Word: mubarak
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Egypt is one of America's most important allies - and also one of its frailest. Its president, Hosni Mubarak, will have ruled the country for 27 years by October; but instead of looking for a democratic succession, his regime has only sought to pile-drive his legacy into the future, disarming the opposition with rigged elections and run-ins with the mukhabarat, the ubiquitous internal security police. That agenda can be seen at work in the handful of parliamentary elections that took place last weekend, polls that resulted, not surprisingly, in a complete victory for Mubarak's ruling National Democratic...
...work for now, but they may be shortsighted. A recent study conducted by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based NGO, argues that it would be beneficial, both for the government and the country, to gradually integrate the Brotherhood into Egypt's political system. ICG analysts say that Mubarak's efforts to combat the Brothers have "noticeably degraded the quality of parliamentary and political life, entrenching the NDP's virtual monopoly and dealing a severe blow to the legal, non-Islamist opposition...
That is a direction the security-obsessed Mubarak regime may find difficult to take. In the Brotherhood's 80-year history, its members have been involved in several attempts on the life of modern Egypt's founding President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s; earlier the Brotherhood was implicated in the assassination of Egyptian Prime Minister Nuqrashi...
Ultimately, the decision is Mubarak's. The President shows no signs of giving in, and he does not seem ready to leave office any time soon. Having come to power as the result of the assassination of President Anwar al-Sadat, he seems resolved to avoid any descent into chaos - which he appears to believe is a parliament not effectively under his control...
...Hundreds have disappeared from the streets of Mahalla. Three times as many have been detained elsewhere around Egypt in recent months. President Hosni Mubarak turned 80 on May 4th, and his grip on the country seems increasingly desperate...