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U.S. Administration Acknowledges Significant Role of Social Media Technology in Egyptian Protests; Signs of Anarchy Appearing as Police Appear to Have Abandoned Cairo; Demonstration Supporting Egypt Scheduled at U.N. in New York; Many in Israel Worried Over Egyptian Protests

Aired January 29, 2011 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, along with my colleague Jon Mann.

You've been holding down the fort all morning long.

MANN: Trying to. There's been a lot going on.

WHITFIELD: There's a lot going on. So, together we will be for the next couple of hours.

Incredible images coming out of Egypt, significant movement as well. It's involving thousands -- of course millions -- right there within the country, and the world is watching what's transpiring.

MANN: And everyone's waiting to see what Hosni Mubarak is going to do. We've been watching the protests unfold for what, five days now, but now the government is moving. Less than 24 hours ago, President Hosni Mubarak spoke for the first time and now we have learned that he has asked for, gotten the resignation of his cabinet and he's started to appoint their replacements.

In fact, he's done one thing bigger than that, or bigger, Egypt's never had a vice president under Hosni Mubarak, it has one now. The man who has long headed Hosni Mubarak's intelligence service, a man many people say once saved Hosni Mubarak's life. And state run television is reporting that the country's former civil aviation minister, who just resigned, well, he was in the air force for decades just like Hosni Mubarak, a man with a past in the military, a man with a past in the Hosni Mubarak's own air force, he has been asked to serve as prime minister and appoint a new government.

WHITFIELD: All right and even though, right now, it is nighttime there, there's a curfew in effect, protesters clearly are still in the streets, even though these images are from daylight you've seen from earlier today, also in the streets, the army, as you see, the presence right there, dozens of people also being reported killed so far in all that's transpired over the last five days. Many protesters say they want President Mubarak to leave. He reached out to them last night. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOSNI MUBARAK, PRESIDENT OF EGYPT (through translator): As the president of this country and with all the power the constitution gave me, I assure you that I am working for the people and giving freedoms of opinion as long as you are respecting the law. There is a very little line between freedom and chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: A fine line between freedom and chaos, Hosni Mubarak clearly implying he is that line, but events are changing fast and we've got it all covered for you. We have correspondents on the ground in Cairo and Alexandria and we're monitoring places like Jerusalem and Washington. The social media as well, they've been crucial in all of this. Stay with us all day as we watch and analyze event as they unfold.

WHITFIELD: All right, our many correspondents there, Ivan Watson, he's also joining us.

I understand, Ivan, you've been at a hospital earlier and now you're joining us from a hotel in Cairo. What are you able to report from those two vantage points?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that a curfew was supposed to be imposed, but there are still thousands of people in this, what's known as Liberation Square, Tahrir Square, where the protests and the demonstrations have really been gathered throughout the day. Now, many of the people I spoke with they said I'm not going to pay attention to that curfew right now, I'm going to stay out here until Hosni Mubarak leaves this country and yet you can see the crowds are diminishing, people are starting to head home.

Now, the scenes taking place in the square over my shoulder were of real elation, you had people practically dancing in the streets, jumping on top of army tanks, photographing themselves with army soldiers, but periodically and just now perhaps, I believe we heard another gunshot, there have been these spurts of gunfire coming from this direction, and we believe and of that is coming from the Interior Ministry where a number of people that I met today said they had been wounded when they tried to approach that building and then had to be rushed out for treatment. They claim that there were snipers on the rooftops of that building and one doctor that I spoke to today said that he had treated at least 60 people in the makeshift first-aid clinic that had been established on the doorstep of a mosque just a few blocks from the scenes of festive, celebration in Tahrir Square -- Randi.

KAYE: Oh, and, Ivan, actually, this is Fredricka talking to you, but you know, you mentioned the snipers. Now, is it believed the snipers work with the police force there or with the military, the army? Because we know that the public sentiment of those two factions are very different.

WATSON: That's right. And here most of the accusations are against the Interior Ministry which would run the police force and you have this sharp division where there is a great deal of hatred for the police force and Interior Ministry, and yet people embracing the army, people saying that every Egyptian family has at least one soldier in it. The army is the Egyptian people.

Now, one man I spoke with today, he's actually a television anchorman, very agitated, said you know, we don't see any police presence whatsoever in the streets right now, ever since the police were basically overcome in street battles yesterday in the city. And now there are concerns about anarchy. There have been cases of looting. I drove through one neighborhood this morning where a number of shops had been looted, some torched as well, and serious concerns from some Egyptians know that nobody's going to maintain law and order and that you can have the wealthier classes here falling victim to the hordes of impoverished people in the city, some out in the streets, right now.

WHITFIELD: You know, may I ask you a little more on that, when you talk about the wealthy class possibly falling victim, it had also been reported that among those who have helped spawn this movement, this spirit of protest had been mostly young people, but at the same time there have been lots of examples of people of the middle class, wealthier residents as well, young and old, who are coming together in this movement. Have you seen great evidence of that?

WATSON: Yes, it's really an eclectic mix of people. It's people from the impoverished underclasses here, workers, people who are scraping to get by, earning just enough money to basically feed themselves during the day, and then educated people who speak languages and they're all side by side in this. And it's a boisterous, boisterous demonstration of people power, I got to say. When you're in the middle of it, you're getting hip checked and shoulder checked left and right and people are just terribly excited.

Again, angry, angry at Hosni Mubarak and the regime that has been in place here, but giddy with the excitement of being able to say that they hate this government. And it's a very strange combination of emotions that you have there on the street behind me in this Tahrir Square right now, which is very appropriately called in the translation, Liberation Square.

WHITFIELD: Ivan Watson, thanks so much from Cairo. Of course we'll be checking back with you -- Jon.

MANN: You know, he talks about the strange combination he's reportedly been hearing in some places a happy kind of chaos, in other places, bloody conflict. That's still ongoing.

WHITFIELD: Lots of contradictions.

MANN: Exactly. Our long time Cairo bureau chief, Ben Wedeman joins us now. Ben, where have you been and what have you seen?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Well, I've been sort of going around to the south -- southern parts of Cairo and what I see is a fairly disturbing situation. I went to police stations that their arsenals are stolen and then the police stations were ransacked. The police in Cairo effectively are no longer on the ground, but they have not been replaced by the army.

Of course, you've seen lots of pictures from the army in Tahrir Square, on the street behind me, but they're largely absent in many of the neighborhoods in Cairo. I've seen people are setting up barricades, handing out sticks and kitchen knives to the men and teenagers in the neighborhoods because people are worried about looters, about anarchy, they're worried about prisoners escaping, and just creating havoc in the street.

And by and large the army is enjoying the sort of lovefest in Tahrir Square. But people, we're getting phone calls from all over Cairo, panicked people, saying that there are criminals in the street, that, for instance in the neighborhood of Mohandeseen, across the river, a very sort of upscale neighborhood, all the shops in the main street there have been ransacked and looted. There are no protests going on there. Cars are on fire, tires are burning in the street. Much of the media is focusing on this demonstration in Tahrir Square, but I can tell you, probably most Cairo residents are more worried about their homes, their property, and their loved ones.

MANN: Ben, Egypt has one of the largest militaries in the world, it's got an army that's half a million men strong. It is a police state, and even though the police fully have been pushed back, you have to wonder why the police, such as they are, why the military is letting that kind of chaos, that kind of danger overtake the capital of the country.

WEDEMAN: Well, if you speak to many of the people on the street, their worry is that this is president Mubarak's strategy. Put the army out in a limited fashion, send the police to their barracks, let sort of the darker forces in society come to the surface, scare the hell out of the people so that they will beg President Mubarak to re- establish order, that seems to be the impression of many Egyptians. And it must be pointed out, the army has no training in restoring civil order. They're an army, they're an army that's trained to fight the enemies of Egypt, not the Egyptian people. The soldiers, I can tell you, they don't know what to do. They're out in their tanks, they're enjoying all of the back slaps, the hugs, the kisses and the photographs people are making of them, but they're not really on sure ground to establishing law and order in the capital -- Jonathan.

MANN: Wow. CNN's long-time Cairo bureau chief, Ben Wedeman, from celebrations, something stranger and much more ominous that we may be seeing. Thanks very much -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Lots of contradictions unfolding, too, in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria where the day began peacefully, but things have now taken a very severe turn. Our CNN senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is there.

So Nic, I understand you've actually heard some gunshots there and there were also signs of tear gas and other indicators of real problems there in Alexandria.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the problems that are emerging are very much like Ben describes in Cairo. Here the army only present in very small numbers in the center of the city in a very weak position, not prepared to take on the crowds, not willing to even stand up and stop them when they climb on their trucks, when they climb on trucks to celebrate. We have heard gunshots, we've seen just below the balcony here, somebody being hauled off by a small mob. A lot of the people have gone off the streets now, but there are still small knots of men walking around the city not observing the curfew. And if you look at each sort of group of men as they go by, one of them will be holding or two of them will be holding sticks in their hands and there is that real anxiety here as well about a lack of police force, police stations destroyed, no police force in evidence.

And as you go around the city, neighborhood watches are being set up by residents who are boarding up the windows of their shops in some cases, because they're very afraid of this, the looting that's going on in other parts of the city -- in other parts of the country, as well. We saw looting going on last night. And without the police to enforce security and law and order, people are at a loss. I talked to a man by one of the army tanks, one of the armed personnel carriers and I said, what do you want from the army? And it was exactly that, to protect the people and keep the people safe. The army is not going to be able and is not able to deliver that at the moment, and that is likely going to also fuel some frustration, equally division over the next step the people should try to take here as well -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: So, in Alexandria similar to the sentiment we heard from Ben in Cairo, people are most concerned about their personal properties, their businesses, they want those things protected, but Alexandria and Cairo are very different cities. Can you kind of spell out the similarities and differences between these two big cities in Egypt?

ROBERTSON: Alexandria is a city that's had a reputation for the police and the Interior Ministry to be particularly brutal against the people in terms of picking people up for questioning, in terms of torture, the allegations have been even killing. Last summer, there was a very well-known case here where a young man was picked up on the streets by the police and he didn't handle the situation well with the police, he told them to leave him alone and they beat him up and killed him.

This city has that reputation for brutality. And I think that's one of the reasons why we've seen such a brutal reaction against the police here, and that's a reason why there are no police here, because the stations have been overrun.

It's sort of hard to imagine, if you would, but imagine your local police station or the main police station in the city or the town where you live, imagine that's completely burned down, it's ransacked by looters, even as policemen were sitting in their houses, who's going to organize them? They'd be too afraid to go on the streets for fear of getting beaten up again. So that's the picture. There's sort of criminal element here now, getting this taste of freedom that there's no one out there to stop them and that's where a situation like what we're experiencing here becomes slightly anarchic, if you will. When the population, they've tasted freedom on the streets, freedom of expression, they've tasted the chance to revolt and stand up to the regime, but there's an under element, if you will, that has now tasted the fact that it can make profit out of the situation. And that's the worry.

WHITFIELD: Nic Robertson, thanks so much, in Alexandria -- Jon.

MANN: This may be the ugly side of the uprising that we've been watching, spellbound for days, in fact. Ben Wedeman is saying a lot of people think this is actually the government's strategy, but we're seeing is this, a curfew that has been imposed is being widely ignored. And we heard from Nic Robertson and Ben Wedeman before him, that there's a measure of chaos, now in the street. Ordinary Egyptians, the people we thought were so delighted with the turn of events, are now doing their best to organize and defend their homes from looters. This is not politics, this is now personal safety which cuts a lot closer to many people.

WHITFIELD: And we're seeing it in these two cities which really is a microcosm of what's taking place across the country of Egypt.

MANN: The other big development that we've seen, after firing his cabinet, Hosni Mubarak has some new names to introduce the world to, in fact, they're well known to many of Egypt's closest allies. There is a new vice president. The first vice president Hosni Mubarak has ever named in his nearly 30 years in power. There's also a new prime minister whose job it will be to form a new cabinet. Hosni Mubarak reassembling a government and it would seem getting ready to stick around for a while.

WHITFIELD: Still in power, it's unclear at this point whether that's exactly what the protesters wanted. We're going to take a short break from now and talk a little bit more about all these elements and how it goes into play with a new government being established by Mubarak and whether it makes any difference. In the U.S. conversations, the relations between the U.S. and Egypt. More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: Welcome back. Days of upheaval ongoing in Egypt. A key ally to the United States, Both politically and strategically. A lot of its importance has to do very basically with its location. Take a quick look at the map. On the north edge, Israel, of course the border there has been a trouble spot in the past, providing a route for terror groups like Hamas to funnel weapons into the Palestinian territories. The Suez Canal, right there, in the Red Sea, a major shipping route linking Europe and Asia, of course that includes oil, about 10 percent all goods shipped by water go through the Suez Canal.

Then look just to the east and you see Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Iran. They offer their own set of challenges and contributions at a time like this.

WHITFIELD: The U.S. is carefully monitoring the crisis in Egypt. Today, the U.S. State department tweeted that the U.S. is, "Concerned about the potential for violence and is urging restraint on all sides." President Obama is getting multiple daily briefings on the unrest in Egypt. He talked to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak by phone yesterday after Mubarak went to the general airwaves and spoke to the public. This is what President Obama had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: We've also been clear that there must be reform: Political, social and economic reforms that meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people. In the absence of these reforms, grievances have built up over time. When President Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people tonight, he pledged a better democracy and greater economic opportunity.

I just spoke to him after his speech, and I told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words, to take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: It makes for a delicate balancing act for President Obama as he responds to all of this. Egypt is of course the world's most populace Arab country and as we mentioned, President Hosni Mubarak is a key American ally. The United States sends $1.3 billion a year in aid. Egypt is one of the largest recipients on the planet for it. The country is also No. 4 on the U.S. list after Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel.

Egypt is a key player in the Mid-East peace process, of course, it mediated negotiations when the militant group, Hamas, helping to get cease-fire agreements. Egypt hosts Operation Bright Star every two years. That's the biggest multilateral military exercise the U.S. has in the Middle East. President Obama chose Cairo in 2009 as the site of a major speech, an outreach to the Muslim world.

WHITFIELD: So, first Tunisia, and then there was Algeria threatening also Yemen and now Egypt. A key question for Middle-East watchers, will there be a ripple effect across the entire region?

MANN: Well, we're already seeing some kind of resonance, but this is the concern for the Obama administration. Joining us from Washington, CNN state department producer, Elise Labott.

Elise, let me you ask you, first of all, about the personnel change. The protesters want Hosni Mubarak out, instead get a new man in, a vice president, which they haven't seen for decades in that country. And at least to the people you talked to, he's a known commodity and a pretty tough one, at that.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN U.S. STATE DEPARTMENR PRODUCER: Well, he's a known commodity, really the point man for working with the United States on a lot of issues in the region, about the peace process, kind of dealing with the United States on a lot of security issues, but what we're hearing right now, reaction to this appointment from the State Department is it's not about personalities, it's about policies. And while they say that they know him, they've worked with him very well, they really want to see more meaningful change, meaningful reforms. It's not really about a reshuffling of the deck, if you will, but they want to see actual things that President Mubarak is going to do: Open up a national dialogue with the people, something on job creation, so it's a little bit of wait and see, but I think so far what President Mubarak has done has been a bit of a disappointment -- Jon.

MANN: Can I ask you just a behind-the-scenes question to the extent you know about it or know about it in similar circumstances -- what happens at the State Department on a day like this? A trusted U.S. ally, really a pillar of U.S. policy for three decades, is toppling, at least a little bit. What do people do? Are they busy working the phones? Are they busy rushing around having meetings are sirens going of somewhere? I mean, what's it like to be at state today?

LABOTT: Well, there's a lot of things going on at one once. First of all, there's a lot contact with Ambassador Margaret Scobey, who's really giving the administration, via secure video conference, minute- by-minute updates, not only what's on, on the ground, how to assess what's happening, what's going on within the opposition, what's going on within the government. And then they're trying to assess best case scenarios, worst case scenarios. What can we expect from President Mubarak. And Yesterday there was a lot of waiting around to see what he was going to say, but how can we work with him if he's really trying to institute that change.

Also, what happens if he falls? I don't think that anybody, right now, thinks that that's eminent, but they certainly don't know, because this is really unpredictable and they're really evaluating in real-time, but they're having many meetings, many calls, reaching out to leaders in the region, their partners in the region to see how this will affect many aspects of their policy, because as we've been talking about all morning, Egypt is really key, not only in the region, but to U.S. policy on all those issues.

MANN: Day-after-day of late nights and a lot of worry at the State Department. Elise Labott, thanks very much.

WHITFIELD: And clearly what she's underscoring, took, is that what goes or how goes Egypt may go the entire Middle Eastern region, north African region, so it's so pivotal, what transpires with Egypt, who's in power, what takes place next and the U.S. relations with Egypt, it could have a powerful impact on the entire region and really the world.

MANN: It is going to. Well, Egypt is not the only Arab state straining under a revolt, today.

WHITFIELD: That's right. We know already that the bigger picture shows that there are leaders in other Arab states that are watching very closely, as he heard Elise say, and we'll elaborate on that later a little bit later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: Welcome back. More rage in the streets of Egypt, anti- government demonstrations are in their fifth day, now. This hour protesters are defying a curfew. Dozens of deaths are reported since the demonstrations began. Earlier, state TV reported President Hosni Mubarak's cabinet resigned as he had ordered. The former head of Egypt's intelligence service is now vice president and the country's civil aviation minister, who just resigned, has been appointed to form a new government.

WHITFIELD: So, let's not forget that the chaos you and I are watching right now in Egypt was actually born of similar unrest in Tunisia, Algeria, just to name a few, and now Yemen, as well. So, here's how far that so-called Tunisian wind has blown, so far. Across north Africa into the Persian Gulf. And while we focus on Egypt, Andrew Pierre has a wider view. He shared that with us last week.

In fact quite accurately, Mr. Pierre.

He is a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and he's with us now.

So, let's revisit a bit of what you said. You were rather prophetic where you said one of the most important countries to watch from this Tunisian wind would be Egypt. Let's listen to what you had to say last weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROF. ANDREW PIERRE, SENIOR FELLOW, U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE: Having an impact in the streets also, very interesting, and potentially Algeria. And in those three countries you've got leaders who are very anxious about what could happen to them. The two important countries to watch are, in my judgment, Egypt, where you have 85 million people, Tunisia only has 10 million people, Mubarak who has been in power for decades and a great deal of underlying protest and dissent about the lack of democracy, and the other country is Libya, where Gaddafi has been in power for decades also. He was a very close friend of Ben Ali and he is been blaming the United States for this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So Mr. Pierre, you said Egypt would be one that might be next. Here it is. So, what helped provoke this kind of outburst in the form of the protest and it getting so violently? Do you believe it was a youth movement? Do you believe it was social media? Or is it something else?

PIERRE: All the above. But very important is the general level of poverty. Most of these countries, all these countries, the majority of the population lives under the World Bank standard of $2 per day for what you need to live, so the majority of the populations are very poor.

Now, you have educated, newly-educated populations that have gone to universities, they can't get jobs because there aren't thriving economies, there isn't free enterprise in these countries. So there's a great deal of frustration add on to that the fact that the regimes have been in power 20, 30 years, they're very self-serving, they benefit themselves and the street discontent is very high in all these countries. So you have a kind of tsunami of protests and disquiet and wishing change, fundamental change. WHITFIELD: So when you heard, when we all heard from President Mubarak yesterday, was there anything you heard in that, or was there anything that the people who were saying we want poverty to be addressed, we want jobs to be addressed, did they hear anything from the president that he, with his newly appointed government, would be moving in that direction?

PIERRE: Well, he said something indicating that he would be more open-minded, let's say, but the reality is everybody understands this, is he wants to restore order. And restore the full authority of his regime. That's the way I interpret the several appointments that he made today.

I think he's most concerned about shoring up the loyalty and support of the army. And I think it's a very long road to really lift these poor countries into modernity, if I can put it that way. It's not just a question of economic benefits, it's a question of human rights. It's a question of free speech. And people on the street are asking for that, demanding that also.

WHITFIELD: Is there anything in Omar Suleiman, this vice president, that you see or have seen in the past that he, too, would be a force to help push these things through for the general public?

PIERRE: He's very shrewd and smart and tough man who's been in charge of the security services. He's totally dedicated to Mubarak and keeping him in power. I think he's less oriented to the needs of the people as a whole, more oriented to the small group of Egyptians who benefit from the current situation of the past decades.

WHITFIELD: All right. And the U.S. Has had lots of dialogue with him in the past. Might that -- actually, we're going to talk to you a little bit later, kind of running out of time on that.

Sorry, Andrew Pierre. I'll talk to you about that when we see you a little bit later.

PIERRE: Thank you.

MANN: We have an extraordinary new development, we will be telling you about, after five days of upheaval, anarchy in Egypt? That is what may be unfolding right now. We'll be back with that part of the story right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: Welcome back.

I don't want to be flip about this, but one of the amazing things we've seen in Egypt over the last few days is the land of the pharaohs is working its iPhone, social media, Facebook, Twitter, all of them a galvanizing force. WHITFIELD: Powerful tools.

MANN: Absolutely. WHITFIELD: CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom actually is following that part of the story where we know. And even the U.S. State Department, the White House have all acknowledged that social media has played a significant role in all of this.

Frederick, what are you seeing?

WHITFIELD: Jamjoom.

I'm sorry, Mohammed.

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jonathan.

MANN: Forgive me.

JAMJOOM: Yes, Jonathan, let me show you a little bit of what we're seeing on social media, not just confined to Egypt. We have seen a lot of solidarity movement with what is going on in Egypt around the world.

Let me show you an iReport we got just a short time ago. This is of a protest, the demonstration held outside the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, in Geneva, Switzerland just earlier today. You see freedom, social justice, democracy on the placards here. People were yelling apparently there, according to our iReporter that Hosni Mubarak should go to Saudi Arabia and be with Ben Ali of Tunisia.

Let's take you up here to what we are seeing with regards to the trends map, the Twitter, a lot of the key words that are really popping on Twitter, in Cairo right now. You see looting, Tahrir, curfew, still Mubarak, protesters, ministry, and one of the most popular people, still in Cairo, our own Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman.

Let me show you some of the Tweets. He is Tweeting again now, regularly. This is from Ben a little while ago.

"Came to office by Cairo metro today. People talking about Mubarak as president in the past tense. For most I spoke, Mubarak is gone."

Another one, "Saw a truckload of riot police leaving Cairo this morning. They looked defeated and scared. People say they should be."

Ben is also saying, Cairo in tumult. Tahrir, demands for Mubarak to go. Gun battles at interior ministry. Other areas, chaos, looting, criminals on the loose."

And here's one from Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson, he is in Alexandria.

"Nightfall now in Alexandria. Crowds still out on the streets, none seem to heed curfew and the army does not enforce it."

One more thing I wanted to show you of interest. Here's a map right now, here is a graph of what typical traffic looks like on the Internet. This is according to Google. This is just in the United States, in the past week.

Let's show you Egypt. This is what happened. This is what it was earlier on the week. Then on Thursday when the Internet was shut down, almost virtual stoppage. And since then, the line has been flat up until now.

So just goes to show you, Internet still not working in Egypt but people trying to find a way around it, trying to Tweet, not just the reporters there, Jonathan?

MANN: Fredricka was making an interesting point, while you were talking.

WHITFIELD: Well, it is just is, it it's fascinating Mohammed, that while you're underscoring that the social media outlets have really been cut down, that's why we're having to rely on, you know, our reporters and other correspondents in the region, who are still able to use social media to disseminate this information. But it's a very odd and rather conflicting kind of thing here. If they were able to do that, then why are members of the general public there unable to jump on social media?

JAMJOOM: It's been very interesting trying to find out exactly why and at what times people can Tweet out, or use social media, or get on Facebook. For the most part the general public there in Egypt, the people that have been trying to, have not been able to use the Internet regularly.

What we've been learning throughout the day, and again we haven't been able to confirm this through a lot of sources in Egypt, but it seems that the mobile networks have been working intermittently. A lot of the people that have been heavily using social media, the past few days to try to organize and to try to get the message out, have been able to use mobile networks. Use it maybe through mobile phones to get on Twitter.

But again, it has been very difficult trying to confirm that information. I can tell you one of the more interesting things happening yesterday when the Internet was blocked is that people were encouraging people in Egypt to try to use applications on their mobile phones to get around the blockage, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Mohammed Jamjoom, thanks so much. It's a fascinating situation.

MANN: It really is. Because for a lot of people Tweeting is something you do to tell a friend you're going to grabbing a cheeseburger. Or you go to the Internet to see a show that you missed on TV the other day. It's serious business. People get thrown into jail and beaten up in Egypt for using the Internet in the wrong way and they're turning to it now to try to change that.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and try to get a better understanding of what is happening currently right now. MANN: Well, Egypt's president is still in power, but there have been some changes.

WHITFIELD: We're hitting the streets of Cairo with live updates on the changes in the government and we'll have more on that after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: Welcome back. Let's get you up to date on what's happening in Egypt now.

Dozens of people have been killed in five days of protest. How many, we still don't know. The U.S. State Department is urging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to fulfill his promise to reform and not simply, quote, "reshuffle the deck and then stand pat."

The former head of Egypt's intelligence service is now vice president and the country's former civil aviation minister, who just resigned has been appointed to form a new government.

Meantime, our long-time Cairo Bureau Chief Ben Wedeman reports he's been through the city and is now seeing signs of anarchy in some of its further reaches away from the main capital, the main squares and main protests, ordinary Egyptians are now seeing that the police have abandoned the streets of their city.

Frederik Pleitgen joins us now with the latest on that.

Frederik where have you been? What have you seen?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I was in neighborhoods, Jonathan, outside of the city center and it's really amazing. Once you get into these neighborhoods you see people on every corner armed with sticks, some armed with rifles, others with pistols, and they're walking the streets. You see some of them in front of their houses banned together and they're trying to stop looters from coming in and taking away their property, and possibly of course, also causing harm to the people there.

What we saw when we were on the streets is we saw these people again and again chase away guys who were coming by on motorcycles who they said they believe were some of the looters trying to go in and cause mayhem in those areas. We saw people on motorcycles, again, with samurai swords. We saw people on motorcycles with shotguns, the works, really, in those neighborhoods.

And they tell us they're getting absolutely no help from the police force. They say the military right now simply isn't enough to secure the area that we're in right now, downtown, and the outside areas in the rest of Cairo. So right now, in effect, I wouldn't call it a breakdown of authority, but it certainly is an absence of any sort of law enforcement in that area.

And the other thing, and this is something that I think is very, very troubling, also speaking from what I know about other places that have had troubles, is we're seeing the emergence of illegal vehicle check points, where people are trying to stop cars. And it's not clear whether or not they're trying to either take the cars, or rob the people in the cars, but just on the way back, we just blasted through three of these illegal check points where guys with sticks were trying to stop our vehicles. So right now it is a very, very volatile situation outside of downtown.

Here in downtown, you already have the military outside, the people are organizing, they're bracing, they're banding together, it is a very, very scary situation for a lot of people, that's what they told us, Jonathan.

MANN: Frederik, the Egyptian military is half a million men strong, the police are an enormous force in their own right. Where are they?

PLEITGEN: Well, in many places they've simply disappeared. I talked to one of these guys who was defending his home, together with a bunch of his cousins and friends, and he said the police are scared of the people, and that's why they're gone. It appears as though in some places there is still somewhat of a police presence. Certainly the places we went to, there's absolutely nothing. We saw one tank on one of these streets, otherwise, there's absolutely no authority in those places, whatsoever.

You see people walking on the streets, you see these neighborhood watches that are starting to organize on every corner. Some people even taking pipes from vacuum cleaners, two-by-fours, anything they can find to try and defend their property. They say right now the police are the last thing that they can count on to help them.

MANN: I don't want to speculate, or invite you to speculate, but Ben Wedeman made an amazing point when we were speaking to him earlier. He said people were telling him that they thought this was an intentional policy by the regime to try and sow some kind of chaos, so people would invite a strong government response. They basically invite the authorities back into their neighborhoods. Is there any way to tell if that's true?

PLEITGEN: I have no indication that that would be true or that would be the case. And from the people I spoke with, they certainly seem to believe that this was simply a case of police retreating and just not showing any more presence. I mean, whether or not that's true is anyone's guess. It seems that's circulating around, it is very hard to tell. I mean, right now the people that I've talked to there, who are sort of trying to defend their property, they were telling me, to them, at this point, it's about getting through the night. It's about making it through without getting any harm caused to themselves or their property, or their families. All these people have families who are in these houses who are absolutely terrified. We've been getting calls here in the office from people who tell us there is no more order in those areas. They're absolutely afraid for their safety at this point in time, Jonathan.

MANN: Frederik Pleitgen in Cairo, thanks very much.

WHITFIELD: That would be fascinating, brilliant, as well as diabolical strategy, if that were indeed the case, to try to restore, and be the one credited as the one restoring some order. If that were indeed the strategy.

MANN: Conspiracy theories are not unknown in that part of the world, so we're careful when we approach it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, of course, 5,600 miles away here in the United States there are a number of solidarity protests taking place as well for what's going on in Egypt. More on that after this.

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WHITFIELD: In the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, take a look at these images coming out right now. We've heard from our correspondents who talked about the mayhem taking place in Alexandria, the tear gas, as well as shots being fired, or at least heard. These are some of the latest images, you can see what appear to be some of the military vehicles there that have been torched, buildings on fire and people on the rooftops.

MANN: The last word we have, that I have, was in fact, we don't have a date on these pictures. We think either it's from yesterday or today.

But Alexandria is a really interesting place because in this turmoil we saw just how heated the battle got and then it all ended in Alexandria. The police and demonstrators were shaking hands. That was a phenomena we saw elsewhere in the country and now it's been reversed again, in some places, the police around the interior ministry are really letting the demonstrators have it.

So Alexandria has been a bit of a barometer. When they went well, they went well, when they went badly, they went badly, but it's been tough to predict from one hour to the next what exactly is going to happen.

WHITFIELD: We are told these images now shot within the last 24 hours. So it is unclear whether that was earlier in the day, there, in Egypt where it is approaching late day and afternoon-you know, evening there at this hour.

However, you know, it's interesting from the reporting, and you see there, what I guess appear to be shields perhaps from the police, very strained relationship between the general public and police and a different sentiment with the army. But then we've also seen some reports that some police officers have taken off their garb and joined the protesters. So it's very confusing.

MANN: In some cases they've lost their garb because we've seen-and we have had a variety of reports on this-police stations being torched, being burned down, but first looted. Weapons have been taken from the police. That shield we saw a moment ago could have been stolen from a police station as easily as it was surrendered by a police officer.

Alexandria has been going toward violence, away from violence, this was shot in the last 24 hours, that suggests things quieted down there and then got worse again, which is what we heard from our Nic Robertson, not too long ago. He's actually in that city, which unlike Cairo is on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. If you don't know Egypt's geography particularly well, it is not next door, it is about a three-hour drive. It tends to have a different feel, though in the protest, that wave is sweeping the country.

WHITFIELD: We're checking in with our correspondents who are there. We've got Nic Robertson, Ben Wedeman, Ivan Watson, all of them, Frederick Pleitgen, fanned out throughout the country of Egypt.

While that's transpiring, here in the United States, there are a host of demonstrations taking place in solidarity of what's taking place there in Egypt. A rally is planned this hour right now here in Atlanta. Here's a map, next hour demonstrators will march in front of the U.N. Headquarters in New York.

Protesters will also rally in the nation's capital outside the Egyptian embassy there, and then later this afternoon demonstrators plan rallies at Chicago's Egyptian consulate and in Pioneer Courthouse Square, in Portland, Oregon.

So let's zero in on New York now at the United Nations. A protest is scheduled to take place at the top of the hour and our Susan Candiotti is already poised and in position there.

Give me what kind of turnout or what is transpiring right now?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the rally is just now starting to get under way. Someone is finally talking on a microphone right now to those who have gathered so far. We're told there are about 50,000 or so Egyptian Americans living in the New York Metropolitan area.

So far I would say there are more than 100 people who have gathered here so far with signs that include, "Egypt, we hear you" "Mubarak must go" The Regime must go", Free Egypt now." They've been managing to get the word out about this rally for a number of days now via social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, phone calls, in order to get people to come here. And as you said, to show solidarity.

They've been watching events very closely there. They are very attuned to what's going on today, for example, the naming of some new positions in government, a new vice president, for example, in Egypt they said yes, they know this man. Some have even called him a good man.

But they're not at all pleased with any vestiges of the old government. In their view, Mubarak must go, anyone associated with him must go. They prefer a provisional government and they say elections that could soon follow thereafter.

So we'll be here throughout the afternoon reporting to you about their message, which is one of support as those fighting as part of that revolt throughout Egypt. Fred and Jonathan, back to you.

WHITFIELD: Susan Candiotti, thanks so much. We'll check back with you momentarily. MANN: So many Egyptians we've been talking to are excited about all of this, but some people very nearby are very anxious because Israel, it goes without saying, has depended on Egypt as a stable partner for decades. Now there's some question about that. Let goes to our Jerusalem bureau chief Kevin Flower.

How nervous are people there?

KEVIN FLOWER, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, people are watching the situation very closely, Jonathan, especially the Israeli government. They've made no official comments at this point, they are watching and waiting to see how this develops, but we did have tonight on Israeli television one Israeli Knesset member speak out. He is known to have a former cabinet minister. His name is Benjamin Ben- Eliezer, and he is a significant politician because he is known to have had a fairly close relationship with the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

And he said on Israeli television tonight that he had spoken recently to President Mubarak. He didn't say exactly when, but that the Egyptian president had told him that this is, quote, this is no Beirut, this is no Tunis, which is sort of an interesting conversation for an Israeli politician to be having with the Egyptian president. He also said Ben-Eliezer in the interview with Israeli television, that while he still thought Hosni Mubarak would retain power, he admitted the region had entered a new era.

And that's really what we have here, is a lot of unknown. A lot of, you know, a lot of Israeli politicians watching this, not knowing what's coming next. It is really a watch and wait and see what happens sort of environment here, Jonathan.

MANN: Kevin Flower, CNN Jerusalem. Thanks very much.

WHITFIELD: We'll have much more ahead on the crisis in Egypt and all that's unfolding, really the ripple effect that comes with that around the world. More after this.

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