Fox Business Reporter’s Cairo Hotel Room Invaded by Security: 'They're Going to Kill Us!!'

Covering the melee in Cairo as an American journalist has taken a turn for the worse in the last 24 hours. In addition to the dangers of reporting from an area where the government has failed to ensure basic safety, an alleged pro-Hosni Mubarak mob has infiltrated the protests and is turning violent on protesters and western journalists. Ashley Webster, the overseas market editor for the Fox Business Network, is the latest to face the threats from the pro-Mubarak demonstrators. On Monday, around 10 a.m. Eastern time, Webster tweeted the following:

"When did Hosni Mubarak suddenly become a Good Guy?"

I see that Yet_Again basically answered that question in #39. I would only add that if you look at the history of his ascendancy, you have to look at the circumstances under which his predecessor, Sadat came to power and the circumstances surrounding his assassination. A lot of Nasserites thought they would use Sadat as a friendly face and pull the strings from behind the scenes. Sadat did not allow that to happen, but took effective command of the ship of state. He entered into a peace agreement with Israel and withstood the censure of the Arab League for doing so. He was assassinated by hardcore islamists for his largely western-leaning views, and drew down Egypt's relationship with the Soviet Union while building Egypt's ties with the U.S.

When Mubarak came to power, he basically continued on the path that Sadat had set out upon.

Is Mubarak the nicest guy? Certainly not. I do suspect that both the US, and the average Egyptian will find that whom or whatever replaces him will be a lot less to their liking.

>>These reporters are over there to make news, not report it, and a name for themselves. We don’t need them there.

So you’d prefer not to know what is going on?

I was watching Fox Biz this AM when this guy was reporting and the camera feed from the balcony. It wasn’t canned footage, people were basically right below his balcony throwing rocks across a ‘no man’s land’.

Sounds to me like hotel security tossed the cameras in an attempt to keep the reporters alive. My take is the mob saw the camera and was going to invade the hotel if something was not done. Good call by hotel security.

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