Community | February 08, 2011 | 12 comments

OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK... THE US FUNDING FASCISM IN EGYPT.

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gerardange
Cairo, Egypt, 4th February 2011:

The violent assaults on TV journalists in Egypt are forcing some to pull out of the country. Many have been harassed, punched and some nearly killed.


TV2's Rasmus Tantholdt Yesterday one of the worst attacks took place against TV2 Denmark’s correspondent Rasmus Tantholdt and cameraman, Anders Bach.

TV2’s managing editor, Hans Peter Blicher, told TVZ what happened: “They were coming by car from the south to Alexandria. There was a huge crowd of people who stopped their car who had the feeling they were reporters. The people were very angry and started banging on the car with sticks and knives and broke the windows, trying to pull our correspondent out of the car by his hair. He shouted to the driver, ‘Drive! Drive!’ “

“The driver started the car and some of the crowd were thrown off and it became a very violent situation. But what happened next was the worst thing because 100 metres ahead was a road block and the crowd became even more angry attacking the car with everything and totally destroyed it. The crew were in no doubt for a second that they were going to be killed. But then three military people came and began shooting in the air to clear the crowd. They then escorted our people to a hotel.”

Hans Peter added, “This is our correspondent who has been to places like Afghanistan, Iraq – he is very experienced. He said this was the worst thing he had ever experienced. He was sure they were going to be killed.”

The crew are now back home.

They were not the only TV2 journalists to be attacked. Correspondent Steffen Jensen was set upon yesterday by pro-Mubarak supporters with clubs while reporting live on the phone from Cairo. He said, "I refused to give my phone and my passport to them and some of them grabbed my camera and my backpack and started giving me beatings with fists and clubs."


RTSI's Gianluca Grossi Another journalist who left Egypt yesterday is Gianluca Grossi, a journalist working for RTSI in Switzerland. He flew out of the country last night after being stopped by a crowd while in a taxi. He told TVZ, “I was harassed by a group of people who were apparently supporting the pro-Mubarak camp. Only the arrival of the army allowed me to continue safely. The army officer told me to hide my bag [containing TV gear] with a blanket because if they find out you’re a journalist, they’ll kill you.”

He said, “I think in Cairo there is a group of people who are hunting journalists. I consider the danger very high because of this. There is no safe place to go; even the hotels are not safe. I saw one Greek journalist coming back to the hotel with a big wound to his head. I saw another middle-aged, blonde, European journalist being taken away by people from the pro-Mubarak camp. I don’t know what happened to him. There is no police to turn to.”

Gianluca added, “I always follow my instinct and this time my instinct told me I had to leave. I spoke this morning with a Western diplomatic source and they told me that many journalists are on their way to the airport. Many times you have a problem as a journalist in a conflict area but you don’t feel the people want you out; in Cairo you feel they want you out.”

TRT journalist Metin Puran was also the victim of an attack yesterday. TRT’s Foreign Newsdesk editor, Burcu Altinyeleklioglu, told TVZ Metin was punched by a group of people he thought to be pro-Mubarak supporters. He was rescued by an army officer but only after the crowd “took his cellphones and camera, his wallet, his IDs, his money, everything.”

Burcu added, “He was shocked and frightened but he was on air just after the incident. He himself became the news.”


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  1. groups:
    Community,   US Politics,   Collective Journalism,   Law and Justice,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Journalism,  CIA,  Egypt,  Fascism,  14 more
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12 comments // OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK... THE US FUNDING FASCISM IN EGYPT.

  • Persecuted
    • 0
      Persecuted  

    • geradange... before 2 weeks ago, you didnt even know who the dictator of egypt was... you couldnt have given 2 shits about us giving money to one of our closest military allies... now all the sudden, its a great concern to you, as if it always was... and now all of the sudden, its obamas fault too... you are seriously twisted

      by the way... trillions of dollars have passed through american and saudi arabian hands... you remember the saudis right... the ones who blew up the twin towers... u remember that right?

    • 1 year ago
  • gerardange
    • +1
      gerardange  
    • Persecuted:

      I am intrigued to see someone ( aka: @Persecuted ) who feels that they can make any derogatory statement about anything ~ making personal attacks directed at someone they neither know nor, have any personal knowledge of their background or even about what they do or, who they know ~ Yet.... ( aka: @Persecuted ) feels compelled and, empowered hiding behind a little icon... where they feel it allows them the safety to make spineless rude attacks against someone else...

      Maybe it time you read a little Dale Carnegie... I suggest you pickup his book: "How to win friends and influence people." It's a great book, I read it , I think everyone should read it! Here is a quote from Dale below...

      "Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. "
      Dale Carnegie

      This conversation has ended...

    • 1 year ago
  • Persecuted
  • gerardange
    • +1
      gerardange  
    • Persecuted:

      "A New Beginning"
      The President gives a speech in Cairo, Egypt, outlining his personal commitment to engagement with the Muslim world, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect, and discusses how the United States and Muslim communities around the world can bridge some of the differences that have divided them. June 4, 2009. (public domain)

    • 1 year ago
  • Persecuted
  • Persecuted
  • gerardange
    • +1
      gerardange  
    • Persecuted:

      I voted for him... after he made some wonderful progressive speeches and I believed and then..... I tried to believe. But a pattern where he was saying one thing and then doing the opposite of what he said. After two years...I realized he was only a progressive in speeches but his actions = Neocon Republican. I have learned that it's not what you say.... It's all about... what you do..... Obama proves that unfortunately.

      This is just some of what Obama has done... and what he has not done...

      The were game changers for me were the following. (1) Like.... Appointing Monsanto's own Attorney to be in charge of FDA Food Safety ???? Then... (2) Not posting "GMO ingredients" on food labels like they do in Europe... And, as Obama had promised. Then...( 3) Habeas Corpus is still missing in action! Where is it???? And...Then like a Neocon... (4) Obama Strengthening Patriot Act III ... and then (5) Strengthening even more Government eavesdropping and even more wiretapping? Even more than Bush ???

      And now the latest... After a wonderful inspiring Speech that Obama gave to the Muslim World about 10 months ago a Speech about "Freedom and Democracy" (6) A peaceful Egyptian people with families, women & children, young & old civilians and journalists: valiantly meeting in Tahrir Square demanding their freedom and demanded Democracy. !!! These same people inspired by Obama's words are now brutally attacked by a violent CIA trained Fascist Dictator who in the last 3 weeks alone with the weapons supplied and bullets made in the USA ....murdered over 300 innocent people all marching for Freedom & Democracy. And the most outrageous thing that our President Obama can do is....make one of the weakest of of all statements to Mubarak... All at the same time these Fascists continue to Murdered systematically attack beat and kill thousands more of innocent people. All as the Hypocritical Obama White House continues look the other way and continue fund the brutal dictator and his Egyptian Secret Police... That is SICK.... That is more than Sick.... That is pure evil!! And history will reflect this without any doubt!

      So.. After all this ugliness.... Yes.,... Egypt is NOW OBAMA'S TOO. "He earned it!"

      As in many times in that past .....Obama has had " many opportunities to do the right thing" ..... But....He squandered everyone of those opportunities...

      That is unacceptable. It is way beyond blaming his actions on Republicans anymore. It is Now... all on him....

      I voted for a Progressive Liberal President.... and what we got was a Republican.

      I won't vote for him again ! Maybe he can get votes from the Republicans next time!

      ~

    • 1 year ago
  • Persecuted
  • gerardange
  • gerardange
    • +1
      gerardange  
    • Image

    • Within hours of the news of the huge protests, Enan cut short his trip and dashed back to Cairo last Friday, but his boss, Minister Tantawi, has kept in touch with Washington, making daily phone calls to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Both men – together with Egypt's spy chief, Omar Suleiman – are among President Hosni Mubarak's closest allies and enjoy close ties with Washington, according to the diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks. And it was these men that Thomas E Donilon, the US national security adviser, was frantically phoning last weekend to try to gauge how to prevent the collapse of the Mubarak regime.

      It could days, maybe even weeks, before the future of the Egyptian government is decided, and with it, the relationship with the US. But one thing is clear: the Egyptian protesters are well aware of the close ties between officials in Cairo and Washington and not happy about the US training and tear gas shells supplied to the Egyptian military. Crowds gathered in Liberation Square last week chanted: "Hosni Mubarak, Omar Suleiman, both of you are agents of the Americans." The protesters believe that the billions in military aid that kept Mubarak in power have helped him keep democracy from flowering in Egypt.

      Two years after Obama's famous speech in Cairo, in which he called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims", it might be a little late for his administration to heed the words of Mostafa Amin, Egypt's most famous columnist and journalist:

      Maybe America gains a lot when it exports to us arms and cars or planes, but it loses more when it does not export the best that its civilisation has produced, which is freedom and democracy and human rights. The value of America is that it should defend this product, not only in its country but throughout the world! It may harm some of its interests, but it will make gains that will live hundreds of years, for the friendship of peoples live forever, because the peoples do not die, but governments change like the winter weather.

    • 1 year ago
  • gerardange
  • gerardange
    • +1
      gerardange  
    • Image

    • http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/anderson-cooper-a-bit-scared-attacks-egypt/

      ABC's Christiane Amanpour faced similar treatment Wednesday. While trying to talk to Mubarak supporters, she was threatened and told to turn back. Upon retreating, she had the windshield of her car broken with a rock.

      "There's a real anti-Western reporter sentiment there," ABC's Robin Roberts noted Thursday. "Is there still that sense?"

      "The pro-Mubarak supporters have been against the journalists," Amanpour replied. "Partly this is because the state television, some of the local press, the state press, has been blaming journalists.

      "And a statement from the Foreign Ministry was issued overnight saying, this uprising against Mubarak, is, quote, a foreign conspiracy, led by international journalists. So, those people who been aggressive towards us are not the anti-Mubarak demonstrators. They're the pro-regime thugs and agitators that have been sent in to disrupt the protests."

      In recent days, reporters have become targets in Egypt. Western journalists have been roughed up by pro-Mubarak demonstrators, and reporters from around the world have been arrested or detained by Egyptian security forces.

      As late as Thursday, there were reports that the Egyptian Army had begun to round up journalists, alleging it was for their own protection. Two correspondents from The New York Times were reportedly detained.

      The Washington Post also reported having reporters arrested Thursday.

      Fox News foreign correspondent Greg Palkot and his cameraman Olaf Wiig were severely beaten by pro-Mubarak supporters Wednesday. Both were hospitalized overnight with severe injuries.

    • 1 year ago
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