20. The Assassination Plan
The thaw between Egypt and Israel culminated in a 1979 peace treaty, the Camp David Accords. It won Egyptian president Anwar Sadat a Nobel Prize and applause in the West. However, many of his fellow countrymen and Arab neighbors saw it as a sellout. Their numbers included Omar Abdel Rahman, the “Blind Sheik” later convicted for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, who issued a fatwa for killing Sadat.
On October 6th, 1981, Sadat, surrounded by high-ranking officials and dignitaries, took his place at a reviewing stand to watch what by then had become an annual military parade. Things started well. As TV cameras transmitted the event live, jet overflights zoomed overhead, while army trucks towing artillery paraded by. One truck contained a lieutenant Khalid Islambouli, who had arrived that morning with some substitute soldiers for ones whom he claimed had fallen ill.
