his new vice president is a general. he met with the defense minister, who was fired, but still meeting with the president, and the military chief of staff as well. and mubarak, a man who has stayed in power through thick and thin through six assassination attempts and all kinds of turmoil before, meeting with military advisers. a man still holding on. and now let s reset other developments from egypt this morning. fear replacing hope on the streets of egypt. citizens arming themselves, not against the government, but against escaped prisoners and looters. a lot to tell you about this morning. tourists in the center of the storm. the u.s. moving to get americans out of egypt. other countries doing the same. it is early and we are on it. from the cnn center, this is cnn. i m randi kaye. and i m jonathan mann. we d like to welcome our viewers worldwide to our coverage of
days, a lot of discussions at the state department. concern with the chaos in the country, with the egyptian government, the security services and military really don t have the capacity right now to protect american citizens and so they are what the state department and embassy are doing, they are allowing nonemergency personnel, noncore personnel to leave the country and their families and help evacuate americans to safe havens in europe. it s voluntary, but the state department saying the situation isare urging americans to leave. so much at stake for the u.s. and many other countries. what will be the next step for the united states here? reporter: i think they are walking a very tightrope right now, wanting to show support for the aspirations and democracy of the protesters, but you also have to consider that egypt is a very important ally. mubarak is a very important
time trying to organize everything from hotel bookings to flight bookings to get in or out of the country, given the fact that you can t really communicate over the internet. it shows you how depend we are on this means of communication. the tourist operators, businesses themselves, unable to make flight and hotel reservation bookings and we re hearing not only that the u.s. embassy is going to start organizing some flights out on monday for u.s. citizens here, but also turkey announcing that it s going to begin several flights to allow the evacuation of turkish citizens starting on sunday, according to turkey s semi-official news agency. lack of communication adding to the problems there. ivan watson in cairo, thank you. and the protests in egypt have spilled beyond the borders. and the streets of new york look a little like what we re seeing in cairo. quick facts of egypt. more than 80 million people living in egypt.
what to do. difficulties of covering such a tremendous story. he s not just covering. he is living it. can you imagine your neighborhood. suddenly men popping up with ak-47s? ben wedeman, long-time cairo correspondent. president obama s response. the white house is working overtime. how will they deal with the surprise uprising? back in two minutes. people of egypt have rights that are universal. that includes the right to peaceful assembly and association. the right to free speech. and the ability to determine their own destiny. these are human rights, and the united states will stand up for them everywhere. we ll continue. the lexus rx. why settle for a copy when you can own the original? see your lexus dealer.
opposing violence and calling for restraint, supporting universal rights, and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform within egypt. we ll hear that same message again sunday morning as you know, because of the fact that secretary of state hillary clinton is going out today on all five sunday morning talk shows, an extraordinary step to really hit that message. you know, as well that u.s. officials have threatened that very important u.s. aid to egypt, including 1$1.3 billion year in military aid could be cut off if hosni mubarak s government doesn t show more restraint. this white house realizes it cannot push mubarak too hard, because if the government falls, this white house isn t sure who would fill the power vacuum, and with other key u.s. allies like israel, the stakes for this administration are enormous, randi. thank you, ed.