Epstein Secrets

he iconic square blocked by a phalanx of stone-throwing Brotherhood supporters, were incensed. They had long planned this demonstration in anger at Morsi's first 100 days as president and in protest at what they see as a flawed, over- hasty procedure for drafting a new constitution. Now the dominant

in headlong retreat. There was no trace of the Egyptian state — not the police, not the military — as liberal and socialist opponents of President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers battled over several hours in the bloodiest clash between the nation's secular and Islamist currents since the

lar despot, uniformed or not? The events Friday were troubling. The Brotherhood has a hard time accepting dissent. Its avowed reason for occupying Tahrir — the acquittal last week of Mubarak-era officials accused of involvement in the deadly camel charge on protesters in the square last year — looked

s' preferred candidate. Preliminary results published in the state-run Ahram Online news site showed that, with nearly 3.5 million ballots counted, Morsi was ahead with almost 55 percent of the vote. About 50 million Egyptians were eligible to cast ballots. Final results are expected Thursday. But a

of the first round confirmed this dichotomy, with Egyptians left to choose between General Ahmed Shafiq, a long-time protégé of Hosni Mubarak, and Mohamed Morsi, a protégé of the Brotherhood's strongman Khayrat Elshater. If anything, this "choice" is the incarnation of the doctrine that served Mr Mubarak fo

transition followed by military rule, leading to a second wave of popular protest that leads to a period of chaos. As the episodes appeared in the Tahrir newspaper, many readers anxiously asked whether there was an "exit" from this long and dark tunnel. There is, at least in the novel, but it took ni

fication was a possibility, the organization nominated a second candidate, Muhammad Morsi. A longtime member of the Brotherhood's leadership ranks, Morsi emerged as one of the public faces of the organization after the revolution as head of the Freedom and Justice Party. While he doesn't have nearly

s a very traditional society. In a country of 85 million, you have to wonder how much of it the Facebook kids, the secularists, and the liberals of Tahrir Square actually represented. The future of the 100-member constituent assembly charged with drafting the all-important constitution is now uncerta