Egypt: Telecoms Are Tattling..

Vodafone: Egypt forced us to send text messages Excerpts:

Egyptian authorities forced Vodafone to broadcast pro-government text messages during the protests that have rocked the country, the U.K.-based mobile company said Thursday.

Micro-blogging site Twitter has been buzzing with screen grabs from Vodafone's Egyptian customers showing text messages sent over the course of the demonstrations against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old regime.

A text message received Sunday by an Associated Press reporter in Egypt appealed to the country's "honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honor." Another urged Egyptians to attend a pro-Mubarak rally in Cairo on Wednesday. The first was marked as coming from "Vodafone." The other was signed: "Egypt Lovers."
And:
The company also said its competitors — including Egypt's Mobinil and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat — were doing the same. Etisalat, known formally as Emirates Telecommunications Corp., declined comment.

Vodafone said the texts had been sent "since the start of the protests," which kicked off more than a week ago. Vodafone did not immediately return an e-mail asking why the company waited nearly 10 days to complain publicly. Its statement was released only after repeated inquiries by the AP.

The U.S. is dancing as fast as it can, at the moment, and it seems clear that Mubarak will either go quickly, or hunker down and go violently. Everything about Egypt is politically grey: Mubarak is an American ally, but a non-democratic authoritarian. The protesters might be pro-democratic or (booga booga) Muslim Brotherhood, so we aren't sure who to root for: The dictator, or the potential terrorists?

This isn't too much of an exaggeration, is it, considering America's complete loss of nuanced thought.. It will be interesting, if not maddening, I'm sure, to see how both the situation evolves, and how American and Western discourse evolves in their reaction to said events.

At this point in time, every day feels a little more fluid than the last.