Revolution in the Arab World - Observation of a lost soul Blog

foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • 18 days
The Washington Post’s Cairo bureau chief Leila Fadel was “among two
dozen journalists arrested this morning by the Egyptian Interior Ministry.
We understand that they are safe but in custody,” the Post announced. She
was released late Thursday night. At least three reporters from Al Jazeera’s
English channel were apparently arrested by the Army while driving from
the airport, according to the network’s staffers. A Greek journalist was
stabbed in the leg. The prominent local blogger who worked under the
name “Sandmonkey” was arrested while trying to bring medical supplies to
wounded protesters in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests. He later
tweeted: “I am ok. I got out. I was ambushed & beaten by the police, my
phone confiscated, my car ripped apar& supplies taken.” CNN’s Anderson
Cooper, along with a producer and cameraman, was attacked by crowds
on Wednesday who punched them and attempted to break their camera.
On Thursday, Cooper and crew were attacked again. Andrew Lee Butters,
a reporter working with Time magazine, was detained and roughed up by
civilians, who he said were taking orders from uniformed police officers
on the scene.
The sheer scope and number of incidents in one day immediately discredited
any government argument that these were isolated or spontaneous
events. The U.S. State Department quickly dismissed that possibility. “I don’t
think these are random events,” said spokesman P.J. Crowley. “It appears to
be an effort to disrupt the ability of journalists to cover today’s events.”
There’s really only one reason to attack journalists—if you don’t want
them to report their observations to the outside world. Although the protesters
occupying Tahrir Square on Thursday had a relatively peaceful day,
the sudden wave of attacks against journalists has fueled concerns that
there’s a tsunami coming—something the government and its supporters
don’t want the world to see.
But Mubarak and his supporters should also be concerned. The forces
they’re unleashing will not be so easy to contain again. The paranoia and
xenophobia I witnessed on Thursday were unlike anything I’ve seen from
the Egyptian people in 13 years of covering this country. For a country that
depends heavily on a steady flow of foreign tourists, turning the Egyptian
people against the outside world could have catastrophic long-term consequences.
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