Over the last few days protests have been growing in Egypt in response to the continuing control of the government by Mubarak era military forces.

Only eight days away from parliamentary elections which activists believe are being subverted by the military to protect their continued control, activists are back in Tahrir, Alexandria and Suez demanding democratic control of the Egyptian government.

While we hear that Secretary of State Clinton is heading to Egypt and will meet with Libyan opposition leaders and Obama and his advisors consider how to respond to Gadaffi’s massacres, we’ve seen no support for the legitimate demands of people in Bahrain and Iraq. Now with people in the streets of Saudi Arabia, it’s likely that silence will only deepen.

Rumors of an unplanned visit by American officials to meet with the Army over these document exposures circulated all Sunday on Twitter but the seizures by the activists may have come too late.

Twitter has been the site of an amazing narrative today as Egyptian activists, following the lead of their brothers and sisters in Alexandria yesterday, broke into the AmrDawla security police center and uncovered the secret files and torture devices. As WikiLeaks has been mentioning on twitter, these same torture chambers have been used for prisoners transferred in the US rendition programs as well as on Egyptian dissidents.

Under this Junta, we’re now hearing of a return to abuses that raise questions about how much harder the Egyptian people will have to fight to get the country they dream of.

As I was scanning the news from the uprising today, CNN was playing Ben Wedeman’s report from Benghazi, Libya and at one point they show the masses and masses gathered a few days ago, all chanting ” Al Sha’ab u’reed isghat al nizam (the people demand the end of the regime).” Wedeman says he does [...]

On Friday demonstrators returned to Tahrir Square and the Parliament Building in Cairo to mark their recent victory and demand more immediate changes including the dismissal of Prime Minister Shafiq, and demanding the release of political prisoners and prosecution of those responsible for killing and torturing protesters. As evening fell, army officers arrived, attacked the protesters at the Parliament and insisted the one in Tahrir clear the area – there are unconfirmed reports that they were threatened with death if they did not disperse.

Amid reports of at least 250 protesters killed today alone, scores of Libyan diplomats resigning and trying to distance themselves from Gaddafi and news that the airspace over Tripoli has been closed, making evacuations impossible, there are reports that Gaddafi is going to address the nation shortly – or possibly hold an interview according to [...]

There are multiple reports of fighter jets firing on protesters in Tripoli as well as continued reports of live fire in the capital city. The Guardian includes a report of naval bombardment, as well.

Washington’s response to the massacre and uprising in Libya is to add new twitter feeds. Activists in Libya have apparently taken over Benghazi and are not in the streets of Tripoli.