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June 20th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The mass demo came upon a call for a million-man march by the largest political party Muslim Brotherhood and the April 6 Youth Movement, who have been protesting against what they call a constitutional coup against Egypt’s February 2011 revolution.
Over the weekend, the SCAF dissolved the parliament and claimed all legislative powers.
Under an interim constitutional declaration released Monday, the generals also took control of the state budget and gave the army veto-wielding powers on a new constitution, making the president almost powerless.
The measures, taken days before the results of the country’s presidential runoff vote are released, have raised fears that the ruling junta is planning to put its favored candidate at the helm.
Meanwhile, both candidates in the presidential election are claiming victory.
The Muslim Brotherhood stated that its Mohamed Morsi has won 52 percent of the votes, four percents more than Ahmed Shafiq.
But Shafiq’s campaign says the claim is false, and that more than half of the voters have chosen right-hand man of ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak as next president.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Hilal Khashan, professor at the American University of Beirut, to hear her opinion on this issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Looking at the situation there, as I said it people very strongly waiting for that announcement to be made and wanted to be Mohammed Morsi.
Are we going to see, is there a likelihood do you think for Shafiq win and will Shafiq’s win rather necessarily mean that there has been fraud in this election?
Khashan: Well both candidates are claiming victory and to tell you the truth it appears as if the winner will be a tossup. We do not know. I mean the fact that Shafiq is claiming victory by 51 percent margin and knowing that he has direct access to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces means that we may be up to a major surprise.
But to tell you the truth, whether Shafiq or Morsi becomes president it would not really make any difference because the army preempted the outcome of the elections by introducing constitutional supplements to transform whomever is elected president into a mere figurehead.
Press TV: So basically based on what our correspondent there is saying, I go back to Beirut now Mr. Khashan, would the general being in charge he says the chief of the presidential staff now according to the announcement that has been made, the fact that the military rulers have control of the state budget, they have legislative powers, they have executive powers, they also have control of the constitutional assembly which is going to write the constitutions so they have veto power there.
Is there enough reason to believe that there is actually a coup taking place as the Muslim Brotherhood for instance has said?
Khashan: Absolutely, a coup has already taken place and yesterday the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced plans to create a defense council presided [over]by the president and [which]includes key members of the parliament and the military and a large number of ranking officers.
In other words the Supreme Court is adulterating the council and transforming the president into a puppet.
I think what will happen in Egypt is that the uprising will have to continue until revolutionary change is affected.
So Egypt will have a long way to go before real transition to democracy can occur.
Press TV: So what you said and he said earlier as well it makes no difference if Morsi comes to power or if Ahmed Shaafiq comes, would you say with the current power that the military council has, well if Ahmed Shafiq comes to power we know that people have been saying, observers that Ahmed Shafiq is affiliated with the military and it is the military’s preferred candidate.
But do you think if Mohammed Morsi for any reason comes up and wins these elections that Mohammed Morsi is going to get into a conflict course with the military council? How is Morsi going to react to this extent of powers that is going to be seeing in the military council?
Khashan: Excellent question. Morsi has not been trusted by the SCAF whereas SCAF trusted Ahmed Shafiq. Ahmed Shafiq was the last Prime Minister in Mubarak’s administration.
And as you know the position of a Prime Minister in Egypt under Mubarak and his predecessors, the position was largely ceremonial.
And I do not think the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will accept that somebody who performed a ceremonial function under Mubarak would tell them what to do.
They know that he understands the rules of the game and will not try to defy the role of the military in politics and in running its own internal affairs.
Press TV: So you are saying this about Ahmed Shafiq or about Mohammed Morsi?
Khashan: Yes, Ahmed Shafiq they trusted him, he is part of the establishment.
Press TV: But what if Mohammed Morsi becomes president?
Khashan: Yes, if Mohammed Morsi; but again you know Mohammed Morsi resigned from the [Muslim] Brotherhood and he said that as soon as he becomes president he will quit his position as the leader of the Horreya and Adalah party and he will try to create, form a cabinet that is accommodationist and includes the various shades of the Egyptian political spectrum.
But again there is an inherent lack of trust on the part of the military of the Brotherhood. Does not matter what Morsi may tell them, does matter what good intentions he may express or put into action, the army will always see him as a suspect.
Press TV: As our correspondent there was saying, MPs saying that they want to continue with their work despite the fact that the parliament has been dissolved.
First of all do you agree with this argument that these MPs are making that dissolving rather the parliament cannot be legal without referendum because it has been elected by the people?
We know the constitutional court said that one third of the seats are null and void because of voting irregularities and now we are going to dissolve the parliament.
Do you think that legally speaking that was not the correct decision because that parliament was elected and basically is the military council qualified, again legally speaking, to take over those legislative powers to come up with this annex rather to the constitution?
Khashan: Whether they can do it or not the fact remains that they are doing it. I completely understand that their action may be illegal and they need to have a referendum in order to justify their action because after all the parliament was elected by the Egyptian people, but I am sure that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will find an excuse, will find some legal clause in order to justify its action and these people are in full control of the Egyptian political system and they have an important component of the judiciary to their side.
Therefore they will not lack the ability to invent clauses and justifications for their action.
Press TV: Well the military council has also made an announcement just days before that by the first of July it is going to hand over power to the president, it is going to return to its military barracks.
Are they going to do that and what we are seeing rather the facts on the ground show that that is highly unlikely but when the military council does make this announcement clearly giving the date there and saying by the first of July, do you think that is going to happen?
Khashan: I am sure they will honor their commitment to hand in power before the end of June but they are doing it after they have secured the political system and after they made sure that the new president will amount to nothing more than a sitting duck.
If Morsi is declared winner, here the situation were the winner who comes from a party has to abandon his party and is declared an individual without a power base. He will have to face the military establishment as powerful as it is.
Therefore the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces can feel quite comfortable that they handed in the presidency to somebody who will not be able to do anything without their approval.
Press TV: And this brings me to a point that I was reading earlier on, one analyst saying that right now the situation has come to a point where a lot of people in Egypt were saying that our mistake was when we accepted the military council to take over everything once Hosni Mubarak was ousted. That was the mistake that Egypt made that has led to the crisis that it is now facing. Would you also agree with that?
Khashan: Yes, army officers do not know much about politics and when they venture into the world of politics they create havoc and here is what we had over the past sixty years. Many of the trails of the Arab countries have to do with the arrival of young army officers to power and they messed up their country’s political processes.
Press TV: Right and something else here also that I’d like to mention before we run out of time and that is some observers saying that all of this rather plan if it has been a coup plan, all these actions that have been taken by the military are not something that the military by itself can be thinking about and doing, that it is having some supporters even from outside of the Egyptian borders that it is being given at least suggestions or advices on what steps to take that will suit the interests of those forces that are outside Egypt. Would you say that there is a stronger presence than just the military here?
Khashan: Absolutely. Remember the Egyptian military has important foreign connections especially with the US. The Egyptian military receives 1.3 billion dollars a year and the Egyptian military is keen on maintaining this cooperation with the US steady.
Therefore they will make sure that they will not disrupt this line of communication and this source of funding and they also know that they have commitments towards Israel and they want to make sure that these commitments will not be compromised.
AHK/HGH
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