Hundreds of thousands — some boasted a million — descended on Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and to call for an end to military rule.

The square was so packed that the crowds spilled onto the bridges and streets that fan out from the plaza and into Cairo’s downtown streets, with chants for freedom thundering against the area’s crumbling, colonial-era buildings.

The sheer number of demonstrators — as well as their insistence that celebrations of the so-called revolution be rejected — seemed to suggest Egypt’s young firebrand dissidents have a groundswell of support in their bid to fell the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), a coterie of unelected generals that seized power after Mubarak's resignation.

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El-Beheiry struggled like most Egyptians, but his family says he kept a simple dream of being able to afford an apartment and to save enough to finance a modest wedding. He minded his own business.

But like hundreds of thousands of Egyptians El-Beheiry found himself swept up in the momentum of history and he took to the streets to join the protests that began January 25, 2011 and 18 days later resulted in the downfall of Mubarak. El-Beheiry continued to challenge authority — newly empowered, his family says, by the idea of a better future. On Feb. 25, he was arrested along with dozens of other protesters in front of the building where Egyptian cabinet meets.

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Khalil is a Cairo-based journalist who reports on the Middle East for a variety of Western publications. While it's impressive that he has published "Liberation Square" before the one-year anniversary of the uprising, it's not unusual. Reporters routinely crank out quickie books on major news events, and these tend to be rushed and lumpy creations, nearly as ephemeral as the newspaper stories on which they're based. What's remarkable about "Liberation Square" is how good it is, how well written, how perfectly calibrated in its amounts of background, commentary and prognostication -- and above all how thrilling it is to read.

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Thanks to Wall Street Occupier Jesse LaGreca, who didn't only show up the Fox reporter sent to embarrass occupiers, but also managed to get the OWS message across on a Sunday political chat show, which is essentially unheard of. So thanks to you, for bringing up economic justice to the ancient panel of crusty establishmentarians on "Meet on Press."

Thanks to Scott Olsen, the Iraq vet and victim of brutal police overreaction at Occupy Oakland, for showing the many forms that fighting for one's country can take. We're especially thankful that he's recovering from the coma induced by a tear gas canister fired directly at his head, and is well enough to give public statements.

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The tumult began last Friday when thousands of peaceful protesters marched in Tahrir Square to condemn a constitutional proposal which would place the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) beyond civilian control.  On Saturday afternoon, military police then cleared the square of demonstrators using tear gas but the crowds soon returned, forcing the security personnel out.  Ever since, protesters and police have been playing an ever-escalating game of cat-and-mouse through the downtown streets.

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“People need to know where this comes from,” he told me as the crowd chanted:  “The people demand an end to military rule.”

The serial number and blue markings on the  tear gas canister indicate that it was manufactured by Combined Systems Incorporated (CSI), a weapons manufacturer based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania.

This is not the first time CSI ‘s products have been used against Egyptian citizens.  During Egypt’s January revolution,  CSI tear gas was employed by the Mubarak regime against demonstrators in Tahrir Square.

Nearly nine months later, these same canisters have been raining down on demonstrators for the past  eight hours as Egyptian security forces clash with protesters throughout downtown Cairo. The  violence on Saturday came  a day after peaceful protesters occupied Tahrir Square on Friday demanding the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) accelerate the transition to civilian rule.

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The intensity and scope of the violence in downtown Cairo -- which left more than 150 injured and included at least one army vehicle plowing into a crowd of protesters -- underscored the fragility of Egypt's security in the run-up to parliamentary elections next month.

Military-led transitional officials re-enforced their late-night appeals for calm with a mandatory curfew in most of downtown Cairo early on Monday.

Official state media and the government immediately blamed the country's minority Coptic Christians and the influence of unnamed "outside forces" for the clashes -- a move that may only heighten the what is typically relatively infrequent sectarian tension in the Arab world's largest country.

Copts, as well as some Muslims who had joined in the fight, pointed fingers at a powerful military apparatus using Mubarak-style strongman tactics to quash the protests. But as is so often the case in the tumultuous post-uprising Egypt, it was not entirely clear how or why the turbulence on the streets escalated from bad to deadly.

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Crowds of the same protesters that demanded Mubarak's ouster cheered as their army said it would steer the nation toward a "free, democratic system." Seven months later, however, many Egyptians are finding that little has changed.

As the so-called Supreme Council of the Armed Forces increasingly cements, and in some cases flaunts, its firm grip on power, the revolution that inspired a region is beginning to look more like an old-fashioned military coup.

Military trials of Egyptian civilians persist and the military leadership has expanded and extended the 30-year-old, widely criticized Emergency Law once used by Mubarak to justify his authoritarian tactics.

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The televised images of Mubarak, as shocking and surreal as they were, offered many Egyptians a glimmer of hope that justice would finally prevail after the bloodshed of the January 25 uprising and three decades of repressive rule.

Not everyone, however, was cheering.

Outside the court, hundreds of Mubarak allies chanted and waived placards of support before and during his trial, which opened on Aug. 3 and met for a second session on Aug. 15.

"Oh Mubarak, hold your head high," screamed protesters, according to Reuters. "We will demolish the prison and burn it down, if Hosni Mubarak is sentenced."

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Mubarak has denied all charges.

The spectacle, aired live on state television, was the biggest humiliation for Egypt's former president since his ouster nearly six months ago. But it went a long way to satisfy one of the key demands that has united protesters since Feb. 11, the day the regime was toppled.

It was the first time Egyptians have seen Mubarak since Feb. 10, when he gave a defiant TV address refusing to resign.

"I am delighted that I see them in a cage. I feel that my son's soul is finally starting to be at rest and that his blood will cool," said Saeeda Hassan Abdel-Raouf, the mother of 22-year-old protester who was among those killed in the uprising. She spoke outside the trial venue at a Cairo police academy.

Mubarak, his former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, and six top police officers are charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the protesters killed during the uprising, according to the official charge sheet. All eight could face the death penalty if convicted.

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The answer is: far more than you might imagine. For one thing, that loaf can be "read" as if it were a core sample extracted from the heart of a grim global economy. Looked at another way, it reveals some of the crucial fault lines of world politics, including the origins of the Arab spring that has now become a summer of discontent.

Consider this: between June 2010 and June 2011, world grain prices almost doubled. In many places on this planet, that proved an unmitigated catastrophe. In those same months, several governments fell, rioting broke out in cities from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to Nairobi, Kenya, and most disturbingly three new wars began in Libya, Yemen, and Syria. Even on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Bedouin tribes are now in revolt against the country's interim government and manning their own armed roadblocks.

And in each of these situations, the initial trouble was traceable, at least in part, to the price of that loaf of bread. If these upheavals were not "resource conflicts" in the formal sense of the term, think of them at least as bread-triggered upheavals.

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Relatives of slain protesters, who were involved in the unrest, also cut traffic Monday on a highway between Cairo and Suez by lying in the street.

The policemen were charged with killing 17 people in the city of Suez during the 18-day uprising that ended on Feb. 11. The court released them on bail and postponed their trials to Sept. 14.

Nearly five months after former President Hosni Mubarak was toppled, only one policeman has been convicted in the deaths of more than 846 people during the government crackdown on protesters. He was tried in absentia.

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As the Guardian notes:

Campaigners fear the existing post-Mubarak transition program – which would see September's ballot held under an amended version of Egypt's existing constitution and then allow members of parliament to oversee the writing of a new constitution – may cede permanent power to the Muslim Brotherhood and other religious groups, who are expected to dominate the poll.

Egypt's interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf -- in line with the desires of secular groups -- suggested elections could be delayed to allow the nation's "political landscape," but has since emphasized that the election timetable will not be changed (hence the proposed July 8th protests). Fierce disagreements about the when the constitution will be written and what it will include continue too.

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Farid el-Deeb said Monday there is "evidence suggesting" that the 83-year-old Mubarak has stomach cancer.

Mubarak, ousted on Feb. 11 by a popular uprising, has been hospitalized since April in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. He is scheduled to face trial on Aug. 3 on allegations he ordered the killing of protesters during the uprising. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

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Mubarak mandated the curfew on Jan. 28 in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez as anti-government demonstrations swelled in each city. As the protests intensified, so did the curfew -- from 11 hours a day to 17 hours a day. It was eventually scaled back after he fell from power, from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m.

The first such restriction on Cairo since 1986, the curfew was widely ignored by the city's residents.

"I think the curfew was imaginary from the beginning," said Hisham Abdel Halim, 50. "Even when Mubarak was in power and he issued the curfew, nobody followed it."

Even a police officer said that the restraint was nominal at best. "There was no curfew," said the officer, 33-year-old Mohamed Kamel. "People did what they wanted."

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MENA said Wednesday that Egypt's new military rulers set the date for the opening of the crossing as part of efforts "to end the status of the Palestinian division and achieve national reconciliation."

The decision is a sharp departure from the policies of ex-President Hosni Mubarak, who had restricted the movement of people and goods through Rafah in keeping with a blockade it imposed on Gaza along with Israel after Hamas seized control of the strip in 2007.

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The 83-year-old leader and his two sons also were charged with abusing power to amass wealth, enriching associates and accepting bribes, the prosecutor-general's office said in a statement. A date has not been set for the trial in criminal court.

Putting Mubarak on trial is a key demand of many Egyptians who have rallied to demand the ousted leader and his aides face justice. A close associate of Mubarak, Hussein Salem, also was charged. He is at large.

Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11 and transferred power to the military after an 18-day popular uprising. At least 846 protesters were killed, according to a government fact-finding mission.

Mubarak has been in custody in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since last month. His two sons are in detention in a Cairo prison.

The Mubaraks and other members of the former regime have been the subject of legal efforts to bring them to trial since the ex-president was forced to resign on Feb. 11. Egypt's former security chief and four of his top aides are already on trial in the shooting of protesters.

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The three were released after they signed a pledge to not report on issues involving the armed forces that might cause "confusion" in the streets, Egypt's state news agency and a rights activist said Friday.

The three were questioned about a report El-Shorouk newspaper ran earlier this week saying Mubarak planned to release an audio appeal for amnesty in exchange for releasing all his holdings, therefore avoiding a trial. It cited unidentified Egyptian and Arab officials, as well as an unnamed military official who said a mediation deal was under way.

The report sparked a wave of criticism and calls for mass rallies to demand justice. The anger prompted a quick denial from the military rulers.

The official news agency said the three were summoned by military prosecutors Thursday and asked to sign a pledge that they would not report on news regarding the armed forces "which may cause confusion in the streets, without clearance from the armed forces."

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The ousted leader and his wife are currently under arrest in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh after both of them reportedly suffered heart attacks. According to reports from the Egyptian independent newspaper al-Shourok, citing unnamed Egyptian officials, the apology speech is currently being prepared and will be aired on several Egyptian and Arab channels.

Al-Arabiya News notes that Mubarak's mea culpa will, nonetheless, be mitigated. He will insinuate that others in his administration should carry blame and will stress his own successes in the past. The news agency commented:

However transparent Mr. Mubarak’s strategy might be, it could offer Egypt’s current military rulers a way out from prosecuting their ailing former boss. In any case, it is considered unlikely that the courts would condemn Mr. Mubarak to death—as some revolutionaries have demanded—or even incarcerate him. Such moves would conceivably turn world opinion against Egypt at a time when the beleaguered nation has many economic and social problems to tackle.

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