Updated: Few images of military attack on Tahrir square december 17 despite media blackout

First military attack on Tahrir square by @mostafasheshtawy



Army solider strip the shirt off a female protestor beat and abuse her



if you look closely you see the attack on her and what appears to be a young boy from another angle



One of the final livestreams of the military attack on Tahrir square



all live streams shut down in attempt for media blackout

Tents before


and after the attack



the field hospital in the middle of the square reportedly had the same plight

more raw footage of blatant military violence, live fire wounds on demonstrators



main road to Tahrir square closed off with a barricade and then later with a wall



Next military clear nearby squares





and chase protesters into the upper class nieghborhood of zamalek



later in the early afternoon



This report from aljazeera english was their last



soon thereafter





In his public address, the Ganzouri reiterates a promise he made when the military generals appointed him after the most recent massacre in Tahrir square end of November

"I said and I am still reiterating that we will never confront any peaceful demonstrations with any kind of violence, even the verbal kind," he said. "I am committed to this."

after seeing these images, judge for yourself

other reports of cameras confiscated, broken, journalists harassed and threatened by phone

thank you world for believing in our "democratic transition," this is why we don't go to vote. the generals overseeing this massacre oversee our elections

the reason we held the #occupycabinet sit-in at the parliament building was to protest the illegitimacy of the appointment of x-muburak era prime minister kamal ganzouri who justified all these attacks, calling to an end to military trials of civilians, calling for the trial of those carrying out these violent crimes

in an attempt to quash any resistance to the illegitimate military that is trying to snuff out a revolutionary spirit of a people suppressed and exploited for decades

around 6pm December 17th a massive march streams into Tahrir square in memory of Sheikh Effat, one of the demonstrators the military had murdered the day before.



and all this in light of yesterdays violent attacks, arrest, torture, murder of demonstrators

that all began with the kidnap and torture of one protester called Aboudi from the #occupycabinet sit-in



more videos here

Tahrir August 1st: Masquerading a Lost Legitimacy

At 2:16 in this clip you hear a crowd chanting, “al-geish wal shae'b, eed wahda” or “the army and people are one hand, united.” This is the absurd anthem that has rung throughout Cairo since military forces were deployed on Egypt's streets on January 28th. There is certainly a fetish among wide portions of the Egyptian public with the male machismo of the military, hence the cheering on of green mannequins’ phallic clasp of the gun facing the “dirty” demonstrators.

Read On

the military and the people

forgive me for my silence.

I posted an article that ended like this 15 February:

"But as the Supreme Military Council seeks to re-impose "stability" by, for example, banning labour strikes, Egyptians must be alert to the alarm bells that are ringing. The military, which has played its hand with great care throughout the protests - winning the trust and respect of many of the demonstrators - receives an annual $1.3bn in aid from the US, the same country that has been pushing the implementation of the economic model that has been so damaging to Egyptians.

The demonstrators must not now be fooled into believing that overthrowing the face of a corrupt and repressive regime is sufficient. They must prevent the military from propping up an economic order that only benefits the few and can be maintained only through iron-fisted rule."

my position has not changed one bit since, this eye witness account of a military attack on demonstrators in tarhri square Friday night comfirms:



follow my links on the ongoing Egyptian intifada here

There is a strange silence in the air today...

it has finally sunk in that the egyptian military are not on the side of the people. egyptians are up against a military apparatus that is maintaining the status quo "system," by doing so we are confronting a global neo-liberal regime whereby the egyptian government would follow the instructions of the powerful: protect Israel, obey IMF and World Bank economic policies, maintain the egyptian working class as a sweat shop to allow for the comfort of our richer neighbors here and elsewhere.

This battle is far from over.

Egypt: some links

Though a couple weeks old, one of the best articles i have read on Egypt is by Nomi Prins: The Egyptian Uprising Is a Direct Response to Ruthless Global Capitalism

She writes,

"Citizens protesting in the streets from Greece to England, and more demonstrably, from Tunisia to Egypt, may be revolting for national reasons and against individual governments, but they share a common bond. They are revolting against a world that lines the pockets of rich deal-makers while sticking the tab to ordinary people. That bond is global."

Also worth reading are two articles focusing on the role of the military:

Nathan Brown's The Struggle to Define the Egyptian Revolution | The Middle East Channel

and Egypt’s army looks beyond Mubarak by Yezid Sayegh written before Mubarak's downfall but with good insight

no military solutions

"There is no military solution to this conflict."
- Baker & Hamilton


Read more by Baker & Hamilton on the Middle East in their Iraq Study Group Report.


Also view this 90 second interactive map of imperial history in the Middle East