Pro-Mubarak Goons Tied To Police, TIME Reports

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TIME’s Andrew Lee Butters files this report from Cairo:

The Egyptian government denies that it had anything to do with orchestrating attacks against democracy protesters by crowds supporting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. But during my attempt to reach the protests, it became clear not only that the police are doing nothing to stop groups of angry men from openly carrying weapons, but also that they are in command of them. Crossing the Nile at October 6th bridge to work my way into Tahrir from the north, I was grabbed by a young man who threatened me with a stick and tried to drag me over to what appeared to be an improvised gang checkpoint cutting off the tree-lined avenue that runs along the river. I turned to a nearby policemen for help, who merely told me “Go.”

He goes on to say that the pro-Mubarak tough took him to a checkpoint “run by the police, with the deputized gang providing muscle.” Read the entire story here