Reportng the Revolution: Day 7 with Up Date 1800 hrs EST

Gangs Hunt Journalists and Rights Workers

CAIRO – The Egyptian government broadened its crackdown of a 10-day uprising that has shaken its rule Thursday, arresting journalists and human rights activists, while offering more concessions in a bid to win support from a population growing frustrated with a reeling economy and scenes of chaos in the streets.

With fighting between pro- and antigovernment forces escalating throughout the day, supporters of President Hosni Mubarak attacked foreign journalists, punching them and smashing their equipment, and shut down news media outlets that had operated in buildings overlooking Tahrir Square, which has become the epicenter of the uprising.

In interviews and statements, the government increasingly spread an image that foreigners were inciting the uprising that has prompted tens of thousands to take to the streets to demand the end of Mr. Mubarak’s three decades in power. The suggestions are part of a days-long Egyptian news media campaign that has portrayed the protesters as troublemakers and ignored the scope of an uprising that has captivated the Arab world.

From The Guardian:

10:41 pm GMT: More on the protests spreading to Yemen, where tens of thousands of protesters staged unprecedented demonstrations, with chants of “Down, down, down with the regime” and signs calling on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign.

10:03 pm GMT: NBC’s Richard Engel reports that many journalists have been forced to remain undercover today, making it more difficult for cable news channels to cover the protests in Egypt without cameras and reporters out on the street.

Engel says there are more protesters in Tahrir Square tonight, barricading themselves in to offer protection after last night’s attacks by “goon squads”. Metal shields have been put up around the square, now “turned into a military camp,” according to Engel.

The protesters on Tahrir Square have also set up an “interrogation centre” in the subway under the square, Engel reports.

9:54 pm GMT: More on the raid on the Hisham Mubarak law centre in Cairo, mentioned below. Among those taken away by members of the police and army is Human Rights Watch researcher Daniel Williams.

“Human Rights Watch is currently unaware of the whereabouts of those who were detained,” the organisation said in a statement, adding:

   Williams’s detention is part of a clear campaign against independent eyewitnesses of the violence in Egypt, including journalists and civil society activists. Human Rights Watch condemned the crackdown and called on the Egyptian government to release those detained immediately.

9:41 pm GMT: Egyptian state television, in between showing footage of trees and flowers, has a brief report of the country’s prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, telling the interior ministry “not to obstruct peaceful marches on Friday”.

9:30 pm GMT: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has called the treatment of journalists “completely and totally unacceptable” during a briefing onboard Air Force One, which is flying President Obama back from Pennsylvania:

   I want to say a word for a second on the systematic targeting of journalists in Egypt. This also is completely and totally unacceptable. Any journalist that has been detained should be released immediately.

   I think we need to be clear that the world is watching the actions that are taking place right now in Egypt. And I’ll reiterate again that the actions of targeting journalists, that is unacceptable, and that those journalists should be, if they are detained, released immediately. I know the President has been briefed on this as part of the daily briefing this morning.

9:11 pm GMT: The US military is starting to get more involved, with the Pentagon announcing that officials are gathering details on the attacks on journalists in Egypt. It held back from censuring the hands-off stance of the Egyptian armed forces.

“To date, we have seen them act professionally and with restraint. Again, it’s a very fluid situation so we are watching every single day,” said Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan.

It has been reported by the media and in statements from the Egytian government that Pres. Mubaraks’s son, Gamal, wound not run for president and has resigned from the ruling party, NDP. Also the new Vice President, Omar Suleiman, said on state television that he would not run.

During 2nd day of bloody clashes in Egypt, foreign journalists arrested

Egypt’s Information Ministry said journalists were rounded up across the capital but that it did not know by whom or where the reporters were being held.

Those detained were believed to include Washington Post Cairo bureau chief Leila Fadel and Post photographer Linda Davidson. The New York Times said two of its reporters were held overnight but had been released, and al-Jazeera said three of its journalists were detained and a fourth was missing.

Human Rights Watch said one of its staffers, American former journalist Dan Williams, was among several rights workers taken into custody when police and army personnel raided the Hisham Mubarak Law Center.

Vodafone Says It Was Instructed to Send Pro-Mubarak Messages to Customers

Vodafone Group Plc was ordered to send mobile-phone text messages by the Egyptian government, urging people to confront “traitors and criminals” as demonstrators demanded the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The Egyptian authorities can instruct the local mobile network operators, which also include Etisalat and France Telecom SA’s Mobinil service, to send messages under emergency powers provisions, Vodafone said today. The messages were not written by the mobile-phone operators, it said.

“The Armed Forces urge Egypt’s loyal men to confront the traitors and the criminals and to protect our families, our honor and our precious Egypt,” said a Feb. 1 text message sent on Vodafone’s network and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Republican Hopefuls Are Saying Little About Egypt

WASHINGTON – A parade of prospective Republican presidential candidates have been visiting the Middle East in recent months, making pilgrimages that are the first steps in a methodical process of building credibility in foreign policy.

But as the diplomatic crisis in Egypt has intensified this week, elevating foreign affairs above domestic political skirmishes, the potential Republican candidates and the party’s leaders in Congress have, with only a few exceptions, had little to say.

Dueling Protests in Yemen Unfold Peacefully

SANA, YEMEN – Thousands of pro- and antigovernment demonstrators held peaceful protests in this impoverished capital city on Thursday, playing out the themes that have rocked nations across the Arab world as some demanded the president step down while others supported their embattled leader’s announcement that he will leave office when he completes his term.

Jordanian Islamists to meet king but say protests will continue

Amman, Jordan (CNN) — The main Islamist group in Jordan says it plans further street demonstrations Friday here in the capital to protest the appointment of a new prime minister by King Abdullah II.

The Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, has rejected talks with new Prime Minister Marouf al Bakhit, who is forming a new government. But several of its representatives will be meeting the king later Thursday.

Analysts in the region say the meeting is significant, because it is the first time on record that the leadership of the Brotherhood has met alone with the monarch.

The Front is demanding reform of the country’s election law, so that the prime minister is elected by the parliament, instead of chosen by the king. IAF Secretary-General Hamza Mansour told CNN in an interview Thursday that changing prime ministers was not the solution Jordanians needed.

Summary of even ts from earlier today from The Guardian:

pm GMT: Here is a mid-afternoon summary.

• Violent clashes have broken out in Cairo again as pro-government supporters have continued their assault against protesters in Tahrir Square opposed to President Hosni Mubarak (see 9.17am). There has been more gunfire but it is unclear who is shooting and whether all the gunfire is just warning shots.

• There have been a number of arrests and/or attacks on journalists reported – including those from al-Jazeera (see 2.41pm) and the Daily News Egypt (see 12.20pm). The violence against journalists came after Egyptian state TV reported there were Israeli spies in Egypt. Some journalists have supposedly been rounded up for their own safety (see 12.37pm). US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said there was “a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists” (see 1.35pm).

• The Egyptian vice-president, Omar Suleiman, is due to make a statement shortly. He has already told state TV that Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal will not stand in the September elections (see 2.33pm).

• The army, criticised for standing by and watching yesterday’s violence, has shown signs of intervening today, forming lines between the two sides and clearing some areas of Mubarak supporters (see 10.59am). However, there have also been accusations that the military is involved in a crackdown against pro-democracy protesters (see immediately below).

• There have been reports of police/army/military police stopping people getting into Tahrir Square and/or taking away food and medical supplies. Between eight and 12 people at the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre were arrested and beaten (see 1.13pm), eyewitnesses said. The activist blogger Sandmonkey was reportedly arrested and beaten (see 11.59am) but has now apparently escaped.

• The Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafiq apologised for the violence in Tahrir Square and said it would not be allowed to recur (see 1.53pm). He said the culprits would be found. Shafiq also said he could not say for certain whether the attacks were organised.

• Five people have been killed and 836 injured since the start of yesterday’s violence, the Egyptian health ministry has said (see 7.34am). A doctor said seven people had been shot dead, including one killed by a sniper in the early hours of this morning.

• Thousands of anti-government protesters have gathered in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, to take part in their own “day of rage” against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime (see 8.01am). His offer to step down in 2013 has not pacified the demonstrators.

• Algeria has lifted its 19-year-old state of emergency law, according to al-Aribaya TV.

Tahrir Square battleground: ‘These people tried to slaughter us last night’

by Peter Beaumont and Jack Shenker in Cairo

Anti-Mubarak protesters in Cairo fight to hold square littered with bricks and burnt-out vehicles after night of bloodshed

They were barely visible at first, a glimmer of tan clothing among the ranks of pro-Mubarak fighters lined on a low overpass above the entrance to Tahrir Square. It was from here that rocks, petrol bombs and bullets had been raining down on the anti-regime opposition defending their barricades below.

At 9am first one, then a second, and then dozens of Egyptian soldiers – the same military forces who had stood back and watched as last night’s bloodshed unfolded – finally appeared at this key strategic flashpoint and began driving back those on the bridge. Before them lay a no-man’s land littered with broken bricks and burnt-out vehicles that spoke of the extraordinary violence that had played out in the darkness.