KING FAROUK (1948)
As I mentioned previously, the young officers of the Egyptian Army overthrew the last King of Egypt, Farouk . However, I neglected to mention the role that the CIA played in that as well.Farouk was widely condemned for his corrupt and ineffectual governance, the continued British occupation, and the Egyptian army’s failure to prevent the loss of 78% of Palestine to the newly formed State of Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Public discontent against Farouk rose to new levels.
In the CIA, the project to overthrow King Farouk, known internally known as “Project FF [Fat Fucker]” , was initiated by CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. after CIA disappointment at King Farouk for not improving the functionality and usefulness of his government. The CIA supported the coup d’état against King Farouk by not opposing the efforts of the free officers to overthrow him.
Finally, on 23 July 1952, the Free Officers Movement under Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser staged a military coup that launched the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Farouk was forced to abdicate, and went into exile in Monaco and Italy where he lived for the rest of his life. Farouk fled Egypt in great haste; his abandoned possessions—including a huge collection of pornography—became an object of curiosity and ridicule.
Immediately following his abdication, Farouk’s baby son, Ahmed Fuad was proclaimed King Fuad II, but for all intents and purposes Egypt was now governed by Naguib, Nasser and the Free Officers. On 18 June 1953, the revolutionary government formally abolished the monarchy, ending 150 years of the Muhammad Ali dynasty’s rule, and Egypt was declared a republic. [SOURCE WIKIPEDIA]
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Muhammad Nagib – First President of Egypt June 1953 – November 1954
Naguib was at the forefront of the Free Officer’s movement, lending it legitimacy in the eyes of the people, the army, politicians and foreign powers. Within 24 hours of the beginning of the revolution, the newly formed Revolution Command Council (RCC) had asserted that their movement’s peaceful intentions, with Naguib as its leader. Naguib’s was a familiar name at the time, unlike those of the other Free Officers, who were too young and too junior in rank to have made a name for themselves.
Naguib began to clash with other RCC members over how the Revolution’s goals should be implemented. He wanted to phase out the political influence of the military and return the country to civilian rule, believing that the role of the military was not to rule the country, but rather to protect those in power. The army, he thought, could interfere to change a corrupt regime, but then it should withdraw.
Nasser, by contrast, thought that any talk of democracy, or of a multi-party system, or of the withdrawal of the army from politics, would allow the Wafd, the Muslim Brotherhood and the other political parties to regain the ground they had lost in 1952.
Following his resignation, Naguib was then isolated by President Nasser in a Cairo’s suburb villa owned by Zienab Al-Wakil, wife of Mustafa an-Nahhas Pasha, ex-Prime Minister of Egypt. Naguib was released from his isolation in 1972 by President Sadat. [SOURCE WIKIPEDIA]
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Gamal Abdel Nasser 2nd President Egypt June 1956 to September 1970
Under his leadership, Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, and came to play a central role in anti-imperialist efforts in the Arab World and Africa. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the international Non-Aligned Movement. He is well-known for his nationalist policies and version of pan-Arabism, also referred to as Nasserism, which won a great following in the Arab World during the 1950s and 1960s. Although his status as “leader of the Arabs” was severely tarnished by the Israeli victory over the Arab armies in the Six-Day War, many in the general Arab populace still view Nasser as a symbol of Arab dignity and freedom.
On September 28, 1970 Nasser died suddenly of a heart attack. His funeral procession through Cairo, on 1 October, was attended by at least five million mourners. As a testament to his unchallenged leadership of the Arab people, following his death, a Beirut-based newspaper stated, “One hundred million human beings—the Arabs—are orphans.”
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Muhammad Anwar El Sadat – Third Egyptian President October 1970 – 1981
He was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalists on 6 October 1981. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Camp David Accords, but his negotiations with Israel and the ensuing Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty were unpopular amongst some Arabs, resulting in a temporary suspension of Egypt’s membership in the Arab League
The last years of Sadat’s reign were marked by turmoil and there were several allegations of corruption against him and his family. In January 1977, a series of ‘Bread Riots’ protested Sadat’s economic liberalization and specifically a government decree lifting price controls on basic necessities like bread. Dozens of nightclubs on the famous Pyramids Street were sacked by Islamists. Following the riots the government reversed its position and re-established the price controls.
A fatwā approving the assassination had been obtained from Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Sadat was protected by four layers of security and eight bodyguards, and the army parade should have been safe due to ammunition-seizure rules. As Egyptian Air Force Mirage jets flew overhead, distracting the crowd, Egyptian Army soldiers and troop trucks paraded. One troop truck contained the assassination squad, led by Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli. As the truck passed, the assassins dismounted, and Islambouli approached Sadat. Sadat stood to receive his salute, whereupon, Islambouli threw three grenades at Sadat, only one of which exploded, and additional assassins rose from the truck, firing assault rifles into the stands. After Sadat was hit and fell to the ground, people threw chairs around him to protect him from the hail of bullets. He died from bullet wounds to his aorta though he also had intestinal and neck wounds.
The attack lasted about two minutes. Sadat and eleven others were killed, including the Cuban ambassador, an Omani general, and a Coptic Orthodox bishop. 28 were wounded, including Vice President Hosni Mubarak, Irish Defence Minister James Tully, and four US military liaison officers. Security forces were momentarily stunned but reacted within seconds. Two of the attackers were killed and the others were arrested by military police on site. Sadat was rushed to a hospital, where eleven doctors operated on him, but was pronounced dead within hours.
QUEEN’S FAVORITE SADAT QUOTES:
“Most people seek after what they do not possess and are enslaved by the very things they want to acquire.”
“Fear is, I believe, a most effective tool in destroying the soul of an individual – and the soul of a people.”
“There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate ones.”
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Hosni Mubarak Fourth president of Egypt assumed office October 1981
According to the BBC, Mubarak has survived six assassination attempts. In June 1995 there was an alleged assassination attempt involving noxious gases and Egyptian Islamic Jihad while he was in Ethiopia for a conference of the Organization of African Unity. Upon return Mubarak is said to have authorized bombings on Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya which by 1999 saw 20,000 persons placed in detention related to the revolutionary Islamic organizations. He was also reportedly injured by a knife-wielding assailant in Port Said in September 1999.
Mubarak has kept himself in power by rigging elections.
While in office, political corruption in the Mubarak administration’s Ministry of Interior has risen dramatically, due to the increased power over the institutional system that is necessary to secure the prolonged presidency[clarification needed]. Such corruption has led to the imprisonment of political figures and young activists without trials, illegal undocumented hidden detention facilities, and rejecting universities, mosques, newspapers staff members based on political inclination. On a personnel level, each individual officer are allowed to violate citizens’ privacy in his area using unconditioned arrests due to the emergency law.
Transparency International (TI) is an international organization addressing corruption, including, but not limited to, political corruption. In 2010, TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index report assessed Egypt with a CPI score of 3.1, based on perceptions of the degree of corruption from business people and country analysts, with 10 being very clean and 0 being highly corrupt. Egypt ranked 98th out of the 178 countries included in the report. {SOURCE WIKIPEDIA]
