Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Morsi Flees Presidential Palace as Protesters Break Through Police Lines



UPDATE:Here is Morsi’s motorcade departing to chants of “Leave, Leave.”

The second wave of Tahrir Square protests, targeting Morsi, appear to be bigger and more decisive than those targeting Mubarak. Protesters have broken through the barbed wire.  The Presidential Palace has been targeted and defaced with graffiti. But the difference is in the media coverage.
Mr Morsi was forced to leave the palace through a back door as up to 100,000 people moved in to surround it on all sides. Some stones were thrown, one hitting the rear car in the president’s convoy.
Ignoring volleys of tear gas, the protesters burst through first one then a second line of police set in the way to reach the palace, which was the site of the final act in the overthrow of former dictator Hosni Mubarak last year.
Then, as last night, demonstrators chanted: “The people want the downfall of the regime”.
As tear gas swirled overhead, Maryam Samy, 25, a telecommunications engineer, said: “The new constitution has no compromise. They want to apply their own standards of freedom, which is not freedom.
“This constitution is worse than the Mubarak constitution. It was better under the military – we could all rebel against the military but the Brotherhood are using the poor and religion to divide society.”
This would be heady stuff under Mubarak, but the media is covering it only halfway, because it isn’t prepared to oppose Morsi the way that it opposed Mubarak.
Thousands pressed against the palace gates amid thunderous chants of “We won’t leave, he should leave!” Protesters climbed atop the military vehicles that ringed the complex and spray-painted anti-Islamist slogans on the walls.
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are headed toward a decisive showdown and, as before, the role of the US remains important. Obama has refused to condemn Morsi and that sends a message that the Muslim Brotherhood coup has American support.

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