Page 18 - Inside Egypt News Today

Where you are. these are the first images we have seen from egypt pretty much all day. youre an experienced journalist, worked at cnn for a long time. have you ever seen anything like quite like this against the media. >> reporter: no, this is a concerted campaign to intimidate -- intimidate and confiscate equipment and its having an effect. it is stopping us getting to the story in many cases. its tough to get out where we are. it is not only the pro-mubarak supporters. its even people on the s...

Potentially the most dangerous situation we have seen in the middle east for a very long time. is that your reading of whats going on here, john? >> it is and there are people watching out there who are fans of senator mccain and some would are critics of him because hes been so active in politics including being president obamas opponent. whether you like him or dont like his policies he is one who travels constantly to that region and goes to iraq and goes to afghanistan, he goes to yemen when...

Turkey, spain, canada, britain and the u.s. and more journalists who have been beaten, arrested, their equipment destroyed, which have succeeded pretty much in stopping any live images of whats happening here from going out. >> im joined now by senior international correspondent nic robertson who is in egypt tonight. more trouble brewing. nic, im not going to reveal where you are. these are the first images we have seen from egypt pretty much all day. youre an experienced journalist, youve worke...

Happening in and around liberation square and, you know, over the last ten days we have seen -- i should say the first -- you know, over the last four or five days since saturday and sunday and monday and tuesday we saw the best of egypt. we saw a multicultural mul multidimensional group of protesters, group of people, egyptians coming forward voicing their opinion, talking about democracy and freedom and what we have seen in the last two days is the worst in egypt. we have seen thugs on the str...

I think the president has by pushing but not trying to dictate to the egyptian people. >> i want to bring in my colleague john king now. john, theres a report in tonights "the new york times" that the white house has a new plan to encourage president mubarak to seek power immedia immediately to vice president suleiman. is this new or the plan below ground going all the time. >> no offense to the two fine reporters from "the new york times" that wrote that report, piers and they do have some new ...

Secretary clinton spoke to vice president suleiman yesterday. vice president biden spoke to him today. they are clearly, piers, not getting what they want on the other end of the phone conversations. >> john, secretary of state hillary clinton held a press conference earlier today. lets see a little bit of what she had to say. >> we condemn in the strongest terms attacks on reporters covering the ongoing situation in egypt. this is a violation of international norms that guarantee freedom of the...

Wire fence lies the sinai peninsula. behind me you can see the egyptian military watch tower. 26 miles in that direction lies gaza. 85% of this desert is used by the israeli military for training purposes. and when the uprising began in egypt just over a week ago, the concern on both countries parts was there might be potential instability on the sinai peninsula. >> violent protests in egypt, tunisia and yemen and the unrest appears to be spreading. what does this mean for israel? here now is mo...

Radical. >> peter, if there is a situation, as we see in egypt right now, which is a kind of political void where no one is quite sure whats happening, isnt that exactly the kind of situation that al qaeda would want to get involved with, so even though theres no link at the moment, is there not an increasing danger that there might be? >> well, i think, piers, part of the -- why i think thats quite unlikely is these egyptian militant groups that killed more than a thousand egyptians in the 90s ...

Hold. what we have seen already is ominous enough, and is maybe a precursor of what were going to see ahead. i dont know. you know, i fear -- i mean i think nick makes incredibly important points that, you know, lets not have the story, you know, even though unfortunately journalists become part of the story because of this systemic cane toing it them lets never forget that the people in that square in liberation square as nick said do not have, you know, the capabilities and the possibility of,...

We have to make sure if we can -- we dont always control it. we dont get a repetition of a place where we make it possible for the radicalists to take power. that would be a disaster for every interest the united states has. >> i want to go to marty in israel. let me ask you straightaway, what is the mood like in israel about whats going on in egypt? >> the mood is very sober, very skeptical, skeptical of and skeptical of the united states power in this situation. the -- obama actually in my vie...