Are Agents Provocateurs From The Coup Regime Behind The Attacks On The Coptic Churches?

The leaders of Egypt's military coup has a very savvy propaganda operation, which I would bet anything is directed from what we used to call "Madison Avenue." The drum they were beating over the weekend was about biased western reporting. "Biased," from their point of view, means covering events independently of the lies the coup leaders are demanding is the story. It drives them crazy when western media-- like the Times of Oman-- runs dispatches like Sisi cannot get away murdering Egyptians.

Egypt is getting soaked in blood virtually every day. Within a trifle over 48 hours of killing over 600 people the trigger-happy forces mowed down at least 70 more. Between the 'Black Wednesday' and Friday they killed nearly 700 silent Egyptians who did nothing wrong but demanded reinstatement of their elected president and restoration of democracy. The Egyptian army seems to have declared a war against its own people.

The stench of human blood spilled on Wednesday was still making the air in Cairo heavy. Patches of dried blood at Tahrir Square were still visible; charred remains of the makeshift encampments put up by the pro-Mursi squatters were still seen littered everywhere as a grim reminder of the bloody madness that gripped Cairo. Yet, the military shot down scores more on processions that Muslim Brotherhood supporters took out on Friday to mark day of rage. Egypt seems to have slipped into an endless season of rage.

..."Egypt's ruling generals have demonstrated beyond any lingering doubt that they have no aptitude for, and apparently little interest in, guiding their country back to democracy."

General Sisi not only murdered nearly seven hundred Egyptians and created his own Tiananmen Square to wipe out all opponents of his coup he also killed the basic institution of democracy-- the opposition. His show of brutality has been appalling and his subsequent effort to legitimise the murders is certainly steeped in Machiavellian cynicism worse than the one offered by the contemporary Chinese authorities in 1989.

General Sisi cannot ever justify his crime and no amount of logic or lack of it can ever wash away the blood on his hands. He must one day pay for his murders of people who had been demanding reinstatement of their president who Egypt had elected with fair degree of fairness. None of these demonstrators turned violent, none of them jeopardised the nation and none of them declared any war against the military. Yet, they were killed mercilessly, slaughtered en masse reddening the water of the Nile.

...The crimes of General Sisi are many and unpardonable. He gave the country a barbaric bloodbath, foisted on it an illegitimate government, sacked and incarcerated a democratically elected president, brought back the brutality of the past and has held an entire nation at ransom. He must pay for his crimes. Egyptians must now realise the crimes their general has committed against them. They must revive their revolution and bring this murdering tyrant to gallows.

That isn't the story they want out there-- which is why, from the very beginning, they targeted independent journalists, murdering several, threatening all. Their story is that the military was attacked by savage Muslim Brotherhood terrorists who are on a rampage of attacking government buildings and burning down churches. Many observers on the ground claim agents provocateurs of the illegitimate regime are attacking the churches to turn western opinion against the Muslim Brotherhood victims of the military's violent and unprovoked repression. It's working.

In a statement emailed in English to foreign correspondents Saturday, the Egyptian State Information Service rebuked reporters for what it called "biased coverage" that it said privileged supporters of Mohammed Morsi over the security services who have been fighting them.

The SIS also castigated the foreign press for not paying enough attention to attacks on Christians and Islamists' "intimidation" of ordinary Egyptian citizens.

"Egypt is feeling severe bitterness towards some Western media coverage that is biased to the Muslim Brotherhood and ignores shedding light on violent and terror acts that are perpetrated by this group in the form of intimidation operations and terrorizing citizens," said the unsigned statement.

The statement came hours after an English-language televised address by Mostafa Hegazi, a presidential advisor, who told foreign journalists that "we as Egyptians feel deep bitterness towards coverage of the events in Egypt."

Mr. Hegazi also praised the Egyptian military and police's handling of two bloody incidents in the past week-- breaking up two Cairo protest camps on Wednesday and ending a standoff at a mosque on Saturday. At least 600 people died as the camps were dispersed, and 173 died in clashes on Friday and Saturday.

The two official statements overlay a steady drumbeat of antagonism against foreigners and the foreign press-- a tactic that autocratic Arab leaders have regularly employed to deflect blame for internal unrest and human rights abuses.

But the rhetoric against foreigners and the foreign press has risen to unprecedented levels over the past week and turned Egypt into a highly hostile environment for foreign reporters.

Several foreign journalists reported facing harassment and attacks on Saturday. A reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Alastair Beach, a journalist for Britain's The Independent, were both grabbed and lightly beaten by mobs of anti-Morsi demonstrators outside the beseiged mosque on Saturday.

Mr. Beach said he was bludgeoned over the head with a stick, but suffered no serious injuries

. The mob turned the two reporters over to nearby soldiers, who kept them in protective custody before releasing them away from the scene about an hour later.

Patrick Kingsley, a correspondent for The Guardian, also reported over Twitter that he was "citizen arrested" by a group of angry youth who stole his laptop and mobile phone before turning him over to police.

He was also eventually released without any serious injuries.

Anger against the foreign press is of a piece with the growing preoccupation among Egyptians over foreign governments' recent criticism of security forces' deadly crackdowns on Islamists.

...When authorities ousted Mr. Morsi on July 3, they moved immediately to shut down the Islamist channels that had often adopted pro-Morsi editorial lines.

The Egyptian public has since been treated to vitriolic anti-Islamist messages from both the public and private media. Television stations regualry refer to the Brotherhood as "terrorists" while accusing them of using heavy weapons against security forces and of associating with international terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.

Such media outlets-- particularly the private channels owned by prominent businessmen with connections to the former regime of Hosni Mubarak-- have also helped fan anti-foreigner sentiment.

Guests on the privately owned satellite channels have reguarly accused foreign journalists of deliberately waging a disinformation campaign to aid Mr. Morsi's Islamist backers.

Israeli and right-wing and corporate media in the U.S. parrots the regimes claims that the Muslim Brotherhood is torching the Coptic churches. Jerusalem Post headline: Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi supporters torch Egyptian churches. A fascist-oriented website here in the U.S., National Review ran a similar story: 'Peaceful' Brotherhood Protesters Torching Coptic Christian Churches, as did virtually all the evangelical and hard right media in America-- as well as the financial press: World Silent As Brotherhood Targets Coptic Christians. And how about this one from the L.A. Times, Egyptian Military Demands End To Violence? Not even one story even mentions the reports about the Egyptian regime being behind the attacks, despite facts widely acknowledged in Egypt that the military has a long and sordid history of using agent provocateurs to incite sectarianism. No one seems to wonder why the Egyptian military isn't protecting the Coptic churches from the rampaging mobs of evil Morsi supporters. It sure isn't the first time the Egyptian military attacked churches to get sympathy from the west for their cause.

The Sharm al-Sheikh terrorist attacks of July 2005 were blamed on local Bedouins, but the documents instead reveal they were plotted by Interior Minister Habib el-Adly to target a business rival of Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal.

That and the New Years Eve attack on the Coptic Church in Alexandria, which many were already speculating was an inside job (pointing to the lack of government interest in investigating a major attack) both appear to now be confirmed, at least assuming the documents are authentic (and all indications are that they are). The revelations will likely spark another call to move legally against regime leaders for their crimes.

Agents provocateurs have even been shooting at the police to encourage them to kill protesters. Here's an example of the Regime's propaganda, identifying their own agents as Morsi backers:

UPDATE: Public Backs Cutting U.S. Aid To The Coup... And Mubarak Was Innocent After All

Only 26% of Americans want to continue giving aid to Egyptian's military junta and half the public says Obama hasn't been tough enough toward the Egyptian military in responding to the violence against anti-government protesters. Not many Americans are all that worked up over the whole thing, though. "The violence and chaos in Egypt has not attracted much in the way of interest among the U.S. public. Just 22% say they are following news about violence in Egypt very closely, while another 29% are following events there fairly closely. About half of Americans (48%) say they are following news from Egypt not too closely or not at all closely. A Pew Research Center survey last month found that fewer Americans viewed events in Egypt as critical to U.S. interests than did so in February 2011 during the Arab Spring."

Meanwhile, Hosni Mubarak was found innocent and should be freed within hours. He was acquitted on the corruption charges, which stem from allegations that he and his sons embezzled funds for work on presidential palaces. There's one little technicality the military regime has to overcome before they put him back in charge: He's "still facing charges that he was complicit in the killing of hundreds of protesters by his security forces during the months of turmoil which led to his ouster. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on those charges in June 2012, but the verdict was challenged on technicalities and the case has gone to retrial."