Anderson Cooper & ElBaradei: Egypt's Brutal Dictatorship Are Talking From Both Sides Of Their Mouths

[Turborama]

Run time: 02:56 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmO7C0SXCM4   Posted on YouTube: February 08, 2011 By YouTube Member: Naskeleng Views on YouTube: 1   Posted on DU: February 08, 2011 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 516

 
COOPER: Dr. ElBaradei, should people believe anything that the Mubarak regime is saying publicly? Because it seems to me, over the last several days, they have made a number of public statements that, when you actually look at their actions and what they're doing behind the scenes show those statements to be false. They say they're for press freedom and, yet, clearly there was an orchestrated campaign to attack the media.

They say they had no control over the people attacking the pro- Mubarak -- the anti-Mubarak demonstrators in the square, and yet as soon as there was too much international attention, those attacks stopped. So, should people believe this regime?

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE: Anderson, I don't think they have an iota of credibility right now.

And they're -- what they say is one thing; what they do is completely the other. They have attacked foreign journalists. They have detained young demonstrators. I give you just one perfect example. People last Thursday came from -- from the Tahrir Square to meet with me. And these were cardiologists, lawyers, engineers.

Nine of them got detained the same day the vice president was saying that they were releasing all the demonstrators. They were kept for a couple days. They were blindfolded. And I had to make that public everywhere, kicking and scream, if you like, until they got released yesterday.

So, there is nothing they are doing that's lending them any sense of credibility. And you can't really make the transition through the outgoing regime, through a regime that is basically adopting a military approach to democracy. What we need is right now to have a national coalition government that takes over, that is representative of that peaceful revolution, and they are the one who should make the change.

COOPER: Even though now, there seems to be more security on the ground for the -- for the anti-Mubarak protesters in the square, it seems to me that could change on a moment's notice.

I mean, we have seen the military come and go for reasons that are completely unknown to anybody other than the military and the Mubarak regime. And if those protesters were to leave the square, they could be picked off one by one over time by the secret police who we know routinely torture and have all sorts of extrajudicial and illegal detentions.

ELBARADEI: Correct. And all the guys young and old are aware of that. They are -- there is no way that they are leaving the square.

The army tried a couple times to try to go through them through tanks, but they made a human shield. Nobody is going to leave the square, Anderson. I can tell you that.

COOPER: Dr. ElBaradei, I appreciate your time.

ELBARADEI: Thank you very much, Anderson.

From: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1102/07/acd.01.html

[Duppers]

1. important / good coverage.

K & R.

[ananda]

2. It's nice to see a journo get so pissed off that he does the right thing.

AC is OK on this one. They shouldn't have attacked him over there in Egypt.

The other journalists seem to have just left and shut up or still spout the
party line.

[florida08]

3. It's not just the dictatorship usiing lip service

We use it quite a bit right here.