http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/16/russian-arms-dealer-missile-defence-syria
http://www.debka.com/article/22088/Big-powers-move-in-on-Syria-Russian-troops-for-Tartus-US-forces-ready-to-go
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/06/13/france-syria-plan-should-be-compulsory/
Chapter 7 amounts to the UN’s authorization for the use of military force, giving member nations an excuse to use military action to impose a UN decision on a country.
Ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who made headlines in recent months for calling a military strike on Iran “the stupidest thing ever,” even though it has been hinted at and advocated by current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is again saying that bombing the country unprovokedwould be counterproductive.
http://www.debka.com/article/22080/Cairo-in-turmoil-Generals-assume-legislative-powers-Parliament-dissolved
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/2012614172410271831.html
Russian arms dealer sends missile defence systems to Syria
Anatoly Isaykin tells New York Times the weapons could be used to shoot down planes or sink ships
Email
The Buk-M2 air defence missile system. Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/AP
A Russian arms dealer has said his company is shipping missile defence systems to Syria that could be used to combat international intervention in the country.
Anatoly Isaykin, the general director of Rosoboronexport, said the advanced defensive missile systems could be used to shoot down planes or sink ships.
Speaking in an interview with the New York Times, Isayakin said his disclosure was not a threat but a warning.
"I would like to say these mechanisms are really a good means of defence, a reliable defence against attacks from the air or sea. This is not a threat, but whoever is planning an attack should think about this."
The weapons that Isaykin claims he is exporting are not considered cutting edge, but will add to tensions between those who want to see more diplomatic pressure put on Syria and those who argue against international involvement – namely Russia and China.
Almost a week ago, comments made by the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, suggested a weakening in Moscow's backing of Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad. He said that Russia would no longer stand in the way of a departure of the president.
"If Syrians agree between each other, we will only be happy to support such a solution," he said. However, he still insisted that it was "unacceptable" for any conditions of departure to come from outside the country.
Russia has continued to supply arms to Russia, including recent reports that it is preparing to send an amphibious landing vessel and security staff for military installations, although it claims that these have been for the purposes of defence and not the regime's civil campaign.
Isaykin said weaponry being shipped to Syria included the Pantsyr-S1, a radar-guided missile and artillery system capable of hitting planes at high altitudes, Buk-M2 anti-aircraft missiles and land-based Bastion anti-ship missiles, which can fire at targets 180 miles from the coast.
But Ruslan Aliyev, from the Centre for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, said Isaykin's disclosure was made primarily for political effect, as Russia was not supplying its most cutting-edge weaponry.
"As far as I understand, Syria is not able to defend itself from Nato, just like it failed to defend its nuclear facility from Israel's September 2007 air strike," Aliyev told the New York Times. "Russian armaments are unlikely to be significantly helpful."
The US recently backtracked on claims that Russia had sent attack helicopters to Damascus and was forced to acknowledge that the helicopters were refurbished ones already owned by the regime.
The accusation by Hillary Clinton prompted Russia to accuse the US of hypocrisy over military equipment, including jet engines and patrol boats that were sold to Bahrain despite civil unrest in the Arab state.
and....
http://www.debka.com/article/22088/Big-powers-move-in-on-Syria-Russian-troops-for-Tartus-US-forces-ready-to-go
Big powers move in on Syria: Russian troops for Tartus. US forces ready to go
DEBKAfile Special Report June 15, 2012, 7:39 PM (GMT+02:00)
A contingent of Russian special forces is on its way to Syria to guard the Russian navy’s deep-water port at the Syria’s Mediterranean coastal town of Tartus, Pentagon officials informed US NBC TV Friday, June 15. They are coming by ship. According to DEBKAfile’s sources, the contingent is made up of naval marines and is due to land in Syria in the coming hours.
In a separate and earlier announcement, US Defense Department sources in Washington reported that the US military had completed its own planning for a variety of US operations against Syria, or for assisting neighboring countries in the event action was ordered – a reference, according to our sources, to Turkey, Jordan and Israel.
The Syrian civil war is now moving into a new phase of major power military intervention, sayDEBKAfile’s military sources. Moscow, by sending troops to Syria without UN Security Council approval, has set up a precedent for the United States, the European Union and Arab governments to follow. They all held back from sending troops to Syria because all motions to apply force for halting the bloodshed in Syria was blocked in the UN body.
The Syrian civil war is now moving into a new phase of major power military intervention, sayDEBKAfile’s military sources. Moscow, by sending troops to Syria without UN Security Council approval, has set up a precedent for the United States, the European Union and Arab governments to follow. They all held back from sending troops to Syria because all motions to apply force for halting the bloodshed in Syria was blocked in the UN body.
According to US military sources, in recent weeks, the Pentagon has finalized its assessment of what types of units would be needed and how many troops. The military planning includes a scenario for a no-fly zone as well as protecting chemical and biological sites. The U.S. Navy is maintaining a presence of three surface combatants and a submarine in the eastern Mediterranean to conduct electronic surveillance and reconnaissance on the Syrian regime, a senior Pentagon official said.
and.....
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/06/13/france-syria-plan-should-be-compulsory/
France: Syria Plan Should Be ‘Compulsory’
Call for Security Council to Authorize 'Military or Non-Military Action' to Impose Deal
by Jason Ditz, June 13, 2012
Agreeing with yesterday’s UN assessment that Syria is in a “state of civil war,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius today called for the UN Security Council to invoke Chapter 7 of the UN charter on the situation and make the Annan peace deal “compulsory.”
Chapter 7 amounts to the UN’s authorization for the use of military force, giving member nations an excuse to use military action to impose a UN decision on a country.
Most recently, Chapter 7 was invoked in UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which NATO used as the justification for its attack on Libya and the imposition of a regime change on the country.
This is, of course, exactly what France has been calling for for several months, wanting to oust Bashar Assad and install the rebels in his place. Particularly after the Libya debauchle, it is a foregone conclusion that Russia will reject any resolution that even hints at an authorization for a military attack, believing NATO will interpret anything as an excuse for a full-scale invasion.
and.....
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/06/13/ex-mossad-chief-israeli-attack-will-push-iran-to-develop-nuclear-weapons/
Ex-Mossad Chief: Israeli Attack Will Push Iran To Develop Nuclear Weapons
Meir Dagan has consistently argued against an Israeli strike on Iran, which he says Netanyahu is 'very serious' about
by John Glaser, June 13, 2012
The former chief of Israel’s foreign intelligence service is again speaking out against an Israeli strike on Iran, arguing that such preemption will only embolden the Islamic Republic and push them towards getting nuclear weapons.
Ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who made headlines in recent months for calling a military strike on Iran “the stupidest thing ever,” even though it has been hinted at and advocated by current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is again saying that bombing the country unprovokedwould be counterproductive.
“Judging by the war Iran fought against Iraq, even people who supported the Shah, even the Communists, joined hands with (Ayatollah) Khomeini to fight Saddam,” he said in an interview with Atlantic Magazine, adding, “In case of an attack, political pressure on the regime will disappear. If Israel will attack, there is no doubt in my mind that this will also provide them with the justification to go ahead and move quickly to nuclear weapons.”
The pretext for war with Iran is that its nuclear enrichment program may have a military dimension to it. Embarrassingly for the hawks, there is a broad consensus throughout the military and intelligence community that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and has not demonstrated any intention of doing so.
Iranian policy for some time now has been to abstain from developing nuclear weapons while having the know-how needed to get there. This posture aims to provide them with enough of a deterrent to dissuade US or Israeli military strikes or efforts atregime change, because their know-how allows them to develop weapons quickly if they decide to do so (which they have not).
An attack on their nuclear program, which nobody actually believes involves any weaponization, would almost surely push Tehran to reconstitute a weapons program in earnest.
As former CIA analyst Paul Pillar wrote in the March issue of Washington Monthly, overly optimistic war proponents think “the same regime that cannot be trusted with a nuclear weapon because it is recklessly aggressive and prone to cause regional havoc would suddenly become, once attacked, a model of calm and caution, easily deterred by the threat of further attacks.”
Dagan also insisted Netanyahu is not bluffing about an attack. ”They are very serious,” he said. “I’m taking the threat of an Israeli attack very seriously.” And if he and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are bluffing, “then they don’t deserve their jobs.”
Dagan is just one among many Israeli officials to speak out against an attack on Iran. Everyone from current head of the Mossad Tamir Pardo, Israel’s military chief Benny Gantz, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, leader of the Kadima party Tzipi Livni, and internal security chief Yuval Diskin have come out to push back against Netanyahu. They say Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, that Iran doesn’t present an existential threat, and that war is not the appropriate answer.
and.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/13/oil-japan-iran-idUSL3E8HDA6D20120613
* Lower house to pass bill on Friday -Yomiuri
* To allow sovereign guarantee to continue Iran imports
* Can continue Iran imports after EU insurance ban (Adds details on bill and oil imports from Iran)
TOKYO, June 14 (Reuters) - Japan's lower house is set to pass a special bill on Friday to allow it to provide insurance for continuing Iranian crude imports, making it the first country to attempt to initiate sovereign cover once EU sanctions on Iran are expected to start in July, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Thursday.
The bill is expected to be passed during the current session of the parliament that ends on June 21, as the secretary generals of the biggest opposition Liberal Democratic Party and its former partner, the New Komeito, have backed the bill, the report said.
The backing of the main opposition parties would clear a hurdle for the bill's smooth passing. Although the lower house is controlled by the ruling Democratic Party, the opposition has the majority of the upper house.
The government wants to enact the bill into law this month so that it can provide protection coverage of up to $7.6 billion per tanker carrying Iranian crude bound for Japan in time when the European Union's ban on reinsurance takes effect as early as July 1.
The EU ban is part of a raft of Western sanctions aimed at shrinking Tehran's oil revenues to force it to halt its controversial nuclear programme.
Iranian oil accounted for nearly 9 percent of Japan's crude imports last year and the government has come up with the bill to minimize the impact on the world's third-largest economy.
Japan's crude purchases from OPEC's second-largest producer have fallen sharply, to comply with U.S. sanctions on Iran, despite an increase in overall oil demand after last year's Fukushima disaster shut down the country's nuclear power stations. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Gary Hill and Bob Burgdorfer)
and.....
Cairo in turmoil: Generals assume legislative powers. Parliament dissolved
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 14, 2012, 6:19 PM (GMT+02:00)
Ahmed Shafiq vs Muhammad Morsi in presidential contest
Egypt’s transitional military government assumed legislative powers after the supreme constitutional court Thursday, June 14, declared invalid rules governing the parliamentary elections earlier this year which handed control to the two Islamist parties. Because one-third of the seats were elected illegally, the entire chamber is illegal and must dissolve. Egyptians therefore found they faced a new general election for all 498 seats in parliament two days before they vote in the presidential runoff. The Muslim Brotherhood announced it accepts the court’s ruling although it represents a major setback to its political aspirations.
The highest court in Egypt also overturned a Muslim Brotherhood-initiated law that would have disqualified former Mubarak prime minister Ahmed Shafiq from running against the MB’s Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi in the presidential runoff Saturday and Sunday. Shafiq therefore stays in the race.
DEBKAfile: Because the parliamentary constitutional assembly is prevented from writing a new charter to determine the extent of the new president’s powers, the powers of the winner of the presidential election, whether Shafiq or Morsi, remains undefined.
The constitution court’s two decisions send the democratic process back to square one and delay the transition of government from the SCAF military council to civilian hands until new elections are held.
The highest court in Egypt also overturned a Muslim Brotherhood-initiated law that would have disqualified former Mubarak prime minister Ahmed Shafiq from running against the MB’s Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi in the presidential runoff Saturday and Sunday. Shafiq therefore stays in the race.
DEBKAfile: Because the parliamentary constitutional assembly is prevented from writing a new charter to determine the extent of the new president’s powers, the powers of the winner of the presidential election, whether Shafiq or Morsi, remains undefined.
The constitution court’s two decisions send the democratic process back to square one and delay the transition of government from the SCAF military council to civilian hands until new elections are held.
DEBKAfile reported Wednesday:
Egypt’s constitutional court Thursday, June 14, declared invalid rules governing the parliamentary elections earlier this year which handed control to the two Islamist parties. Egyptian TV has just announced that after one-third of the seats were voided, parliament is to be dissolved and a new election is to be held.
The court also declared unconstitutional a Muslim Brotherhood-initiated law that would have disqualified former Mubarak prime minister Ahmed Shafiq from running against the MB’s Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi in the presidential runoff Saturday and Sunday.
DEBKAfile: Because the parliamentary constitutional assembly is prevented from writing a new charter to determine the extent of the new president’s powers, the powers of the winner of the presidential election, whether Shafiq or Morsi, remain undefined.The constitution court’s two decisions Thursday are a major setback for the Muslim Brotherhood. They also send the democratic process back to square one and delay the transition of government from the SCAF military council to civilian hands until new elections are held.
Contesting the television broadcast, lawyers who heard the court rulings are not clear about the next stage of the crisis. Some question the need for a new general election and argue that only the one-third of the seats were voided and only they should be put up for re-election.The court also declared unconstitutional a Muslim Brotherhood-initiated law that would have disqualified former Mubarak prime minister Ahmed Shafiq from running against the MB’s Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi in the presidential runoff Saturday and Sunday.
DEBKAfile: Because the parliamentary constitutional assembly is prevented from writing a new charter to determine the extent of the new president’s powers, the powers of the winner of the presidential election, whether Shafiq or Morsi, remain undefined.The constitution court’s two decisions Thursday are a major setback for the Muslim Brotherhood. They also send the democratic process back to square one and delay the transition of government from the SCAF military council to civilian hands until new elections are held.
and.....
| Court throws Egypt transition into disarray | |||||||||||||
Rulings dissolve Muslim Brotherhood-led parliament and approve candidacy of Mubarak's last PM in presidential election.
Evan Hill Last Modified: 14 Jun 2012 23:53
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| CAIRO, Egypt - Two days before the country is set to elect a new president, Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled that the Islamist-dominated parliament must be dissolved and that former regime figures must be allowed to hold political office, effectively approving the candidacy of presidential hopeful and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq. Thursday's rulings, accompanied by an announcement that Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) would now oversee the writing of a new constitution, immediately raised fears of a thinly veiled military takeover.
Mohammed el-Beltagy, the vice-president of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), called the sequence of events a "fully fledged coup" in a post on his Facebook page.
But Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, said in an interview with Egyptian channel Dream 2 that the Constitutional Court's decision to dismiss the entire parliament did not amount to a military coup. "I love the military forces," he said. Morsi also said that the court rulings indicated "there [are] some who seek, strive for, and plan ill against the people."
At issue on Thursday was the way in which the People's Assembly was elected, which involved a hybrid ballot, two-thirds of which was meant for political parties and one-third for independents. The Brotherhood pushed the military to change the rules at the last moment, opening the independent seats for parties, thus hemming in the power of former regime elites to run for election. But that push now seems to have backfired, with the court ruling that the change to the hybrid system unfairly discriminated against independents. It relied on that principle to declare those seats invalid, and an election rerun necessary. 'Counter-revolution' At the heavily guarded court before the ruling was delivered, a few hundred protesters had gathered in the hot midday sun to call for Shafiq's disqualification. "[Shafiq] is part of the counter-revolution," said Hana Mohammed, a 51-year-old housewife and protester. "If Shafiq becomes president, that means there was no revolution." Many protesters handed out stickers encouraging bystanders to boycott the vote or spoil their ballots, while others waved the flag of Egypt's revolutionary socialist movement.At least twice as many military and riot police armed with shields and batons and backed by machine gun-mounted armoured personnel carriers faced the protesters from behind a barbed-wire fence. "It's not a good sign that the Supreme Constitutional Court is supposed to be independent and is guarded by state security and the army like this," said Wissam Mohammed, a 26-year-old translator and political researcher. 'Bad sign' Though Egypt's judiciary was long respected as a bulwark of independence, and one of the only checks on ousted president Hosni Mubarak's government, analysts say the court was stacked with Mubarak sympathisers in recent years, perhaps to ease the way for what many believed was a plan to hand the reins of power to his son.
Exacerbating the perception were remarks made last week by Ahmed el-Zend, the head of the Judges Club, who declared that judges would not have overseen elections if they had known the parliament they were going to get. "SCAF has been trying to restore elements of the old regime," Mohammed said, drawing no distinction between the court and Egypt's ruling generals. "As much as I disagree with what the [Muslim Brotherhood] has done, this is an elected parliament and it's a bad sign that SCAF can dissolve them in the blink of an eye." But Mohammed Rabie, a neatly dressed high school English teacher, looked at the crowd with disdain as he set his briefcase down. "I think we are in the chaos. Let the judge say what he wants," Rabie said. "I think Shafiq is a good man." The Muslim Brotherhood, he said, had already won most of parliament's two houses and now was grasping at the presidency in a bid to take full control of Egypt and follow "the model of Iran". Arguing Shafiq would restore security, he said: "If Shafiq is no good, it's only for four years and he will not be like Mubarak." The Brotherhood now finds itself in perhaps its most perilous state since the revolution. Though the upper house of parliament, the mostly powerless Shoura Council, remains, the lower People's Assembly is on the brink of dissolving.
'Second revolution'
The Brotherhood's success in pushing through what was known as the Political Isolation Law has also been reversed. The law, approved by SCAF in April, banned Shafiq and others who had held high-level positions in Mubarak's government from holding office for the next decade. Shafiq continued to run after the presidential election commission, filled with some of the same judges who sit on the Supreme Constitutional Court, decided to allow him in. Now the court has officially blessed that decision. The ruling, analysts agree, is legal, since the law was poorly tailored to target only a select group of individuals. But the way in which it was reached, with conflicts of interest and last-second timing, make the court appear to be on the side of the military and the state. Mohammed, the housewife, said she had boycotted every election since the revolution, since she viewed the entire process as a military-organised charade. "There will be a second revolution, there will be hundreds of deaths again," she said. 'Historic verdict' When state television announced that the court had decided to allow Shafiq to stay in the race while also dissolving parliament, word spread through the crowd, who were reading Twitter and receiving text messages.
But the crowd thinned, leaving a few dozen shouting at the police on the other side and leading anti-military chants. Hours later, Shafiq held a triumphant press conference - complete with a national anthem beforehand - and declared that the era of "tailoring laws" had ended. He promised a civil state and a return of stability. "The message of this historic verdict is that the era of political score settling has ended," Shafiq told cheering supporters. "I'm not surprised," said 18-year-old Mohammed Maher, a bespectacled engineering student at Helwan University who had carried a revolutionary socialists flag to the court protest. "But I think all the judges they don't rule from their heads, they rule from the head of the army." Maher said everyone expected the judiciary to rule in favour of the establishment. "The son of a rich man becomes rich and the son of a poor man stays poor," he said, smiling wearily. * * * the prior story made the following piece almost an afterthought..... | |||||||||||||
Secret US poll projects 70 pc lead for Muslim presidential candidate Morsi
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 13, 2012, 5:45 PM (GMT+02:00)
Ahmed Shafiq vs Muhammad Morsi contest Egyptian presidency
The Obama administration is girding up for the shock of Egypt becoming the first Arab country, and the most populous, to be ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood. The last of three secret polls US intelligence conducted in Egypt assigned the MB contender Muhammad Morsi a 70 percent win of the presidential election runoff, Saturday-Sunday, June 16-17, against former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq’s 30 percent, according to DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources.
Although such polls often miss the mark, the US, Israel and the Middle East appear to be facing this fast-approaching prospect.
Egypt’s transitional government the Supreme Military Council (SCAF) has publicly pledged to transfer power to civilian control on July 1 whomsoever wins the election. There are signs of preparations for this game-changer in Washington, though not in Jerusalem – unless they are taking place in secret – although Israel’s strategic and regional situation faces radical change.
At the same time, as high-placed American sources monitoring events in Egypt point out, the incoming president’s powers are still undefined and the SCAF may hold off transferring authority until they are.
Defining the extent of presidential authority is one of the tasks up to the 100-member Egyptian Constitutional Assembly, which only began work Wednesday, June 13. It is impossible to predict the content of its final document, although the body has a Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi Nour majority.
Furthermore, a judicial body, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, is due to hand down critical rulings Thursday, June 14, just two days before the presidential election. They promise major repercussions for voting patterns and the status of the two contenders and their parties.
One SCC recommendation is to abolish as unconstitutional the law passed by the Islamist-dominated parliament in April barring senior Mubarak-era officials (such as Ahmed Shafiq) from running for president.
The SCC may also throw out the electoral laws under which The Brotherhood and the Salafist party gained 75 percent of seats in parliament, order it its dissollution and call a new general election.
If confirmed, these rulings could produce a Brotherhood president without constitutional powers or parliamentary backing. In these circumstances, Muhammad Morsi would be too weak to govern, or even become a figurehead, and the SCAF would stay in power.All this is of course speculative, DEBKAfile's sources report. No one can tell for sure how Egypt’s first venture into full democracy will turn out.
Although such polls often miss the mark, the US, Israel and the Middle East appear to be facing this fast-approaching prospect.
Egypt’s transitional government the Supreme Military Council (SCAF) has publicly pledged to transfer power to civilian control on July 1 whomsoever wins the election. There are signs of preparations for this game-changer in Washington, though not in Jerusalem – unless they are taking place in secret – although Israel’s strategic and regional situation faces radical change.
At the same time, as high-placed American sources monitoring events in Egypt point out, the incoming president’s powers are still undefined and the SCAF may hold off transferring authority until they are.
Defining the extent of presidential authority is one of the tasks up to the 100-member Egyptian Constitutional Assembly, which only began work Wednesday, June 13. It is impossible to predict the content of its final document, although the body has a Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi Nour majority.
Furthermore, a judicial body, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, is due to hand down critical rulings Thursday, June 14, just two days before the presidential election. They promise major repercussions for voting patterns and the status of the two contenders and their parties.
One SCC recommendation is to abolish as unconstitutional the law passed by the Islamist-dominated parliament in April barring senior Mubarak-era officials (such as Ahmed Shafiq) from running for president.
The SCC may also throw out the electoral laws under which The Brotherhood and the Salafist party gained 75 percent of seats in parliament, order it its dissollution and call a new general election.
If confirmed, these rulings could produce a Brotherhood president without constitutional powers or parliamentary backing. In these circumstances, Muhammad Morsi would be too weak to govern, or even become a figurehead, and the SCAF would stay in power.All this is of course speculative, DEBKAfile's sources report. No one can tell for sure how Egypt’s first venture into full democracy will turn out.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s violent campaign tactics have meanwhile had some unforeseen consequences and created unexpected bedfellows.
Gangs of Islamist thugs have gone about burning Shafiq’s campaign branches, breaking up his public rallies and attacking the homes of his supporters and families. They turn up with loudspeaker cars on the fringes of pro-Shafiq rallies and shout slogans saying he should be hanged after the ousted ruler Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for lesser crimes.
Those tactics have absurdly sent some of the democratic and liberal forces which staged the Tahir Square revolution for toppling Mubarak rallying behind his last prime minister and adherent, as the lesser evil.
However, those tactics have a more sinister side.
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that local gangs of Islamist thugs are linking up into a nationwide organization, for which the Brotherhood is setting up regional headquarters. In Cairo this week, a central headquarters began coordinating their activities with a fleet of vehicles ferrying squads between districts for creating mayhem.
Gangs of Islamist thugs have gone about burning Shafiq’s campaign branches, breaking up his public rallies and attacking the homes of his supporters and families. They turn up with loudspeaker cars on the fringes of pro-Shafiq rallies and shout slogans saying he should be hanged after the ousted ruler Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for lesser crimes.
Those tactics have absurdly sent some of the democratic and liberal forces which staged the Tahir Square revolution for toppling Mubarak rallying behind his last prime minister and adherent, as the lesser evil.
However, those tactics have a more sinister side.
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that local gangs of Islamist thugs are linking up into a nationwide organization, for which the Brotherhood is setting up regional headquarters. In Cairo this week, a central headquarters began coordinating their activities with a fleet of vehicles ferrying squads between districts for creating mayhem.
The Brotherhood’s gangs are acquiring a hierarchical structure resembling the embryonic paramilitary militias which surfaced in the early years of Iran’s Shiite revolution in the late 1970s and early 1980s and evolved into Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
This manifestation will not disappear after elections are over but will be there to stay as part of Egypt’s political and street landscape, whoever is elected president. That is further cause for trepidation in the US and Israel.
This manifestation will not disappear after elections are over but will be there to stay as part of Egypt’s political and street landscape, whoever is elected president. That is further cause for trepidation in the US and Israel.
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