In a briefing at the White House, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs just said the US will immediately review aid to Egypt. That's good as far as it goes, but the call must be for the US to immediately suspend aid to Egypt as long as the violent repression continues.
For more background on the long term nonviolent struggles in Egypt, please see below the fold.
Al Jazeera live is reporting now from Alexandria Egypt that six Army tanks rolled in, and were surrounded by hundreds of peaceful demonstrators cheering them (the hope is that the army will confront the police and refuse to fire on the people), stopped the tanks, and the tanks were only allowed to roll on after the people inside got out and shook hands of the demonstrators.
That is reminiscent of the Philippine uprising against Marcos in 1986 and the Indonesian overthrow of Suharto when tanks were ordered against the universities and students threw a party for them. http://english.aljazeera.net/... Al Jazeera is also reporting that army vehicles in Suez are also being welcomed similarly.
Incredible image of demonstrators reaching out to (riot police or Army? I don't know) in Egypt today. From Al Jazeera English slideshow of the uprising in Egypt.
For some of the context, please see this list of articles in Peacework about Egypt, http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/... particularly the interview with Egyptian dissident and human rights activist Saad eddin Ibrahim http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/... and the Tharwa Manifesto for Nonviolent Change in the Middle East.
See also the Waging Peace site for nonviolent analysis of the situation. See Global Voices website for news from bloggers and land-line phone reports out of Egypt.
To protest to the Egyptian embassies and consulates in DC, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, and New York, contact them here.
Thanks to the work of the mothership diarists at http://www.dailykos.com/... and to the useful blogs by someone with a horrible handle.
