Palace intrigue: the last days of Mubarak's rule

CAIRO (AFP) – The end of Hosni Mubarak's rule was marked by bungling and confusion as he was misled by his interior minister and urged by his son to ignore the anger on the Egyptian street, according to the media.
State and private newspapers also report a heated argument between Mubarak's two sons -- Alaa, the eldest, and Gamal, the president's presumed successor -- with the former accusing the latter of "sullying the image" of their father.
On February 10, a day before Mubarak's nearly three decades in power came to a sudden end, "there was great confusion, even impotence, at the presidential palace," the state-owned Al-Ahram wrote.
"They did not really understand what was happening... the mentality of the authorities had not changed," the daily said, referring to 18 days of popular protests that began on January 25.
According to various newspapers, Gamal, 47, had a hand in his father's speeches to the nation from the beginning of the crisis.
"Gamal Mubarak managed the crisis... with an eye on power," Al-Ahram said.
"It was not until very late that he realised that he no longer figured in the political scene. This is why the speeches did not correspond with what the people wanted to hear. This heightened their anger," the paper reported.
On Thursday, when Mubarak made his fateful final televised address, it was reportedly Gamal who convinced him at the last moment to abandon a promise to the army that he step down and instead make a bid to cling on.
"Others suggested a more conciliatory and sentimental tone, but Gamal did not agree. The speech inflamed the crowd," Al-Ahram said.
Gamal's methods did not even have unanimous support within his family.
According to the state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper, the sons almost came to blows after the recording of Mubarak's speech on February 10, which was subject to their 11th hour edits and rewrites.
"You have corrupted the country when you opened the door to your business friends and this is the result. Instead of our father being honoured at the end of his life, you have sullied his image," Alaa reportedly yelled at Gamal.
According to Al-Akhbar, Mubarak's speech was rewritten in such a way that it confused his key ally the United States and other Western governments, which expected a different tone to be adopted in addressing the protests.
The privately owned news website Al Yaum Al Sabeh said first lady Suzanne Mubarak fainted twice because of the argument between Alaa and Gamal.
Initially, it seems, it was Egypt's former and much-detested interior minister Habib al-Adly who led the president astray.
"The report that Adly presented to president Mubarak before January 25 minimised the importance of the demonstration," which kicked off 18 days of anti-Mubarak protests that eventually led to his fall, Al-Ahram reported.
Adly subsequently explained the "surprising success" of the demonstration to Mubarak by saying that the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian regime's perennial foe, "had mobilised the youth on foreign instructions."
The minister was convinced "it was the agitation of 'a handful of families,' that the event could be 'contained' and that 'everything was under control'."
Eighteen days later, Mubarak left office under pressure from the street.