A very appropriate story to follow our book salon with Micah Sifry on Wikileaks and the Age of Transparency.

There’s torture & document shredding going on in Egypt. I’m shocked, I tell you shocked.

Oh wait, wrong N.African country to be shocked in.

Same officer: if there is a power that got you people together, then there must be a power that can put paper back together.

Out-F*cking-Standing…! Power to the People…! *g*

yeah … I love that line!

Bless you who can read tweets. They seem like complete gibberish to me. Make me dizzy to even look at them in print.

Sunlight on a very sad affair.
And quite a few ‘bureaucrats’, from a variety of nations, running for the hills.

eCahn – read the middle line of each and it tells the story in chronological order … the parts that begin with hashtags (#Egypt, etc) just file the message with others on that topic. The ones with @ at the beginning tell you who is saying it.

Looking at the size of the paper shreds, it should really be not that hard a task…! When I did my comsec shredding and burning, we’d used a much finer shred…! I had time on my hands one day and did a reconstruction of a shredded page…! I was bored…! ;-)

Incredible… wonderful… this is what a real revolution looks like… I don’t know where it’s heading, but these people are doing a real service for their country and the people of the world to shut down these torture chambers and put the “security” forces (the torturers) on the run.

That these torture chambers were used by the U.S. in their rendition program is not surprising, and only highlights how far we have yet to go in this country to bring the war criminals to justice.

Thanks, Siun for the great story, the tweets, and your passion for the cause.

And can I tell you I just love Zeinobia! She is awesome.

Her internet handle comes from this Queen Zenobia. Quite a figure.

RAWK OUT Egyptian activist!

Thanks but that doesn’t help me. For example, here’s the middle line of one

Same army officer: what will you do with shredded paper? Us: reconstruct them. Officer: yeah right.

WTF does that mean & how does it advance the story? Who is army officer? Pasting shredded docs together? Seems labor & time intensive. How would I know that had already been done & trust what tweeter typed? Why should I believe tweeter more generally or some unidentified army officer. And a gagillion other Qs I can’t even think to ask.

If you are not absolutely absorbed into the weeds, I don’t know how you make any sense of tweets.

So they’re shredding docs & someone plans to paste them together again. Fine. But for me, typing that & linking to the tweet if I needed evidence, would be a clearer way to communicate. If you could even verify that it were true and not some random troll spreading misinformation.

I guess technology has finally left me hopelessly behind.

Seconded!

This is going to play out most interestingly in the US media. They’ll try to ignore it but too many folks like us are out there getting our news from Twitter, FDL or AJ English and they won’t be able to keep this quiet for long. It’s going to be the Pentagon Papers squared.

Boy. You don’t need to speak their language to know that the guy in the first video was tortured there. This is good that sunlight is finally falling on their torture chambers. Hopefully, our dark underworld will be next to be exposed and gotten rid of. E.G. public humiliation of Bradley Manning and worse stuff going on where we can’t see it.

…Seems labor & time intensive…

Yes it is, but, I’m sure many grieving relatives will readily avail themselves to the task…! Anything to find out about their missing loved ones, M’dear…! *g*

Indeed. You are doing such outstanding work it deserves an award.

Are any of the documents indicating renditions after January 21, 2009?

WikiLeaks has put back togther docs the Stasi shredded. It can be dine.

Hell, the Iranian revolutionaries hired female carpetmakers to weave back together docs the US embassy shredded.

Being gentle here, that brings me to the point I didn’t make very well or eloquently last night.

If you’re not participating in, or do not have an understand of Social Network type feeds, they necessarily do not have a place in an analysis for predictions you may wish to make.

Seriously you don’t have to actually tweet your own self to use twitter. If you sign up, you can look at the hashtags (things that begin with #.)

All tweets with the same hashtag show up in one spot and VOILA! you can look at a day of development on that hashtag. The good/non-trolly ones have links in them.

This is maybe OT but it is pertinent
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/03/952165/-Anonymous-Will-Avenge-Manning

This stuff is making me glad to be associated with all who only want decency and humanity before power and riches.

I don’t doubt that pasting together shredded docs has been & will continue to be done. But until I see a screen shot of actual physical paper, I don’t see why I should regard a 140 character electronic assertion that it has been done & this is what it says as anything other than unsubstantiated.

And of course, in this day & age of photoshop, even a screen shot would not be reliable.

I guess it’s not tech that’s left me hopelessly behind, but my regard for what constitutes evidence.

Relax your mind, you’re smarter (way) smarter than the average bear and you’ll enjoy what you see although it’s all compact.

Like saying the essence w/o the flowery b/s.

Okey dokey.

I take your message & will not participate in any thread that has tweets in it henceforth.

I’ll second that emotion…! *g*

Thanks very much for this interesting update.

In some way, it ties in with Private Bradley Manning currently being held in Quantico and being tortured by the US govt for *allegedly* leaking USG info to WikiLeaks.

Let all the veils be lifted! Power to the people of Egypt and all around the globe!

*heh* The ever eternal Cynic…! Everything needs to be notarized with the emboss, eh…? ;-)

Your choice.

I found Twitter intensely valuable during the whole Egypt thing, and now for other topics. It’s a matter of just using and understanding it.

What I like about twitter is that people can give you continuous updates as something happens. Of course you do need to select your sources carefully – but once you find a link into the web of trusted activists, you can follow based on who they trust – Mona Seif, Zeinobia, Egyptocracy and more make a very reliable circle of sources for Egypt for example.

Thanks Siun

In peace we fight for our desire
The words im lakesh take on real visceral meaning

The Mayans say: IM LAKESH, which means: I am another you

Hi ET – I don’t think we have any idea what they’ve found yet. All this was just happening overnight and today, no one is sure how much was already shredded and burned – several folks are warning that a lot of the most important documents would have been destoyed first.

Great post Siun, thanks!

As Wisconsites everywhere have learned over the past few weeks, the revolution will most definitely not be televised. Fortunately in the Middle East we have Al Jazeerah English to help us. In Wisconsin, it’s been sketchy livestreams, twitter, and written reporting (much of which has been excellent, nonetheless, having video of the crowds in Madison is really powerful and sorely missed in an era where Charlie Sheen is headline news).

I’ll admit that prior to #wiunion or #wearewi I have never followed a twitter, ah, thread(?) before. I have read, but not entirely understood the little twitter boxes at Emptywheel and DDay’s place, but even this over-the-hill technoclutz is making progress. “RT” means “ReTweet”, right?

At any rate, it is abundantly clear to me that if the public is ever going to find out what the hell is going on in the world, we need to tell each other, because the old media filters are all clogged up.

Thanks for keeping us all up-to-date!

I really hope the shreds are getting to reconstruction experts, Wikileaks definitely wants to help:

@wikileaks: Egyptians: Don’t throw away #AmnDawla shredded paper! We have the world’s best shredder reconstruction team on hand.

yep Phred, RT means “retweet” and it lets you help spread a message or piece of news to your circle of contacts. Think of it as “share” on Facebook but more immediate and I feel more woven into the conversation on a given topic.

Once you read a bit – pick a subject of interest, go to http://www.twitter.com and just put that in the “search” box … from there, it’s just a matter of reading along.

and it will be done …free people with their hands on the documents of their torture. may all the lords give them power and time to free the rest of the world from the grip of men and women who would torture and expose those who delighted in it or rationalized it away in all parts of the world, especially this America
Things are happening so fast in the world

Great news, thanks, Siun!

And specific individuals matter.

SultanAlQassemi’s live translation from Arabic to English of Mubarak’s speeches were outstanding.

Likewise Hamzoz’s coverage of Iraki protests/activities, while his English isn’t the greatest, has just been terrific. He’s almost like a live GorillasGuides man on the ground.

How to reassemble a shredded document.

With a computer. In a typical reconstruction process, technicians feed all the available shreds into a scanner. An automated software program then assigns a unique ID to each piece and analyzes a number of characteristics, including size, color, indentation, and font. Using a matching algorithm, the software then identifies potential neighboring shreds, displaying them onscreen for an operator to confirm.

Think of it as telegraphic-style notes on yellow stickies, being passed around the world.

And bc someone I don’t know from Adam places a yellow sticky, I should regard it as evidence?

Things fall apart. We are watching the US Imperial system disintegrate. I sure hope so, because the next bunch to be put through domestic rendition are going to be people like us.

Yes. Unless you prefer the New York Times.

Here’s a video of a walk through the torture palace, similar to Hossam el-Hamalawy’s photos.
They’ve stormed two more, or are in the process of it.

Looks a bit like the “Country House Collection” from Ethan Allens …

It’s a bit much, considering what happens downstairs. I guess the screams don’t reverberate up through the vents at night.

That’s quite an advantage for the MIC and their army of fake online personas that the Pentagon agenda can be given instant credibility just by taking out one of their fake personas and using Twitter.

I am reminded by what the character, Edmond Dantes, says in Alexander Dumas‘ The Count of Monte Cristo: “God has everything to do with it. He’s everywhere. He sees everything.”

I don’t Tweet, don’t even have a smart phone, but I am hip (or is it hep?). Hey, one night not long ago you went to sleep not knowing there’s such a thing as a ‘blog’, then you wake up and everyone’s all like blogging. Anyway, this Cairo news is staggering. A few thousand years ago, Alexander tried to destroy, to rub out, all the knowledge — literally. Wherever he went he executed the priests who kept that knowledge, he burned the libraries; he in fact made the ancient world before his time disappear. Remnants have survived, so I’ve heard. A few thousand years later Hitler tried to rub out Europe’s lineage to the deep past so his new order could begin and prevail, and there would be no one to prove there was a different past from the Nazi version. What we’re witnessing in Cairo is the reverse and contrary to destruction. For us right now, Twitter is being used to preserve the past for the future in real time. Remember when ‘real time’ was such an odd phrase?

Creepy. It’s out there for all the world to see. It probably seems a lot like god or the hand of fate, since the torturers had absolute power and thought that they were god. Now the finger pointing is going to begin. Oh to be a fly on the wall. I wonder if our criminals are worried about exposure?

Thanks Siun. I appreciate the tip!

I prefer a kind of multi-level, rolling checksum/integrity verification process myself. When I saw the film “Wag The Dog” I didn’t think it was a darn bit funny.

Who else would dress a place up like that?

That decorating style? I don’t know but those Arab kings and Sheiks have gawdy taste. Don’t they even appreciate contemporary? The SS guys probably spend all their creativity developing new types of tortures, not on interior design. :-)

It’s Egypt for dawG’s sake. Why would anyone want to decorate in the colonial symbols of US and European Empire? Or, is that a rhetorical question? I guess we will all find out more soon.

It’s about trusting the source first. If you were following EmptyWheel, bmaz, jeremy scahill, or one of the people suin has listed above you would weigh their tweets much more seriously. You can’t trust someone who leaves comments here either.
It’s not hard to spot disinfo agents, they don’t have a history- few tweets, few followers, or the replies they get are negative.
As far as yellow stickies, I’d describe it more like an rss feed -because you subscribe to others tweets, but they are text message length.

You should sign up and try it out. it’s not a big hurdle to get over. Pick the shortest username, because the length is subtracted from the 144 characters message length.

Thank you, shekissesfrogs. :-)

eCAHNomics@38: I am happy to field tech questions if you like and if you think that would be helpful to you. I believe technology should serve human beings, not the other way around. X:-)

Torture by proxy. Impeachable offense.

A correction on context of above tweets from Egyptocracy. There were TWO simultaneous protests –
occuring at 2 DIFFERENT Amn Dawla State Security complexes
both in the greater Cairo region.

One was at the “6th October City” Amn Dawla State Security complex.
(hashtags #AmnDawla and #October)

The other was at “Naser City” Amn Dawla State Security headquarters.
(hashtags #AmnDawla and #Nasr or #NasrCity)

Protesters in the two locales were reading one another’s tweets as their separate actions were progressing. Occasionally someone would “re-tweet” what someone else had said, so as to rebroadcast the information to someone who might need to know.
“RT” = re-tweet.

The person known as “Egyptocracy” was in the “Nasr City” headquarters.

The person known as “mosaaberizing” was in the “6th October City” complex. You can see that by his #October hashtag. Egyptocracy was simply publically retweeting what mosaaberizing had said to her, so that others could know what was happening over at 6th October City.

Egyptocracy retweeted two of his posts beginning with
RT@mosaaberizing

Egyptocracy retweeted another post of his, beginning with
6thOctober RT@mosaaberizing
This indicates that Egyptocracy handtyped in the words “6thOctober” at beginning of the retweet, for clarification puposes, as he had forgotten to put the October hashtag.

The burning took place at “6th October City” Amn Dawla State Security — the smoke was obvious, which was why the protesters had gone there first, to try to salvage whatever evidence was left, to be used for future trials.

Then some the protesters realized they should go over to Nasr City (which wasn’t that far away), and try to get inside to gather evidence BEFORE anyone started burning it. When they arrived, much was shredded, but there was not a current fire going on. (no way of knowing if items had been inconspicously burned earlier, or totally removed).

There are many Amn Dawla State Security complexes throughout Egypt. There are protesters storming each one.

The one in the city of Alexandria was stormed by protesters on Friday March 4th.

There are many others that have been recently visited by protesters, or where protests are happening right now, or will happen soon.

They are all #AmnDawla, so that makes it confusing to read simultaneous tweet-feeds.

Especially if people re-tweet what someone else already said several hours ago, it takes clear seeking to determine when the first person orginally said it, to find the true timeline.

Furthermore, when inside these complexes, the atmosphere is tense, when facing army, or military police, or regular police, or being in fear of the hated Special Security forces. And of course there is the horrors of the torture chambers, etc, and the urgency of seeking the missing political “detainees”. When inside these areas, people tweet what they can, but it’s hard to remember to put in all the specific hashtags.

How do I know all this? From following the tweets of reputable bloggers who were there in person documenting what they saw, and by following the tweets of others who claimed to be in the same buildings at the same time, and comparing their accounts for verification. When you have hundreds of people tweeting about the same event simultaneously, you can track down who is just spouting rumors and who is reporting objectively.

For more information about the protest at 6th October City complex, you can read Zeinobia’s other post here. This is where she tells the story of the protest at 6th Oct, and then, at the end, she tells of how the protesters are now beginning at Nasr City.
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/03/fall-of-state-security-kingdom-in-egypt_05.html

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This is awesome! Probably been around for decades in certain selected venues. It’s still amazing. I’d had no idea.

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