Haykal on Mubarak

The new book by Haykal (serialized in Ash-Shuruq newspaper in Cairo and As-Safir in Beirut) is a very revealing look at Mubarak.  Mubarak was never exposed for being the petty and dumb person that he is.  It shows him as a Reagan-like person, very detached from the affairs of government.  I don't think that Arab readers have been provided with that view of the man before, because a great (US-led) propaganda machine helped create an image of Mubarak as a "great statesman" (all those Arabs who serve Israeli interests are called "statesmen" from King Khuuusayn to Fu'ad Sanyurah to Salam Fayyad to Husni Mubarak to Bin `Ali of Tunisia and of course, the puppet, Sadat).   Also, the book has something new about the relationship between Mubarak and his once-defense minister, `Abdul-Halim Abu Ghazalah.