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Video Believed to show Ghonim arrest.
The video comes from a demonstration of journalists in Cairo. At minute 1:04 as the secret police arrive and seize a man believed to be Wael Ghonim and take him away. While there is not yet confirmation that this is Wael, it looks like him – and is quite an example of how the security forces under Mubarak operate.
Ghonim is the head of marketing for Google in the Middle East and North Africa and has been missing since the date this footage was shot by Sky News (UK).
Global Voices provides a timeline:
On Twitter, friends express concerns for Egyptian blogger and Google Middle East staffer Wael Ghonim, who has been missing since Thursday. Ghonim, who studied in Cairo and is now Head of Marketing at Google’s UAE office, had tweeted his intent to be at the January 25 protests:
Despite all the warnings I got from my relative and friends, I’ll be there on #Jan25 protests. Anyone going to be in Gam’et Dewal protest?
Ghonim, who spoke at a recent Al Jazeera forum on Internet freedom, tweeted throughout the demonstrations on January 25. On the 26th, following the ban on Twitter, he expressed anger at the censors in a tweet that would become a “top tweet”:
A government that is scared from #Facebook and #Twitter should govern a city in Farmville but not a country like #Egypt #Jan25
On the 27th, he asked followers to pray for Egypt, noting his own fear for the day’s events. Since then, his Twitter feed has been silent.
The LA Times reported two days ago that the April 6 protesters have appointed Ghonim one of their spokespeople:
There is widespread speculation that Ghonim, who is Google’s head of marketing in the Middle East and North Africa, is being held by Mubarak’s government, though the government hasn’t confirmed holding him.
On Thursday, a leader of the 6th of April opposition group told CBS reporter Khaled Wassef that the protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square had elected Ghonim the group’s spokesman. Tahir Square has been the scene of violent protests recently, with pro-Mubarak supporters having attacked thousands of anti-government demonstrators.
According to CBS, the 6th of April group told Wassef that if the government leaders want to talk to the group they need to talk to Ghonim.
There are reports circulating on twitter that he is in custody but due to be released soon.
Here’s another version of the video showing just the arrest portion. The arrest
Remember that Ghonim is one of untold numbers who have been seized and are being held and likely tortured by the Mubarak regime.
39 Comments
This tragedy occurred shortly after Google had just announced…
Google launches Twitter workaround for Egypt…
Conspiracy, eh…?
Thanks for the update Siun. It is encouraging to hear that he is believed to still be alive. Lets hope he is released soon! Along with all the other protesters being held…
Btw, Siun… Are you home safe and sound in Chi-town…?
I wouldn’t put it past Mubarak and his police state.
Just chilling
get this on twitter and your FB pages…
Btw, the service is still available…
What’s stunning to me in this video is that this is such a clear view of what has been happening in Egypt for years under Mubarak. We see this because of the uprising, because a reporter was there – covering Egyptian reporters who were jailed during that protest, we see it because Ghonim is a Google Exec but this has been happening for years to so many.
jesus
Way too many, for way too long…! 8-(
Indeed. Those who believe the revolutionaries will accept someone like Suleiman long-term (not just as a way to grease the skids for Mubarak’s immediate departure) should think about how deep this goes.
Just a little reminder: I lived through this week here in Denver.
And what we got at the end, was notBush, and notwhatwewanted either.
Maybe so… Hence the assassination attempt…!
Mahalo, Kelly, for your efforts…! *g*
This is disturbing on so many levels. I am getting overwhelmed by the brutality that has been the dirty little secret unveiled by thousands of brave souls willing to put their very lives on the line in order to get our corrupt press to do their fucking jobs!
The particularly chilling part is that they knew exactly who they were picking up.
They had to have been tailing him or monitoring his cell phone in order to pick him out of a crowd like that.
Clusterstock posted a chart of the day, showing Google’s demand for Al Jazeera and Faux Spew…! AJ was smoking hot and Faux Spew’s was flat lined…! ;-)
OT– A possible item of interest for folks in the MICHIGAN group.
Well, my point is that I think our “democratic and orderly” process” doesn’t look a whole hell of a lot different from Egypt.
It was quite the Security State here, then. Gitmo on the Platte was about a mile north of my home.
And while there was no scheduled vote at this time in Egypt, the Egyptians are getting the same treatment we got in Denver, with some “enhancements” since Egypt’s NDP doesn’t even have to pretend.
Bottom line; wherever there is legitimate people’s protest, there is riot gear. Funny that.
Egypt’s social unrest being party due (besides the obvious: its oppressive autocratic ruler) to the skyrocketing prices of wheat reminds me of Mexico’s corn crisis due to NAFTA; Wall Street corporate greed being the common link: http://www.economicrefugee.net/did-wall-street-have-a-hand-in-egypts-unrest/
I’ll only post this once to you Kelly:
http://tomthumbsgallery.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/dissent-the-gift-of-civil-disobedience/
Apologies to Siun and Egyptians everywhere. Someday we will rise up and restore Americans to dignity.
Ellen Brown has a post at TruthOut on the artificial manipulation of food prices through gambling on futures and its impact on the price of staples for the world’s poorest peoples.
You don’t have to convince/tell me. I lived it. The Black Mariah’s rumbling through my neighborhood, and so forth.
Maybe Obama can put in a good word for him with his boy Suleiman. And the Clintons are bff’s with the Mubaraks too–”No A-list parties at the Hamptons for you, Hosni”!
truth out has this little bit:
“In exchange, we willfully paid little or no heed to the Egyptian dictatorship’s abuse of human rights, despite its role in radicalizing such terrorists as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s operational and strategic commander. In fact, our strategy of rendition in the wake of 9/11 – sending terror suspects to other countries for interrogation – took advantage of Egypt’s torture cells. As Jane Mayer writes in her book, The Dark Side, and on The New Yorker magazine’s “News Desk” blog, Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s new vice president and the former head of the country’s general intelligence service, was “the CIA’s point man in Egypt for renditions.” Former US Ambassador to Egypt Edward S. Walker, Jr., described Suleiman as “very bright, very realistic” and “not squeamish.”
One of those whose rendition Suleiman helped oversee was al-Qaeda suspect Ibn Sheik al-Libi, who told the CIA, according to a bipartisan report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, that he was locked in a tiny cage for more than three days, then beaten because, at the behest of the United States, the Egyptians wanted him to say that Saddam Hussein was going to give al-Qaeda chemical and biological weapons. “They were killing me,” he told journalists Michael Isikoff and David Corn. “I had to tell them something,” and so his coerced confession wound up in Colin Powell’s now notorious address before the United Nations in February 2003, justifying war against Iraq.”
It is amazing to me that Siun and FDL have this information while our ersazt President and Secretary of State have only words of concern for the treatment of journalists and not opposition leaders. You would think that if Obama wanted democratic process, he would insist on the safety of opposition leaders in Egypt! E,G.. Wael Ghonim, 6th of April group’s representative.
Stick around… We’re just getting warmed up…! ;-)
I read that a couple of hours ago. Max Keiser linked it on his website. She is spot on.
I saw an item at the LA Times that they’re going to start requiring people trading in (at least some) commodities to actually have the stuff, rather than speculating.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/02/cotton-exchange-commodities-ice-limits-.html
*heh* Sounds like the real ‘Hand’ of the Marketplace is exerting itself once again…! ;-)
So Obama’s “transition” would be all about oh so slowly baby-stepping back from this kind of bone-curdling Disappearance?
The problem with the Egyptian uprising from an American perpective: it’s taking too long. Attention spans are short. Is Mubarak out? Did they kill him? What? More people will probably care about Lindsay Lohan’s felony charge about stealing a necklace on Monday. Or Super Bowl chatter. Or whatever. It’s taking too long….
[This is not a point of view I endorse, it's just the way 24/7 media work. Where's Justin Bieber?]
Are you people just discovering despotism?
That’s odd, because it is the most common and most stable form of government.
Are you a paid troll?
Are you a troll-for-pay?
This is not a video of Wael’s arrest, according to a friend of his that I work with. Unfortunately his whereabouts are still unknown.
According to Google: “He has not been seen since late Thursday evening in central Cairo.” you can call +44 20 7031 3008 or e-mail infoaboutwael@google.com if you have any information.
The attention being paid to those arrested by the organizers of this resistance draws a sharp contrast to the manner in which they have been attacked. The resisters are a community, and they are concerned about every member of that community. So long as that continues, they will prevail and the community will thrive and grow.
CNN is now reporting that the PM of Egypt has announced that Wael will be released tomorrow at 4pm.
One small step in the right direction.