No Answers

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JANUARY 31, 2011

Jack Mirkinson is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He is currently working at the Huffington Post.


Anderson Cooper In Egypt: 'Nobody Has Any Answers For What's Going To Happen Here'

First Posted: 01/31/11 -- 03:27 PM Updated: 01/31/11 -- 03:50 PM

Anderson Cooper landed in Egypt on Sunday night. By Monday morning, the country already seemed different to him.

"It's a fast-changing situation," the CNN anchor said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "It feels like it changes every few hours."

Cooper has flown into the city to witness the massive popular uprising taking place in defiance of President Hosni Mubarak's government. He spoke to HuffPost from a site near Tahrir Square, which has become the site of huge protests and the focal point for the uprising.

Cooper said he saw more soldiers on the streets on Monday than on Sunday, when he arrived. "They are trying to have a show of force, to show that they are in control of the situation," he said. That meant cutting off certain roads, trying to enforce the widely-ignored curfew a little more, and trying to block people from getting to Tahrir Square.

The people who are protesting "are completely not satisfied" with the steps Mubarak has taken to reform his regime, Cooper said. "They will tell you that. Putting a former intelligence chief in as your vice president, that's not a sign of a president who wants to open up. Nothing short of Mubarak leaving is acceptable."

The Egyptian government has treated journalists with a heavy hand since the uprising began. They have been beaten and arrested, and have seen their equipment confiscated and destroyed. The regime has also cracked down on social media, blocked off most Internet access in the country, and moved to shut down Al Jazeera's Cairo operations.

It is under this backdrop that Cooper flew into Egypt on Sunday. He called the situation a "tricky" one, and noted that his CNN colleague Ben Wedeman had already had a nasty run-in with Egyptian security forces last week.