Deadly Political Protests Rocking Cairo; American Students Arrested in Cairo
BLITZER: For a fourth straight day, Egyptian forces are using tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters in the streets around Tahrir Square in Cairo. Meantime, thousands of people are joining what's been dubbed the million man sit-in. CNN's Ivan Watson is right in the middle of the chaos.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are the front lines of the running battles over here. The police have set up a barricade in this direction. The police have been throwing rocks at them. The tear gas is coming constantly. You can see the corrosive effects of it. Everybody is showing these shells that they pick up and many of them claiming they're made in the USA. In fact, this is made in Jamestown, Pennsylvania, riot smoke. That's made a lot of anger against the U.S. The crowd here is angry, young, furious at the loss of life here over the course of the past three days, demanding that the supreme council be involved in a sit- down. The soldiers around the corner here, the army has set up barricades along one road, but it's riot police that they're facing off against. If we turn in this direction, it's riot police down here. This is one pocket of turmoil in the center of the Egyptian capital, but it is throwing the entire country into a political crisis just days before elections are scheduled to be held, and that's called into question whether those elections can be held at all. Ivan Watson, CNN, in Cairo.</s>BLITZER: Amidst all of this, three American college students taking in the protests in Cairo have been arrested. Egyptian authorities accuse them of throwing Molotov cocktails. CNN's Brian Todd is working this part of the story for us. Brian, what do we know about these young students?</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we know they were spending the semester abroad at American University in Cairo. We also know their program there might be interrupted because prosecutors there will be investigating them.</s>TODD (voice-over): His sister says 19-year-old Derek Sweeney, on the far right, looks absolutely terrified. Sweeney and two other American students stand shoulder to shoulder in a Cairo holding area, in detention, accused of throwing Molotov cocktails during the deadly protest in Tahrir Square. On display with them, clear bottles and various forms of American I.D. We're told they have been questioned by Cairo police and will face additional questions by prosecutors. Not much information coming from the State Department.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are they safe, can you tell us that?</s>VICTORIA NULAND, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: I don't think we have any information to indicate otherwise.</s>TODD: The three are identified as Sweeney, from Georgetown University, 19-year-old Gregory Porter who goes to Drexel University in Philadelphia and 21-year-old Luke Gates from Indiana University. Officials at American University in Cairo say they were spending the semester there as part of a study abroad program. Social media posts appear to show Gates and Sweeney in the thick of the recent protest in Cairo. In messages posted last weekend from a Twitter account with Gates' name and a photo resembling one of the men in the police video, there are references to rubber bullets, a charge and retreat. One posting says, quote, "we were throwing rocks and one guy accidentally threw his phone." CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of those posts. (on camera): Here at Georgetown University, one Arabic professor says he had Derek Sweeney in his class for about six hours a week one year and he is shocked by Derek's arrest. (voice-over): Amin Bonnah taught an intensive Arabic class. He describes Sweeney in glowing terms.</s>PROFESSOR AMIN BONNAH, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Derek was one of my best students in every respect. He was a good, excellent, actually, student. Got A's. He was an outgoing, pleasant person.</s>TODD: Bonnah says Sweeney believed to be shown here in a Facebook posting labeled Tahrir Square embracing other cultures is a, quote, "socially peaceful person." Consistent with how Sweeney's mother described him.</s>JOY SWEENEY, DERRIK SWEENEY'S MOTHER: I don't believe he would intentionally try to harm anybody. He may have been with people that through them, I don't know, but that does not sound like something my son would do.</s>TODD: I asked Professor Bonnah who's from Egypt what his former student is facing. (on camera): What are your concerns for Derek right now?</s>BONNAH: I think my concern is only the hardship and the fear he will have to face and a system where we don't know what's happening. What's going on.</s>TODD: Luke Gates' father, George Gates says he learned of his son's detention in a call from American University in Cairo. George Gates said, quote, "It was a hard call to get." Officials at all three U.S. based colleges tell us they're working with American University and U.S. authorities to try to get the young men released -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Brian, any word on possible charges against these three young students?</s>TODD: Well, there's no word yet. We're told they're being held, that prosecutors are looking into this case. At one point, we believe they may have been held in a courthouse in Cairo, but no word yet on possible charges. Worth noting here that these young men took a pretty big risk if they did go out to Tahrir Square just in joining protests. Around 30 protesters have been killed since Saturday nearly 1,800 people have been injured.</s>BLITZER: They may have just gone though to see what was going on and got caught up. I assume U.S. embassy officials in Cairo are trying to get them out if they can.</s>TODD: That's right and we're told that U.S. officials in Cairo, in the United States, have been in contact with their families, working with the schools also to try to get them out. Also try to find out more of what's going on.</s>BLITZER: Brian Todd will keep us informed. Thank you, Brian.