An ominous portent of things to come here in the US and throughout the world as the West’s emerging global “empire” flexes its’ muscles to stifle dissent, news that the Egyptian military has tortured and disappeared lawyers and other peaceful protesters has surfaced, according to reports from Britain’s Guardian.
Detainees said they have “suffered extensive beatings and other abuses at the hands of the military in what appears to be an organized campaign of intimidation,” the Guardian reports. Electric shock has also been used, says some of those who have been released and who gave graphic accounts of physical abuse by soldiers who accused them of acting for foreign powers, including Hamas and Israel. The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities is being used as a makeshift detention area, likely because it sits on the edge of Tahrir Square, released detainees told the Guardian.
Prime targets for detention have been human rights activists, lawyers and journalists. Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo, said hundreds, and possibly thousands, of ordinary people had “disappeared” into military custody across the country for no more than carrying a political flyer, attending the demonstrations or even the way they look. Many were still missing.