and hisham melhem, washington bureau chief for al arabiya tv, an arab language satellite news channel. thank you all for being here. there's so many questions at this stage. as we watch events unfold in egypt. let me start with you, hisham what contacts do we know are there going on right now between washington and cairo? >> there are contacts on the highest levels, particularly with the new deputy of pew barack and with the military. i would like to listen the conversations between robert gates and the minister. >> woodruff: the defense secretary. >> exactly, yeah. souliman and the others are very well-known to policymakers hear in washington. they've been involved in dealing with them on security issues, arab israeli conflict, combatting terrorism. so they know each other extremely well. and the united states can kin fluence the egyptian army. the egyptian army knows that they cannot survive without continuing that kind of lifeline between egypt and the american military here. so there is that toolbox that includes this kind of special relationship. and then the hope here is that th

hisham melhem, have had incident with police or protesters? dick, four reporters will be enough, two severely requiring hospitalization but one of them was almost killed. he was saved by the army and was taken to hospital. they were released the day before yesterday. yesterday, these thugs attacked our bureau, chased our reporters, as well as other reporters, to a nearby hotel. so, the there is an environment of intimidation against the international media -- whether they speak arabic or english or spanish. there were numerous incidents, and i think the state department was correct when it said, essentially complied, when they talk about strong evidence that this was government-sanctions and controlled. host: week were showing you a viewer, and saying this was being reported as if it were a rugby match -- we were showing a viewer comment. when no other governments in the region and the egyptian government was saying coverage is in siting or adding to the violence. what is your perspective as a journalist as to what is appropriate? guest: our j