In Egypt, Thieves Fall Out
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has had two years of unlimited power and support to build a political base. During this time, he received $39.5bn in cash, loans and petrol derivatives from three Gulf States up to January last year. Since then, the figure may have risen closer to $50bn. If any leader had the opportunity to remake politics in his image, it was him.
Instead, the opposite has happened. The general turned president has been hemorrhaging support. The first to peel away were liberals who deluded themselves that the overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected president would lead to more democracy.
When Ayman Nour, founder of Ghad al-Thawra party, left Egypt after the coup (he recalls speaking to Sisi with one hand on the mobile and the other packing his suitcase ), Mohammed el-Baradei screamed at him for abandoning them in their hour of need. Weeks later, Baradei found himself doing the same thing. The vice president and founder member of the National Salvation Front left Egypt branded a traitor. The leaders of April 6 followed the Brotherhood to prison.
One by one, Sisi's troops broke ranks. Some admitted they had been duped. Moheb Doss, one of the founders of Tamarod, the grassroots movement that allegedly collected 22 million signatures calling on Morsi to announce early presidential elections, admitted that they were used by military intelligence, Sisi's power base in the army.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-hearst/in-egypt-thieves-fall-out_b_7482616.html
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