July 3, 2013.

Egyptians Brace for Army Deadline

The Ministry of Truth ----Minitrue, in Newspeak----was startling different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, three hundred meters into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

CAIRO----Egyptians on Wednesday morning were counting down to an afternoon ultimatum that could set up a violent confrontation between Egypt's military and President Mohammed Morsi and his defiant supporters.

The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided: the Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts; the Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war; the Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order; and the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.

The brewing conflict between the two sides exploded into fighting on Tuesday night, when 18 people died in clashes between Mr. Morsi's supporters and his opponents outside Cairo University in the suburb of Giza, according to the spokesman of Egypt's ministry of health.

The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within half a kilometer of it. It was a place of impossible to enter except on official business, and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons.

The fighting followed bellicose comments from both sides. In a lengthy late-night speech, Mr. Morsi pledged that he would defend the legitimacy of Egypt's constitution and the presidency to which he was elected more than a year ago. Without elaborating, he mentioned the possibility of parliamentary elections in six months, part of a list of proposals he said he would consider during talks with the opposition.