Egyptian frustrations with army, government mount - Reuters

A protester holding a big Egyptian flag walks in Tahrir square in Cairo July 10, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih

By Dina Zayed and Shaimaa Fayed

CAIRO | Sun Jul 10, 2011 11:56am EDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian activists vowed on Sunday to stay camped in Cairo's Tahrir Square, accusing the army rulers of failing to sweep out corruption, end the use of military courts and swiftly try those who killed protesters.

Anger has been rising against what many Egyptians see as the reluctance of the military council to deliver on the demands of protesters who ousted Hosni Mubarak in February. They include speeding up the pace of Mubarak's trial over the killings of demonstrators, which is scheduled to start August 3.

A speech by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf on Saturday that promised action but was thin on detail only stoked frustrations.

One speaker in Tahrir, the symbolic center of the revolt that toppled Mubarak, said Sharaf deserved a "red card," the soccer term for being sent off. Youth groups on Facebook called for stepping up action this week.

Analysts said the army-appointed government needed to act quickly if it wanted to avoid a further escalation even if some of the aspirations for change were unreasonably high.

The Public Prosecution office, in what appeared to be an attempt to placate protesters, posted a list of the legal measures it had taken against senior officials of the Interior Ministry accused of killing protesters, including trial dates.

An Egyptian judge also said on Sunday that new criminal cases would be deferred to other courts to free up judges reviewing cases linked to corruption and the death of protesters, in line with Sharaf's call to expedite protester demands.

Hundreds of people were camped in Tahrir Square, in the heart of Cairo, throughout Sunday. Activists said more would join late in the day, including some heading in from Suez where protests have been taking place since Wednesday.

A sign reading: "Civil disobedience until further notice" was pinned up outside the vast 'Mogamma' administrative building in Tahrir. Protesters blocked the main roads to the square and set up security barricades.

Employees and some who made the trip to finish paperwork at the administrative building -- stood arguing with protesters that they had jobs to do -- after being barred from entry.

Makeshift tents were set up in the center of the square, where some protesters have stayed since a mass rally on Friday dubbed "Revolution First" that demanded swifter reforms. Some chanted for Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi to go.

Tantawi, who now leads the military council in charge of Egypt, was Mubarak's defense minister for two decades. The army has pledged to hand power to civilians soon and has scheduled a parliamentary election for September.

"The entire military council served Mubarak and the entire Cabinet is nothing but the remnants of his regime," a longtime critic of the former president, Abdel Hamid Qandil, said.

'EMOTIONS ARE RISING'

"We have been manipulated for almost six months. If our demands are not met, there will be further escalation," said a 37-year-old protester, who identified himself only as Mohamed.

After Sharaf's speech, the Revolution Youth Coalition called for speeding up trials, hiking the minimum wage, stopping trials of civilians in military courts and reforming the Interior Ministry, criticised by Egyptians for the rough manner police handled protests during and since the uprising.

"People's emotions are rising, especially over the issue of retribution for the killers (of protesters). ... There is no patience, especially because the people know the killers, saw them and reported them," said Adel Soliman, executive director of the International Center for Future and Strategic Studies.

More than 100 Egyptian political groups warned they reserved the right "to use all legitimate methods to push for achieving their demands, foremost of which a general strike, civil disobedience."

The prime minister has come in for increasingly tough criticism. His appointment in March was initially welcomed as the former minister had joined protesters in Tahrir even when Mubarak was still in office. Now, activists say he has failed to act firmly as a mediator between protesters and the army.

Ahmed Abdullah wrote on Facebook after Sharaf's speech: "What I am failing to understand is this is not what was demanded in Tahrir. Essam Sharaf promised he would achieve the demands of the revolution or join it, where is that promise."

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Peter Cooney)

View the original article here

Government contractors targeted Chamber of Commerce's critics - Los Angeles Times

Hoping to win a lucrative agreement with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, three data security contractors for federal defense and intelligence agencies developed a proposal to monitor and manipulate the chamber's left-leaning critics, according to recently released e-mail correspondence.

Employees of the firms compiled short dossiers on a few activists that included photographs, references to their families and charts of their relationships with other liberal and labor leaders.

A review of the correspondence, dating from late October through last week, suggested that the surveillance and intelligence gathering had begun only on a superficial basis in anticipation of a coming meeting with chamber officials.

The proposals were received by Hunton & Williams, a law firm that represents the chamber.

The firm, which also represents Bank of America, solicited a separate proposal from the security firms to help the bank deal with a threat by WikiLeaks, the international hacker organization, to release some of the bank's internal data.

Chamber officials as well as a spokesman for Bank of America said they knew nothing of the surveillance proposals until the e-mails were released Friday by Anonymous, a group that is sympathetic to WikiLeaks.

"No money, for any purpose, was paid to any of those three private security firms by the chamber, or by anyone on behalf of the chamber, including Hunton & Williams," the chamber said in a statement.

Hunton & Williams did not respond to requests for comment.

But in some of the e-mails, employees of the security firms and lawyers at Hunton & Williams refer to contacts they had made with the chamber about the proposed intelligence gathering.

The revelations in the e-mails triggered anxiety among some of those who were targeted.

"We are appalled at the allegations that have come to light in these e-mails," said Inga Skippings, communications director of the Service Employees International Union, some of whose allies were the subject of the intelligence gathering project. "The chamber should immediately come clean about its involvement with Hunton & Williams and the private security firms that allegedly planned these underhanded tactics."

ThinkProgress, an arm of the liberal Center for American Progress and a consistent critic of the chamber, first reported on the e-mails on its blog last week.

In a statement, the chamber accused its critics of "perpetrating a smear campaign by trying to create the illusion of a connection" between it and the security firms.

Officials for two of the security firms, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies, confirmed the authenticity of the e-mails sent by their employees but said top executives had no previous knowledge of them.

A spokeswoman for the third company, HBGary Federal, said executives could not address the details of the proposed work for Hunton & Williams, citing a nondisclosure agreement covering all parties.

Copies of the e-mails were provided to the Los Angeles Times by the labor and activist groups.

The correspondence shows that starting last fall, Hutton & Williams lawyers discussed with the security companies a project to be pitched to the chamber.

The three security firms, all of which are government contractors with secret clearances, proposed coming together as "Team Themis," apparently named after a Greek goddess of law and order, to monitor and possibly disrupt chamber opponents.

"Who better to develop a corporate information reconnaissance capability than companies that have been market leaders within the [Defense Department] and Intelligence Community," the companies wrote in a pitch to Hunton & Williams.

View the original article here