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The amazing thing is how close they came to pulling it off. The tip-off came in June, when King Hussein of Jordan heard about the plot from his own intelligence network and informed Nasser. With little time to spare, secret police began tearing Egypt apart, looking for hidden arms, explosives and terrorists. Not until mid-July did they catch up with Tawfic's assassination teams. Not until Egyptian air-force rebels were ten minutes flying time from Nasser's summer residence at Alexandria was their loaded bomber shot down.
The anniversary passed without incident, but the brotherhood had not given up. Despite wholesale arrests of its members, it was still strong enough to attempt a suicide mission. The task was entrusted to Brother Ali Ismail el Fayyoumi, one of Nasser's presidential honor guards and, according to the Cairo press, such a crack shot that "he could take one quick look at his target, close his eyes and shoot and hit." Assigned to shoot Nasser on his return from Saudi Arabia three weeks ago, El Fayyoumi nearly got his chance. Police broke up his cell only two days before Nasser's return.
Although official press reports tried to dismiss the plots as the work of "obscurantist feudalists," the regime was clearly disturbed. Police had arrested an estimated 6,000 conspirators, but it was far from certain that all cells had yet been wiped out and that it was safe for government leaders to appear in public; three brotherhood agents were known to be operating in Morocco, where Nasser was due to appear this week for an Arab summit conference. Even more unsettling was the fact that the brotherhood had managed to attract young university graduates, airline pilots and trained chemists and engineers—the very type of people whom Nasser might expect to be most loyal.