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Egypt frees Google exec behind Facebook protest
The young Google executive detained for 12 days for protesting against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he was behind the Facebook page that helped spark what he called "the revolution of the youth of the internet".
A US-based human rights group said on Monday nearly 300 people have died in two weeks of clashes.
Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager for the internet company, sobbed throughout an emotional television interview just hours after he was freed. He insisted he had not been tortured and said his interrogators treated him with respect.
"This is the revolution of the youth of the internet and now the revolution of all Egyptians," he said, adding that he was taken aback when the security forces holding him branded him a traitor. "Anyone with good intentions is the traitor because being evil is the norm," he said. "If I was a traitor, I would have stayed in my villa in the Emirates and made good money and said like others, let this country go to hell. But we are not traitors," added Ghonim, an Egyptian who oversees Google's marketing in the Middle East and Africa from Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates.
The protesters have already brought the most sweeping changes since Mubarak took power 30 years ago, but they are keeping up the pressure in hopes of achieving their ultimate goal of ousting Mubarak.
Ghonim has become a hero of the demonstrators since he went missing on January 27, two days after the protests began. He confirmed reports by protesters that he was the administrator of the Facebook Page named "We are all Khaled Said", which was one of the main tools for organising the demonstration that started the movement on January 25.
Khaled Said was a 28-year-old businessman who died in June at the hands of undercover police, setting off months of protests against the hated police. The police have also been blamed for inflaming violence by trying to suppress these anti-government demonstrations by force.
Ghonim's whereabouts were not known until Sunday, when a prominent Egyptian political figure confirmed he was under arrest and would soon be released.
He looked exhausted and said he had been unable to sleep for 48 hours, but not because he was being mistreated.
A least 297 killed: Human Rights Watch
US-based Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press on Monday that two weeks of clashes have claimed at least 297 lives, by far the highest and most detailed toll released so far. It was based on visits to seven hospitals in three cities. The group said it was likely to rise.
While there was no exact breakdown of how many of the dead police or protesters, "clearly, a significant number of these deaths are a result of the use of excessive and unlawful use of force by the police", said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.
Egypt's Health Ministry has not given a comprehensive death toll, though a ministry official said he is trying to compile one.
Protesters have clashed with police who fired live rounds, tear gas and rubber bullets. They also fought pitched street battles for two days with gangs of pro-Mubarak supporters who attacked their main demonstration site in Cairo's central Tahrir Square.
The violence has spread to other parts of Egypt and the toll includes at least 65 deaths outside the capital Cairo.
Heba Morayef, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that she and other researchers visited five hospitals in Cairo, a field hospital in Tahrir Square, and one hospital each in the cities of Alexandria and Suez.
The count is based on interviews with hospital doctors, visits to emergency rooms and morgue inspections, she said.
Morayef said a majority of victims were killed by live fire, but that some of the deaths were caused by tear gas canisters and rubber bullets fired at close range.
"We personally witnessed riot police firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the heads of protesters at close range, and that is a potentially lethal use of such riot-control agents," said Bouckaert.
In most cases, doctors declined to release names of the dead, Morayef said.
The group counted 232 deaths in Cairo, including 217 who were killed through Jan. 30 and an additional 15 who were killed in clashes between government supporters and opponents in Tahrir Square last Wednesday and Thursday.
In addition, 52 dead were reported in Alexandria and 13 in Suez, Morayef said.
World News Australia - Egypt frees Google exec behind Facebook protest
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Inside Egypt's Facebook Revolt
After hundreds of arrests in Cairo Wednesday, some protest organizers have gone missing and are presumed jailed. Now activists are using Egypts oldest social medium to keep up the fight.
n the days leading up to this weeks street protests in Egypt, the largest the country has seen since the 1970s, Ahmed Salah was busy spreading the word around Cairoin every possible way, as he put it. A veteran activist who said agitation is his genes, Salah, 45, tapped into his usual network, called family and friends, hit the streets, and posted updates on the Web. On the 25th, we are trying to give people a bit of hope, and a chance to express themselves, he said in a phone interview last week. But he said the regime would fight back.
Salah had been pulled from demonstrations and arrested in the past. Hed been blindfolded and beaten by police, he said, and staged a hunger strike in jail. He calmly predicted that, this time around, an even worse fate might be in store. Im already a burned card. No matter what I do, its all the same now, he said. Were all in danger. If I get arrested again, Im sure I will not come out alive.
Salah kept organizing until the night before the protest, a friend said. On Tuesday morning, he joined the crowds with his fiancée. The two were separated, and Salah hasnt been seen since. His cell-phone number is no longer in service. Friends and family say they believe hes been arrested. We dont know where he is, the friend says.
The Front to Defend Egypts Protesters, an alliance of lawyers and human-rights groups in Cairo, lists a man with a similar name among the more than 400 arrestees it had assembled so far, a list that continued to grow Wednesday as protests continued into a second day. The estimates are much larger, says Sally Sami, a volunteer with the group. This is not the final number.
In the interview last week, Salah said online activism, such as the push coming from popular Facebook groups, was an integral part of the overall effort. Now, with street organizers like Salah disappearing or under threat, and the police state moving to smother dissent, protesters have come up with a new way to combine online and street activism by issuing a very traditional protest callto make use of the nations oldest social network.
After this weeks Friday prayers, which are always heavily attended, people will be asked to take to the streets anew. On one of the protests main Facebook pages, more than 43,000 people have already signed up for the event, which was posted Wednesday. A lot of organizers are arrested, says ElShaheeed, the pages anonymous administrator. We are hoping it will virally spread, and people will assume responsibility [by spreading the word] in their mosques and churches.
Post-prayer protests have been effective in Egypt for years. Its incredibly smart, because they cant close off the mosques, says Joshua Stacher, a Middle East specialist at Kent State who lived in Cairo for almost a decade. They dont know whos showing up to pray and whos showing up to protest.
ElShaheeed says that though the arrests could hurt the effort, the protests, which sprouted simultaneously in cities across the country, have lacked traditional leadership from the startwhich could make them difficult to stop. Nobody can think what will happen next, including Mubarak, he said.
Inside Egypt's Facebook Revolt
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Facebook/Protest Size Comparison for Egypt vs. US
There are many conflicting reports about the extent to which Facebook and Twitter, have been or not been blocked in Egypt. But whatever the exact situation, I found this comparison kind of interesting:
There are (depending on the source used) about 4 to 5 million Facebook users in Egypt, out of a population of approximately 78 million people, or somewhere between 5.1% to 6.4% of its population. There are reports that protestors are calling for a million person march - that would equate to 1.3% of the population, or 20-25% of the number of Facebook users.
In the US, there are approximately 147 million Facebook users, out of a population of 310 million people, or nearly 47.4% of the population. On a comparative basis in equivalent Facebook terms, that would mean that the size of Egypt's protest would translate to somewhere between 29 and 37 million people in the US.
Facebook/Protest Size Comparison for Egypt vs. US - Thoughts - Nomi Prins
