Wikileaks Cables Show Egyptian Government Exaggerated Fears Of Muslim Brotherhood

by Marian Wang, ProPublica

The Muslim Brotherhood, a key opposition group in Egypt's anti-Mubarak protests, has long argued that the Egyptian government exaggerates the Muslim Brotherhood's positions and its likelihood of attaining power in democratic elections. As it turns out, American diplomats agree. "The Egyptians have a long history of threatening us with the MB bogeyman," wrote Ambassador Francis Ricciardone to FBI Director Robert Mueller in 2005, in a newly released U.S. embassy cable obtained by WikiLeaks. Another cable from 2006 stated:

We do not accept the proposition that Egypt's only choices are a slow-to-reform authoritarian regime or an Islamist extremist one; nor do we see greater democracy in Egypt as leading necessarily to a government under the MB.

A third cable describes Omar Suleiman, then Egypt's intelligence chief, slamming the Muslim Brotherhood as a "dangerous" movement that has spawned "11 different Islamist extremist organizations."

Suleiman -- in his new position as Mubarak's vice president -- held a meeting yesterday with opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Following that meeting, a Muslim Brotherhood official reiterated to ABC News that...

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