CAIRO – The battle lines have been drawn in Egypt’s presidential election between two of the major candidates, Muslim Brotherhood Khairat Al-Shater and former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. 

In his first shot across the bow, financier Al-Shater announced that election fraud would be grounds for a second revolution, a thinly veiled suggestion that a Suleiman victory would imply fraud and that the Muslim Brotherhood would wield their vast power to fill Tahrir Square and topple him.

But it’s not only the Muslim Brotherhood that is opposed to the former confidant of toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak. Many secular parties and candidates also are angry about Suleiman’s candidacy.

Suleiman, briefly a vice president during Mubarak’s last days in office, was the director of the intelligence apparatus that aided in suppressing the opposition from 1993 until the start of the revolution in January 2011. He is widely believed to have the backing of the military, which still wields considerable power.

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"Suleiman's Victory is Zero Hour for Civil War," warned a dramatic headline recently on the independent Wafd newspaper.

Many feel the revolution will have failed should the former spymaster triumph. "The sacrifices of the past year and a half will have been in vain," lamented another independent newspaper.

Others have criticized what they consider his past failures. "You … aided Israel, are you coming back to lose it again!?" chided another Wafd headline, referring to his perceived support of the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries.

On Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood took their battle with Suleiman to the halls of parliament and won – sort of. Egypt’s parliament passed a bill that bars senior figures from Mubarak’s regime from competing in elections for the next 10 years, a move specifically intended to stop Suleiman from running in the next election.

However, the law will only come into effect if the military council that took over from Mubarak last year ratifies it, which is unlikely to happen before the election commission issues its final list of presidential candidates later this month. 

In light of this, the Muslim Brotherhood will take their case to the street Friday with more than 40 other revolutionary movements, calling for a million people to fill Cairo’s Tahrir Square under the slogan "Protecting the Revolution."

Security candidate
None of this would matter, of course, if the secretive ex-spy chief did not have demonstrable support.  However, he had no difficulty in raising more than three times the 30,000 signatures needed in order to qualify as a candidate. 

He also has buzz.  In the past week, you could hear little else discussed in shops, restaurants and taxis.  With rare exception, people I have asked on the subway, in taxis and on the street support him.

Why?

"When I drive my taxi these days, anybody can hassle me,” said one disgruntled cabbie. “I need security and he is the only one who can provide it."

Law and order is the first concern on many minds.  The lack of police presence and escape of hardened criminals since the revolution has led to a crime spree in what was once an oasis of safety.  Now, previously unknown threats such as kidnapping, carjacking and house invasions have become commonplace.  Many feel that Suleiman, relic of the old regime though he is, can restore security and with it tourism and investment.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

CAIRO – In an ironic twist of fate, the most conservative and anti-American of Egypt’s Islamist presidential candidates may be barred from running because his mother was a U.S. citizen. 

Hazem Abu Ismail is an extremely popular Salafist presidential candidate who has steamrolled the competition in an aggressive campaign that has blanketed Cairo with posters of his beaming and bearded round face.

But his campaign is now fighting for survival against the latest accusations that his deceased mother held U.S. citizenship. Egyptian law prohibits citizens whose parents hold (or held) dual citizenship from running for president.

Abu Ismail maintains his mother only had a green card. Egypt’s election commission announced Thursday that his mother was a U.S. citizen, however they have not officially disqualified him from the race yet. The New York Times also reported earlier this week that California public records and voting records prove she became a U.S. citizen. 

Anti-American Egyptian candidate may be tripped up by mother’s US ties

If Abu Ismail’s candidacy is disqualified, it could seriously shake-up the race that includes former regime officials and Islamists competing in the first presidential election since former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. The election is set for the end of May.

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A show of support
On Friday thousands of die-hard Abu Ismail supporters marched to Cairo’s Tahrir Square to defend their candidate against what they called lies and forgery. 

“U.S. intelligence said she was a U.S. citizen, but they are lying. So is the military. They are supporters of the old regime,” said Kamel Hussein, a 35-year-old Egyptian TV employee. Hussein, who is a supporter of Abu Ismail but not a Salafist, said his vote would go to liberal former Arab League chief Amr Moussa if Ismail is forced out. 

Cairo math teacher, Mostafa Aly, 28, believes the military and security forces have forged documents so that Abu Ismail, if elected, will not try them for attacks against demonstrators during and after the revolution, as he had promised. 

“The people who don’t want to be tried are behind this,” insisted Aly. 

Dr. Mohamed Farouk, a pediatrician and father of four, blamed the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as the U.S. and the old guard for spreading false rumors about Abu Ismail. 

“The Muslim Brotherhood are afraid of him,” said Farouk. The Muslim Brotherhood, which recently put forward its own presidential candidate, stands to gain if he is disqualified because they could pick up some of his conservative Islamist votes. The Brotherhood already won nearly have of the seats in Parliament earlier this year.

Muslim Brotherhood shocks Egypt with presidential run

Farouk insisted others were plotting against Abu Ismail, too.

“I believe everything Ismail says. He is always speaking the truth. When they found 160,000 people supporting his candidacy, they became afraid. They are playing a game to prevent his presidency.”

Most supporters said they would stand by their candidate regardless. 

“If his mother was an Eskimo, I would still support him,” one young man interjected. 

A few threatened to come to Tahrir Square en masse if he is thrown out of the race.   

“This demonstration is a warning to the military government. If there is forgery of her citizenship, we will have a second revolution,” said Mohammed Khalil, a 23-year-old pharmacist. 

Others said their vote would go to the most liberal Islamist candidate, Abdel Munim Abdel Foutouh, a reform minded doctor who was expelled from the Brotherhood and who has been trying to appeal to both religious and secular Egyptians – rather than the official Brotherhood candidate.

Numbers matter
However, if Friday’s relatively small show of support is any indication, the Salafist’s foiled candidacy may pass quietly into the night.

While his stalwarts showed up, the number of people gathered was not overly impressive. The crowd appeared to be less than 5,000 people, which is small compared to the hundreds of thousands who have professed their support for him.

Many of the people gathered gave ‘the dog ate my homework’-type excuses for low attendance, such as the heat, fasting on a holy day and short notice.

But the absence of more supporters may prove significant.

CAIRO – Thousands of mourners dressed in black gathered in Cairo on Tuesday for the funeral of Egypt's Orthodox Christian Pope Shenouda, who was revered my millions throughout the country as a leader for all Egyptians.

Copts felt like "they were nobodies" after Shenouda's death, mourner Mina Hany Naeem, 17, told NBC News.

"With him I felt like I was wearing white and everyone looked at me, and without him I feel naked and everyone is looking at me," he said. "When he was Pope nobody ever said Muslim and Christian – we were all Egyptians."

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Shenouda, who died on Saturday at age 88, promoted religious harmony, winning respect among the Muslim majority, but his last years witnessed a growth in sectarian tension that worsened with the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last year.

"Pope Shenouda was a father to us all, to all Arabs, a very patriotic person," mourner Saber Farag Saleh, a 50-year-old construction engineer, told NBC News. "He protected us from divisions. He taught us to love the other and all religions."

Religious figures from several countries, including a Catholic delegation from the Vatican, and foreign ambassadors massed in the Orthodox Cathedral as long-bearded Coptic priests wearing bulbous black miters prayed over Shenouda's body lying in an open coffin, a golden miter upon his head and a gold-tipped staff in his hand.

Christians gather to bid farewell to Egypt's Pope Shenouda III

A delegation from the ruling military council and several candidates for Egypt's upcoming presidential elections attended the funeral. Security was tight, with dozens of police and army trucks scattered around the cathedral and plainclothes police posted on bridges and in streets nearby.

The prayers were led by Bishop Bakhomious, head of the church of Bahaira, a district in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, who will temporally hold the post of pope for two months until a new leader is elected.

'Fix all problems with prayer'
Some mourners worried who would follow Shenouda, who spent his final years trying to comfort a community disturbed by the rise of political Islam.

"It's a big loss, he looked after us all, it's a big loss for all Christians and Muslims," teacher Jaqueleen Mikhail, 25, told NBC News. "Nobody will ever be like the Pope Shenouda, he was humble and full of love and wise. He would fix all problems with prayer."

Egypt has seen less of the religious violence and discrimination that prompted members of ancient Christian communities to migrate from Iraq and other Arab countries.

But Coptic Christians, who comprise about a tenth of Egypt's 80 million people, have long complained of discrimination and in the past year stepped up protests, which included calls for new rules that would make it as easy to build a church as a mosque.

Shenouda strongly opposed Islamic militancy but strove to quell growing anger among Copts at Islamic extremism, attacks on churches and sectarian clashes often sparked by inter-faith romances and church building permits.

Photo blog: Egypt's Coptic Christians mourn the death of Pope Shenouda III

Many Muslims were among the mourners. He was a familiar figure for generations of Egyptians and Muslim Egyptians respected him as a staunch nationalist, an outspoken critic of Israel and a social conservative.

Dr. Essam Arian,  a member of parliament and the deputy of the Freedom and Justice Party (the Muslim Brotherhood's political party) said that he was planning to attend the funeral. "We hope the next pope can continue in the path of  reconciliation.  History will judge him.”

Sheikh Zachariah Mohammed Marzouq, the second Imam of Al Azhar Mosque, echoed those comments. 

“He was a wise man and a national figure.... He managed by his wisdom to dissolve any kind of conflict between the sects of the nation, the Christians and the masses of Muslims," said Marzouq. "He was a man inviting peace and love and brotherhood.  We send our condolences to our brothers the Copts on the loss of Pope Shenouda."

Thousands have paid their respects at the cathedral since he died. For much of the time, Shenouda's body was put in a seated position on a ceremonial throne dressed in gold and red embroidered vestments.

On Sunday, the cathedral had to close its doors several times in an attempt to contain the crowds. Two mourners died killed in the crush, medical sources said.

The burial is expected to take place at the Wadi el Natrun monastery in the desert northwest of Cairo, where the late pope had requested he be interred.

NBC News' Charlene Gusbash and Taha Belal, msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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CAIRO, Egypt – International Women's Day took on special meaning for the more than 1,000 Egyptian women who braved harassment to march through downtown Cairo Wednesday. 

The demonstration was sparked by the belief of many women that the recent political victories by socially conservative Islamists, who now control over 70 percent of the parliament, will eventually undermine the few hard-fought rights they have won. 

“The situation is going backward,” complained flight attendant Nadia Salim. “The Salafists (conservative Islamists who believe in a strict interpretation of Sharia law and that women should have a limited role in society) and Muslim Brotherhood will bring us back 100 years.”

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Trying to preserve existing rights
The women said they took to the streets not to gain more rights, but to preserve those they already enjoy.  "We have to hold onto what we have because of the Salafists and Islamists," warned university professor Iman Azzad. 

Their main demand is that women should make up half of the committee that will draft Egypt's new constitution.  Women fear that the Islamist majority will take away their right to divorce and to win custody of their children

"Women are half of society," said Salim. "Why shouldn’t we form half of the constitutional committee?"

Activist Dina Abou El Soud said she had heard that the country’s judges had plans for women to make up only a 10 percent of the panel shaping Egypt's next constitution. She believes women's rights will be the first thing to be sacrificed in order to please the Islamist majority. 

It’s a sea change from the ousted regime of President Hosni Mubarak, when women were guaranteed 64 parliamentary seats.  In the latest post-revolutionary elections, the quota was eliminated and women won only five seats.  "The other seats went to the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists," said El Soud, co-founder of the Revolutionary Women's Coalition, which has 4,000 members on Facebook.

 "We are going backward, backward and backward," she added as she passed out fliers in English and Arabic. "It is time to make a women's revolution”

El Soud also said that Islamists are trying to discredit existing women's rights by suggesting they were imposed by the Mubarak regime, deriding them as "Suzanne Mubarak's Laws,” the name of the former first lady.

"It’s ridiculous. They are international women's rights that we have gained,” she said.  

Ready for drastic measures
Considering what Egypt's roughly 40 million women stand to lose, Wednesday's turnout was miniscule. Mahy al Aref, a well-dressed pharmacy graduate, said the small crowd was probably due “a lack of educational awareness.”

She said she is worried about putting her German university degree to good use in an increasingly conservative society, a concern shared by her mother, Magda al Akkad, who runs an NGO. "I am worried because of the Islamist direction,” she said. “They have their ideas. I don't know where it will go, but I don't think they will be fair to women in general."

Al Akkad said she said she can foresee a day when Egypt would become unlivable for her and her daughter.  "If fanatics rule, I will leave this country,” she declared.

CAIRO – Egyptians were greeted by a series of firsts Monday:  Egypt's first democratically elected parliament and first predominantly Islamist parliament convened for their first session.  

New lawmakers were greeted by a now familiar sight.  Roughly 1,000 chanting demonstrators greeted them – despite being kept at a distance from the parliament building by riot police, metal barriers and sharp shooters mounted on roofs. 

They had come to hold lawmakers accountable for a wide variety of promises they believe are essential for the new Egypt.

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From labor laws to honoring martyrs
Shima'a Sa'ib, a 28-year-old engineeer from Cairo, stopped chanting for a minute to explain why she came to protest. “We want them to hear our voice, to give us rights and to give rights to the families of the martyrs,” she said, referring to those killed in the revolution.  

Mahmoud Hussein held a poster filled with photos of people who were killed when police opened fire on them near a police station during the revolution. He pointed to the picture of a father of two who was killed.

"He was my neighbor.  His family was never compensated by the government,” said Hussein. “Now their landlord lets them stay for free. They can't afford to pay rent.” He fears that the new politicians will also ignore their needs.  "They are in power now, they will forget those in need."

Ahmed Desouki, a lanky university student, explained in perfect English why he had come.  "I am here for worker's rights because workers have been suffering from this capitalist government. We need better wages, stop privatization and make the labor unions stronger."  Asked if he thought the new parliament would meet his demands, his reply was swift.  "No. I don't have hope.”

Desouki also expressed distrust about the cozy relationship between the military government known as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF, and the Islamists.

Hazdem Mohammed, a 25-year-old computer system administrator from Cairo and a member of the April 6 Youth Movement, the main organization behind the revolution, agreed.

“The people in parliament stole the revolution. The Muslim Brotherhood stole it in order to come to power,” said Mohammed. “The Brotherhood is like Hamas in Gaza, once they come to power, they will never leave.  If the revolution was on the right track, those in the military would be in prison for killing protesters."  He said the April 6 Youth Movement plans to continue organizing opposition to the government. 

Pediatrician Hazem Nasser said he was there to remind lawmakers that they are accountable for upholding some of the larger goals of the revolution. "Nothing has changed in Egypt since the revolution. Maybe they will be dictators, too, if people don’t stand up and tell them right from wrong.  If we don't do that, maybe 500 Mubaraks will arise." 

Looking for more man-friendly family law
Still others, like Salah Hassan and Ahmed Ibrahim, were there for very personal reasons: to protest some of the more female-friendly divorce laws introduced under former President Hosni Mubarak that give mothers preference in child custody disputes.

Both men said their divorced wives had prevented them from seeing their children for the past 10 years, so they were hopeful that the majority Islamist parliament would uphold religious Muslim laws that are more favorable to men. 

Under the current law, women gain child custody in divorce cases until the children are 15 years old, at which time the child can decide who he or she wants to live with. Mothers are also allowed to stay in their homes while they have custody.

But under Islamic law, the father would get the child and the home when boys reach the age of 7 and girls reach the age of 9. 

"I may not agree with the Muslim Brotherhood in other things but for this reason, I voted for them," said Ibrahim, a civil engineer. “I have not seen my child for 10 years."  He also wants to revoke a woman’s right to divorce with ease.  "She just called and told me, I am divorcing you and taking your child and your house.”

Ibrahim reckoned there were as many as 300 others there who were also protesting to overturn Egypt's moderate family laws.

With all of the diverse issues, it will be a wonder what the parliament can get done, but the protesters seem determined to at least make their demands heard.

See Photoblog: Egypt parliament opens for the first time following the fall of Mubarak

CAIRO – The Muslim Brotherhood has already started coloring outside the lines in order to win a majority in Egypt’s parliamentary elections. 

The organization, which gave its political branch the more ambiguous title, The Party of Freedom and Justice (FJP), is expected to win 40 percent of the seats in the lower house of parliament, according to analysts estimates.  Official results from the first round of voting will be announced Thursday.

Based on our own observations at polling stations across Cairo and anecdotal evidence, they seem to have won support at the polls by bending the rules in their favor.

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Free food and cheap meat
In Cairo’s Saida Zeinab neighborhood, at one of the busiest polling centers in the city, we saw a party member and two other supporters of an independent candidate passing out leaflets to voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots – in clear violation of election laws. Soldiers who were on site for crowd control, did nothing to stop them. At the same spot, a tech-savvy FJP member sat on a bench, laptop in hand, to conduct exit polls. At other polling stations, they provided polling information to baffled voters. 
 
In a more economically disadvantaged part of Cairo known as “The Slaughterhouse,” Hanan Nasr, a mother of three, watched FJP members pass out free packages of rice and oil to voters on their way to the polling station – again in contravention of campaign law. They also bused in party members from surrounding neighborhoods.

Voter confusion played into the hands of the FJP. Many voters simply did not know who the candidates were because of the sheer number of mostly unknown candidates (4,000), unknown parties (35 new ones since President Hosni Mubarak fell from power) and a complicated voting system requiring choices of farmer, labor and independent candidates. 

For those who did not understand the voting system, the FJP had people on hand before the election to explain how to make their ballots count – for FJP candidates.

Although Nasr voted for a liberal party, her son, Ali, opted for the only party he was familiar with, the FJP.  Some FJP members had been signing up voters in Nasr’s neighborhood in the run up to the election and distributed free school supplies. And before the recent Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice holiday, the one time of year when everybody in Egypt must have meat to celebrate the holiday, the FJP sold meat at half the market price to Cairo’s many disadvantaged.  
 
Clearly, the FJP struck a chord with voters.  Most of those we spoke to said they were voting FJP because they were well organized, helped the poor, and would uphold religious law. 

“They look to God,” said taxi driver Saad Abdul Aziz, who voted FJP.  “They must be just.”

Shifting promises
In the wake of the revolution, the FJP initially promised to compete for only 30 percent of parliamentary seats, in order not to frighten civil society and the interim military government.  They gradually upped that figure to 100 percent. 

Likewise, a promise not to field presidential candidates was soon broken.  The FJP had joined a much larger political bloc of secular and religious parties running for president, but the alliance fell apart when the FJP tried to dominate party lists.
 
The official election results will be announced Thursday evening, but the FJP is expected to win big in Egypt’s two largest cities, Cairo and Alexandria. 

Since it’s a parliamentary system, their leaders have already demanded that if their party wins the largest proportion of seats as a party, they should be entitled to form the new government.

In view of the FJP’s track record of broken promises, many wonder what kind of government they would be and whether they will respect their promise to adhere to democratic process and take into account Egypt’s secularists and 10 percent Christian population. 

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

CAIRO – Egypt’s legendary pyramids are always a draw for tourists from all over the world – but they had a particular lure for New Age spiritualists Friday who wanted to meditate inside the country’s greatest pyramid on the auspicious date of 11-11-11.

But no dice; pyramids closed Friday.

No visitors were allowed to enter the stone portal of the Great Pyramid of Giza, climb the Grand Gallery, marvel at the soaring stone ceiling above, and awe at the king’s 4,500-year-old burial chamber and empty sarcophagus. 

Antiquities officials said they were forced to close the pyramid because of a Facebook campaign and media blitz against tourists who wanted to commemorate the day by meditating inside the king’s chamber. 

Post-revolutionary Egypt is rife with conspiracy theories with an anti-Semitic edge.  Rumor-mongering writers warned that the foreign tourists who wanted to engage in strange rituals commemorating 11-11-11 were Masonic worshippers and Jews. 

The title of an anti-meditation website said it all: “Together, Reject the Masonic and Jewish Celebration of 11-11-11 in the Pyramid.”

One of the more bizarre and widely held opinions was that 1,200 Jewish worshippers would mark the day by climbing the pyramid and installing a Star of David on its apex.   Authorities bowed to public pressure and took the unprecedented step of closing the Great Pyramid in order to discourage angry protests against the spiritual pilgrims. 

Amidst tight security, the rest of Giza’s wonders, two smaller pyramids and the Sphinx, were still open to tourists.  Small groups of Westerners still meandered around the plateau despite the closure of the Great Pyramid – many seeking spiritual renewal.

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‘Energetic significance of the date’
Carmel Glenane, an author and spiritual teacher, brought 10 students with her to make up a group of eleven.  They believe 11-11-11, or three times two, is the number of lovers and balance. 

Glenane flew in from Australia to receive the energy of the pyramids.  She says she wasn’t disappointed at being denied entry to the biggest of them. 

“We are not here for a single experience. We are here to have a group experience. We came here because it is 11-11-11, because of the energetic significance of the date.  It is the balance of masculine and feminine being harmonized in the heart’s center,” said Glenane. “To focus on one aspect is missing the whole point. It is a journey to the heart… It’s opening up to the new Egypt, the new heart of Egypt.”  

Spiritual tourism to Egypt’s antiquities is a niche sector that has existed for decades, with New Age adherents once paying hundreds of dollars to spend the night in the King’s Chamber. That privilege was curtailed long ago, but believers still come.

Leela Cosgrove, an Australian marketing consultant, comes to the site for more than an energy boost; she said she has doubled her income by consulting for businesses that sell spiritual goods and services, in addition to her to her normal marketing jobs. “It’s been very good for business. Since bringing in the spiritual side, I have gone from making 250,000 to 500,000 Australian dollars ($186,000 to $373,000).” 

One of her clients, martial arts school owner, Adriana Lazos, said she came to the pyramids on 11-11-11 to “get the energies” and bring them back to Australia.

Skeptical residents
Some residents, hawking fake Pharaonic statues in front of the Sphinx, were skeptical.

“They closed the Pyramid because 15,000 people were supposed to come here today to worship inside,” said Mohamed Ali. “They still came, but in small groups.  All of them that are wearing white are Jewish,” he added, gesturing darkly toward three tourists clad in white cotton slacks and shirts.

One of them was a Brazilian tour guide and spiritual leader who would only give her nickname, Antarielle. She said she has conducted 18 Germany-to-Egypt tours over the years.  “This is a special date.  It’s a special place and this is the place to be.” 

But, she said her visit was marred by what she called “aggressive behavior.”

“We wanted to sit and meditate [outside the Great Pyramid] but they told us to go off.  There are thousands of people here for this purpose.  They have been told they shouldn’t allow anyone in white to sit anywhere because they will destroy the dignity of Islam.  But we managed to meditate in right front of the pyramid anyway,” Antarielle noted proudly.  

I asked what religion they were.  “I am a spiritualist,” said Antarielle. “I am a Christian,” said her friend. “Nudist,” joked a third. 

The tour guide reasoned that Egypt should be more welcoming to spiritual pilgrims, especially since tourism, Egypt’s main foreign currency resource, has plummeted since the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak. She said her 12-day tour costs $3,412 and includes hotels, food and travel within the country – so she said it adds a lot to the local economy.  
 
However, when I returned to the vendor, Ali, with the information that the group wasn’t Jewish, he just shook his head.  “If they came here for meditation, they are Jews.  We don’t want those who pray to do it by the pyramids.” His colleague nodded in agreement. “Only God knows what religion they are.” 
 
Still, some tourists were blissfully unaware of the controversial shutdown and the numerological meaning of the day.  Elizabeth Rospo from Nova Scotia almost missed seeing the pyramids.  She was on cruise and had only one day to catch the Egyptian Museum and the pyramids area.

“The guide was in constant contact with his office. They were worried about a protest but it never happened.  It didn’t affect our stay at all,” she said.

By Mike Taibbi, NBC News Correspondent, and Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

NEW YORK – Salah went first.  He always did. He had a big man’s walk, his long strides straining the folds of his bright white “haik,” the traditional gown worn over trousers by Berber men.

He walked up to the group of men hunkered down on the ridge, some with binoculars trained on the valley below, and explained he was working with a team of journalists from NBC News. He asked permission for us to approach and shoot video of the artillery battle that had just begun. These were not fighters, they were just watching the fighting, but Salah was always polite. Sometimes, when he led us to the front where the battle was engaged, the answer was “no.” But this time he nodded back at us and gestured us forward with a hand signal telling us to keep our heads down. 

It was daybreak, July 29, on the outskirts of the city of Nalut in Libya’s western Nafusah mountain range. Salah had suggested the day before that we return to Nalut from Zintan, 80 miles to the east, because his contacts among the Nalut rebels told him they were ready to launch a major offensive against two stubborn strongholds of Gadhafi army troops in the valley towns of Takut and Gazayah. 

The Libyan Army troops were massing to attack the one rebel-controlled border crossing with Tunisia, an absolutely critical lifeline.  The government troops seemed to have an endless supply of Grad rockets available to lob into Nalut, sometimes 50 or 60 a night, turning the city into a ghost town. 

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Salah had arranged a briefing with the rebel commander the night we arrived back in Nalut. He took part in the briefing and asked pointed yet polite questions as though he was part of our team.  Of course by then he was, and we learned the particulars of the rebels’ strategy and tactics.  Salah, a proud Naluti with two brothers among the city’s rebel fighting force, knew the lay of the land – the dozen or so ridgeline “fronts” where the artillery barrage would commence before rebel ground units would move into the two towns.

He knew the risks, as we did – that the rebels’ artillery attack would trigger heavy retaliatory fire from below.  We’d seen it weeks earlier, when one of those heavy return rounds exploded a few hundred yards from our position.  But though the risk is minimal that a Grad rocket, an old Russian missile, will actually hit a target as small as an artillery team a dozen miles away, Salah was especially cautious this morning and made sure we were, too. 

He put on the body armor he’d declined to wear during our previous visits to the front, and slung his assault rifle over a shoulder. Through the hours of the morning and into the early afternoon, the rebel teams who allowed us to join them aimed tank fire and dozens of screaming Grad rockets – the tanks and the rockets seized from Gadhafi’s troops – right back at those same troops.  When we saw the pickup trucks of the rebel ground forces below driving toward Takut, moving fast, Salah led us down the mountain, along winding switchback roads to the checkpoint outside the town. 

By the time we got there a celebration was already under way:  the Gadhafi troops had cut and run, from both Takut and Gazayah.  It didn’t get the rebels any closer to Tripoli, they were still 50 miles away at the closest point, and seemingly stalled, but without a successful offensive to take those two towns on this day, getting to Tripoli might have become nearly impossible.  Now the border with Tunisia was safe, the lifeline intact. The nightly bombing of Nalut was over; families who had fled to Tunisia could come home. 

Salah gave no hint of joining the celebration.  He brought us and our camera into the hospital where the dozens of wounded from both sides were being treated.  Both sides were still counting their dead.  When we got back to our rented house to prepare that night’s report we were discouraged to learn the city was once again without electricity…this time because the night before, as we slept, one of Gadhafi’s last incoming bombs had hit the main generating plant.  Our own small portable generator would only run our BGAN satellite transmitters, a camera and a couple of laptops and lights.  Salah disappeared without a word – his habit – and came back an hour later with a big capacity generator that could keep our whole operation juiced, even a couple of fans to turn the stale hot air into something like a breeze.

Two days later, the rebel revolution still stalled, but intact and invigorated for the next move, Salah led us across the border to Djerba, in Tunisia. Our assignment in Libya was done for the time being. He collected his mother, to bring her back home to Libya.

Then, last Thursday we got the news.  Salah, driving two rebel soldiers to the front instead of a news team, was gone.  One of those Grad rockets, fired from who knows where and targeted only by cursed bad luck, had hit his truck as it sped toward the town of Tigi, halfway between Nalut and Zintan. Salah and the two soldiers never knew what hit them.

A problem solver
Salah Mohamed Askar was 28, and unmarried.  His mother was concerned about that, and last winter talked him into coming home to Nalut from Sweden, where he’d worked as a driver for a multi-national company for three years.  “She wanted me to come home and find a nice Naluti girl,” he told us.  But then, five months ago, the war started.  In Nalut it began with a few dozen men with old hunting rifles ambushing a marauding team of Gadhafi mercenaries.  Salah had fired at two of them, killing one and wounding the other who got away. 

Across Libya a real civil war had started, with the NATO airstrikes greatly enhancing the prospects for a successful rebellion against Gadhafi’s 42-year-rule, and the Naluti men with hunting rifles morphed into the beginnings of an actual fighting force.  Salah’s two brothers joined the rebels fulltime. Salah, armed and ready, was delayed by a family crisis he was obliged to resolve.  When we arrived he became one of our drivers/fixers. A “fixer” is a journalist’s term for a hired assistant whose translation skills, local contacts and other capabilities are an essential part of foreign news coverage. 

In fact, Salah spoke no English, it was on his “to do” list, as he’d quickly learned Swedish when he lived and worked in Sweden (Charlene Gubash, an Arabic speaker, was our principal translator).  But his other skills were immense, varied, and subtle.  He was one of those men who could fix things, a problem solver. 

When the cameramen on our team, Mitya Solovlov and Kevin Burke, sussed out each house we rented, Salah was right there with them, wiring a pump to draw water from the well (when the electricity worked) to fill the rooftop water tanks;  using cinderblocks to mount the air conditioner he removed from his own home so our workspace and sleeping space might be tolerable;  finding fresh bread or eggs or potatoes or a melon, all in short supply, to augment our diet of rice or pasta and tinned vegetables;  finding a hotplate or a skillet; filling our jerry cans with the cheapest gas for our vehicles that he could find from roadside trucks topped off in Tunisia. He cooked for us when we had no time on nights we were filing reports; he enjoyed whatever we cooked for him, usually adding something to spice it up. 

But it was his subtle skills that defined him.  He understood the roles filled by each member of the team – he found the cameramen the best vantage points to shoot from and found us the contacts we needed to stay informed in an environment fueled mostly by rumors and false hopes.  He monitored the Arab language news channels with a critical ear, and kept us constantly updated.  He could read motives and personalities in an instant, and after his nightly forays into town or to the mosque, he’d pass along only the information we needed that was demonstrably or believably true.  He was a driver by trade who in the space of days clearly understood what it meant to be a reporter.

And, in the three and a half weeks we worked with him, we came to know him. He was a kind and gentle man in a rough and cruel environment. A man who lived comfortably in a land buffeted by the scorching Sahara winds, but spoke dreamily of Sweden’s natural beauty.  He was a rules-driven man with a clear sense of fairness. When we’d get a hard time at a checkpoint in Zintan because we were using a “Naluti” as a driver and not a Zintani, Salah said quietly, “I wouldn’t stop any of you from coming to work in Nalut.  It is one Libya.”  Sometimes he would win a smile and a “go” gesture, sometimes they’d still hold us up, poring over our papers.  He sat in on all our interviews, taking part, asking important questions we’d neglected.  The quality of our information – and thus of our reporting – was better because he was there.

In quiet moments he would speculate endlessly about the course the war would take until, in his certain view, it would eventually end in Tripoli with Gadhafi gone.  He didn’t know when that would happen, didn’t indulge in soft-sided claims that it was merely weeks or even days away, as some soldiers (including one commander) kept telling us.
 
Ambition: A free Tripoli
Salah knew, as all warzone reporters know, that death is a big part of the story. At the information and military command centers where we’d solicit updates and alerts from our regular contacts, we’d often be told to come back later because the man we were seeking was off at a relative’s funeral.

But it never occurred to us that Salah would be a casualty.  We assumed he would become part of the new Libya, with some of the old mixed in (he wasn’t sure it was a bad idea to continue having separate schools for young boys and girls, or for some of the other old customs to be retained).

In his truck, barreling to the head of the convoy wherever we went, he played a mix tape of Arabic, Amazikh (Berber) and American music, and seemed to like it all.  We asked about his ambitions:  just a good job in a free Tripoli, he said.  Nothing more elaborate or detailed than that.  Like his truck, a Toyota Tundra with a club cab and a powerful V8 that he drove hard and well, Salah seemed to always have his motor running, ready to go.

And, ready to go again with us. When we left him, after a long and dawdling hotel brunch in Djerba, we traded the usual stay-in-touch-call-us-we’ll-call-you, keeping it light. But, with a man like Salah Mohamed Askar, we needed in the end to say something more: We told him he had our thanks and our respect…and that we’d be honored to work with him again, as the war headed to an end.  “Inshallah,” we all said at once.

He beamed a smile at us, those eyes sparkling with life and human connection. Then quickly turned to leave.

Click here to read more reports from Mike Taibbi and Charlene Gubash during their recent trip to Libya.

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News

NALUT, Libya – The people of Nalut, a quiet town in the mountains of Libya, gathered together to grieve on Friday.  “There is no God, but God and martyrs are beloved by God,” boomed several hundred men standing in long rows, some crying softly. 

They prayed before the bodies of three young men who died in Thursday’s offensive against pro-Gadhafi soldiers. The thin faces encircled by white shrouds were young. 

“One of them was my friend.  I studied with him for two years in Malta.  This is the biggest loss for me,” said Nadar, a fellow rebel.

“They are all under 30,” said another man who recently arrived from Tripoli.  “But all of this is for freedom,” he said.

Nalut has just gained its freedom from four months of almost nightly rocket fire. Gadhafi’s troops had used villages in the valley beneath Nalut to lob deadly Soviet-era Grad missiles into the town and toward the border with Tunisia.  Victory was sweet.  

After less than a day’s fighting, rebel fighters pushed Gadhafi’s troops out of two cities and a handful of hamlets.  The commanding officer in Nalut attributed their success to good planning and the cooperation of rebel fighters from several mountain cities. Rebels mounted a simultaneous attack on Gadhafi forces from several different directions. 

The commanding officer saw the latest operation as a blueprint for success, but one to be improved and refined.  “Next time it will be much better,” he promised. He recalled with a smile, “We had only 20 hunting rifles made in Nalut in our first battle.” 

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Progress
Thursday’s battle showed just how far they had come.  Rebels used sophisticated artillery, captured from Gadhafi’s weapons stores, against his loyalists.  They loaded missile after missile into Grad rocket launchers and fired at government forces in the valley below. Seized T 55 Russian tanks took turns blasting enemy positions. 

Although the primary complaint of military and civilian leaders throughout the region has been shortage of weapons, fighters seemed to have no lack of artillery shells in Thursday’s battle.

Late into the night on Thursday, young men fired automatic weapons into the air in celebration.
Women, rarely seen outside the home, marched through town and cars screeched through the otherwise orderly streets. Families that had fled Nalut for the safety of Tunisia began to flood back across the border to their now-safe city on Friday.

What’s next?   
The latest rebel advance secured Nalut, but has it moved the rebels any closer to the ultimate goal, Tripoli and the overthrow of Gadhafi?

The answer is a qualified “yes.”  Rebels have achieved some critical strategic aims. 

They have now secured their border with Tunisia and the only supply line for fighters and civilians alike in the arid hills and plains of western Libya.  The rout of enemy forces from the border area is part of a broader plan to allow rebels to push up through the desert to Zawiyah, cutting the regime off from its western supply line, and bringing them within a half-hour drive to Tripoli.

Newly victorious rebel fighters are already working their way up north. Whether success can be duplicated in the critical city of Garyan, Tripoli’s supply line to weapons and mercenaries from the south, remains to be seen. 

Attempts to advance appear to be stalemated to the untrained eye.  But military commanders suggest plans are in place and an offensive, possibly an all-out offensive, is imminent. “Zero hour” has not been determined yet, an officer in Zintan said.  

Although weapons are said to be in short supply, optimism and determination are not. 

When asked if rebels can reach Tripoli before the end of Ramadan, the minister of defense, Omar Hariri, responded, “Maybe before Ramadan.” The Muslim month of fasting begins next week.

CAIRO – For a third day in a row, Egypt’s Coptic Christians demonstrated in front of the state TV building in central Cairo Tuesday against the military government they blame for failing to prevent the destruction of a church in weekend clashes.  

For Coptic Christians, the attack was just the latest in a series of events that have made them feel increasingly vulnerable, threatened and worried about whether Egypt’s post-revolution future includes them. 

Apparently, a romantic dispute sparked violent clashes on Saturday evening. Security officials said Monday that a Christian woman reportedly had an affair with a Muslim man. She then allegedly disappeared, which led the man to spread rumors that Christian clergy had snatched her and were holding her prisoner at Saint Mena Church in Imbaba, a working-class neighborhood of Cairo, because she converted to Islam.

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Eyewitnesses say the clashes began when a group of Salafists, Muslims who practice Islamic fundamentalism, gathered outside the church. Although the parishioners denied the allegation that the woman was captive inside, the church came under attack and was burned, along with a neighboring church and some Christian-owned buildings. The clash left 12 dead (six Muslims, four Coptic Christians and two others); hundreds were injured and almost 200 arrested.

The Copts insist that the military and state security showed up late and did nothing to intervene. Although the government has transferred those arrested to military court for immediate trial and has decided to activate all laws criminalizing attacks on houses of worship, Copts feel the military government has not doing enough to protect their communities and churches.

'Islamists want to take power'
Egypt is 10 percent Christian, and Copts see the attacks targeting Christians since the revolution as an attempt by Islamists to terrorize them into leaving. Many believe Islamists want a country, and ultimately a region, free of non-Muslims. They fear that if Egyptians elect a predominantly Islamist parliament in September, the new government will widen the scope of Islamic law.

“The revolution was white, and now it has turned black because the Islamists want to take power and control the country,” said protester Marcelino Youssef said during Monday’s protests. “We are waiting to see which way the government will go, in the right direction or the wrong direction. Will the military government remain silent as usual? If they don’t take the right road, Egypt will be lost. There is no safety for Christians here, and the leaders move too slowly to solve the problems.”

Hany Abu Laila was in Saint Mena Church the night it was attacked. He denied reports that Copts fired on Muslims. “Is it logical that we would have a weapons store in a church?” he asked.

He said that dozens of army and security trucks arrived, but did the soldiers little more than observe as Muslim demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails at the church.

Many among Egypt’s Christian community fear the future and are looking for a way out.

Ibram Anton, a senior merchandiser, has concerns for his family. “I am so afraid now about my future and my daughter’s future. Every Christian is so afraid for the future. I am now seriously finding how to get out of the country because the country will no longer be safe for us,” he said. “Daily, they are attacking us. In my opinion it will not be our country. We will not find jobs. Maybe everything for the Christians will become illegal, like going to church. They have already started to make Christians afraid.”

The military government has agreed to lift a ban on the return of Egyptian militants who fought in Afghanistan against the Russians. “If [the militants] come back, we are sure they will kill the Christians,” Anton said.  

Since the revolution, he said, 90 percent of his friends have decided to emigrate, but none have succeeded so far.

But others vow to stand their ground.

“This is our land and we won’t ever leave it,” Youssef said at the protest. His friends nodded in agreement. “We don’t want to leave Egypt. This is our country and our history.”

CAIRO – Reaction on the streets of Cairo to Osama Bin Laden’s death ranged from joy to disbelief to anger over the alleged burial at sea. 

“It’s the best news I have ever heard,” confided a former Egyptian general reached by phone who did not want to be named. “He was the source of terrorism in the entire world!” 

“I want to say to Mr. Obama, thank you, thank you so much!” said Mohamed Gharib, a travel agent who blamed bin Laden for acts of terror in Luxor and the Sinai.

Sherif al Helw, an investment banker, shared a hope that bin Laden’s demise would lead to regional peace. “Part of me was relieved. I don’t know why I was relieved, but maybe I thought that would soon lead to the end of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which would bring a little more stability to the region.” 

However, many refused to believe that the infamous escape artist was at last cornered. “He is like a genie,” said one young man who wouldn’t give his name. “Maybe the man was an imitation or somebody who looks like him. There are lots of mountains and places to hide in Pakistan.”   

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Burial at sea
Others were angered by the nature of the attack and burial at sea. 
 
The U.S. “acted like a cowboy, thugs, and not a civilized country,” said Mamdouh Ismail, a defense lawyer for Islamic militants and the founder of Al Nahda, an Islamic fundamentalist party. He was angered by the American violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty by going in to kill bin Laden. 

“What Obama said is untrue. It wasn’t a victory. On the contrary, it is bin Laden who won because he achieved what he said he wanted in his speeches…he said he won’t be arrested and will fight and become a martyr,” said Ismail.

But it was bin Laden’s reported burial at sea that Ismail found utterly shocking and unforgivable.

“I think this kind of news will provoke an angry reaction in the whole Islamic world because we have rules about how to bury the dead and this will ignite a furious reaction because they did not follow Islamic practice,” said Ismail. “This is against all human rights, principles and respect for the dead.” 

The White House says that bin Laden’s burial was done in conformance with Islamic “precepts and practices.” They say his body was washed, placed in a white sheet and then placed inside a weighted bag. According to the White House, a military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic, and then his body was tipped from a flat board and eased into to sea.

Essam Aryan, a relatively moderate leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, also was troubled by the burial. “According to any religion, his body must be handed over to his family. This is inhuman to keep the body away from the family.” 

However, Aryan did see bin Laden’s demise as a chance to turn a new page. “I think this can mean a new start for a good relation built on dual respect, common values, common interests.” 

He blamed the al-Qaida chief for distorting the image of Islam and opined that since the U.S. has “taken its revenge” on bin Laden, the country could adopt a new policy toward Muslims and Arabs.

“Now it is time to correct this image and to respect Muslims all over the world. It is time to end the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and announce that it is time for the rights of the Palestinians to be respected,” said Aryan. “I hope now we have the end of such an era, the era of violence, the era of wars, the era of disrespect of humanity, of Muslims and Arabs. America killed not only Osama bin Laden, America killed a million in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.”  

Although reaction toward the fatal attack on bin Laden was mixed, nobody doubted al-Qaida’s resolve to avenge his death.

It should be noted that bin Laden’s No. 2 man was Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri. He remains a key target for the United States and has a $25 million bounty on his head. He would presumably take charge of the al-Qaida operation in bin Laden’s absence.

“I am sure [Ayman al-Zawahiri] will react, but I don’t know how. He was bin Laden’s friend and companion in the organization and had strong relations to him,” said Ismail. “There is no doubt there will be a reaction, but God knows what it will be.”

Related links:
Complete coverage of the Death of bin Laden
Plenty of targets remain after bin Laden