THE rEALISTS, NEOCONS AND ISRAELIS LEARNED NOTHING FROM 9-11:

Egyptians who frequently take the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road have lately noticed that the fee they usually pay to toll collectors now goes to the Ministry of Defense.

In a press conference in November, the Minister of Transportation announced one of the armed forces' companies had been granted legal rights, for 50 years, to develop the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road.

The army, a state within a state that used to protect its interests from the shadows, is now taking bolder steps to cement its power and asserting, increasingly overtly, that it is accountable to no one.

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