Carter: Tantawi in denial over "girl in the blue bra"
Issandr El Amrani | Egypt carter scaf 
One of the interesting tidbits in Jimmy Carter's report on Egypt from his recent trip (which I blogged about here) is a revelation that the generals on SCAF tried to convince him that soldiers had been trying to help the now icononoc "girl in the blue bra." I had heard about this last week from people at the meeting, but off the record. As it's now in the report and has been picked up in the Egyptian press, here's a highlight:
I was received with a friendly welcome as I congratulated the military leaders for what seemed to be a successful election, and then asked a number of questions. It seemed that the SCAF had full confidence that there would be accommodation to their demands by the Muslim Brotherhood and their coalition partners as the new government is formed. Instead of the reported 12,000 mostly political prisoners being held for trials in military courts, the Field Marshal stated that there were no more than 3,000, all of whom were guilty of criminal acts and being tried in civilian courts. He stated that the widely promulgated videos showing military attacks on demonstrators and a woman "with the blue brassiere" were all falsified. He said the soldiers were actually helping the woman re-clothe herself with what was provocative attire. I was assured that the emergency law would be lifted before the presidential election, no later than June.
Tantawi and the other generals actually went on at length over how the video had been doctored and that the soldier was actually trying to cover her up and help her, and that the widely viewed video on YouTube was basically a plot against them. They also suggested that the woman was dressed inappropriately under her cloak. You can tell exactly what happened – that she was beaten and stomped upon by the soldiers – in the video. The generals either lied to their teeth, or more probably and more worryingly, actually believe the crap they spew. The real question is, who is feeding them that line?
Reader Comments (7)
If they believe it was doctored, the lying party can only be the "State Security Investigations Service" renamed "Egyptian Homeland Security", probably heavily involved in corruption and has a lot to loose if SCAF goes.
The generals are partially right. The widely viewed video on youtube when first realeased showed abrupt edits and take outs around the moment the woman is disrobed, partially but not entirely cut out was one soldeier admonishing the others and stepping down and covering her up. It is also very strange that the woman had no undergarments beneath a flimsy black cover suggesting soemthing was staged , no real Niqabi would be there, and not dressed in a bra under a flimsy cover on a winter day. Most likely she entered the melay with the phot journalist ready and once assaulted went limp , as she was dragged of course the blue bra is revealed. No way to tell without finding out who she is, was she really an egyptian , or a european in her nike sneakers and low cut jeans ? I also noticed that in real time the phot went viral via the usual twitter cia qatari fronts.
None of the above speculation excuses the criminal beatings the police thugs were handing out to her and others.
I suggest the following, after years of observing the multitude of lying politicians we have here in the States. First you give yourself permission to tell a little lie, to avoid some minor inconvenience; such as "tell him I went out to lunch". Then having just shifted your moral compass a bit toward "deceit is okay in certain situations", you are now ready to tell a bit bigger lie; but still see it as a little lie, because you ignored your moral compass shift. In time you are repeatedly telling huge whoppers, seeing each one as a little lie, since your moral compass has now shifted so close to total depravity you cannot discern the truth about anything, even if you were paid to do so. And from this point on almost everything you say is a fabrication of the reality that happened in front of your face. At this point it would be appropriate to be labelled as a fundamental liar.
Examples of fundamental liars are George Bush jr., Mubarak and his wife and sons, Netanyahu, Tony Blair, and many many others.
@Bilal, it is clear that you do not know Egypt or you would know that many women wear jeans and sneakers here. You are using a laughably outdated (or fundamentalist, or Orientalist) notion of how Egyptian women dress to make your argument.
Bilal - ridiculous.
At this point it would be appropriate to be labelled as a fundamental liar
Gaurdian, Al Arabiya says Tahrir girl was an activist, shown in photo , without Hijab, and was injured to arms and legs, meaning she wasnt unconscious. The video on the Net is poorly edited, and they attempted to conceal the soldiers actions to cover her up, after she was partially disrobed, apparently unintentially as she was dragged while performing conscious civil disobedience going limp (bravely indeed as some criminal soldiers kicked her ). The media know who she is but we dont know her name or nationality.
So contrary to initial news reports, she was not Niqabi , but an activist, and was consciously chosen to be dragged, not beaten unconscious . Nor was she intentially disrobed but infact covered up by one soldier (edited out in most video on the net).
It seems to be a textbook exampel from the recent NATO social media psyop conference:
NATO Joint Senior PSYOP Conference – Consistency in A World of Turmoil
"Researchers are studying the social media aspects of the Arab Spring ...New strategies and operational concepts/techniques need to be developed to allow forces to be in the fight, but not at the fight....This year’s conference is focused on navigating social media and the hosts have gathered a diverse group of speakers from the military, commercial sector, and academia to provide the attendees with a broad range of thought provoking information."