EGYPT: Is there a coup brewing in the Egyptian army?

 

The Egyptian Army's 

passivity in the bloody protests suggests 

an internal conflict of agendas, 

one which could inspire a coup by lower-level officers, 

a former Army Commander 

tells Channel 4 News.

The army rolled tanks into Cairo's Tahrir Square last Friday - the epicentre of the country’s round-the-clock anti-Mubarak protests - which for over a week had largely been peaceful in nature until groups of people loyal to the President descended on the plaza.

Egypt's military, which (including the air force) has 468,500 active members and 479,000 in the reserves, immediately announced it would not fire upon the citizenry, and gave widespread anti-Mubarak sentiment credence by branding the protests 'legitimate.'. But when clashes between Mubarak antagonists and protagonists broke out on Wednesday, with at least five people dying in the process, the army were deliberate bystanders. And despite some efforts on Thursday morning to keep the two sides apart, analysts have raised questions about the army's agenda in what has now become a fully-fledged revolution.

'Disagreement within the ranks'

Colonel Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and member of the Joint Intelligence Committee, told Channel 4 News that the army's inaction likely points to disagreement within the ranks. "I suspect that the lower-level members of the Egyptian Army, probably at the colonel level, support (Egypt’s main opposition movement) the Muslim Brotherhood, and the higher echelons will be backing the current regime." he said. "So the fact that the army has taken no decisive physical action is probably down to the heads backing (Vice President) Omar Suleiman, with the lesser-ranking officers eyeing a alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood."

Read more...