Wouldnt Throw Coup News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Holmes. jami, let me start with you. the you've been blogging on the very issue of the constitution. if indeed president mubarak does step down, satisfying all of the protesters that are milling in the streets and spent so many days there, is the constitution strong enough to get them to the next place? >> look, they have a constitution in egypt. it's been on the books, ratified by the people in 1971. but what we don't always understand here in the west is that a revolution does not necessarily lead you to democracy and that a constitution is really just a bunch of words on a page. that it nee...

Constitutional framework amendment that would let the vice president assume powers. at least that's the formality. practically speaking, it looks like he's fogoing to turn the powers over to his vice president. >> what you're noting is the complexities we have to look forward to should this happen tonight. another one of the questions might be when we hear the word "coup" we think of violence, something that's very radical. what are we going to see if we're calling this a coup? >> i think you're going to see probably significant divisions among the demonstrators. for example, the young google ...

Something that could be quite ca catacly cataclysmic. >> reporter: the military gave a short statement by the supreme military council that includes the top generals, the defense minister. it also would normally be headed by president mubarak. president mubarak was not at the meeting. so you have all of the generals meeting without mubarak, and the generals saying we will take steps to ensure the security of egypt. that is what, according to that analyst, effectively a coup. we have not seen the military come out and make the statement saying the military is now in charge and general whoever i...

Hour, as you speak with your sources on the ground as well as other analysts, have they intimated that this will be a violent coup, that there will be violence associated with this, or will this be a smoother transition, if we can associate that with the word "coup." >> reporter: a coup implies tanks would storm in and that is not the scenario that has been unfolding as far as we can tell. this would be more of a constitutional coup or a military asserting its right and abrogating the president's authority, not a violent kind of action like you've seen in coups in latin america or other countr...

An arab language channel has reported he's traveled. the information minister and the prime minister, who both represent mubarak' government are saying that he is still in power. the military has come out and said it will take actions to secure the country, to secure the aspirations of the people. we have also been told that a military representative has contacted the protesters, saying that their demands will be met. what we don't know, if mubarak will come out and say this. we don't know where he's going to go. but we are hearing as we've been reporting all along from two sources that presid...