Title: Anderson Cooper in "Undisclosed Location" After Another Attack; Couric, Williams Flee Egypt ("I'm scared!") Source:
Eonline URL Source:http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b22 ... utm_campaign=rss_celebritynews Published:Feb 6, 2011 Author:Josh Grossberg Post Date:2011-02-06 13:28:21 by Hondo68 Keywords:taken down through threats, I, no live cameras Views:4045 Comments:3
Anderson Cooper has gone underground.
A day after being attack by a mob of supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and then assaulted again by the same rabble rousers who smashed his car window, CNN's star anchor has moved to a Cheney-esque "undisclosed location" out of fear for his and his crew's safety amid the ongoing tumult.
Luckily, not a hair on that beautiful white mane of his has been harmed. But he's not the only journalist under assault.
Reports have surfaced that major network anchors and news producers have been subject to a campaign of intimidation, threats and violence by government-backed thugs to keep them from covering the uprising.
"We'd like to be showing you live pictures of what's happening in Liberation Square right now," Cooper told Piers Morgan late last night. "But we can't do that because our cameras have been taken down through threats, through intimidations, through actual physical attacks, there are no live cameras that we can get access to right now."
Cooper's former CNN colleague, Christiane Amanpour, now at ABC News, found herself in a similar situation as she was fell upon and chased by pro-Mubarak demonstrators.
"An angry mob surrounded us and chased us into the car shouting that they hate America. They kicked in the car doors and broke our windshield as we drove away," she said.
CBS News' senior foreign correspondent Lara Logan and her crew were detained on Thursday outside Israel's embassy in Cairo by Egyptian military before being released today. She reported being threatened by Mubarak supporters and followed throughout the day while an ABC News producer said he was threatened with beheading. An NPR crew was also attacked.
Logan, along with CBS News anchor Katie Couric and NBC News anchor Brian Williams, have since returned to the U.S. out of safety concerns.
After being punched in the head two days ago by pro-government goons, Cooper holed up in an unidentified hideout not far from the action. But he and his 360 team subsequently switched locations after yesterday's violence.
Despite the violence though, he noted that CNN still has "eyes on what's happening" on the ground in Liberation Square. He also confessed his own fears, but quickly reminded his audience that the protesters calling for Mubarak to step down and seeking greater democracy in Egypt were equally at risk if not more so.
"I don't mind telling you I'm a little bit scared because we don't really know what the next few hours will hold and I think there's a lot of people tonight who are scared in Egypt," said the intrepid reporter. "I think there are people in that square who are fighting for their lives and understandably so because this is the second night of a full-on assault on them and they have been defending themselves for their lives."
Stay safe.
Poster Comment:
Seems that the "democratic" agitators, got more than they bargained for.
As we have seen in Turkey, Iraq, and Nigeria, above-ground oil and gas pipelines are difficult to secure and provide an inordinate result in return for a small quantity of explosives. The likelihood is high that we shall see more incidents of this type as unrest grows in oil producing nations.
Those on the ground in Egypt know what they want: an end to Mubarak, and end to the emergency laws that have strangled political expression in Egypt since 1981, a civil government with a transformed constitution guaranteeing elections and the curtailment of political power, and trials for those involved in the massacres of the past few days. Despite the machinations of the West, it is clear that what will simply not do is an insinuation of ancien regime forces of any kind into a post-Mubarak Egypt, whether neo-liberal robber barons, counter-revolutionaries, or political opportunists. The voices from Tahrir, Alexandria, Mahalla, Suez, and Minya must be heard in their call for a “reversal of the relationship of forces.” In other words, this is a people’s revolution.
It is clear that all Arab regimes are aghast. They all enjoy support from the US and Israel. Even the Syrian regime; Israel and the US prefer than it stay than go, because that front is quiet and because Israel can bomb and assassinate inside Syria with no deterrent whatsoever. But Arab anger is stronger: ideas in the hands of millions turn into material force as Karl Marx said. Arab regimes desperately try to save themselves: sudden announcements about handouts; firing of ministers; speeches mentioning the poor for the first time.
IF the popular revolts spread across the Middle East, they could strike a catastrophic blow to violent ideology of al Qaeda that have long preached that peaceful protest is useless in the face of autocracy
IF the popular revolts that have rocked Tunisia and Egypt gain momentum and spread across the Middle East, they could strike a catastrophic blow to al Qaeda’s violent ideology, experts say. While some in the West fear protests in the Arab world could see authoritarian secular regimes overthrown by equally hardline religious parties, other observers say the movements pose a far greater threat to militants.
