Vodafone: Egypt forced us to send text messages

LONDON – Egyptian authorities forced Vodafone to broadcast pro-government text messages during the protests that have rocked the country, the U.K.-based mobile company said Thursday.

Micro-blogging site Twitter has been buzzing with screen grabs from Vodafone's Egyptian customers showing text messages sent over the course of the demonstrations against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old regime.

A text message received Sunday by an Associated Press reporter in Egypt appealed to the country's "honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honor." Another urged Egyptians to attend a pro-Mubarak rally in Cairo on Wednesday. The first was marked as coming from "Vodafone." The other was signed: "Egypt Lovers."

In a statement, Vodafone Group PLC said that the messages had been drafted by Egyptian authorities and that it had no power to change them.

"Vodafone Group has protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable," the statement said. "We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator."

The company also said its competitors — including Egypt's Mobinil and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat — were doing the same. Etisalat, known formally as Emirates Telecommunications Corp., declined comment.

Vodafone said the texts had been sent "since the start of the protests," which kicked off more than a week ago. Vodafone did not immediately return an e-mail asking why the company waited nearly 10 days to complain publicly. Its statement was released only after repeated inquiries by the AP.

The company declined to reveal how many such messages it had sent, or whether it was still pumping them out.

Vodafone has already come under fire for its role in the Internet blackout that cut Egypt off from the online world for several days. The company said the order to pull the plug on its Egyptian customers could not be ignored as it was legal under local law.

Vodafone was able to restore its data services on Wednesday — five days after it suspended all services in the country, according to company spokesman Bobby Leach.

The company, however, was still unable to provide mobile phone text message services as of Thursday evening, he said.

Adam Schreck in Kabul contributed to this report.

Mubarak tells ABC his resignation would cause chaos

By the CNN Wire Staff

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday blamed the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood for the violence unfolding in Cairo and said he would like to step down right away, but cannot because he does not want to risk plunging his nation into chaos, ABC News reported.
Mubarak told ABC correspondent Christiane Amanpour that he was troubled by the bloody clashes that broke out Wednesday in Tahrir Square, the center of anti-government demonstrations.
As the United States and other countries condemned increasing attacks on journalists and diplomats, Mubarak rejected the notion that government instigated the violence, instead blaming the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist umbrella group that is banned in Egypt.
"I don't care what people say about me," Mubarak told ABC. "Right now I care about my country, I care about Egypt."I was very unhappy about yesterday. I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other," he said in the interview, which was conducted at the heavily guarded presidential palace where the embattled leader has been staying with his family.


Mubarak told ABC that U.S. President Barack Obama is a very good man but bristled at the notion of an ally's interference in internal problems. He said he told Obama: "You don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now."


Obama has said he told Mubarak a transition must take place, and it "must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now."


Mubarak said he never intended to seek re-election. Nor did he intend his son, Gamal, who was believed to be groomed as Mubarak's successor, to seek the post. He made the comment to Amanpour in his son's presence.\


Vice President Omar Suleiman, tapped as Mubarak's vice president last Saturday, publicly announced Thursday that Gamal Mubarak will not stand in September elections.


Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for three decades, announced his decision to not run again last week. But that concession has not been enough for tens of thousands of protesters demanding immediate change.


His regime moved Thursday to quell the deadly revolt, telling protesters their demands had been met and cracking down on journalists and human rights activists bearing witness to the crisis.


All day long, Mubarak's supporters and foes clashed again to retain control of Tahrir Square, the central city plaza that has become the symbol of the 10-day Egyptian uprising. Many looked like medieval warriors, toting handcrafted shields while throwing stones and other objects.


Top government leaders vowed to hold accountable perpetrators of the bloodshed and told protesters to return home."I want to thank the youth for all you have done," Suleiman said on state-run Nile TV. "You are the lights that have ignited reform in this period. Please give the (government a) chance to play its role. All of your demands have been met."


Mubarak supporters, some believed to be paid government thugs, converged with anti-government crowds Wednesday in a confrontation that quickly evolved into continuing mayhem in Tahrir Square. At least eight people were killed and 836 injured, including 200 wounded within one hour Thursday morning, according to the health ministry.


Journalists covering the crisis also became targets -- beaten, bloodied, harassed and detained by men, most all in some way aligned with Mubarak.Numerous news outlets -- including the BBC, ABC News, the Washington Post and CNN -- reported members of their staffs had either been attacked or arrested. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also reported that staffers were detained.
In several cases, news personnel were accused of being "foreign spies," seized, whisked away, and often assaulted.


"The Egyptian government is employing a strategy of eliminating witnesses to their actions," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists."The government has resorted to blanket censorship, intimidation, and today a series of deliberate attacks on journalists carried out by pro-government mobs," he said. "The situation is frightening not only because our colleagues are suffering abuse but because when the press is kept from reporting, we lose an independent source of crucial information."


The U.S. State Department publicly condemned the crackdown on journalists, and officials told CNN they have received reports that Egypt's Interior Ministry was involved.


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called such attacks "a violation of international norms that guarantee freedom of the press, and it is unacceptable in any circumstances."


Increasingly concerned about the potential for further violence, Clinton called on the government, political parties and others to immediately begin talks "on a peaceful and orderly transition."


The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain also urged a "rapid and peaceful transition," and the European Union foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, called on Mubarak to act "as quickly as possible."


Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq apologized repeatedly for the violence. He blamed infiltrators and a "complete disappearance" of police for the human toll in the "catastrophe."


"This group got in and some clashes happened," Shafiq said, adding that he would look into whether the violence was part of an organized attempt to disband the opposition.


Suleiman said Thursday that unrest has done massive economic damage to the country."Unfortunately, the economic losses every day, I cannot estimate but it's going to have a huge impact in the future," he said. "Continuing with this strike is continuing with the paralysis of the state."A million tourists have left Egypt in the past three days, Suleiman said.


The government froze the bank accounts of former leaders and imposed a travel ban that restricts them from exiting the country, state-run television said. The travel ban will remain in effect "until national security is restored and the authorities and monitoring bodies have undergone their investigations," Nile TV said.


Among the leaders facing the punitive measures is Habib Adli, former minister of the interior, which oversees Egypt's police forces.Earlier, the sound of sustained gunfire echoed through central Cairo. The military maneuvered to separate the two sides but in the afternoon, in parts of the square, the soldiers were nowhere to be seen.Shafiq appealed to his compatriots, especially Egypt's youth, to show patience as the government's leadership goes through the transitional period.


"It has great meaning not to hurt each other, hurt our reputation," he said. "Do they want what happened in Tunisia to happen here?" Shafiq said, referring to the revolt in Tunisia that led to the ouster of the nation's longtime strongman in January and served as inspiration for other nations in the region that have seen similar demonstrations.


Shafiq said he and Suleiman were meeting with the opposition -- including protesters in Tahrir Square. He said no one would be excluded from the national dialogue, including the Muslim Brotherhood.But spokesman Essam El-Erian said the Muslim Brotherhood will not participate in talks with the regime."We refuse to sit with him," El-Erian said Thursday, referring to Suleiman.


Other key opposition groups have also rejected meeting invitations, including the secular liberal Wafd Party and the Al-Ghad party, led by former presidential candidate Ayman Nour.


In the nation's second-largest city of Alexandria, some signs of normality could be seen Thursday as trams returned to the streets for the first time in days.


A group of fishermen said they wanted life to get back to normal, and one Mubarak supporter said the protests in Cairo were humiliating.

Who are the pro-Mubarak demonstrators?

By the CNN Wire Staff

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- For more than a week, opponents of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak had the upper hand in Cairo, protesting with near impunity in the face of police and an army that did little to stop them.
That all changed on Wednesday.
The morning after Mubarak dramatically announced he would not run for re-election in September, his supporters waded into Tahrir Square by the thousands and suddenly, serious, prolonged violence reigned in central Cairo.


There were immediate suspicions that the pro-Mubarak demonstrators were not simply average citizens standing up for the man who has led Egypt for three decades -- suspicions that proved at least partly founded.


As battles raged between the two sides, some pro-Mubarak protesters were captured by his opponents. Some were terrified to be caught and begged for their lives, screaming that the government had paid them to come out and protest. Others turned out to be carrying what seemed to be police identification, though they were dressed in plain clothes.


Shadi Hamid, a Brookings Institution analyst based in Qatar, told CNN that the use of hired muscle to break up demonstrations "is a longtime regime strategy."


"There are usually a line of thugs outside a protest who are waiting there," he said. "They're dressed in plain clothes, and then they'll usually go and attack the protesters. Egyptians have seen this for quite some time, and that's why they were able to recognize what was going on fairly quickly."


The global rights group Amnesty International said it has documented the use of unsavory forces by Egyptian authorities to disperse political gatherings in election years.


"It looks like much of this violence is being orchestrated by the Egyptian authorities in order to force an end to the anti-government protests, restore their control and cling onto power in the face of unprecedented public demands for them to go," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, the deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.\


An Interior Ministry spokesman denied on state-run television that police identification cards had been confiscated from demonstrators. He said if they had been, they were were stolen or fake. But state television reporting Wednesday did not always match CNN's own observations of what was happening in Tahrir Square.


Several CNN journalists heard from pro-Mubarak demonstrators that they worked for the government. Staff from the national petrochemical company said they had been ordered to come and protest.


Amnesty International researchers said witnesses told them of "lorry loads" of pro-Mubarak supporters leaving Wednesday morning from Mahalla, north of Cairo.


"These (pro-Mubarak) protests were organized by the government and the ruling National Democratic Party," analyst Kamal Zakher told CNN. The government mustered government workers and lawmakers whose seats are threatened, he said.


"They were ordered to go out today. They are well organized and that is suspicious -- especially the use of camels and horses. These are abnormal techniques to demonstrate," he said, referring to the shocking charge of about 50 or 60 mounted men through Tahrir in the middle of the afternoon.


And Emad Shahin, a Mideast analyst at the University of Notre Dame, said "reliable contacts in Egypt" told him the counter-protesters were organized "by Mubarak himself," with the aid of businessmen who support him.


"The whole objective is actually to give the impression that there is still support for Mubarak and to force the demonstrators out of Tahrir Square," Shahin said. He said the embattled president "is presenting a very difficult choice before the Egyptian people -- either liberty or security -- and he is hoping that they will choose security at the expense of liberty."


In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed concerns about the outbreak of violence."The president and this administration strongly condemn the outrageous and deplorable violence that's taking place on the streets of Cairo," Gibbs said."Obviously, if any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately," Gibbs added.


State television called the pro-Mubarak demonstrators tourism workers. At least some Egyptians working in the tourism industry are known to be genuinely upset at the anti-Mubarak demonstrators, accusing them of hurting their business by bringing instability.


Zakher also said it was suspicious that security forces did not intervene to break up the violence."There were no police or military to separate the two crowds at the beginning and that's also suspicious enough to implicate the security agencies," Zakher said.


Journalist and protestor Reham Saeed told CNN she saw men with police uniforms go into hotels on the way to Tahrir Square and then come out wearing civilian clothes, joining the pro-Mubarak protesters. She called that an act of "betrayal."


State TV interviewed several people at the demonstration who said they backed the president because he had provided stability and independence.


"For 30 years, we lived in peace. President Mubarak kept us safe and secure for 30 years instead of being a country that takes orders from external forces just like (U.S. President Barack) Obama now wants," Iman Abu Futuh, a pro-Mubarak demonstrator, said on Nile TV. "They want us to be another Iraq and this will not happen."


Another man said, "I didn't cry when my father died. I cried when Mubarak spoke yesterday. I grew up watching him, seeing him, having him as my leader and the great president of this nation."


And a female demonstrator said: "Mubarak is our father. No one can insult and ridicule their elders. If we do that, we belittle ourselves. This is how we destroy our country."