"Reprogramming" Gives Breathing Room for US Aid to Egypt; Bo Xilai Trial
QUEST: A US official has told CNN some of its military aid for Egypt is now on hold, which will allow it breathing space. Washington's stop-gap solution has got one word for it: it's known as "reprogramming." It means the US can restore the aid later or cut it altogether. And while no firm decision has been made either way, the EU foreign ministers decide their response in Brussels tomorrow. Israel is deeply interested in US aid going to Egypt and, indeed, has been one of the countries that has been exhorting the US not to take too much drastic action. CNN's Jim Clancy is in Jerusalem.</s>JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Most here in Israel see the US military aid as a reward to Egypt's military for holding onto the peace accord with Israel. But they also see it as the only force they perceive as capable of instilling a sense of real security. Egypt's military acted almost immediately upon ousting Mohamed Morsy to do something the Israelis have wanted to see, not just for years, but for decades: the destruction of the system of tunnels leading from the Sinai into Gaza. Hamas is seen as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt had its own reasons for taking action there, among them may have actually been to support Israel as a means of insuring that US aid for its military will continue. Again, the Israeli perspective, it might not be perfect, but Egypt's military can prevent a worst-case scenario, the spiraling of the country down into violence, chaos, even civil war. But pause and take the US perspective. It had counseled the military government in Cairo, seek an inclusive policy that wouldn't drive the Muslim Brotherhood away or underground. The military, given its actions in the last week, rejected that counsel. Yes, a military can serve to maintain security, but it's not as easy as that. A military can also serve to escalate a crisis into a disaster by overreacting and creating the basis for a power struggle within its own citizenry. Case in point: Syria. Rewind two years. Syria's army was ordered to attack peaceful demonstrators demanding multi-party representation, and end to corruption, and greater economic opportunity for everyone. It can be fairly argued that it was Bashar al-Assad's heavy-handed military response that ignited what is not now just a civil war, but a proxy war involving the US, Europe, Turkey, and Gulf Arab states on one side, against Iran, Lebanon's Hezbollah, as well as, to some extent, Russia. Yes, the military can bring stability, but in the case of Egypt, as in anywhere else, that depends on what strategy it pursues. Clearly, the US doesn't think Cairo is pursuing the right strategy, and it's still using its influence to try to steer Egypt's military in a different, more inclusive direction. Washington and the Obama administration may have a checkered record in the Middle East right now, but that doesn't mean they're always wrong. No one can predict what lies ahead for Egypt. In the Middle East, never assume things can't get worse. They can. The message Washington may be sending is pause, reflect, think where you're going, where you're taking the largest nation in the Arab world. Jim Clancy, CNN, Jerusalem.</s>QUEST: Now, it was arguably the biggest scandal to shake the Communist Party in China in decades. Within two years, Bo Xilai went from a power broker to a man who may face the death penalty. His trial starts on Thursday, and his son has told "The New York Times" he's helping his father get the opportunity to answer some of his critics and defend himself. Our correspondent in Beijing, David McKenzie, now charts Bo Xilai's downfall.</s>DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chongqing, a mega-city of some 30 million in the southwest, and center of China's biggest political scandal in a generation. Bo Xilai ran this city. The son of a famous revolutionary leader, a princeling tapped to join the untouchable ranks of the party. The Chinese politician that broke the mold.</s>FRANK CHIN, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND COLUMNIST: Bo Xilai was unique. He was not a dull party hack, the way I think 99 percent of party officials are.</s>MCKENZIE: Bo organized massive Sing Red rallies, packing stadiums with Communist Party faithful in TV-friendly spectacles, a throwback to the days of Mao that startled both friends and enemies.</s>LI ZHUANG, DEFENSE LAWYER (through translator): He was good at using media to glamorize himself. He successfully fooled ordinary people. They weren't able to see his real intentions and political ambition.</s>MCKENZIE: Bo signaled his ambition by bringing in powerful police chief Wang Lijun. Together, they arrested thousands of alleged criminals in a smash black campaign.</s>MCKENZIE (on camera): Bo Xilai and his police boss had almost unlimited ambition. If you look at this, it was supposed to be the cloud computing center of the Chongqing police force, this enormous cathedral- like.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): His lofty aims and brutal tactics made him enemies.</s>LI (through translator): During his four years ruling Chongqing, he marked his cruelty in history with a number of people he arrested, executed, put in reallocation camps, and thrown into jail.</s>MCKENZIE: For Communist Party royalty, Bo's downfall began in an unlikely place: the shabby Lucky Holiday hotel, where Bo's wife, Gu Kailai's, business dealings with a British family friend went horribly wrong.</s>MCKENZIE (on camera): Court documents showed Gu Kailai lured Neil Heywood to this hotel for a late-night meeting. She plied him with expensive whiskey, then when he got ill, she laid him on a bed like this and poured rat poison down his throat.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): Local authorities tried to cover up Heywood's death, surrounding the hotel and cremating his body. It may have all ended there had Bo's police chief not fled, asking for asylum, then surrendering to the Chinese government and revealing the coverup.</s>CHIN: Corruption is so widespread that if they wanted to target somebody, they can almost always find something to use against a person. And I think that Bo had a lot of enemies in Beijing, and when this came up, it was a godsend.</s>MCKENZIE: Bo Xilai was stripped of his party membership, his wife, Gu, convicted of murder. From the very heights of power, Bo Xilai could now face the death penalty. David McKenzie, CNN, Chongqing.</s>QUEST: Tonight's Currency Conundrum: which country has become the first to officially recognize the bitcoin? Is it A, India? B, Germany? Or C, Panama? The answer later in the program. We've talked much about currencies tonight. Tonight, notwithstanding the emerging markets issues, the dollar is weaker against the pound, the euro, and the yen. Those are the rates --</s>QUEST: -- this is the break.