A Guide to Egypt's Terrific Day 15 of Protests

•Today, perhaps the most enormous demonstration to date is underway in Tahrir Square. (Enormous! (Really!) There are still weapon-screeners and ID checks, but there also seem to be cheering welcoming committees as people enter. Today people report exuberance — and a very, very real sense that the Mubarak regime is ending. Protestors are now heading for the Parliament as well. Large demonstrations are happening in other cities.

• Vice President, spy honcho and former alleged torturer Omar Suleiman says, after a morning meeting with President Mubarak, that “the regime has a plan and a timetable for the peaceful transfer of power.” Also: “Mubarak has formed a panel to oversee constitutional amendments.” Oh neat, I’m sure he’ll set that up really well, what with his three decades of experience with money-hoarding and democracy-staunching.

• What’s more, the state-run media is being dismantled from within. For one: “Journalists at the pro-government newspaper Rosalyusif are staging a protest against their editor.” And! “More than five hundred media figures declared their rejection of official media coverage of the January 25 uprising and demanded that Minister of Information Anas El-Fikki step down.” Hot.

• Last night, Google executive Wael Ghonim was released from detention. Ghonim had created a Facebook page for Khalid Said, who was killed by police, which became an organizing tool for protestors. Ghonim’s first interview is here. Here’s something to stick in Malcolm Gladwell’s craw: “His interrogators in detention, too, expressed disbelief that ‘a few young guys’ organized through Facebook could have spurred the mass protests rocking Egypt for more than two weeks.” You don’t say.

• The death toll in Egypt is, according to the Human Rights Watch, “at least 297 killed since January 28–232 in Cairo, 52 in Alexandria and 13 in Suez.” (Their disclaimer: that number is based on key hospitals in three cities, and only deaths they were able to confirm, and they expect the total to rise.) Still, that’s fairly amazing for a revolutionary uprising of hundreds of thousands of people across a country.

• Yesterday, the faculty of the Cairo University law school met, and released a strong statement: “To completely support and back the revolution of the 25th of January.”

• Here is an odd an interesting thing: a shared Google doc called “Jan 25 Blacklist,” which notes Mubarak’s collaborators. They include TV presenter Khaled Elghandor, Vodafone Egypt and Mike Huckabee. (And the Post’s Richard Cohen! Which, true! He is an enemy of democracy!)