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Egypt's Labour Party leader says leaked video 'uncovers' military's real agenda

February 5, 2014 at 2:12 am

Magdi Ahmed Hussein, the leader of Egypt’s new Labour Party, has said that “disagreements among the coup leaders resulting in a leaked video of Minister of Defence General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi meeting with military officers to discuss controlling the media uncovers the truth about the country’s ruling military.”


Hussein explained that he himself would need several hours to explain the seriousness of military rule. However “this video shows what I meant within minutes. Those who wish to be ruled by the army shall regret their decision when it is too late. It is claimed that the video dates back to 24 December 2012. “

The Labour Party leader commented at length on the leaked video saying:

“Firstly: the conversation confirms what I have said over and over that the military, the intelligence services and the armed forces all treat the army as a ruling political party that protects their interests, and not as a sovereign army which protects the country. Their only disagreement is over how to divide the positions and gains among them. The army’s leadership believes in Sadat’s statement that ‘October’s war was the last war’.

“This was not a casual statement by Sadat as they have deceptively made us believe. It was an oral pledge turned into a written one with Israel, orchestrated by the United States and the Al-Tohamy-Dayan meetings in Morocco under the auspices of the King of Morocco. Sadat’s pledge was the condition to visit occupied Jerusalem.

“The unseen Air Force officer in the leaked video, who without doubt is high ranking, speaks with the authority of a small group that protects itself and its secrets from the people, although those secrets are well-known to the US and Israel. Every bullet we receive from Washington is documented by the US Congress, and this information is widely reported. Israel knows about the arms before we receive them.

“Al-Sisi replies with the same spirit; the spirit of a group, a party or a clan. They talk about penetrating the media as if they would penetrate the ranks of the enemies. They want to recruit, intimidate and persuade. Al-Sisi does not object to ‘persuasion’ as I had expected he would the first time I heard the video. He even asks sarcastically: what is intimidation? Al-Sisi speaks of the next parliament’s question time like possible air raids or an artillery attack. He demands unity to answer the enemies, meaning the elected representatives of the people. However this misses the concept of a ‘united society’. This group is only busy securing its status and privileges and controlling the society. They only wish to rule. Egypt’s security is missing from their agenda.

“When I took my infantry training in the armed forces, the first lesson our commander taught us was to build an iron fence around the group so that our secrets remained within the group; even the training centre should not learn about them. There is nothing wrong with that in theory, but the armed forces have abandoned everything about military training except for this first lesson. Today Al-Sisi is reviving the time when criticizing the army requires special permission from military intelligence, while Israel knows the smallest detail of Egypt’s army through its satellites. The Egyptians are the only ones being prevented from learning about their country’s army.”

Hussein continues: “Secondly, Egyptian women are half of the society. The army supposedly has delegated Officer Ahmad as a spokesperson because ‘he appeals to women’, quoting Al Sisi’s own words. Al-Sisi’s comment is insulting both to the army and to Egyptian women at the same time. It is the army’s approach to dealing with the people. In fact, I agree with General Omar’s observations about Officer Ahmad, I even agree with Al-Sisi for the first time when he describes him as appealing to women. But I tell Al-Sisi: you do not know about the armed forces because you have not fought one war in your lifetime.”

Hussein concludes: “Thirdly, I tell General Omar that Al-Sisi has deceived you. Everything you demanded already happened even before the 25 January revolution. More than 90 per cent of influential media personnel were recruited to serve the army (between 20 and 25 media outlets). Nine per cent of them are American and one per cent are independent patriots. Yet, the chaos against the armed forces has occurred because most of the army’s media agents are also agents of America and Israel. They are not loyal to the Egyptian army including: Sawiris channel, Al-Masry Al-Youm, Al-Youm Al-Sabe’, Al-Watan, and Al-Shorouq among other TV channels. They do not write anything positive about the army unless they receive their price in advance. The only true army loyalists are the Al-Shaab newspaper, and a handful of journalists and some retired Generals who defend the country’s military against our historic enemies: Israel and America.”