NY Times article on tracing the Mubarak finances

HERE.

One of the oddest but most imaginative political remarks I’ve heard in Egypt concerned this very topic. It was made by a well-travelled gentleman from Mansoura, who fought with the Egyptian special forces in the Sinai in 1973. Let’s call him Alaa.

I met Alaa in late 2000, while visiting Mansoura. He openly loathed the Mubaraks, especially Gamal. Yet he wanted Gamal to take over as President from his father anyway.

Why? “Because the Mubaraks have already stolen all the money they need, and if Gamal becomes President he won’t need any more. But if a new President comes to power, he will have to steal enough for all his brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends, and Egypt will lose that much money all over again.”

The logic had a certain eccentric strength to it, I had to admit.

Actually, Alaa was an interesting character in a number of respects. He had killed a number of Israeli soldiers in the 1973 war in hand-to-hand combat and was clearly rather disturbed by the experience, despite having lost his wife and child to Israeli shelling in Port Said several years earlier. Here’s what he said: “Killing someone is very hard the first time. But then it becomes surprisingly easy after that, and that’s the disturbing thing.” He was built like a professional weightlifter, and had been the Egyptian equivalent of a U.S. Navy SEAL. He was in the first wave of attackers that crossed the Suez in October ’73, surprising the Israelis who were manning the lines.