Word: nasser
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...neatly dressed civilian or high-ranking military officer, accompanied by a second officer and two soldiers. Inside the yellow stone villa, television cameras whirred and flashbulbs popped as the twelve men nodded quietly to friends and relatives, occasionally stopping to shake hands. Thus last week President Gamal Abdel Nasser opened his show trial of the first of 54 former government and military leaders charged with plotting his overthrow in the wake of last June's Arab-Israeli...
...poisoned himself, a report received with great skepticism. The twelve in court last week were accused of being Amer's main conspirators. Among them: Shams Badran, Minister of War during the conflict with Israel; Abbas Radwan, former Minister of the Interior; Salah Nasr, former chief of Nasser's intelligence service; and Galal Haridi, who had commanded Nasser's elite so-called "storm troops...
...alleged plotting began after Nasser, casting around for a scapegoat for his humiliating defeat, put the blame on his army and sacked 800 officers, including Amer. Holing up in his villa in the fashionable Cairo suburb of Giza, said the prosecution, Amer offered refuge to other similarly displaced officers, and more than 50 moved in. With them they brought seven truckloads of grenades, pistols, machine guns and ammunition. At one point, when government security forces tried to intercept Haridi as he went out for cigarettes, guards at the windows and doors opened up with guns, wounding two soldiers...
...benefits they bestow for real political power. Recognizing the Islamic aversion to Communism, they are forced to ignore the local Communist parties, which are outlawed in most Arab countries, and deal with governments that often prove recalcitrant. The Russians have been unable to influence the Syrians toward moderation, and Nasser refuses their advice as often as he takes it. The deeper their penetration becomes, the more they are bound to be caught up in the bitter quarrels and mutual hatreds that rack the Middle East. Moreover, they know full well that the Arabs still depend for much of their income...
None of the Arab leaders shows any desire to become a Russian satellite. In fact, Nasser and some other leaders would like to find a saving formula by which they could re-establish relations with the U.S. and thus resume their balancing act between Russians and Americans. Washington has so far seen fit not to respond to such hints, but the time must come when, if it does not want the Russians to tighten their hold on Arabia irretrievably, the U.S. must try to restore American influence in the area...