Ugly End to Clinton's Egyptian Visit
HARLOW: Well, Hillary Clinton has visited more than a hundred countries as secretary of state, but few visits have ended as badly as her trip to Egypt. Elise Labott joins me by phone. She's traveling with the secretary. She's in Jerusalem, with more on what happened. Elise, let's get to that first. Just give us a sense of what happen at the end of the secretary of state's trip.</s>ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER (via telephone): Well, poppy, she was opening -- she was doing a flag raising at one of the U.S. consulate in Alexandria, Egypt. And she was making some remarks ironically about how the U.S. wanted to support Egypt's transition and the fact that the U.S. wasn't picking any winners or losers. That's been a criticism during the trip -- there were protesters outside the consulate. It was a little harrowing for her staff and us journalists. When we left, they were t throwing bottles of water. They were throwing tomatoes and they were throwing shoes, which is considered a real sign of disrespect in the Arab world. They were chanting Monica, Monica. I think it was a reference to Monica Lewinsky. Obviously they didn't understand this was a totally new president or maybe it was a reference to Bill Clinton. But certainly it was a little bit harrowing. The secretary, though, never in any trouble, never in any danger. Her car and her vehicle are not hit. But one of the Egyptian officials that was walking out did get hit in the face with a tomato.</s>HARLOW: Wow. Completely disrespectful. And, you know, it's interesting this comes after what seemed like a very welcome reception when she sat down with newly elected President Morsi yesterday. And then I know she met with the head military leader there and also with Coptic Christians. You said that was a difficult encounter for her as well, meeting with the Christian group.</s>LABOTT: Well, I think there's a real sense, and her aides kind of alluded to this when we were talking them about this sense in Egypt that there's a perception that the U.S. backs the Muslim Brotherhood. In Egypt, you know, obviously not everybody voted for President Morsi. There were a great deal of people who were scared about the Muslim Brotherhood. They voted for the other candidate, Shafik, who was more in align with the military council, and the old regime. And so, when they met -- the Coptic Christians and other Christian groups when they met with Secretary Clinton, they felt that you aren't protecting our rights. You aren't siding -- you're siding with the Muslim Brotherhood. And what the secretary of state said right before this event was the U.S. doesn't pick any winners or losers. We're looking to help you with your democratic transition. She is talking to President Morsi to get his act together, get a government together. Also telling the military council get back to your day job and get a democratically elected president, time to get back to your real job of protecting the country. And so I think there's a lot of questions about U.S. intentions in the region. There always has been for many years, but now that President Hosni Mubarak is gone and there's a new president that the U.S. said this is a guy who was elected and this is a guy we're going to work with. The U.S. can't pick and choose who they want to work with this in this world.</s>HARLOW: And, Elise, quickly, what is the next step, where's the secretary headed next?</s>LABOTT: Well, we just landed in Tel Aviv just a short while ago, took a short ride to Jerusalem. She's in Jerusalem now. She'll be meeting with Israeli officials -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Barak and President Shimon Perez, among others. Couple of issues on the agenda, obviously trying to get the U.S., the Israel-Palestinian peace process back together, but also giving her perceptions about what the situation in Egypt, Israelis are very concerned about what's going on on the border, with the Sinai. You have Syria, Iran. No shortage of issues to talk here at Israeli tomorrow, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Especially with the kidnapping of those two Americans and, Elise, I know you have a big day an interview with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton coming up tomorrow. We'll look for that. Great reporting in the six weeks you have been in the region. Thank you, Elise. All right. It has been called a direct threat on the freedom of speech. Newspapers in Mexico are changing their reporting after violent threats from some of the country's most notorious drug cartels. I find this as a journalist to be an outrageous, outraging story. Nick Valencia is with us here to talk about it. We're talking in the break. And you said grenade attack.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fragmentations grenade thrown at newspapers.</s>HARLOW: At two different newspapers.</s>VALENCIA: Two different states. Two different parts of Mexico, two different states. This is a direct threat. Like -- you said it right, this is a direct threat on freedom of speech. We've all done stories that people don't like, that viewers don't like. Few of us have actually feared for our lives for doing these stories. This is a situation that those journalists at "El Manana" and "El Norte" in Monterrey are dealing with. Let me tell you why it happened. At Monterrey, Mexico, this newspaper "El Norte", a very prominent newspaper there locally, they did an expose about the local department of motor vehicles issuing illegitimate, stolen license plates to make cars like legitimate. The next day, their newspaper offices there in Monterrey attacked with a fragmentation grenade. Now, "El Manana" has been attacked several times, two times in the last two months, and then a couple of years ago, if you can even imagine this, masked gunmen, unknown gunmen, step into the newsroom, open fire indiscriminately with their AK-47s, one of the journalists, our colleagues, paralyzed.</s>HARLOW: You can't imagine that. We were running through the numbers. You said 80 some journalists killed.</s>VALENCIA: Since 2000.</s>HARLOW: Since 2000 across the country.</s>VALENCIA: Across Mexico.</s>HARLOW: But these are just journalists. And, you know, when you look at also what you told me, 90 percent of the crimes in Mexico go unsolved. So, it makes me wonder what kind of grasp if any enforcement the government, the police have there.</s>VALENCIA: Those are staggering numbers. You know, just to read them, 90 percent of crimes -- this is an official statistic from the attorney general's office of Mexico -- 90 percent or more of the crimes in Mexico go unsolved. And yes, they're committed to protect -- New York-based institution there, saying more than 80 journalists killed since 2000, half of which have been killed or kidnapped since Calderon took office, which, you know, seizing that power over to Enrique Pena Nieto.</s>HARLOW: This is the way you inform an electorate is through free press.</s>VALENCIA: Right.</s>HARLOW: And this is a huge step. It appears at least for these two newspapers, that this is coming on to an end for them. They're saying, that's it, we need to protect our staff.</s>VALENCIA: What makes this all the more unusual and I believe we have a statement from "El Manana" newspaper. But what makes this so much more unusual is the fact that they would address this publicly. And they say, "We ask for the public's comprehension and will refrain, for as long as need, from publishing any information related to violent disputes our city and other regions are suffering." You know, local news trickles up to the national level.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>VALENCIA: If you're losing these beat reporters, you're losing these people with institutional knowledge with what's going on in their cities. They're not reporting what's going on. This is information that Mexicans were getting that they just aren't getting anymore.</s>HARLOW: Unbelievable. Clearly the cartels are winning in this.</s>VALENCIA: Sad to say, but many people would agree with you.</s>HARLOW: Thank you for bringing us this report, Nick.</s>VALENCIA: Thank you.</s>HARLOW: All right. Adult entertainment, so accessible on TVs and many hotels. Well, a pair of Christian and Muslim scholars want to change that. We're going to tell you about that story coming up next.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, before the iPad, I used to joke that I made useless programs. But they're as useless as a song, a movie, a story, something like that. And all of a sudden, with the iPad, I could just go directly to people and say, check this thing out. It doesn't even -- we don't have to label what it is. It's just called Gravelex (ph). It's called bubble art. See if you like it and all of a sudden, they did.