critical juncture. we'll talk to ben wedeman and others about that and what they anticipate. i want to tell you a few of the other updates, as we said, cell phone service is likely to be cut here. american civilians are trying to evacuate as much as possible. as many as a thousand americans were evacuated on monday and special u.s. government charters, they have to reimburse the government for. they were sent to sites in europe. from there it's up to them to book their onward travel. the marines are coming to the united states embassy to secure the embassy here in cairo, nonessential diplomatic personnel, their families are also being evacuated here. it is a tense situation on the eighth day. the u.s. has named a special envoy to cairo, a retired state official who will be meeting with the mubarak regime. what that regime decides to do frankly, at this point, is