What I am wondering is where do they get their weapons from. I wouldnt think arms proliferation is that big in egypt.

Smuggling up the Red Sea.

ya ali & abu l-maal,

there are smuggling tunnels from egypt to gaza as well ... arms can be smuggled in from sudan, across the sea from saudi, or just with boats from anywhere. harbor officials are bribed, if necessary.

--raf*

that possible checkpoint incident smells vaguely like common activities in Algeria.

as i recall, the women who couldn't hit the broad side of a bus got their weapons from someone within the state security aparatus.

also the masacre in Luxor was carried out by men in police uniforms (as i vaguely remember anyway).

anyone know what BP security is saying about all this?

That's the problem. With all these armed forces and a very inept and corrupt huge bureaucracy, you can have a lot of people getting access to weaponry. Theoretically, they are issued bullets on an as needed basis etc.

Also, like I was saying in the other thread, a real problem for the regime is the fact that a lot of the police forces are not really trained cops, they are young, uneducated country guys doing military service. Not only are they not really prepared in terms of really countering a terrorist attack but they are not necessarily going to obey commands to raise arms against their own countrymen and at times they have actually refused.

not to mention that a lot of those guys are very pious and, who knows, may sympathize with some of the ideas.