UC Davis Professor Noha Radwan Beaten “Half to Death” by Mubarak’s Thugs
Posted: February 3, 2011 Filed under: Barack Obama, Diplomacy Nightmares, Egypt, Foreign Affairs, U.S. Politics | Tags: Egyptian protests, Hosni Mubarak, live blog, Professor Noha Radwan 82 Comments
Yesterday, Professor Noha Radwan was interviewed by Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Democracy Now in Cairo. Here is the video:
Just after she completed the interview, Radwan was brutally beaten by thugs working for the Egyptian dictator. She told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now
“I got attacked by the mob and beaten half to death by the Mubarak thugs who were happy to snatch my necklaces off my neck and to rip my shirt open,”
There is a follow-up telephone interview with Radwan at the second link above. The call with Radwan begins around 37:19. She says that pro-Mubarak thugs asked her if she was pro- or anti-Mubarak. She didn’t want to answer and tried to walk past them. Then the thugs called to the rest of the “mob,” “She’s with them, she’s with them! Get her!”
Two large men held her by the arms while the mob ripped her shirt off, took a gold necklace that she wore during the interview, and beat her so badly that she had to get stitches in her head. She says that other people have been treated much worse than she was. Radwan says that the Egyptian government-controlled media has been “broadcasting nonstop” that “we are infiltrators, that we are foreign-paid…not actually real Eqyptians.”
Amy Goodman says that Democracy Now has been getting reports that the “pro-Mubarak” forces seem to be made up mostly of Egyptian police. The Guardian apparently reported that at least 100 police ID’s have been recovered. There is lots more in the video. If it becomes available on Youtube, I’ll post it here.
What will happen next?
At the Foreign Policy blog, Robert Springbord puts into words what I have been fearing for the past few days: Game over: The chance for democracy in Egypt is lost.
While much of American media has termed the events unfolding in Egypt today as “clashes between pro-government and opposition groups,” this is not in fact what’s happening on the street. The so-called “pro-government” forces are actually Mubarak’s cleverly orchestrated goon squads dressed up as pro-Mubarak demonstrators to attack the protesters in Midan Tahrir, with the Army appearing to be a neutral force. The opposition, largely cognizant of the dirty game being played against it, nevertheless has had little choice but to call for protection against the regime’s thugs by the regime itself, i.e., the military. And so Mubarak begins to show us just how clever and experienced he truly is. The game is, thus, more or less over.
The threat to the military’s control of the Egyptian political system is passing. Millions of demonstrators in the street have not broken the chain of command over which President Mubarak presides. Paradoxically the popular uprising has even ensured that the presidential succession will not only be engineered by the military, but that an officer will succeed Mubarak. The only possible civilian candidate, Gamal Mubarak, has been chased into exile, thereby clearing the path for the new vice president, Gen. Omar Suleiman. The military high command, which under no circumstances would submit to rule by civilians rooted in a representative system, can now breathe much more easily than a few days ago. It can neutralize any further political pressure from below by organizing Hosni Mubarak’s exile, but that may well be unnecessary.
The president and the military, have, in sum, outsmarted the opposition and, for that matter, the Obama administration. They skillfully retained the acceptability and even popularity of the Army, while instilling widespread fear and anxiety in the population and an accompanying longing for a return to normalcy.
Reactions?
This is an open thread to discuss the Egyptian protests.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
@breakingnews: Egypt Vice President Suleiman says he will not run for president http://on.msnbc.com/ecRBE3
They should have taken the transition guy, while they held elections and wrote their constitution with the Freedoms and Democratic values the Egyptian people seek. They don’t want to risk another dictator and the generational corruption again.
The news article was corrected. Suleiman didn’t say he will not run for president. He was talking about Mubarak the son.
Thank you for the correction!!!
ahmed Ahmed Al Omran
by monaeltahawy
Sally Zahran has died by a hit of a bat on her head http://alturl.com/2hxet #Jan25 #Egypt (via @waelabbas)
RIP
Comment removed by request of commenter
How did she die?
Comment removed by request of commenter
Comment removed by request of commenter
I understand. I’m sorry if my question caused you discomfort.
no , don’t worry
but please remove my comments. Thanks a lot
The “pro-Mubarak forces” development is only a few days old. I think it’s going to lead to a lot more violence and maybe make things take longer, but Mubarak is still finished. The cops didn’t stop smaller crowds when they were wearing riot gear, so how are they going to stop huge crowds now?
Read the article at Foreign Policy. I agree that Mubarak could be finished if Obama takes some kind of strong action. But will he?
As for stopping the crowds, the military will step in when Mubarak gives the order.
Will the conscript soldiers step in? They would have already stepped in. They’re probably being used to make shows of force but not being issued ammunition.
Read the article. It’s as “over” for the protestors now as it was for the anti-Ceaucescu forces in 1989 when they had to fight the secret police.
did you read my link to Juan Cole’s article on the morning thread? It’s got some really good stuff in it.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-tunisia-police-20110202,0,3924086.story
I’m defriending people on facebook over this. I’m having people put crazy links up to the links of Sean Hannity who just brought on some crazy fundamentalist imam so he could scream and yell at him and put words in his mouth. It was the same one Spitzer interviewed a few days ago. Then there’s all these thumbs up with a message that Muslim “sympathizers” should defriend her. So I did. I’ve completely removed any contact from this blog to the New Agenda now. Basically the same reason. I’m completely tired of defending the indefensible by one set of extremists by endlessly demonizing other extremists. If people are taken in by this for some reason, I’m completely giving up on them. I’m tired of dealing with pawns and tools of propaganda who don’t seem to be able to separate fact from fiction.
Your blog needs a like button. 😉
We have a like button. You will see it if you register at WordPress and sign in.
Sean Hannity is depraved, IMO. Luckily, the local conservative talk show host doesn’t seem to have decided that this is some horrific outgrowth of “radical Islam.”
It really seems that incidents that make obvious who is a human being and who is an authority-drone are coming more and more often recently.
They are actively looking for an enemy at FOX to assist in completely taking over the senate and the White House. Huckabee is in Egypt, and I am wondering if he is telling Hosni Mubarak to hold on, while the White House is asking for a smooth transition and for him to leave. Does anyone know why Huckabee is over there?
Couldn’t they do us a favor and mistakenly beat up Huckabee instead of a professor from Davis? Ok, that was mean. I don’t want anyone beat up. But… grrr… it’s so frustrating.
Bravo. I’ve thought about doing the same on facebook. I’m just tired of reading the reactionary drivel. So tired of it. Luckily a lot of my contacts are very much aware of reactionary stuff and stomp it down when it springs up.
Don’t forget that the officers may be loyal to Mubarak, but the soldiers are all poor conscripts. The fact that they haven’t done anything isn’t a sign that they’re loyal to Moobie. It’s a sign that their loyalty is doubtful at best, and that they probably haven’t been issued ammunition.
There’s every indication that all the pro-Mubarak protesters are Mubarak’s police.
I said this last night, but it needs to be said again. Obama needs to pull up his underroos and make a big boy phone call to Mubarak. This stops now or he gets no more support from the US until it does. All these little fascist tinpot states in the area need to have their funds remove. I’m tired of my tax dollars going up to prop this regimes that do nothing but oppress and torture people. They’re no better than the sickos in Iran except they are OUR sickos and that disgusts me!
At least, Obama should cut off the money supply. It’s disgusting that he hasn’t done it yet.
Obama prayed for peace this morning.
All will be well.
Obama likes him, and would no more remove him than he would any of our other authoritarian satraps in the region.
Explain to people that our oil is cheap because we support dictators, murderers and thieves. They will blink and say, ‘ohh well,’ and fill up their SUVs again. I’ve tried. Maybe I have the wrong message. Too depressing or something. *rolls eyes*
Yes, which makes you wonder where all the MONEY went! I personally wouldn’t care if they had done something positive, but it is sickening to see how it was all for the top 1% and that they ruled with brutal violence.
AJELive AJELive
Call to free Al Jazeera journalists- 3 #AlJazeera journalists detained by Egyptian security forces & another is missing http://aje.me/eL6YOW
That is very distressing.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper attacked in #Egypt for second straight day http://huff.to/ed79JG
OT:
It’s starting.
bbcme BBC ME English
World food prices reach new high: World food prices rose to a record monthly high in January and could go higher… http://bbc.in/ihGMps
I’d better delve into this. I’ll see what I can come up with in the next couple days. A lot of the foodie sites have been discussing food prices as well.
ProPublica ProPublica
via @SciAm: ISP used by Egyptian (stock) Exchange one of few ISPs that hasn’t been blocked #Egypt http://bit.ly/g5MUR8
Take note on that. I bet our internet kill switch law wouldn’t shut down FEDwire or the ISP around the AMEX, etc.
They wouldn’t touch the commercial stuff. What shows them up as incredibly stupid is that they don’t seem to realize that once real info is cut off, rumor replaces it, and the rumors are usually far more inflammatory than real info.
BBC News: British Foreign Secretary William Hague “Gamal Mubarak is not in Britain. I have spoken to him on the phone from Egypt”
Oh good, maybe they’ll be able to Ceacescu both of the Mubaraks at the same time.
I can’t bear to watch this stuff anymore. This blog feeds me all the information I need to keep abreast.
Those of you who have made this site into a “fountain of information” should be congragulated for making the “one stop place” to obtain information without having my head explode over the propaganda that accompanies every event.
Thanks to all of you for your reporting. It is a sanctuary.
You’re very sweet, Pat. BTW, I think I finally got the end of my driveway wide enough so I can back out. I found some tool in the house–a small hammer on one side and a hatchet-like thing on the other. I used it to hack away at the ice until I could move it. Boy am I beat!
So, Egypt has a religious goose-stepper problem, but we don’t …
more US hypocrisy:
Fanatic lunatics are not consigned to any one area of the planet. Much like lint they can be found anywhere.
Yup. The depressing thing is when it happens in countries where there are resources you can access to learn to know better.
It’s not an intellectual thing. Access to information is very helpful to the people who are being brought along for the ride, but for the hardcore ones, the motivations are way deeper.
More BS in the US. Pastor ‘takes stand’ against teenage pregnancy by refusing to baptize babies of unwed parents in church settings.
In Things I Have Learned: Any sentence that starts out “Biblically speaking” is going to be a pile of shit. http://tinyurl.com/4k65bfb
MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) – A Memphis pastor is taking a stand, refusing to baptize a baby unless the child’s parents are married.
Reverend Ralph White, the pastor of Bloomfield Full Gospel Baptist Church in Memphis, is trying to set a precedent when it comes to teen pregnancies.
“We will do it, but not in the church setting,” he said. “We’ll go to the home or if they want to have an event somewhere, we’ll go there and do it.”
Maybe he could do something really crazy like handing out condoms or encouraging men not to help make kids that they can’t raise and then actively participate in the support of the ones they do start. Or even encourage young girls who aren’t old enough to care for children to keep their legs closed in the presence of men who aren’t going to do crap to help with the kids.
You didn’t get their message that all of that just encourages them to have sex. Besides, these white preachers want white teenage girls to give up their babies in the baby market to white christians so they can be be properly raised as little christianist fascists
In reality, it no more encourages them to have sex than firearms safety classes encourage people to shoot the neighbors.
Where are the families in all this? I mean, hell, there should be fewer 14 year-olds getting knocked up and more 20 year-old irresponsible, opportunistic ba–ards walking around on crutches, if you get my drift.
One of the creepiest things I’ve seen was when I was working at the LA GOP’s 2008 caucus. The Huckabee voters pulled up in these buses that their churches had rented for them and they all had these huge herds of children. It was like the borg with less technology – no discussion, consideration, debate, or individual thought, just “we go to church X, therefore we vote for candidate Y.” It was really alot like when the “ministers” in New Orleans get their “flocks” to go vote for “social justice” candidates who specialize in kickbacks and using community development block grants to build mini-empires.
Yup. It’s very scary.
They have no idea how ridiculous they sound when they constantly B & M about being “persecuted.” It’s HARD to believe but they really do believe that, after they spend their time browbeating everyone into doing, or at least saying, what they want, when someone replies, “You know, I really don’t like being bullied,” they are the ones being persecuted.
What makes it all the more bizarre is that it isn’t just some stunt or ploy – they REALLY BELIEVE that when gay kids get sick of being pushed around, that that very act of no longer wanting to be pushed around is itself an act of bullying.
Bible-bangerism is one of the weirdest ideologies around because it combines this bizarrely domineering and “expansive” mentality with a severe persecution complex so that there is no middle ground for someone who really believes it between being able to control everyone and everything and being persecuted.
Journalists/bloggers, Human Rights Advocate and the Freedom/Pro-Democracy protesters are the targets of the government. The State TV is feeding lies and with the focus on anti-foreigners’ moving the focus from the grievances of the Freedom/Pro-Democracy protesters.
One sound voice that gets that the protesters aren’t ‘terrorists’.
Another picture of Egyptian Christians protecting Egyptian Muslims as they pray.
The protesters have moved on from the Hate the west, they have realized that it’s their countries government that are oppressing them. They have become aware that the propaganda of hate your neighbor because he has a different religion isn’t of any value, they now know other people that believe and that don’t believe and have become informed about common problems. The war mongers do so because they represent the big war profit ridden companies. We don’t even have a health care system for our own citizens and today DU reported that 40 million people are receiving food stamp assistance.
It is high time we put money into other things besides weapons and war.
The Egyptian youth are educated and tech savvy, they aren’t into suppressive religious leaders.
Reuters Reuters Top News
FLASH: State Department says bracing for real confrontation, bigger protests in Egypt on Friday
Raise your hand if you believe Mubarak?
jaketapper Jake Tapper
Mubarak told @CAmanpour he’s fed up, he’s had enough, he wants to go. But if he resigns today there will be chaos.
Mubarak, Ben Ali, and whichever thug goes next could form a comedy troupe and be the modern-day version of the three stooges.
Just think of the possibilites – Ben Ali gets Mubarak in the eyes, Mubarak breaks a bottle over his head, and Saleh has the secret police haul both of them off and yank their fingernails out. It’d be a laff riot!
I’m watching a live State Department presser on CSPAN with PJ Crowley.
it just finished at 1:40 cst.
The game is not as over as Springbord thinks. Since there are millions of protesters they could mass the military and take their weapons and tanks away. But it would take courage as some would be killed trying to do that. It would be easier if only the officers were pro Mubarak, not the conscripts.
Apparently Obama has decided to support Mubarak.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/us-egypt-usa-idUSTRE71175920110202
http://www.juancole.com/2011/02/mubarak-defies-a-humiliated-america-emulating-netanyahu.html
😯 But he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!?! I don’t get it, I just don’t get it.
I just got an e-mail from Amnesty International. One of their employees has been arrested in Egypt along with someone from Human Rights Watch. Here is the text:
Yes, anyone that can document or has experience as a Human Rights Advocate is a target and that is very disturbing. They should do a tweet and ask that they go else (not their own residence or office) where until they can be secure and safe.
I will put this up on the new post.
It is not looking good for the reporter that was carried off and the others that are missing. 😦
I have a new live blog post up WV that is about the intimidation and attacks on Journalist in Egypt.
http://yfrog.com/h35ieuj
Due to the Media BlackOut (OK, beaten, threatened, stabbed, kidnapped and hospitalized in serious condition,) this has been set up to document the deaths in Egypt, via photos, videos etc.
The Egyptian Government has made journalism and blogging very dangerous.
New live blog post up!
[…] UC Davis Professor Noha Radwan Beaten “Half to Death” by Mubarak’s Thugs Yesterday, Professor Noha Radwan was interviewed by Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Democracy Now in Cairo. Here is the […] […]
It felt weird ‘liking’ this post. But BB has brought something very important to our attention and the only way WordPress has to acknowledge that is to ‘like’ the post.
Thanks for this BB. The posts about Egypt here at Sky Dancing have been outstanding. I’m reading here, before reading the BBC for world news. Bravo and thank you all!
Thanks, Sima! Your posts have been terrific. I’m so proud to be working with you.
the dogs of war are very near