and also from new york, michael posener. professor of business and society at new york university, he was the obama administration assistant secretary of state for the bureau of human rights and labor where 2009-2013. and professor, if you had to make your own report, would it be pretty consistent with what the state department found? what kind of year did you see it being for the world? >> i think the report they released today is excellent. a lot of time and energy goes into it. i think the trends are right. in a number of countries you have growing activism. and they are taking to the streets or the blogs or trying to communicate through the press. and governments are cracking down. so i think the attack on civil society, is one of the trends that they rightly highlighted in the state department report. >> did you see areas that they either missed or you disagreed with their interpretation on? >> which is something they led when he was assistant secretary. therefore, however, some gaps. housing rights is not included and

. >> michael posener, what do you make of it? egypt has been a major recipient of american aid but no amount of jay carney today at the white house briefing talking about these reporters is going to make egypt simply say, okay, fellas, go and sin no more. >> yeah, i think egypt is a critically important country at a have dangerous moment right now. it's not just your four journalists among dozens that have been arrested and are being held. civil society, human rights activists, it's almost impossible to be critical of the government now even on things how they drafted the constitution without coming under the government's wrath. egypt is the most important country in the middle east. it's critical for the united states, for europe and others to really pay more attention. egypt hasn't gotten the attention that it deserves in the last seven or eight months and it's at a critical juncture right now. we have to help create the space for more owner pluralistic debate on a range of issues. >> to my guests, thank you all for being with