Previews
You get the lovely engraved stationery; I’ll get the ponies
Mojo in comments
From Phantom SoapBox: Here’s what a “Presidential Internet Switch" looks like in the wild, my friends.
22:34 UTC (00:34am local time), Renesys observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet’s global routing table. Approximately 3,500 individual BGP routes were withdrawn, leaving no valid paths by which the rest of the world could continue to exchange Internet traffic with Egypt’s service providers. Virtually all of Egypt’s Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide.
The Phantom also notes:
CNN had this to say on the subject:
Hours ahead of what are expected to be massive displays of anti-government ferment across the world’s most populous Arab nation, the internet went dark in parts of Egypt early Friday, and text messaging appeared to be blocked.
Parts :: Whole ... Ferment :: Foment ... Tomato :: Toyota ...
But Wait! There’s moooore…
Here is the secret document sent from the US Embassy in Cairo to Washington disclosing the extent of American support for the protesters behind the Egypt uprising.
... [xxxxxxxxxxxx Egyptian activist, name redacted] said he wants to convince the USG that Mubarak is worse than Mugabe and that the GOE will never accept democratic reform. xxxxxxxxxxxx asserted that Mubarak derives his legitimacy from U.S. support, and therefore charged the U.S. with \"being responsible\” for Mubarak’s \"crimes.\"
He accused NGOs working on political and economic reform of living in a \"fantasy world,\” and not recognizing that Mubarak—\"the head of the snake\”—must step aside to enable democracy to take root. 6.(C) xxxxxxxxxxxx claimed that several opposition forces—including the Wafd, Nasserite, Karama and Tagammu parties, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kifaya, and Revolutionary Socialist movements—have agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections (ref C). According to xxxxxxxxxxxx, the opposition is interested in receiving support from the army and the police for a transitional government prior to the 2011 elections.
xxxxxxxxxxxx asserted that this plan is so sensitive it cannot be written down.
...
One messy kettle o’ fish…
While it is natural to focus on Egypt, much of North Africa is experiencing demonstrations and other anti-status-quo activity.
My fear, which I suspect is commmon, is that those who want more democratic government are diverse and ill-prepared while Sharia-desiring groups may make common cause more easily and have such capabilities as alternate means of communication - and armaments.Posted by on 01/29/11 at 08:38 AM
Next entry: Assumptions and Presuppositions
Previous entry: Egypt
