SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO BE SLOW

GIZA, Egypt -- In front of the pyramids, Laura Bush said on Monday that building democracy is a slow process, and she praised Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for what she called an important first step toward open elections.

"I think he's been very bold and wise to take the first step," Mrs. Bush said of the president who has served 24 years without facing an opposing candidate for re-election....

Mrs. Bush told reporters that sometimes "you have to be slow" when implementing political freedoms....

--Nedra Pickler, AP, 5/24/05

Anti-Mubarak protesters violently beaten by police

Two days after the official beginning of President Hosni Mubarak's re-election campaign -- the first in which he is not the only candidate -- security forces sent a chilling message to anyone thinking of running against him.

Thousands of uniformed police surrounded anti-Mubarak protesters on the evening of 30 July as gangs of plain-clothed agents pounded them with foot-long truncheons. The pre-dusk melee left three protestors hospitalized in critical condition, according to Kifaya leaders, and 23 behind bars.

... gangs of young men directed by plainclothes security officers with holstered pistols, set on the protesters, beating them, kicking them and dragging them into police vans. Uniformed police formed cordons around protesters. Those in the middle had nowhere to go to escape the baton-wielding gangs....

--Cairo Magazine, 7/31/05