DEMOCRACY NOW!: LIVE ON THE GROUND IN CAIRO

 Thursday, February 03, 2011


Eyewitnesses to a Massacre: Reports from Inside Tahrir Square as Pro-Mubarak Forces Open Fire on Protesters

Just before dawn in Cairo today pro-government forces opened fire at Tahrir Square, the site of anti-Mubarak protests for the past 10 days. Minutes after the attack began, Democracy Now! spoke with Egyptian protesters Mona El Seif and Selma Tarzi inside Tahrir Square.



A Battle for Democracy: Sharif Abdel Kouddous Reports on How Anti-Government Protesters Are Resisting the Mubarak’s Regime Crackdown

Egyptians vowing to oust President Hosni Mubarak continue to occupy the streets in Cairo today as pro-democracy crowds stand up to violent Mubarak forces. Reporting from a rooftop, Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous describes the scene on the 6th October Bridge, where he reports pro-democracy activists are standing their ground on the “frontline of the struggle” for democracy.



California Professor Beaten by Pro-Mubarak Forces Minutes After Interview on Democracy Now!

On Wednesday, University of California-Davis Professor Noha Radwan joined Democracy Now! for an interview from a studio in downtown Cairo. Just after finishing the interview, she was attacked in the streets. “I got attacked by the mob and beaten half to death by the Mubarak thugs, who were happy to snatch my necklaces off my neck and to rip my shirt open,” Radwan said. We speak to her again today by telephone, asking her to describe what happened.



Journalists and Human Rights Activists Arrested and Beaten in Cairo Crackdown
Human rights activist Hossam Bahgat reports the military has raided the offices of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center in downtown Cairo, which has been the headquarters for the legal effort to protect the pro-democracy demonstrators. He also says the military has locked down Tahrir Square, turning people away at checkpoints from entering. "The biggest alarm today is that there seems to be a series attempts by the army itself, for the first time, of going after foreign journalists and going after human rights organizations, both Egyptian and foreign," Bahgat says. "With the lack of access to Tahrir Square, we fear that the worst is about to happen and that there is something that the army does not want anyone from the outside world to witness."



Robert Fisk: Obama Administration Has Been Gutless and Cowardly in Dealing with the Mubarak Regime

The renowned Middle East journalist speaks from Cairo on the historic uprising and how President Obama has lost an opportunity to back a democratic movement in the Middle East. "One of the blights of history will now involve a U.S. president who held out his hand to the Islamic world and then clenched his fist when it fought a dictatorship and demanded democracy," Fisk said.



“The True Face of Hosni Mubarak” is Now Being Televised Across the World: Democracy Now! Reports Live from Downtown Cairo

Violent clashes continue in Egypt. The most recent reports out of Cairo show that seven demonstrators have been killed and more than a thousand injured. Many of the pro-Mubarak agitators have been shown to be undercover security forces. In Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising, thousands of Egyptians remain peaceful and defiant. We get a live report from Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who is on a rooftop near the 6th October Bridge, and from Mona El Seif, an activist who has remained in Tahrir Square since yesterday.