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Gunman Diplomacy. Chanting Arab unity, impoverished, discontented people can be taught to condemn their own lawful Arab rulers as "traitors" merely for entering into agreements with "foreigners." To this persuasive passion, Nasser adds the helping hand of subversion. An Israeli statistician who has been keeping score says that since Nasser came to power, every Arab country has kicked out at least one Egyptian military attache. Such is the menace of Nasser's penetration in other countries that when the Libyans caught their Egyptian attache handing out guns last year, they passed a law expelling all North African military attaches in the country so as to avoid any public showdown with the Egyptians.
The Egyptian consul general in Jerusalem was deep in last year's plot to overthrow Jordan's King Hussein. Egyptian agents worked mightily, and unsuccessfully, to throw down Abdalla Khalil, doughty pro-Western Premier of the newly independent Sudan. Two years ago an Egyptian embassy "messenger" was convicted of trying to assassinate Iraqi leaders. Last year an Egyptian colonel named Ali Khashaba organized and financed a plot to kill Saudi Arabia's King Saud. Last week the U.S. Government published a sheaf of intelligence reports of Nasser's doings in Lebanon, where Moslem rebels have been getting instructions by open telephone wire from Damascus. Items:
¶ Syrian agents instigated and took a prominent lead in the May 8 Tripoli riots that kicked off the civil war.
¶ General Shawkat Shukayr, former Syrian army chief, was directing Rebel Leader Kamal Jumblatt's military operations.
¶ At least 50 arms-carrying caravans from Syria, and three boatloads of guns from Gaza, were captured in the revolt's opening days.
¶ Egyptian commandos (identified as such by their manner of speech) attacked Baalbek late in May.
So overriding is the appeal of Arab unity, and so inflammatory is Cairo's radio propaganda, that Nasser probably has little need to spend vast sums on paid agents to keep things popping. He can often leave it to local plotters to do the dirty work—as he may have done in Iraq —providing them with arms, money and technical advice when needed. But Nasser is an inveterate instigator, and the plot against Jordan, which King Hussein broke up at the last moment by arresting 60 army men, was entirely directed from Cairo. Washington is pretty sure that Nasser was in on the Iraqi plot, too, though the plotting officers, fearful of a leak among those jailed in Jordan, apparently launched their coup ahead of the scheduled timetable.