Western Official: "Tantawi is not a reformer"... but he is nice..

(AFP)- "CAIRO — Egypt's de facto leader, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, who heads a military council that has pledged to bring democracy to Egypt, is "not a reformer", a Western official said on Thursday. "He's not a reformer. He's a man who is committed to protecting the Egyptian people," the official told reporters in Cairo on condition of anonymity. "There is a streak of decency in him that you see because he simply identifies with the Egyptian people and he would never knowingly, I think, allow his troops to harm them," the official said....

The same cable described Tantawi as while "charming and courtly," also "aged and change-resistant." The army was hailed as a saviour ..... On Wednesday, Amnesty International slammed the army over the "shocking" treatment of women protesters, who were subjected to torture and forced "virginity tests."..."