The New York Times David Kirkpatrick From Cairo

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Hugh Hewitt Show:

Hugh Hewitt

Friday, August 21, 2015

 

The New York Times’ David Kirkpatrick joined me today to discuss his article on increasing violence in Cairo:

 

Audio

 

HH: I go to Cairo now where I’m joined by the New York Times’ David Kirkpatrick. David, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show, great to have you.

 

DK: It’s a pleasure to be here.

 

HH: David, since early 2011, Egypt has gone through a series of convulsions. And this morning’s story, Egyptians Adapt As Cairo Is Redefined By A String Of Bomb Attacks that you have in the New York Times, you know, made me look again at what has been going on for the last four plus years. And it sounds like the new normal is chaos there. What is the situation in Cairo these days?

 

DK: Well, the city is a chaotic city. You know, it’s 20 million people, and there’s never been the rule of law, and that pervades the traffic, that pervades everything about street life. So that’s the backdrop. What’s changed is the level of security, you really, in 2010, when I first moved to Egypt, you really felt safe almost anywhere. Bombings and political violence were almost unheard of. After the uprising that removed Mubarak, the next year, there was almost constant street protests, but they were peaceful demonstrations. You know, there were a lot of crowds, a lot of shouting. The worst thing that happened was stone throwing. You know, the protestors throw stones, and believe it or not, the police would often throw them back. Now, we’re into a new era that is, I think, pretty ominous. There have been bombings, you know, I’m not going to say weekly, but maybe bi-weekly. For a while, it was more common than that. And sometimes, they’re small. Sometimes, they blow up a storefront or a bank. But sometimes, they’re pretty big like the one yesterday at 2am. And it’s gotten to the point where the people of Cairo have acclimated to that, and just kind of take it in stride.

 

HH: Now the violence began when then-General Sisi took control of the government from President Morsi, and there were a series of shootings. I think your article said a thousand people were killed in a series of military put-downs of demonstrations. And since that time, we’ve had huge violence in the Sanai, right? I mean, there’s basically armed insurrection in the Sanai Desert in some places.

 

DK: Yeah, and there’s a patch in the north Sanai that I think is effectively outside of the control of the central government. There’s a real insurgency there.

 

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