Forty minutes after the start of the official curfew — 4 pm — tens of thousands of Egyptians are gathering in Cairo’s  Liberation Square, while the army — which, according to this eyewitness account, has a rather sparse presence — is simply standing by. One tank commander said the tanks in the streets are not equipped with shells: only small arms. The tanks are spray-painted with anti-Mubarak slogans, while the conscripts mingle freely with the protesters, who embrace them.  A sea of people chanting, holding banners aloft, has taken possession of the square, with more streaming in constantly. Fear is banished: the government’s pronouncements are irrelevent. The dreaded “anarchy” has taken hold — and the world is a better place.
There are reports that protesters have overrun police stations all around the country, with the security forces — Mubarak’s dreaded secret police — have “melted away,” in the words of an Al Jazeera reporter. There are also reports of four dead protesters who were killed while trying to storm the Interior Ministry: the body of one was carried aloft by the crowd as a roar of defiance went up.
Stay tuned …
