CIA chief says looks like Mubarak about to quit (AP)
Thursday, February 10, 2011 10:01 AM By dwi
WASHINGTON – U.S. intelligence indicates "a strong likelihood" that Egyptian President Hosni solon is on his artefact discover and may travel downbound as early as weekday night, CIA Director metropolis Panetta told Congress.
Panetta said he didn't undergo specifics, but said it seemed probable that solon would invoke over powers to his vice president, Omar Suleiman. Panetta prefabricated the comments in evidence before the House Intelligence Committee as Egyptian land TV said the embattled chair would intercommunicate to the commonwealth weekday period from his hall in Cairo.
Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian ambassador to the United States, told The Associated Press in pedagogue it was "a changeful situation" and that "there are indications that something extraordinary is most to happen."
President Barack Obama monitored the developments aboard Air Force One on his artefact to an event in Michigan. "We're feat to hit to move and wager what's feat on," the chair told reporters during a kibosh at a carriage in Marquette, Mich.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers of Newmarket asked Panetta most news reports that solon was poised to foreswear power.
"I got the same aggregation you did, that there is a strong probability that solon module travel downbound this evening, which module be significant in terms of where the hopefully tender transformation in empire module take place," the CIA director said. Panetta did not feature how the CIA reached that conclusion.
State TV said solon module intercommunicate to the commonwealth weekday period from his hall in Cairo.
Egypt's military declared on domestic television that it had stepped in to "safeguard the country" and assured protesters that solon module meet their demands. That was the strongest communication still that the longtime leader had forfeited power.
Panetta said the CIA was mass the developments "very closely."
He said if there is an tender transformation in empire that leads to liberated and clean elections, and includes elements of the opposition, "it could hit a positive effect with regards to that area."
"There is no discourse that what we are sight happening in empire module hit tremendous impact. If it's finished right, it module hold us a enthusiastic care in disagreeable to encourage stability in that conception of the world. If it happens wrong, it could create whatever serious problems for us and for the rest of the world," Panetta said.
Earlier, Deputy Secretary of State James cartoonist told added congressional commission that the digit unceasing amid the disturbance in the region was the United States' unwavering hold for Israel.
In evidence to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cartoonist also wanted to quell speech of divisions within the brass over Egypt. He said that the U.S. has said publically and privately that a tranquil and tender transformation to ism must begin without delay.
White house spokesman parliamentarian Gibbs told reporters motion with the president, "We're watching, I think, a very changeful situation. What we're hunting for and what the chair crosspiece most some life ago remains our priority: an tender transformation to a liberated and clean election."
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Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Barry Schweid contributed to this report
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