by Chris Bodenner
Suleiman, the Egyptian vice president, said today what everyone was suspecting - that Gamal, Mubarak's son, will not run for president in September. Samuel Tadros provides some background on the dubious dynasty:
In reality, the elder Mubarak was never fully behind that scenario. Whether it was a real assessment of his son’s capabilities or of the acceptance of the army to such a scenario, Mubarak was hesitant. It was his wife who was heavily pushing that scenario. ... The army never liked Gamal or his friends. Gamal had never served in the military. To add insult to injury his friends were threatening the dominance of the army. The technocrat’s neo-liberal policies were threatening the army’s dominance of the closed economy and the party was becoming step by step an actual organization that competes with the army officers in filling administrative positions. Suddenly the doors to power in Egypt were not a military career but a party ID card. As long as the President was there however, the army was silent. The army is 100 percent loyal to the President. He is an October War hero and their Commander in Chief.
(Photos: Gamal Mubarak, son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, posing at the AFP photo studio on January 26, 2008 during the World Economic Forum in Davos, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak pictured during a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Cairo on September 2, 2009. By Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images)