Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T08:52:36.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

READING THE RUNES? THE UNITED STATES AND THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS SEEN THROUGH THE WIKILEAKS CABLES*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2013

MARTYN FRAMPTON  and
EHUD ROSEN
MARTYN FRAMPTON*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
EHUD ROSEN
Affiliation:
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan
*
School of History, Queen Mary University of London, E1 4NSm.frampton@qmul.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The aftermath of Hosni Mubarak's forced abdication as president of Egypt in 2011 brought the culmination of a long-running debate over whether Western governments should engage with the Muslim Brotherhood. At the heart of that debate was the question of how to judge the Brothers: as ‘moderates’ with whom the US might do business, or as part of a movement ultimately hostile to American interests. As this article demonstrates, the idea of engaging in some form of dialogue with the Brotherhood is itself nothing new to United States diplomats. An examination of the Wikileaks cache of documents confirms that contacts of varying kinds have existed since the first half of the 1980s (with dialogue only abandoned for a brief period during the early years of the ‘war on terror’). Such contacts were a product of the normal, low-level political intelligence-gathering conducted by all American embassies; at no stage were they allowed to jeopardize America's key strategic alliance with the Mubarak regime. Nevertheless, the cables pertaining to the Muslim Brotherhood do reveal the limits of such diplomacy, with officials often struggling either to understand the character of the Brotherhood, or read the runes of its internal contours. In particular, the question of whether the Muslim Brothers should indeed be seen as ‘moderates ‘– and as suitable partners for the US – is shown to be one of enduring, but unresolved, concern. The history of this relationship thus serves as a crucial backdrop to contemporary debates and developments.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 827 - 856
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The authors would like to acknowledge all those with whom they have discussed the issues covered in this article over the last few years (there are too many to name, but they know who they are) – and in particular, the anonymous referees who provided constructive criticism of the best kind, which helped to improve significantly the original draft.

References

1 Here, the term Islamist is not used in a pejorative sense, but simply to denote a political movement that seeks to bring about the renewal of Islam throughout society, as an essential step towards instituting an Islamic state. It is taken as the translation of the Arabic term Islamiyyūn, used by many members of the disparate Islamic political movements to describe their outlook. For a comprehensive introduction to this subject, see Mandaville, Peter, Global political Islam (London, 2007)Google Scholar; Calvert, John, Islamism: a documentary and reference guide (Westport, CT, 2008)Google Scholar; Volpi, Frederic, ed., Political Islam: a critical reader (London, 2011)Google Scholar.

2 ‘Egypt's new assembly elects Muslim Brotherhood speaker’, BBC News Online, 23 Jan. 2012, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16677548.

3 ‘Egypt's constitution passes with 63·8 percent approval rate’, Egypt Independent, 25 Dec. 2012, www.egyptindependent.com/news/egypt-s-constitution-passes-638-percent-approval-rate.

4 Al-Sayyed al-Abbadi, ‘Foreign office visits MB in Alexandria’, Ikhwanweb, 10 Apr. 2011, www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=28370; ‘UK ambassador downplays concerns of growing MB political role’, Ikhwanweb, 29 June 2011, www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=28771; ‘France signals new openness on Muslim groups abroad’, Reuters, 19 Apr. 2011, http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE73I1WG20110419?sp=true; ‘Muslim Brotherhood chairman to French delegation: I hope falsehood of Islamophobia ends forever’, Ikhwanweb, 1 Feb. 2012, www.ikhwanweb.com/mob/article.php?id=29621; ‘MB welcomes dialogue with the West without preconditions’, Ikhwanweb, 22 Apr. 2011, www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=28442.

5 A. Muhammad , ‘U. S. shifts to closer contact with Egypt Islamists’, Reuters, 30 June 2011, www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/30/us-usa-egypt-brotherhood-idUSTRE75T0GD20110630.

6 ‘Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood will talk to U. S.; demands “mutual respect”’, Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, 4 July 2011, http://globalmbreport.org/?p=4687. This site is a useful English language resource for tracking the latest developments involving the Muslim Brotherhood in all its forms.

7 ‘U. S. met with Egypt Islamists: U. S. diplomat’, Reuters, 2 Oct. 2011, www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/02/us-egypt-usa-brotherhood-idUSTRE7910J420111002; ‘US senator John Kerry visits Muslim Brotherhood's FJP headquarters’, Ahram Online, 11 Dec. 2011, http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/29012/Egypt/Politics-/US-senator-John-Kerry-visits-Muslim-BrotherhoodpercentE2percent80percent99s-.aspx; ‘Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood hails ties with US’, AFP, 11 Jan. 2012, www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gzB_15dJoRjpqgycAseGpdM_6IkQ?docId=CNG.d71853b3203bcb50ab5031b956cbc431.191; ‘Officials from Egypt's Brotherhood at White House’, AFP, 4 Apr. 2012, www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jbfrR40Rc2fWeZsqGW7J3U2IxCcA?docId=CNG.161bdbb3852503f1c67f024541faf828.5f1; ‘Obama administration says it talked with Muslim Brotherhood to promote small business’, CNS News, 23 Apr. 2012, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-administration-says-it-talked-muslim-brotherhood-promote-small-business.

8 J. Gulhane, ‘Kerry meets Morsi and intelligence chief’, Daily News Egypt, 3 Mar. 2013, www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/03/03/kerry-to-meet-morsi-and-intelligence-chief/.

9 For an example of this interpretation, see Kirkpatrick, D. and Myers, S. L., ‘Overtures to Egypt's Islamists reverse longtime US policy’, New York Times, 3 Jan. 2012Google Scholar.

10 Vidino, Lorenzo, The new Muslim Brotherhood in the West (New York, NY, 2010), pp. 199–221Google Scholar. For additional analysis of this debate, see also Alison Pargeter, The Muslim Brotherhood: the burden and tradition (London, 2010), pp. 210–29.

11 See, for example, Cole, Juan, Engaging the Muslim world (Basingstoke, 2009), pp. 78–9Google Scholar.

12 For another view of this debate, see Lynch, Marc, ‘Islam divided between Salafi-Jihad and the Ikhwan’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 33 (2010), pp. 467–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Bright, Martin, When progressives treat with reactionaries: the British state's flirtation with radical Islam (London, 2006)Google Scholar; Leiken, Robert S. and Brooke, Steven, ‘The moderate Muslim Brotherhood’, Foreign Affairs (Mar.–Apr. 2007), pp. 107–21Google Scholar; Glain, S., ‘Mideast: the new Muslim Brotherhood’, Newsweek, 30 Apr. 2007Google Scholar; Traub, J., ‘Islamic democrats?’, New York Times, 29 Apr. 2007Google Scholar; Archer, Toby and Huuhtanen, Heidi, eds., Islamist opposition parties and the potential for EU engagement (Helsinki, 2007)Google Scholar; Stacher, Joshua, Brothers in arms? Engaging the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (London, 2008)Google Scholar; Esposito, J., ‘Islamists, US policy and Arab democracy’, Al-Ahram Weekly, 22 Aug, 2009Google Scholar, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/961/op41.htm.

14 For a snapshot of this debate, see Sharp, Jeremy, U. S. democracy promotion policy in the Middle East: the Islamist dilemma, CRS Report for Congress (Washington, DC, 2006)Google Scholar.

15 For the clearest exposition of this view, see Leiken and Brooke, ‘The moderate Muslim Brotherhood’.

16 See, for example, Levy, D., ‘Complicating the transition in US–Egyptian relations’, Foreign Policy, 1 Feb. 2011Google Scholar; Husain, E., ‘Feuding Brothers’, Foreign Policy, 5 Apr. 2011Google Scholar.

17 The cables are, it should be recognized at the outset, a far from unproblematic source, with perhaps the most important question marks surrounding issues of authenticity, morality, and selectivity. There is not the space here to explore this subject fully, but suffice to say that none of these reservations are insurmountable. The veracity of the cables has not been gainsaid; to use them is not to endorse the agenda of the organization that published them; and they are no more ‘selective’ than many surviving historical records.

18 Jacobs, Matthew F., Imagining the Middle East: the building of an American foreign policy, 1918–1967 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 For a fuller account of the Muslim Brotherhood and its history, see Mitchell, Richard P., The Society of the Muslim Brothers (2nd edn,Oxford, 1993)Google Scholar; Lia, Brynjar, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: the rise of an Islamic movement, 1928–1942 (Reading, 1998)Google Scholar; Pargeter, Alison, The Muslim BrotherhoodGoogle Scholar; Rubin, Barry, ed., The Muslim BrotherhoodCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Egypt, occupied since 1882, had been declared independent by the British in 1922 – yet her sovereignty remained highly qualified by the on-going presence of British troops and political interference.

21 See, for example, al-Banna, Hasan, ‘Towards the light’, and Hasan al-Banna, ‘Our mission’, in Wendell, Charles, trans. and annotated, Five tracts of Hasan al-Bannā’ (1906–1949): a selection from the Majmūat rasā'il al-Imām al-Shahīd Hasan al-Bannā’ (Berkeley, CA, 1978)Google Scholar.

22 al-Banna, Hasan, ‘Risālat al-mūtamar al-khāmis’, in al-Banna, Hasan, Majmūat rasā'il al-Imām al-Shahīd Hasan al-Bannā’ (Beirut, 1965), pp. 273–5Google Scholar; see also Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 14.

23 Here, it should be noted that the Brotherhood had, from the 1930s, organized ‘sister’ branches abroad and these had helped the movement to survive during the years of repression in Egypt. Chapters, or offshoots, of the Brotherhood exist in most countries of the Middle East and North Africa and the character of each one and the methods they employ is determined by the local conditions they face; though they share certain ideological principles and positions, there is no over-arching Brotherhood ‘Comintern’. This article focuses solely on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, rather than other forms of the movement.

24 Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, pp. 81, 95, 181, 246.

25 Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, pp. 28, 112–14.

26 Brands, Henry W., Into the labyrinth: the United States and the Middle East, 1945–1993 (New York, NY, 1994)Google Scholar; Shlaim, Avi and Sayigh, Yezid, eds., The Cold War and the Middle East (Oxford, 1997)Google Scholar; Halliday, Fred, The Middle East in international relations: power, politics and ideology (Cambridge, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hahn, Peter L., Crisis and crossfire: the United States and the Middle East since 1945 (Dulles, VA, 2005)Google Scholar.

27 Burns, William J., Economic aid and American policy toward Egypt, 1955–1981 (Albany, NY, 1985)Google Scholar; Quandt, William B., The United States and Egypt (Cairo, 1990)Google Scholar; Clyde, Mark R., Egypt–United States Relations, Issue Brief for Congress, IB93087, Apr. 2003Google Scholar.

28 Abdelnasser, Walid M., The Islamic movement in Egypt: perceptions of international relations, 1967–1981 (London, 1994), pp. 44–5Google Scholar.

29 Ibid., pp. 46–7, 146–65.

30 Dreyfuss, Robert, Devil's game: how the United States helped unleash fundamentalist Islam (New York, NY, 2005)Google Scholar.

31 Copeland, Miles, The game of nations: the amorality of power politics (London, 1969)Google Scholar; Copeland, Miles, The game player: confessions of the CIA's original political operative (London, 1989)Google Scholar.

32 Copeland, The game of nations, p. 48; for discussion over the possible use of Islam as a bulwark against communism, see also pp. 153–4. For a different perspective, which emphasizes the centrality of Nasser (and is deeply critical of the CIA), see Eveland, Wilbur C., Ropes of sand: America's failure in the Middle East (London, 1980)Google Scholar.

33 Copeland, The game player, pp. 149–52.

34 Ibid., pp. 152–71.

35 Ibid., pp. 154–6.

36 Wilford, Hugh, ‘America's great game: the CIA and the Middle East, 1947–1967’, in Bevan, Sewell and Lucas, Scott, eds., Challenging US foreign policy: America and the world in the long twentieth century (Basingstoke, 2011), pp. 99–112Google Scholar.

37 Curtis, Mark, Secret affairs: Britain's collusion with radical Islam (London, 2010), pp. 131–49Google Scholar; Dreyfuss, Devil's game, pp. 256–91; Rashid, Ahmed, Taliban: the story of Afghan warlords (London, 2001)Google Scholar; Johnson, Chalmers, ‘American militarism and blowback: the costs of letting the Pentagon dominate foreign policy’, New Political Science, 24 (2002), pp. 21–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Coll, Steve, Ghost wars: the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 (London, 2004)Google Scholar.

38 Johnson, Ian, A mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West (Boston, MA, 2010)Google Scholar; Dreyfus, Devil's game; Curtis, Secret affairs.

39 Johnson, A mosque in Munich, pp. 69–70, 116–19, 127–8.

40 Dreyfuss, Devil's game.

41 Clifford, J. Garry, ‘Bureaucratic politics and policy outcomes’, in Merrill, Dennis and Paterson, Thomas G., eds., Major problems in American foreign relations: volume ii: since 1914 (6th edn, Boston, MA, 2005), pp. 20–5Google Scholar; see also Allison, Graham T., Essence of decision: explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Boston, MA, 1971)Google Scholar; Paterson, Thomas G., ‘Defining and doing the history of American foreign relations: a primer’, in Hogan, Michael J. and Paterson, Thomas G., eds., Explaining the history of American foreign relations (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 36–54Google Scholar.

42 Al-Tilmisani was the third occupant of the post after al-Banna and Hasan al-Hudhaybi; he succeeded the latter in 1973.

43 Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood: eager for U. S. contacts, fearful of GOE’, Cairo to Washington, 16 Sept. 1986. NB All cables cited hereafter can be accessed at the Wikileaks Cables database, http://wikileaks.org/cablegate.html. The cables from 1985 to 2001 are rendered here into normal type-case for ease of reading – though they appear within the Wikileaks Cache entirely in capitals.

44 Precht, ‘Growing debate on Sharia law’, Cairo to Washington, 8 Mar. 1985; Veliotes, ‘Islamic Sharia debate – words followed by another stall’, Cairo to Washington, 11 Apr. 1985.

45 ‘U. S. engages Muslim Brotherhood despite Rice; relations with Mubarak's government could be strained’, Washington Times, 15 Nov. 2007.

46 Abdelnasser, The Islamic movement in Egypt, pp. 68–71.

47 Nada, Youssef with Thompson, Douglas, Inside the Muslim Brotherhood: the truth about the world's most powerful political movement (London, 2012), p. xivGoogle Scholar.

48 Ibid., pp. 56–7. The incident is also touched upon in Khalil al-Anani's book, which claims that Tilmisãni had sent a letter to Iran requesting permission to visit, which was granted, albeit with the proviso that that they would not discuss the American hostage crisis with him. See Khalīl al-'Anāni, Al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn fi Miṣr: Shaykhūkha Tusāri'u al-Zaman? (The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: gerontocracy fighting against time?) (Cairo, 2007), p. 184Google Scholar. In his memoirs, meanwhile, Tilmisāni does not mention contacts with the US, but does note that the Iranians at one point accused the Brotherhood of being agents for the United States. See ‘Tilmisāni, Umar, Dhikrayāt, la mudhakarāt (Memories not memoirs) (Cairo, 1985), p. 228Google Scholar.

49 Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood: eager for U. S. contacts, fearful of GOE’, Cairo to Washington, 16 Sept. 1986.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood developments and personalities’, Cairo to Washington, 18 Aug. 1988.

53 See, for example, Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood – jihad “frictions”’, Cairo to Washington, 6 Sept. 1988.

54 Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood: eager for U. S. contacts, fearful of GOE’, Cairo to Washington, 16 Sept. 1986.

55 Pargeter, The Muslim Brotherhood, pp. 46–50.

56 Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood developments and personalities’, Cairo to Washington, 18 Aug. 1988.

57 Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood – jihad “frictions”’, Cairo to Washington, 6 Sept. 1988. For a lower-level view of the two groups see, Hambley, ‘Islamic trilogy, part i: an overview of the Islamic right in Alexandria’, Alexandria to Cairo, 25 Feb. 1987.

58 Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood: defanged but rehabilitated’, Cairo to Washington, 20 July 1989.

59 Ibid.

60 For cable analysis of the MB role in the syndicates, see Kurtzer, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood at low ebb’, Cairo to Washington, 16 Mar. 1999. For broader discussion of the Brotherhood's role in the syndicates, see Fahmy, Ninette, ‘The performance of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian syndicates: an alternative formula for reform?’, Middle East Journal, 52 (1998), pp. 551–62Google Scholar; Wickham, Carrie R., Mobilizing Islam: religion, activism, and political change in Egypt (New York, NY, 2002)Google Scholar.

61 al-Awadi, Hesham, In pursuit of legitimacy: the Muslim Brothers and Mubarak, 1982–2000 (London, 2004), pp. 161–3Google Scholar.

62 El-Anani, K., ‘A different game for the MB’, Al-Ahram Weekly Online, 979, 31 Dec. 2009–6 Jan. 2010Google Scholar; ‘al-Shater, Khairat on “The Nahda Project”’, Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, 13 (2012)Google Scholar.

63 Cables reflecting on the militant challenge can be seen at Schell, ‘Upturn in fundamentalist activity in the Delta’, Alexandria to Washington, 18 Mar. 1993; Fishbein, ‘Alexandria: improving the neighborhoods and (by) moving out the fundamentalists’, Alexandria to Cairo, 17 May 1993.

64 For an account of this period, see Kepel, Gilles, Jihad: the trail of political Islam (London, 2002), pp. 276–98Google Scholar; Weaver, Mary A., A portrait of Europe: a journey through the world of militant Islam (New York, NY, 1999)Google Scholar.

65 M. Lutfi, ‘The Brotherhood and America: part one’, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, 12 Mar. 2007. See also, parts two to six (13 Mar.–27 Mar. 2007).

66 Ibid.

67 Battle, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood – down but not out’, Cairo to Washington, 12 Nov. 1997.

68 Kurtzer, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood at low ebb’, Cairo to Washington, 16 Mar. 1999.

69 Wisner, ‘Muslim Brotherhood calls for withdrawal of foreign forces from the Gulf’, Cairo to Washington, 28 Mar. 1991.

70 Battle, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood – down but not out’, Cairo to Washington, 12 Nov. 1997.

71 Kurtzer, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood at low ebb’, Cairo to Washington, 16 Mar. 1999.

72 Egan, ‘The great shaykhs: the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical fringe’, Cairo to Washington, 11 July 1991.

73 Ibid.

74 Kurtzer, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood at low ebb’, Cairo to Washington, 16 Mar. 1999.

75 Ibid.

76 Harnish, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brothers – part 2: a popular political force’, Cairo to Washington, 21 June 2001.

77 Howeidy, A., ‘Brotherhood, divided by five’, Al-Ahram Weekly, 1054, 30 June–6 July 2011Google Scholar; ‘Brotherhood leader leaves group to join Islamist party’, Egypt Independent, 13 July 2011, www.egyptindependent.com/news/brotherhood-leader-leaves-group-join-islamist-party; Lynch, M., ‘The next supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood’, Foreign Policy, 26 Mar. 2009Google Scholar.

78 Kurtzer, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brothers – part 1: history and structure’, Cairo to Washington, 31 May 2001.

79 Bush had taken office in Jan. 2001 and initially pursued a quasi-isolationist, quietist foreign policy. See, for example, Daalder, Ivo H. and Lindsay, James, America unbound: the Bush revolution in foreign policy (Washington, DC, 2003)Google Scholar.

80 Lutfi, ‘The Brotherhood and America’.

81 Ricciardone, ‘Contact with Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary leader’, Cairo to Washington, 20 Mar. 2007.

82 Ricciardone, ‘Advancing the freedom agenda in Egypt’, Cairo to Washington, 17 July 2007.

83 For an example of this outlook, see speech by President Bush in Nov. 2001, recorded at ‘You are either with us or against us’, CNN.com, 6 Nov. 2001, http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/11/06/gen.attack.on.terror/. For an account of the ‘war on terror’, see Clarke, Richard, Against all enemies: inside America's war on terror (London, 2004)Google Scholar; Bergen, Peter, The longest war: the enduring conflict between America and al-Qaeda (New York, NY, 2011)Google Scholar.

84 ‘Risālat Muḥammad Badie’ Al-Murshid Al-‘Aam: (fi thikrat 11 september) Akthubat Al-Irhāb Al-Islāmi’, (‘Dispatch of Muḥammad Badie’, the general guide (on the occasion of commemorating 11 Sept.): ‘The white lie of Islamic Terrorism’), 11 Sept. 2011, www.egyptwindow.net/ar_print.aspx?print_ID=14320.

85 ‘Opinion of the United States’, Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, www.pewglobal.org/database/?indicator=1&group=6.

86 ‘US State Department calls for the White House to begin direct talks with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, 3 Apr. 2005.

87 Gray, ‘Egypt: smear puts Muslim Brothers on the defensive’, Cairo to Washington, 13 Apr. 2005. See also Gray, ‘Bogus USG memo “explained” by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Cairo bureau chief’, Cairo to Washington, 20 Apr. 2005.

88 See for example, Mahdi ‘Akef, ‘Al-Wilay āt al-Mutaḥida la turīdu al-khayr li-l-'Ālam al-Islami’ (‘The United States does not wish well to the Muslim world’), 12 Feb. 2006, www.ikhwanonline.com/new/Article.aspx?ArtID=17930&SecID=211.

89 ‘Secretary Condoleezza Rice: question and answer at the American University in Cairo’, US Department of State, 20 June 2005, http://2001–2009.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/48352.htm.

90 For cable discussion of the effort to secure reform from Mubarak, see Gray, ‘Constitutional reform and the outlook for democracy in Egypt’, Cairo to Washington, 9 May 2005; Ricciardone, ‘Advancing the freedom agenda in Egypt’, Cairo to Washington, 17 July 2007.

91 ‘Women and Copts named Egypt MPs’, BBC News Online, 12 Dec. 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4521392.stm. See also Jones, ‘Brotherhood rising in Alexandria’, Cairo to Washington, 26 Dec. 2005.

92 Ricciardone, ‘Increased assertiveness of the Muslim Brotherhood’, Cairo to Washington, 19 Nov. 2006; Ricciardone, ‘Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader: “I am very optimistic”’, Cairo to Washington, 22 Nov. 2006.

93 ‘Aliī, ‘Abd al-Rahīm, Al- Ikhwān al-Muslimūn: min Hasan al-Bannā ilá Mahdī ‘Ākif (The Muslim Brotherhood: from Hasan al-Bana to Mahdi ‘Akef) (Cairo, 2007), pp. 275–6. See also Sharp, U. S. democracy promotion policy in the Middle East, pp. 20–4.

94 Jones, ‘Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood: supreme guide and parliamentary bloc dynamics’, Cairo to Washington, 19 Oct. 2006.

95 I. Johnson, ‘Washington's secret history with the Muslim Brotherhood’, New York Review of Books Blog, 5 Feb. 2011, www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/feb/05/washingtons-secret-history-muslim-brotherhood/; I. Johnson, ‘The CIA's Islamist cover up’, New York Review of Books Blog, 30 Aug. 2011, www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/aug/30/cia-islamist-cover-up/. See also E. Lake, ‘Bush weighs reaching out to “Brothers”’, New York Sun, 20 June 2007.

96 Statement as recorded in Ricciardone, ‘Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc leader calls for dialogue with USG’, Cairo to Washington, 24 Jan. 2007.

97 Ricciardone, ‘Contact with Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary leader’, Cairo to Washington, 20 Mar. 2007.

98 As referred to in Ricciardone, 17 July 2007. See also ICG Middle East/North Africa Report, No. 76, Egypt's Muslim Brothers: confrontation or integration? (18 June 2008), p. 5.

99 ‘U. S. engages Muslim Brotherhood despite Rice; relations with Mubarak's government could be strained’, Washington Times, 15 Nov. 2007. For an example of the speculation in this period, see E. Lake, ‘Bush weighs reaching out to “Brothers”’.

100 Scobey, ‘Dinner with parliament's foreign relations committee, including two Muslim Brotherhood MPs’, Cairo to Washington, 23 Feb. 2009; Scobey, ‘MB parliamentary leader on increased GOE pre-election pressure’, Cairo to Washington, 3 Aug. 2009.

101 For examples, see, Gray, ‘Arrest of senior Muslim Brotherhood official further escalates “showdown” with GOE’, Cairo to Washington, 24 May 2005; Gray, ‘Update on the GOE–Muslim Brotherhood stand off’, Cairo to Washington, 16 June 2005; Jones, ‘More arrests: government–Muslim Brotherhood tensions ratcheted up’, Cairo to Washington, 18 Dec. 2006; ‘Muslim Brotherhood announces intent to form political party; arrests continue’, Cairo to Washington, 18 Jan. 2007; Ricciardone, ‘Responding to Egypt's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood’, Cairo to Washington, 30 Apr. 2007; Ricciardone, ‘Muslim Brotherhood military tribunal issues verdicts’, Cairo to Washington, 16 Apr. 2008.

102 Ricciardone, ‘Muslim Brotherhood: government crackdown continues, party platform still in draft’, Cairo to Washington, 30 Aug. 2007.

103 Tueller, ‘Ramping up pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: recent arrests’, Cairo to Washington, 30 July 2009; Scobey, ‘Reports of divisions within the MB following the death of a guidance bureau member; arrests update’, Cairo to Washington, 1 Oct. 2009. For more on this case, see extensive coverage in Al-Masry Al-Youm (Egypt), 24 Apr. 2010.

104 Scobey, ‘MB parliamentary leader on increased GOE pre-election pressure’, Cairo to Washington, 3 Aug. 2009. In the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, all charges associated with this case were dropped.

105 It is this strategy that explains the post-2005 emergence of various efforts by senior Brotherhood figures to court international opinion. See, for example, K. el-Shatir (sic), ‘No need to be afraid of us’, Guardian, 23 Nov. 2005.

106 Scobey, ‘Egyptian Islamist meets with Staffdel HOGREFE’, Cairo to Washington, 3 Sept. 2009.

107 For reference to discussions with al-Katātni, see, for example, Scobey, ‘Update on reports of divisions within the Muslim Brotherhood’, Cairo to Washington, 21 Oct. 2009; or Scobey, ‘Egypt: new round of MB arrests’, Cairo to Washington, 11 Feb. 2010.

108 Nada, Inside the Muslim Brotherhood, p. 153

109 Gray, ‘The GOE and the Muslim Brotherhood: anatomy of a showdown’, Cairo, 17 May 2005.

110 Ricciardone, ‘Election platform of the Muslim Brotherhood: political crisis’, Cairo to Washington, 11 July 2007.

111 Corbin, ‘Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: internal coup reports, key leader disciplined and, strange alliance formed’, Cairo to Washington, 10 July 2005.

112 Ricciardone, ‘Muslim Brotherhood: draft party platform highlights internal fissures’, Cairo to Washington, 24 Oct. 2007. For more on the platform, see ‘Munaqashat al-qiraa al-ula li-barnamaj hizb al-Ikhwan fi London’ (‘Debate in London over the first reading of the Brotherhood party's platform’), 30 Oct. 2007, www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.aspx?ArtID=31766&SecID=211.

113 Ricciardone, ‘The schizophrenia of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’, Cairo to Washington, 20 Mar. 2008. For more on this ‘organizational schizophrenia’ and the attendant ‘power struggles’, see Scobey, ‘Muslim Brotherhood elections: some internal reshuffling’, Cairo to Washington, 24 June 2008.

114 See, for example, Hambley, ‘Islamic trilogy: part three’, Alexandria to Washington, 25 Feb. 1987; Scobey, ‘Salafism on the rise in Egypt’, Cairo to Washington, 2 Apr. 2009.

115 See, for example, Scobey, ‘Muslim Brotherhood's party platform indefinitely on hold’, Cairo to Washington, 17 Feb. 2009; Scobey, ‘Reports of divisions within the MB following the death of a guidance bureau member; arrests update’, Cairo to Washington, 1 Oct. 2009; and Scobey, ‘Update on reports of divisions within the Muslim Brotherhood’, Cairo to Washington, 21 Oct. 2009.

116 Ricciardone, ‘The schizophrenia of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’, Cairo to Washington, 20 Mar. 2008.

117 See, for example, Scobey, ‘MB internal clashes continue’, Cairo to Washington, 15 Dec. 2009.

118 M. Hamida, ‘Ta'yīn Muḥammad Badie’ Murshidan lil-Ikhwān Al-Muslimīn fi Miṣr’ (‘Muḥammad Badie’ nominated general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’), Elaph, 16 Jan. 2010, www.elaph.com/Web/news/2010/1/524249.html.

119 Scobey, ‘Egypt: new MB supreme guide named’, Cairo to Washington, 21 Jan. 2010.

120 Scobey, ‘MB internal clashes continue’, Cairo to Washington, 15 Dec. 2009.