president obama has little control over what mubarak does next, according to middle east analyst jon alterman. >> i don't think there are many people in the world who hosni mubarak is listening to right now, and i certainly don't think he's curious what the americans think he should do. >> reporter: wherever it's affected it or not, though, the white house says the administration plans to keep up the pressure on hosni mubarak. russ. >> mitchell: chip reid at the white house. thanks. despite president mubarak's statement last night that he is on the side of freedom, the egyptian government earlier this week shut downtown internet and most cell phone service. those moves are having an impact on this side of the world as well as elaine quijano tells us. >> reporter: at the egyptian coffee shop in queens, new york, where the developments in egypt dominate the discussions, shop owner labib salama is worried. he hasn't been able to reach his two-year-old nephew who lives in egypt for days. >> he could be killed. it could be somebody catch him. >> reporter: in the wake of the protests this week, the

at the center for strategic and international studies, middle east expert jon alterman says the street protests that threaten the rule of hosni mubarak, a close u.s. ally, are not so much about democracy as restoring a basic justice. >> there is a sense that, while people keep talking about how the macroeconomic numbers are getting better, their microeconomic numbers are staying really weak and a lot of these protests are about people feeling, well, where's my future? >> reporter: as the most- populist arab state, egypt has been the bedrock of the region. images like these are so stunning, because the mubarak regime has been stable for three decades. now that egypt is shifting, alterman says, the entire region is likely to be more tense. >> if people don't have confidence in where egypt is that would make a lot of people uncomfortable, sometimes to take matters into their own hands, sometimes to be even more unwilling to make change because of uncertainty about where change leads. >> reporter: protests have spilled across the region, raising concerns about whether unrest might soon thr