August 14, 2012 TV transcript of Sun News Canadian Television Anchor Michael Coren interview with Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism discussing the continuing radicalization of Egypt and what can be expected in the Middle East. Emerson focuses primarily on the shocking new actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood to begin their plans for a total takeover of the country.
Sun News Anchor Michael Coren: "You just heard the monologue. Look I don't claim to be the world's expert on the Middle East but I have at least had the decency to spend long periods of time out there and I'm reading media coverage, for example the Arab Spring, this absurd liberal naiveté that somehow it was all going to be pluralism and coexistence. Just don't know the region. When I was a teenager I remember when the Shah fell in Iran. The Shah was not ideal but the Shah would drive around without security, women dressed as they wanted to dress. There were gay bars in Tehran. It was a Western society. And we had the mainstream media saying this is wonderful rejoicing, the Shah has fallen. Well look at that bloody country now. Turkey, similar. And now Egypt, a virtual coup in Egypt and what will happen next. Steve Emerson knows more than most about this. He's monitored Islamic fundamentalism, he's advised the government. He's an activist and a broadcaster and a friend. Welcome back to you, sir.
Emerson: "Hi Michael.
Coren: "This is terribly worrying. Egyptian military maneuvers, tanks moving toward the Israeli border. We were reassured it would all be OK with a Muslim Brotherhood government because the army still had the power. Well now the army generals have effectively been removed.
Emerson: "In the last 3 days Michael the Muslim Brotherhood has basically unmasked its true face. The real Muslim Brotherhood is now appearing. Let me read to you an actual piece of information that I got from a senior US intelligence source from one of the top agencies. I got this this morning. I just want to read you just one paragraph from a report that's somewhat classified but I can't name the source. It says here, 'On Sunday August 12th the Islamist President Morsi announced that defense minister Field Marshall Tantawi was being fired immediately and replaced with a new minister named general Sisi, a man known to be very sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi had also exerted control over the judiciary, the intelligence and the internal security apparatus by placing Muslim Brotherhood loyal men in their positions and he has appointed a Muslim Brotherhood crony over the media and replaced all editors with Muslim Brotherhood editors and over the main papers.' This is absolutely amazing. Here's a guy that championed publicly the Arab Spring, human rights, he reached out to the Coptic community.
Emerson: "There have been more Egyptian Copts killed – these are Christian Copts living in Egypt since the days of Jesus Christ – killed in the last year than in the previous 45 years. A hundred thousand Egyptian Copts have left Egypt because of the persecution, killings and intimidation. The Muslim Brotherhood now is basically showing its true face. And what's really scandalous Michael is that these moves that I just read from this intelligence report were cleared ahead of time with the US government. That's really amazing and scandalous because frankly this is a totalitarian (government).–
Coren: "Let me ask you. When you say cleared by the American government. I mean obviously I am reading the accounts from more conservative minded people who say that Barack Obama is aware of this, he was on side with this. Is this really true? The American government gave the go ahead to the Muslim Brotherhood to effectively conduct and carry out a coup in Cairo?
Emerson: "The State Department knew of the changes ahead of time, the Secretary of State, and on background the State department spokesman, or actually a State Department official gave me a full accounting of how they were informed two days before the changes that were being made. Not all of the changes, certainly not sacking all the editors and replacing them with Muslim Brotherhood editors, but certainly the replacing of the Field Marshall Tantawi with the Muslim Brotherhood junior member. The dismantling of the military, the fact that they want to reconstitute the Camp David Accords to allow more troops in the Sinai.
Emerson: "Let me read you a quote actually, a quote by President Morsi that he just gave [this past] Sunday. This is in contrast to what he said during the elections when he was appealing to the Arab Spring reporters who naively thought this was the civil rights hour of the Arab man in the street. He [Morsi] said, 'Some who proclaim their apostasy in public and call for others to follow suit '– he's meaning Christians – 'is a danger to society according to norms, beliefs and laws. If someone acts in such a corrupt way we have to institute the shariah, and that means dire punishment.' This is the same guy who promised the world that he would respect human rights, pluralism and all that.
Emerson: "They are totally changing their record. I knew this would happen. This is the classic Muslim Brotherhood modus operandi. You do it slowly over time and you essentially get your backers – the US, the European governments – to back you because there's no alternative. They're dismantling the military. You made a great analogy to the situation in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown. Everyone welcomed Khomeini as the great reformer, and look what happened now. [That country is now] the worst violator of human rights in the world today and they're on the verge of getting a nuclear bomb. How long do you think it will be before there are Christians who are murdered, ethnic cleansing occurs [in Egypt?]. How long do you think it will be before the Camp David Accords are violated? How long do you think it will be before Egyptians who are secular [are put into] prison and dissidents are basically jailed for just expressing their views? I give it six months.
Coren: "Steve, this isn't Libya, Iraq, Syria. This is Egypt. It shapes the very language, the Arabic language spoken in the Middle East, has the largest military in the Arab world. It has an enormous amount of money given to it by the United States and other Western countries. This is powerful. So what do we predict is going to happen, what do we think may happen in the coming weeks?
Emerson: " Well, again, the modus operandi of the Muslim Brotherhood is not to impose its [ulterior plans immediately to take over the country] - this [the actions taken by Morsi] was actually unusual because usually they [the MB] do it much more slowly to basically evade the whole attention that would attend to the world. Again, American reporters finally for the first time now are reporting some of this stuff in a negative way. Up until now they were reporting the Muslim Brotherhood as the great liberal heroes, akin to a liberal democratic party [ideology] or whatever, or pluralist party. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Emerson: "They [the MB] cleansed their web sites, but if you look in Arabic, if you [look at] the old [MB] web sites that we have collected, you see what their agenda was: It's an Islamist state with shariah imposed. Christians are not allowed. They can be dhimmis, second class citizens, or they can't live there, period. Number two, I just wrote an affidavit for a hearing this morning for two Egyptian Christians who are seeking asylum in the United States because of the fact that they have been harassed, intimidated and beaten over the last year. They are two of more than 50,000 Christians Copts who are applying for asylum. And what I heard, interestingly enough, is that the US government is acceding to the Egyptian government, the Morsi government, in basically not approving some of these asylum applications for fear that it shows Egypt in a negative way. Now I haven't been able to get the document but I've been told from a reliable source and I hope to be able to get that document soon.
Emerson: "Michael, to tell you the truth, this is something [scandalous here] - the fact that the US actually knew of these changes and actually went along with them, I'm not saying that they pushed them but they knew about it ahead of time and they didn't stop it. They give 1.5 billion dollars to the military. The whole military now is being changed. It will be under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Coren: "Steve, I'd like to get back to you in about a week or so. We have to monitor this because very few of the people will do it or will do it properly. As always thank you so much for your time sir.
Emerson: "You're welcome, Michael.