Ambassador Ford

Based on a reading of Michael Gordon's story this morning, "Former Envoy to Syria Said to Be Choice for Cairo Post," it looks like another nail in the Muslim Brotherhood's coffin. Robert S. Ford, a Foreign Service Officer seasoned in Iraq during the U.S. occupation, will succeed Anne "Hayzaboon" Patterson as American ambassador to Egypt. Ford is currently chief American envoy to the Syrian opposition, now headed by Saudi Arabia's man, Ahmad al-Jarba.

Kareem Fahim and Asmaa Al Zohairy published a story on Saturday, "Restraint Urged for Egypt’s Security Services," which can be interpreted to mean that the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins is on its way. You have Mohamed ElBaradei soft-pedaling the possibility of violence, which is his role in the pro-coup "transitional" government -- to provide liberal-sounding assurances to Western governments and media -- while the coup grinds on and the mechanics of criminalizing the Muslim Brotherhood proceeds apace.

Ben Hubbard and Mayy El Sheikh report this morning that three top Muslim Brotherhood officials -- "supreme guide, Mohamed Badie; his deputy, Khairat el-Shater; and another official, Mohamed Bayoumi" -- will go on trial at the end of this month for inciting murder:

The scheduling of the trial will most likely further complicate intensive political and diplomatic efforts to persuade Mr. Morsi’s supporters to break up two large sit-ins in Cairo that they have committed to maintaining until he is restored to power. 

Egypt’s new military-backed government has said it would not let the sit-ins continue indefinitely, but many fear that efforts to forcefully disperse the protesters would unleash new violence. Envoys from the European Union, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the United States have tried to help broker a solution. 

The prosecutions could be an effort to put more pressure on the group to strike a deal to end the current crisis, said Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center. 

The case concerns events during the final days of Mr. Morsi’s tenure, when hundreds of rioters — equipped with stones, Molotov cocktails and firearms — attacked the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo and tried to burn those inside alive. 

Police officers in the area during the attack did not intervene, and a few men inside the darkened building fired guns from the windows. Health officials said eight people were killed outside the building, and a video posted online showed one badly beaten man being dragged from the building.

The idea that trials are a pressure tactic to get the Muslim Brotherhood to drop their demands for a return of Morsi to office and participate in the coup government is a ridiculous one. It is what it is -- a ban on the Brotherhood -- no more, no less.