Egyptian blogger ‘Sandmonkey‘ is calling it quits due to the Egyptian government’s crackdown on bloggers and dissenting voices. While anonymous, ‘Sandmonkey’ posts:

I no longer believe that my anonymity is kept, especially with State Secuirty agents lurking around my street and asking questions about me since that day. I ignore that, the same way I ignored all the clicking noises that my phones started to exhibit all of a sudden, or the law suit filed by Judge Mourad on my friends, and instead grew bolder and more reckless at a time where everybody else started being more cautious.

Paranoia or just cause? I believe it’s the latter as I have been a reader of his blog for quite some time now and have watched as he has always seemed to take a dig at the Egyptian government when it comes to foreign policy and domestic issues, as well as paid attention as one Egyptian blogger was arrested.

When ‘Sandmonkey’ has to quit blogging in fear of being arrested, it takes all the calls of some U.S. Liberals who claim someone is stifling their dissent, and I still don’t know who that ’someone’ is, into greater context and once again presents them as the jokes they are.

‘Sandmonkey’ will be missed, not just as a strong democratic voice in Egypt, but also as a humorous blogger who always put items into the greater context that is missing in today’s world.

Check out the site now, which will certainly remain up since it’s hosted on Freedom’s Zone to help ensure he had a place to blog.

Also check out Atlas’ interview with ‘Sandmonkey’ who speaks on the Egyptian crackdown and what Pelosi’s trip to Syria and Hoyer’s meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood has done to the region.  A small excerpt:

Atlas: Where you shocked when Hoyer met with the Muslim Brotherhood?

SANDMONKEY: Let me tell you something. I was in Turkey a couple of weeks ago and I met a couple of Syrian activists. They one thing they told me that was really funny about the Pelosi visit. After Pelosi came to Syria two things happened. People on Syrian TV were saying, “We forced the Americans to knock on the Damascus gate!” Sort of like an admission that we messed things up in Iraq so much that America had to come and beg for their help.

But the day after Pelosi’s visits there were immediate arrests of Syrian activists. That was the fruit she yielded. “Oh the Americans came over and they said they have a different foreign policy  and they’re more interested in placating Bashar’s ego.” And he went out and got [arrested] everyone he wanted because he knew he had an ally in Washington that wouldn’t pressure him as much . . .

ATLAS: We have to educate the American people. You think the American people know this?

SANDMONKEY: No, but do they even care at this point? I don’t think they are interested in the discussion any more. There are people that have made up their mind, they think we need to placate the dictators because America is wrong and everyone else is always right. That’s how they operate.

Sad, very sad.