to monitor the situation. it started very early this morning when tom donnelly convened a principals secretary, cabinet secretaries and top officials from the director mineta to mike mullen coming from the pentagon. vice president biden, secretary of state hillary clinton joining both of them by secure teleconference as well as the treasury department official. interesting, it shows how it touches international finance in addition to defense, intelligence. the implications are just enormous. then at about 1:00 p.m. eastern time, the president himself convened a second meeting here at the white house. again, a lot of top officials including his new chief of staff bill daley. we're told during that meeting, the president was firm with his staff saying he wanted to send a message once again to the egyptian government as he did last night in that direct phone call to president mubarak that in the words of a white house aide he reiterated the focus on