The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Cui bono?

Nice to see that the Daily Star Egypt, which has struggled to find its voice as a source of news on Egypt, has an extended, locally written, piece today on Talaat Sadat's bid to become the next opposition figure to be crushed and thrown into jail for opening up his mouth and saying things that the big boys find discomforting.

Sadat has spoken out now on a number of occasions about the October 6 1981 assassination of his uncle Anwar, requesting a parliamentary investigation into the killing and on one occasion apparently telling a press agency that the whole thing was a coup by then vice-president, now president, Hosni Mubarak and the minister of defense. He has also said that Sadat's bodyguard made no attempt to shield him, were never investigated and have since done well in business.

Now, many who have watched the video of the event have noted a certain, well, emphasis in the reaction of the security forces supposed to be guarding the president and his deputy (personally I can't see anything but screaming confusion, but maybe there's more footage?), and many others have drawn conclusions from Mubarak's reluctance to appoint a VP himself, but let's have a quick reality check.

Considering the record of the Mubarak regime, can we really say that these are the sort of men who would kill each other just to wrap their fingers around a little more power?