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The man who wrote those words – the witty and courageous Egyptian blogger “Sandmonkey” – is currently in hiding in his native city of Cairo, moving from one friend’s apartment to another, as supporters of Hosni Mubarak pursue him and other democracy demonstrators.
I had been trying to reach “Sandmonkey” – who has written for Pajamas Media – ever since the demonstrations broke out, because I suspected he would be in the thick of things. But as most know, the Internet was cut in Egypt until Wednesday.
When I finally got through to him late Wednesday night Pacific time, I discovered that, boy, were my suppositions ever correct. “Sandmonkey” was indeed in the thick of things and his on-the-ground observations that I recorded in this Skype audio interview were in many ways surprising and contradicted what we are hearing in our media.
Some of things that you will hear in more detail in the interview are reassuring, but others decidedly not. On the reassuring side, “Sandmonkey” says the the Muslim Brotherhood is not a heavy presence at the demonstrations and that for the last four years they have been in a weakened position in Egypt, the least powerful of five Islamic organizations (although the most violent).
Also heartening is that he says that there are no leaders for the movement, not Mahmoud ElBaradei or anybody else.
Unfortunately, however, it doesn’t sound much like an Egyptian version of the Tea Party. Mubarak isn’t going away and it’s getting more bloodthirsty by the day. “Sandmonkey” sounded bleak. He said that only America can help at this point by fully backing the demonstrators against Mubarak. “Does America stand for its ideals or does it stand for its interests?” he asked.
On that score, he doesn’t like Obama. But guess what? He liked George Bush!
Have a listen. We’ll be back in contact with “Sandmonkey” soon.
Unfortunately, you won’t be back in touch with Sandmonkey any time soon. He has apparently been arrested and his blog suspended, as readers who follow the above link can see. It was working one hour ago.
Here is the BBC account of his arrest:
“1334: Ahmed Rasheed in Cairo tells the BBC: “Two of my friends have been arrested – one is the blogger Sandmonkey. They were trying to get food and medical supplies. These thugs [supporters of Mubarak] are arresting people and delivering them to the secret police. I was at the protest last night and I got injured after a stone was thrown at my head. I’m going to go back today and get food and medical supplies, if I don’t get arrested.” Sandmonkey’s blog appears to have been suspended.”
Please don’t let this go — as you note above, Sandmonkey is not your typical regime opponent, and the state must have thought that he posed a particular danger for that reason. We’ve all learned a bit more about the ugly nature of this regime, and I worry about what might happen to this brave individual.
God Help Sandmonkey, he needs our prayers. I hope he’s okay. What a horror he’s had to go through and then the propoganda is a joke.
We, The American People Are With You! We would like to help, what can we do? I doubt that calling Obama would help, what can we do? Call George W. Bush? He would do what he can but he’s pretty much out of politics, which I am sorry to hear, I do not like this admin, they are wusses to say the best word I can think of.