President Obama and Prime Minister Harper Press Conference. Secretary Clinton Condemns Attacks on Demonstrators and Journalists in Egypt. Remarks by the President on the Situation in Egypt. The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release February 01, 2011 Grand Foyer THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, everybody.
And my administration has been in close contact with our Egyptian counterparts and a broad range of the Egyptian people, as well as others across the region and across the globe. First, we oppose violence. Second, we stand for universal values, including the rights of the Egyptian people to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and the freedom to access information. Third, we have spoken out on behalf of the need for change. Now, it is not the role of any other country to determine Egypt’s leaders.
Furthermore, the process must include a broad spectrum of Egyptian voices and opposition parties. Secretary Clinton Addresses the Situation in Egypt. U.S. Military Urges Egyptian Army to Use Restraint. The relationship between the Egyptian and American militaries is, in fact, so close that it was no surprise on Friday to find two dozen senior Egyptian military officials at the Pentagon, halfway through an annual week of meetings, lunches and dinners with their American counterparts.
U.S. warns against blocking social media, elevates Internet freedom policies. The decision by Egyptian officials to virtually shut down Internet access to the country Friday marked an audacious escalation in the battle between authoritarian governments and tech-savvy protesters.
It was also a direct challenge to the Obama administration's attempts to promote Internet freedom. Internet access was cut off in Egypt shortly after midnight Friday, apparently after authorities ordered the country's five service providers to block it, according to experts. Cellphone service was also severely disrupted. "The Egyptian government's actions ... have essentially wiped their country from the global map," James Cowie of Renesys, a New Hampshire-based company that monitors Internet data, said on the company's Web site.
The move came roughly a day after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had publicly urged Egypt not to close off access to the technology and social media that were being used to organize demonstrations. Inside the State Department’s Arab Twitter diplomacy. The State Department has been working furiously and mostly behind the scenes to cajole and pressure Arab governments to halt their clampdowns on communications and social media.
In Tunisia there seem to have been real results. In Egypt, it's too soon to tell. Ever since the State Department intervened during protests by the Iranian Green movement in June 2009, convincing Twitter to postpone maintenance so opposition protestors could communicate, the U.S. government has been ramping up its worldwide effort to set up a network of organizations that could circumvent crackdowns on Internet and cell phone technologies by foreign governments. That effort faced its first two major tests over the last few weeks and the State Department has been working with private companies, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions to activate this network and put it to use in real time. "This was not a Twitter revolution. Secretary Clinton: “Reform Is Absolutely Critical to the Well-Being of Egypt” White House Blog:President Obama on the Situation in Egypt -- "All Governments Must Maintain Power through Consent, Not Coercion" Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered remarks on the unfolding events in Egypt on January 28, 2011.
Secretary Clinton said, "We continue to monitor the situation very closely. We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protestors, and we call on the Egyptian Government to do everything in its power to restrain the security forces. At the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully. "As we have repeatedly said, we support the universal human rights of the Egyptian people, including the right to freedom of expression, of association and of assembly. "When I was recently in the region, I met with a wide range of civil society groups and I heard from them about ideas they have that would improve their countries. Live Video - C-SPAN.