This week offering of the wiki leaks

[nadinbrzezinski]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/28/egypt-police-brutality-torture-wikileaks

Another cable, from March 2009, said Egypt's bloggers were playing an "increasingly important role" in society and "in broadening the scope of acceptable political and social discourse". There had been a significant change over the past five years, it said, with bloggers able to discuss sensitive issues such as sexual harassment, sectarian tensions, the military and even abortion.

At the same time, a clampdown by the Egyptian government and other repressive measures meant bloggers were no longer a "cohesive activist movement". In 2009, an estimated 160,000 bloggers were active in Egypt, writing in Arabic and sometimes English. Most were 20-35 years old.

Bloggers now appear to be at the vanguard of this week's anti-Mubarak demonstrations, which led to the government switching off internet access. One woman had told the Americans, presciently, that the blogging community was bereft of "compelling and achievable political causes" but would play a crucial role "during the eventual succession".

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Copyright and all that... anyhoo, there is one of the links. Go there, read the actual cables... there is a lot more going behind the scenes than most here believe