Before noon I had gone to Tahrir Square to see what I could photograph but Tahrir Square was cordoned off by the army and police and no one was permitted to enter; the Cairo Museum was closed.A butterfly flaps its wings in Tunisia and the government of Egypt may fall. Early in the morning of Friday, Jan. 28, 2011, not long after midnight in Cairo, Egypt, Facebook went down and was soon followed by the internet itself. Cell phone service went down too.
The previous day, there had been a general call by anti-President Mubarak groups on social networking sites on the net to leave the places of prayer after noon prayers on Friday, and march in protest on Tahrir Square. I decided I would document the events as they unfolded, knowing that in order to do so I would probably have to dodge secret police and God knows what else. It was history about to unfold there in front of me and I couldn't not document it.
Before noon I had gone to Tahrir Square to see what I could photograph but Tahrir Square was cordoned off by the army and police and no one was permitted to enter; the Cairo Museum was closed.
I went back to the hotel but left again shortly after as I could hear the noises of battle in the streets not far away. I walked up to July 26th St. a block away and there was a stand off in progress between protesters and riot police who were firing tear gas from an armored car parked in front of a line of men with riot shields and black shiny helmets.
The protesters had left the mosques and gathered in impromptu groups all over the city of Cairo to march on Tahrir Square. This particular group attempted to do so and mostly ended up marching in circles as it would turn a corner only to be confronted by yet another line of police a couple of blocks away who would immediately start to fire tear gas if the protesters came even within a block of the police lines. Eventually however they grew close to Talaat Harb Square along Sabri Abu Alam St.
I was cautious at first, mindful that photographing anything like this could find me arrested and in prison in a country not noted for being gentle with journalists reporting what the government didn't want reported.
As the group of several hundred protesters neared Talaat Harb Square not far from Tahrir Square, a pitched battle ensued and I brought out my camera and giant flash and started shooting photos. The protesters were very happy to have me documenting their fight and were friendly and helpful to me when I was tear gassed and welcoming as well. One time as I was sitting down overwhelmed by gas several came up to me with tissue paper, onions, water and voices of concern.
I was gassed about a dozen times, twice so badly I thought I was going to pass out. People were running wildly about on this sunny early afternoon to escape the gas only to reform on a side street and take a run at the police lines once again. The ominous "thump, thump" of tear gas canisters being fired created clouds of gas so thick in the middle of the street that at times the police line couldn't be seen at all. People up on their balconies threw down bottles of water and even food in solidarity with the protesters. As the lines of battle constantly shifted and businesses were still open, every type of person was involved from small children, to women to the elderly and so spectators and protesters were constantly mixing together.
I wanted to do close up work and so concentrated on faces rather than scenes of conflict as those scenes of fighting is something that I was sure would not be in short supply and that there were people better at it than I was. I wanted to show the faces and passion of this revolution. I was not interested in shots of people running, bleeding or fighting.
After having spent a couple of hours with the protesters and with the fight showing no signs of abating, I felt I had pushed my luck far enough and headed back to the hotel, knowing that the safety I had among the protesters would dissipate once I was alone and away from them.
By a weird chance the flow of battle followed me back to the hotel as fast as I walked and there were confrontations around my hotel and in front of it as I went to my room.
I'd been gassed enough for the day and I soon heard that there was a 6 pm curfew in place. I had thought the protesters had failed to reach Tahrir Square but I was wrong.
In the late afternoon the police suddenly and mysteriously melted away. The uniformed police and plain clothes intelligence men that had been guarding the old Jewish Temple on Adly St. next to my hotel 24/7 vanished.
Up on the roof of the 10 story building of my hotel, black smoke from fires could be seen stretching across the cityscape from two places as dusk began to fall and gunfire could be heard from Tahrir Square where a pitched battle seemed to be taking place.
There was a stretch of 3 hours from maybe 7 to 10 pm where the sound of gunfire was virtually non-stop and didn't finally die away til not long after midnight. It sounded as if there had been quite a battle. The first 12 photos in the sequence are from my fight near Talaat Harb Square.
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The next day a curfew was set for 4 pm and supposedly anyone violating it would be shot. Just before 4, I left the hotel to go to Tahrir Square. No police were on the streets and no one paid me any attention really as I walked down Talaat Harb St., past Talaat Harb Square and into Tahrir Square itself.
Whatever fight had taken place the night before had been won by the anti-government protesters and in the square itself there was little sign of any violence that had taken place. However, just outside the square on the other side of the Cairo Museum a large building had black smoke emanating from it and fires could be plainly seen burning through the broken windows; no one was doing anything to manage the fires.
Tanks and armored personnel carriers were arrayed to block the entrances to the square but the soldiers weren't stopping anyone from entering. The tanks and vehicles were covered with protesters and there was a large crowd in the square giving speeches, chanting, wandering about with signs and generally happy and jubilant. I must admit that I was impressed with the courage and resolve it had taken to wrest control of that square from the government.
The nature of the chants and signs would have landed everyone in prison only a few days before and it was a generally festive air. Once again, as on the previous day, people all over the square recognized what I was doing and were more than happy to have me photograph everything and anything. They saw me as a member of the foreign media and wanted their message out there for all to see. Many people continually came up to me during the course of that day and every day expressing something they wanted photographed, heard or just to welcome me.
There was not a single sign of anti-Americanism, Islamic fundamentalism or hostility to be found. All were welcoming and caught up in a spirit of freedom and were seemingly exhilarated at this chance to finally express their pent up frustrations.
I wandered here and there all over the square photographing everything and people continued to come up to me expressing their solidarity with a person they recognized as coming from a free country. This appeared to be an entirely grass roots movement and everyone was represented and it seemed that the vast majority of people didn't even really know one another. Far from being a youth protest later depicted by the media, the leaders congregated here and there appeared to mostly be in their late 20s to early 30s.
The soldiers who were the only signs of authority seemed to be overwhelmed and a little intimidated by the crowds who clambered all over their machinery til not another person could fit on a tank. Some soldiers sheepishly joined the crowd in a reserved manner on top of their tanks as if to say, what else can I do?
I shot til dusk and then headed back through the streets to my hotel. No police were anywhere to be seen. A big helicopter droned around and around the square today and late that night. Later in the evening I heard a strange noise outside from my room. I leaned out the window which is 9 floors up and saw tanks racing one after the other right down Sharif St. towards Tahrir Square.
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Today the curfew was once again set for 4 pm and I left for Tahrir Square about 3. Once again I found a jubilant crowd much the same as the day before. Just as I got there a pair of fighter jets continually buzzed the crowd, sometimes so low that people covered their ears from the noise. There was also a large helicopter with British markings on the side that continually circled the square not only that day but every day to come, sometimes far into the night.
The droning of that helicopter could be heard from my hotel continuously during all the days and nights of the protests as it circled around Tahrir Square in wider or tighter circles that went beyond my hotel at times which is some 5 blocks from Tahrir.
The tanks were still arrayed around the entrances to the square but this time with no people on them. The people told me they felt the soldiers were there to protect them and felt very safe with them.
For me the day was pretty much a repeat of the day before, wandering about the square and photographing what I saw. I tried not to interject myself into the photos and was really interested in a more fine art approach that would be suitable to the history of the occasion since I was very much aware that this was indeed history.
I stayed til dusk and then made my way back to the hotel. Still no police in sight anywhere and this was the night the so-called vigilante groups made their appearance. They were in fact more like neighborhood watch groups that had originally formed spontaneously as first single individuals to direct traffic during the day and now sought to protect their neighborhoods from looting that was taking place around the city since so many businesses were closed and therefore vulnerable. In this spirit, protesters were picking up trash in Tahrir Square that day since it appeared most city services were down.
The internet was still down so I concentrated on organizing my photos to upload to my website when the net came back on line but no one had any idea when that might be. The mood in the city is tense and almost all businesses are closed. Strange to be able to walk down the center of Talaat Harb St. which is normally full of traffic day and night.
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Today the curfew was set earlier, for 3 pm. I left about 2 for Tahrir Square in what had now become a routine. The tanks were still blocking the entrances to the square but otherwise were taking no action. The square had even more people in it though there was just enough room to walk around. The police showed up to direct traffic today but didn't stay even into the late afternoon.
Today the tanks were cordoned off by a human chain of anti-government protesters to help the soldiers remain apart from the crowd. I wanted to photograph the tanks but the protesters who were part of the chain asked me not to but in a very friendly way. I had a long chat with them about tanks and photography in a place called "Liberation" or "Freedom Square" which is what Tahrir means. My point is that soldiers can't just say the magic word "security" as if it is a catch-all explanation; freedom means the freedom to photograph anything if it is in the heart of the city. To me, this was their problem in the first place. Long before the protests it was absolutely forbidden for me to photograph even a traffic cop up close for reasons best know to Egyptians. Since we in the United States are having our own battle over videotaping police officers I didn't press the point too much. It angers me that cops have some kind of special dispensation in this regard that makes absolutely no sense and is never fully explained in a free society like America.
I saw rather more evidence of a religious presence today as blocks of people would form to pray but there still was not a single trace of anti-Western behavior or any unfriendliness towards me. In fact, it was quite the opposite and no one objected to me photographing anything other than the tanks.
As on the previous 2 days it was a festive and jubilant atmosphere with people of all ages in attendance, even bringing their babies and small children as on the other 2 days.
People were grouped on anything that would afford a somewhat higher position and giving speeches all over the place or leading chants. Also as on the previous 2 days there were signs everywhere, almost all being variations saying President Mubarak must go. Other than a couple of shoving matches the air was a happy one and a spirit of freedom from constraint in order to express oneself everywhere evident.
I shot til dusk and then left to make my way up Talaat Harb St. and back to the hotel. No one interfered with me. There was now a checkpoint in Talaat Harb Square just a short distance from Tahrir Square manned by vigilante groups stopping and checking cars only; no one interfered with pedestrians.
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There had been a call last night and today for a million strong march and presence in Tahrir Square. The curfew was in effect once again and I once again ignored it like everyone else and went on my way. There was still no sign of any police anywhere who are usually all over the place on every street corner. As usual, almost no traffic on Talaat Harb and people walked right down the middle of this usually very busy street in the middle of the day. I'd say 97% of businesses were shuttered and closed and this had been so since Sat.
There was a massive crowd in Tahrir Square. I later read that it was estimated at 100,000 to 250,000 people. One thing was for sure: it was far larger than on the previous 3 days and it was very difficult to move around. At one point moving less than one block must have taken me a half an hour as people were packed in like sardines.
Because of this I decided to cut my photography short today - it was just too difficult to move around. For the first time the overflow went out into the streets which approach Tahrir Square where groups here and there were doing their usual thing of chanting, speech-making and marching.
The atmosphere was once again jubilant but this time also triumphant.
Late that night a pre-recorded speech was broadcast on television by President Mubarak where he said he would not seek re-election in the fall but also would not step down until then. The protesters had been demanding all along that he should not only step down but leave the country immediately.
The mood seemed light throughout the day. No violence had occured within Tahrir Square for the 4th day in a row, the protesters entirely unmolested.
One harbinger of things to come was broadcast on the TV news that evening. A small group of pro-Mubarak supporters had made a seemingly innocuous appearence at the Corniche-Al-Nil, next to the Nile River not far from Tahrir Square. They were led by a TV actress and seemed harmless enough. Little did we know.
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This was the day when everything changed. It was a lucky day for me and an unlucky day for the international media who had now descended on Cairo in force.
The lucky part for me was that I had lost interest in photographing yet more speeches and crowds. I felt I would only be repeating myself and I could use a day off after 5 straight days of walking everywhere and photographing.
My decision to not go to Tahrir Square today was helped by the sudden reappearance of the internet around midday. The night before I had prepared a new web page to upload to the server and was almost done. Foolishly or not, I never knew when I might be grabbed by the police and my photos discovered and I wanted them out as soon as possible. Finishing off the web page and uploading it was how I spent the afternoon. Al Jazeera had been shut down and news offices invaded and some arrested so being on my own it was not entirely outside my scope of thinking that someone might ferret me out though it was really only in the back of my mind; that is the mentality of a police state.
I felt the protesters had all but won and it was all over but the shouting. The previous night's speech by President Mubarak had perhaps taken some of the sting out of the protests as maybe some people felt that if they had waited almost 30 years that they could wait 7 more months. Other protesters felt differently, that Mubarak had to go now and so continued to occupy the square in large numbers.
The madness started in the middle of the day at Tahrir Square which I only saw a little later on TV. Groups of pro-Mubarak protesters showed up and rushed the square, amazingly some on camel and horse back from the Pyramids at Giza, whipping people right and left and a pitched battle ensued. This battle soon devolved into rock throwing mostly with several people being killed and hundreds injured.
I had been lucky not to be caught in the middle of that as the pro-Mubarak protesters roughed up and robbed anyone in their reach they thought was a journalist besides the idea of being caught in a hail of baseball sized rock throwing.
Unluckily for me the pro-Mubarak people had a presence in my immediate neighborhood and I was told not to be seen even in front of my hotel that night; my friends guarding the front of the building felt it would threaten them to be seen with me as well as myself.
A very tense night and some of my friends were very down who had been so happy just the day before. The guess was that the pro-Mubarak people had been organized and even paid by the government.
Late that night a standoff occurred in Tahrir Square with the pro-Mubarak people occupying a freeway overpass from which they repeatedly threw molotov cocktails down onto the protesters who were hiding behind barricades - all on live TV. The army was there and did nothing to intervene.
Things looked really bad for the anti-Mubarak protesters as their small pocket of a thousand or so seemed to be surrounded and under siege.
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A bad day for journalists in particular and foreigners in general in Cairo. Scores of journalists and foreigners were robbed, beaten, arrested or detained today as the continued non-presence of the police in any role other than directing traffic during the day and then disappearing in the afternoon left the streets pretty much the same lawless place they had been. The difference today was that plainclothesmen and soldiers were supporting the mobs by taking people into custody after they had been attacked while doing nothing to protect them before that.
I decided to go to Tahrir Square to do some photography and headed off. I only got a couple of blocks from the hotel before being detained at a barrier set up across Talaat Harb street and taken to a nearby temporary army outpost a block away. These people were pro-Mubarak and none too friendly although not rough with me. I insisted a policeman nearby come with me since these people who wanted me to go talk to the soldiers down some side street had no uniforms and I had no idea where I was going or what they wanted.
Being a quick talker and insisting on not being grabbed had its effect and I was allowed to walk freely to this checkpoint. A soldier was quite polite to me and actually said he was sorry and wanted to search my bag. They had some other people in custody and there was an older woman there in a full length black jilbab that is the closest thing to a Madame Defarge from Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities" I ever want to see; she didn't like me at all.
After this soldier named Samir looked at my bag and they made some phone calls he told me I could go. As I turned to leave another soldier grabbed me and said I couldn't go. I pushed him away and said, "Kefaya!" which means enough and left.
It turned out that this seemingly unlucky event was really lucky for me. At about the same time this happened, Talaat Harb Square, which is the place I was heading for before I was stopped, was entirely controlled by a mob of pro-Mubarak supporters out for blood. They were attacking anyone who was a foreigner or journalist, robbing them, and then the police were taking them away. At almost that same time a car with journalists was being attacked and the men robbed in Talaat Harb Square.
Had I made it another 2 blocks to that square I would've been in trouble. I like Egyptians but one thing I don't like about them is that if one gets tough and you stand up to him they immediately swarm about you like ants with no regard for going one on one. A person doesn't stand a chance against that type of mob cowardice.
I stayed in my room the rest of the day. The anti-Mubarak protesters were under siege in Tahrir Square that night still and I felt tomorrow after noon prayers were finished at 12:30, those protesters would either be rescued by fresh support from around the city flowing out of the mosques or that they would be finished.
The United States has been telling all its citizens to leave Egypt immediately and providing evacuation flights which are little more than stuffing people onto commercial jets which bring you to an unknown destination among 4 or 5 in Europe.
That night from my room 9 floors over the street I saw about a dozen young men detained and lying on the ground from my window, held at gunpoint by vigilantes. The mood in the city today and tonight is grim and fear is palpable. My friends who keep vigil at night outside my building are down in the dumps.
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The mood in the city is tense and for the first time there is an air of menace for me as I walk down the streets around the hotel. I went out for food in July 26th St. which is one block in the direction away from Talaat Harb and Tahrir Square. People looked at me funny and in a questioning way. There have been rumors put out that all the troubles are being done by outside foreigners. However I wasn't going to be a prisoner in my own hotel and so I went. Had no problems. There were tanks parked at the end of July 26th St. There had once again been a call for the people to descend on Tahrir Square and this they did.
After Friday prayers were ended there was indeed a march to Tahrir Square and the anti-government protesters once again took over and there was a large crowd there. I wanted to go but the problem for me is that there are multiple checkpoints along Talaat Harb St. held by pro-Mubarak supporters and so going to Tahrir might have been dangerous.
Indeed, the only attack that happened against Tahrir I know about that day came from the very Talaat Harb Square I needed to pass through to get to Tahrir. For me, Talaat Harb Square was enemy ground and a place I didn't want to be.
In any event, the 5 days I shot photos were the important ones for me and I had no strong urge to do anything to repeat myself. I felt I would only go out for more shooting if fights on the street erupted around my own area since braving being beaten and robbed just to photograph more people in Tahrir Square with babies on their shoulders, waving flags and giving speeches would just be more of what I already had. Heard a few short bursts of heavy machine gun fire coming from Tahrir Square late that night.
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For the first time in a week the security team are back in front of the hotel and guarding the Jewish Temple. More businesses were open and more car traffic in evidence than during that whole week as well. The tension had lifted a great deal as I went out for food during the day. The tanks at the end of July 26th were gone. Although at least one news service has said the ATM machines are down they have been operating more or less everyday. I've seen lines at the ones closest to me so some are obviously not working but I haven't had any trouble getting money.
For the first time I gave little heed to what was happening in Tahrir Square. It was the first evening in a week where the team that guarded the Jewish Temple stayed on after dark and also the first time since it began that the vigilantes who have stopped cars on every street corner every night using impromptu barricades have not been around. I read today there have been over 100 attacks on journalists and news offices in Egypt since the mass protests began. One of them was killed by a sniper on his own balcony overlooking Tahrir Square when he was taking pictures. Whoever gave the orders, it is a certainty that journalists have been pointedly targeted in Cairo.
This was posted on a Facebook page about 9:30 this evening: "Talaat Harb and nearby streets: armed thugs searching for foreigners and journalists. They smash their cameras and beat them on sight. They are armed with sticks, knives and handguns." Every day is something new and I have seen the calm before the storm once before. This is my problem. It's fairly safe within Tahrir Square but dangerous to get to from where I am. What will happen tomorrow is anyone's guess.
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Walked to Tahrir Square at mid-afternoon today under a sullen sky with an unusual few drops of rain that darkened the sidewalks through persistence and continued during the afternoon. For the first time I took an oblique route to Tahrir Square down Sharif Bashar St. and then down Qasr Al-Nil St. in order to revisit the scene of the Jan.28 clashes but also to approach Talaat Harb Square without going down Talaat Harb Rd. which I am somewhat leery of. Was in my usual attire of shorts, sandals, t-shirt and white U of Minnesota baseball cap.
Many more businesses are open today than have been since Jan.28 which was the last day to start out normally in terms of traffic and commerce. Auto traffic itself was almost back to normal as well yet there was that proverbial hushed air of expectancy on the street today and you tended to look at everyone twice. Pedestrian traffic was also at the highest point since the 28th and a vision of normalcy belied the events taking place elsewhere in Cairo and the rest of the country.
At Talaat Harb Square which interrupts Talaat Harb Rd. on its way to Tahrir Square, there were checkpoints on both sides. I had avoided the one on my usual Talaat Harb approach side of the square which was good because I am uncertain as to who is manning it compared to the one on the other side of this small circular road plaza with a statue in the center. I was ever mindful of the warning about Talaat Harb Square from the night before and the assaults on foreigners in previous days.
At the checkpoint the road is blocked off and one goes on the sidewalk to have your ID checked. I was reconnoitering and had left my camera bag behind. Your ID is checked 3 more times and then you enter Tahrir Square. The air was happy, tense and exhausted. In light of recent events which can change drastically in a matter of hours, there was an uneasy feeling in the square as if the people couldn't quite believe everything was alright yet. But they were there and defiant. As was the case from Jan.29-Feb.1, the square was filled with people walking, groups giving speeches, people holding signs and with no one group dominating the scene. Piles of rocks to be used at an instant's notice were piled in places and there were a lot of people which pretty much filled the square from end to end yet not packed as on Feb.1.
At the end closer to the Cairo Museum the scene started to take on aspects of a chewed up urban war zone with tanks, soldiers, weary protesters, make shift barricades and some razor wire put up by the army which was new since my last visit a thousand years ago on Feb 1. I only saw one other Westerner and a half dozen photographers from outside Egypt and that was it - different from my other visits although Westerners had never had any but a dotted presence on earlier occasions during the protests in Tahrir Square.
Before and after my visit to Tahrir Square I was approached on that Talaat Harb Rd., still inside the checkpoints, by very conversational young men who wanted to gab and I was suspicious of them and why they were causually asking me questions in a friendly but obvious way which I easily deflected. Such people had not come up to me before. Despite the ID checks the square itself was almost certainly infiltrated by Mubarak supporters but what their purpose was was unknown to me but you could see them giving me the fish-eye and trying unsuccessfully to be casual about it. The government had made it clear by their actions that they were targeting journalists and although I had no camera I was an easy figure to spot this day. It could all have been my imagination - that's the thing about a police state in which people had in the last days been beaten and carted away wholesale. Today inside the square I saw one photographer escorted by two soldiers behind the razor wire for unknown reasons although there were other photographers right in the immediate area. Had he violated some unknown rule?
After walking the length of the square and back I left. I was there to see what was up in general, to see if there were any new scenarios worth photographing and to see how safe it was to get in and out without risking my equipment. I'll probably go back tomorrow. Back at the hotel, the endless droning of that helicopter goes on and on, so ever present as to be just background noise. This is a long way from over and no one is in any position to predict anything. A price has been paid in blood but has it been high enough to finally silence that helicopter and end its dark persistence like that staining rain today?
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For the first time in 10 days the monotonous and ominous droning of the helicopter is gone and would not return this day. Shortly after midday I walked down to Tahrir Square, once again taking an indirect approach and mindful that had I done this last Thur. that instead of being detained, brought to a checkpoint and released, I probably would have been assaulted and robbed by a gang of thugs as I came close to Talaat Harb Square. Things have been in constant flux and what is safe harbor one day is decidely dangerous the next.
The routine was the same, my bag and ID checked a number of times by very polite young men. Inside the square it was much the same as yesterday, crowded but not too bad. On the end near the Cairo Museum the crowds were thin as that was where tanks and armored personnel carriers were out in the open, blocked by protesters who lounged right up against the treads, conversing on rugs and drinking tea.
I sat with them as there was a woman among them who spoke good English and I was curious about what they had to say about all this. We spoke about many things but in the end the one thing that stuck with me was their response when I asked them what hopes and vision they had for the Palestinian Arabs. Unfortunately, from my point of view, they said there would be no two state solution and the woman pointedly said that when they were done with the Egyptian government that they would in turn deal with Israel; they said there would be no Israel and that the Jews could return to Europe or North Africa.
My own feeling was that Egyptians should simply stop thinking of Israel as there has been enough bloodshed and horror in that area of the world and Egypt at least had had peace for almost 4 decades. Later I moved on and talked to a 21 year old medical student who had been in Tahrir Square treating wounded and dying for some days. He showed me a big corrugated metal slab they had set up with 2 blood stained shirts and a jacket of 3 men who'd been killed in the fighting in Tahrir Square; it had a sign on it that said in English, "Clothes Of Martyrs". He further told me that 3 men had been killed and one wounded by snipers which has not been reported in the press other than a fourth death of an Egyptian journalist, killed by a sniper on his own balcony overlooking Tahrir as he was taking photos.
The young medical student told me the same thing as the other protesters had about Israel. Sad really.
The place the young student was in was a makeshift dressage area and he and a few others were wearing white coats and it was empty of any patients. That general area was almost empty of people though none was forbidden to enter and a little further to the north was the place where pro-government men had rained Molotov cocktails down onto protesters from a highway overpass. That overpass now had a couple of tanks on it as well as some few army troops.
I had not gone into this area yesterday because I was without my camera and today had asked a military commander of some sort if I could go in and he said sure but no pictures of tanks. I laughingly said that they were American tanks and that we had plenty of photos of such vehicles and he replied that they are our tanks now. There was a line of men who checked IDs before one entered what can only describe as a no-man's land. Past that line of protesters a felt a touch on my shoulder and there were two stocky men who were friendly enough and one wanted a photo of me with the other he took with his cell phone; I felt it was 50/50 they were cops getting my face on record. Not one person in all this time had wanted such a photo though it is common enough to have it happen in other situations when traveling.
Further north now past the Cairo Museum was razor wire and burnt out cars, busses and trucks with kids sitting in them and men sleeping in them. At the razor wire at the end of this area were a line of protesters simply standing there and facing the soldiers ranged in casual groups on the other side, under the overpass. The protesters looked haggard but defiant. There was a lot at stake here including the future of Egypt and their very lives and they had in a sense gone too far to go back now. The general feeling was that if any of the core group of protesters abandoned Tahrir Square now that they would be scooped up and taken to parts unknown at the government's leisure.
A young man at that front line gave me a small book of 40 hadiths in English and Arabic. Everyone was friendly to me.
I took some photos but really nothing I shot this day was very good. In this area, things were quiet, tense and a bit gloomy. The movement, color, gesture and expression were back at the south end of the square which now had enterprising men selling Egyptian flags for 1 to 2 dollars as well as water, cigarettes and candy. I had enough photos of such things and would have to be happy with the fact that you can't go home again and that the history I had shot those first 5 days would end up being my definitive expression of what had occurred.
As I left the area and passed the Cairo Museum a commander and some soldiers came up to me and asked if I had a press credential. I said no and he said that that was a big problem for me. I shook his hand and asked him his name and he said "Let's just say an Egyptian soldier". He said that his advice to me was to leave the square altogether and I said no problem. As I walked away I had gotten no further than 30 feet when a different officer accompanied by men with assault weapons came up to me from behind. What they wanted was unclear at first and I resolved that they would not take me anywhere without a confrontation. I knew that if I called out to the protesters all around that the soldiers would have no chance. These protesters don't take any guff from the soldiers.
Indeed what happened was that some protesters immediately came up and basically asked what the hell was going on. Since I wanted the officer to be left with a way out rather than be shamed or intimidated I said it's okay and the officer led me slightly to one side. Surprisingly he said that I could take pictures at the more populated end of the square but not to let the other officer see me doing it; whether it was his original intent to say this is unknown but the presence of his team of men suggested otherwise although very little makes sense here when you talk to a soldier - I really was left with no idea whether he'd intended to haul me away or soften the words the other officer had said. I wasn't sure what this all meant as I was getting mixed messages and in the end didn't really care as long as I could go on my way. I felt my time here in the square was over and that I had done what I set out to do which was to record the history without getting robbed, arrested or bloodied and I had been lucky in this regard more than once. I was very happy to have missed the action on Wednesday since it is only in movies where one comes through unscathed and I would have risked a great deal just to have some photos for which I had no financial outlet.
Setting the protesters against the soldiers would have helped me in the short run but then there is always leaving the square and as I made my way back south to the Talaat Harb Rd. entrance I felt eyes on my back and wasn't exactly sure I'd not be stopped once outside the protection of the protesters.
A number of times on the streets leading away from the square I stopped after taking a corner and simply stood and looked back to see if anyone was following me. There were twice 2 men who were definitely the stocky undercover police type who seemed to be pointedly looking after me and one even shouted back the way he had come as I repeatedly placed myself out of his line of vision so that he would have to reveal himself if he looked after me. Eventually both moved on as in the end I simply stood there like a statue in the middle of a side street with my arms folded in front of me.
In such stages I made my way into ever smaller side streets, taking advantage of turning corners and there were fewer and fewer people for me to watch and after awhile I was home free though I felt the greater likelihood was that no one had probably been following me in the first place. I was just being careful. The government had made an announcement regarding letting the press alone but I felt this was nothing more than words. The arrest and detainment of journalists was in fact a very real thing and I had read a story online about the ordeal some New York Times people had gone through being blindfolded, held in a secret place, hand cuffed and listening to the sounds of men being tortured and also seeing other journalist's being treated worse than themselves which their captor had told them they should be appreciative of. I had no wish to be put in a situation where such a scenario would need me to feel a sense of appreciation.
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Didn't do anything today as I finally got an email from one of my agencies asking for some Tahrir Square photos ASAP. Managing image files with all the keywording and captioning involved is time consuming.
The helicopter finally failed to make an appearence. I have not been paying attention if there still is a curfew or not. I went out about 7 pm for food and many of the street lights were out on most of the blocks. Obviously done on purpose but why I don't know.
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After midday I walked once again to Tahrir Square. Felt less spooked than yesterday and went directly down Talaat Harb Road and into the layer of security that funnels people onto the sidewalks two blocks from Tahrir and checks IDs and bags; they are always very friendly and welcoming. However at the last line of security a rather more professional looking man checked my passport and asked if I had ever been to Israel. I said no and as he paged through my passport looking for visas he said, "No? Never?" I felt this was unfortunate to the point of stupidity but it's their revolution so they can run it any way they want.
Headed straight for the scenes that attract all the attention from the photo journalists which is near the Cairo Museum where protesters are still blocking the tanks and armored personnel carriers with their bodies. This is starting to anger the soldiers and when I asked about pictures I was told the soldiers have express orders to not allow photos of the tanks and protesters that are rather more firm than 2 days ago. This is the 13th day of the occupation of the square by the anti-government protesters. They told me that there had been some few minor skirmishes with the soldiers who want to push the protesters into a smaller area but are not succeeding.
Some few photographers have been hauled off and/or had their memory cards erased. One crosses the boundaries in the eyes of the soldiers without being aware of it.
Went back into no-man's land further beyond but didn't shoot anything; the crowd thins out to nothing as one comes close to the razor wire at the north end and there is only a thin line of haggard protesters holding the line here. There are more people in the square than yesterday and the air is defiant, jubilant and it seems as if the protesters and people who come on a rather more casual basis can taste freedom.
Back over where most of the people and fewer soldiers are which is by the Talaat Harb entrance to the square, there are arrayed many large posters on vinyl with the photos of people allegedly killed during the uprising. People constantly came up to me to talk to me, sometimes just saying welcome, sometimes wanting to know what America thinks of this. The most puzzling and consistant question I've been asked over the course of these days is if I like Michael Jackson and they seem a bit crestfallen when I tell them I don't. They have not once asked about another artist, just Michael Jackson.
Laughed and joked with everybody which these people in Tahrir are always willing to do. The crazy rumor going around is that outside agents from Iran or Israel or America are paying the protesters by feeding giving them Kentucky Fried Chicken. I would joke about coming into the square bringing the protesters an armful of KFC boxes. They would say, "No, no, you can't do that!", while laughing like crazy. Whoever I joked with about this immediately knew what I was talking about so it is a potent and odd rumor but one laughed at.
Everywhere you look in the square are masses of people walking about taking pictures with their cell phones and with children on their shoulders or Egyptian flags. Small groups are congregated around speakers or dancing in a circle and singing. Men march to and fro loudly chanting slogans and holding signs or, as on this particular day, a rather new thing occurred where men frolicked under a giant Egyptian flag held above their heads like a tent, marching and then stopping to dance beneath it.
One man with his 10 year old son stopped me and said he was a teacher and spoke passionately about his desire for freedom. While the media in America drones on endlessly about the Muslim Brotherhood and Israel, this is really not about this. Every single person without exception who has come up to me and spoke has spoke about freedom, despite the, to me, disturbing remarks about Israel when I bring it up. But those remarks are an aside, already firmly in place in the Egyptian zeitgeist - Egyptians have a thing about Israel but this uprising is not an expression of that thing, not at all in my opinion. When I tell the people who come up to me I am American they seem to sense a kindred spirit who they view as some kind of an expert or conveyer of freedom and are simply happy I am there as if it is some kind of a confirmation or blessing. That may sound silly but you can feel it and see it in their eyes; these people are profoundly tired of living in a police state and there is absolutely no doubt that many are willing to die for it and that the Egyptian people have discovered a courage and resolve they themselves doubted they had. I have heard them also say they are not surprised but I don't believe it - I think they are taken a bit aback by their own daring and I also think they will not be turned back now.
The new vice-president spoke out yesterday about losing his patience with the protesters and threatening to use police tools to crack down if the protesters do not abandon the square. The protesters are not going to abandon the square and if they are all rounded up the call will once again come out and people will stream from the places of prayer at exactly 12:30 in the afternoon and retake the square. To challenge this is Suleiman's problem as a bloodbath would result.
I was told in confidence by one anti-government protester that there would be movement on this coming Friday to parts unknown. The protesters realize that they cannot simply sit and do nothing. Work strikes and new violence in previously quiet quarters of Egypt shows the resolve of the Egyptian people is becoming expansive and hard set rather than diminishing. The protesters are ardent in their insistence that Mubarak step down immediately and not in 7 months. While this originally split some more casual supporters of the anti-government protests, in this the core movement has not wavered one bit and they say they are in fact past the point of negotiation and only need for the government to meet their demands.
On the city front, Cairo during the day otherwise seems now as almost normal as ever. There is still a curfew I've been told but it has now been pushed back to 8 pm. Even pizza delivery and the KFC's are open though for some reason the McDonald's remain closed. Food delivery isn't as late as usual which in normal times can stretch to 4 am with some restaurants. Cairo at night is a different story but not nearly the empty and lawless scene of a few days ago. There is simply less activity though quite a bit of pedestrians and businesses are closing early.
Didn't go to Tahrir Square today. Tomorrow being Friday I know that whatever occurred it would be a big day. Needed to upload some work to my agency's server in order to try and cash in on the photos while the story was hot and that takes forever. An uneventful day for me but a it progressed the buzz went out in the evening that President Mubarak would give a speech tonight in which he would step down as president. In Tahrir Square they hung a giant sheet to project TV onto a stage so everybody in the square could watch.
There was a delay in getting out the speech and the tension and air of hope could be felt from the square 5 blocks away. I watched the speech on a live feed on my laptop. When it was done my thought was that it had been a declaration of war by Mubarak on the protesters. The people in Tahrir Square itself were aghast. The next day a young medical student told me that 2 people had had heart attacks and the students own hypertension had caused him to get so worked up that he went into convulsions.
Well, "Across Three Fridays" may end up being an appropriate title for this phase of the revolution because it is over.
I walked down Talaat Harb Road to the square through the usual friendly security. This time the last guy asked me if I had ever been to Israel or Jordan as he went through every page of my passport, asking me what the Indian visa was.
The mood in the square was as usual and the activities unchanged and so the day started and went innocuously enough; there was no sense that today would be history and Feb.11 go down in the annals of Egyptian politics as a day to be feted. The difference was that there were a whole lot more people milling about in the no-man's land which reaches almost to the Oct. 6 overpass behind the Cairo Museum where the realm of the protesters is brought up short by razorwire. The soldiers are more antsy than ever about themselves or their tanks being photographed which is fine by me since I have little interest in such photos.
I wandered all around snapping photos differently before because for the first time I was thinking of stock photos I might make some money from and so I used my 80-200 zoom for the first time for much of the day yet switching back to the 28mm with the flash when appropritate.
Also for the first time, a luck instinct it turned out to be, I decided to stay past sunset and try and get some night shots using available light. As it turned out my lens wasn't fast enough at f.2.8 nor my camera capable of going beyone 1600 ASA so my shots at night without a flash were almost all useless. Just as dusk had ended I was deep in the middle of Tahrir Square taking a break from the moving among the massive crowd when a huge road went up virtually similtaneously from all around me. It didn't take words to figure out that Mubarak had stepped down. The crowd erupted in the proverbial paroxym of joy and it went from the usual milling about and speeches and marching to Carnaval in Rio but in spades. the crowd in Tahrir Square had been totally taken by surprise as there had been no indication throught the day that anythign like this would occur.
I was caught up in the crowd who screamed in pure joy, taking pix with there omnipresent cell phones, laughing, singing, blowing horns, dancing, waving flags and I don't know when I've ever seen so many people so happy. There were said to be several hundred thousand people in Tahrir that night. People were hugging the soldiers who tried to keep people from climbing atop the tanks.
I wandered about shooting what I could but I was down to the last of my memory cards and was dog tired with muscles aching from toting around the camera bag and having that Canon 5D and giant flash hanging around my neck for hours. As I made my way to the Talaat Harb entrance to the square it could be seen that tons of people had decided to come to Tahrir Square from the city around us. It was non-stop celebration all the way to the hotel and cars were honking their horns in pure joy once I got back to where they could pass.
I hadn't eaten and was now concerned with getting back and resting and getting some food on the way back. What a day for Egypt - history. The sound of car horns honking lasted far into the night.
Went to Tahrir Square to see what was going on and see what I could take photos of. As I came to Talaat Harb Square the statue in the island at the center was being scrubbed clean of grafitti and a crowd had gathered to watch for some reason. There was only one line of security checking IDs and bags and that disappeared later on, for the last time it turned out. I had stupidly neglected to look at my camera battery and it was near dead but I somehow managed to keep it going by husbanding my shots. I was amazed to see the change that had taken place at the far end of no-man's land. The razor wire and makeshift corrugated metal barricades were already gone. As the the afternoon progressed the smell of soap was everywhere as the ground was being scrubbed clean by hordes of volunteers. They were already scrubbing grafitti off of statues, and like archaeologists recreating a puzzle of Mayan stonework, replacing the paving stones that had been pulled up to use as weapons and even repainting black and white stripes on the curbs. The organization that went into this and the spirit of pitching in was pretty impressive.
As usual in Tahrir Square the joy and happiness were all around and there was still some speeches and some marching but it was mostly a spirit of mission accomplished although apparently some of the protesters wanted to stay but this time they lacked the resolve and therefore numbers to stop the soldiers from taking down the barricades although some few tried. One of the big pasttimes today was to have one's photo taken with a soldier or to put kids on top of the tanks to photograph them. Human chains of volunteers holding hands cordoned off areas so they could be scrubbed clean and this was mostly done from next to the Cairo Museum to the Oct.6 flyover as it was the area most damaged during the fighting and also because there were too many people at the other end in Tahrir Square proper. Automobile traffic was still routed around the square as there were simply too many people who were now used to using Tahrir Square, which in normal times is almost entirely devoted to traffic, as their own personal area to stroll.
Walked down Talaat Harb Road to Tahrir Square in the late afternoon. Once again I just really wanted to see what Tahrir looked like after all the history and trouble there. The statue in Talaat Harb Square was still being scrubbed. For the first times in days there was no security to approach Tahrir Square and although car traffic was allowed it was hamstrung by the hordes of people who still flocked to the square which had become somewhat of a tourist attraction for the locals and that was true even while it was occupied; there was no question of it being so for foreign tourists as they fled Egypt in their thousands during the worst of the troubles on Feb.2-4 and are still gone although I can imagine some young enterprising backpackers perhaps returning right away for some revolutionary tourism; I saw a poll on a newsite that only 25% of Americans would go back to Egypt at this time for a visit. As for the older tourists or families on some kind of package excursion who make up the vast majority of tourism, I think it's safe to say that that is finished for some time.
I was surprised at how many people were still strolling around on the week's first work day as it is Fri. and Sat. that are the weekend here in Egypt, and still congregated in groups here and there waving flags and even marching. It was amusing to watch some young girls trying to paint the white stripes on the road while hundreds of people walked on them or cars rode over them. There was a lot of car traffic as for the first time Tahrir Square was completely open to traffic again but the cars had to compete with people and traffic was slow although it at least had the center of the roads to itself. There were still some tanks and armored personnel carriers in place but even as I came to the end of Talaat Harb Road two APC's left that entrance to the square. All the rest of the APC's and tanks were parked up next to the Cairo Museum and in the area north of there by the Oct.6 flyover. As was the case yesterday putting ones kids on tanks and photographing them was still a big pasttime and the soldiers didn't really object and many had their pictures taken with people.
Overall the air was of one vast party and there were lots of men with their popcorn wagons set up and others selling flags and trinkets. It felt as if people simply came to want to experience the square and be a part of it and one also had the sense that many of these people were here for the first time since the trouble began or who had come from across the city just to be here; there was definitely a feel that these families walking around were more upper middle class out on an excursion, something of an adventure holiday, visiting a battlefield and that is for sure what Tahrir Square was at some points recently. Tahrir Square already has something of the air of a memorial and there is talk of erecting such, perhaps with the names of the people who gave their lives during the uprising. I suspect they should hold off and make way for a few more names as it is my guess that this is not over, not by a long shot. Very near that Oct.6 freeway overpass there is a statue and a small area with some benches. I can see a man with his children 20 years from now telling how he and his fellows fought there behind barricades as gunshots and molotov cocktails were thrown down on them from the freeway as well as sniper fire from tall buildings a block away. As I suggested, that man might yet have more stories to add as the army has yet to end the emergency laws in force for three decades now and which were a large issue with the protesters in terms of their demands.
On my way back up Talaat Harb Road after the sun had set, I finally saw this street as it had been before Jan.28; shoppers were out in force and I saw one sweet shop with a long line in front of the entrance. Electric lights from all the open shops flooded the crowded sidewalks and it was now the most normal I'd seen the city in some time, a city that had come close to descending into total chaos.
Read in an online Egyptian newspaper that more than a few men had been killed by snipers on that first day of my involvement, Jan.28., mostly in Tahrir Square. Looking back, I count myself lucky that I had somehow come through this without a scratch as at least several hundred died and an unknown number arrested continue to be unaccounted for. For myself it was sheer happenstance, dumb luck really, that put me out of harm's way in the worst places at the worst times.