Most of what we learned through social media overnight has been confirmed this morning through major international press. Ben Ali has indeed deployed the active military throughout major cities, including Tunis. The deployment has not just been in neighborhoods, but in the main districts of the city in full view of whatever tourists and international businesspersons may still be in town. There's no hiding what's going on anymore, which begs the question: If the international community sees someone getting mugged on a street corner, will they actually do anything about it? Here are some of the major headlines this morning:
* PM Ghannouchi says that all prisoners are being freed - except those who are guilty!
* AJE reporting on deployment of troops in Tunis. Confirms that the big protests yesterday - suppressed by tear gas and shots fired - was indeed on Ave HB, just blocks from the medina.
* Tunisian Embassy in Switzerland was firebombed last night, according to Deutsche Welle.
* AFP: Interior minister's dismissal confirmed; sacking of Army CoS still not verified officially, but take it to the bank. Note: Don't confuse the Tunisian position of interior minister with somethign like the U.S. Secretary of the Interior! The Tunisian interior minister is in charge of internal security; quashing dissidents, operating semi-secret prisons, suppressing the Web. This is a pretty big firing - though the meaning of it is unclear. Was he fired for not holding down the revolt enough? Or for being too brutal? How's Ben Ali gonna spin this?
* AJE was reporting the highly dubious claim that the army had overthrown the government last night. Nothing from sources in the country would back this up; no one's seen the plane go wheels-up from Carthage-Tunis yet, either.
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