did they take you by surprise? what was your immediate reaction? and did you ever imagine that it would create the kind of domino effect we've been seeing? >> first, it didn't begin in tunisia. it began in tehran a year and a half ago. millions went to the streets and called for freedom, for democracy, and this repressive regime. and they were put down brutally. and then it came back in tunis and from tunis it went to cairo and from cairo it's going everywhere. did i expect it at this time, no. did i expect it at one time, at sometime, yes. because the spread of information technology creates an inevitable conflict that is in many ways the 20th century passed by a lot of the arab world and muslim world, and in comes the information technology of the 21st century and is telling all these people what they missed out on. this creates the turbulence. will it end quickly?