Philip Rizk from Cairo #jan25 part 3/3

PHILIP RIZK, rizkphilip@googlemail.com,http://tabulagaza.blogspot.com, http://twitter.com/tabulagaza
Rizk is an independent blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. He is reporting:

Gunfire at Ministry of Interior

Government releasing criminals against demonstrators

Looting, violence, esp against foreigners outside of downtown Cairo, in the suburbs

Line of command has fallen apart in many cases

Economic plight of regular Egyptians

Addresses protesters and opposition figures

Criticism of US policy

My Shame Regarding Egypt #Jan25

A little over a year ago, I was in Cairo for ten incredible days. I was one of about 1,300 activists from over 40 countries trying to get to Gaza through Egypt. The Egyptian government didn't want that to happen, doing the bidding of the Israeli and U.S. governments. We protested, we were penned in, many of us were beaten up. The French contingent had lively demonstrations in front of the French embassy. The U.S. leadership had feet of clay and, among other things, never had a real demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy -- they also rebuffed attempts at cooperation by Egyptian activists.

It was a remarkable ten days. I put out an IPA news release, which featured some amazing video. Egyptian government thugs (distinct from the rail thin riot police) beat us up in Tahrir Square, where many of the current demonstrations are happening. I fully intended to write about it and pull together other video when I got back to the US. The day I got back was the same day as the Haitian earthquake, and I went down the rabbit hole of putting out daily news releases. I did a couple of releases on Egypt in the past year, but am very ashamed I didn't write things up as I'd wanted. I still hope to do that time in Egypt justice, in terms of the information I know, but for now, take a look at my blog entries from my that time -- that's actually how (and why) this posterous blog began; so it begins with the first entries on this blog.