“With the truth visible at a glimpse, they didn't lie because it was difficult to see it, they lied because it was more comfortable to lie with one pretentious face on” was the thought roaming in everyone's mind while inspecting the provocative official narrative in a press conference #SCAF decided to deliver after a massacre that left at least 26 protesters dead and around 300 injured. People were waiting for answers on Twitter and other sites for “Do the army forces in general carry live ammunition? If no, then who shot Maikel Daniel?” and “How does the army forces explain a tank stepping on civilians as shown in a video? Why did the army claim a tank was stolen and if so how EASY was it to abduct a 'well armored' tank?”, “What are the names of the three soldiers who you and the anchors in #maspero claimed were killed mercilessly by the #copts?”, “Who is responsible for the downfall and threatening tone in #maspero‘s coverage during the events?” As it is popular with every organization that has been raised by #Mubarak‘s standards and rules, none of the questions were answered. Instead, the truth was buried and more lies erupted. Answers of “maybe”, “we don't deny that this might have happened”, “I'm only stating facts and you media people won't like the truth,” was General Etman's way of explaining their scenario of the story; the scenario many have seen as outrageous but expected, after foreshadowing the #SCAF‘s dictatorial methods throughout the past 8 months. Egyptian Twitter users' way of handling the press conference was different, and this is where the hashtag #SCAFpresser was created. @Nfm (Nancy Messiah) tweeted: “Follow @MattMcBradley and @Nadiaglory for tweets from the #SCAFpresser going on right now (unless you have high blood pressure).” General Etman's announcement by @MattMcBradley that “we don't believe in running over people in this army; and that a military person would never run over a person with a vehicle” sparked hilarious comments on Twitter like “Who drove the APC then? The holy ghost?” Etman's performance improved on the “devil's scale” in dealing with the scenario when he claimed that the autopsies showed that the deaths were by “civilian bullets,” provoking retweets like: “Show me a BULLET that flattens a skin like that?!.” Etman became Twitter's favorite #SCAF villian when he assured journalists that had the army allowed the usage of weapons against civilians the results would have been catastrophic, causing many to wonder if the “proof of shootings and stepping on protesters” shown in many videos online were not disastrous enough for the #SCAF‘s Generals. General Mahmoud Hegazy kept referring to soldiers killed in the bloody clashes as “martyrs,” and the civilians as those “killed”, bringing about #maspero‘s same disgusting tactic in confirming that a soldier/police officer is a martyr and the rest are just “dead” due to a series of unfortunate events. He announced that he would not reveal the names or the number of martyrs in the army so it wouldn't affect the army's overall morale, a commonplace statement that @hackneylad perceived as pushing by tweeting: “Yet Israeli-border military deaths were announced to greater fanfare – wouldn't that affect army morale?” Many Egyptians were furious over the declaration, especially after it was reported today that Israel had officially apologized to Egypt after the death of armed forces during the cross border shooting, questioning if the army, which is a “fully” Egyptian organization that was said to be the “revolution's protector” would ever admit they were somehow responsible in the clashes' breakdown and apologize to the martyrs' families and the Egyptian population as a whole. The Generals decided to play the role of a hesitant child (the army) who has been helping everyone, yet is bullied by the other kids in class (#copts and others) even after being too nice. They began dignifying their stances by addressing the journalists and the rest with the #SCAF‘s most famous appeal for pity: “None of you [have] experienced what it's like to face death, I want you to think what those soldiers felt.” “When we have a president, we will leave power,” was the Generals' answer to when is the #SCAF actually planning to hand over military rule to an awaited civilian state, inciting more questions on when is “when” exactly? It's been known from 8 months of experience that “when” in the #SCAF dictionary is actually a translation to “if.” @Mosaaberizing was the hashtag's wake-up call when he declared: “While we're all here ridiculing #SCAF lies, their presser is winning over an even larger number of the public. They lie, but do it well.” Whether Egyptians actually believe the #SCAF‘s defense or not, it's realistic enough to say that a new dictatorship only arises when people themselves tend to choose to live within a fake democracy. ** Menna Alaa can be found on twitter: @TheMiinz
NOTE: Special thanks to @jonamorem and @RawyaRageh for their efforts on this event. BM
