As you can read here Alaa has been arrested , and the situation is turning bleaker by the minute. Given what the egyptian police is like , and how they wanted to hurt Alaa for quite a while now, I don't think it's wise to wait until they decide what THEY want to do with him. The fight should start immedietly.

The contact information for the Egyptian embassy is below:
The Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt
3521 International Ct. NW
Washington DC 20008
Phone (202) 895 5400
Fax (202) 244 5131
(202) 244 4319
Email: embassy@egyptembdc.org

E-mail them, send them letters, harrass them. The last time you did that we got Abdel Karim released. I am not joking when I tell you that I had information from a source inside that this is the only reason they released him. Too much pressure by the average american and european. The egyptian government is cowardly, they will sucumb to pressure. Tell them that you find his detainment and arrest unacceptable. That you will not set foot in this country, and will tell every friend of yours never to visit Egypt, unless Alaa and the other detainees are released immedietly. That a government that throws people in jail for freedom of speech is not one that will get your money. Tell everyone you know and spread the word. In the words of Tigerhawk: Release the Hounds.

Links to this: InstaPundit , Tigerhawk , Proteinwisdom , Sabbah , Captain's Quarters  

Alaa and his wife and fellow blogger Manal 

 Alaa, blogger, co-founder of the egyptian blog aggregator Manalaa and democracy activist, got arrested today during a protest to support the Judiciary's branch fight for independence. He, and about 10 others, were rounded up in the street, beaten up and thrown in a police car. Amongst those who got arrested were at least 3 girls, and the police beat up at least another 2 girls as well. 

The way it worked, the police made sure to press the demonstartors close to the egyptian musem, where they cordoned them and wouldn't let them leave, while continiously hurling insults at them. The demonstartors tried to get the police to let them go for half an hour, but no avail. The Police cordon then opend where a group of plainly dressed police officers and thugs rushed in and started beating up the demonstartors and dragging them on the asphalt till they threw them in the police vehicles. The Police also made sure that none of the satalite news channels would be able to get video footage of what they did by not allowing the press to come close and keeping them away the entire time.

Now, I don't know that this will be just a one night arrest thing or if they will try to make an example out of him and keep him arrested for a while. I am still waiting on that piece of news. But by all the gods in heaven, if they keep him more than another day I will start my own campaign and will not rest till we free him like we did AbdelKarim. I will be damned if we let the regime get away with this. So, readers, if things come to that, we will need your help. The Committe to protect bloggers is no more , we are on our own and the regime is getting more desperate, paranoid and brutal by the minute. We will most certainly need your support to get him out, but let's just hope it doesn't come to that.

For now, all we can do, is wait and see.

Rabena yostor! 

Update: They've taken alaa to the state secuirty building in Heliopolis. Rumors I am hearing are not good, at all. 

I hate feeling so helpless! 

Update: Mostafa has more information on what went down. 

Alaa Abd El-Fatah was arrested
today together with around ten more activists during a peaceful
demonstration in solidarity with sixty activists who were arrested over
the past two weeks in a non-violent sit in as well who were held in
custody for two weeks under investigation for "crimes" that if anything
would raise only mockery including: humiliating the president,
possession of "publishing equipment"(graffiti spray) and blocking
traffic. The first group of activists arrested two weeks ago was
supposed to have their cases reviewed by prosecution today, so as to
release or renew holding them under investigation. In solidarity with
them 200 lawyers approached as a defense council, a number of judges,
and a number of activists among whom were Alaa and his colleagues
gathered around the court house. Authorities denied the activists entry
to the court house, in addition to attempting to present the
"detainees" files only, and not the detainees themselves to
prosecution. For hours, Alaa and his fellow activists shouted slogans
against the government, sang and showed solidarity with their detained
fellow activists. At the end of the demonstration police forces
surrounding the group increased, refused to let them leave and started
picking those to arrest, Alaa and ten others. They were taken to the
nearby police station were they were denied lawyers, or any visitors.
Lawyers are now standing outside the station just monitoring in case
the arrested activists are taken somewhere else, which is exactly what
happened. Three of them were taken blindfolded to another police
station and were released later.

The latest attacks of Egyptian authorities rose to squash public
support for the demands of Egyptian Judges for complete independence of
the judiciary authority, which had the executive authorities
interfering with its work for decades to forge elections, detain
opposition leaders and punish voices that rise against decades of
ruling under emergency law. Judges also demanded an investigation in
the forgery of last elections. To shut them up, in a step with illegal
procedures, the government, represented by the ministry of justice,
referred two of the judges leading the movement to the validity
committee. Judges had an open sit in in their club (syndicate) for
weeks now, the sit in that was supported by another sit in by Egyptian
activists from Kifaya (enough), Al Horreyya Alan (freedom now), El Ghad
party in addition to other movements and independent individuals
outside the judges syndicate. For three days in a raw, police forces,
assisted by thugs, attacked the activists sit in late at night,
brutally beat the demonstrators and each time arrested a group of the
demonstrators. At the first night: April 24th, police forces brutally
beat up a judge, a court president.

60 activists were arrested in these attacks: among them Malek Mostafa
, Mohammed Sharkawy and Mohammed Adel who are fellow bloggers. Mohammed
Adel is a minor and is held in a regular prison facility. The arrested
group has started an open hunger strike in solidarity with the demands
of the judges and in protest for the continuity of their detention.

Alaa is one of the most active people working to support the
blogosphere in Egypt. Coupled with his wife manal, thier "Bit Bucket",
is the aggregator collecting almost all Egyptian bloggers. He "won the special reporters without borders DW Best of Blogs award in 2005. He is one of the people that the Egyptian blogosphere success and latest wide spreading is indebted to.

Ok, now this just pisses me off :

Three years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled
Saddam Hussein, only one major U.S. building project in Iraq is on
schedule and within budget: the massive new American embassy compound.

The $592 million facility is being built inside
the heavily fortified Green Zone by 900 non-Iraqi foreign workers who
are housed nearby and under the supervision of a Kuwaiti contractor,
according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Construction
materials have been stockpiled to avoid the dangers and delays on
Iraq's roads.

"We are confident the embassy will be completed
according to schedule (by June 2007) and on budget," said Justin
Higgins, a State Department spokesman.

The same cannot be said for major projects
serving Iraqis outside the Green Zone, the Senate report said. Many —
including health clinics, water-treatment facilities and electrical
plants — have had to be scaled back or in some cases eliminated because
of the rising costs of securing worksites and workers.

"No large-scale, U.S.-funded construction program in Iraq has yet met its schedule or budget," the committee report said.

Security is the "No. 1 factor that impedes progress," said Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

Contractors and Army Corps of Engineers
officials "are being shot at or threatened every day," he said. At
least 467 contractors in Iraq have been killed, said Christine Belisle,
a spokeswoman for the special inspector general.

This is how big it's gonna be:

The massive new embassy, being built on the
banks of the Tigris River, is designed to be entirely self-sufficient
and won't be dependent on Iraq's unreliable public utilities.

The 104-acre complex — the size of about 80
football fields — will include two office buildings, one of them
designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a
pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment
plants. The average Baghdad home has electricity only four hours a day,
according to Bowen's office.

The questions, therefore, present themselves :

THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the
Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than
a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build the biggest embassy
on earth?

Irritation grows as residents deprived of airconditioning and running
water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US
embassy they call "George W's palace" rising from the banks of the
Tigris.

In the pavement cafes, people moan that the structure is bigger
than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the
architects' claims that it will be visible from space and cover an area
larger than Vatican City. They are more interested in knowing whether
the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took
it.

Ok, USA, listen closely. This is the kind of shit that PISSES PEOPLE OFF AT YOU. Before building any building that will be the size of 80 football fields, maybe, just maybe, you should restore electricity full time to at least Baghdad. There is no excuse for this. It's been 3 years. I know it's hard protecting the facilities, but this is essential living necessities shit here. You can not keep messing with that and not fixing it. And if you can't fix it, then you shouldn't be able to build this goddamn exercise in ego stroking. Who wants an embassy that can be visible from space anyway? Shit, who cares about that?

If you want this Iraq war thing to succeed, then MORE FIXING and LESS SHOWING OFF! Capice? 

For better or worse, the "Gaza diet" seems to be working. We now have palestinains demonstrating against the Hamas government for refusing to change their politics for the sake of their people.

Around 1,000 people have demonstrated in the

West Bank city of Nablus over the

Palestinian Authority's failure to pay government workers' salaries, an AFP correspondent said.

"Our children are hungry," chanted some in the crowd. "We don't want our children to go hungry for political reasons."

I agree with them, and this is why this whole Gaza diet plan has troubled me, despite my support for it. Hamas needs to change its direction, or get out of office. And honetsly, I am rooting for them not to change their direction. I am rooting for them to be taken out  and brought down by the people. To be a failure. And it's not just cause they are jihady fuckheads. No, it's more selfish than that. It's because they are MB.

Hamas is the palestinain chapter of the MB (the MB-Moussad bastard child actually), which makes it the first MB government in the middle-east, which is why all eyes are on them. The MB always claim that they can govern and govern well if they get into power, and the Hamas government is their first chance to do so. If they succeed, there isn't a person in Egypt who can argue against them not being a legitimate alternative to the regime. And this is why- in my opinion- they must fail. They must fail so badly that the common MB voter would be afraid of an encore of that in Egypt. It's horrible that this is what you have to go through for that to happen, I know, but you chose them. Sorry plaestinian readers, but I care about Egypt more. Just the way it is.

The thing is though, the MB is fighting back. They know that Hamas' failure is their failure, that it wuld be used to discredit them for years to come, and they have never been closer to their dream of an islamic caliphate, so they are using the only weapon they got: Fatwas. Eenter Qaradawi, the one time candidate for MB Morshed who got denied for the fact that he doesn't live in egypt (there are rules for being the Morshed, ya know. More about that later), and his next week "support hamas" Doha meeting .

Islamic scholars are to meet in Doha next week to draw up a fatwa, or
religious edict, obliging the Muslim faithful to help the
internationally isolated Palestinian government headed by Hamas.

Influential cleric Yussef al-Qardawi said the May 10-11 meeting would
help both the Palestinian people and their government, hit hard by US
and EU funding cuts because of the Islamist faction's refusal to
recognize

Israel.

Ulemas (scholars) as well as other Muslim and Palestinian leaders will
"draw up a fatwa on the duty of the ummah (Muslims) and of governments"
toward the Palestinians and the Hamas cabinet, Qardawi told a press
conference Saturday.

The fatwa will refer to financial aid to the Palestinians as well as offering them moral support, Qardawi said.

List of attendees will include:

Exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan
al-Shalah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General
Command leader Ahmed Jibril would also attend, Qardawi said of the
radical Palestinian movements.

Lovely group of people, no?

But, you know, sometimes, I feel that this is just a waste of time. The islamic republic is coming, sooner or later, followed by that great war they all seem to want. I know that. But if it can be postponed for just one month, just one week, hell, one day, by whatever means, it would be- in my own opinion-worth it.

Oh well… 

A nobel prize winner proves his worthiness by devising a simpler and quicker way to manufacture Tamiflu . Now, can we get some of that shit here please? Like, NOW?

You a virgin? Can't get laid in germany (aka total loser)? Need to go to a whore house to lose your virginity? Afraid that the whores will laugh at you ( as if they won't anyway) after you are done due to your lack of inexperience? Well, a german Brothel got you coverd V-boy! They have experts just for you :

A brothel has become the first in Berlin to offer special deals for
virgins with prostitutes trained in the delicate art of catering for
customers who have never had sex, a German newspaper reported Friday.

The
brothel in the red light area of the Kreuzberg district of the city
charges 60 euros for a half an hour of sex and works within the laws of
Germany where prostitution is legal.

"These are men who either
never had sex before or have never been in a brothel before," the
brothel's operator was quoted as saying in Berlin's B.Z. tabloid.

"It's the first house of love in Berlin that specializes in taking care of beginners," wrote the daily on its front page.

Prostitutes are given "sensitivity training" for first-time
clients, who the brothel operator said are not necessarily young but
often 40 or older: "They need to be aware of how much courage it takes
to go to a brothel the first time."

Sensitivity training. LOL. Code for lying "through their teeth". This is just great. I can just see it too: "No, no sweetie. Don't fret over it. Having you last for 30 seconds can really be satisfying for a woman. They just have to be the right 30 seconds. And it really was special. Now if you excuse me, I have another 30 clients to see today." 

 I love this world!

It is not uncommon knowledge that Farooha is one of my favorite bloggers , and anyone who reads her blog can easily tell why. Girl is gutsy. I mean, for a girl who lives in saudi to want to wear this shirt and state it publicly , well, political leanings non-withstanding, just calls for mad respect. You know?

Anyway, make sure to check her out if you haven't had the chance already. Me recommends.

On a totally unrelated note, the war between sane saudi bloggers and the OCSAB blogistanis has reached reuters . Biggie ups for the saudi blogsphere. 

I just live for this shit ! Talk about Faith rewarded!

The syrian regime gets more hilarious by the moment, I swear:

A Syrian military court has issued a summons for a Lebanese
parliamentarian over allegations he urged the United States to invade

Syria as it did

Iraq.

Syrian attorney Hossam al-Deen Habash said Saturday that the
legislator, Walid Jumblatt, will be tried in absentia if he defies the
summons.

Jumblatt has scoffed at the summons, and the United States on Friday condemned it.

[...]

Under judicial agreements signed by Syria and Lebanon, Habash said,
Lebanese judicial authorities have to hand Jumblatt over to Syria.

I am waiting for Hezbollah's reaction, but if recent statements are any indication , they are likely to volunteer to kidnap him themsleves while chanting the  iranian syrian national anthem. 

God bless the syrian government and its cronies, they make the retards at the egyptian government look like geniuses! 

Do people who join scientology become crazy, or is it usually crazy people who join scientology? That is the question, in light of the fact that Janeanne Garofalo seems to be thumping for them now. Hmmm….

I am just heartbroken to find out that Leah Remini is one of them. Fuckin  alein lord Xemu!