Word: heikal
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Heikal's Fall. Any doubts about the scope of Sadat's power were settled last week when al Ahram, Egypt's most prestigious newspaper, appeared without the familiar column of Editor Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, 50. Heikal's "Frankly Speaking" column customarily appeared on Friday-the equivalent of a Western paper's Sunday issue -when al Ahram's circulation soared to 772,000. That increase was at least in part due to the column, since the Arab world read Heikal as the semiofficial spokesman of Cairo's government. Sadat not only fired Heikal from...
...Heikal's fall from the top of the 100-year-old al Ahram (The Pyramids in Arabic) had important political overtones. The granite-faced Heikal rose to power because of an early friendship with President Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was the spokesman and interpreter of Nasser and the Arab socialism that the late President introduced into Egypt; even after Nasser's death and Sadat's succession, Heikal and al Ahram retained a special status and authority. But in recent months Heikal's foreign policy pronouncements began to differ from Sadat's apparent aims. For instance...
...Heikal, in an interview with TIME last week at the editor's Nileside apartment, blamed his disagreement with Sadat on Watergate. Chewing his inevitable cigar, he said: "Nixon is busy defending himself, and I doubt that he has the strength to force Israel to give up enough for an acceptable peace settlement. I greatly admire the abilities and intentions of Henry Kissinger, but even a man as brilliant as the Secretary of State cannot rise above a country's institutions." Because of his doubts over Nixon, said Heikal, "I began to differ with Sadat about the pace with...
...surprising as Heikal's discharge was Sadat's choice of a successor. The job went to Ali Amin, 59, former co-publisher with his twin brother Mustafa of the rival al Akhbar, who only last month returned to Egypt from a nine-year self-imposed exile I in London. Amin, often attacked as too pro-Western, had refused to come home as a protest against the imprisonment of his brother by Nasser on charges of handing over state secrets to the CIA. Mustafa Amin was recently freed on Sadat's orders, together with a number of political...
...ease with which Sadat could topple Heikal or free old conspirators indicates how much popularity Egypt's placid President now enjoys. Sadat has skillfully neutralized all of the political opponents who challenged him for power in the hiatus that followed Nasser's death. But what finally propelled him to his current eminence was Egypt's successful prosecution of the October War with Israel. Sadat has now begun to utilize that power both at home and outside Egypt...