Says Crowley: "We respect what Egypt contributes to the region, it is a stabilizing force, it has made its own peace with Israel, and is pursuing normal relations with Israel, we think that's important, we think that's a model that the region should adopt broadly speaking. at the same time, we recognize that Egypt, Tunisia other countries do need to reform, they do need to respond to the needs of their people, and we encourage that reform and are contributing across the region to that reform."

Rattansi: [paraphrased] but if Egypt can't guarantee stability, what's the point of all your financial support.

Crowley: "We rely on Egypt as an ally to be a stabilizing force in the region... that has benefits across the region."

Rattansi: "Democracy would be destabilizing to the region generally, wouldn't it?"

Source: Antiwar.com
Credits: Jason Ditz
Dated: 2011-01-27

Early today access to Social Media outlets, including Facebook and Twitter, were reportedly cut off in Egypt. Not long after reports emerged of the SMS text messaging service for cell phones being blocked.

Now though, several outlets are reporting that the entire Internet is down for Egyptians, an apparent effort by President Hosni Mubarak to make coordination amongst the protesters more difficult ahead of massive rallies expected on Friday.

The Egyptian government seems to be moving far more broadly in its censorship and far quicker even than the Tunisian government, which saw its efforts to stifle dissent fail and, eventually, its president flee into exile.

President Mubarak has a stronger military though, and billions of dollars in annual donations from the Obama Administration which has come out vigorously against regime change in Egypt, saying the pro-democracy protesters should be content with promises of extremely minor reforms.

This has led Western analysts to guess that Mubarak’s regime probably will eventually prevail over the protesters, though the censorship of the entire Internet seems unlikely to anger protesters all the more, and meetings for Friday prayers will likely serve as a chance for Mubarak’s opponents to coordinate a response.