Some pro-Mubarak "protesters" were caught carrying police identification, and others admitted to being hired by the government to cause unrest.
These police state tactics are nothing new, we have the same kind of shit happen in the US with officers going undercover and throwing rocks, etc at their buddies to instigate the situation.
It's surreal watching another country in flames, when I know this same thing is going to happen here in the not so distant future.
I just hope we can prevent as much unnecessary bloodshed as possible during our transition. Mubarak has quite clearly signed his own death warrant by not stepping down, asshat must want to die, I don't think US politicians would make the same mistake considering they're a bunch of fucking cowards.
I wonder if Mubarak knows those 72 virgins won't be following him down to hell...
Who are the pro-Mubarak demonstrators?
For more than a week, opponents of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak had the upper hand in Cairo, protesting with near impunity in the face of police and an army that did little to stop them.
That all changed on Wednesday.
The morning after Mubarak dramatically announced he would not run for re-election in September, his supporters waded into Tahrir Square by the thousands and suddenly, serious, prolonged violence reigned in central Cairo.
There were immediate suspicions that the pro-Mubarak demonstrators were not simply average citizens standing up for the man who has led Egypt for three decades -- suspicions that proved at least partly founded.
As battles raged between the two sides, some pro-Mubarak protesters were captured by his opponents. Some were terrified to be caught and begged for their lives, screaming that the government had paid them to come out and protest. Others turned out to be carrying what seemed to be police identification, though they were dressed in plain clothes.
Shadi Hamid, a Brookings Institution analyst based in Qatar, told CNN that the use of hired muscle to break up demonstrations "is a longtime regime strategy."
"There are usually a line of thugs outside a protest who are waiting there," he said. "They're dressed in plain clothes, and then they'll usually go and attack the protesters. Egyptians have seen this for quite some time, and that's why they were able to recognize what was going on fairly quickly."
The global rights group Amnesty International said it has documented the use of unsavory forces by Egyptian authorities to disperse political gatherings in election years.
"It looks like much of this violence is being orchestrated by the Egyptian authorities in order to force an end to the anti-government protests, restore their control and cling onto power in the face of unprecedented public demands for them to go," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, the deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
White House warns Egyptian government not to instigate violence among protesters
"It is imperative that the violence we are seeing stop and that the transition that was spoken about last night begin immediately," Gibbs said.
He also warned the Egyptian government to end any involvement if it was sending pro-government demonstrators into the streets to oppose the anti-government protesters who have been there since Jan. 25. Demonstrators have blamed agents of the government for instigating the violence as a pretext for a further crackdown.
"If any of the violence is instigated by the government it should stop immediately," Gibbs said.
Oh fuck off, most of the violence has been instigated by the government or its agents you god damn retard.
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