Thousands March in Egyptian Capital Calling for President’s Ouster

[Magda Hassan]

Forgive this old Limey, but who's running this apparently well orchestrated campaign?

As I said earlier, is it another colour revolution?

What's Uncle's position in all this?

Just asking....

Not sure either David. The Muslim Brotherhood are likely to be big winners which does not fill me with joy. Uncles Sam looks like they are seeing where the wind will blow and no doubt have a couple of fans handy. They have not come out with unequivocal support for Mubarak but are urging the government to 'respect the human rights' of the people. A bit rich coming from the US who render their ghost prisoners the Egypt to be tortured. In any case the lack of social media connectivity due to the government cutting the internet has made no difference to the protesters who have defied the curfew and come out in even bigger numbers and found ways around that anyway. Many police stations and other security organisations have been burned, there were protesters outside the Hilton Hotel and stock exchange which has closed. No apparent 'leader'. Economics seems to be at the heart of this. Big rises in food prices and fuel prices as in Tunisia. Yemen and Jordan too are in this situation. The Arab gulf states are not. Libya not. But Saudi Arabia will be interesting to watch in the medium term due to high unemployment there. No doubt the elites in Egypt are busing looking for a suitable person to represent them and their best bet is Al Baredi due to him being untainted by the Mubarak party connections. But there are others too and the religious parties, Muslim Brotherhood, are a big contender too.

Mubarak is almost certainly gone. His son, and supposed successor, left the country a few days ago. There has been no communication from the government and their HQ have been torched by protesters. No emergency services went to protect it. On the other hand the military are all over the city but are not attacking the people but are guarding the embassies and museums.