We are getting our country back...

Tahrir Square is filling up at an unusually brisk pace tonight.
Is it in anticipation of tomorrow’s march of millions, or of a more momentous event to occur later this evening?
The president is to address the nation tonight.
The Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed forces met this afternoon, an extremely rare occurrence and without the president. An army official announced that all the demands of the crowd would be met...
Is Mubarak about to resign, thus?
Have the Egyptian people prevailed?
Demonstrators are already dancing in the streets…
The Prime Minister indicated that Mubarak was still president and that nothing had changed…Nothing?
Today, thousands of doctors and students demonstrated in the streets of Cairo and headed toward Tahrir Square, joining a movement whose vitality shows no sign of faltering.
Some three thousand lawyers did likewise, as did engineers, journalists and public transport workers, including bus drivers.
Even some journalists at the pro-government daily al Ahram went on strike, to protest the newspaper’s biased coverage of the unrest.
Protesters have now spent two days and two nights in front of the Parliament building, opening up a new front in the confrontation with the regime.
Yesterday, 6000 workers at the Suez Canal Authority participated in a sit-in. Striking textile workers blocked roads in Mahalla, 2,000 pharmaceutical workers went on strike in Quesna, and 5,000 unemployed young Egyptians marched in Aswan, demanding the resignation of the governor.
The unrest is spreading, for Egyptians are no longer fearful of voicing their grievances.
Not all the demonstrators have a political agenda per se, and many are demanding higher salaries and better working and living conditions. Yet, their activism is reinforcing the anti-Mubarak opposition.
Protesters are more emboldened and more determined by the day. This is a growing movement, it’s not shrinking, Ahmad Salah, an activist, told Aljazeera.
Vice President Omar Suleiman however, warned the protesters that the unrest would have to cease. We can’t bear this for a long time. There must be an end to this crisis as soon as possible. We don’t want to deal with Egyptian society with police tools, he declared yesterday.
Was the Vice President suggesting that a coup might be in the offing should the uprising not come to a swift conclusion?
Continued unrest would lead to the dark bats of the night emerging to terrorize people. There was only one alternative to the current, gradual transition process, he claimed: a coup... which would mean uncalculated and hasty steps, including lots of irrationalities.
Was the Vice President threatening to impose martial law if the opposition did not cease its daily demonstrations, now accompanied by social strife?
I mean a coup of the regime against itself, or a military coup or an absence of the system. Some force, whether it’s the army or police or the intelligence agency or the (Muslim) Brotherhood or the youth themselves could carry out creative chaos to end the regime and take power, he said.
This, however, did not deter the opposition activists from pursuing their campaign.
We are striking and we will protest and we will not negotiate until Mubarak steps down. Whoever wants to threaten us, then let them do so, Khaled Abdel-Hamid, an activist belonging to the youth movement, told The Guardian.
And I am telling this to Omar Suleiman. He’s going to watch this. You are not going to stop us. Kidnap me, kidnap all my colleagues. Put us in jail. Kill us. Do whatever you want to do. We are getting back our country. You guys have been ruining this country for 30 years, Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who was released earlier this week after twelve days in detention, told CNN.
The regime however, reiterated its threats today.
We have to preserve the Constitution, even if it is amended.
If chaos occurs, the armed forces will intervene to control the country , a step which would lead to a very dangerous situation, Aboul Gheit, Egypt’s Foreign Minister, declared today.
The regime had been clearly hoping that once a transition process had been announced, the unrest would gradually subside, alleviating pressure on Mubarak and the government.
The fact that it has not, quite the contrary, may explain its more intransigent attitude.
The Foreign Minister rebuffed US demands to repeal the emergency law, which gives the security apparatus sweeping powers, while the Vice President has steadfastly refused to consider establishing a transitional government that would include opposition leaders.
A more robust confrontation with the protest movement now seems likely.
The regime is taking a hard line and so negotiations have essentially come to an end.
Suleiman’s comments about there being a danger were shocking to us all. It was a betrayal of the spirit of negotiations, and is unacceptable. The regime ‘s strategy has been just to play for time and stall with negotiations. They don’t really want to talk to anyone, Diaa Rashwan, a member of the opposition organization the Council of Wise Men, told The Guardian.
Although the regime has striven to project a more benign and civilized demeanor, it has continued arresting. and torturing those it suspects of participating in the demonstrations.
The director of the Egyptian initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo, Hossam Bahgat, told The Guardian that he suspects hundreds if not thousands of Egyptians may have disappeared, abducted by the army.
One protester recounted his ordeal to Chris McGreal, of The Guardian.
They put me in a room. An officer came and asked me who was paying me to be against the government. When I said I wanted a better government he hit me across the head and I fell to the floor. Then soldiers started kicking me. One of them kept kicking me between my legs. They said I could die there or I could disappear into prison and no one would ever know. The torture was painful but the idea of disappearing in a military prison was really frightening.
Some people, especially the activists, say they were interrogated about any possible links to political organizations or any outside forces. For the ordinary protesters, they get slapped around and asked: « Why are you in Tahrir? » It seems to serve as an interrogation operation and an intimidation and deterrence, Bahgat added.
I think it becomes pretty obvious by now that the military is not a neutral party.  The military doesn’t want and doesn’t believe in the protests and this is even at the lower level, based on the interrogations, Heba Morayef, of HRW, told Chris McGreal.
The journalist Robert Tait, of RFE/RL was himself abducted and detained for some twenty-eight hours.
In this hotel, there are only two items on the menu for those who don’t behave-electrocution and rape, the Mukhabarat thug told Tait and the numerous other detainees.
Fellow Egyptian detainees were ruthlessly beaten and abused with an electrocution device.
Get the electric shocks ready. This lot are to be made to really suffer, a guard said as a group of newly abducted Egyptians were brought in. Holding a British passport, Tait was spared this treatment.
I had flown to Cairo to find out what was ailing so many Egyptians. I did not expect to learn the answer so graphically, he wrote.
It is not only Mubarak that must leave and leave now, but his regime must be dismantled, including his ruthless security apparatus.
If Mubarak leaves, will not the military be tempted to seize power?
Will the armed forces jettison Mubark in order to preserve the regime?
We are not there yet!
Mubarak has spoken tonight and rejected the protesters' injunction to step down.
Satisfied with what I have offered the nation for more than sixty years, I have announced I will stay with this post and I will continue to shoulder my responsibilities, Mubarak declared.
We will not accept or listen to any foreign interventions or dictations, he added.
The president, defiant and highly pleased with himself, will remain President, come what may...
The struggle continues.
Tomorrow's march of millions will give the Egyptian people the opportunity to respond...
The old autocrat will fall.
It is only a matter of time...
The photograph above was taken on Egypt TV by APTN/AP)