Long after taps one night last week, the Egyptian Army's GHQ in Abbasiya was ablaze with lights. Outside the two-story building, steel-helmeted troops cradled their automatic rifles while inside, Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser met with members of the Revolutionary Command Council in an emergency session. Nasser was convinced that civilian and army enemies were plotting to overthrow the regime in a May Day uprising.
While Nasser outlined his plans to his fellow officers, jeeploads of uniformed military policemen fanned out into Cairo to nab the suspects before they had a chance to be tipped off. By daybreak twelve junior army...
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