The fate of hundreds of Americans who told the State Department they wanted to leave Egypt was unclear as of Thursday night/Friday dawn Cairo time.About 3,000 Americans intended to escape the mounting xenophobia in the Egyptian capital,yet only 2300 have been flown out so far.Some may have gotten out on their own.
Some Americans have been injured,but they are being helped,either in Cairo or in another country they escaped to,a State Department source said.
Not only journalists are being roughed up by President Hosni Mubarak's plainclothes cronies.Foreigners in general fear for their lives.Black-clothed security forces are being seen driving around in armored personnel carriers.These riot squad types had not been evident to this point.
The Egyptian economy relies on foreigners in the form of tourism and foreign direct investment in the country.
The roughing up of journalists is a worrisome sign of a looming large-scale crackdown,CNN's Hala Gorani believes.Dr.Fouad Ajami of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies also fears an Egyptian Tiananmen Square,referring to the notorious Chinese crackdown on dissenters in 1989.Wednesday night we saw the cruelty of the regime.It became a very different story,a fight for Egypt.Mubarak is hunkered down.It became a civil war between the regime and its people,the Lebanese-born son of Iranian Shiites feels.
Nile TV anchor Shahira Amin resigned in protest at the government's heavier hand.She was told to read press releases from the Interior Ministry and focus on pro-Mubarak forces.
All I was thinking about were the peaceful demonstrators making legitimate demands.They've made us all very proud.I just couldn't betray them by being part of the propaganda machine,Ms.Amin said.She had been chastised in the past for making Egypt look bad.Nile TV broadcsts only in French and English,being aimed at Egypt's educated elite.The Egyptian population is 35% illiterate.
Update:The feared crackdown has not in fact materialized as night has fallen on Egypt Friday.The largest crowd of the week is still chanting,waving flags and hearing speeches in Tahrir Square in Cairo,underneath Mubarak hung in effigy,as well as in Alexandria.Sporadic conflict between pro and anti-Mubarak forces did occur,with the pro forces driving the anti back toward the square.On another occasion,a large white van drove insanely into the crowd.Other than that,the mood is being described as cheerful for the moment,but for how long will the army be neutral?The crowds are also being described as self-sustaining,and whether the military can stand being seen as ineffectual forever is a major question.
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