Jewish paper's column catches Secret Service's eye

By Joe Sterling, CNN

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The U.S. Secret Service is looking into a controversial column by an Atlanta Jewish newspaper publisher that mulled the assassination of an American president.

Andrew Adler, owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, wrote a January 13 column about the threat of Iran to Israel. He posed three options for the Jewish state to counter the Iranian regime.

One of them called for a "hit on a president in order to preserve Israel's existence."

"Give the go-ahead for U.S. based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place and forcefully dictate that the United States' policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies."

U.S. Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie told CNN Saturday, "We are aware of it. We are taking the appropriate investigative steps."

Adler could not be reached for comment, but the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a wire service for Jewish newspapers in North America, quoted Adler on Friday as saying "I very much regret it. I wish I hadn't made reference to it at all."

Adler -- who said he's gotten a lot of flak for the column -- said he would issue an apology in the next edition of the weekly newspaper, the JTA reported.

The column, titled "What would you do?" doesn't mention President Barack Obama's name, but U.S. Jewish groups that strongly denounced the column read the words as a reference to Obama himself. The column also refers to the administration's "never ending 'Alice in Wonderland' belief that diplomacy is the answer," an apparent dig at the Obama White House's foreign policy efforts at dialogue with such countries as Iran.

"The suggestion by anyone, in this case a Jewish newspaper publisher, that Israel should consider assassinating President Obama is shocking beyond belief," said Dov Wilker, director of the American Jewish Committee in Atlanta.

"While we acknowledge Mr. Adler's apology, we are flabbergasted that he could ever say such a thing in the first place. How could he even conceive of such a twisted idea?" said Wilker. "Mr. Adler surely owes immediate apologies to President Obama, as well as to the State of Israel and his readership, the Atlanta Jewish community."

The White House declined to comment Saturday on the column.

Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said Adler's "lack of judgment as a publisher, editor and columnist raises serious questions as to whether he's fit to run a newspaper."

"There is absolutely no excuse, no justification, no rationalization for this kind of rhetoric. It doesn't even belong in fiction. These are irresponsible and extremist words. It is outrageous and beyond the pale. An apology cannot possibly repair the damage.

"Irresponsible rhetoric metastasizes into more dangerous rhetoric. The ideas expressed in Mr. Adler's column reflect some of the extremist rhetoric that unfortunately exists -- even in some segments of our community -- that maliciously labels President Obama as an 'enemy of the Jewish people,'" Foxman said.

Simon Wiesenthal Center associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper called the remarks "irresponsible and reprehensible" and said they "must be publicly condemned by Jewish leaders across the ideological and political spectrum."

"We take small comfort from the apology — what a shanda!" Cooper said, using the Yiddish word for something shameful or scandalous.

JTA also quoted Opher Aviran, the Israeli consul-general in Atlanta as saying he was "appalled at this deranged and morally repugnant assertion. We condemn such calls in the strongest possible terms."

The Atlanta Jewish Times, a weekly focused on the Atlanta Jewish community, was founded in 1925 as the Southern Israelite.

updated 6:11 PM EST, Sun January 22, 2012

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/21/us/jewish-president-threat/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Israeli Reaction to Call for Mossad to Assassinate Obamaa

Uproar after Jewish American newspaper publisher suggests Israel assassinate

Barack Obama

Op-ed in Atlanta Jewish Times says the slaying of the president may be an effective way to thwart Iran's nuclear program.

By Chemi Shalev

NEW YORK - The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, has suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to consider ordering a Mossad hit team to assassinate U.S. President Barack Obama so that his successor will defend Israel against Iran.

Adler, who has since apologized for his article, listed three options for Israel to counter Iran’s nuclear weapons in an article published in his newspaper last Friday. The first is to launch a pre-emptive strike against Hamas and Hezbollah, the second is to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and the third is to "give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place and forcefully dictate that the United States’ policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies."

Adler goes on to write: "Yes, you read "three correctly". Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence. Think about it. If have thought of this Tom-Clancy-type scenario, don’t you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel’s most inner circles?"

Adler apologized yesterday for the article, saying "I very much regret it; I wish I hadn’t made reference to it at all," Adler told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. And in an interview with Gawker.com, Adler denied that he was advocating an assassination of Obama.

The American Jewish Committee in Atlanta last night issued a harsh condemnation of Adler’s article, saying that his proposals are "shocking beyond belief."

"While we acknowledge Mr. Adler's apology, we are flabbergasted that he could ever say such a thing in the first place. How could he even conceive of such a twisted idea?" said Dov Wilker, director of AJC Atlanta. "Mr. Adler surely owes immediate apologies to President Obama, as well as to the State of Israel and his readership, the Atlanta Jewish community."

Published 03:44 21.01.12 Latest update 03:44 21.01.12

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/uproar-after-jewish-american-newspaper-publisher-suggests-israel-assassinate-barack-obama-1.408429

Will Zionist Jew Calling For Obama Assassination Be Punished?

Atlanta Jewish Times owner says sorry for Obama 'hit' column

Andrew Adler says he deeply regrets writing a column suggesting Mossad agents should consider 'a hit' on the president if he fails to support Israel

Chris McGreal

Andrew Adler said he wrote the column on Obama to get a reaction from readers

The owner of a Jewish newspaper in Atlanta has said he deeply regrets writing a column suggesting that Israel consider "a hit" on Barack Obama if he stands in the way of the Jewish state defending itself.

Andrew Adler told the Guardian he wrote the column in the weekly Atlanta Jewish Times "to get a reaction" from the paper's readers.

"The headline for the column was: 'What would you do?' That's what I wanted to see," he said. "It's got like a Dr Phil reaction: what were you thinking? I feel really bad it did that."

The column asks readers to imagine that they are the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, confronting the threat posed by Hezbollah and Iran's nuclear programme while also under pressure from a US president with an "Alice in Wonderland" belief in diplomacy over force.

Adler lays out what he says are the three options available to Netanyahu: attack Hezbollah and Hamas; defy the US - which is willing to let "Israel take a lethal bullet" - by striking against Iran's nuclear facilities; or a third option.

"Three, give the go-ahead for US-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice-president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States' policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies," Adler wrote in a column that appeared in print by not online.

"Yes, you read "three" correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel's existence. Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don't you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel's most inner circles?"

Adler went on to ask: "How far would you go to save a nation comprised of 7 million lives - Jews, Christians and Arabs alike? You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table."

Adler said he understood why readers might interpret his writing as suggesting that Israel is seriously considering assassinating the US president but that is not what he meant.

"No, no, no. It's unfathomable, unthinkable," he said, adding: "I'm definitely pro-Israel to the max."

Adler said he intends to repudiate the column in the next edition of the paper.

"I've put my pen in my mouth," he said. "I'm writing a retraction to the column."

The Atlanta Jewish Times was founded in 1925 as the Southern Israelite. Adler bought the paper three years ago. It has a circulation of several thousand copies a week.

guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 January 2012 16.10 EST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/20/newspaper-owner-sorry-obama-hit-column

Israel Sh*ts On The US Again and Congress Laps it Up

Is there no end to the humiliation Congress subjects our country to from Israel in order to keep those campaign contributions flowing?

'Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA spies to recruit terrorists to fight against Iran'

Foreign Policy magazine cites CIA memos from 2007-2008 that the Mossad recruited members of Jundallah terror group to fight against Tehran; U.S. was reportedly furious with Israel and moved to limit joint intelligence programs.

By Barak Ravid

Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA officers in order to recruit members of a Pakistani terror group to carry out assassinations and attacks against the regime in Iran, Foreign Policy revealed on Friday, quoting U.S. intelligence memos.

Foreign Policy's Mark Perry reported that the Mossad operation was carried out in 2007-2008, behind the back of the U.S. government, and infuriated then U.S. President George W. Bush.

Perry quotes a number of American intelligence officials and claims that the Mossad agents used American dollars and U.S. passports to pose as CIA spies to try to recruit members of Jundallah, a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization that has carried out a series of attacks in Iran and assassinations of government officials.

According to the report, Israel's recruitment attempts took place mostly in London, right under the nose of U.S. intelligence officials.

"It's amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with," Foreign Policy quoted an intelligence officer as saying. "Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn't give a damn what we thought

According to a currently serving U.S. intelligence officer, Perry reports, when Bush was briefed on the information he "went absolutely ballistic."

"The report sparked White House concerns that Israel's program was putting Americans at risk," the intelligence officer told Perry. "There's no question that the U.S. has cooperated with Israel in intelligence-gathering operations against the Iranians, but this was different. No matter what anyone thinks, we're not in the business of assassinating Iranian officials or killing Iranian civilians."

The intelligence officer said that the Bush administration continued to deal with the affair until the end of his term. He noted that Israel's operation jeopardized the U.S. administration's fragile relationship with Pakistan, which was under immense pressure from Iran to crack down on Jundallah.

According to the intelligence officer, a senior administration official vowed to "take the gloves off" with Israel, but ultimately the U.S. did nothing.

"In the end it was just easier to do nothing than to, you know, rock the boat," the intelligence officer said.

Apparently, the Mossad operation caused a fiery debate among Bush's national security team and it was only resolved when U.S. President Barack Obama drastically scaled back joint U.S.-Israel intelligence programs targeting Iran, Perry quotes several serving and retired officers as saying.

The U.S. State Department has vehemently denied any ties to Jundallah and many U.S. intelligence officials remained angry with Israel over the 2007-2008 operation.

"Israel is supposed to be working with us, not against us," Foreign Policy quoted an intelligence officer as saying. "If they want to shed blood, it would help a lot if it was their blood and not ours. You know, they're supposed to be a strategic asset. Well, guess what? There are a lot of people now, important people, who just don't think that's true."

Published 20:54 13.01.12 Latest update 20:54 13.01.12

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-mossad-agents-posed-as-cia-spies-to-recruit-terrorists-to-fight-against-iran-1.407224

Israel's Seculars Fed Up With Religious "Disease"

It's time to cure the disease of ultra-Orthodox education

Young Haredim are educated to totally despise the values of the secular state, which is why they have no problem scaring a little girl or calling policemen Nazis.

By Nehemia Shtrasler

Blessed be the yeshiva student who scared the little girl on her way to school. Blessed also be the one who spit at and cursed female passersby. Blessed be the ultra-Orthodox man who called the female soldier a prostitute, and blessed be those who demonstrated in striped prisoners' garb and stuck yellow stars on their clothing.

All this taken together might finally shake up the secular majority and force it into action. All this might make 90 percent of the population understand that there's no point in condemning the spitter or putting the one who cursed on trial. They are merely symptoms of a serious disease, and whoever deals merely with the symptoms is wasting his time and could even make the disease worse.

The disease is ultra-Orthodox education. It's an education that puts young Haredim through a thorough brainwashing, which ends with them believing that democracy is the evil regime, that equal rights for women is totally treif, that freedom and humanism are only good for the goyim, and that studying math, English and history is idolatry. They also learn that to go out and work for a living is a terrible embarrassment, and that to serve in the army is worthy of contempt, suited only to the secular donkey - who is stupid enough to sacrifice his life for the "homeland."

Young Haredim are educated to totally despise the values of the secular state, which is why they have no problem scaring a little girl or calling policemen Nazis. Their leaders have a clear goal: To provide the community with good living conditions at the expense of the secular donkey, who they believe should work hard, pay taxes and sacrifice his life in the army. Thus they can continue to shirk their duty while continuing to blackmail.

The part that's especially galling and absurd is that the secular majority, in its foolishness, is financing this destructive process. It gives huge budgets to the independent Haredi educational system. It gives allowances to married yeshiva students, as well as grants that are far higher than what a soldier gets during his compulsory service, or a student studying medicine or engineering. This is because the secular population is suicidal. It is slowly but surely wiping itself out with its own hands.

Just now, following the events in Beit Shemesh, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested a solution: Divide Beit Shemesh into two, a Haredi city and a religious-secular one. Interior minister and Shas chairman Eli Yishai immediately objected. Yishai understood that a Haredi city couldn't survive because it would be "without revenues, without arnona [city taxes] and without industry."

In other words, without the secular-national religious donkey bearing the burden, there would be nothing from which to give those Haredi families with many children. It would be impossible for them to finance their education, health care, welfare, ritual baths, synagogues, yeshivas and kollels - yeshivas for married men.

As we speak, Beit Shemesh is planning a new neighborhood with 25,000 apartments, but the government is marketing those apartments at Haredim at cost price. In other words, despite the recommendations of the Trajtenberg Committee, the Haredim are the ones who will get land at half price, in addition to large discounts on taxes. All this comes on the backs of the religious and secular taxpayers.

Only last week, Yishai suggested changing the tables for arnona discounts so that large families in small apartments with low incomes get a bigger break.

So we have to stop dealing with symptoms; it's time to cure the disease. In other words, to do away with the independent education systems of Shas and Agudat Yisrael, and force every child in Israel to study the same general curriculum, as in France. Whoever wishes can teach his children Mishna and Talmud in the afternoon.

All the Haredi draft evaders should be drafted into the Israel Defense Forces for three years, like any other citizen. Everyone has to help protect the country. The support given to yeshivas and kollels from the state budget should be totally stopped, which will force the Haredim to go to work. In no part of the Diaspora, neither in Poland nor in Morocco, did Jews even dream of living as parasites at the public's expense.

But knowing where we live, and what's important to Netanyahu, we can assume that this call will fall on deaf ears and we'll take the slow-but-sure route to oblivion.

Published 03:12 03.01.12 Latest update 03:12 03.01.12

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/it-s-time-to-cure-the-disease-of-ultra-orthodox-education-1.405172

Israel Lobby's Purchase of US Congress Pays Off

QUOTE: "Congress chose to nearly double that amount. . ."

US earmarks $235 million for Israel's defense systems

Washington to allocate unprecedented sum for development of anti-missile safeguards, including David's Sling, Arrow systems

Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON - The Unites States has announced it will allocate $235 million for the development of safeguards against rockets and missiles that could be launched towards Israel by Hezbollah and Iran.

A large part of the funds will go towards the development of the David's Sling system, designed to intercept medium- to long-range rockets and cruise missiles, and the Arrow 2 and 3 systems against long-range ballistic missiles.

This unprecedented sum comes at an unexpected time, while the American government is dealing with large budget cuts, including at the Pentagon.

However, Pentagon officials were the ones who requested that Congress approve a $106 million aid budget for Israel's defense systems against missiles, on top of the Iron Dome budget.

Congress chose to nearly double that amount, approving a budget of $235 million for 2012, amounting to $25 million more than in 2011.

This budget, however, is not considered to be part of the American aid to Israel, but rather, goes towards military cooperation between both countries, with each one allocating a similar amount in developing anti-missile systems.

The US' defense assistance to Israel is estimated at over $3 billion for 10 years, beginning in 2007, two-thirds of which end up in the hands of America's military industries.

Published: 12.22.11, 23:19 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4165744,00.html

Pakistan friendly fire deaths were due to "errors" by US officers

[COMMENT: Doubtless many will suspect Americans are so careless because thet don't value Pakistani lives.]

American officers gave the wrong coordinates to their Pakistani counterparts as they sought clearance for the air strike that killed 24 friendly troops last weekend, admit officials in both countries.

Rob Crilly in Islamabad and Ashfaq Yusufzai in Charsadda

Nato and American officials have expressed regret but have refused to apologise until an investigation is completed into the incident near the Afghan border, which has triggered a crisis in relations between the US and Pakistan. Officials have previously offered varying accounts of the event as the two countries try to shift the blame.

But yesterday a senior Pakistani military officer told The Sunday Telegraph that a border co-ordination unit - established to avoid exactly this sort of tragedy - was given incorrect details of a suspected Taliban position.

"The strike had begun before we realised the target was a border post," he said. "The Americans say we gave them clearance but they gave us the wrong information." It is understood that American officers have not disputed the Pakistani account of what went wrong.

The American pilots had been confident in their targets as they flew out of the night sky, towards a mountain ridge that marked the border with Pakistan.

Afghan and US commandos hunting Taliban training camps inside the eastern edge of Afghanistan had called in air support as they came under fire from the Pakistani border.

The co-ordinates had been checked with a Pakistani officer to ensure there were no friendly troops in the area, the pilots believed, and the Apache attack helicopters and lone AC-130 gunship had been given the go-ahead to unload their deadly payload on the mountainside.

But as dawn arrived it became clear that a terrible mistake had been made.

Twenty-four Pakistani soldiers lay dead, their border posts were a smoking ruin and a crucial alliance had been poisoned, unleashing a wave of anti-American anger in Pakistan, which has halted co-operation against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

All year their fragile alliance has lurched from crisis to crisis. In January a CIA contractor shot dead two men in Lahore.

Then a secret mission to kill Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil in May provoked an angry response, with American military trainers expelled and US diplomats complaining of harassment.

The latest calamity has provoked an angry reaction among ordinary Pakistanis, who already feel their country's contribution to the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban is being forgotten.

Daily demonstrations are being held around the country. Protesters in Karachi have burned an effigy of Barack Obama and That leaves a weak, moderate government in Islamabad trying to maintain an awkward balancing act, placating the rabble rousers while keeping the door open to a rapprochement with Washington.

Pakistan's leaders have closed the country's borders to Nato supply convoys, announced a boycott of an international conference in Bonn to plot a course for the future of Afghanistan and begun a review of all relations with the US and Nato.

The Pakistani military has also offered a strong response as it tries to rebuild its reputation after a series of blows, not least failing to spot the US helicopters that brought a special forces team deep into its territory to kill the al-Qaeda leader. Last week it circulated revised rules of engagement stating that soldiers can return fire if attacked by Nato forces - although the move is seen as an attempt to assuage public opinion, rather than up the ante along the Afghan border.

Nowhere is the mix of grief and anger more obvious than among the 24 families whose sons were killed by a supposed ally.

In the north-western town of Charsadda, Asfandyar Khan told The Sunday Telegraph how proud his son Najeebullah had been in 2005 to get a soldier's uniform and to help make his country safe.

He fought against the Pakistan Taliban, clearing them from the Swat Valley in 2009 when militants approached to little more than 60 miles from the capital Islamabad, before being transferred to the Afghan border post where he died.

"He was very happy to fight against the Taliban as he wanted to take on the Pakistan's enemy", said Mr Khan, sitting outside his mud brick home set among lush, green fields.

A newly dug grave is decorated with flowers.

Now he must decide whether to ask his other son to leave the army.

But most of all he wants his government to end its close association with the US and its war in Afghanistan.

"Soldiers are losing confidence over the weakness of the government. They are demoralized and only a befitting response to the US can restore the confidence in government," he said.

Pakistan's prime minister has said there can be no more "business as usual" with the US.

And most analysts believe the relationship is facing its toughest test since the two countries were thrown together in alliance by 9/11.

Imtiaz Gul, a journalist and author who has written about the border area, said the US had to recognise Pakistan's sensitivity to American treatment.

"This is not about money or a bigger say in Afghanistan," he said. "This is about a country that feels underappreciated and hurt, so the way to patch it up is about addressing that emotional need." But with an investigation not due to report until December 23, there is no sign that this crisis will end soon.

8:13PM GMT 03 Dec 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8933566/Pakistan-friendly-fire-deaths-were-due-to-errors-by-US-officers.html#top

Jewish Ambassador: Israel-Palestine Conflict to blame for new anti-Semitism

QUOTE: The conference was attended by Jewish lawyers from across Europe. The legal experts at the event were visibly stunned by Gutman's words

'Jew-hate stems from conflict'

US ambassador in Belgium provides controversial explanation for Muslim anti-Semitism

Menachem Gantz

BRUSSELS - Growing global anti-Semitism is linked to Israel's policy towards the Palestinians, the American ambassador to Belgium told stunned Jewish conference attendants in Brussels earlier this week.

Speaking Wednesday at a Jewish conference on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Union (EJU,) Howard Gutman told participants he was apologizing in advance if his words are not to their liking. He then proceeded to make controversial statements about his views on Muslim anti-Semitism, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.

A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Gutman said. He also argued that an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism.

The American envoy, a lawyer by training, is Jewish and played a major role in fundraising for the Democratic Party. He was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama.

'The so-called Israel critic'

The conference was attended by Jewish lawyers from across Europe. The legal experts at the event were visibly stunned by Gutman's words, and the next speaker offered a scathing rebuttal to the envoy's remarks.

"The modern Anti-Semite formally condemns Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and expresses upmost sympathy with the Jewish people. He simply has created a new species, the "Anti-Zionist" or - even more sophisticated - the so-called 'Israel critic,'" Germany attorney Nathan Gelbart said.

"The 'Israel critic' will never state 'Jews go home' but is questioning the legality of the incorporation of the State of Israel and therefore the right for the Jewish people to settle in their homeland. He will not say the Jews are the evil of the world but claim that the State of Israel is a major cause for instability and war in the region," he said. "There is no other country, no other people on this planet the 'Israel critic' would dedicate so much time and devotion as to the case of Israel."

"For no other country he would criticize or ask to boycott its goods or academics. And this for one simple reason: Because Israel is the state of the Jewish people, not more and not less," Gelbart said.

'Muslims appreciate Obama'

Conference attendants received Gelbart's remarks with loud applause, while the American envoy apologized for having to leave the site as result of prior obligations and departed.

Earlier, Gutman also presented participants with a short video clip showing him received with warm applause at a Muslim school in Brussels. While he did not mention what prompted the warm reception, his message was that this is the kind of welcome given to a Jew who supports President Obama's policy of openness to Islam.

Approached by Yedioth Ahronoth, the US envoy was asked whether Obama's policy did not cause America to lose its influence in the region. Gutman responded by saying that the Arab world appreciates Obama following his speech in Cairo, referring to an address delivered by the president in 2009.

Published: 12.03.11, 08:29 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4156355,00.html

US Making New Enemies in Egypt

QUOTE: The mood soured further as protesters discovered that the police, just as they had done in January and February, were using teargas canisters with US and Hebrew markings.

Egyptians turn on the army as Tahrir Square boils again

Nine months ago, after 18 days of protest and hundreds of death, Cairo's Tahrir Square erupted in jubilation as the army announced that Hosni Mubarak, the man who had tyrannised Egypt for 30 years, had been forced to step down.

By Adrian Blomfield, and Samer al-Atrush in Cairo

The bloodshed and human sacrifice had proved worthwhile. Egypt had thrown off a dictator, and, with the help of the army, was destined at last to become a democracy and a beacon for the rest of a benighted region.

On Sunday the scenes of the revolution engulfed Tahrir Square once more, but it was not the moment of joy incandescent that was being reprised, but rather the bloodshed and anger that preceded it.

Egypt's worst fears seemed to be fulfilled as the Arab world's most symbolic monument of freedom once again echoed to the sound of gunfire last night as protesters and the security forces once again battled for the country's future.

This time, however, it was the army - the heros of the first revolution - that was the focus of the people's anger amid fears that Egypt was on the brink of a second revolution, this time against Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and the ruling army council he leads.

"We have a single demand: The marshal must step down and be replaced by a civilian council," Ahmed Hani, one protester said, as tear gas filled the square. "The violence yesterday showed us that Mubarak is still in power."

Freshly scrawled graffiti near the square put it more succinctly: "The marshal is Mubarak's dog."

At least six protesters -- five in Cairo and one in Alexandria -- were reportedly killed in two days of violence over the weekend and nearly a thousand more wounded as clashes in scenes frighteningly familiar for a traumatised nation.

The unrest, which spread to other major cities, was among the most serious - and the most threatening - since Mr Mubarak's downfall.

For the first time since the revolt, Egypt's black-uniformed police force, one of Mr Mubarak's most hated instruments of repression, was deployed in force, a fact that served to exacerbate rather than alleviate tensions.

For two days, they battled an ever swelling number of protesters in central Cairo, opening fire with tear gas, rubber bullets and bird shot in the city's Tahrir Square - the epicentre of the revolution that toppled Mr Mubarak - and the streets and alleyways off it.

The demonstrators retaliated with an endless volley of stones and the occasional molotov cocktail and by yesterday afternoon the storied square appeared once again to be in the hands of the people. Just as in late January and early February, protesters erected barricades at its entrance points, checking the identity papers of all who wanted to gain access.

But the retreat by the security forces was only a temporary one, designed to regroup rather than admit surrender. The generals ruling Egypt are all too aware that losing control of Tahrir Square meant that Mr Mubarak's downfall became virtually inevitable, and are anxious not to suffer the same fate.

Throughout the day, the battle ebbed and flowed, with violence spilling out of the square as protesters attempted to march on the nearby interior ministry, perhaps the most hated building in Egypt from where Mr Mubarak organised the repression of his people.

Once again, it was the focus of the protesters' anger and the street leading to the building swiftly filled with the detritus of civil disorder. Stones and rubble littered the road, windows were smashed and shopkeepers shuttered their stores and fled.

Beaten back from the ministry, the protesters retreated once more to Tahrir Square. With the army called in as reinforcements, wave after wave of baton charges were unleashed. The air filled with choking teargas and gunfire crackled relentlessly.

As they had done at the start of the year, the protesters -- some Islamists, but most of them secular -- lined up in front of the security forces and began to pray. It did not work.

"They are beating us harshly, they didn't care for either men or women," one protester, Ali Abdelaziz, said.

The protests were far smaller than at the height of the revolution, with fewer than 5,000 in the square, but the ferocity of the violence and the speed with which it spread to Alexandria and Suez, cities at the forefront of the revolution, pointed to the dangerously volatile situation in which Egypt once again finds itself.

Egypt's transition to civilian rule, which passes a major milestone when the first elections since Mr Mubarak's downfall are held next week, has been far from smooth.

But never before has the antipathy towards the military leadership that has managed Egypt since February been as marked as it is now.

Hailed as the people's saviours during the revolution, the army is now perceived as the principal obstacle to Egypt achieving democracy. Under the leadership of Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has been accused of drawing out the transition and plotting to ensure that the army remains the supreme arbiter in the land.

Protesters in Tahrir Square said they now saw no difference between the generals and the president they succeeded.

"The violence is the same as the old regime," one said.

With the mood hardening, many called for the military to step aside immediately.

Many Egyptians will blame the intensity of the violence on police over-reaction. The clashes were sparked when police forcibly attempted to dismantle a tented camp in Tahrir Square manned by fewer than 200 protesters who had gathered to mourn relatives killed in the uprising against Mr Mubarak.

With news spreading of police beatings, thousands more converged on the square, which was quickly engulfed in chaos. As the clashes intensified, protesters set alight an armoured military vehicle and two police cars.

The mood soured further as protesters discovered that the police, just as they had done in January and February, were using teargas canisters with US and Hebrew markings.

Hopes that the violence can be reined in may depend on how the army and the civilian cabinet it appointed responds. So far, however, the response has been unyielding.

Mansour el-Essawy, the interior minister whose resignation was demanded by the protesters, insisted that the police had nothing to do with the violence, claiming, in a throwback to the language of the Mubarak era, that the demonstrators had shot at each other.

It was a claim that was challenged by protesters, witnesses and journalists, two of whom were shot in the face by a police officer standing on top of an armoured vehicle. A number of protesters were partially blinded, among them Malek Mostafa, a prominent activist who was said to have lost his right eye.

Opposition parties urged the ruling military council to implement a series of measures to end the violence, calling on it to replace the civilian cabinet it has appoint the administer the country and to promise to hold presidential elections by the end of May. The army has indicated that a presidential vote might not take place until 2013.

The generals, however, appeared to be in no mood to make concessions, warning instead that they would take even more robust action if the unrest persisted.

"If security is not applied, we will implement the rule of law," said General Mohsen al-Fangari, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's de-facto government. "Anyone who does wrong will pay for it."

Although the security forces appear to have regained control of the square by nightfall, many protesters had merely retreated to side streets, vowing they will come back.

They accused the military of seeking to stoke the violence to provide a pretext for postponing the elections, due to begin next Monday, in a bid to tighten their grip on power even more.

"We know what is afoot and we will not allow it," one activist said. "We have sacrificed too much blood already to tolerate the replacement of one dictator with another. Egypt will be, and must be, free."

10:11PM GMT 20 Nov 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8902896/Egyptians-turn-on-the-army-as-Tahrir-Square-boils-again.html