(dailynewyorknews) – The newly elected Egyptian ministers held their first parliamentary session this week, nearly a year to the day after the beginning of the historical manifestations of the capital led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. But for all the courage and resilience shown by the brutal repression of demonstrators resist as they sang, waved flags and held candlelight vigils for 18 days, the movement began several years ago.

“Being in the square, just a feeling that energy was one of the best experiences of my life,” said Ashraf Khalil, an Egyptian-American journalist who was among the demonstrators when the news broke on 11 February that Mr. Mubarak had decided to resign. “I felt like a roar, but also a kind of relief, a huge release of years of frustration and struggle.”

In his new book, “Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian revolution and the rebirth of a nation.” Khalil said some of the events quietly laid the groundwork for the insurgency can be predicted well ahead of Egypt in 2012 that elections are unprecedented, probably provoked more protests and violence.

“It is a field that is holding up his hands and say, ‘Oh, the revolution did not bring anything,” said Khalil.

But many Egyptians, especially the elderly, in campaigns that have suffered decades of oppression under Mubarak, are much more optimistic.

“They say that this process can be as complicated as it is a victory in itself,” he said. “This is a generation that thinks that democracy is in progress.”

Khalil parents emigrated from Egypt in the 1960 to obtain his doctorate in the United States. At home in suburban Chicago, his parents spoke Arabic, but Khalil took almost anything. But as he grew older and is considered to be a journalist, who aspired to learn more about your family history and more about Egypt. During his stay at the University of Indiana, went to Cairo for a year in a study program abroad.

“I was in my blood and I always thought of return,” he said.

After graduation and several years in an Indiana newspaper, Khalil moved to Cairo in 1997 to work as a freelance journalist.

He had barely unpacked his bags and moved to a terrorist attack when the world’s attention turned to Egypt. Fifty-eight foreign tourists were killed when gunmen stormed a poorly guarded Islamic temple on the Nile from Luxor.

The slaughter of Luxor, writes Khalil, was an important stone in the form in January 2011. It paralyzed the sympathy of the Egyptians might have had against Islamic militant groups, and launched the career of Habib al-Adly, who became interior minister Mubarak.

At the time of the slaughter of Luxor, the Egyptian police have received a blank check to pursue Islamist groups. But the force has become much darker, the Egyptians an “uncontrolled and uncontested” authority intimidated from all backgrounds. The police spied on and intimidated newspaper publishers, business leaders, academics and judges.

“You have heard the anger boiling to the police every corner of Egyptian life, but was suppressed because there was no fear so intense,” said Khalil.

Al-Adly is considered the right arm of Mubarak in the actions of security forces against violent protesters. Despite being beaten, and fired tear gas against protesters gathered to demand the dismissal, especially al-Adly a.

In February, just weeks after he was overthrown Mubarak, Egypt has frozen the bank accounts of Al-Adly, forbade travel and arrested him.

He was sentenced in May to 12 years in prison for money laundering and abuse of power.

Mubarak, meanwhile, is on trial in Egypt on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of demonstrators.

The former president suddenly became ill after his resignation. To see the wheels in the courtroom on a stretcher, Khalil recalls, 1999 Mubarak, who has campaigned on top to stay in office. That was a joke, said the journalist, because Mubarak was the only candidate on the ballot.

“I’ve seen so many false choices, but (the election) was Stanlinist as the level of worship, like something you see in North Korea. All posters and newspapers were filled with (pictures and editorials) worshiping this man “said Khalil. “It does not reflect how people really feel.”

Propaganda is the most fascinating, because it served as a backdrop of protests against the regime seemed small throughout late 1990 and early 2000. There were several on the campus of the University of Cairo. The demonstrations focused on foreign policy issues involving Israel and the government dissolved the security quickly.

These moments of protest has failed in other parts of the country, or gelled with anyone outside the university, because the protesters were unable to agree on a unified message, writes Khalil. Some wanted to call out your name Mubarak, while others feared deeply do. Islamist protesters wanted to remain fully focused on Israel, leaving the President thereof.

2011 uprising was a success, many observers agree, because the protesters were on the same page about what I wanted and how.

“Liberation Square”, was immersed in a forgotten but very important note in the demonstrations in Egypt. On the night that the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003, a crowd gathered in Tahrir Square to protest against the U.S. Mubarak boats to take a position on the Suez Canal.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/24/world/egypt-revolution-anniversary/index.html?hpt=hp_c1