Enkelab Al-Asdeka’: Abdel-Nasser and Field Marshal Amer, Mubarak and Abou-Ghazala (Friends turned enemies) by Hamada Emam, Cairo: Geziret El-Ward bookstore, 2011.

A recent publication by journalist, Hamada Emam, tackles the well-known topic of relations between Egyptian presidents and their trusted advisers. Yet this book includes not only stories from here and there, but also historical incidences evidenced by documentation that for the first time enables analysis and historical research into these relations.

Apparently the common factor among all three relationships: Abdel-Nasser and Abdel-Hakim Amer, Sadat and Ahmed Badawy, Mubarak and Abou-Ghazala, is that they “were in the same class, but divided by authority.”

The new acquaintances that started gathering close to Nasser apparently led him dispose of Amer by relieving him of his duties and restricting his movements, and finally his mysterious suicide which is unexplained to this day.

Similarly, the book records the tragic accident that killed Senior Commander Ahmed Badawy when his plane crashed in the desert, and he was replaced at the time of Sadat.

Finally, there is the story of Abou-Ghazala who ended up banished to Iraq by Mubarak.

The book doesn’t stop at these close friendships and their eventual demise, but also describes some of the new acquaintances like Shams Badran, Salah Nasr, Hussein Salem, Loucy Artin and Mounir Thabet.

The book focuses on many of the major cases discussed by newspapers during the 1990s, like the case of “the quartet gang”, businessman Magdy William and others.