The One Person Who May Know What Egypt’s Generals Will Do
Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak appointed his intelligence chief Omar Suleiman vice president not because Suleiman had any sway with the Egyptian street but rather because the new veep knows the military better than anyone. A former general, Suleiman has spent his career helping keeping Egypt’s officers in line. He learned by heart the biographies of every officer, uncannily capable of predicting who was loyal and who wasn’t. That privileged catalog is key to anyone who wants to control the closed military dictatorship that Egypt has been since a 1952 coup d’etat overthrew the monarchy. And that’s why everyone else seems to be confused about what’s going to happen next in Egypt, including Egyptians.