ouster of hosni mubarak. the three american students who were arrested during protests are back home and speaking out about their or de. they were detained for allegedly throwing fire bombs at security forces. one of those students is with me now, he s derrik sweeney. welcome home. how in the world does it feel to be back with mom and dad. it feels excellent. i just had a bowl of serial and cereal and i just love it. bill: why did they arrest you? because we were foreigners. they yelled [foreign language ] which means spy. bill: what r-r you doin were you doing in the square with your two other classmates. in the square itself it s a peaceful environment. we were hoping to see the protests which have obviously drawn the eye of the world. so we hoped to see those and see
where democracy in egypt was hegd. heading. and we were arrested just on a street off tahrir square. martha: had you been there another night. i had been there twice before. it had gun to get violent in the previous two nights. i hadn t been there for those. i had been there a couple times previously in the semester. bill: in the past month more than 40 people apparently shot and killed. they accused of you throwing explosives from the top of a roof. was that you derrik? no, that is entirely false. we were never on a rooftop at all. we never handled, threw or had any involvement with fire bombs or molotov cocktails. bill: will you go back? i hope one day. i still think the egyptian people are generally a very good people i. don t think they want me right now. but one day.
cairo, are finally home. surrounding them, family and friends, all overwhelmed with joy and relief. each student grateful to be home. i just want to say i am so thankful to be back in philadelphia. a really good feeling. i am glad to be with my family. i want to go home and have thanksgiving. reporter: but their semester abroad was not meant to end so soon or like this the infamous video of their arrest. accused of fueling a revolution. police claim the students were hurling molotov cocktails from the roof of the university at security forces. a claim their friends told us couldn t be true. they did not have anything. i opened derrik s bag to put my camera in there. there was nothing in his bag. reporter: we saw firsthand how dangerous it was. streets turned into a battleground. security forces firing tear gas and rubber bullets with protestors throwing rocks.
you took them pretty seriously. were there times during this almost weeklong captivity you thought, i m not going to get out of here? there were many times where it seemed quite plausible that we weren t going to survive. however, fortunately, i tried to stick firm to a belief that the universe was good and we would make it. but it seemed like death was quite plausible. we were able to see on tape homecomings of the three of you, which was wonderful to see. what s next for you? i m going back to georgetown in the spring. i m going to continue to study arabic. hopefully one day i think i ll maybe go to law school and the military and maybe become president. we can say that we knew you back when. in any case, we re so happy to see you home and safe. we thank you so much for taking time to talk to us. thank you so much. derrik sweeney nor president. greg porter will be talking to
there a big, new chill in relations between russia and the u.s.? it s all about one man. i ll explain. next up, where does innovation come from? we ll ask the man who totally reinvented a household appliance you use every week or at least you should. then a look at jobs, inequality, and the economy with the nobel prize-winning economist michael spence. finally, think you can solve the euro crisis? we ll tell you how you can try. first, here s my take. this is thanksgiving week in america, and it s a time we re meant to be thankful. except no one is feeling particularly grateful because we are in a deep funk. the united states seems to have stopped working. discussion of dysfunction and decline now dominate the national conversation. so i thought i would try to bring a note of optimism to the thanksgiving table. every time i turn on the tv, i hear some politician talk about how europe s woes should be a warning and that we re next. this is a fundamental mistake. the un