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, 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."
A quick recap is in order. In 2011, the Obama administration never said, "Mubarak must go" until the last minute. Hillary 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 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)
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.
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