Standoff drags into 3rd day as man holds child in bunker

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Law enforcement and volunteers at hostage standoff holding up well, sheriff says


• A gunman is holding the boy hostage in an underground bunker


• The sheriff says investigators have no reason to believe boy has been harmed


• Authorities get coloring books, crayons and medicine to the captive boy

Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- Somewhere underneath this red Alabama dirt is a little boy.

A kindergartner, snatched from the safety of his school bus by a gunman and stashed in an underground bunker;

A boy who needs daily medication;

A child that this Bible Belt community of 2,300 is praying for.

Many details have been released about the boy's abductor:

How he was supposed to have been in court to face charges that he'd shot at his neighbors over a minor property dispute;

How he boarded a stopped school bus Tuesday and allegedly shot dead the bus driver;

Charles Poland was fatally shot in Alabama on Tuesday.

How he worked on the bunker in the middle of the night for more than a year.

But as the sun rose again on Midland City on Thursday, many more questions remain:

How deep is the bunker?

What's in it beside the man and the boy?

How are they keeping warm when temperatures have dipped into the 30s in the area?

Is the boy safe?

And most importantly, why him?

The driver

The gunman stormed into the school bus Tuesday afternoon and demanded that the driver hand him a child.

The driver, 66-year-old Charles Poland Jr., was a gentle Bible-reading man who could not stand to discipline the children on his bus because it hurt his heart, the Dothan Eagle newspaper reported.

When he refused the demand, police said, the gunman shot him several times as 22 horrified children scrambled for cover.

But the man was able to grab the boy and drag him to his underground bunker.

And the standoff began.

The suspect

Authorities have not released the name of the suspected gunman. But neighbors and news outlets around Midland City identified him as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, a Vietnam veteran and a retired truck driver.

Neighbor Jimmy Davis told CNN that Dykes began digging a hole on his property soon after he moved in down the road from him.

Davis, who works a night shift, said Dykes worked on his bunker in the middle of the night -- every other night, between 2 and 3 a.m., for a year and a half.

He was friendly and welcoming and told Davis the hole would be a storm shelter.

But Tim Byrd, chief investigator with the Dale County Sheriff's Office, told the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch that Dykes had "anti-America" views.

"His friends and his neighbors stated that he did not trust the government, that he was a Vietnam vet, and that he had PTSD," Byrd told the civil rights group. "He was standoffish, didn't socialize or have any contact with anybody. He was a survivalist type."

The court date

On Wednesday, the day before the standoff began, Dykes was supposed to appear in court to answer to charges that he'd shot at Davis during a December argument over the dirt road that separated their homes.

Davis was moving out when his truck -- hauling a trailer -- dug ruts into the dirt speed bump that Dykes had built up across the road.

Dykes "got mad about what he saw" and stood by the side of the road, yelling and cursing, said Davis' mother, Claudia.

He then ran to his van, got a pistol and fired two shots at the truck, the Davises said.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, including Claudia Davis' 6-month-old daughter, who was inside.

The Wednesday court date in nearby Ozark was for menacing, a misdemeanor that carries penalties of up to six months in jail.

Another neighbor, Ronda Wilbur, said Dykes beat her dog to death with a lead pipe and then bragged to her husband about it.

"He made it very clear that any animals or people that came onto his property would be killed," she said.

Wilbur said she complained to animal control authorities and thought that this would stop the behavior.

"He just got increasingly more bizarre," Wilbur said.

The boy

Very little information has been released about the boy.

Police and school officials have said the child is 6, but a state representative in close contact with the family says he is 5 and will turn 6 in two weeks.

One thing is for certain: the kindergartner didn't know Dykes, State Rep. Steve Clouse said.

Through a PVC pipe that extends into the bunker, authorities have pleaded with the suspect to let the boy go -- to no avail.

The man agreed to let police send down coloring books, crayons and the prescription medicine the little boy desperately needs for Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

But nothing else has changed.

As the standoff dragged into Thursday morning, the boy's parents were doing their best to hold it together.

They were "holding on by a thread," Clouse said.

The scene

Early Thursday morning, dozens of law enforcement vehicles clogged the dead-end dirt road that leads to Dykes' house. They were from local police, the FBI, even Homeland Security.

Authorities evacuated neighbors. Officials closed schools in three nearby districts for the week.

With little movement, police have been loath to share much with the media.

Authorities called off a planned news conference late Wednesday night, saying there was nothing new to report. Early Thursday morning, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson gave reporters a similar message, but said officers and volunteers trying to resolve the situation were holding up well.

At an earlier news conference Wednesday, Olson said he had "no reason to believe that the child has been harmed."

A reporter asked what the community could do to help.

"Pray," the sheriff said.

"Pray."

CNN's George Howell reported from Midland City and Lateef Mungin wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Tristan Smith, Marlena Baldacci and In Session's Jessica Thill contributed to this report.

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Standoff with Ala. school bus shooting suspect in third day

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. The man suspected of shooting a school bus driver to death and taking a five-year-old boy hostage Tuesday moved to a rural Alabama neighborhood on a rutted red clay road more than a year ago. It didn't take long before he had developed a frightening reputation as a volatile man with anti-government views who threatened his neighbors at gunpoint and was viciously violent to wandering pets.

Multiple neighbors said the man was a 65-year-old retired truck driver. He was at the center of a standoff that entered its third day Thursday.

The neighborhood near Midland City, population 2,300, remained under siege after the shooting, with the suspect and child holed up in a bunker-type shelter on the man's property that was equipped with electricity, food and TV.

Early Thursday, dozens of police cars and rental cars that had brought FBI agents to the site were gathered on the state highway at the clay road's entrance. Some police officers milled about, guns holstered.

Homes on the road had been evacuated after authorities found what they believed to be a bomb on the property. SWAT teams earlier had taken up positions around the alleged gunman's property and police negotiators tried to win the kindergartener's safe release.

The situation remained unchanged for hours as negotiators continued talking to the suspect, Alabama State Trooper Charles Dysart told a news conference late Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Sheriff Wally Olson said that authorities had "no reason to believe that the child has been harmed."

CBS affiliate WTVY-TV in the nearby town of Dothan reports that contact has been made with the unidentified boy and he is safe. Police communicated with the boy through a PVC pipe in the bunker.

Authorities gave no details of the standoff, and it was unclear if the suspect made any demands from the bunker, which resembled a tornado shelter.

State Rep. Steve Clouse, who met with authorities and visited the boy's family, said the bunker had food and electricity, and the youngster was watching TV.

At one point, authorities lowered medicine into the bunker for the boy after his captor agreed to it, Clouse said.

The standoff began after school Tuesday afternoon. Sheriff Wally Olson said the man shot the bus driver several times when he refused to hand over the child. The gunman then took the boy away.

"As far as we know, there is no relation at all. He just wanted a child for a hostage situation," said Michael Senn, a pastor who helped comfort other traumatized children after the attack.

The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect the 21 students aboard the bus.

Authorities say most of the students scrambled to the back of the bus when the gunman boarded and said he wanted two boys 6 to 8 years old.

But when the gunman went down the aisle, authorities said, Poland put his arm out to grab a pole near the front steps of the vehicle, trying to block the suspect. Authorities say that's when the driver was shot four times before the gunman grabbed one child and fled.

Asked about the suspect, neighbors said he was a man who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.

He had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump.

Mike and Patricia Smith, who live across the street from the man and whose two children were on the bus, said their youngsters had a run-in with him about 10 months ago.

"My bulldogs got loose and went over there," Patricia Smith said. "The children went to get them. He threatened to shoot them if they came back."

"He's very paranoid," her husband said. "He goes around in his yard at night with a flashlight and shotgun."

Another neighbor, Ronda Wilbur, said the man beat her 120-pound dog with a lead pipe for coming onto his side of the dirt road. The dog died a week later.

"He said his only regret was he didn't beat him to death all the way," Wilbur said. "If a man can kill a dog, and beat it with a lead pipe and brag about it, it's nothing until it's going to be people."

The suspect had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face a charge of menacing some neighbors as they drove by his house weeks ago. Claudia Davis said he yelled and fired shots at her, her son and her baby grandson over damage the man claimed their pickup truck did to a makeshift speed bump in the dirt road. No one was hurt.

"Before this happened, I would see him at several places and he would just stare a hole through me," Davis said. "On Monday I saw him at a laundromat and he seen me when I was getting in my truck, and he just stared and stared and stared at me."

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No Device Eliminates Concussion Risk, Experts Say

As the long-term consequences of concussions become clearer, a cottage industry has popped up to sell athletes and worried parents products designed to mitigate risks of concussions that even helmets cannot prevent.

Despite the bold claims of some companies, however, many experts say the Holy Grail in contact sports -- a device that prevents concussions -- simply does not exist. Indeed, experts say, there is no proof that any current device significantly reduces the risk of concussions beyond the protections already provided by helmets.

"Nightline" found several products for sale online that aim to reduce the risk of concussions or even alert parents and coaches when a kid has supposedly taken a concussion-level hit. The claims the manufacturers make are often breathtakingly reassuring.

Concern about the risk of concussion is mounting at every level of the gridiron from the NFL to colleges and even high schools. Concussions are the most common injury among high school football players.

Jennifer Branin, whose son Tyler Branin is one of the stars of the Woodbridge Warriors high school football team in Irvine, Calif., said "it was scary" the first time he had a concussion.

"He had lost his balance on the field," she said. "He got up and tried to continue, but couldn't keep his balance."

Junior Seau Had Brain Disease, Researchers Say Watch Video

She said the effects of the concussion lingered, causing Tyler to miss a week of school and football practice. Even months later, he complained of difficulty concentrating in class.

Parents such as Jennifer Branin, who is president of the team's booster club, and her husband, Andy Branin, a former college football player himself, were looking for a way to support their son's desire to play football while also keeping him safe.

"He wants to play and, as a mom, you may want to put bubble-wrap around them and protect them forever, but that's not going to happen," she said.

So Jennifer Branin decided to do something. She raised money to buy the team helmet inserts by Unequal Technologies for added protection.

Unequal Technologies, one of the highest profile players in this new market, described its product explicitly on the box as "Concussion Reduction Technology," or "CRT." It is a strip of composite material including bullet-proof Kevlar that is designed to stick inside the helmet as a liner to the existing helmet pads.

Unequal Technologies uses its material in products ranging from padded sleeves to shin guards. The company counts NFL players and X-Games athletes among its fans.

On board as paid spokesmen are Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick and James Harrison, a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Harrison is one of the hardest-hitting guys in the NFL and said he uses Unequal Technology's liners in his helmet.

"I don't know what it's made of but it works," Harrison says in one of Unequal's promotional videos. "I really don't feel like I'm taking a risk."

Vick wasn't wearing the CRT product when he suffered a season-ending concussion in November, but he has since promised that he will be wearing it when he returns to the field next season.

Rob Vito, founder and CEO of the Kennett Square, Pa.-based company, said he worked with scientists to create a military-grade composite material that can help protect athletes from all kinds of injuries from head to toe.

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BlackBerry must remember strengths

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• BlackBerry sales have slumped in the U.S. but is still strong in emerging markets


• New models launched should remember why they are popular in developing world


• In places like Brazil and South Africa, the 10 is the update to their current phone


• in Sub-Saharan Africa there is expected to be 175 million new customers in the next 3 years

Watch Jim Clancy on CNN International's "The Brief" at 4p.m. ET GMT Friday.

(CNN) -- BlackBerry's loss of market share in the U.S. is the stuff of legends. Last fall, it was estimated only about 2% of American phone users were still carrying their BlackBerry mobile with its iconic keypad.

But consider this: sub-Saharan Africa is expected to add 175 million new mobile users in just the coming 3 years. That's according to the GSMA, which represents the world's mobile operators.

"Mobile has already revolutionized African society and yet demand still continues to grow by almost 50 percent a year," said Tom Phillips, Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, GSMA.

That could be good news indeed for BlackBerry. Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, estimates it holds a 70% market share in countries like South Africa.

The company's new phones, announced this week, are not the ones some of its best customers in emerging markets would like to buy. They're too expensive. But Research in Motion -- which also this week changed its company name to BlackBerry -- is pledging some of its six new models will address that.

While millions in China, Europe and the U.S. have adopted Android or iOS smartphones with a vengeance, millions more users in emerging markets are enthused about what's in store for the new BlackBerry 10. It's the update for what many of them are already using.

They live in countries like Brazil, Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. They have embraced the BlackBerry for a combination of factors that all point to the different way mobile devices are used.

Unlike their counterparts in Europe and America, the mobile in their pocket is more likely to be their primary link to the internet.

BlackBerry Messenger is the connection that allows these users unlimited conversations without paying charges for SMS data. While young, brand-conscious Chinese may be willing to part with several months' salary to buy the latest iPhone, African users are looking for more practical (and cheaper) connections.

What separates developed countries from their developing counterparts at street level can be summed up in a single word: infrastructure.

Isobel Coleman, senior fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets and Democracy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations, says mobile technology has proved it can bridge the gap where infrastructure is lacking.

"It's a culture, it's an economy, it's innovation, education, healthcare, it's all of these things," says Coleman.

You can take that to the bank. For many Africans, their cell phone account is the first bank account they've ever owned.

In emerging markets, mobile phone banking is growing because of the lack of infrastructure. Fewer bank branches often mean long distances to travel and long lines once you've arrived.

Africans are expected to transfer more than $200 billion per year or 18% of the continent's GDP by 2015.

Oh, and that keyboard. No matter where you are in the world, there will always be a demand for a keyboard that clicks. The company appears to understand that as BlackBerry 10 models come with both soft keypads and the traditional BlackBerry buttons.

I asked some of my Twitter followers to weigh in on the BlackBerry 10 roll out. While some said Android or Apple's iOS were in their future plans, many others expressed continued enthusiasm for the BlackBerry.

Soji, a pianist and teacher in Nigeria tweeted back "I'm falling in love with this BB. Cheaper to own."

From Kuala Lumpur, Amir wrote "I need a physical keyboard to type while also having a touch-screen for photos etc. Security factor also important."

Hans-Eric from South Africa reinforced the sentiments of many mobile users in emerging markets: "The cost of data is simply too high without it (BlackBerry.)"

The voices from emerging markets couldn't have been clearer. What they expect from BlackBerry 10 is a stronger, longer lasting battery, durability and continued low cost connectivity.

CFR's Coleman agrees that BlackBerry (and anyone else) trying to win and hold this mobile device sector has to understand how these devices are being used and give the customers what they want.

"Cheap. Rugged. Not too many bells and whistles. Practical."

There is little doubt smartphones are changing the way people use the internet, how they bank, shop and interact socially.

But it's worth keeping in perspective that in a world where there are now an estimated 1 billion smartphones, there are 5 billion feature phone users. That's a lot of upside growth potential for BlackBerry and all the other players out there.

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BlackBerry 10 unveiled, with company name change

NEW YORK: BlackBerry launched its comeback effort Wednesday with a revamped platform and a pair of sleek new handsets, along with a company name change as part of a move to reinvent the smartphone maker.

Canadian-based Research in Motion said it had changed its name to BlackBerry as it launched the BlackBerry 10, the new platform aimed at helping the firm regain traction in a market now dominated by rivals.

"From this point forward RIM becomes BlackBerry," chief executive Thorsten Heins told a glitzy unveiling in New York, one of six global events for the product launch. "It is one brand, it is one promise."

The company unveiled two new devices for its new platform, one with a physical keyboard called the Q10, and a touchscreen handset dubbed Z10.

The new BlackBerry "will transform mobile communications into true mobile computing," Heins said.

"Today is a brand new day in the history of BlackBerry."

The launch is seen as critical to BlackBerry, which had been the dominant smartphone maker before Apple launched its iPhone and others began using the Google Android operating system.

RIM says the all-new system will break new ground by allowing customers to flip between applications seamlessly and without first passing through a home page, to boost efficiency and multitasking.

Another key asset of BlackBerry 10 is what RIM dubbed the "BlackBerry balance," a system that allows users to separate professional communications and applications from music, photographs and other personal items.

Such an option means that if a user changes job, his or her former company can disable the device's corporate side without affecting personal data.

RIM's recent performance on Wall Street suggests the market is open to the BlackBerry 10. Shares have risen more than 30 per cent since the start of the year, although they dropped back over the last two sessions.

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst for Gartner who specialises in consumer devices, said the aim of the launch "is to reinstill faith in the BlackBerry brand and capture both consumer and enterprises at the same time."

Milanesi said a successful launch will at least give them a shot to get into the game" but that BlackBerry has little room for error, after a launch delayed several months.

"They will not be forgiven for any mistakes," she said.

BlackBerry shares fell 4.4 per cent after the launch to US$14.98.

According to research firm IDC, BlackBerry's share of the global smartphone market slipped to 4.7 per cent in 2012, to 68 per cent for Android and 18.8 per cent for Apple's iOS.

- AFP/jc

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Hear what LeBron said to Obama

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Child hostage drama in Ala. after gunman kills school bus driver

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. An unidentified man boarded a school bus, shot the driver several times, then escaped with a 6-year-old passenger, prompting an hours-long standoff with police that remained unresolved early Wednesday.

The Dale County Sheriff says the man shot the driver in Midland City on Tuesday after he refused to let the child off the bus. The driver later died of his wounds. His identity wasn't released.

The shooter took the child to an area behind a nearby church, and police were negotiating with him, authorities said.

Midland City police would not comment, and a call to the Dale City Sheriff's office was not answered Tuesday.

Authorities from multiple agencies were on the scene and nearby residents were evacuated from their homes as a precautionary measure, said Rachel David, a spokeswoman for the police department in the nearby town of Dothan.

"Authorities also confirmed the presence of a child at the scene but are giving no further information at this time," David said in a news release late Tuesday.

CBS Dothan, Ala. affiliate WTVY-TV reports the hostage is male and was being held in a storm shelter at the alleged gunman's home.

The station says the FBI has been called in, and area schools have cancelled Wednesday classes.

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Clinton Talks 2016, Stands by Benghazi Testimony

In her final television interview as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton told ABC's Cynthia McFadden that she is "flattered and honored" at the intense interest in whether she might run for president in 2016.

But Clinton maintained that right now she's "not focused" on a presidential campaign; instead she said she wants to return to a "normal" life when she steps down from office on Friday.

Watch Cynthia McFadden's full interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on "Nightline" tonight at 12:35 a.m. ET

Clinton's first order of business, she said, will be sleep.

"I hope I get to sleep in," she told McFadden with a laugh. "It will be the first time in many years. I have no office to go to, no schedule to keep, no work to do. That will probably last a few days then I will be up and going with my new projects," she said.

"I have been working or attending school full-time since I was 13. This is going to be new for me. I don't know how I'm going to react to it, to be honest."

PHOTOS: Hillary Clinton Through the Years: From Wellesley to the White House, and Beyond

Clinton has had no trouble articulating her reaction to what has arguably been the darkest chapter of her tenure as Secretary of State: the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed.

Hillary's Next Chapter: On Family and Future Watch Video

Secretary Clinton had a heated exchange with Republican Senator Ron Johnson during her five hours of testimony before Congress about the attack last week. Johnson accused the administration of misleading the American people about the cause of the attack, when UN Ambassador Susan Rice, on Sunday political talk shows, blamed it on protesters.

Clinton snapped back at Johnson, "Four Americans are dead. What difference does it make?" For that, she has been sharply criticized by some conservatives.

Clinton said she "absolutely" stands by her response to Johnson, maintaining that the administration has been transparent with the information it knew, when it was available. Clinton said partisan politics have no place in a response to a terrorist attack against Americans.

"I believe that we should in public life, whether you're in the administration or the Congress, de-politicize crisis and work together to figure out what happened, what we can do to prevent it and then put into place both the institutional changes and the budgetary changes that are necessary, " she said.

"When someone tries to put into a partisan lens, when they focus not on the fact that we have such a terrible event happening with four dead Americans but instead what did somebody say on a Sunday morning talk show? That to me is not in keeping with the seriousness of the issue and the obligation we all have as public servants"

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's "Nightline" Interview

Asked about her health, Clinton said her recent illness, concussion and blood clot were all a surprise.

"When I got sick and fainted and hit my head I was so surprised, and I thought I would just get up and go to work. And thankfully I had very good medical care and doctors who said, 'No we'd better do an MRI, we'd better do this, we'd better do that,'" she said, calling herself "lucky."

"I know now how split second beset by a virus and dehydrated, what it can do to you."

Though she confirmed she is wearing special glasses to help with double vision, a lingering issue following her illness, Clinton said that she expects to be fully recovered and operating at "full speed" soon.

The Secretary told McFadden that if she does decide to run, she would have "no problem" making her health records public.

"Of course, that goes with the territory," she said.

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Is the U.S. getting Egypt wrong again?

Egyptian riot police stand guard as people protest against Egypt's President Mohamed Morsy in Cairo on December 29, 2012.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• National protests against Morsy set for second anniversary of Egypt's revolution


• Cynthia Schneider: U.S. out of step, underestimates the anti-Morsy sentiment


• She says proponents of secular democracy think the U.S. backs Muslim Brotherhood


• She says massive protests will show U.S. needs to align itself with the popular will

Editor's note: Cynthia Schneider is a professor in the practice of diplomacy at Georgetown University; dean at the School of Diplomacy, Dubrovnik International University; and a senior nonresident fellow at Brookings Institution. She is also a former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands.

(CNN) -- Protests planned around Egypt -- particularly in Cairo's Tahrir Square -- on the second anniversary of the January 25 revolution are expected to be an explosion of dissent, revealing the deep divisions in the country between President Mohamed Morsy and the Egyptian people.

Opposition to Morsy's authoritarianism is broader than the world recognizes. In making accommodations for Morsy's government, the United States is -- once again -- out of step with the Egyptian people.

Cynthia P. Schneider

Egyptians may not know exactly what they want, but they know what they don't want. Although an effective political opposition has yet to coalesce, Egyptians from all sectors of society are united in their refusal to accept another repressive regime.

Egypt is on a collision course. An ever growing, if periodically discouraged, portion of the population opposes the government and Morsy's Muslim Brotherhood, and supports the revolution's goals of social and economic justice, accountable government, and basic freedoms, including freedom of expression and protection of minorities. Yet the government is moving in exactly the opposite direction, with its authoritarian control over political, social, and religious life.

The government's investigation of the wildly popular "Egyptian Jon Stewart" Bassem Youssef -- charged with insulting Morsy and undermining his command -- and the forced "retirement" of respected journalist Hani Shukrallah, editor of state-owned Al-Ahram's English-language website, are just two very public examples of the vice tightening on freedom of expression.

In fact, the Arab Network for Human Rights says about 24 lawsuits for insulting Morsy have been filed against journalists and activists since his election in June.

The regime is trying to put the revolution genie back in the bottle. But it is clamping down on a population that has discovered its voice. In opposition to this repression, Egyptians at all levels are increasingly engaged in politics.

A Cairo cab driver -- ever the measure of popular sentiment -- recently debated the failings of the Constitution with a passenger. After reaching the destination, the driver leapt out, grabbed a dogeared copy of the Constitution he kept in the front seat, and pointed to a passage to prove his point to his passenger.

The December demonstrations against President Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Constitution, which attracted an even broader segment of the population than those who stood in Tahrir Square in 2011, revealed the broadening chasm between the regime and the people in Egypt.

Assembled outside the Presidential Palace were old and young, veiled and unveiled, rich and poor. Whether they arrived in chauffeur-driven cars or whether they marched from Cairo's outlying shantytowns, the hundreds of thousands joined together in their refusal to accept a state that squashed the dreams of the revolution and dictated political, social, and religious behavior.

Many call the second wave of the revolution in the fall of 2012 the "Mothers' Revolution." Parents and grandparents went into the streets to protest the divided loyalties in their families between the Islamists (Brotherhood or Salafis) and those supporting a democratic, secular Egypt. In Egypt, secular means freedom from state control of religion, not nonreligious.

The clash between these two visions of Egypt -- secular with freedom and social justice, or a religious state run by the Brotherhood with its version of Sharia law -- played out inside families and on the streets.

Soldiers protecting the Presidential Palace during the December demonstrations were moved to tears when an Egyptian woman, referring to Morsy, shouted at them, "Why are you protecting this man who is pitting Egyptians against each other?"

Mohamed El Gindy, a successful businessman who opposes Morsy and spent much of December camping in Tahrir with the young revolutionaries, has experienced this division within families firsthand. A relative who had joined the Salafis informed him that the extreme Islamist group had put El Gindy at No. 5 on its "hit list," which is widely believed by Egyptians to exist. The relative was unapologetic until El Gindy told him that he might as well put El Gindy's mother on the list, too, since the octogenarian also had joined the street protests.

Egypt and its families may be divided, but on one subject, all are united -- in the belief that the United States is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government.

Visible in the throngs at the December demonstrations were signs opposing Qatar and the United States -- yes, the U.S. and Qatar were lumped together as supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood regime.

"This is such a historic opportunity to restore the image of the U.S., but instead it is putting itself in the same position as Qatar. ... And this from President Obama -- so disappointing," Riham Bahi, a professor at American University in Cairo, said, reflecting views heard repeatedly last December in Egypt.

Opposition leader and blogger Bassem Sabry was even more blunt: "With the Constitution in play, you are subsidizing an Islamist state." Sabry said he was always pro-U.S. "until the revolution."

In addition, the Pentagon plans to proceed with the delivery of 20 F-16 jets to Egypt, a step that looks to Egyptians like a vote of confidence in Morsy. Unchanged since the revolution, U.S. aid policy toward Egypt still makes the military alliance its priority.

Two years after the Egyptian Revolution, the U.S. government finds itself again backing an authoritarian regime against the popular will. As January 25 approaches, with massive protests planned against Morsy's government, this is a precarious position for both the U.S. and Egypt.

In his second term, Obama should adopt a more agile and informed policy toward Egypt, one that matches the words often heard from the White House -- "The United States always has stood with the Egyptian people" -- with action.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Cynthia Schneider.

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US Senate committee approves Kerry nomination

 

WASHINGTON: Senator John Kerry easily cleared the first hurdle of his confirmation as the next secretary of state Tuesday with a unanimous vote of approval by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Kerry, President Barack Obama's pick to replace Hillary Clinton as the nation's top diplomat, must still be confirmed by a vote of the full Senate later in the day, but that was expected to be a shoo in.

His colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Kerry chairs, gave him a unanimous vote of approval, with Republicans joining Democrats.

Kerry, who did not vote, said he was "humbled" and gratified.

"They've been wonderful, they've been really superb," he said of his colleagues on the committee, adding, "I'm very wistful about it, it's not easy" leaving.

- AFP/fa

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