The overthrow of Egypt's Morsi - a deep political tapestry

[Jan Klimkowski]

Today's slaughter of men, women and children is a worse crime against humanity than Tianamen Square.

And American and European politiicians are silent.

I stand by what I wrote above.

Firstly, there are parts of both the US deep state and the military-multinational-intelligence complex who are closely aligned with Saudi interests and may already see the puppet Obama as but a moment in history.

See for instance: Peter Dale Scott - US Government Protection of Al-Qaeda Terrorists and the US-Saudi Black Hole

Secondly, as the philosophy of Gladio demonstrates, Chaos and Carnage have their own attraction for Those who would Control us.

Like Iraq, like Libya, like Syria, Egypt has been plunged into a sectarian civil war.

This is not accidental.

This is geopolitics.

[Magda Hassan]

Hundreds of Islamists torch' govt HQ in Cairo after brutal crackdown

Published time: August 15, 2013 12:34 Get short URL







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Egypt unrest

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have stormed a government building in Cairo and set it alight, reports state TV. This comes after Wednesday's brutal crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood loyalists in which over 500 people died.
http://rt.com/news/egypt-crackdown-broth...otest-530/

[Magda Hassan]

EU diplomat: Egyptian army rejected peace plan

Today @ 09:19


Andrew Rettman
BRUSSELS - The EU's special envoy to the Middle East, Bernardino Leon, has said the Egyptian army rejected a peace deal with the Muslim Brotherhood a few hours before the killing in Cairo began.
He told Reuters that he and US diplomat William Burns in recent days brokered an agreement between the military and the brothers on how to end their month-long sit-ins in two city squares.
"We had a political plan that was on the table, that had been accepted by the other side [the brotherhood] … They [the army] could have taken this option. So all that has happened today was unnecessary," he said.
He noted that he made a final appeal on the peace plan to military chiefs "hours" before they ordered the assault, at 7am local time on Wednesday (14 August), using armoured bulldozers and live ammunition against people in tent camps.
For her part, EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton made three statements as events unfolded.
The first one, issued by a spokesman at noon, called on all sides to show restraint.
The second one, a few hours later, urged "security forces to exercise utmost restraint" and told protesters to "avoid further provocations and escalation."
The final statement, on Wednesday evening, called on the army to "exercise utmost restraint," with no mention of the protesters' role.
By the time the third one came out, 525 people, including 43 policemen, were dead, and 3,572 people were injured, according to Egyptian authorities. More than 2,000 protesters had been killed, according to a pro-brotherhood group, the Egypt Anti-Coup Alliance.
The dead include Asmaa el-Beltagy, the 17-year-old daughter of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, Mohamed el-Beltagy, who was himself arrested the same day. They also include Mick Deane, a 61-year-old British cameraman for Sky News.
The army later imposed a state of emergency which is to last one month. It also imposed a curfew, which expired at 6am on Thursday.
Reports indicate that Cairo is calm on Thursday morning.
But Anu Pulkkinen, Finland's top diplomat in the city, told Finnish press the atmosphere is "extremely unstable" and that it is hard to move around due to army checkpoints.

More violence?

Despite the crackdown, the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, another pro-brotherhood group, has called for fresh, nationwide, protests.
The brothers' el-Beltagy, shortly before his arrest, compared the situation to the civil war in Syria.
The resignation from government of Mohamed ElBaradei, the leader of Egypt's liberal movement, which had previously backed the army, also signals a splintering of political forces.
"The beneficiaries of what happened today are the preachers of violence and terrorism, the most extremist groups," he said in an open letter.
With some Muslims attacking Christian churches in the belief that Christians and Western states are in league with the army, ElBaradei added that Egypt's "social fabric [is] in danger of tearing."
Washington has echoed the EU in criticising the Egyptian military.
"The United States strongly condemns the use of violence against protesters in Egypt … We have repeatedly called on the Egyptian military and security forces to show restraint," a White House spokesman said.
But neither the US or the EU has spoken of suspending financial aid to the post-coup state or of other action.
German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said, while visiting Tunisia, it is too early to create a new EU policy.
Britain's William Hague "condemned the use of force in clearing protests," but said nothing on funding.
France's Laurent Fabius appealed to "all parties" to end confrontation. Italy's Emma Bonino called on the military to avoid another "bloodbath." But neither one said what their countries might do next.

Denmark blocks aid

Meanwhile, Denmark and Norway took the lead in terms of reactions.
Denmark suspended two bilateral aid programmes worth €30 million and Norway has halted arms sales to Egypt.
The strongest statements came from two Islamic powers in the region.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed Western "silence" on the Egyptian army's unseating of brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi in July and on earlier killings of Muslim brothers for Thursday's deaths.
"It is clear that the international community, by supporting the military coup, and remaining silent over previous massacres ... has encouraged the current administration to carry out today's intervention," he said.
Echoing the brotherhood's el-Beltagy on Syria, Iran's foreign ministry said: "Undoubtedly, the current approach ... strengthens the likelihood of civil war in this great Islamic country."
This story was updated to cite Egypt's latest official figures on the death toll
http://euobserver.com/foreign/121127

[Peter Lemkin]

CHRIS TOENSING: Yes, I agree with the premise of that question, which is that the leverage of the United States is very limited. That's, I think, been the case for a long time. The Egyptian army is going to do what it wants to do, by and large. Certainly with regard to domestic Egyptian politics, the U.S. voice in those affairs is very limited.
It's important to note, in connection with that question, that the U.S. does not give $1.3 billion a year to the Egyptian military in order to prop up the Egyptian military or for the good of Egypt. This is to secure what have been viewed as U.S. interests in the regionnamely, the sanctity of the Camp David treaty with Israel; the prevention of another multi-front war, Arab-Israeli war, in the Middle East; keeping the Suez Canal open to commercial andtraffic and U.S. warships, not coincidentally. These are the U.S. interests that the U.S. believes will only be protected by the Egyptian army for the foreseeable future.
We need to remember American policymakers have a remarkable capacity for self-deception. I think that Secretary Kerry and his predecessors half-believe the pieties that come out of their mouths at moments like these. They would like, ideally, Egypt to be a free and democratic country, but only if the government that is produced from that process agrees with our concept of what our strategic interests are in the region. And so, the dilemma for the U.S. is that they can either have autocrats who rule in accordance with U.S. strategic vision, or they can have a democratic system thatwhere the outcome is uncertain. And, sadly, to this point, not just in Egypt, but across the region, the U.S. has shown that it prefers the first option: autocrats who will toe the U.S. line.

Well, I think that if you look at the events of the last two years, capped by yesterday's massacre, I think what we're seeing is a counterrevolution that's occurring, more quickly than many people thought it might. The powers behind the throne in Egypt, who have been the powers behind the throne for some 50 yearsthe army, the secret police, their allied civilian politicians, their civilian faces, if you will, the so-called Egyptian deep stateis afraid of the Egyptian people. They don't want civilian oversight over their prerogatives. They want to maintain their impunity, their ability to operate above the law. And we've seen what lengths they will go to to preserve those privileges.
What they're doing is seizing the opportunity presented by political turmoil and chaos in the wake of the ouster of Mubarak and in the wake of the misrule of the Muslim Brothers and the arrogance that Morsi and his compatriots displayed when they were given a taste of power. They're using that opportunity to sort of consolidate their grip on the country, at the same time presenting themselves as the sort of horsesorry, the knight riding in on a white horse to save the country from disaster.
And, you know, Sharif can confirm this, but my impression from afar is that many, many Egyptians, perhaps a majority, agree with the army's version of events. That's partly because they're not being provided with enough information to judge for themselves, because the military has shut down any media outletsmost of the media outlets in Egypt that would actually report independently. But it's also because there is a deep yearning among Egyptian citizens for a return to normalcy, a return to stability, and they see the army as the only force in national politics that can credibly promise such a scenario. It's a veryit's a very sad situation...

[Peter Lemkin]

Another day of megadeath and as I watch on Al Jazeera at 18:00 CET I believe the worst will begin in one hour when ten or hundreds of thousands refuse to obey the curfew. Already some police have opened up with live fire on persons [unarmed] simply passing BY a police station and another group that were shot from helicopter gunships........I begin to think civil war is not impossible. I'm not very sympathatic with the Muslim Brotherhood, but most are just simple human beings, unarmed, men, boys, women, girls and children being murdered for their beliefs and desires for democratic fair play. The words from the USA and Obama are disgusting in the extreme....making it all sound like how Morci was handled and his supporters shot and under seige was 'democratic', necessary or legitimate....

Now Egypt is in the hands of the military and no one else!....and I fear it will long remain that way.....that should suit the US just fine. What is happening now makes Mubarak look like a nice guy who used kit gloves compared to what is now happening.

Robert Fisk is in Cairo reporting and, as always, he is wonderful to listen to......He should have some great article out tomorrow!

[Peter Lemkin]

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[TD="width: 84%"]Murdering the Wretched of the Earth

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[TD="width: 40%"]8/15/13[/TD]
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Source: TruthDig




Radical Islam is the last refuge of the Muslim poor. The mandated five prayers a day give the only real structure to the lives of impoverished believers. The careful rituals of washing before prayers in the mosque, the strict moral code, along with the understanding that life has an ultimate purpose and meaning, keep hundreds of millions of destitute Muslims from despair.
The fundamentalist ideology that rises from oppression is rigid and unforgiving. It radically splits the world into black and white, good and evil, apostates and believers. It is bigoted and cruel to women, Jews, Christians and secularists, along with gays and lesbians. But at the same time it offers to those on the very bottom of society a final refuge and hope. The massacres of hundreds of believers in the streets of Cairo signal not only an assault against a religious ideology, not only a return to the brutal police state of Hosni Mubarak, but the start of a holy war that will turn Egypt and other poor regions of the globe into a caldron of blood and suffering.
The only way to break the hold of radical Islam is to give its followers a stake in the wider economy, the possibility of a life where the future is not dominated by grinding poverty, repression and hopelessness. If you live in the sprawling slums of Cairo or the refugee camps in Gaza or the concrete hovels in New Delhi, every avenue of escape is closed. You cannot get an education. You cannot get a job. You do not have the resources to marry. You cannot challenge the domination of the economy by the oligarchs and the generals. The only way left for you to affirm yourself is to become a martyr, or shahid. Then you will get what you cannot get in life -- a brief moment of fame and glory.
And while what will take place in Egypt will be defined as a religious war, and the acts of violence by the insurgents who will rise from the bloodied squares of Cairo will be defined as terrorism, the engine for this chaos is not religion but the collapsing economy of a world where the wretched of the earth are to be subjugated and starved or shot. The lines of battle are being drawn in Egypt and across the globe. Adli Mansour, the titular president appointed by the military dictator of Egypt, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, has imposed a military-led government, a curfew and a state of emergency. They will not be lifted soon.
The lifeblood of radical movements is martyrdom. The Egyptian military has provided an ample supply. The faces and the names of the sanctified dead will be used by enraged clerics to call for holy vengeance. And as violence grows and the lists of martyrs expand, a war will be ignited that will tear Egypt apart. Police, Coptic Christians, secularists, Westerners, businesses, banks, the tourism industry and the military will become targets. Those radical Islamists who were persuaded by the Muslim Brotherhood that electoral politics could work and brought into the system will go back underground, and many of the rank and file of the Muslim Brotherhood will join them. Crude bombs will be set off. Random attacks and assassinations by gunmen will puncture daily life in Egypt as they did in the 1990s when I was in Cairo for The New York Times, although this time the attacks will be wider and more fierce, far harder to control or ultimately crush.
What is happening in Egypt is a precursor to a wider global war between the world's elites and the world's poor, a war caused by diminishing resources, chronic unemployment and underemployment, overpopulation, declining crop yields caused by climate change, and rising food prices. Thirty-three percent of Egypt's 80 million people are 14 or younger, and millions live under or just above the poverty line, which the World Bank sets at a daily income of $2 in that nation. The poor in Egypt spend more than half their income on food--often food that has little nutritional value. An estimated 13.7 million Egyptians, or 17 percent of the population, suffered from food insecurity in 2011, compared with 14 percent in 2009, according to a report by the U.N. World Food Program and the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). Malnutrition is endemic among poor children, with 31 percent under 5 years old stunted in growth. Illiteracy runs at more than 70 percent.


In "Les Miserables," Victor Hugo described war with the poor as one between the "egoists" and the "outcasts." The egoists, Hugo wrote, had "the bemusement of prosperity, which blunts the sense, the fear of suffering which is some cases goes so far as to hate all sufferers, and unshakable complacency, the ego so inflated that is stifles the soul." The outcasts, who were ignored until their persecution and deprivation morphed into violence, had "greed and envy, resentment at the happiness of others, the turmoil of the human element in search of personal fulfillment, hearts filled with fog, misery, needs, and fatalism, and simple, impure ignorance."
The belief systems the oppressed embrace can be intolerant, but these belief systems are a response to the injustice, state violence and cruelty inflicted on them by the global elites. Our enemy is not radical Islam. It is global capitalism. It is a world where the wretched of the earth are forced to bow before the dictates of the marketplace, where children go hungry as global corporate elites siphon away the world's wealth and natural resources and where our troops and U.S.-backed militaries carry out massacres on city streets.
Egypt offers a window into the coming dystopia. The wars of survival will mark the final stage of human habitation of the planet. And if you want to know what they will look like, visit any city morgue in Cairo.

[Peter Lemkin]

Bloodbath that is not a bloodbath': Why Egypt is doomed

Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.



Published time: August 15, 2013 10:14

Egyptians mourn over bodies wrapped in shrouds at a mosque in Cairo on August 15, 2013 (AFP Photo / Mahmoud Khaled)








Egypt's bloodbath that is not a bloodbath' has shown that the forces of hardcore suppression and corruption reign supreme, while foreign interests - the House of Saud, Israel and the Pentagon - support the military's merciless strategy.
Stop. Look at the photos. Linger on dozens of bodies lined up in a makeshift morgue. How can the appalling bloodbath in Egypt be justified? Take your pick. Either it's Egypt's remix of Tiananmen Square, or it's the bloodbath that is not a bloodbath, conducted by the leaders of the coup that is not a coup, with the aim of fighting "terror".

It certainly was not a crowd clearing operation as in the New York Police Department clearing' Occupy Wall Street. As a Sky journalist tweeted, it was more like "a major military assault largely on unarmed civilians", using everything from bulldozers to tear gas to snipers.

Thus the scores indiscriminately killed with crossfire estimates ranging from the low hundreds (the "interim government") to at least 4,500 (the Muslim Brotherhood), including at least four journalists and the 17-year-old Asmaa, daughter of top Muslim Brotherhood politician Mohamed El Beltagy.
El Beltagy, before being arrested, said, crucially, "If you do not take to the streets, he [as in General Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, the leader of the coup that is not a coup who appointed the interim government] will make the country like Syria."
Wrong. Sisi is not Bashar al-Assad. Don't expect passionate Western calls for "targeted strikes" or a no-fly zone over Egypt. He may be a military dictator killing his own people. But he's one of "our" bastards.

What we say goes

Let's look at the reactions. The lethargic poodles of the European Union called for "restraint" and described it all as "extremely worrying." A White House statement said the interim government should "respect human rights" which can be arguably interpreted as the Manning/Snowden/droning of Pakistan and Yemen school of human rights.

That pathetic excuse for a diplomat, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, at least was blunt: "Egypt is an important partner for NATO through the Mediterranean Dialogue." Translation: the only thing we really care about is that those Arabs do as we say.

A man grieves as he looks at one of many bodies laid out in a make shift morgue after Egyptian security forces stormed two huge protest camps at the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda squares where supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi were camped, in Cairo, on August 14, 2013 (AFP Photo / Mosaab El-Shamy)

Stripped of all rhetoric indignant or otherwise the key point is that Washington won't cut its $1.3 billion annual aid to Sisi's army no matter what. Wily Sisi has declared a "war on terror". The Pentagon is behind it. And the Obama administration is tagging along reluctantly or not.

Now let's see who's in revolt. Predictably, Qatar condemned it; after all Qatar was bankrolling the Morsi presidency. The Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, encouraged Egyptians to keep protesting to "thwart the conspiracy" by the former regime as in Mubarakists without Mubarak.
Turkey which also supports the Muslim Brotherhood - urged the UN Security Council and the Arab League to act quickly to stop a "massacre"; as if the UN and the Saudi-controlled Arab League would interrupt their three-hour-long expense account lunches to do anything.

Iran correctly - warned of the risk of civil war. That does not mean that Tehran is blindly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood especially after Morsi had incited Egyptians to join a jihad against Assad in Syria. What Tehran has noted is that the civil war is already on.

Let's aim for the kill

"Byzantine" does not even begin to explain the blame game. The bloodbath that is not a bloodbath happened as the Sisi-appointed "government" had promised it would engage in a military-supported "transition" that would be politically all-inclusive.

Yet, fed up with six weeks of protests denouncing the "coup that is not a coup," the interim government changed the narrative and decided to take no prisoners.

According to the best informed Egyptian media analyses, Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Baha Eldin and Vice President for foreign affairs Mohamed ElBaradei wanted to go soft against the protesters, while Interior Minister Gen. Mohammad Ibrahim Mustafa and the Defense Minister - Sisi himself - wanted to go medieval.

The first step was to pre-emptively blame the Muslim Brotherhood for the bloodshed just as the Muslim Brotherhood blamed Jemaah Islamiyah for deploying Kalashnikovs and burning churches and police stations.

An Egyptian woman mourns over the body of her daughter wrapped in shrouds at a mosque in Cairo on August 15, 2013 (AFP Photo / Khaled Desouki)

A key reason to launch the "bloodbath that is not a bloodbath" this Wednesday was an attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood to march on the perennially dreaded Interior Ministry. Hardcore Ibrahim Mustafa would have none of it.

Sisi's minions appointed 25 provincial governors, of which 19 are generals, in perfect timing to "reward" the top military echelon and thus solidify the Egyptian "deep state", or actually police state. And to crown the "bloodbath that is not a bloodbath," Sisi's minions declared martial law for a month. Under these circumstances, the resignation of Western darling ElBaradei won't make Sisi lose any sleep.

The original spirit of Tahrir Square is now dead and buried [/url], as a Yemeni miraculously not targeted by Obama's drones, Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman, pointed out.

The key question is who profits from a hyper-polarized Egypt, with a civil war pitting the well-organized, fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood against the military-controlled "deep state".

Both options are equally repulsive (not to mention incompetent). Yet the local winners are easily identifiable: the counter-revolution, as in the fulool diehard Mubarakists a bunch of corrupt oligarchs, and most of all the deep state itself.

Hardcore repression rules. Corruption rules. And foreign domination rules (as in Saudi Arabia, who's now paying most of the bills, alongside the UAE).

Internationally, the big winners are Saudi Arabia (displacing Qatar), Israel (because the Egyptian army is even more docile than the Brotherhood), and who else the Pentagon, the Egyptian army's pimp. Nowhere in the Milky Way this House of Saud/Israel/Pentagon axis can be spun as "good for the Egyptian people".

Sheikh Al-Torture is our man

A quick recap is in order. In 2011, the Obama administration never said, "Mubarak must go" until the last minute. Hilary Clinton wanted a "transition" led by CIA asset and spy chief Omar Suleiman widely known in Tahrir Square as "Sheikh al-Torture".

Reporters run for cover during clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi, and police in Cairo on August 14, 2013 (AFP Photo / Mosaab El-Shamy)

Then a Washington inside joke was that the Obama administration had gleefully become a Muslim Brotherhood cheerleader (allied with Qatar). Now, like a yo-yo, the Obama administration is weighing on how to spin the new narrative - the loyal' Egyptian army courageously wiping out the "terrorist" Muslim Brotherhood to "protect the revolution."

There was never any revolution to begin with; the head of the snake (Mubarak) was gone, but the snake remained alive and kicking. Now it's met the new snake, same as the old snake. Additionally, it's so easy to sell to the uninformed galleries the Muslim Brotherhood = al-Qaeda equation.

Pentagon supremo Chuck Hagel was glued on the phone with Sisi as the July 3 "coup that is not a coup" was taking place. Pentagon spin would want us to believe that [url=http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/07/03/hagel-contacts-egyptian-general-now-in-charge.html]Sisi promised Hagel he would be on top of things in a heartbeat. Virtually 100% of the Beltway agreed. Thus the official Washington spin of "coup that is not a coup." Tim Kaine from Virginia, at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, even extolled those model democracies, the UAE and Jordan, in their enthusiasm for the "coup that is not a coup."

It's essential to outline the five countries that have explicitly endorsed the "coup that is not a coup." Four of them are GCC petro-monarchies (members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, also known as Gulf Counter-Revolution Club); Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. And the fifth is that little monarchy, Jordan, the GCC wants to annex to the Gulf.

Even more pathetic than Egypt's so-called liberals, some leftists, some Nasserists and assorted progressives defending Sisi's bloodlust has been the volte-face of Mahmoud Badr, the founder of Tamarrod the movement that spearheaded the massive demonstrations that led to Morsi's ouster. In 2012, he blasted Saudi Arabia. After the coup, he prostrated himself in their honor. At least he knows who's paying the bills.

And then there's Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, the Vatican of Sunni Islam. He said, "Al-Azhar…did not know about the methods used for the dispersal of the protests except through media channels." Nonsense; he has repeatedly praised Sisi.

Egyptian Muslim brotherhood supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi evacuate a wounded man during clashes with riot police at Cairo's Mustafa Mahmoud Square after security forces dispersed supporters Morsi on August 14, 2013 (AFP Photo / Str)

Feel free to adore my eyelashes

There's no other way of saying it; from Washington's point of view, Arabs can kill each other to Kingdom Come, be it Sunnis against Shiites, jihadis against secularists, peasants against urbanites, and Egyptians against Egyptians. The only thing that matters is the Camp David agreements; and nobody is allowed to antagonize Israel.

So it's fitting that Sisi's minions in boots asked Israel to keep their drones near the border, as they need to pursue their "war on terror" in the Sinai. For all practical purposes, Israel runs the Sinai.

But then there's the cancellation of a delivery of F-16s to Sisi's army. In real life, every US weapons sale across the Middle East has to be "cleared" with Israel. So a case can be made that Israel for the moment - is not exactly sure what Sisi is really up to.

It's quite instructive to read what Sisi thinks of "democracy" as demonstrated when he was at the US War College. He's essentially an Islamist but most of all he craves power. And the MB is standing in his way. So they have to be disposed of.

Sisi's "war on terror" is arguably a roaring success as a PR stunt to legitimize his run for a popular mandate. He's trying to pose as the new Nasser. He's Sisi the Savior, surrounded by a bunch of Sisi groupies. A columnist wrote in Al-Masry Al-Youm that Sisi doesn't even need to issue an order; it's enough to "just flutter his eyelashes". The Sisi-for-president campaign is already on.
Anyone familiar with US-propped 1970s tin-pot Latin American dictators is able to spot one. This is no Savior. This is no more than an Al-Sisi-nator the vainglorious tin-pot ruler of what my colleague Spengler bluntly defined as a banana republic without the bananas.

[Magda Hassan]

[Magda Hassan]

Attacks on Protesters in Cairo Were Calculated to Provoke, Some Say

By RICK GLADSTONE

Published: August 16, 2013

The ferocity of the attacks by security forces on Islamist protesters in Cairo this week appears to have been a deliberate calculation of the military-appointed government to provoke violence from the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, a number of Arab and Western historians of Middle East politics said Friday.

Enlarge This Image

Bryan Denton for The New York Times

Egyptian military guarding the remains of the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo, near which Islamist supporters of Mohamed Morsi had staged their protest.




The objective, they said in interviews, was to demonize the Islamists in the eyes of Egypt's broader populace, validate the July 3 ouster of the Islamist president and subvert any possibility that dialogue would reintegrate the Muslim Brotherhood into Egypt's mainstream politics.
While many said it seemed premature to call the violence in Egypt a precursor to civil war, they said the hatreds unleashed on all sides presaged a possible future of low-level insurgency by embittered, alienated Islamists. Some drew parallels to Algeria, where the military also intervened to subvert Islamist ascendance in democratic electoral politics more than two decades ago, leading to a horrific period of mayhem and repression.
"Given the propaganda of the state-supported media in Cairo, tarring the Muslim Brotherhood with the terrorist brush, making them enemies, not just a nuisance, is setting them up for being completely crushed and eliminated," said Hugh Roberts, director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at Tufts University. "To use an Algerian term, eradication."
Many said the events since the forced removal of Mohamed Morsi, the first freely elected president, suggested that Egypt's military commanders had concluded beforehand that they would gain nothing from negotiations with the Brotherhood, and would rather deal with it as an insurgent group that presented a security threat, not as a popular political movement.
None saw evidence that Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt's top military authority, and his subordinates in the Interior Ministry and the police had been moved by foreign pressure to compromise with the Islamists, despite public lip service to the politics of inclusion.
"Clearly for some segments of the security apparatus, there was an anxiety over the reinclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood in the political process," said Tarek Masoud, assistant professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. "Precisely because these negotiations might have gotten somewhere, they wanted to stop the Muslim Brotherhood in its tracks. You could pick no better strategy than the heavy-handed manner in which they dealt with these protests."
Overwhelming force was used to purge the Islamist protest encampments in two Cairo squares on Wednesday despite pledges of restraint and open discussion about the use of more passive strategies like a blockade. More than 600 people were killed in those assaults, which became a catalyst for angry Islamist reprisals, many directed against the police and Egypt's Christian minority.
"The crackdown on the 14th was intended to provoke the Islamists to react violently I'm fairly convinced of that," said Issandr el-Amrani, a journalist and political analyst who blogs as the Arabist, a widely followed Web site. "If you look at what happened since the July 3 coup, the international community wanted to see some kind of compromise arrangement, and I think the military in Egypt felt trapped by that, felt that it would have to make concessions."
Mr. Amrani, a Moroccan American who has lived in Egypt for years, said he believed there had been "an understanding between the military and the security services, whose entire history has been against the Muslim Brotherhood, and the secularists, who saw this as a historic chance to put the Muslim Brotherhood out of business."
While the consequence might return Egypt to another era of repression, he said, "they felt they could live with that there would not be any sharing of power with the Islamists."
Many Islamists in Egypt have been making such accusations since Mr. Morsi was deposed, while the military-appointed government and its supporters have denied them. At the same time, sincere language of tolerance and restraint in Egypt, once heard during the innocent days of the 2011 revolution, has faded.
"When everybody in Egypt talks about inclusive politics, they're lying," said Steven A. Cook, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Mr. Cook and others attributed some responsibility for the events of this past week to the Islamists, saying violence appeared inevitable after protest leaders at the Cairo encampments had exhorted followers to martyr themselves if attacked.
"I don't think you can get much clearer than that," Mr. Cook said. "They're asking the people to die for a cause."
Mr. Roberts noted that the comparisons between Egypt and Algeria were limited. In Algeria, the military intervened to nullify elections before the winning Islamist candidates could even take office, while in Egypt the Islamists won elections and their president served for a year.
In Algeria, the Islamist political organization was young and untested, while the Muslim Brotherhood has been part of Egyptian life for 85 years, much of it as an outlawed group, with much organizational skill.
Partly for that reason, Mr. Roberts said, it was by no means clear that the Brotherhood would be crippled in the new period of uncertainty now confronting Egypt. Likewise, he said, Egypt's armed forces do not necessarily have the upper hand.
"A question here is, which of the two has bitten off more than they can chew," he said. "It may be the army. They made a calculation but they've gambled on it. The Muslim Brotherhood has shown more staying power, more willingness to take a beating."
Others agreed that Egypt was in such turmoil that it was impossible to assess the outcomes.
"Clearly today Egypt is not on a trajectory to democracy, pluralism, tolerance. It is polarized, divided and bloody," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"We're back to the security state," she said. "The more optimistic thing I'll say is: I don't think that's sustainable. It's not the same as the 1990s. The Egyptian people are mobilized, they refuse to live under a government that represses their dignity."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/world/...uffer&_r=0

[Magda Hassan]

The military is proposing to ban the MB. Officially cast as the 'terrorists' who can then be relied upon to do their bit to keep the Deep State going.