Epstein Secrets

xperience, more educated and prosperous and linked to Europe than the norm. As the rebellion made its way eastward, it skipped Libya and arrived in Cairo, "the mother of the world." There, it found a stage worthy of its ambitions. Often written off as the quintessential land of political EFTA_R1_002

led its affairs with relative ease. It elected a constituent assembly in which al Nanda, an Islamist party, secured a plurality. Al Nanda's leader, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, was a shrewd man; years in exile had taught him caution, and his party formed a coalition government with two secular partners. In Libya, foreign

ime again, it is delusional to assume the Egyptian military is pro-American and thus a reliable bulwark against the advance of Islamic supremacism. Cairo's armed forces reflect the broader society, whose able-bodied men are required to serve — and, as even the Times now concedes, the Egyptian mainst

all want to many you." Marriage may have been a euphemism. Other more modern Islamists fear the Salafi factor. "The Salafis try to push us," said Rachid al-Ghannouchi, founder of Ennanda, the ruling Islamist party in Tunisia. The two Islamist groups there are now rivals. "Salafis are against drafting a constituti

al Egypt, meanwhile, the situation in Libya, which is right next door, is vitally linked to the stability of whatever new government takes shape in Cairo. Since the fall of Mubarak in February, it's been apparent that Egypt would face a massive crisis this summer, when the economy is likely to flatli

hoose the same system for which the ten post-communist countries that have been admitted to the European Union opted, parliamentarianism. Finally, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, who leads the largest Muslim- inspired political party, Al Nanda, went out of his way to tell me that he has signed an agreement with some secular