considered a terrorist act; I would dare and say it that it was our Pre 1952 9/11. When I read the world modern history, I could not find something similar like the incident of the grand Cairo fire in its size or in its preparation.
Losses on that day:
300 shops including like department stores branches Omar Effendi, Salon Vert and Cicruel.
30 big companies and Banks like Barclays.
117 administrative and residential units.
92 bars
73 coffee shop and restaurants including “Gropei”
13 hotels including Shepherd “total destruction”, Metropolitan and Victoria.
40 cinemas including “Ravioli, Radio, Diana, Metro and Miami”.
8 automobile showrooms.
10 weapons stores.
16 clubs.
Human losses on that day:
Strangely there were not huge human losses as expected in such big terrorist act, after all it happened on a Saturday morning, during that time Egypt had a big Jewish community that worked in Down Town Cairo, and it was the Jewish Sabbath. Not to mention most young people on that day morning were protesting in solidarity with the Police officers Still people were killed and injured on that day.
26 people were killed
552 people were injured
Of course if this happens now in this scale I would doubt immediately.
Unfortunately during that time all the foreign media was on the British side, calling the resistance as terrorists and thugs, sounds familiar!!??
Already for them that Saturday was the black Saturday where the Foreign owned commercial stores and cafes were burned and that they were made to attract tourists only was burned in the oriental capital!!?? Watch yourself “it includes footage for the damages!!”
I think the British Press forgot to tell its readers that the British government was in debt for Egypt with millions of pounds.
The Egyptian government on the 26th of January declared martial law throughout Egypt. But unfortunately that government, the Cabinet of Al Nahas did not continue to the following day; the 27th. Farouk found a golden /stupid opportunity to sack his old enemy Mustafa El-Nahas.
The British and the foreign press were so happy by the decision of Farouk on the 27th of January to sack Nahas Pasha and to appoint Ali Maher. It is a surprise to me how the Press in UK and in US welcomed Ali Maher who used to cooperate with the Nazis during the WWII!!?? It was also noticeable that the Americans began to have a voice regarding what was going on in Cairo.
Check out these titles from NY Times archives “It is not free but you can read the title”
This is a slideshow for Down town during and after the grand fire
Also here is another British Newsreel ,this time it is silent and poor in quality
Many people in Egypt remembered it last year when the fire caught for no good reason in the Shura Council, it brought to them memories that did not even live but it is the sequence of the events. The fact that in 1952 too many things happened made people including me for awhile that this fire can be the introduction of some kind of change. After all the year 1952 started with a king celebrating the birth of his crown prince and ended by sending the same king with long waited crown prince to exile then after two years or even less there was a President.
You know judging from the fire of the Shura council and how much time it took to put down the fire ,I wonder how now we can deal with a fire in the size of the grand Cairo fire … after further thought I do not want to imagine , heaven forbids it will be a disaster by all measure. By the way on that day only 1500 firemen saved Egypt without the helps of helicopters and fire engines from outside Cairo
The health ministry yesterday officially announced that there was a H5N1 case in Egypt. 2 years old Shorouk Mohamed Said became the victim No. 53 in the country. Shorouk is from Monfia in Nile Delta and she got infected from the domestic poultry her family raises. The domestic poultry were infected ,they were about 9 ducks and 12 chicken. I must say that all the scientists warned from the role ducks and pigs in spreading the virus in Egypt.
Shorouk was transferred to the hospital on the 23rd of January . She was given Tamflu and according to the news report her condition thank God is stable, hopefully she will recover.
I notice something that the virus now is infecting the Children more based on the last 2 victims , it is something logic because usually the children have the weakest immunity especially in winter.
Update#1:
Fayoum is back as a hot spot for H5N1 ,a new hot spot was discovered there for the virus.
On this day from 57 years ago the Egyptian Police proved that it was really Egyptian. The Egyptian policemen in Ismailia fought a great battle on this day against the British occupation forces in the canal. One day insh Allah I will share with you the story of this battle but this year we have another battles to fight
On this day those officers in that governorate building in Ismailia were really in the service of the people and most importantly in the service of the Egypt not in the service of the king or the government. I do not think that they were going to surrender if they had the orders from the government on that day , they would not surrender with one hell of a fight.
This day became the Police day in Egypt.
I love this memorial and I feel sad to see how the Police turned to be the enemy of the people instead of its protector inside the country in this way. I wish that the interior ministry and the police for real starts to learn the important lessons of the 25th of January 1952. Showing documentaries day and night is not enough I am afraid
I feel sad when I say that the police in 2009 does not care about the people , it turned from the shield of people to the shield of the regime.
Sometimes I feel that the problem with police now is the sort of the education taught in the police academy. That education brainwashes those young recruits teaching them that they are above the people and above the law.It is noticeable that the police officers latest torture and abuse of power are usually the young officers. I noticed this. Of course this does not mean that old officers now are angels on the contrary. Former police officer and currently lawyer/activist Mahmoud El-Qatari wrote a book regarding this point. The book title is “The confession a police officer in the wolves city”. Qatari was sued for defaming the interior ministry yet the court found him not guilty.
Other times I believe it is the whole system’s fault, a regime fault , you can expect the police to work as it should in such complete corrupted regime .
Lately the crime rate increased in Egypt in a very fearful way , now we have international gangs stealing in the middle of the day like this Cuban banks robbery gang or that Turkish ladies gang. For God sake from couple of months two of my relatives were stolen and the police came after several hours and you won’t believe their carelessness !! I do not need to mention how many times the police failed in solving murder cases like for instance the Bani Mazaar murder or the 6th October murder !!?? For God Sake people now are scared to enter a police department and families now think twice before accept a Police officer as their son in law !!
I do not want to mention the torture record tonight but you all know about it for sure. It is a world famous now !!
I swear I do not hate our police on the contrary I respect so much those heroes from them who die in the line of their real line of duty , while they are really protecting us.
Because of those heroes I must along with others expose those dirty examples in the Egyptian police force to clean it.
The bad examples in the interior ministry like Islam Nabih and co. are the one that insults the police officers who died in the line of duty for us , for Egypt.
I forgot to tell you something
On the 26th of January morning the Egyptian students in Universities protested in solidarity with the Police officers
