MR. GIBBS: "We have seen and I think White Houses and administrations here for many years have seen intelligence about the instability in countries in the Middle East and throughout the region. I think the question that you’re alluding to, Dan, is, did we -- did somebody foreshadow the specific events in Tunisia? And as we recall, a fruit vendor in Tunisia had his fruit stolen and lit himself on fire, and that started in Tunisia a series of events that have greatly impacted that country. I don't think anybody expects that we would have gotten a report in December that might have predicted a particular fruit vendor doing something like that."Gibbs is trying to hide from the U.S. public that this was a form of government repression. He makes it sound like it was just a theft by some robbers. Infact, Mohamed Bouazizi did not have his fruit "stolen" -- he was slapped around by government forces. He set himself on fire in front of the municipal government office. See this report by Ayman Mohyeldin (now in Cairo, who was recently detained by Egyptian regime, and just released following outcry) that he filed a couple of weeks ago from Bouzizi's home town of Sidibouzid -- See: http://english.aljazeera.net Never mind about the other people who immolated themselves in the region because of long-standing suffering.