Mr. X, secret Brotherhood leader
On July 22, DEBKAfile revealed that a group of six Muslim Brotherhood officials escaped from Egypt after the July 3 overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi in a military coup and smuggled themselves into the Gaza Strip to lead an uprising against the military. The group was headed by Mahmud Izzat Ibrahim, known as the Brotherhood’s “iron man” and fourth in rank in its hierarchy after Supreme Guide Muhammed Badie.
The fugitives set up a command post at the Gaza Beach Hotel for operations against Egyptian military and security targets in collaboration with Hamas and armed Al Qaeda-linked Salafist Bedouin in Sinai. The group planned their revolt to spread quickly out from Sinai to Egypt proper and topple the interim rulers in Cairo.
Western intelligence agencies following the inner workings of the Muslim Brotherhood have since discovered that the Brotherhood’s plans are a good deal more high-powered than first thought.
According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, the movement never dismantled its clandestine paramilitary underground. Its hidden commanders manipulated front politicians from the shadows under three Egyptian presidents and continued to do so after the Brotherhood was elected to power in Cairo in 2012.
At all times since then, the Brothers stood ready to step in should their Freedom and Justice Party leaders be ousted and sent back to prison. “Supreme Guide,” Mohammed Badie was therefore no more than an obedient front for the Muslim Brotherhood’s real leader, who was until now Mr. X.
It now transpires that he is none other than Mahmoud Izzat Ibrahim, who is firmly at the helm and running the show both in Sinai and Cairo from the Gaza Beach Hotel, under the auspices of the Palestinian Hamas rulers.
He plans to confront with violence every action ordered against the Brotherhood by Defense Minister, Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
