Word: maher
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Egypt's reluctant strongman, Major General Mohammed Naguib, stopped being reluctant. He had tried to stay in the background and run things through Prime Minister Aly Maher. This week Naguib threw out Aly, took over as Premier and, in fact, dictator...
Naguib drove in his big green staff car to the official palace of Prime Minister Aly Maher, asked him to quit. Aly did. "Authority," he said, "should be concentrated in the hands of the armed forces." By nightfall Naguib, still wearing his uniform, was Prime Minister and Minister of War & Marine...
Naguib himself explained what lay behind the army's latest coup. "Speed," he said, "was one of the objectives of our movement." The army was exasperated by Aly Maher's slowcoach approach to the key issue of the whole cleanup movement: land reform. Instead of getting started on the breakup of large estates, Maher's Cabinet had hemmed & hawed, appointed one committee after another to "study" the question. Prices were still skyhigh, favoritism was still common in government promotion lists, and Wafdist politicians plotted to overthrow the new regime...
...most important job does not begin until long after dark. The Free Officers Committee, which meets each night, is the real ruler of Egypt. Its nine members, mostly captains and majors, all under 45, hammer out the policies that Naguib-and Prime Minister Aly Maher-are expected to carry out. As chairman, Naguib wields important influence. But he dares not act alone. Faced with a major question of policy, military or political, Naguib invariably comments: "I'll have to get the committee's opinion on this...
Committee members keep their names almost a military secret. One of the few known personalities among them is big, burly Colonel Mohammed Rashad Mehanna, 42, who acts as liaison man between the committee and Aly Maher's cabinet, in which he sits as Minister of Communications. A religious nationalist and supporter of the Moslem Brotherhood, Mehanna's is the voice that urges Naguib toward an all-out dictatorship, anti-British, antiChristian, anti-Jewish. He is opposed by Wing Commander Anwar el Sadat, who urges Naguib to leave political business to those who understand it-or think they...