Where’s a stray molotov cocktail when you need one?
(SF Gate)– Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin Wednesday headed up a dozen Code Pink banner-bearing activists in Cairo’s Tahrir Square — a scene she said descended into a bloody “war zone” as “government thugs” battled pro-democracy demonstrators.
But Benjamin told us by cell phone just minutes also that while the government of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak government has now signalled it will “go down kicking and screaming,” pro-democracy protesters are fully determined and “ready to die here.”
We caught Benjamin just after midnight Egyptian time as she retreated from the embattled square in Cairo — in a country where Internet coverage is just returning after days of blackout. Benjamin, a longtime Bay Area progressive activist, has been in the region since Monday with Code Pink and said the lack of Internet connection has been frustrating.
But she noted it couldn’t stop her and the Code Pinkers who took to the square Wednesday, parading a large banner in both Engligh and Arabic, reading: “The World Says It’s Time For Mubarak to Go.”
Benjamin told us events in Cairo over the last 24 hours have been eye-opening and frightening — but she said that it’s clear the youth-driven movement to end the reign of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak is energized, and determined to succeed.
Update: Did someone say “attention whore”?
