Egyptian Protesters Storm Police Center in Alexandria

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: NYTimes

The independent Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reports that hundreds of protesters in Alexandria stormed the headquarters of the hated state security police force on Friday night after officers opened fire on demonstrators.

After protesters calling for the force, known as the SS, to be disbanded had surrounded the police building, officers inside tried to disperse the protesters with gunshots, teargas and Molotov cocktails.

Egyptian bloggers reported that the protesters had tried to stop the officers from destroying records but found mounds of shredded documents inside the building.

Read more: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/latest-updates-on-libyas-revolt-and-mideast-protests-7/

[monmouth]

1. Read the header too fast, thought Virginia was being stormed....n/t

[pam4water]

2. The South shall rise again... and storm it self XD

[Turborama]

3. Violent clashes in Alexandria (protesters lay siege to state security HQ as police destroy evidence)

Source: Al Jazeera English

Protesters lay siege to state security building, leading to violent standoff in which police fire on demonstrators.
Last Modified: 05 Mar 2011 03:45 GMT

Around 1,500 protesters have stormed Alexandria's state security headquarters after earlier clashes with police, gaining control of its lower floors and driving police officers to hide in the upper floors of the building, witnesses and protesters told Al Jazeera.

Hundreds of the protesters stormed the building on Friday night, after petrol bombs and gunfire were reported as emanating from within the building.

One witness said demonstrators had smashed pieces of furniture on the ground floor of the building, adding that army troops were guarding the upper floors of the four-storey building.

Ahmed Hatem, a protester on the scene, said the army had told demonstrators that they had orders to arrest the members of the state security agency, but that they would not do so unless they could guarantee that the arrests could be made safely.

Hatem said the army had been "rather co-operative with the demonstrators".

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/201134228359128.html

[Turborama]

4. Pic of industrial scale shredding that's been going on inside the building...

Source: http://yfrog.com/gyjd1kgj

9.57pm GMT - Egypt:

Al-Jazeera now says there are still 1,500 protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the state security in the city – and that earlier shots were fired from the building when protesters stormed the building, until the army intervened.

Tons of documents shredded by #SS officers in #Alex http://yfrog.com/gyjd1kgj via @rawyasadek #Egypt #Jan25
less than a minute ago via Dabr
Mohamed A. Hamama
Cer

On Twitter – via the #alex and #AmnDawla hashtags – there are claims that members of the security police fired on protesters from inside the headquarters – and then the protesters forced their way in.

9.35pm GMT - Egypt:

There are continued reports of protests and some violence around the State Security Investigations Service (Mabahith Amn al-Dawla al-'Ulya) building in Alexandria, with rumours of tons of documents being shredded and burned there by members of the Mubarak regime's security forces.

There's a lot of talk on the subject on the Twitter #alex hashtag – but it's not clear exactly what's going on.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/04/libya-uprising-continues-live-updates#block-3

[Rex]

6. Did they call in an expert like Dick Cheney on how to destroy those documents?

Or is he still searching for a heart?

[Turborama]

9. Funny, the same sort of thought crossed my mind when I saw that.

If you added "White House circa November 5 2008" as a heading it wouldn't be too far from the truth.

[Turborama]

5. Video just posted to YouTube from inside the state security HQ showing the evidence destruction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1jnh8wo49c

10.22pm GMT - Egypt:

Video just posted to YouTube appears to be from inside the state security HQ in Alexandria, showing mounds of shredded documents and some of the protesters who stormed the building.

Al-Jazeera also has an eyewitness to the siege of the state security building in Alexandria:

"People are still there, the state security forces are still inside, surrounded by the army. There's probably hundreds and thousands of people here now, in the building ... (the army) is also saying they have orders to arrest (the state security officers)," but say they can't do so until they are able to take them out of the building safely, the eyewitness says.

The clashes broke out earlier this evening, with the eyewitness reporting seeing Molotov cocktails thrown from the building and ammunition fired.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/04/libya-uprising-continues-live-updates#block-3

[Very_Boring_Name]

7. i've always wondered, can't shredded documents be put back together?

[boppers]

10. Yes, if it's a long shred (as seen in the images).

However, it is fairly resource intensive. You basically scan each shred, and then re-combine the thousands, or millions, of pieces, until you get cohesive documents that a computer can recognize.

Basically, it comes down to the value of the data versus the cost of restoration. Often (and especially in places like Egypt), a bullet or electric interrogation often costs much less.

[onager]

11. The Iranians did exactly that.

After seizing the US Embassy in 1979. They recovered tons of shredded documents and put them back together. Eventually - it took a huge team of workers and years of effort, but they got it done. The now un-shredded documents were handomely bound and made public.

I lived in Alexandria, Egypt from 2005-09, so I'm watching this news. A few times when I was out roaming around in Alex, I would be accosted by nicely-dressed young men who spoke really good English. They usually wanted my opinions on stuff like G.W. Bush and Mubarak. Yeah, right. I always assumed they were from the secret police and said as little as possible.

[Turborama]

8. Witness reports & photo gallery...

11.06pm GMT - Egypt:

Mostafa Mazen has more news from the protests currently going on outside the state security HQ in Alexandria, in a http://twitter.com/#!/mostafamazen">series of tweets (edited here for clarity):

I just got back from SS in #alex, what I saw:

1) smoke coming out of top floors

2) army vehicle from "mante2a shamaleya" calming ppl down and telling them to leave

3) army blocking entrance inside cordon and blocking entrance to bldg

4) sm ppl were already inside bldg, were throwing docs to protesters on the outside

5) military police carrying boxes containing docs out of the bldg, also TVs and a brand new fan!

Mostafa has also posted a http://plixi.com/1456339">set of photos of the crowd outside the building, including http://plixi.com/p/81589786">a smashed police riot van.

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/04/libya-uprising-continues-live-updates#block-3