Can Egypt hold it together? President's son, family flee to Britain

[MrsSpringsteen]

A news story I saw last night referred to some report, the findings were that over 90 percent of female foreign visitors to Egypt are harassed in some way.




CBS News says correspondent Lara Logan "suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault" while covering the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

The CBS statement:

On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.

On Tuesday's "CBS Evening News," Katie Couric said that she was "pleased to report" that Logan is "recovering well in the hospital."

Logan had previously been detained by Egyptian authorities while attempting to enter Cairo.

The Committee to Protect Journalists report on attacks on the press in Egypt in 2005 referenced female journalists facing sexual assault:

A report published in 2005 by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said that "journalists in Egypt suffer numerous forms of discrimination including unfairness in legislation, judicial prosecution of journalists for their writing and opinions, assault and death threats, and sexual assault of female journalists."

[yolland]

There was a steady stream of comments from women (both Egyptian and foreign) attending the protests throughout the uprising as to the general lack of harassment at the scene(s)--which of course tells you that harassment is normally common, since otherwise there'd be no reason to comment on it. In much of the Middle East as well as Central and South Asia, that is also the case. Obviously, being gang-raped and beaten by a mob who drags you from your companions (as would sound to be the case here) isn't 'normal' anywhere, but there was nothing whatsoever 'normal' in the situation she was covering--it had been a brutal couple of weeks, with repeated extreme lurches from collective emotional highs to lows and back again.

More than 140 journalists were physically injured to various degrees, some very badly, and there was one fatality as well, plus she's been a war correspondent, so I'm sure she understood quite well the risks she was taking. I do admire her courage in going public with the information--often, female foreign correspondents (and women in some other traveling professions as well) are deeply reluctant to say anything about harassment or assaults abroad, because they fear they won't be given foreign assignments any more if they do.


[ETA -- The WSJ is citing a CBS source as telling them the assault was "not a rape." Also several outlets have reported that Logan didn't actually choose to go public with the information; rather, other news outlets had somehow found out and were calling CBS with questions, so she and CBS wanted to at least get ahead of the story.]

[mama cass]

Originally Posted by MrsSpringsteen

A news story I saw last night referred to some report, the findings were that over 90 percent of female foreign visitors to Egypt are harassed in some way.




CBS News says correspondent Lara Logan "suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault" while covering the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

The CBS statement:

On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.

On Tuesday's "CBS Evening News," Katie Couric said that she was "pleased to report" that Logan is "recovering well in the hospital."

Logan had previously been detained by Egyptian authorities while attempting to enter Cairo.

The Committee to Protect Journalists report on attacks on the press in Egypt in 2005 referenced female journalists facing sexual assault:

A report published in 2005 by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said that "journalists in Egypt suffer numerous forms of discrimination including unfairness in legislation, judicial prosecution of journalists for their writing and opinions, assault and death threats, and sexual assault of female journalists."

that is so horrific! poor lady!!!

i really really hate the general harassment aspect... it's just awful... but it can be the same in many big cities... when i first moved to Paris i would get harassed/followed/groped/propositioned the whole time - it was hideous! and i nearly got myself/husband/male pals into a few fights because of it... but then i developed my secret deterrent: the permanent "fuck-off-and-don't-even-think-about-it scowl" - it seriously made all the difference!

the harassment thing has been bothering me a lot about my forthcoming trip to Egypt, and i know i won't be letting my young teenage daughter out of my sight the whole time i am there...

[yolland]

Wow, I've never had a problem in Paris or anywhere else in northern Europe. It wouldn't surprise me if routinely smiling at and making eye contact with male strangers might occasionally get you verbal harassment and leering there, but I wouldn't expect groping, not in Paris.

[mama cass]

i didn't expect groping either - it was a bit of a shock! lol

i guess i was living in some pretty rough areas though, away from the touristy spots... and out and about pretty late at night... yeah and i was definitely too smiley to start with - that really didn't help, and eye contact too is a big no no... you just have to think on your feet and constantly be on the alert, it's horrible though - i remember one time being followed all the way thru Gare du Nord late at night, it got pretty scary and i couldn't shake the b*stard, and in the end i ended up practically running to the top of the escalator with this guy hot on my heels, and then at the last moment i jumped sideways and didn't get on the escalator, but he was too close and moving too fast so he did and down down down he went - the look on his face was priceless!! i gave him the middle finger from my safe spot but was pretty terrified though and legged it out of there as fast as i could! jeesus i hated those days lol!!!

[Bono's shades]

Originally Posted by mama cass

that is so horrific! poor lady!!!

i really really hate the general harassment aspect... it's just awful... but it can be the same in many big cities... when i first moved to Paris i would get harassed/followed/groped/propositioned the whole time - it was hideous! and i nearly got myself/husband/male pals into a few fights because of it... but then i developed my secret deterrent: the permanent "fuck-off-and-don't-even-think-about-it scowl" - it seriously made all the difference!

the harassment thing has been bothering me a lot about my forthcoming trip to Egypt, and i know i won't be letting my young teenage daughter out of my sight the whole time i am there...

My experience has been exactly the opposite. I've been to Rome, which has a terrible reputation for women getting harrassed, but no one bothered me. I've walked at night in downtown Minneapolis with no problems. My experiences with guys harrassing me on the streets or in parking lots have all been in the various small, Midwestern towns I've lived in all my life.

[Moonlit_Angel]

I can believe that. I've been fortunate enough to avoid that sort of experience, but yes, I felt much more comfortable wandering around, say, New York City, than I do some afternoons walking to work here in this town of about 30,000 people. Granted, I was with a big group in New York City, which helps, but still...

Originally Posted by mama cass

i didn't expect groping either - it was a bit of a shock! lol

i guess i was living in some pretty rough areas though, away from the touristy spots... and out and about pretty late at night... yeah and i was definitely too smiley to start with - that really didn't help, and eye contact too is a big no no... you just have to think on your feet and constantly be on the alert, it's horrible though - i remember one time being followed all the way thru Gare du Nord late at night, it got pretty scary and i couldn't shake the b*stard, and in the end i ended up practically running to the top of the escalator with this guy hot on my heels, and then at the last moment i jumped sideways and didn't get on the escalator, but he was too close and moving too fast so he did and down down down he went - the look on his face was priceless!! i gave him the middle finger from my safe spot but was pretty terrified though and legged it out of there as fast as i could! jeesus i hated those days lol!!!

Ugh. How terrifying. I'm sorry to hear that's happened to you . I also think it sucks that you had to put those qualifiers at the beginning of your post-yes, knowing what we know about certain places, it helps to keep your guard up and try and avoid them as much as possible and whatnot, but sometimes that's easier said than done, and besides that, you should be able to wander anywhere you want, and be friendly, without worrying about such crap happening. The only people in the wrong are the assholes who don't know how to respect boundaries or women or whatever.

That's horrible to hear that about what women like Logan have been going through. I'm glad that she felt brave enough to come forward about this, and that she'll be okay (relatively speaking), and I hope that they find the people who did this and they get the punishment they deserve.

Angela

[yolland]

Originally Posted by mama cass

i guess i was living in some pretty rough areas though, away from the touristy spots... and out and about pretty late at night... yeah and i was definitely too smiley to start with - that really didn't help, and eye contact too is a big no no... you just have to think on your feet and constantly be on the alert, it's horrible though - i remember one time being followed all the way thru Gare du Nord late at night...

Ah, yeah, some of the areas around Gare du Nord are pretty gritty and macho. Sometimes it can be so hard when you don't know the local culture to tell the difference between areas which are seedy or insular and kind of uncomfortable vs. areas which are rough and downright unsafe. That sounds like a really frightening experience, very glad you weren't hurt.

Originally Posted by Moonlit_Angel

I also think it sucks that you had to put those qualifiers at the beginning of your post-yes, knowing what we know about certain places, it helps to keep your guard up and try and avoid them as much as possible and whatnot, but sometimes that's easier said than done, and besides that, you should be able to wander anywhere you want, and be friendly, without worrying about such crap happening.

It's totally true, but unfortunately this is just a reality of living and traveling abroad. It's not always a question of safety, either (as in, not getting physically injured)--often there can be quite a lot of overt hostility and moderate physical and verbal harassment without imminent risk of being beaten, raped or worse. Every society organizes social relations, gender and otherwise, differently from every other and you can't always just jump in as you are and expect the same responses as back home, nor can you fully protect yourself from stereotypes which may come attached to your basic physical appearance. Sometimes I think it's especially hard for North Americans to come to terms with this, because we value superficial displays of goodwill and openness so highly, almost as an honor thing (though from a foreign visitor's POV, this may be undercut by our fairly high violent crime rate).

[MrsSpringsteen]

What not to say about Lara Logan - Media Criticism - Salon.com



On Feb. 11, CBS reporter Lara Logan was sexually assaulted and beaten in the crush of a Tahrir Square mob. She was subsequently rescued by a group of women and Egyptian soldiers, flew home the next day, and is currently recovering in a hospital. All of which is a horrendous, sickening crime. And when the news of the attack broke Tuesday afternoon, it took all of minutes before somebody decided to hinge the story on the blond reporter’s looks.

In a stunningly offensive blog post titled "Lara Logan, CBS Reporter and Warzone 'It Girl,' Raped Repeatedly Amid Egypt Celebration" for LA Weekly, writer Simone Wilson managed to mention Logan’s "shocking good looks and ballsy knack for pushing her way to the heart of the action" before getting to the assault itself. She then went on to imagine how it happened: "In a rush of frenzied excitement, some Egyptian protestors apparently consummated their newfound independence by sexually assaulting the blonde reporter." Well, sure, what other motive for an assault could there be, given that Logan is, in Wilson’s words, a "gutsy stunner" with "Hollywood good looks"? And how else do Egyptians celebrate anyway but with a gang assault? It's not like she deserved it, but well, she is hot, right?

Perhaps Wilson was going for some postmodern commentary on the media’s obsession with attractive reporters. She did cite in her post how Mofo Politics commented, when Logan was detained in Egypt earlier this month, that "I would totally rape her," and she noted the New York Post’s chronicling of Logan's robust sex life. That’s the kindest explanation for a hideously twisted bit of commentary on an assault victim, one that repulsively mingles the woman's attractiveness and sexual history with a violent crime, and ends with the brutally off-key observation that "nobody’s invincible."


Wilson wasn’t the only person out there to be wildly tone-deaf in response, either. When the news broke, Nir Rosen, a fellow at the New York University Center for Law and Security, promptly whined to Twitter, "It’s always wrong, that’s obvious, but I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get," adding, "She’s so bad that I ran out of sympathy for her." He soon backpedaled, deleting several of his most offensive posts and tweeting, "I apologize and take it back. joking with friends got out of line when i didnt want to back down. forgot twitter is not exactly private." Apparently he still hasn't remembered that sexual assault isn't great joking around material.

And the ever-heinous Debbie Schlussel was quick to jump on her regular line of racism, noting how the assault happened in a "country of savages," because that never ever happens anywhere else, and it's never committed by light-skinned people! She then twisted the knife by going after Logan herself, saying, "So sad, too bad, Lara. No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows... How fitting that Lara Logan was 'liberated' by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the 'liberation.'" Debbie Schlussel, what's it like to be so liberated from the burden of having either a mind or a soul?

Here’s what you do say when something like this happens. Like countless women around the world, Lara Logan was attacked in the line of duty. She was assaulted doing her job. It was a crime of unspeakable violence. And your opinion of how she does that job, the religion her assailants share with a few million other people, or the color of her hair has nothing to do with it.

UPDATE: After an overwhelmingly negative reaction to his tweets, Nir Rosen has resigned his post at N.Y.U.

[yolland]

Not surprising really, everything out of Debbie Schlussel's mouth is filthy and hateful, and while Rosen's a talented journalist, he's also always been a swaggering macho jerk who can't resist vulgar swipes at competitors and opponents. I'm not familiar with Simone Wilson.

[Moonlit_Angel]

yolland, you make a good point about the culture/customs thing as well, yes, that's definitely something to keep in mind, too.

She did cite in her post how Mofo Politics commented, when Logan was detained in Egypt earlier this month, that "I would totally rape her,"

...the FUCK?

On what planet would anyone think that that was an acceptable thing to say about anybody?

When the news broke, Nir Rosen, a fellow at the New York University Center for Law and Security, promptly whined to Twitter, "It’s always wrong, that’s obvious, but I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get," adding, "She’s so bad that I ran out of sympathy for her."

Yeah, I know, it totally sucks how we keep bringing attention to such horrors! I mean, it could be SO much worse, right?

He soon backpedaled, deleting several of his most offensive posts and tweeting, "I apologize and take it back. joking with friends got out of line when i didnt want to back down. forgot twitter is not exactly private."

Gee, really, no shit, Sherlock?

Christ, people. Does the phrase "Shut up" mean anything to you?

Angela

[Bono's shades]

What's really sad is I'm no longer surprised when someone says stuff like what some "people" (and I use that word loosely) are saying about Logan.

[Pearl]

I swear, these days it seems to be OK to dehumanize others. If what happened to Lara Logan occurred 10 - 12 years ago, I really doubt anyone would mock her attack. But now its seems to be no big deal to others.

[yolland]

Originally Posted by Moonlit_Angel

On what planet would anyone think that that was an acceptable thing to say about anybody?

Mofo Politics is a really sleazy, trashy conservative newsblog site with entries that mostly read like a shock jock's gossip column. (The original headline of the story that came from was "Slutty CBS Reporter Lara Logan Detained in Egypt.") Rosen at least has been apologizing profusely through various news outlets, fwiw--granted he has more of a reputation to protect than Mofo Politics or Debbie Schlussel, who predictably ridiculed her critics for not seeing the rapacious and brutal nature of Muslims with the clarity she does.

But honestly there's nothing surprising about any of this; vulgarly, terminally empathy-challenged people have always been around and always will be, it's just the rise of blogs and tweets and so forth that makes them more visible and influential.

[yolland]

NYT, Feb. 18

Battle Lines Harden Across Mideast as Rulers Dig In


Security forces and government supporters employed a growing panoply of violent force—from tear gas and batons to shotguns and grenades—in pitched street battles with antigovernment protesters in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen on Friday. The clashes followed a week of deepening unrest as protesters, emboldened by the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, have called for swift revolutions in their own countries. The battle lines between protesters and authoritarian rulers across the Arab world appeared to be hardening, with governments turning to an increasingly brutal script in trying to quash the protests that have swept the region.

The severity of a Libyan crackdown on Thursday’s so-called Day of Rage began to emerge Friday when a human rights advocacy group said 24 people had been killed by gunfire and news reports said further clashes with security forces were feared at the funerals for the dead.

That apprehension also seized Bahrain, where mourners for some of the five people killed in an assault on a democracy camp a day earlier marched on Pearl Square and were fired on by security forces. The violence has pitted a Sunni minority government against a Shiite majority in the strategic island state that is home to the American Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

...In Yemen, protests appeared to grow larger and more violent in the city of Taiz, 130 miles south of the capital, where thousands of antigovernment protesters called for the ouster of President Ali Abullah Saleh and clashed with government supporters, news reports said. Reuters reported that a grenade exploded in a large crowd of protesters who had camped out since last Friday in the city’s Hurriya Square, killing at least one person and wounding many more.

Across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen thousands of demonstrators gathered on Friday in the tiny African nation of Djibouti to demand that the country’s president step down, after a series of smaller demonstrations seeking to capitalize on the wave of unrest, The Associated Press reported. A former French colony and a strong ally of the United States, Djibouti, like Bahrain, plays host to an American military base, the only one in Africa.

Clashes between pro-and antigovernment demonstrators were reported in Amman, the capital of Jordan, The Associated Press reported. And in Kuwait, the police attacked about 1000 members of the group known as bedouns who had gathered to demand greater rights, Bloomberg reported.

...In Iran, a leading opposition figure, Mir Hussein Moussavi, was reported missing, raising fears that he had been detained in connection with this week’s antigovernment rallies. The marches, the largest since the 2009 disputed elections, were put down by Iranian security and paramilitary forces. The government called for its supporters to rally Friday; the opposition called for another march on Sunday.

In Algeria, where a major protest has been called for Saturday, state television denounced “foreign interference,” while a prominent political leader, Abdelhamid Mehri, accused the government of not “responding to the hunger for integrity, liberty, democracy and social justice.”

...And in Iraq, protest leaders said they would go ahead with plans for a Saturday march in Baghdad, despite a second day of violence marring demonstrations elsewhere in the country. “Are we expecting violence?” said Kamal Jabar, an Iraqi organizers. “Yes, we’re expecting violence. Are we going out? Yes, we’re going out.”

[Diemen]

Bahrain is getting pretty chaotic. Reports that troops in helicopters were firing on protestors who decided to march after attending the funeral of other protestors (conflicting accounts as to whether it was live ammo or rubber bullets), and then turning to fire on reporters that were capturing the attacks on camera. And now apparently police are attacking hospitals, and preventing doctors from entering the square and treating and/or removing the wounded or dead.

A combination of tweets:

Ambulance paramedic just told me that the riot police pointed their guns on them and said leave or we'll shoot you. A man just asked me if I was using Facebook, I said no. He said "then what are you doing?" and walked away. The guy who asked me about Facebook had to be a spy. He just came back and said good luck to me n left. He's def not 1 of us! they are allowing ambulances to come back as I am hearing. Have one protester here, he says "we were shouting 'peaceful' and then Commandoes with black masks surrounded then started shotting. Docotrs coming out of ER crying. "One protester went infront of crowd and raised bahraini flag, they shouted n told him to put down the flag. "The 1st shot came from a building and straight into the head of a protester, I saw him."

More here: Echoes From Bahrain: "This Is Not Real" - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

[mama cass]

Libya is looking awful too, reports of more than 200 protesters killed by the military!

protests in Morocco too now...

[The_Pac_Mule]

Libyan forces fire on mourners at funeral again - Yahoo! News

Libyan forces fire on mourners at funeral again


CAIRO – Libyan security forces opened fired on mourners at a funeral for anti-government protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi again Sunday, a day after commandos and foreign mercenaries loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi pummeled demonstrators with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry as well as knives. A doctor at one city hospital said he counted 200 dead in his morgue alone since unrest began six days ago.

The crackdown in Libya is shaping up to be the most brutal repression of the anti-government protests that began with uprisings that toppled the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. The protests then spread quickly around the region to Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Algeria, Morocco and outside the Middle East to places including the East African nation of Djibouti and even China.

The latest violence in the flashpoint city of Benghazi followed the same pattern as the crackdown on Saturday, when witnesses said forces loyal to Gadhafi attacked mourners at a funeral for anti-government protesters. The doctor at a Benghazi hospital said at least one person was killed by gunshots during the funeral march, and 14 were injured, including five in serious condition. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

A man shot in the leg Sunday said marchers were carrying coffins to a cemetery when they passed a military compound in Libya's second-largest city. The man said security forces fired in the air and then opened up on the crowd.

Woww. Gadhafi's a sick mass murderer. He deserves to be shot, if not just for his role in the Lockerbie bombing. Yet the UN recognizes him as a legitimate leader. What a world we live in.

[corianderstem]

I'd say they're either incredibly stupid, not realizing that the entire world is watching, or just incredibly evil for knowing the world is watching and not caring.

Oh, wait. Why is it an "either/or" situation? They're both.

[financeguy]

Originally Posted by yolland

Ah, yeah, some of the areas around Gare du Nord are pretty gritty and macho.

Are women more likely to be harassed in Paris in areas that have higher %'s of North African immigrants or is that a politically incorrect question?