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.

"Hayzaboon, Go Home"

All day I've been ingesting the coverage of the military coup in Egypt. Fighting has broken out in deposed President Mohamed Morsi's hometown of Zagazig. The leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood is being rounded up and put under arrest. The Gulf Arab monarchies, even Qatar, have publicly expressed support for Egyptian Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi's ouster of Morsi who is being detained. A big pro-Morsi "Friday of Rejection" protest is planned for tomorrow following weekly prayers.

The United States is stepping gingerly. Obama's position so far is that he is deeply concerned about Morsi's ouster and the suspension of the Egyptian Constitution and hopes that new elections will be scheduled soon.

But what caught my eye was Mark Landler's piece on Ambassador Anne W. Patterson in this morning's national edition :

Ms. Patterson’s problems started on June 18 when she was invited, at a time of mushrooming demonstrations against Mr. Morsi’s government, to speak to an audience in Cairo about the United States’ relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. It was, she said, a welcome chance to “set the record straight.” 

While the United States supported Egypt’s democratic development, it still had to deal with those in power, Ms. Patterson said, adding, “I don’t think the elected nature of this government is seriously in doubt.” Moreover, she said she was “deeply skeptical” that “street action will produce better results than elections.” 

Even as Ms. Patterson sought to distance the United States from the Muslim Brotherhood, those words marked her as an enemy of the crowds in Tahrir Square, reviving memories of Mr. Obama’s early reluctance to cut loose Mr. Mubarak, a longtime ally of the United States. 

“She manipulates people and secretly governs the country,” Mona Mohammed, 52, a bank employee said of Ms. Patterson at an antigovernment rally. “The ambassador is part of a conspiracy against Egypt and its people,” Ms. Mohammed added, clutching a poster with a caricature of Ms. Patterson and the slogan “Hayzaboon, Go Home.” (Hayzaboon is Arabic for ogre.)

The United States government is despised by the Egyptian masses, the European masses (for spying on them), the Latin American masses (for, among a host of reasons, getting Spain, Italy, France and Portugal to deny overflight of Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane because of suspicions that NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden was a stowaway) -- even the American masses (for being dysfunctional).