Protests in Egypt; Rahm Emanuel Back on Chicago Ballot
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: And you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, a key U.S. ally faces more protests. The tensions in Egypt may be about to get a whole lot worse. We're live in Cairo to explain. And a cheating scandal turns up much more serious allegations inside the FBI. Wait until you see what we found involving sex, lies and a videotape. And snow puts the squeeze on already-tight state budgets. Just How bad is it? We're about to show you and what it could mean for all of us. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. We may be just a few hours away from a critical showdown in Egypt. Massive anti-government demonstrations are planned to follow Friday's midday prayers in defiance of a ban on gatherings. There were scattered clashes today in Egyptian cities, as riot police made a show of force. The Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition block, has for the first time now called on all of its followers in Egypt to march. And the Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, returned to Cairo today and plans to join what have so far follow been loosely organized street protests. Saying the barrier of fear is broken, he called on Egypt's regime to listen to the people and start making changes. But the main change that demonstrators seem to want is for President Hosni Mubarak to simply go away and step down. And now word that the Internet is shut down across Cairo right now. Our senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, is joining us on the phone. Ben, what about this? What do we know about this crackdown on communications?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you, just a few minutes ago, the Internet went down central Cairo. And I have been contacting people elsewhere in the country and in the city. In fact, even in Upper Egypt, the Internet is no longer functioning. So, that went into effect about seven or eight minutes ago. In addition, about four hours ago, SMSes stopped functioning. What is interesting is, you get a message that SMS was delivered. But when you check with the recipient, they haven't seen it. And of course, Wolf, this comes a few days after the Twitter account, Twitter page was disabled. It's been sort of up and down, sometimes working, sometimes not. The same with Facebook. So it does appear -- we haven't yet gotten any reaction from Egyptian officials. I have tried calling them -- but maybe their cell phones aren't working -- to see if they have any explanation for why this is the case now. But certainly it does seem to be part of a concerted effort to cripple this movement that has depended so much on things like Facebook and Twitter to spread the word and to organize these unprecedented demonstrations around the country.</s>BLITZER: Now, Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who used to be the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, he is now back in Cairo. He's an opposition leader. He wants Mubarak to go away. What is his role in all of this?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, many of the protesters will tell you that his role has been marginal. He returned to Egypt early last year, to much expectation and fanfare. People were hoping that he would be able to draw together the fairly scattered, divided and disorganized opposition Egyptian into a real effective political bloc. But the complaint is that in the last year he really hasn't taken the lead, hasn't been able to do that. And many people complained that he was not in Egypt for the demonstrations on Tuesday that set this whole uproar up. And he has expressed a willingness to play a role in transition in Egypt if the regime decides to compromise on the demands of the protest movement. But many of the protesters say he's come too late for that -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I know everybody is bracing for huge demonstrations on Friday, tomorrow, after prayers. Walk us through what may happen as early as tomorrow.</s>WEDEMAN: Well, word has gone far and wide. And, in fact, I'm hearing that people are going from door to door in some Cairo neighborhoods, telling everyone to come out and join this protest, which will begin after Friday prayers, which is -- they end around 1:00 p.m. local time. And in various mosques, churches, other public areas, people will gather. And, for instance, here in Cairo, the objective is for crowds to slowly make their way to Tahrir Square, which was the sight of the huge demonstration on Tuesday. But with communications being interrupted, with the Ministry of the Interior saying it will not allow any protests tomorrow, we could be approaching a major confrontation in the streets, not just of course Cairo, but other major Egyptian cities, like Alexandria and elsewhere -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Ben Wedeman, be careful over there. We will stay in close touch with you. Ben Wedeman is our correspondent in Egypt. He has been there for many years, speaks Arabic. So we appreciate his reporting. The spark that may have touched off a powder keg in Egypt was lit in Tunisia. The strongman of that North African nation was in power for 23 years, but street protests over unemployment, corruption and repression sent him fleeing this month. Then a grassroots fury in Lebanon this week for a different reason, anger over the naming of a new prime minister backed by Hezbollah. Many see that as a power grab by the Iranian-backed Shiite movement, which toppled a pro-Western leader. And just today, protesters demanding change in Yemen. The president of that poverty stricken nation has been in office for 32 years. And Yemen is a front in the terror war as al Qaeda has gained strength in the Arabian Peninsula. There are terrorist elements in Egypt as well. That's just one of the many concerns that the United States has. In fact, the White House says President Obama had been closely, very closely indeed, watching all of this rest in the Middle East, especially in Egypt, where the United States has critical strategic interest. He sent a message, though, to Cairo today during a YouTube interview.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Political reform, economic reform -- is absolutely critical to the long-term well-being of Egypt. And you can see these pent-up frustrations that are being displayed on the streets. My main hope right now is that violence is not the answer in solving these problems in Egypt, so the government has to be careful about not resorting to violence, and the people on the streets have to be careful about not resorting to violence.</s>BLITZER: All right, let's go dig deeper a little bit with Tom Foreman, along with journalist and author and scholar Robin Wright. She's reported from 140 countries. Her most recent book is "Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East." All right, you heard what the president had to say. The future of the Middle East seems to be changing very, very quickly, dramatically. What do you think?</s>ROBIN WRIGHT, SENIOR FELLOW, U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE: Oh, this is an extraordinary moment in the Middle East. And what is so interesting is that the common denominator in places like Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen is the fact that you have popular street protests that have no ideology, that have no genuine leadership. They're emerging in some ways because of common denominators, corruption, government mismanagement, opposition to the regime leadership specifically. So you have Tunisia starting off the Jasmine Revolution through popular social media, access to ways of communicating beyond the state. Then you find Egypt and this very dynamic movement, which is important because, of the 22 Arab countries, one-quarter of the Arab world's population is in Egypt.</s>BLITZER: Eighty million people. It's the largest of all of the Arab countries. And, Tom, I want you to be part of this conversation as well, because as we look at Cairo, is it possible that President Mubarak, who has been in power for 30 years, Robin, that he is on his way out now? Because we don't know what would follow.</s>WRIGHT: Well, I think that's going a little bit too far. We need to take one day at a time. Egypt has twice used its army, in 1977 after food riots and in 1986, to intervene and try to restore calm. Egypt has the means to do that in a way that Yemen and Tunisia don't.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let me ask you a question about that, though. We talked about the shutting down of the Internet over there. Ben Wedeman talked about it and how this began with Facebook, Twitter, that sort of thing. Earlier today, "The Guardian" was reporting that now, just as Ben said, door-to-door campaign, leaflets are being passed out. And one of the emphases of these leaflets is to co-opt the troops, to basically say, reach out to the troops who come to suppress this and say, you are our families. Join us in this revolt. When you look at a place like this, and this really is right now sort of the ground Zero of this, is that possible?</s>WRIGHT: I know that square very well. And it's always a place where demonstrators gather. And when you look at the numbers, there are 340,000 in the army, 300,000 in the Central Security Forces. And that's beyond the police. They could use those forces. But this is a country of 80 million people. And so the big question is to what degree do you maybe not challenge the leadership of the army, but you challenge the rank and file, those who do have brothers, cousins, sisters who are part of the popular protest?</s>BLITZER: Let's go through the region right now, because Tunisia, we saw what happened very quickly. Lebanon, we see dramatic changes. Egypt could be on the verge of a revolution right now. And Yemen, this is small country, but it's strategically located. It has got a big al Qaeda presence, growing right now. And the leader there, he could be removed as well. Ramifications for the U.S. would be what?</s>WRIGHT: Well, I think again we're going too far, too fast. Yemen is a country that is important for geostrategic interests because it is the home of al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula. And the thing that the U.S. has always faced in the region is, what is more important to us? Is it our national security interests, particularly in the aftermath of 9/11, our campaign against extremists, or is it the values of freedom of speech and so forth?</s>FOREMAN: Well, with 23 million people here, isn't this also the one that of the ones we're talking about right now is also generally seems the most unstable?</s>WRIGHT: Yes. Absolutely. You have a rebellion in the north, a secession in the south. And you have al Qaeda. So there are three components already creating instability in Yemen.</s>BLITZER: Because if al Qaeda were to take over, and their supporters in Yemen, it would be a huge disaster.</s>WRIGHT: I just don't think we're that far yet. Al Qaeda is -- uses Yemen as a base in the same way it did with Afghanistan. And, yes, it is also opposed to the leadership of President Saleh. But that's -- you know, I don't think al Qaeda is going to step in and fill the vacuum. One of the things that is so much in doubt right now is because these groups are so amorphous, they are leaderless, that we don't know who would step in.</s>BLITZER: Is this likely to spread, not only to Yemen, but to other friendly countries like Jordan, for example? Is it likely to go all over the region? Because these are changes that are moving boom, boom, boom.</s>WRIGHT: Much faster than anybody anticipated. And, yes, you have seen a real nervousness. You saw in a place like Jordan some protests as well. In little Kuwait at the top of the Arabian Peninsula, the government decided to literally buy out its citizens by offering over $3,000 literally to every citizen. There's the Arab League Summit in Cairo just this month. They focused heavily on the economic conditions and the turmoil they saw.</s>FOREMAN: Let me ask you a question about that, because there are big differences. Egypt, where we're seeing these protests, has about 10 percent unemployment. If you look at Yemen down here, they're like at 23 percent, 25 percent unemployment. And up here in Jordan I think it's around 12 percent. But these are very different places. What is the central uniting theme? Why are they all catching fire from each other, when they really are different places?</s>WRIGHT: I think one of the most important things we don't look at is the fact that the literacy has gone up, that you have an educated class. In Egypt, for example, the government promises a job to every college graduate. But the time between graduating from college and getting a job with the government, which may not necessarily be a good job, is three years. And so there's a literate body. There's a means of circumventing state-controlled media through Twitter, the Internet and so forth. So you have all these things coming in at a time of real dissatisfaction, of globalization. And people see how others are living.</s>FOREMAN: We will talk to you more, Robin Wright, as we this goes on. But now we have to get back over to Wolf for some breaking news.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BLITZER: All right, the Illinois Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of Rahm Emanuel, allowing him to run for mayor of Chicago. Jessica Yellin is here. You're going through the document right now as we speak. Great news for the former White House chief of staff.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Obviously very momentous for Rahm Emanuel and also the fact that this seven- person Supreme Court found -- six of the seven justices by my count found with him. They overturned the decision of an appellate court. The big issue here is, is Rahm Emanuel a resident of Chicago or not? The court finds -- I have just been reading through it quickly. The court finds a few reasons why they say he is a resident and can run. One is that while the appellate court said no, two lower bodies said yes, the Board of Elections and the circuit court. But they also said this was simply settled law. They said that this has been decided. It was more than 100 years of case law has said that these circumstances, you are a resident and that it was only in this appellate court decision that you would see a cause to overturn it. They say that the decision of the board and the circuit board was proper. And they say, "Given the record before us, it is simply not possible to find erroneous the board's determination" and the objectors failed to prove that Rahm Emanuel had abandon his Chicago residence. Bottom line, he can run for mayor. There's a mayoral debate tonight. He will take part in that and game on. Early voting is on Monday.</s>BLITZER: And all the polls show he was way ahead. And he certainly has a lot more money. And he's getting close to that 50 percent that he would need to avoid a runoff. And if he got that, he would be the next mayor.</s>YELLIN: May I make one point? Yesterday we did a story talking about one justice in particular whose husband had endorsed Emanuel's opponent. She found in favor of Rahm Emanuel.</s>BLITZER: Interesting. All right, thanks very much. Good news for Rahm Emanuel, running for mayor of Chicago. It's the first meeting of the Senate Tea Party Caucus, as they're called, but not all the people you would expect to be there showed up. And an FBI employee faking an investigation inside a strip club just to have some fun, and you still pay that person's salary? Yes, you do. It's a CNN investigation coming up. You will want to see this.