CBS News' Lara Logan Assaulted During Egypt Protests

I think the biggest issue was the vague language of 'sexual assault' really left too much unsaid as far as what happened to her.

I am seeing posts in comments saying that someone at the WSJ said she was NOT raped only that she was repeatedly and harshly groped, but I can't find any article.
I do think it is an important distinction, because the thought of an actual rape or brutal penetration happening in a MOB is really especially hideous and public, while lord knows even in a busy line some folks will try to cop a feel. My mother used to make me do 'butt duty' as a little kid- when we were in line at CHURCH I had to stand as close to her butt as I could so a certain deacon wouldn't grab it or pinch it.

reply to post by hadriana


The butt duty story is priceless. That was back in the day when people were way more self reliant, good natured and tolerant.

I gather from reading about harrassmap.org that groping would be more likely than rape in Cairo. What gets me is that if harassmap.org received 429 complaints to date from the beginning of January, that means that the actual number of incidents is far higher.

Multiply January 2010's total of 4 complaints by 20, for example, to allow for a 20 to 1 incident to complaint ratio and you come up with 80 incidents. Then multiply the total number of complaints from November 2010 to February 2011 by 20, which would be 657 X 20 = 13,140 "likely incidents" of harassment of women in the period immediately prior to the overthrow of Mubarak and up to 2 or 3 days following his resignation.

That's a veritable seige on the women of Cairo.

All I know is that I really ticked my female friends off when I pointed out that the news reporting left much to be desired and that I didn't think it was right to jump to the 'rape' conclusion. I sure hope she wasn't, and I sure hope I can be vindicated because they all insist that she was brutally raped. We read the same article. That's crappy reporting to me, when people can read the exact same thing and come to different conclusions...that's too vague.
I understanding her wish for privacy, but don't even bring out the sexual assault stuff if you don't want people speculating.

Another point one could make is that the traditional middle eastern attitude to women and their place in society may actually have led to Mubarak's downfall. If the police authorities in Cairo were seriously working with the harassmap.org women, they would have seen this marked upswing in harassment of women when it started in November 2010, and may have been alerted to the fact that something strange was happening.

If they had responded to something that would have been big news, in Toronto for example, they and their colleagues in the security services might have been able to save the regime. The signs were in the wind, so to speak, for someone who had eyes to see them.

Memo to middle eastern dictators. Pay more attention to your women, if you want to stay in power.

reply to post by Malcram


And you owe Lara Logan an apology, who was there to report on the principles you claim they do have!

Seriously, this was a tragic incident... beyond WORDS. My heart goes out to Lara Logan and her family, and I wish her a speedy physical if not altogether psychological recovery, but to sit there in your arrogance claiming that these people, who've never known democracy or even the civic responsibility that comes with it, are not to blame for what happened is dangerously naive at best. The mob was to blame... whether it was a small minority within were the ones who perpetrated this or not is irrelevant.

Listen, because I want this to sink in real good... I don't care if you are Egyptian, American, Venezuelan, French, Indonesian or Japanese - people in massive, large numbers are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals - they lose all sense of individuality and can literally reduce themselves intellectually to the level of en masse savages if driven into enough of a frenzy.

I pity what happened, I do - her crew should've done a better job of safeguarding her. But the fact remains that this happened because of a large number of Egyptians. If you're going to report on such an event, you should be on a roof looking down at it, not in the middle of it. It's a potentially deadly situation... and if you're a bystander, your best bet is to have a gun on you - someone charges you filled with the "energy" of the moment, blow their effin' head off - it has a tendency to calm everyone else down real quick.

Women played a KEY role in this whole revolution.
Now I'm leery because I am paranoid anyway, that the idea is to put it in women's heads that if they let revolution happen or any sort of revolt they put themselves in this sort of danger.

The reporting is just really suspect to me. Not Logan's- but like, Anderson Cooper is still tweeting really vague stuff that would LEAD one to think she was raped, and I DO think it matters. All sexual misconduct can be shattering, butlook at it in terms of rathers and it's pretty clear rape is BAD BAD.

From Twitter
Andersoncooper Nir Rosen claims he didn't know nature of attack on #LaraLogan. We confront him with his own words. #ac360 10p

I haven’t read all of the posts here just some earlier so I don’t know if this was mentioned . . . but the group of anonymous females and the 20 or so military men who rescued her should be commended.

In situations where humans become savage, as in this unfortunate incident, it is always heartening to hear about valiant people as where her rescuers.


www.good.is...

reply to post by burdman30ott6

Why would it be unreasonable to presume that US backed Mubarak goons were behind this?

It would actually make sense.

Until the Mubarak thugs were released upon the protesters, there had been no reports of violence or looting, even after the police had disbursed prior to the military's intervention. The military furthermore sided with the protestors, refusing to fire on them and it was the military that saved Lara.

While it could easily have been a general group of protestors, it seems more likely that it was US backed Mubarak drones. Lara Logan has a history of criticizing the US and their empire. TPTB are aware of every US media outlet entering or leaving the country and undoubtedly have been waiting for an opportunity to "teach her a lesson".

All things considered, I am glad she is doing ok.

CBS News reporter Lara Logan vows to return to work in a few weeks: report

One of her most memorable reports is when she stated how under Saddam, she could travel freely in Iraq and how it is no longer safe to do so under the US occupation. And of-course the corporate media establishment hitman is doing his job.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
Was she actually raped?!:

"Brutal and sustained sexual assault"
Media/criminal sympathist doublespeak for "rape."
Remember way back in the 80s when we had crimes whose names elicited anger at the perpetrators and sympathy for the victim? "Rape", "Murder", "Armed Robbery", and "Molestation" were deemed too charged, too likely to cause the average person to actually feel emotions towards the criminal and for the victim. These words were changed to muddy the waters enough to cause people to be unsure about what the feel. Terms like "sexual assault" these days can mean anything from verbal harassment to grabbed to raped, thus people are less likely to know instantly whether the accused should be slapped on the wrist or castrated and hung by the neck.

Completely agreed, I've been confused about this entire situation. I wasn't sure if she was attacked and touched in private areas, beat and fondled, raped and battered...the media described it as sexually assaulted and beat but this whole time I was wondering if she was raped, which makes the difference of my judgement on this situation and how much empathy to lend to the victim.

Originally posted by Steam
Nothing surprising here, given that she was in a Muslim majority country where the women have to wear headscarves and covered from head to toe in order to not get raped by men.

The men in these countries are so primitive and have zero self restraint that even the sight of a woman's hair is considered provocative and she is then fair game.

When will these people get out of the stone age???

Those people were out of the stone age long before us. Radical Islam put them back into it.

reply to post by burdman30ott6

I don't know all the details, and I only read the OP. So forgive me if I re-tread stomped ground.

For a woman to venture into the male-dominated chaos of a civil uprising without proper security is foolish. The very words "fool" and "foolish" have lost their meaning in our modern age. It was foolhardy for her to immerse herself into a situation like that --without proper security. We know she did not have "proper" security because they were unable to prevent her from being separated from her crew. In fact, was there any security at all?

So, here you have a mob of protesters, anyone and everyone from society suddenly intermingled together. You have the RAPISTS THAT EXIST IN ANY COUNTRY, the sex offenders, the criminals and low-lifes mixed-in with upper crust Egyptians. Basically, you DON'T KNOW WHO YOU'RE GONNA MEET.

Reading about something in a history book is a lot cleaner than living through it. History books have a way of skirting past even the most horrific of violations. The American expansion into the Wild West is a perfect example. Many brutal things happened during that period: starvation, intoxication, raping, slaughtering, etc. History books usually ignore these uncomfortable truths.

Back to Egypt: here you have an extremely attractive **BLONDE** American lady IN A MOB ***WITHOUT PROPER SECURITY*** prancing around like she has some invisible shield around her that will keep all of the WORST of Egyptian society away from her...

Never enter a situation filled with extreme entropy and chaos without proper precautions. Even MALE newscasters fled situations that suddenly became hostile. She is lucky that she is still alive, even though terribly violated.

I'm not blaming her, per se, but it was truly *foolish* to enter such a situation without proper security. It was surely the fault of the animals who did this to her. Still, as with the first journalist hostage who was decapitated on video almost a decade ago (in Pakistan?)... journalists really need to be MORE CAREFUL when immersing themselves into situations where this kind of thing can happen. Men are men, no matter the culture. Not all men, but obviously she found herself surrounded by men who couldn't control their carnal urges during a time of lawlessness, entropy and chaos.

We take our security for granted but only the law and police force may dissuade crimes from happening.
When there is chaos like in the Egypt revolution, it's fair game for everyone. The ones standing out will be picked on (like an attractive foreign journalist wrongly accused of working for Israel) . Women are the most at risk and whoever sent her there should be sacked.
Never forget, the semblant of law and order will not change our vicious human nature.

reply to post by Legion2112


Your claim that ALL Egyptians in Tahrir square were to blame for the assault on Logan and had all become unprincipled savages is absurd and deeply insulting.

I highly doubt that even Logan herself, despite her terrible ordeal, would ever endorse such unreasonable bigotry, so your claim that I somehow 'owe her an apology' for defending the humanity of the vast majority of Egyptians there who were fighting for principles she supported is baseless.

I love the the blame the victim mentality that seems very common in this thread If it was a muslim women raped or groped by Jew's or Christians,you Lara haters would be up in arms,But because she is a US citizen it's ok,pathetic people really pathetic ,I hate to break it you all,But, just because these people took part in a revolution does not mean the are all saint's ,Really some of these people would be thieves,rapists,murderers,name a crime it's probably represented by a person(s) taking part in the revolution,and before y'all get ya panties up in a bunch,I am not saying all people in the revolution are criminals,the large percentage would be hard working honest Egyptians,but there's no way in hell 100% are,The scum who attacked Lara may have been Mubarak supporters ,but then why would they be hanging around after he stood aside as president? It's a pity the soldiers who helped rescue her didn't give the rapist scum a double tap to the chest,that would have been justice,

Originally posted by gladtobehere
reply to post by burdman30ott6

 

Why would it be unreasonable to presume that US backed Mubarak goons were behind this?

Wait... the same US backed Mubarak that the US ordered to surrender his position as president immediately, or the US backed Mubarak that went from in US favor to out of favor in the eyes of the government and (conveniently) the media overnight? I'm confused, you see, because this entire situation reeks, I repeat REEKS, of government manipulation of the media. Briefly, when footahe not filtered through the mainstream controlled media was getting out of Egypt, Mubarak's supporters were the ones being beaten, attacked, and chased down. Amazingly, within hours of a total (and supposedly ordered by Mubarak himself???) non-MSM news lockdown in Egypt, these Mubarak supporters morphed into the mostrous media created "Mubarak thugs" and beat the holy hell out of the protestors.

I dunno why so many people have blindly accepted this freedom revolution story the MSM has pimped here, but I think it's a fool's errand. So far, all I have seen on the news is one group of people attacking some other group of people with nothing aside from some paid to do what he's told Pez head newsman telling us which side is which. Sorry if I tend to distrust the media when what they are reporting agrees in lockstep with the carefully crafted story this crooked government is trying to sell and neother one smells right.

Its a bit hazy because it is the sun but they are going against everything they do, denying she was raped because the love to dramatise a story and make it more outrageous so I actually believe this.

They say she was assaulted for 20-30 minutes but this was, "not a rape".

The link: www.thesun.co.uk...

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Well said Proto! I doubt those the raped her knew who she was and that she defended them. They just probably saw her as a westerner they could take thier aggressions out on. And they most likely were of the seedier or criminal element taking advantage of the break down in society.

Of particular note is that a bunch of women and soldiers saved her from perhaps being killed eventually. So obviously there are good people there too which of course does not get much attention.

Originally posted by ipsedixit
The harassmap.org website is worth checking out. Note all the categories of harassment and also, below the map there is a graph showing a huge spike in incidents/complaints since the beginning of this year.

www.harassmap.org...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/05aef4fbd975.jpg[/atsimg]

I wonder if there is anything else going on here. Could it be that politically motivated fake thugs went on a harassment campaign in Cairo, preliminary to the demonstrations against Mubarak, in order to increase the level of emotional upset preparatory to taking to the streets? I wouldn't doubt it. If this is what happened, I would be open to the suspicion that this shows the tracks of intelligence agencies at work. It's the kind of thing, sneaky, dirty, that one would expect from some of our favorite three letter agencies, who have whole departments of well trained hooligans thinking of such pranks and tactics.

Rape has been a weapon of war, in Bosnia and in Africa and elsewhere. Is sexual harassment a weapon of political provocation by those with a serious interest in "regime change?"

edit on 16-2-2011 by ipsedixit because: (no reason given)

Even though sexual harrassment has been a problem for 3 years now, it never went that far. No woman got injured or came anywhere close to being raped. Gang rape is unheard of in egypt, and sexual harassment has only been an issue since 2007; when the new generation grew up. And yes most of the victims were veiled. What happened these past 3 weeks was this:

-- police are no where to be seen and military are incompetent at policing.

-- state tv demonized all foreigners and only lower class citizens watch state tv.

so does anyone think those evil lower class youth who terrorized women in the past wouldnt take the opportunity to prey on women and justify it? Even the government ordered them to do it so why would they stop just because mubarak resigned? These uneducated low lifes are not politically driven at all, they barely knew there was a revolution going on and they have no idea what the revolution is about. Being the ametuer reporter that I am I have contacted someone who was there and witnessed the incident from afar. now i know why there was a military helicopter circling the area and why people warned me not to enter certain streets. But just like I said, these problems are because of how mubarak ran the country for 30 years, he didnt care for education, or employment and look where it got us. My generation grew up with resentment, the middle class took their resentment against the gov in the streets while the uneducated lower class take their disdain onto women. Egypt is a diverse country so please don't classify all egyptians under one label. The ones who fought peacefully at the square are intelligent and brave human beings, and after mubarak resigned the square turned into celebrations and opened up to everyone even former pro-mubarak people; who are just really the nasty lower class youth who were paid or encouraged by the gov to do what they naturally like to do if it werent for the law.

Originally posted by TheOracle
We take our security for granted but only the law and police force may dissuade crimes from happening.
When there is chaos like in the Egypt revolution, it's fair game for everyone. The ones standing out will be picked on (like an attractive foreign journalist wrongly accused of working for Israel) . Women are the most at risk and whoever sent her there should be sacked.
Never forget, the semblant of law and order will not change our vicious human nature.

The weird thing is that before all of this Egypt was generally considered the safest place in the middle east if not one of the safest in the world. Crime is very low and only crimes of passion. No serial killers, no serial rapists. The one thing people had to put up with was the spree of sexual harassments but most were verbal. Egyptian women figured out a way to deter them, by not being an easy prey. They fought back at them and it usually worked.

Originally posted by ipsedixit]

To my eyes, this is highly suspicious and fits right in with the notion that the harassment of women prior to Mubarak's fall was a coordinated campaign.

I'm going to assume you mean the Mubarak machine and not the protest organizers, since they were protesting in support of more freedom and less oppressive tactics such as the torture and rape that was frequently reported by victims of the state police.

The spike in incidents this year may simply be a factor of the clash between the people throwing off the yolk of a repressive regime and trying to live their lives more openly and freely versus those trying to keep them in line under authoritarian rule and their supporters who feared change.

Additionally, aggression is a natural offshoot of a repressive environment. It's no surprise that when the pressure was released with the announcement of Mubarak's exit that there was a literal frenzy in the square. This incident is a tragic confluence of sociology, psychology, anthropology and biology.

Originally posted by hawkiye
Well said Proto! I doubt those the raped her knew who she was and that she defended them.

I think they may have. She was arrested by the Egyptian Army a week before as an "Israeli spy". In light of that, consider the NY Post report that the crowd was screaming "Jew!" as she was attacked.

I am not saying the crowd sought her out but rather she was a target-of-opportunity, sort to speak.

But I also agree with your assessment that the crowd may have targeted her for being a Westerner. Consider...

I would point her to the 2008 broadcast on the Al-Aribiya network of a female (!) lawyer arguing that it’s OK for Muslim men to sexually assault Israeli women, because the Jews have “raped the land.”

SOURCE

(And just so no one can twist it; I am not saying this is something indicative of all Muslims, in the same way I would not say an abortion-clinic bomber is indicative of all Christians, rather it is a mark of mentally-deficient extremists)

Also, I have to agree with the cited article above; CBS is complicit in a media cover-up, not necessarily of what happened to Ms. Logan, but because it didn't fit the scenario the media was trying to portray.