Mato's Blog

Normally I don’t care about being informed by a constant media stream and I don’t care about following life reports of an unfolding crises. I often don’t touch the computer for days, and as I also don’t have a cell phone or tablet and don’t look TV, I can go on with my life uninterrupted in peace and quiet.

The news of a protest movement and a popular uprising in Egypt though made my heart pound. This new development really made me hold my breath. I now visit regularly Al Jazeera http://english.aljazeera.net/ to get the latest news about the protests.

It seems that the death toll has surpassed one hundred and it is likely that many more will die. Mubarak tries to fend off the unrest with a few cosmetic changes and hollow promises, with an internet blackout, and with a massive deployment of police and army.

The Egyptian army’s chief of staff Lieutenant General Sami Enan has departed Washington, cutting short a planned week-long visit and defense talks.

Egypt receives about 1.3 billion US$ a year in military aid and 200 million US$ in economic assistance — second only to Israel. The country’s armed forces — the world’s 10th biggest with more than 468,000 members — have been at the heart of power and all four Egyptian presidents have come from the military, which is now led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who is both defense minister and commander-in-chief.

General Sami Enan had to cut short defense talks in the USA — it would be interesting to know what kind of cooperation and coordination would have been discussed and most important: what should the Egyptian army defend against whom?

It is not certain that Mubarak will be toppled, the U.S. agents are for sure working hard behind the scenes and are using any available tool to save the regime.

America plays a prominent role in stifling dissent not only with teargas made in USA and with training and equipping police and army but also with high tech like DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) from the Boing owned company Narus.

DPI is a content-filtering technology, that allows network managers to inspect, track and target content from Internet and phone communications, as it passes through routers, servers, and nodes. The company Narus was founded in 1997 by Israeli security experts to create mass surveillance systems for governments and large corporate clients.

DPI equipment from Narus allows Egypt Telecom to spy on Internet and cell phone users by opening communication packets and reading the contents.

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This news about the protest movement in Egypt made me hold my breath, because a fall of the Mubarak regime would have severe consequences for the Middle East. Israel would lose its most reliable partner. Saudi Arabia and Jordan would be next. The imprisonment of Palestinians in Gaza would end; a new and more democratic regime in Cairo would not be able to work as prison guards for the Israelis.

Will the Americans let that happen? Not likely.

Eyewitnesses report that “party thugs” associated with the Egyptian regime’s Central Security Services — in plainclothes but bearing government-issued weapons — have been looting in Cairo. Agent provocateurs?

Whatever may be the outcome, the events in Egypt have exposed once again the bigotry and hypocrisy of the US administration. The routine calls for democratization and human rights will sound even more shallow and meaningless and the fact twisting and lying and filtering of US corporate media will become an even more astonishing and disgusting spectacle.

The revolution will maybe not happen in Egypt, but it will happen in the hearts of millions of spectators around the world. They will make their conclusions and they will know whom to respect and whom to despise.

I still remember Salvador Allende, who died 38 years ago. I still remember Patrice Lumumba, who died 50 years ago. Both murdered under the guidance of the CIA.

I dream of justice…