Pogrom In Cairo - Where Was Obama?

Contrary to what we were led to believe - that the US-backed and US-financed Egyptian military would protect the right to peaceful protest - on Wednesday, February 2, in Cairo, the Egyptian military permitted "Mubarak supporters" - who, according to press reports, were clearly organized by the government, and many of whom were police or other government employees - to physically attack peaceful antigovernment protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

The lede paragraph of the main New York Times article summarized what happened:

The Egyptian government struck back at its opponents on Wednesday, unleashing waves of pro-government provocateurs armed with clubs, stones, rocks and knives in and around Tahrir Square in a concerted effort to rout the protesters who have called for an end to President Hosni Mubarak's near-30-year rule.

Crucially, the US-backed and US-financed Egyptian military did not block the violence. The chronology on The Guardian's liveblog from Wednesday shows that the first report of government complicity in the violence at Tahrir Square came almost immediately:

12.19pm: "There is a fight of some kind of going on right in front of me. I'm assuming that it's pro and anti Mubarak supporters," Peter Beaumont reports from Tahrir Square.

The security services are just sitting on their tanks watching, he says. "You can't help feeling that it has all been heavily coordinated," he says. [Emphasis added.] 

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