reported today:
The military’s supreme council met today without Commander-in-Chief Mubarak, and declared on state TV its “support of the legitimate demands of the people.”
A spokesman read a statement that the council was in permanent session to explore “what measures and arrangements could be made to safeguard the nation, its achievements and the ambitions of its great people.”
The statement was labeled “communiqué number 1,” a phrasing that suggests a military coup.
Today’s meeting, chaired by 75 year old Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Tantawi, (appointed by Mubarak on Jan. 31, 2011). He chaired the meeting of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Armed Forces in his other, preexisting, role as Commander-In-Chief of Egypt’s armed forces. Mubarak, who, as President and Supreme Commander would normally have presided, and this, by some, implies a military coup, nonviolent though it is thus far.
Defense Minister Tantawi looks like a bureaucrat. The mid-level officer corps is generally disgruntled, and one can hear mid-level officers at MOD clubs around Cairo openly expressing disdain for Tantawi. These officers refer to Tantawi as “Mubarak’s poodle,” he said, and complain that “this incompetent Defense Minister” who reached his position only because of unwavering loyalty to Mubarak is “running the military into the ground.”
The cable excerpt below (released by Wikileaks) considered the issues that would likely arise during (then) Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi’s March 2008 trip to Washington, Tampa, and Chicago. “He will meet senior officials in Washington and at USCENTCOM HQ in Tampa, and view U.S. civil defense arrangements in Chicago. . . Tantawi will seek assurances that the USG will not condition or reduce military assistance to Egypt in the future.” The excerpt below, although 3 years old, has relevance to Mubarak’s speech this evening.
Cable dated:2008-03-16T16:43:00 S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 000524 . . .
[Section] 7. Reform: In the cabinet, where he still wields significant influence, Tantawi has opposed both economic and political reforms that he perceives as eroding central government power. He is supremely concerned with national unity, and has opposed policy initiatives he views as encouraging political or religious cleavages within Egyptian society. [For complete text of this cable, click here.
