The crowds in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo were again very large on Tuesday, and new networks of people joined in them, showing that the protest movement is expanding. Many newcomers appear to have been impressed by the DreamTv interview with Wael Ghonim (scroll down), which ended with him sobbing over the deaths of some 300 protesters while he was arbitrarily locked up in an Egyptian prison cell. Ghonim is among Egypt’s foremost internet technology specialists. He clearly regrets the killing of some 300 protesters by state security forces in the past two parliamentary contests. but says that those lives lost are a reason for the organizers to continue to demonstrate until victory. The central demand of the protesters is the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.
Demonstrators broke new ground, spilling into arteries around Tahrir Square and taking up positions across from the parliament building. They also advanced toward the building where the cabinet meets.
Meanwhile, newly appointed vice president Omar Suleiman, former head of military intelligence, said that calls for the departure of president Hosni Mubarak were disrespectful, and warned the demonstrators that Egypt could not go on with big rallies every day. Although he affirmed that president Hosni Mubarak had undertaken not to arrest or interfere with the protesters, he said that one possible outcome of continued turmoil would be a military coup. Suleiman seems not to have noticed that Hosni Mubarak is an Air Force marshal, and that key cabinet posts are already filled by military officers.
Suleiman’s attempt to split the opposition by drawing part of it into talks was dealt a blow on Tuesday as the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood said it would decline to be part of any transitional or interim government.
In what might be a demonstration of independence from the regime, the Nilesat satellite television service restored the broadcasts of Aljazeera, which had been banned last week by the government.
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