Interviews with Ahmed Samih

And part of the plan was about getting internet access when– the internet would be cutted. And a lot of international activist– internet phreaks– (LAUGH) been very supportive of donating them own– dial up internet access. I had around 60 pages of international phone numbers all over the– the– the Europe and the United States and India.

People donated their own access to the internet. And my team was– asked people to cut this out and keep distributed. The second thing we expected from very early that they will cut the mobile services. So the main thing was about keeping communicating.

And they cut the internet services but they couldn´t cut the landlines. So it was very easy to communicate with the international world through the landlines. And when you have a landline, means that you have fax. And the fax is still working. And even if they– we been on the radio also, even if they call cut the landlines with certain ways. But in the end of the day, no one can says that he been effective in revolution. Everybody did his best. And that was the main reason this revolution was successful.

Ahmed has extensive experience as an organizer and trainer in international programs for human rights education. He has served as a media adviser and director of media observation in a national campaign for monitoring elections in Egypt sponsored by USAID. He has also been a trainer for projects sponsored by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund, such as Supporting NGOs and Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion and Combating Propaganda for War. He is the founder of various organizations: Liberal Youth Seminar sponsored by New Civic Forum, Knowledge Club, and Free Youth Association sponsored by Al JEEL Center for Youth and Social Studies. Currently, Ahmed is the Director of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies and the director of EGYPT 1st online internet radio.