believes did enact a coup against the muslim brotherhood government of mohamed morsi, that unless there is some sort of way to get people negotiating and finding a peaceful resolution that the muslim brotherhood could go underground, it could become more extreme and that there could become a long term insurgency in this problem which is something that i ve heard from other more precise middle east analysts as well. so he s here, he says, to help try an bring the two sides together because he s worried that if they don t, the military will continue its crackdown on the muslim brotherhood and then egypt could go down a fairly long path of instability. richard, while you were rushing back and we so appreciate that, the embassy yemen embassy here in the states has issued a statement. i wanted to share this with you because you ve spent so much time in yemen. it says while the government of yemen appreciates foreign governments concern for the safety of their citizens, the
presence in yemen, the u.s. government does, the state department does. we will still be able to provide some services, obviously some limited staff may limit that. and we will continue to evaluate it. greg has been in yemen and will continue to evaluate it for us. what s the latest? reporter: as you listen to the u.s. department briefing, the u.s. government on very high alert. the word we re getting from yemen is tauthorities there are taking all this seriously. those in yemen have been airlifted to a military base in europe and ramstad, germany and other u.s. citizens advised to leave immediately this in response to what is being called a continuing potential for a terror attack may be against the u.s. embassy. we spent some time in the u.s.
us going to these countries. i would like to put this down and at least suspend them at this time until we have these hearings. let s keep in mind, this is a big deal. we have four countries right now attacking america. when you attack an embassy, you re attacking america. we can t sit around and wait for hearings. we got to do it right now. that s with we called for and we hope to get the answers to these questions. we don t have them right now. by the way, i have to say this, i was on your show four years ago and no reason you remember this, when the president first went to egypt to declare his steve: the apology tour. yeah. steve: we do remember that. do you think what s happening in those four countries that you just mentioned, and new stuff today, it s happening because of our foreign policy, whatever the heck that is over there right now? yeah. what foreign policy? the policy of appeasement. yes, it s happening as a result of that. i would never ask some of our
that. the rules of engagement, this is very, very significant. i think it s been said many times that in a consulate like libya, you don t have the marines to the same level do you if it s an embassy. but even if they were there, you have to understand what the rules of engagement were because they have to answer to the commander in chief. so we ve called for those hearings, the hearings to be both in the center of foreign relations committee and center of armed services committee to we don t really know how chris stevens died. first report said it was a rocket going into a car. then, of course, the suffocation. so these things we need to find out. gretchen: senator, do you have any hope that those hearings will actually start before the election day? well, no. they should and they could. you can start them tomorrow. these hearings should start. in fact, the big question i heard allen west earlier, he s a great person to have on, very knowledgeable. he called for the suspension
ambassador killed since 1979. in that year the u.s. ambassador to afghanistan was killed in kabul. that was a particularly violent and bloody period. remember in 1979 iranian hostage crisis took place. hundreds of iranians stormed the embassy in tehran. they held 52 hostages for 444 days. eight americans were killed during that incident. now a group of pakistani students attacked and burned down the u.s. embassy in islamabad as well in 1979 and also the u.s. embassy in tripoli was destroyed. so it was particularly a violent period. that s why some of these comparisons are being made. douglas brinkley is a professor of history at rice university. he is also a presidential historian. nice to have you back on the program, douglas, when so many comparisons are being made. how legitimate are these comparisons? well, they re very useful because it reminds us we ve had problems in the middle east since world war ii. we are, you know, no embassy