Meet the press

Meet the dirty face of Egyptian press

It is about the interesting debate between Abdel Halim Kandeel and Karam Gabr on Orbit TV screen in famous "Cairo Today"

P.S: Courtesy of Wael Abbas "Miser Digital"

Both are Journalists , the first is Abdel Halim Kandeel is chief in editor of El-Karma "The dignity " weekly newspaper of the El-Karma Nasserites opposition party. Kandeel is known to be one of Egypt's famous opponents of Mubarak's regime especially after being taken from the street from two years in Ramadan , beaten to death and left naked in the middle of Cairo-Ismailiya road. Kandeel also is from the founders of Kafya movement and he is its spokesperson.Kandeel is the man who wears glasses

The second is Karam Gabr, to say the Chief in editor of Rosa El-Youssef weekly magazine, Rosa is one of Egypt's most important magazines since 1930s ,yet unfortunately since the nationalization of the press it began to lose its neutral patriotic tough especially in the last 10 years in Mubarak's era where it turned to in to the greatest speaker and defender of the regime attacking its enemies in the most disgusting way . Rosa started as a liberal magazine then since Nasser till the last 10 years it turned to be a communist magazine ,then in the last couple of years it turned to be one of the NDP headquarters in Egypt defending the regime ,promoting to it ,spreading lies about its enemies and fostering GM's ideas for the future of Egypt. To say the truth I had never heard of Karam Gabr before as a journalist except when they announced that he was going to be in Charge in Rosa. Anyway Gabr is a regime enthusiast ,all the opponents of the regime and all those who want real democracy and justice are his enemies and the enemies of the state, traitors who are paid from other countries!! He is very rude person he once called the Egyptian Bloggers as Street Kids , also he is very hypocrite to the president and his son in a disgusting way , he is from the the people who that the Ruler is the country and sometimes he is the god "May God forgive me"

The host is the famous Amr Adib in the Orbit channel ,in his famous daily primetime show "Cairo today" covering all important events in Egypt and the Arab world from political,Social ,Economic and religious events. He is very popular but unfortunately not all people watch him , as he is working in a private Cable network with monthly subscription , I don't have the Orbit because I got the Showtime and Art and both show better movies whether western or Arabic. He is the bald guy in the middle. I don't know really the other fourth guy

From two days ago ,Adib was discussing the law concerning "Insulting the President of State" where it is prohibited to insult or even criticize the President in Egypt otherwise the journalist or the writer can either go to jail or pay a large fine. Gabr surely is 100% with that law while Kandeel is 100% against it. Kandeel was chosen I guess because he is known to be Egypt's toughest critics to the president using tough language which I think it is not only appropriate but it is shameful to use it when you describe any human even my enemies , that what Islam orders us where Prophet Mohamed "PBUH" says "The believer is not an abuser or a curser".

Kandeel reached to a great level of hatred towards Mubarak ,already I understand why , beside the terrible rule of Mubarak, Kandeel had a terrifying experience as I referred above ,but I don't know ,I mean the guy wrote that he wants to throw out whenever he sees the picture of Mubarak , that's too much , I don't know ,I mean I am not so fond by Mubarak ,but this is rudeness.He could have written that "I am sick of seeing his pictures" everyday well it is less insulting but it gives the same meaning of boredom of seeing his pictures on a daily if not hourly basis in the official media

On the other hand Karam Gabr is ruder that Kandeel , the easiest thing he says when he is in any confrontation in any media ,he accuses people like Kandeel by treason , that they are paid by other countries to attack Mubarak who is Egypt !!!! It is disgust ing accusation ,hard one especially for people like Kandeel who really love Egypt to the degree that they don't care if they lose their lives to get back its freedom , really I admire Kandeel courage for standing like this against the tyranny of the Egyptian regime to defend our rights . This accusation shows how weak Gabr is, it is also a very old accusation left from the Nasserites grand era of dictatorship where anyone against the regime would be an Agent or a Spy , very naive thinking and very disgusting one !! Also this guy got a complex that he doesn't respect other social classes or certain professions , once calling the Egyptian Bloggers as Street kids and this time making fun of Kandeel calling him an animals' doctor who should go and treat animals in Zoos !!

By the way it seems from watching this part of the debate "It is only part of it ,not the complete one" that Gabr provoked Kandeel that the later lost his temper ,already it seems that Kandeel spoke first for complete 16 minutes and no one interpreted him ,until Gabr started his response on a massive attack him with accusation of treason

I believe any person would be angry and can lose his temper like Kandeel did ,of course to this degree. In fact I see Gabr was deviating from the main topic and concentrating on attacking Kandeel that several times and it is shown in the video Adib tried to remind him to stick with in the main topic.

Gabr accused Kandeel to be agent for Lybia and Iraq ,both countries now became allies to the United States  ,and Kandeel accused Gabr to be spy for the Investigation of National security bureau!! How civilized !!

I don't know how we can speak about democracy and freedom of expression if the dialogues of our intellectuals and journalists will be like this. Hard core insults like "animal" and "jackass" and accusations of treason .It is so sad and this shows that we still have long way in our quest of democracy which implies the respect of the opinion and the other opinion. Really our intellectuals should be taught how to respect each other .Anyway I guess it hard after the regime is using very low disrespectful personalities so how there will be mutual respect between both parties !!

tags: Egypt, Egyptian, Journalist, Journalism, Middle East, TV Show, Misr Digital, You Tube, Politics, Freedom, Democracy, President

The 5th of September "2"

Ok I didn't forget to complete my thought in thee 5th of September anniversary and its implications and lessons but you can say I am both lazy and tired

anyway I found out that the date of 5th of September is remarkable one in both the national and international and strange thing that it is sad date

I will start nationally then internationally

1. The famous arrests of 5th of September 1981 which I already spoke about it down there
2. Last year Bani Swaf theatre fire ,the horrible fire which killed several innocent people , as a result of the governmental carelessness of the Culture ministry in Egypt , terrible accident where people were burned alive
3. The famous or infamous , it is up to you The Munich accident in 1971 , Dear friend Mukhtar El-Azizi wrote a wonderful post about the movie , I want to speak about the operation and the fiasco of the Mossad , by the way the Mossad is not that good as we think

tags: Egypt, Middle East, Israel, History , 1970s, 1980s, Sadaat, Mubarak, Munich, Bai Swaf, Theatre, Fire, Murder

CSI:Manya X-file

Today was the last day in the trial of the so-called the Slayer Bani Mazar in Manya , if you don't remember it and I believe you ,I advise to read my post about it
Today the trial which I would lie if I said all the Egyptians are following because most of them were not ,  were busy in other things from trains crashes to the return of bird flu to their other miseries in life , but at least the people in South Egypt especially in Manya Governorate ,also human rights activists were interested in it. Of course the people of Manya must follow ,it is one of Egypt's most horrible and bizarre mass murder crimes in the modern history , 4 different families were brutally killed in those houses at night , their bodies were disfeatured and parts from their bodies were taking from them ,all this in a very tiny small village . A horrible crime inside the heart of Upper Egypt , the home of revenge ,people there believe in "An eye for an Eye" , Vendetta is like an honor inherited to the following generations, you may agree or disagree but this is our Upper Egypt .
The human right activists and media , of course the independent and opposite to the government in fact also some official newspapers hinted to the case and the mistakes in it . {I still got "Akhbar El-Hawads-Accidents News" special edition about the crime}. The interior ministry did its usual job from arresting a wrong person and forcing him to confess that he made the massacre , of course the excuse was that he was suffering from some kind of mental illness aka crazy !!
It turned out that our police forced him to confess after biting his father whose reached his 7th decade and threatening him by rapping his mother and sister , not to mention the physical abuse the man he faced in the police station .
Luckily for him because he is innocent "yes I do believe in his innocence since day one " MP "Talaat El-Sadaat" became his lawyer and it seemed that president El-Sadaat nephew is as good in court as in Parliament and TV , El-Sadaat as usual turned it to a public show proving the innocence of his client and attacking the Police and interior ministry
Today was the verdict of the Court in Manya :

The verdict was innocence from all charges

He got back his freedom , this man Mohamed , because of the lack and weakness of evidences , look I may not a detective but I read crime detective novels ,my favorite shows are CSI and Crossing Jordan and since day one I couldn't buy that one person can do this massacre without leaving any evidence , the crime scenes were so clean , it is enough to say that there was no blood shuttered in all the victims' places as it should be , their body organs were taking in some kind of operation, some one knows exactly what he was doing , it wasn't a mad man act . Also it was so obvious that our  police and CSI were manipulating with the evidences to prove the charges on Mohamed , for example the "Galbya" of Mohamed they said that they found it in his house with blood on it , the CSI said that there was blood from one of the victims but when it appeared in court and the forensics wanted to analysis it they found out that the blood parts were cut off from the "Galbya" !!!! The CSI said that the parts were damaged because of chemicals !! brilliant I don't know what the police think ?? do they think that the Judges or the public are dump enough??
Mohamed is innocent and escaped the death penalty by a miracle thanks to the God first and the judge.
God bless this judge
By the way this crime the majority of people now in Egypt are contacting it with the crimes of organs traffic which is spreading in the low classes and country side in Egypt due to the hard economic situations nowadays
I remember this from Hala Sarhan's show on Rotana cinema when she hosted both Wael El-Ibrashi and Talaat El-Sadaat and the later told her that he knew that it was an Organs traffic case as he got information that the Penis of one of the victims is sold and working fine in Tel Aviv !! I won't ask how he knew or anything but how he knew that it is working fine in Tel Aviv  !!?? this guy is ........I don't know but I like him he is cool so cool. By the way this is two parts show, part 2 was never shown till now
P.S Wouldn't be less embarrassing to the police ,if it took the hard long way and did their job as they should  even for long time but to reach to the real murderer ?? Now forget about it didn't become a CSI file but an X-file
tags: Egypt, Egyptian, Middle East, Murder, Society, Social, Judges

The Lion that roared for a while

I can't believe until now the Egyptian press is attacking Bashar El-Assad because of his speech from couple of weeks in the Arab Press conference ,all this because he attacked the Egyptian-Saudi-Jordanian collation and their shameful acts in during the Lebanese Israeli War crisis

Well for sure El-Assad junior made his father's best old time friend Mubarak of Egypt when he said that that war showed the men from the half men , very big insult and this is due to the fact manhood is something holy and sacred in our Oriental Arabic culture describing  a man as a half man is another way saying that he is not man !!

Already the Saudi-Syrian relations are not good since the assassination of KSA man in Lebanon late PM Rafik El-Hariri and it was never good between Jordan and Syria . In Egypt our official national press of course opened their fires on El-Assad , even the opposition and independent newspapers also attacked him.To say the truth I didn't like his attack and accusation to the 14th of March coalition group ,because he was interfering in other's country internal affair ,he shouldn't have said so , because already this gives a proof that Syria is interfering in the Lebanese affair giving an excuse for attacking Syria by the United States ,Israel and 14th of March and Jeopardizing by the Syrian future .Ironically our Press and media didn't attack El-Assad for that point which is the most important mistake in his very long speech ,but for attacking the Arab leaders from kings and president ,on the top of the list is our old man Mubarak .

You can find expressions that "Bashar El-Assad is breaking the Union of the Arab" ,"Mubarak tries to gather the Arabs and El-Assad is destroying these attempts" what union and what gather and what Mubarak's attempts those guys are speaking about ,there is such thing called the Arab union now , for God Sake the Arab League now became the official place where the whole world see the Arab conflicts crystal clear , come on after we are the people who agreed not to agree on anything . Bashar El-Assad is not breaking the Arabic union ,because there is not , it is dead for the time being , Bashar was like a man hitting a dead corpse no pulse what so ever it is in desperate need to be revived.

Also the talk of why the Syrians didn't liberate Golan heights ,I am sorry it is not the Syrian problem but the problem of the Syrian regime which the Egyptian regime since 1981 stood beside it and supported it , the Syrian regime doesn't want a fight and it is obvious and El-Assad Jr. said it in the Dubai interview. But let me ask another wise question to all those blamers and I am not a supporter to El-Assad regime at all at any expense ,for God sake I accuse this regime of selling Golan heights but if Bashar El-Assad tomorrow decides to return back the heights by a military attack , gaining the opportunity of the troubled internal affair in Israel and the low self esteem its IDF began to suffer from , what will we do ? will we consider this another foolish irresponsible act that jeopardizes Peace ? will we consider stand watching especially we know that in such attack Israel will respond even more fiercely and already it is more powerful technologically ,Militarily and geographically , the Golan heights expose Damascus and thus any attack the Syrian brothers will suffer as much as the Israel , what will we do ? watching and making call center ? Already this is from the rights of Syria according to the international laws as long as a part of its lands in under the occupation and thus the international law gives it the right to attack Israel .Did anyone think of the possibility that Bashar El-Assad could be mad enough last month to open the Golan front in parallel with the Lebanese front ? did anyone think of it ?!! Just a question

I am not a supporter to El-Assad regime but I care for Syria as I care for Sudan as I consider them the real Egyptian Extension in the region but I don't see the attack on the Arab leaders was a big thing , in fact it is the least to say about them .

Already Bashar El-Assad the Lion who roared for a while "El-Assad equals The lion in English" denied that he mean the Arab leaders in his speech in his exclusive interview with famous Journalist Hamdy Kandeel for Dubai TV from three weeks ago. He said that he meant other men !! and he couldn't have meant the Arab leaders because their stands were already known before the Crisis "If you want my opinion ,this is even much worse than the half men thing" . The interview was too long ,I think I didn't cover it despite it was important,already I wrote a post about it and I forgot to publish it . I am very sorry anyway here is a shot from the long interview

Anyway after one week of Egyptian official attack ,the Syrian media began to save the situation , Syrian envoys to Egypt to apologize to any misunderstanding to his uncle Mubarak .

I believe the Egyptian people ,not the media but the people began to feel sick from this media circus and attack on Syria and they didn't like the Egyptian official statements and felt that it is more American than Egyptian and I guess that is why President Mubarak said these wise words in his meeting with the army this week

Egypt can't abandon Syria and Syria can't abandon Egypt

I hate to say it but this is first time he says something wise , this quote must be recorded for history , look you know I am not a supporter for the NDP or our ol' man or his son but truth is truth and he said it , of course this quote was improvised , it was prepared as all the questions and answers in the public conference attended by Mubarak. The place where he said it was important , a meeting with the army , the second army I believe in the west area

tags: Syria, Lebanon, Egyptian, El-Assad, President, Press, Politics, Middle East, America, Israel, War

The 5th of september "1"

Remember Remember the 5th of September

Today is the 25th anniversary of Egypt's biggest political arrests in the modern history better known in our national political history as Septembers arrests . For those who don't know ,the last couple of years in President Sadaat's life "died or was assassinated on the 6th of October 1973" were very tough on both him and the people.

• The majority of the political parties in Egypt were and are still against Camp David Peace treaty with Israel .
• Egypt was isolated in the Arab World.
• the American administration promised President El-Sadaat with welfare to Egypt as a result of Peace ;a welfare that didn't come.
• Israel hit Iraq ,People got more angrier.
• There was a ghost of division between Muslims and Christians for the first time appearing and it appeared so ugly and frightened
• of course the Jenny that turned on his master , the Islamist groups became a dangerous time bomb that was going to explode sooner especially the Islamic Revolution Mania of Khomeini gave the hope of ruling the state!!

All these factors were tough burden on El-Sadaat , I don't give him an excuse for what he did , but it is good to understand the factors and conditions Egypt or the Egyptian administration was facing those days. Now under all these external and internal pressure El-Sadaat seemed to lose control and patience , it was the real Autumn of Anger like famous writer Hassenuin Haikal described in his famous book. Wise El-Sadaat who was known for his using the suitable words for the suitable moments began to lose his control in public appearance whether in Parliament Speeches where he described an old cleric Muslim man to be in Jail like a dog , or press conferences when he answered an American journalist question that if it hadn't been for democracy that Egypt was having then and President El-Sadaat believed in ,he would have shot him dead !! El-Sadaat was losing his touch , he was going to his end , all the indicators were referring that something big was going to happen ,you know the pressure theory , the pressure that will lead to the explosion ,it is the same way, and it led to the end ,a bloody end in the month of October

Now to the September arrests , El-Sadaat was having enough criticises from the parties inside Egypt ,All parties are against Camp David , the Nassirites can't stand him since very long time and now they got a chance , same thing for the communists who were taking advantage from the terrible economic conditions, the Muslim brotherhood were playing with the fire ,one day with him ,the other day against him , the Egyptian Orthodox Church began to complain , it was so noisy for him and thus someone in the regime I think suggested that all those opponents to be hosted in jails till Sinai would return on the next 25th April then ,I would like to remind now that we are in late August , who suggested this terrible suggestion concerning the hospitality in Jails no one knows ,everyone in the decision making class then is blaming the other , everyone is a saint , Jehan El-Sadaat is blaming El-Nabway Ismail , the interior minister then , and the later yesterday on TV declared his innocence and it was El-Sadaat fault , it is easy for him to say that when El-Sadaat was killed from 25 years
On the night of the 3rd and 4th of September 1981 1351 persons were arrested and sent to jails , the majority was from the Islamist side ,then from the left communist wing , 400 members from "The National Progressive Unionist " party were arrest , 43 women were arrested . Those 1351 were from all social classes ,from all political parties and views ,from all ages and jobs ,it was like that the mini-Egypt was in Jail. The public official announcement was on the 5th of September.To give example here are some names

• From The Liberal political parties : Fouad Basha Serg El-Din , the ex-interior minister before the Revolution ,the head of the new Wafad party , already he was very old man , his name was added because in one of his private conversation with a friend which were all recorded ,he described El-Sadaat as Louis the 19th as Nabawy Ismail said

• From the Nasserite political parties : Hamadin Sabahi , Fathy Radwan , Husseinein Haikal , the famous writer and journalist ,the close friend to president Nasser ,he was added because he was glorifying the Iranian revolution then as Nabawy Ismail said !!

• From the left wing ,most of it , the list included names like Abu El-Ezz El-Hariri, Ahmed Fouad Nagm, Shekih Emam ,Fouad Hadad ,Lotfy El-Kholi,Khalid Mohi El-Din , from the ladies , Nawal El-Sadawy,Raga El-Naksh,Shanda Makld, Amina Rashid , Awtaf Abd El-Rahman and Safinz Kadam despite that she considered herself from the Islamist side

• From the Islamist wing "The political peaceful one then " most of the Muslim brother hood members Moktar Noah, Omar El-Talmsany, Mohamed Abd El-Quods ........etc

• From the Christian side from the first time ,it included Christian religious men too ,already Pope Shounda was sent to exile by the orders of President Sadaat to El-Natroon Vally monastery ,and another Pope was appointed !! despite the Pope in the Egyptian Orthodox Church is elected by the Church board in Alexandria !!

The problem is most of the 1351 didn't have clue why they were sent to Jail at all , they didn't do anything wrong , in fact many of them hadn't anything with Politics ,it was very random operation , in Assoyt a college student in the faculty of Pharmacy was arrested because his name was the same as the head of an Islamic group in the University of Assoyt ,ironically this kid was the head of acting team !! Imagine what happened to this innocent young man ,I won't be surprised if I found out that he joined the real terrorist group after that mistake

It turned in to a personal vendetta operation , anyone hates another one , this another one will be added to the list ,for example and this was confirmed by both Makram Mohamed Ahmed ,Chief in editor of El-Mosar magazine and El-Nabawy yesterday on Dream TV, the later ,the interior minister gathered the Chief in editors of all the Egyptian official newspapers and magazines and asked them to write down the names of those who they saw as menace to the regime !! It turned out to some sort of personal vendetta operation,innocent journalist and writers names were written down for revenge . You know I think my Grand father's name may have been among those names because at that time he had a great problem with very famous writer then who is still famous till now unfortunately , yet for some reason ,I guess it is God's mercy he was omitted with some other lucky journalists , as Makram Mohamed Ahmed hinted .

Not only that but the Universities and faculties deans did the same dirty job

It was n't something for Egypt or for Sinai ,it turned out to be a vendetta game

Some people died in jail ,it was not a game , Ex-minister Motaa'z Abu El-Wafa died because of the lack of medical care , it wasn't a fine hospitality as El-Sadaat wanted and Ismail claims now , yes there was no torture in El-Sadaat Era as most people from communists like Poet Nagam and Muslim Brotherhood members like Mohamed Habib says but it still considered a jail , ten people were in every room with no newspapers or radio , a complete isolation to 1351. The Women in the arrests remember very well how they knew the news of El-Sadaat assassination , they knew it from the prostitutes cells beside them as the hookers got radio while they got none and they are great ladies from University professors like Amina Rashid "Professor of French lecture in Cairo University and also a grand daughter of Sadky Bahsa , the PM of Egypt before the revolution , Dr. Awtaf Abd El-Rahman , the Professor of Media and press" ,Journalists like "Safinz Kadam" feminists like "Nawal El-Sadawy" , activitist like "Shanda Maklad" those great ladies got no means of communication with the outside world ,while the hookers got radio !! imagine it

But you know one important thing all those political parties understood very well in this black septemeber of 1981 ,they are all Egyptians in the end , and they all want the best of this country despite their believes and way of thinking. In fact it was the surprise when the security guards with orders from above used to put the communist with the MB member thinking that both would kill each other , they didn't , because for a short period they understood they got a common problem to face that regime

Technorati : 1970s, 1981, Camp David, Communists, Egypt, Egyptian, History, International, Israel, Local, Middle East, Muslim Brotherhood, Peace, Politics, Pope Shounda, President Sadaat, Terrorism

Another train crash in Egypt

Two weeks didn't pass since the Kalyoub train crash in Egypt , then we have another train crash yesterday . Two trains as usual collided each other , this time one for goods ,the others for passengers , two are reported to be killed and 20 are injured .Ironically it is near Kalyoub again !!

OK let's face the facts

Trains in Egypt are very very old , some of them go back to the 1960s

Train drivers conditions are the worst , small salaries that barely sorry never meets the high requirement of living conditions in Egypt , very hard work conditions and their union can't do anything to improve their conditions because they are facing the government our blessed governments through all those years !!

With all this annual returns for the State railways there is no improvement at all , the government didn't buy any new train I don't know since when , may be the Spanish train was the last new train the Egyptian State bought from a decade !! Of course Our president Thank God at last decided as usual to be our Savior and Saved the Egyptian State Railways from privatisation when he decided to improve the Railways with 5 billion Egyptian Pounds !! Of course History will remark this daring generous decision as one of his achievements !!

Technorati : Egypt, Egyptian, Government, Local, Middle East, Social, Trains, accidents

Salah El-Din would cry

This is so sad news and makes the one feels so sad for the days of Saladin ,the days of old where the Arabs race was a respectful one

The news I read in Elaph.com says :

The Kurds in Syria are happy and support the decision of Mossad Barazani in Kurdistan in Iraq to ban the Iraqi official flags in the Kurdish areas!! of course this decision is another step in achieving the independence of Kurdistan from Iraq and dividing it as the American administration wants

This is so so sad and dangerous so much , because this means there is some ambition for the Kurdish Independent State to take place in the middle East , of course the Kurds are dreaming because Iran,Turkey and Syria are not ready to give up their lands to the Kurds .

In the news it is said that Syrian Kurdish party or what ever is called says the decision is a rightful one , as the flag is from the baathi era!!!!

First of all the Baathi era flag was changed, well to say the truth not totally as the only thing changed in the national Iraqi flag is the font of "Allah Akbar-Allah is the greatest" now it is Kofi Arabic fonts ,one of the oldest Arabic fonts ever originated in the Kofa city in south Iraq.

But you know to say the truth the blame is not on the Kurds and their leaders alone , but mainly on the previous Iraqi regime that made Iraqis from Kurdish origin hate their country because of dictatorship ,Same thing in Syria and unfortunately the same game is played by the same stupidity of the Egyptian regime with the Coptic people in Egypt

Look I am very sorry to what happened to Iraqi Kurds in time of Saddam but it brings any comfort ,not only them or their kids were killed ,in fact thousands of even of Iraqis from all the groups and sects were tortured and killed too . Please for Iraq don't make Bush's dreams come true ,Please

Man Salah El-Din would cry in his grave now

P.S : Salah El-Din , the legendary Muslim Arabic King warrior who fought the crusaders and returned back Jerusalem was from Kurdish origins

Technorati : Arabs, International, Iraq, Kurds, Middle East, Politics, Syria