EGYPT - Pressure on Mubarak, About to Blow Up?

"Protesters Look to Step Up Pressure on Mubarak as Concerns of Violence Resurface"
PBS Newshour 2/10/2011

Excerpt from transcript

MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): So -- and I know from talking to senior people in the government yesterday and today, and as well as senior opposition leaders, there was just a sense that these people don't want to just inhabit this square ad nauseam, that they were going to put on more pressure if the government didn't do something.

And so we were told when we left the square at 3:30, oh, don't leave; there's going to be a big announcement. Now, rumors fly, but then -- then the government made the expectation even worse by giving out all these contradictory statements.

And I was talking to certain people who said, no, no, he's really not stepping down. You had that new head of the party, the NDP, say, oh, I think he should step down. I mean, the old days, with the way Egypt was run, if the head of the party said that, you could take it to the bank.

So it just showed also this kind of total confusion in the ruling -- in the ruling elite. But -- and the final reason I would say is that, as it's explained to me, the revolution has moved outside Tahrir Square. It's one -- I'm sure you have already reported this, that you've had labor strikes and -- and you've got demonstrations in other cities.

But also, in these companies and in what's called syndicates, which are sort of like unions -- if you're a journalist, if you're a doctor, you're a dentist, you're a lawyer, you have to belong this to thing. And there are always party guys who run them.

And apparently today, at the press syndicate, there was a revolt internally, and they wouldn't even let the head of it come into the building. And then Tom Friedman, our New York Times colleague, was at the -- at a press conference at the journalists' club, and he said that it was almost as if the head of the syndicate there was hiding under his desk.

And there were similar movements. I talked to some young doctors today. So, there was a sense among people even in the government that they had to do something, or there was going to be just kind of a revolt from within. It wasn't just going to be the kids in the square.