Egypt Leaves the Internet

Confirming what a few have reported this evening: in an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet.

This is a completely different situation from the modest Internet manipulation that took place in Tunisia, where specific routes were blocked, or Iran, where the Internet stayed up in a rate-limited form designed to make Internet connectivity painfully slow. The Egyptian government's actions tonight have essentially wiped their country from the global map.

More...

Perhaps North Africa is getting the first whiff of locally generated democracy? I do hope so.

When you consider what is going on in Thailand, Reds and Yellows getting together?!!! And Tunisia, Yemen, and Egypt, I wonder if the world is going topsy turvy.  

A little bit scary.  

Perhaps North Africa is getting the first whiff of locally generated democracy? I do hope so.

The power elite in North Africa made a fundamental error which the power elite in Thailand understand well. Don't go to the trouble of educating the citizenry and then offer them no hope of improved lives.

Perhaps North Africa is getting the first whiff of locally generated democracy? I do hope so.

The plebians of Jordam amd Algeria are starting to froth a bit at the mouth now, too.

The Egytian case, though is troublesome for Israel and America: For Israel because Egypt is their only Arab ally, and if the people of Egypt get what they want, then The Muslim Brotherhood will be in power on Israel's Western border, and for America because the champions of free speech and human rights are caught between condeming Mubarack and losing an ally (and an ally of Israel).

What to do?

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has thrown out his cabinet according to news reports.

He's fuc_ked now if he wants to order a new one online, some <deleted> has switched off the internet

With net unplugged, Egypt cracks down on journos

BBC man beaten by police in Cairo

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco

Posted in Crime, 28th January 2011 19:27 GMT

Free whitepaper – Moving to Windows 7

On Friday, with Egypt's internet and cell phone blackout showing no signs of lifting, authorities took a new tack in their attempts to quell protests engulfing the nation: cracking down on journalists reporting on the uprising.

A CNN crew covering Friday's clashes between security forces and protesters in Cairo reported having their camera seized [1] after police cracked its viewfinder. Senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman said officers threatened to beat him and a photojournalist who accompanied him as they shot dramatic “footage of police in riot gear, clouds of tear gas and masses of people on the street.”

Wedeman said he urged police to demonstrate their commitment to freedom of the press by returning the camera but that they declined to do so.

Meanwhile, BBC journalist Assad Sawey was beaten on the streets of Cairo [2] by police. He later appeared on BBC Arabic with his head bandaged and a shirt soaked in blood.

Four French journalists were also arrested by plainclothes police officers, who released them about an hour later.

The media crackdown came several hours after about 90 percent of internet traffic in and out of Egypt was abruptly halted [3]. Jose Nazario, senior manager of security research at Arbor Networks, told The Reg the blackout appears to be the result of a virtually across-the-board withdrawal of routes from the internet's border gateway system. The only Egyptian autonomous system Nazario found to be still up was AS20928 NOOR-AS, which as Renesys points out [4] serves the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

“NOOR seems to be routing some networks but not all, which is what people are seeing elsewhere,” Nazario wrote in an email. “No other verified reports of other countries' nets being shut down yet.”

Arbor later produced a graph [5] showing a near-complete shutdown of traffic into and out of Egypt across 80 service providers. It began at 5:20 Thursday evening New York time.

Graph from Arbor Networks

Arbor Networks plots a precipitous drop in Egypt's net traffic

Arbor Networks plots a precipitous drop in Egypt's net traffic

News reports said cell phone communications, both by voice and text messages, were also wiped out. Unable to use the net or a Blackberry, CNN's Wedeman said [6] he was relying on a landline to dispatch his Tweets. An hour later he said [7] he was able to momentarily “have access to internet through alternative means.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday called on Egyptian authorities to “allow peaceful protests and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications.” ®

Egypt on the brink of collapse

TOP dissident Mohamed ElBaradei has told angry protesters in Cairo that they were beginning a new era.

But despite the anticipation of change, Mubarak ordered police back on the streets after they had largely disappeared over the past two days following street battles with protesters.

He also extended a curfew in key cities.

Nobel peace laureate ElBaradei, mandated by Egyptian opposition groups including the banned Muslim Brotherhood to negotiate with Mubarak's regime, hailed "a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom and dignity".

The rest is here

More sleepless nights in Washington and Tel Aviv.

Egypt on the brink of collapse

TOP dissident Mohamed ElBaradei has told angry protesters in Cairo that they were beginning a new era.

But despite the anticipation of change, Mubarak ordered police back on the streets after they had largely disappeared over the past two days following street battles with protesters.

He also extended a curfew in key cities.

Nobel peace laureate ElBaradei, mandated by Egyptian opposition groups including the banned Muslim Brotherhood to negotiate with Mubarak's regime, hailed "a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom and dignity".

The rest is here

More sleepless nights in Washington and Tel Aviv.

The US and Israel are not censoring news. Guess who is? China. I am a bit surprised that Thailand is not more worried. China is allowing state TV to broadcast only reports of the violence and not discuss the causes.

Perhaps North Africa is getting the first whiff of locally generated democracy? I do hope so.

The plebians of Jordam amd Algeria are starting to froth a bit at the mouth now, too.

The Egytian case, though is troublesome for Israel and America: For Israel because Egypt is their only Arab ally, and if the people of Egypt get what they want, then The Muslim Brotherhood will be in power on Israel's Western border, and for America because the champions of free speech and human rights are caught between condeming Mubarack and losing an ally (and an ally of Israel).

What to do?

I doubt that the US gives a hoot about free speech and human rights. It upsets the balance of power in the region. If the Arab people gain control of their governments all the anti Israel propaganda will come home to roost and someone will start another war. And guess who will have to pay for the war? Another six days and the Arab armies will retreat in disarray claiming victory and the whole dumb process will start over again.

I am really getting tired of paying for all this war stuff for a bunch of crazies with odd marital customs. And you just know they smell bad. I have never been to Egypt. I would not want to spread untrue rumors. Maybe some well traveled expat could enlighten me. The ladies in all those heavy robes? BO?

What to do? It is almost as bad as the Japanese beating the Aussies in football or did I just dream that last night?

My point is I don't want to pay for it. I get a government pension and the more money they print the less my pension is worth.

I am not against foreign aid. If they wanted to fund teaching kegel exercises in Issan I'd be gung ho about it.

Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan all these places can't be going unnoticed in the posh power palaces in Bangkok. And I'll bet Mr T has his TV turned up loud and is licking his chops.

Everyone is watching the INTERNET. The thousands of politicos normally watching a food INTERNET channel like cream pie Thais are beginning to think of what it would be like to have the army on the streets unreported.

I have sent messages to everyone I know in the US government. I have told them to do whatever makes them feel good except don't spend any money. Speak softly and hit yourself in the head with a big stick every time you want to spend money.

Perhaps North Africa is getting the first whiff of locally generated democracy? I do hope so.

I doubt that the US gives a hoot about free speech and human rights. It upsets the balance of power in the region. If the Arab people gain control of their governments all the anti Israel propaganda will come home to roost and someone will start another war. And guess who will have to pay for the war? Another six days and the Arab armies will retreat in disarray claiming victory and the whole dumb process will start over again.

I am really getting tired of paying for all this war stuff for a bunch of crazies with odd marital customs. And you just know they smell bad. I have never been to Egypt. I would not want to spread untrue rumors. Maybe some well traveled expat could enlighten me. The ladies in all those heavy robes? BO?

What to do? It is almost as bad as the Japanese beating the Aussies in football or did I just dream that last night?

My point is I don't want to pay for it. I get a government pension and the more money they print the less my pension is worth.

I am not against foreign aid. If they wanted to fund teaching kegel exercises in Issan I'd be gung ho about it.

Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan all these places can't be going unnoticed in the posh power palaces in Bangkok. And I'll bet Mr T has his TV turned up loud and is licking his chops.

Everyone is watching the INTERNET. The thousands of politicos normally watching a food INTERNET channel like cream pie Thais are beginning to think of what it would be like to have the army on the streets unreported.

I have sent messages to everyone I know in the US government. I have told them to do whatever makes them feel good except don't spend any money. Speak softly and hit yourself in the head with a big stick every time you want to spend money.

As a well-travelled ex-pat I am pleased to tell you that it is most unlikely that you can smell any BO on Egyptian ladies.

1) You won't get near most of them.

2) With half-a-gallon of cheap perfume on, the BO is thoroughly masked.

3) Who cares? They're fat and ugly.

4) Egyptian ladies fall into two categories - one lot wear the black habit with a black head-covering (face exposed) which is fairly light in weight, but, being black, rather hot. The rest wear a headscarf and two-piece western-style costume, which are probably hotter. Never seen one dressing sensibly for the climate.

Seems Mubarrak will hold on until September, while grooming some follower (his son?) to succeed him. Good luck to him, he's a lot better for Egypt and the surrounding countries than many of the wannabee rivals.