Storming the Embassy

As some of you may have heard, last night there were protests in Cairo.  Although some of the protestors were angry at the United States specifically, the majority of the protesters were not gathering, as far as we can tell, due to it being September 11th.  Instead, the protestors were upset about a film that was made either by an American Jewish man or Danish Christian— the news sources are conflicted about exactly which film was being protested. 

Most major protests in Cairo gather in Tahrir Square which is only two blocks from the United States Embassy.  The embassy security services were aware of the planned protest and sent most employees home early.  This was fortunate because the protests were larger than normal and quickly became angry.  Several hundred protesters left Tahrir Square in the early evening and stormed the embassy.  Our Marines guard the inside of the embassy, and Egyptian security forces guard the outside.  Even with that, about twenty young men were able to scale the walls and get inside the embassy courtyard.

The protestors took down the American flag hanging in the courtyard and attempted to replace it with a flag representing their own group, the Ultras.  And here is where, to our amusement, Egyptian inefficiency and lack of foresight became evident:  The initial idea seems to have been to burn the American flag.  Unfortunately, no one was able to set it alight.  So instead, they tore the flag into pieces.  This was also insulting, but not quite the insult burning might have been.  Secondly, the young men were unable to raise their own flag inside the embassy.  They had to settle for draping it across a ladder which was leaning against the outside embassy walls.  Rather less of a statement than it might have been.

Fortunately, no one was harmed yesterday— American or Egyptian.  As almost all of the embassy employees had been sent home by the time the protests gathered, there weren't many people around anyway.  And even though it seemed fairly easy for the protestors to climb the embassy compound walls, they never would have gotten any further than the courtyard.  All of the buildings have bullet-proof glass, and every entrance was guarded by several armed Marines.  One news source says that warning shots were fired, but no one seems to know who fired them.

In case anyone was worried, I want to assure you all that we are perfectly fine.  We had ample warning that something might happen so we were able to be out of the way many hours before the protests started.  We were notified by email, text messages, and phone calls as soon as the protests took a turn for the worse.  We even had additional phone calls asking whether I was still OK with my husband going out of town on his business trip the next day.  Frankly, I was more worried when all the phone calls started than when we first heard the news.  Everyone seemed to think I would be perfectly justified if I insisted that the trip be canceled.  We are, of course, hoping that things don't get any worse, but for the moment we are as safe as can be.

Update:  We have just found out that the Libyan ambassador was killed in a rocket attack on their consulate this morning.  Things are a bit tense at our embassy since Libya is right next to Egypt.

I was a bit apprehensive about going out this morning even though our apartment is quite far from the protests in Cairo.  I went out anyway, and it was a good thing I did.  As I was waiting to cross a busy street a young man saw a scratch on my hand (I had just been petting a kitten), handed me a tissue, and offered to show me to a pharmacy.  Not one minute later a lady walked past me, saw that I was having trouble getting across the traffic, grabbed my hand like I was two years old, and pulled me across to safety.  Just after that I got the call about Libya.

If I had been tempted to fear all Egyptians due to the unrest in the region I had just been given two excellent reasons not to.  There are uncontrolled, angry people around that can be dangerous, but there are also many people who can look past politics and religion to help a fellow human being— a good lesson for everyone and perhaps especially for Americans.