Vendetta Time in Egypt?

The Washington Times' Eli Lake is seeing ominous signs that the new Egyptian government may be moving against allies of the former Mubarak regime.

Eli Lake discerns some ominous harbingers in Egypt.

The detention of an Egyptian industrial leader is raising new fears that those who prospered under the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak will face revolutionary justice despite the West's hope that Egypt will emerge as a democracy.

The daughter of imprisoned industrialist Ahmed Ezz wants Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to raise the issue during her visit to Cairo this week, the first stop in Egypt by a senior U.S. official since the fall of the Mubarak government.

"I worry that the recent arrests of prominent businessmen and members of the former government are merely show trials used to appease the public's anger," Afaf Ezz, the daughter of Mr. Ezz, stated in a letter to Mrs. Clinton sent Monday.

The detention of Mr. Ezz could signal an uglier phase in the Egyptian revolution, where key figures in the former regime are facing public trials through emergency courts. His arrest has made headlines in the Egyptian press, which has portrayed him as one of the chief enemies of the recent revolution that ousted Mr. Mubarak and led to an interim military government.

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