GCIS/MSS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Egyptian-American leaders call for U.S. support of 'Lotus Revolution'

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: CNN

28January2011 11:20pmEST

GCIS/MSS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: As public protests against the Mubarak regime spread from Cairo to New York City, Egyptian-American activists on Friday called on the Obama adminstration to back the "Lotus Revolution" to oust the authoritarian ruler.

They also called on President Hosni Mubarak's government to end its purported practices of detentions, torture and "extrajudicial killings."

"This day, I assure you, will be mentioned in history as a point of change all over the Middle East, said Mokhtar Kamel. "Gone are the old days where antiquated brutal regimes are controlling the area."

"To those in the United States and in the West who are quoting stability as an excuse for brutality. Guys, this is too late," Kamel said. "You have to change your mentality."
Kamel, vice president of the Coalition of Egyptian Organizations in North America, was one of several Egyptian-American activists to appear at the National Press Club in Washington Friday to talk about the protests. (read full report)

GCIS/MSS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Egypt tense after bloody protest

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA

28January2011 10:48pmEST

GCIS/MSS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Protesters in the Egyptian cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez have defied a nighttime curfew and continued with demonstrations demanding an end to Hosni Mubarak's 30-year presidency.

Speaking on national television in the early hours of Saturday, the president said he had ordered the government to step down and that he would name a new cabinet later in the day.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Cairo, said protesters had been "galvanised" by Mubarak's announcement that he was staying in power.

"The streets are definitely still abuzz," he said at 4am local time. "The chants have died down in the last hours but there are still many people out and about in the street despite the fact that there is a curfew supposed to have been imposed, starting from 6pm to 7am.

"The protests and the clashes with police have completely died down as a result of the fact that the police have melted away and the military has taken over."

Military armoured vehicles rolled onto the streets of the capital on Friday night in a bid to quell the protests. People cheered as the army arrived, and hundreds of people thronged around a military vehicle near Cairo's Tahrir square.

"The army is a respected establishment in Egypt, and many feel they need their support against what they see as excessive force by the police and security forces," our correspondent said. (read full report)

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Muslim Brotherhood joins Egyptian protesters. Three cities locked down

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: DEBKAfile

28January2011 11:12amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: The Mubarak regime was badly shaken Thursday night, Jan. 27, when Egypt's most powerful opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, ordered its teeming membership to join the protest movement raging in Cairo and other cities since Tuesday after Friday (Jan. 28) prayers.

DEBKAfile's Cairo sources report that the capital's poor districts, like Shubra which houses four million inhabitants, were bustling Thursday night with preparations for street action the next day. The question on all lips now is: Can the security forces control the many millions of protesters expected to suddenly pour into city streets across the land as of Friday and defend the regime against them.

The police, almost a million security officers and units of the Interior Ministry's special units, have been on their feet for three days quelling outbreaks. They are exhausted and demoralized. They managed to keep the demonstrations from getting out of hand, but not to suppress them. Now that millions of Muslim Brotherhood loyalists have been told to throw in their lot with the protest movement, the beleaguered 82-year old President Hosni Mubarak can no longer avoid sending the army in to stem the unrest, which looks increasingly like turning into a popular revolution. (read full report)