Amanpour Takes It To The Strongman

Feb 3rd, 2011

FULL VIDEO OF TONIGHT'S ABC NEWS REPORT FROM CHRITIANE AMANPOUR IS BELOW.

I have two observation about the reporting today by Christiane Amanpour from Cairo. First, she is to commended for her profound bravery in journeying through a terribly dangerous situation to get her story. Second, she really didn't get much out of Pres. Hosni Mubarak other than confirmation that he is a delusional, besieged thug. 

From ABC:

"We had to take a route that ran through a neighborhood where there were pro-Mubarak supporters in the streets were setting up their own check points.

When we got stuck in a crush of traffic, we were surrounded by an angry mob.

For about an hour, we worked on negotiating our way out of the situation by talking and staying extremely calm. At one point a solider came up to us. We explained what we were doing and showed him papers that were an official invitation to the interview.

Very, very, slowly the crowd started to fall back and our car was able to move. The other two cars in our convoy were taken to a nearby police station for safety. Nobody was hurt, nobody was attacked, but it was clearly an uncertain and unsettling hour."

Mubarak's denials of involvement in the running street battles which have consumed Tahrir Square are almost absurd in light of the work of lesser known reporters since the week began. 

"He told me that he is troubled by the violence we have seen in Tahrir Square over the last few days but that his government is not responsible for it. Instead, he blamed the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned political party here in Egypt

I asked President Mubarak about the violence that his supporters launched against the anti-government protesters in Liberation Square.

He told me, "I was very unhappy about yesterday. I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other."

If Mubarak really wants to see an end to "Egyptians fighting" then perhaps he should stop ordering his terror squads to start any more fighting.

Her interview with torture-expert and "new Egyptian VP" Omar Suleiman seems to confirm the doomed Mubarak Regime's intention to continue mis-characterizing the anti-government demonstrators as dangerous children.

From ABC:

"We will not use any violence against them," Suleiman said from the presidential palace. "We will ask them to go home. And we'll ask their parents to ask them to go home."