The New York Times reports: A top adviser to President Mohamed Morsi issued an open letter Wednesday afternoon lamenting what he called the imminent takeover of Egypt’s first freely elected government.

“As I write these lines I am fully aware that these may be the last lines I get to post on this page,” the adviser, Essam el-Haddad, wrote on his Facebook page. “For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let’s call what is happening by its real name: Military coup.”

Mr. Haddad and his family went to the streets two years ago to help oust former President Hosni Mubarak, he wrote. “We stood, and we still stand, for a very simple idea: given freedom, we Egyptians can build institutions that allow us to promote and choose among all the different visions for the country. We quickly discovered that almost none of the other actors were willing to extend that idea to include us,” he wrote, charging that the opposition and bureaucracy had refused to collaborate with elected leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Today only one thing matters,” he wrote. “In this day and age no military coup can succeed in the face of sizable popular force without considerable bloodshed. Who among you is ready to shoulder that blame?”

And he warned with new force that the president’s Islamist supporters would not go quietly. “Hundreds of thousands of them have gathered in support of democracy and the Presidency,” he wrote. “And they will not leave in the face of this attack. To move them, there will have to be violence. It will either come from the army, the police, or the hired mercenaries. Either way there will be considerable bloodshed.” [Continue reading…]