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CNN Sunday Morning

Protests Give Way to Looting; Anarchy in Egypt

Aired January 30, 2011 - 06:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Fear replacing hope on the streets of Egypt. Citizens are arming themselves not against the government but against escaped prisoners and looters. That's just one of the developments in this historic uprising.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: Protesters are returning to the streets for a sixth day of demonstrations against their government. The message is loud and clear, but is anyone listening?

KAYE: That message is getting across to people in the U.S. Sympathizers are taking to the streets across the country while President Obama gathers his security team.

It is early and we're on it. From CNN Center, this is CNN. It's January 30. Good morning. I'm Randi Kaye.

MANN: And from CNN International, I'm Jonathan Mann. We'd like to welcome our viewers worldwide to our coverage of Egypt in crisis.

KAYE: Let's get you caught up now on this fast-developing story and this information just in to CNN. The U.S. State Department is getting ready to fly American citizens out of Egypt. Those flights would start tomorrow. We'll have more - much more on that in just a moment.

What started as mostly peaceful protests have turned deadly in many cities across Egypt. We have learned at least 31 people are now dead in Alexandria. In Cairo, several people were killed in clashes between protesters and police at the Interior Ministry building. Now the army is guarding that building.

We are also hearing reports of more than a dozen others being shot by officers at police stations outside of Cairo. The police have become a symbol of the government's power and the target of protesters' anger. The police have seemingly abandoned the streets.

We are hearing reports of at least two deadly prison breaks around Cairo. Thousands of inmates now out on the street. That has people on edge and asking for help.

Because of the protests and the threat of violence, Egypt's stock exchange remains closed today. Banks throughout the capital city are also shut down as a precaution.

President Mubarak is rebuilding his government. After dissolving the Cabinet yesterday, he's now added a new vice president and prime minister.

And one other note: The Al-Jazeera network has been shut down in Egypt and their license withdrawn by Egypt's information ministry.

MANN: The message Egyptians are sending their leadership is unmistakable: Hosni Mubarak must go.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson heard that chant over and over as he covered the story on the streets of Alexandria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The chant (ph) continues to be the same: We want him out, we want him gone. Mubarak has to go. That's the message that comes up on the electronic part of the revolution goes on.

Everyone here, almost, is carrying their cell phones (INAUDIBLE) what's going on, just propagating their message around the country. The voices here in Alexandria are just getting louder and louder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Earlier, Nic reported that a demonstration would begin this hour in Alexandria. Like many others, this one is happening on the main road along the Nile River. We've seen that over and over again.

KAYE: Mm-hmm.

And Nic joins us now by phone. Nic, have crowds gathered there already?

VOICE OF ROBERTSON (via telephone): We've seen some more crowds gathering and some small demonstrations this morning. Nothing on the scale that we've seen on the past few days. Perhaps several hundred people at most.

The thing that is changing here in this city is the mood and atmosphere on the streets. When you get further away from the city center, as we've just tried to do - when you move away from the area where there's some presence of army on the streets outside government buildings, you very quickly run into checkpoints set up by young men, some of them carrying metal bars, wooden sticks, machetes. They're stopping traffic; it's not quite clear what they're looking for or who they're looking for perhaps.

But it is a case here of the crowd and the young men taking - taking control, taking law and order into their own hands.

It is a somewhat chaotic situation. A lot of the shops in the center of the city remain shut. The Gold Bazaar district - the gold- shop district is completely shuttered. The vegetable marking is working. But it is a very, very tense situation as people wait to see what will happen here exactly. KAYE: Does the military, Nic, appear to be losing any patience with the protesters? I know the protesters have been supporting the military and even celebrating there.

But what does it appear to you now?

ROBERTSON: Well, we've been - we've seen a number of police stations this morning, including just small buildings that were - were the sort of local headquarters for traffic cops - those have all been looted and - and - and burned. And that was because people were very angry with the police here. They saw it corrupt and part of the regime.

That conflict doesn't exist with the army. But people are beginning to ask, why isn't the army doing more to provide security? Why are they only sitting outside of these government buildings? Why aren't they patrolling our neighborhoods and making us feel safer? And - and why are they allowing some of these young men to run checkpoints just yards away from where - from where the army is sitting in tanks and armored personnel carriers.

So there - there is no direct confrontation between the people and the army. But the army are very clear: They don't like being filmed and put on television. That's for sure. We found that out ourselves this morning.

But they're not trying to - they're not trying to stop whatever people want to do by themselves. They're just sitting in front of these government buildings.

MANN: Nic, it's Jon Mann.

You've been telling us about police stations and other buildings that have been torched. We have seen pictures of fires burning in Alexandria.

As you look around the city now, are you seeing smoke anywhere? Are - are the fires still burning?

ROBERTSON: At this time, no.

It is a very uneasy situation. Where we are in the center of the city and from where we've been driving around, we haven't seen any fires. We've seen people trying to sort of clear up some of the debris from the fighting on Friday. There are still rocks flying in the side - in the side of the streets, and piles of rubble in the middle of the roads. And indeed many of these police - large trucks that they use to transport the riot police on Friday, those are - are burned-out on street corners and still littering the center of the city.

But the violence was - was directed at the police principally, some government institutions. The rest of the city untouched, and today so far, we're not seeing any fires.

But - but again, it - it - it's difficult to underestimate how much (INAUDIBLE) anger underneath the surface with the uncertainty. It really is a city that feels on the edge at the moment.

KAYE: Nic Robertson reporting for us from Alexandria, Egypt. Thank you, Nic.

MANN: Nic was talking about anger, and the protesters certainly want change. But others are taking advantage of the chaos.

A group of thugs stormed a museum in Cairo's main square, ripping the heads off mummies and tossing relics on to the ground. That particular museum is home to the relics of King Tut. Officials there say that nothing turns out to have been missing, but the message is clear: Nothing is off limits.

Add to the equation a large group of escapes inmates. CNN's Wolf Blitzer talked with the Egyptian ambassador to the U.S. to get his sense of the security situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: How does that happen? A thousand prisoners escape from a prison outside of Cairo and are now running amok?

SAMEH SHOURKY, EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: Well, it's certainly disturbing news and it's a demonstration of a degree of chaos and a lack of security that has emanated from these events.

BLITZER: What happened to the police?

SHOURKY: It is unclear to what extent the police forces are still undertaking their responsibilities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: The lack of police presence is glaring. Bands of looters are treating Cairo like their own private playground, forcing people to arm themselves their neighborhoods.

Here's what we saw last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF FRED PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The people tell us that guys like this, guys on the motorcycles - those are usually the ones who are doing the looting.

Now, we've seen some who have passed by here carrying real samurai swords on their motorcycles. Now, every time these motorcycles pass, obviously the guys here from the community watch. They come out and they threaten them and tell them, 'Don't' stop here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: That was our Fred Pleitgen on the streets of Cairo last night. A rough night to be sure in the Egyptian capital.

KAYE: But today is a new day and another opportunity for Egyptians to have their voices heard.

CNN's Ivan Watson is out there for us today.

And Ivan, can you tell us what's going on in Cairo right now where you are?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE)

KAYE: All right. We're not hearing Ivan. I'm sure you're not hearing him at home either. So we'll get that fixed for you and we will get right back to him and get that live report from Cairo for you this morning.

MANN: Now, it's not just the people of Egypt who are watching this unfold. There are a lot of people who were visiting Egypt at the time - a lot of Americans, foreigners from around the world who find themselves virtually trapped there.

Well, Delta Airlines has indefinitely suspended flights to and from Egypt. American Airlines and British Airways are allowing customers to change some flights at no charge. But even so, there are a lot of people stuck at the Cairo airport. An American tourist describes the situation there as "chaotic."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF DIANE KELLEY, AMERICAN TOURIST (via telephone): We have had flights canceled. One of our guide's father's was shot.

We have - we are stranded at the airport. We can't leave the airport because they are pulling people out of cars and they're afraid we wouldn't be safe if we left the airport.

We've had so far two flights canceled, and we're currently just waiting to see if we can get out of Cairo to any other place in the world. But it's - it's very chaotic here.

I don't think anybody really feels 100 percent safe, but I think that we're much safer than the people that are in downtown Cairo right now.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you were making your way to the airport through Cairo, you heard shots being fired. You say people were being dragged from their cars.

How violent has it been?

KELLEY: On the news here, it looks like it's been a lot of violence. Unfortunately, most of the news that we get here is on - not in English, so we don't understand a lot of it. And for awhile, the television - they - the people were coming in and actually turning even the - turning the televisions off in the airports so that people couldn't see what was going on at the airport.

I'm -- not being able to have cellular service or any Internet service for anyone was very fight. People couldn't get to hospitals. People couldn't get any information whatsoever. So that was pretty frustrating.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: And just to remind you of what we're reporting, the U.S. State Department will begin offering U.S. citizens flights to Europe beginning on Monday.

KAYE: And as we told you before, we were just trying to get to Ivan Watson, who is in Cairo for us this morning. We got that audio all cleared up now, and we want to get back to Ivan.

Ivan, can you tell us what the scene is there in Cairo? Yesterday, it was quite explosive.

WATSON: Well, yesterday was more of a - a - scene of jubilation, I'd say, where - where you had tens of thousands of people free to demonstrate downtown, in the street right behind me and - and chant, "Down with the regime of President Hosni Mubarak."

Today, shops are closed in Cairo. Businesses are closed. And the Egyptian army, which has been deployed along the banks of the Nile behind me here, are much more strict about pedestrians, about people gathering, particularly very close to the headquarters of Egyptian state TV.

An important development, Randi, that we're hearing is the apparent shutdown by the Egyptian government of the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera making a statement on its website condemning this decision that it says was issued by the Egyptian Information Ministry, which canceled its license and withdrew accreditation from its reporters. And we can now no longer access Al- Jazeera Arabic television on the Nile Satellite Distribution Network.

And that is an important decision for the following reason: Al- Jazeera has been a big proponent of the street protests we've seen, not only here in Egypt, but also in Tunisia, which helped bring down a dictator who had been in power there for more than 25 years, and may have been applauded by the demonstrator that we've been talking to here in the streets here in Cairo.

This has been a very powerful voice, an important source of information. Certainly when the Internet has been shut down now for several days, and we still have disruptions in the cell-phone services as well, another sign that the Egyptian government is trying to crack down on forces that it sees as helping mobilizing the most serious challenge to this regime in some 30 years - Randi.

KAYE: And - and - and Ivan, what can you tell us about United States' efforts to evacuate some U.S. citizens, possibly to Europe, to safer ground, from Egypt?