Early morning we knew from news wires and agencies that official sources in Damascus that the Syrian Arab army will put an end to those militant gangs in Bab Amr in Homs today.

This meant one thing a major offensive that would include ground operations in the old quarter that has been isolated from the world since the morning , we do not know anything except for hours now that 20,000 Syrian citizen are trapped there along with 4  Foreign journalists. “ Warning +18 : As well the bodies of Marie Colvin and Rami Ochlik”

The Syrian Arab army tried to storm the quarter from 4 areas and they have failed thank God 1000 times despite it was a ground attack. The Free Syrian army and the resistance in Bab Amr reportedly did a fantastic job in resisting the SAA. The SAA reached to an area called Hakora in Baba Amr and had to pull back because of the resistance in the area.

The FSA has reportedly lost a lot of men and arms especially that it does not own tanks as well their priority is transfer the women and children to safer places.

You must know that it is snowing since afternoon in Homs , despite the weather helped the people of  Bab Amr  , unfortunately the people in city of Homs are suffering the lack of electricity and fuel and you can imagine how they feel right now.

By the way here is a very rare interview for late journalist Anthony Shahid before 2 hours of his murder in Idlib , Syria. 

Anthony Shadid’s last interview

Link :

Bab Amr’s entry in Wikipedia “AR”

First who is Matt ?

He is the guy who dances around the globe in this nice video clip.

Where the hell is Matt ?

You can know more about this inspiring young man from his official website. 

Now Matt is coming next Sunday to Cairo to do his little dance in none other than Tahrir square from 2 PM to 3 PM CLT. At any other thing I would love seeing Matt in Tahrir square but I am afraid that I am concerned about his safety especially now.

Tahrir square is not safe and even the activists and protesters know. In the past two weeks they attempted to clean the square from the thugs sent by the security apparatuses in order to scare people from the square and to give that bad impression about Tahrir square protesters.

This is why I think such event needs to attract more people than those who said that they will attend the event on Facebook. If anything happens to Matt , this will affect our tourism, our image abroad and will damage the Tahrir image in Egypt more than it is damaged image already. We need to restore our square clean for real.

Instead of Tahrir square now ,I think Matt should dance in front of our Pyramids or in Aswan as people there are more friendly and merrier than in Cairo.

Mulham Al Jundi is the young citizen journalist from Homs who managed to get in to the city despite the El Assad forces’ strong siege. Al Jundi gained popularity in the social media as well international mainstream media as most websites now use his photos from Homs “Which I posted here , check 1, 2, 3” as well his live

Mulham El Jundi in Homs

The young SNC member was injured earlier last week in his leg thanks to a bloody El Assad’s sniper on some rooftop. Still he was like the ambassador of the media in Homs.

I was lucky enough to speak with Mulham for couple of minutes online on February 28,2012 after  , here is our short interview.

EC : How are things in Homs today “February 28th,2012” , is the shelling today as strong as in the past 25 days ?

MJ : Things are the same in Bab Amr yet the shelling was less tense in other quarters , the shelling today is concentrated in Bab Amr and Job Al Jandali quarters.

EC : We have seen the photos you took from Homs’ quarters and I notice that

Bullet holes in Riyad El Salahin mosque halls

MJ : There are some people who moved to other quarters while other people left Homs to Damascus. There are some people that took shelter in the mosques

EC: And the mosques themselves are being shelled !!

MJ : This is what we can do now , we can not do more than that , we can try to provide them safety as well shelter in other homes. Some Syrians abroad gave their keys to the people in Homs so the families live there , some people are hosting complete families in their homes thus having two families instead of one because of the shelling.

EC : What about the food and medicine supply to the city ? Is the food smuggled from other governorates as the city is besieged ? The photos you took show field

Field hospital in Karm El Zaytoun

MJ : We buy and bring supplies from other governorates , there are warehouses prepared to keep the food and medicine in case of invasion but the problem is in Baba Amr. We can not get access in to Baba Amr unlike other quarters.I do not know if you heard about the incident where the El Assad troops killed about 60 young men from Bab Amr from two days , we do not know if they had women or elder or children.

EC : Is the Free Syrian army inside Bab Amr ? Are not there any operations outside the quarter in order to lessen the pressure on its people ? “This interview was before the storming of Bab Amr in the past two days”

MJ : The problem we can’t help to lessen the pressure outside Bab Amr because El Assad army got tanks , the Free Syrian army has not got tanks. All what they have from weaponry in Bab Amr is light arms in order to protect the civilians. Now if the El Assad army decides to go in to Bab Amr with tanks , it will be a lost battle for the Free Syrian army. 

EC : Like what happened in Hama in 1982.

MJ :Exactly , El Assad’s army up till now did not storm the city with tanks for a reason beyond me, it is only bombarding the city , may be they do not want losses in the army if there is ground offensive. It depends on bombardment from the university area , from Homs’ castle

“Again this interview took place on February 28,2012”

EC : What about the other quarters , we know that Homs got several quarters and the El Assad forces attack other quarters besides Bab Amr like Karm El Zaitoun and El Khalidiya. In February 2012 the bombardment was focused on 6 quarters only , correct me if I am wrong. Why does the Syrian Arab army focus on these quarters ? Why does it target Bab Amr ?

MJ :In the beginning of the revolution last year there was that personnel problems between big ranked Alawi officers from El Assad army and those big figures from the elder in Bab Amr that are widely respected by the residents , verbal fights took place then those army officers claimed in their report that there are militant gangs , tanks , helicopters and rockets in Bab Amr. That report presented to the commanders of the army made them believe they should wipe that quarter and that why they had to focus on it.

EC : Ok I am going to ask the next question and I am sorry if it is a silly one but unfortunately the Arab and Egyptian media and some Salafist parties in Egypt show the matter as if it were a sectarian issue between the Shiite and Sunni Sects , you are currently in the battlefield , do you see that it is sectarian conflict or the a fight against a dictatorship that uses sectarianism to divide the people. Describe what is really taking place because in the Egyptian parliament there are MPs that consider it a sectarian conflict ?

MJ : For 40 years we are living in Syria , Syria is one of the country with multi-sects , we got Muslims, Salafists, Christians, Alawis , Jews. We do not have sectarian problems , just personal problems. Since the start of the revolution in Daraa and the regime started to use the sectarian game in order to turn the Alawis and the Shiites against the revolution. It used to accuse the Salafists and Muslims at first. From two days I could not go to the field hospitals I used to go because of the bombardment and went for the first time a field hospital near where I am staying. That field hospital is being operated by our brothers from Christians and they welcomed me. They are supporting the revolution and treat the injured. They know that Bashar El Assad uses sectarianism to break down the revolution. Some people understand the whole issue correctly while others are fooled by the media.

EC : Did El Assad troops really destroy the big old clock of El Khalidiya square yesterday ?

MJ : We got this news as you did and we checked from it and it turned to be untrue Thank God.

EC : Ok this is the last thing,  I want you tell your friends that we are not silent in Cairo ,today we had a big march from Cairo University representing the university students holding a very long Syrian flag , the Syrian flag of independence.They went to the Syrian embassy then they headed to the Russian embassy. We are all with you.

MJ : Thank you.

Ok I admit that I am not good in interviews and I know that I should ask Mulham a lot of questions but I felt that I had already asked him a lot of questions indeed on that day. 

Here are the latest photos Mulham El Jundi has uploaded online showing areas in the city of Homs covered in snow. You can notice how deserted they area.

And this is the latest video Mulham recorded from Homs showing a protest in this cold weather , thank God the spirit of those great people is high.

Ahram Arabic Portal published this news last night : A LE 50 billion deal between SCAF and Washington to release the U.S NGOs workers. The small news speaks about a deal behind the sudden release of the U.S NGOs workers that includes immediate financial aid from the Gulf to Egypt !! Oh Yes the Arabian Gulf !!

According to that report based to the statement of anonymous official source to the e-news portal of Egypt’s first official newspaper : Saudi Arabia gives us $3.5 billion  , Qatar gives us $ 4 billion , UAE gives us $ 3 billions , U.S gives $ 1.3 billion as military aids and $ 3.5 billion from IMF as well $ 1 billion from International bank and another 1/5 billion from the African development bank.

Well this is a lot of money compared to the bail the U.S embassy in Cairo paid and considered by many public figures in the country now as a bribe.

Why do the Arab Gulf states need a pressure or rather a permission from Washington to give us aids to release the foreign NGOs workers !? Why do Arab countries specifically KSA , UAE and Qatar interfere in an Egyptian American issue like that ?

It is very insulting to the Arab Gulf states to be part of this deal and wait for a pressure or an order from the US administration to give us financial aids so the government and SCAF would release those NGO workers !! So much for Arab-Arab cooperation indeed ? We needed help for months and it seems that they do not care for us except when the US gives them an order , screw the big slogans of Arab nationalism.

This is why I do not want our Syrian brothers to trust this Gulf support to their revolution , it is not that honest nor sincere. 

The United States only care for its interests but one must wonder What if these employees were guilty ?? Would not this be taking an advantage of a country in an economic need with weak leadership ??

To be honest after reading that news I began to think about these tweeps I read the other day from Blogger and tweep Ahmed Sarhan wrote last weekend about a certain deal and the pressures on Egypt. 

Of course the weak leadership got the biggest share from blame , I do not know how much failure SCAF needs to prove that it is incapable of ruling this country as it should or any president should. Now worldwide SCAF and the Egyptian government look as if they took those foreign NGOs workers hostages for economic aids in a disgusting way. SCAF has not got that bright image in the world for God sake , it is a military junta in the eyes of many especially with the mistakes, crimes and violations that took place last year.

If SCAF was intending to release the U.S NGOs workers from the start in return of an economic deal , why it humiliated the judiciary in Egypt like that ? Why did it allow that propaganda campaign in the media that made from the NGOs workers trial something equivalent to our Egyptian National dignity and then in few days the deal was sealed and the Egyptian National dignity tune was shut up !!? Where did the Egyptian National dignity tune go ?

SCAF pro-Supporters and Egyptian Nationalists are having now an emotional shock in what their new idol has done from betrayal to them. I am not waiting to hear a full transparent explanation for what exactly happened.

I will not speak about the Egyptian army because I know this will not be the first time the Egyptian army is humiliated because of the involvement of its leadership in politics. Hopefully it will be the last time insh Allah.

I will not speak about the Egyptian government because after the statement of the Egyptian iron lady Faiza Abu El Naga that she did not know about the release of the foreign NGOs workers from the media , I know that everybody now is jumping from the ship and putting the blame on SCAF directly and indirectly.

I know some will say that I should shut up and be thankful for the aids we got because of the bad economic situation but me and millions of Egyptians are tired of that trade off for years now.

In another random thought The United States  , Saudi Arabia and Qatar are now united against the El Assad regime.

And Asama El Assad’s father Fawaz El Akhrass has began to clear his image in London claiming that he is horrified with the all the killing in Syria and that his son in law surprising turned to be a dictator.

The Express journalists also began to show the Syrian first lady as a victim somehow , I feel that the next issue they will claim that she is a British and should be evacuated along with her kids from Damascus. 

With my all due respect to everyone Fawaz El Akhrass knew exactly what kind of family his daughter is going to marry from and he did not say no , in fact he knew that his grandchildren will carry the family name of one the most worst dictatorships families in the world and he welcomed it !!

The apple did not fall far from the tree indeed when it comes to Bashar El Assad.

The foreign media is fond by the stories of Middle Eastern crazy dictators’ personal life especially they got juicy tales from Saddam and Qaddafi’s crazy families. Strangely the most crazy member in El Assad family in Syria right now is not Bashar El Assad but rather his brother Maher El Assad !!

The house of El Assad is not that interesting or wild like the house of Saddam and the house of Qaddafi dear tabloid media.

I hope that Daily Express goes after Rafaat El Assad and his son , he got really crazy tales like how he supervised the mass murder of more than 40,000 civilian in Hama in year 1982 yet is enjoying life freely in Europe , how the ladies in his special forces used to eat snakes , how he was the named the prince of assassins and how he turned against  his own brother.

This disgusting video below shows a group of African prisoners from workers according to the one who uploaded it. The African Prisoners are put in animal cages and forces to eat to the animal flags aside from disgusting racial insults.

There is no justification what so ever for this disgusting action. Already some of you know that I have this website dedicated to the Egyptian POWs case and I have followed the POWs in military conflicts for years so this scene makes me shiver !!  It is against all my beliefs as a human , as a Muslim and as an Arab and African. This is against Islam teachings so I do not know what kind of Islamist militias are truly there if they treat their POWs like that !! May God damn who ever did this for real !!

Unfortunately we should not be surprised because the world has kept its eyes shut for months on the treatment of the POWs there. To be honest also of us kept their eyes shut because we believed that this is a revenge from years of oppression and torture but we were wrong , there is no excuse.

Of course this is the most shocking video that emerged this week from Libya , the second shocking video is the attack on the WWII commonwealth Soldiers cemeteries at Benghazi. Two cemeteries were vandalized , one for the Canadian soldiers and the other for the British soldiers , I think the one below is for the British soldiers’ cemetery

This is a discretion of cemeteries and it is clearly prohibited in Islam so I do not know how dare those thugs cheer or feel happy. This is a desecration and if they did not want these cemeteries then they should ask the British and Canadian governments to take their soldiers remains for God sake if they are annoying them. Anyhow the Cemeteries will be restored according to the Commonwealth grave committee.  

Already this did not happen in time of Qaddafi when UK and EU were imposing sanctions , what is going on there !!!?? I know that decades of Qaddafi rule will affect generations and generations but not in that way.

Before you wonder where the NTC government in Libya is from all this , please read this Reuters report. Of course if you have followed what has been taken in Libya for months now and you knew that the armed militias are roaming the country and refuse to enroll in one united army , you will guess that was coming all the way.

Already according to Libyan Facebook pages Tripoli itself is being controlled by some militia from Zentan and you can imagine the comments from Libyans in these pages attacking tribes and areas , very few are calling Libyans for unity and to overcome their differences.

Back to the Libyan army for the past months I have read reports coming from their that the NATO has allegedly destroyed the mortars and the rockets arsenal of the country , I am also reading about problems facing the Libyan air forces. Of course this is aside from tribalism. 

Libya is not ready for federations , this is extremely dangerous and I hope to know what the LAS thinks about this , in fact I wonder what the wise and patriot Libyans think about this.

Unfortunately when I remember it now , some real national security expert in Egypt warned from this. I think the Islamists and all other political powers in Libya have failed so far unfortunately. The legacy of Qaddafi is too deep and unfortunately the Libyan and true Islamic identity can not bring this nation with great potentials.

Those thousands who have been killed in that war for freedom and ending the rule of Qaddafi crazy dynasty did not want this to happen !!

I am thinking now that Libya needs a new leadership that can bring together this nation , someone like Sheikh Omar El Mokhtar who is not resting in his grave for real , yes a leader aside from all that fancy anarchic revolutionary talk. I know people are afraid from another Qaddafi ,well what I see now that some Libyans are replacing Qaddafi by several Qaddafis in their own ways !!

The problem now just like in Iraq this spilt in Libya will make some believe that the rule of Qaddafi was much better despite that what is taking place is the result of his policies whether social or cultural or political or discriminatory just like in Iraq. You got that trade off between dictatorship along with fake stability and freedom associated with unfortunate chaos.

There is no doubt that all the dictatorships in the region including Syria , Algeria and the Gulf States as well will use the Libyan example as a role model on how international intervention and revolutions spilt countries like that. This is why I fear on Syria with all its rich ethnic and religious diversity from a similar fate with the international intervention and the religious extremism of the Free Syrian Army.

I hope that some where in our national security intelligence agencies some group of men are following what is taking place in Libya from changes and are planning for several plans for Egypt’s national security in the future when it comes to our Western neighbor.

Speaking about Libya and Egypt , I think the members of parliament should demand a detail report about the Egyptians missing in the Libyan revolution not to mention we need to know how the Egyptians are doing there with all these clashes.

The National security committee should demand a detailed report about Libya from both the Intelligence and ministry of foreign affairs.

First all I must thank all the readers and their concern after publishing a post about that bridge planned allegedly to connect Egypt and Saudi Arabia through national preserve islands Tiran and Sanafir.

Second thanks to dear friends I found out that the Saudi ministry of transportation seemed to be the last one to know about the bridge plans resurrection !!

The Saudi ministry of transportation said in a statement to Saudi Al Watan newspaper that “There is no any such agreement to the effect between the ministry and any other party concerning the project” and that “ No official from the ministry had made any statement regarding this issue”

Ironically the Egyptian officials did not stop speaking to the press !!

It seems to me that the Egyptian Government whether in time of Sharaf or Ganzoury is trying to persuade the Saudis to build this bridge at the same they are trying to give this false hope Egyptians that this bridge will make us as rich !! Ironically according to those in favor of the project this bridge’s profits will reach $3 billion in 10 years from tolls !! Well in the revolution year 2011 with all the jazz we had we achieve $8.8 billion profits from tourism only and this is a tough year !!!

They want a whole eco-system for $3 billion in 10 years !!

The real development of Sinai will not be achieved by Saudi money as some Bedouins believe in Sinai , the real development of Sinai will be achieved if we bridge for real between Cairo and Sinai and the political authority takes a daring decision and revives President Sadat’s Middle Sinai urban development project which Hassab Allah El Kafrawy supervised its design.

I hope that the Saudi government continues to refuse that ugly project.

Minister of international cooperation/iron lady of Egypt Faiza Abu El Naga has written an Op-Ed in Washington defending herself as well SCAF in front of international community regarding the NGOs trial.

Abu El Naga has been attacked internationally for weeks and she had to fire back. She is still being attacked in foreign and local media. By the way the incident of that former IRI ex-employee who exposed scandals of some unregistered NGO on Dream TV 2 should not be mentioned because I think it is still investigated.

Throughout last week everybody in the government , Muslim brotherhood as well SCAF put the blame on the other but of course the blame is on the SCAF that did not have a real guts to tell the public what really happened to save its dignity.

Amazingly I hear that she is so popular in the ministry of international cooperation as well popular in the diplomatic service !!!

To be honest I am waiting for the memories of this lady.

At 9 AM Cairo Local time today after few houses potential presidential candidates will start registering their candidacy officially at the high presidential elections commission “HPEC” in Heliopolis.

The potential presidential candidates can officially present their papers and register as candidates from 9 AM March 10th, 2012 till 2 PM April 8th ,2012.

This is the first step in the presidential elections , the second step for every candidate is to secure not less 30 MP’s signature or 30,000 PAs “Power of attorney” from eligible voters in 15 governorates. 

The HPEC issued some important rules regarding the campaigns :

• The presidential campaigns’ budget should not exceed LE 10 million in the first stage of the elections and should not exceed LE 2 million in the runoffs.
• Egyptian citizens are allowed to donate to the campaigns only , foreigners are not allowed nor companies or agencies whether Egyptian or foreigner.
• Presidential candidate to deposit their presidential campaigns’ accounts in 3 banks in Egypt chosen by the HPEC
• The electoral silence will be 2 prior the elections which will be held on May 23rd & 24th

My dear friends Bassem Sabry and Hany Rasmy complied this amazing list of all those potential presidential candidates. Of course if we are speaking seriously only 10 potential presidential candidates from that long list are considered the top and serious ones.

The top ten are with no specific order :

• Amr Moussa
• Abdel Moneim Abu El Fatouh
• Hazem Saleh Abu Ismail
• Ahmed Shafik
• Hamdeen Sabhi
• Khaled Ali
• Mansour Hassan
• Mohamed Salim El Awa
• Abu El Ezz El Hariri
• Hisham El Bastiwisi

I will update this post with more details tomorrow insh Allah.