The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
February 10, 2011

Freed Protest Organizer Wael Ghonim Rejects Mubarak Regime Talks 
-----------------------------------------------------------------



The pro-democracy movement was buoyed this week with the release of one
of the most high-profile detained protesters, Google executive Wael
Ghonim, after 12 days behind bars. Ghonim helped run a Facebook page
used to organize the initial protests. Speaking to CNN, Ghonim said the
regime's crackdown has closed the door on negotiations.

Wael Ghonim: "This is no longer the time to negotiate, unfortunately. We
went on the street on [the] 25th, and we wanted to negotiate. We wanted
to talk to our government. We were knocking [on] the door. They decided
to negotiate with us at night with rubber bullets, with police sticks,
with water hoses, with tear gas—thanks—and with arresting
about 500 people of us. Thanks. You know, we got the message. Now, when
we escalated this and it became really big, they started listening to
us."



.