Page 36 - Inside Egypt News Today

And everyone is quite worried. and its very -- its an unprecedented even feeling to have this in egypt because cairo in terms of safety and security has never been an issue. its an extremely safe city. people leave their doors open. no one fears, you know, in terms of being attacked by random hooligans. so this is really unprecedented. a new experience. >> and not a good one, i imagine. its coming up to 20 past 11:00 in nighttime right now. so i guess this is now a matter for you and your family...

You have a very poor country far poorer than egypt, you have a very divided country between the north and south. you have a growing al qaeda presence. you have a vital american interest which is to avoid al qaeda developing further in yemen and becoming the base after afghanistan, after we leave afghanistan, and its a very combustible situation. a kind of tinderbox, and id keep my eye on yemen. iran, this may surprise you that i chose iran as a country to discuss today, but and its been very qui...

>> reporter: im in cairo right now. >> okay, youre in cairo. whats taking place there? >> reporter: right. one of the striking things i was just thinking about are these scenes playing over in my mind of egyptians showing victory over a symbol of something that they clearly associate with oppression, and that being the police force. i remember as i was driving in today, two women in bright head scarves standing and posing for photos in front of the burned out hulk of an egyptian police troop car...

Resign. >> exactly. but he is not going anywhere. hes not stepping down. so brian todd reports on what happens if mr. mubarak, if he leaves, who will fill that power vacuum. >> reporter: on the streets, in their twitter and facebook messages, the young catalysts of the uprising in egypt leave no doubt about their objective, to drive out an 82-year-old president whos ruled them with an iron hand for as long as many of them have been alive. but that presents a problem. hosni mubarak has been in po...

Do they back the reformers, do they back mubarak? weve heard from the u.s. president basically saying that hosni mubarak simply cannot reshuffle his government. he fired them all basically, and not move forward on reform. so this is the big issue now for the u.s. very awkward position. >> very awkward, especially since it was only a couple of years ago when president barack obama was in cairo and talking about those very principles that you heard, the rousing cheering crowd of those college stud...

Across to online activism. >> the people of egypt want better lives, more freedom, choose their own government. but people who make those kinds of demands in egypt in other times tend to have a hard time of it. and on the internet as well. thats been a dangerous place to protest. hasnt it? >> reporter: oh, absolutely. not just in egypt, especially in light of what happened in tunisia but also after what happened in iran, after the electio elections, weve seen online ak tiskism take off. but that...

Out so theres no such thing as a complete shutdown. i mentioned earlier that wed show you some of the tweets going on right now with respect to some of the concerns about what people are calling chaos, concerns about looting, concerns about security in general in various areas. take a look. i just pulled up a few that were sent to us by viewers say pay attention to this one. this one talked about reports of there being gunfire near the presidential palace. this is a good example of whats happeni...

And how pivotal all that transpires with egypt is for the entire region, when you think about the israeli relationship, what stands out for you? >> right now if i was an israeli, if i was sitting at home in jerusalem and tel aviv, i would be very nervous. because if you look at the whole foundation for israeli foreign policy, ever since that peace treaty at camp david in 1978, which was signed by anwar sadat, ever since that happened, thats been the cornerstone of israeli foreign policy. thats b...

Collection of some of the most remarkable artifacts from egypts past. and egyptians know that. and so ordinary egyptians banded together to protect the museum. the military tried its best to protect the building but the indications we have, and i cant tell you why at this moment, indications are there has been some damage to that remarkable place. once again, its a place, if youve been to cairo, youll have visited it. if youve never been to cairo, you will go there. because all of the riches of ...

To survive. >> they had similar reasons or legitimate reasons at the time to wonder about whether that cornerstone was going to be crumbling as a result of the assassination of anwar sadat. however, there was some reassurance that they would be able to stay on track. >> exactly. when mubarak took power -- this is actually one of the big problems. when he took power it was all about stability, steady as she goes. hes not a great reformer, hes not a great visionary. he was never going to be this w...