"Army Ousts Egypt’s President; Morsi Is Taken Into Military Custody" by DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, New York Times 7/3/2013
Excerpt
Egypt’s military officers removed the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, on Wednesday, suspended the Constitution and installed an interim government presided over by a senior jurist.
Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands of opponents of the government had gathered each night since Sunday to demand Mr. Morsi’s removal, erupted in fireworks and jubilation at news of the ouster. At a square near the presidential palace where Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters had gathered, men broke into tears and vowed to stay until he was reinstated or they were forcibly removed. “The dogs have done it and made a coup against us,” they chanted. “Dying for the sake of God is more sublime than anything,” a speaker declared.
Mr. Morsi rejected the generals’ actions as a “complete military coup.”
Military vehicles and soldiers in riot gear had surrounded the rally in the hours before the takeover, and tensions escalated through the night. Within hours, at least seven people had died and more than 300 were injured in clashes in 17 provinces between Mr. Morsi’s supporters and either civilian opponents or security forces.
By the end of the night, Mr. Morsi was in military custody and blocked from all communications, one of his advisers said, and many of his senior aides were under house arrest. Egyptian security forces had arrested at least 38 senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, including Saad el-Katatni, the chief of the group’s political party, and others were being rounded up as well, security officials said. No immediate reasons were given for the detentions.
For Mr. Morsi, it was a bitter and ignominious end to a tumultuous year of bruising political battles that ultimately alienated millions of Egyptians. Having won a narrow victory, his critics say, he broke his promises of an inclusive government and repeatedly demonized his opposition as traitors. With the economy crumbling, and with shortages of electricity and fuel, anger at the government mounted.
The generals built their case for intervention in a carefully orchestrated series of maneuvers, calling their actions an effort at a “national reconciliation” and refusing to call their takeover a coup. At a televised news conference late on Wednesday night, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi said that the military had no interest in politics and was ousting Mr. Morsi because he had failed to fulfill “the hope for a national consensus.”
The general stood on a broad stage, flanked by Egypt’s top Muslim and Christian clerics as well as a spectrum of political leaders including Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize-winning diplomat and liberal icon, and Galal Morra, a prominent Islamist ultraconservative, or Salafi, all of whom endorsed the takeover.
Despite their protestations, the move plunged the generals back to the center of political power for the second time in less than three years, following their ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Their return threatened to cast a long shadow over future efforts to fulfill that revolution’s promise of a credible, civilian democracy. But General Sisi sought to present a very different image from the anonymous, numbered communiqués from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that were solemnly read over state television to announce Mr. Mubarak’s exit, and the general emphasized that the military had no desire to rule.
"Political Turmoil in Egypt Is Replay for White House" by MARK LANDLER, New York Times 7/2/2013
Excerpt
The vast protests gripping Cairo put President Obama in a position both awkward and familiar, recalling the winter of 2011, when he grappled with what to do about another embattled Egyptian president, a restive military and angry young Egyptians quick to see a meddling American hand in their political drama.
Then, as now, Mr. Obama has moved gingerly, placing a call to President Mohamed Morsi late Monday evening with a message not unlike the one he delivered to his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, two and a half years earlier: Exercise restraint and allow the protesters to express their views peacefully.
American officials have broached the possibility of Mr. Morsi’s calling early elections, a senior administration official said, but added, “We are not pushing it as a preferred U.S. option.” Other options include Mr. Morsi’s replacing his cabinet or ousting an unpopular prosecutor.
But officials and outside analysts caution that the United States has little leverage over either the Morsi government or those demanding his ouster. With neither side open to bargaining, the administration is essentially a bystander in what some experts characterize as a do-or-die struggle for control of the Egyptian state.
The White House acknowledged as much in its description of Mr. Obama’s phone call with Mr. Morsi. “As he has said since the revolution, President Obama reiterated that only Egyptians can make the decisions that will determine their future,” it said in a statement.
The lack of American influence did not prevent a flurry of American phone calls. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to the Egyptian foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, who in a sign of the quickening pace of events had already submitted his resignation to Mr. Morsi.
The United States is also keeping open channels to the military, with which it has closer ties than with the civilian government. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has warned Mr. Morsi to meet the demands of protesters or face military intervention.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, telephoned his counterpart, Lt. Gen. Sedky Sobhi, the Egyptian military’s chief of staff, on Monday morning, officials said. They declined to describe the content of the discussion.
News reports in Egypt indicated that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also phoned his Egyptian counterpart, but officials in Washington declined to confirm any involvement in the growing crisis by the Pentagon chief, who visited Cairo in late April.
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