Egypt's Bloodiest Day Since Revolution; What's At Stake For U.S.?
BLITZER: Let's go to Egypt now and what's the single bloodiest day since the country's historic revolution. On the ground, one protester describes the scene of quote, "open war," just hours after Egyptian security forces bulldozed two massive camps filled with supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsy. According to Egyptian TV, 278 people have been killed, at least two of them journalists. One a long time Sky News cameraman who used to work right here at CNN. Hundreds have been injured. A month long state of emergency is now in effect and curfews are in place in cities across the country, including Cairo. That's where our senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, is. She's joining us now -- Arwa, you had to duck for cover at several points today, right in the middle of all of the violence. What is the latest? What's going on right now?</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, it's something of an uneasy calm, if one can even describe it as that. The streets absolutely deserted because of that curfew that is in place. The big challenge that was facing the security forces throughout the day was not just having to go in and clear those two main sit-in sites, but dealing with clashes that increased in intensity and spread throughout the entire city. Supporters of the ousted president were refusing to give up. They were trying to repeatedly re-gather in different areas. They were trying to re-access one of the main sit-in sites, clashing with riot police, throwing stones at them. And then in this other new area, they've managed to even set up yet another sit-in. And those people are still there and they are fully aware that they do so at great risk to their own safety. They've set up a field clinic. They are waiting for the crackdown to continue. They are expecting the worst case scenario. And adding to all of this, too, Wolf, is the added dynamic that it's not just clashes between security forces and Morsy supporters, it's also clashes between Morsy supporters and residents in some of these areas. Driving around just before curfew, we also saw neighborhood watches being set up in some places, basically youth from neighborhoods carrying batons, bats and setting up their own checkpoints searching vehicles.</s>BLITZER: Do the pro-Mohamed Morsy elements, the Muslim Brotherhood there, who are protesting his removal, do they have weapons, though? Do they have arms to fight the security forces of the Egyptian military and police?</s>DAMON: They claim that they do not. And that being said, we did not see any weapons in their hands at any point in time. That being said, though, Wolf, there are 43 members of the police force who have been killed in these clashes. So one can only assume that some of these demonstrators were, in fact, carrying weapons, although, by and large, this was a peaceful movement. And the fallout from all of this, in terms of the casualties, in terms of the clashes that many are expecting to continue as the security forces try to bring the situation under control, and in terms of the political fallout, this country is paying an incredible cost right now. And trying to navigate the way forward is proving to be as challenging as ever -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I raised the question about weapons because I know a lot of people are concerned, what we've seen in Syria for the past two years, a horrendous civil war. The question to you, Arwa, you've been to Syria, you've been in Egypt, you've been in Libya, you've been throughout the region, are we on the verge of potentially a civil war, a deadly civil war in Egypt?</s>DAMON: To the scale and magnitude that we've seen in Syria and Iraq and in some of the other countries in the region? No, absolutely not. Is the country right now, Egypt, at great risk of even more clashes, even more violence? Yes, that most certainly is there and it is there in a greater capacity than it was before the security forces one and then forcibly cleared these individuals out of these two sit-in areas. And for the Muslim Brotherhood for its supporters, for those who are supporting the ousted president, this is also very much an existential battle, so that as an added dynamic to all of this, but that being said, is Egypt going to fall into an all-out civil war? Not likely, but it's still in an incredibly precarious position, and the government, the responsibility that's really on the government right now to try to figure out a way to bring about an end to this situation, and really decrease the amount of blood that is being spilled. It's a very vicious cycle. But the more killing and death that there is, the angrier people become, the more potential for more killing and death there is in the future.</s>BLITZER: Certainly is. Arwa Damon, we'll get back to you. Once again, we're standing by for that news conference from the NTSB in Birmingham, Alabama. The crash of that USPS A-300 cargo plane. Once it begins, we'll go there. But let's, in the meantime, continue the fallout for what's going on in Egypt, the violence there, could have huge implications for the United States. The White House calling the latest bloodshed a step in the wrong direction. And just a little while ago, the secretary of state, John Kerry, directly addressed the crisis.</s>JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States strongly condemns today's violence and bloodshed across Egypt. It's a serious blow to reconciliation, and the Egyptians people's hopes for transition towards democracy and inclusion.</s>BLITZER: Let's bring in our foreign affairs correspondent, Jill Dougherty. Jill, both sides in this, I guess we can call it a conflict in Egypt right now, they're blaming the United States.</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: They are, and that's the ironic thing. It's very disturbing for the United States, because after all, remember when they were trying to say is it a coup or isn't it a coup? And the United States stood back and said best not to define it, let's stay out of this. Let's keep both sides happy. But by staying out of it, they have angered both sides and they're being criticized. You know, if they say it's a coup, it angers the military and it pleases the people on the Morsi side. And if they say it's not a coup, it angers Morsi people and pleases the military, so they can't win. And then don't forget Senator McCain and Senator Graham went there. And Senator McCain said it's a coup, looks like a coup. It is a coup. So, it's getting a lot of anger and generating a lot of anger among the Egyptians.</s>BLITZER: Tell our viewers what's at stake for the United States?</s>DOUGHERTY: Number one, this is a huge country, 81 million people linchpin of the Middle East. And I think it boils down to terrorism and Israel. Israel because Egypt made peace Israel, even when Morsi came in. You know, Muslim Brotherhood, they were fearful here in Washington that he might walk away from the peace, but he didn't. And now, the military has been cooperating with the United States on anti-terrorism. So, if that falls apart, and if Egypt completely falls apart, that fight against terrorism could be diminished and that's very dangerous.</s>BLITZER: Certainly is. Lots at stake here. Jill, thanks very much. By the way, in our next hour, I'll speak live with the Egyptian ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Tawfik. He's here in the the SITUATION ROOM. We'll talk about this crisis. Once again, we're awaiting a news conference with the NTSB at Birmingham. Once it begins, we'll go there live on the crash of that U.P.S. cargo plane overnight. Meanwhile, a stunning reprimand to fellow Republicans from the co-host of CNN's new "Crossfire." What Newt Gingrich is now telling them about Obamacare? Plus, coke takes on critics of the artificial sweeteners in some of its drinks with a new ad campaign. Sanjay Gupta will join us, but I'm told the news conference, the NTSB news conference is about to begin. Here it is. Let's go there.</s>ROBERT SUMWALT, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: Well, good afternoon. My name is Robert Sumwalt, and I'm a board member with the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB has arrived in Birmingham to begin the investigation of the accident involving U.P.S. flight 1354. Before I go on, I would like to pause a moment and offer our sincere condolences and let you know that our thoughts and prayers are with the families and the victims and the friends of those. We are thinking of you, and you are in our prayers. The NTSB, we'll start with that. We are an independent federal agency charged by Congress to investigate transportation accidents to determine the problem cause action and then to issue safety recommendations to keep those accidents from happening again, and that's what we're in the business of doing. As far as factual information is concerned, this was U.P.S. flight 1354. It was on a scheduled flight from Louisville, Kentucky to Birmingham. The aircraft is an A-300-600. A-300-600F, and the "F" stands for freighter. The registration number is in 155UP. And as has been reported, the aircraft crashed while on approach to runway 1-8 here at Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport. The NTSB's Go team arrived here in Birmingham. We landed at about eleven o'clock this morning. We had an investigator on scene actually about 9:15 this morning who drove over from Atlanta. And today, what we've done is just a very an overall initial assessment to begin planning the next steps of our investigation. But I can tell you from the preliminary information that we've gone out and gathered, from the initial ground impact -- and bear in mind that there were three strikes prior to the initial ground impact, but from the initial ground impact to the final resting point of the forward fuselage, which contains the cockpit area, that distance is about 200 yards. And then another 75 or 80 yards past that, closer to the runway, that is, there would be the part of the fuselage that contained the wings and the tail section. And that part of the aircraft, especially the over-wing portion, was extensively damaged by fire. The tail section of the aircraft is still smoldering, still smoking, and for that reason, we have not been able to get in and get the black boxes, if you will, the cockpit voice record, the flight data recorder, but the first responders are out there continuing to put water, fire retardant on that section of the fuselage. So, we are optimistic that we will be able to get in there quickly and recover those crash recorders. The NTSB has responded to this crash with a 26-member Go team. The investigator in charge is Dr. Dan Bauer (ph). Dr. Bauer has over 20 years of investigative experience with the NTSB. Our Go team consists of -- we will break it down into several groups. And just to give you an idea of what some of those groups are, we will have a special group of experts looking at the aircraft's structure, power plans, survival factors, human performance, systems, operations, air traffic control, weather. We will be looking at everything that may be relevant to the causation of this accident. In addition to our investigative staff, we have members of the NTSB's office of transportation disaster assistance. They will be helping to provide support for the family members of the victims. I do want to emphasize that we are just at the very, very beginning stages of our investigation. There's a lot of work to be done, and that work will begin in earnest tomorrow morning. Throughout the next few days, we will be gathering factual information. Our goal is to find out not just what happened, but more importantly, why it happened, so that we can keep it from happening again. I want to emphasize that while we are here on scene, we are just here to collect the perishable evidence, the perishable information, which is, in my opinion, the information that goes away with the passage of time. So, we will be, tomorrow morning, with the assistance of the FBI's E.R.T., evidence response team, they will help us to document the wreckage. They have special measuring devices that can very precisely help us diagram the wreckage. We'll be collecting records that we can analyze later, records for the aircraft, records for the flight crew. We'll be looking at collecting weather information, the ATC tapes. Those are the types of things that have already started, but will continue in much more detail tomorrow, but we're not here in Birmingham. We are not here to conduct any analysis, and we will not be determining cause of the accident and nor will we, in any case, speculate on the accident.</s>BLITZER: All right. That's Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB board member, giving us some very, very preliminary information about this investigation that the NTSB will do on this U.P.S. flight 1354, the crash in Birmingham, Alabama overnight. We'll stay on top of this story. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.