SPECIAL REPORT - Inside the Egyptian revolution

CAIRO (Reuters) - In early 2005, Cairo-based computer engineer Saad Bahaar was trawling the internet when he came across a trio of Egyptian expatriates who advocated the use of non-violent techniques to overthrow strongman Hosni Mubarak. Bahaar, then 32 and interested in politics and how Egypt might change, was intrigued by the idea. He contacted the group, lighting one of the fuses that would end in freedom in Tahrir Square six years later.

The three men he approached -- Hisham Morsy, a physician, Wael Adel, a civil engineer by training, and Adel's cousin Ahmed, a chemist -- had all left Egypt for jobs in London.