Amn Dawla Leaks: Gamal Mubarak ordered terror attack
After Egyptians stormed the state security offices at Amn Dawla over last weekend, Egyptians have started publishing some of the papers and photographs that they removed with them. This one is a doozer. It accuses Gamal Mubarak - Hosni's son - of ordering a terror attack to avenge having his commissions cut back on a natural gas deal with Israel (yes, we're always there somewhere, aren't we?).
One main revelation that has come out in the first days involves a bombing that up to this point was believed to have been perpetrated by Bedouins or Islamists. In the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, about eighty-eight people were killed.
The document describes three car bombs that are to be detonated at the first entrance of the Movenpick Hotel. The second is to be detonated near the hotel and the third is to be detonated at a hotel in the village of Movenpick. All sites of detonation are intended to damage property owned by Hussein Salem. The bombings are planned for Revolution Day, a day that commemorates Gamal Abdel Nasser’s overthrow of King Farouk in 1952.
Prince Mohammed Hashim, Osama Mahmoud Raafat Meselhi and Ziad Abdel-Rahim all agree to terms of implementation on January 29, 2005. The zero hour is scheduled for “the first hour on the morning of 7/23/2005.” It is agreed that the operation will not “depart from the periphery of the parties which combined the same parties that will explode cars when they are inside and thus the process becomes terminated forever.”
The equipment is agreed to be “equipped” and ready on July 20, 2005. The document reveals the bombings were ordered by Gamal Mubarak and former head of the Interior Ministry Habib el-Adly (who since the fall of Mubarak been indicted). The motivation for the bombing, revealed in another document, is a gas deal with Israel. Mubarak believes he must seek revenge because Salem “triggered” a reduction in his commission for the deal from 10% to 5%.
ElBadil writes in their coverage of the document that the Minister of Interior report, which became the official story in Egypt, reads at 1:15 am three locations were bombed in the “P-town of Sharm el-Sheikh.” Islamic elements targeted Ghazala Garden, the Old Market and “a location of the microbus near Naama Bay.” The first blast in the “bazaar” was car bomb that killed 17 people. A bomb stashed in a backpck and placed next to Movenpick Hotel exploded next and killed six tourists. And then, in a hotel in Naama Bay, 45 people were killed.
After the bombing, twenty-five were arrested, as Egypt went after Bedouins they believed were responsible for the bombings.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's sons Alaa (right) and Gamal argued bitterly while their father was recording his last speech last Thursday night.
During the recording of the speech Gamal and Alaa engaged in a heated argument that almost developed into a fight. According to the report, Alaa accused Gamal of dragging the country into corruption by helping his friends in the business industry climb the echelons of political power.
"Instead of working to help your father be honored at the end of his life, you helped damage his image this way," Alaa reportedly told his brother Gamal, who was the head of the ruling party's policies committee.
The argument was so loud that almost everyone in the palace heard them, the newspaper reported, adding that some senior government officials interfered to calm them down.
The newspaper said Gamal lost his temper after he heard the recording of the speech that his father was supposed to deliver that night and in which he was going to declare stepping down.
According to the report, American officials were aware of that recording but they did not know that Gamal had prompted his father to discard it and record a different speech, which was delivered that night.
Sorry for the long silence this evening. I had to drive someone to the airport and because our internet connection was down for a few hours, I could not line up enough posts in advance.
I'm sure a lot of you were as surprised as the White House was last Thursday night when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak did not resign (of course, he eventually did resign on Friday). What happened on Thursday night? Why didn't he resign then? Here's the inside story.
Insiders in Egypt have given The Associated Press an initial picture of what happened in the hours before Egypt's "unoustable" leader of nearly 30 years fell. Some of them spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Their account portrayed Mubarak as unable, or unwilling, to grasp that nothing less than his immediate departure would save the country from the chaos generated by the protests that began January 25. A senior government official said Mubarak lacked the political machinery that could give him sound advice about what was happening in the country.
"He did not look beyond what Gamal was telling him, so he was isolated politically," said the official. "Every incremental move (by Mubarak) was too little too late."
The military, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly impatient with the failure of Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, his newly appointed vice president, to end the protests. The unrest spiraled out of control late last week, with demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins and even gunbattles engulfing almost the entire nation.
Insiders spoke of fighting among Cabinet ministers over how great a threat the demonstrators posed, and of deliberate attempts by close aides, including Gamal Mubarak, to conceal from the president the full extent of what was happening on the streets.
The insiders who spoke to the AP include a senior Egyptian official, editors and journalists from state newspapers close to the regime who have spent years covering Mubarak's presidency, retired army generals in contact with top active duty officers, senior members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party and analysts familiar with the machinations of Mubarak's inner circle.
...
Insiders said Mubarak's address Thursday night was meant to be his resignation announcement. Instead, he made one last desperate attempt to stay in office after being encouraged to do so by close aides and especially by his family, long the subject of rumours of corruption, abuse of power and extensive wealth.
One insider said Gamal, his banker-turned-politician son, rewrote the speech several times before the recording. It was aired at 11pm, several hours after state TV said Mubarak was about to address the nation. It showed brief footage of him meeting with Suleiman and his Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
The address was clearly prepared in a rush. It had rough cuts, and Mubarak was caught at least once acting like he was between takes, fixing his tie and looking away from the camera.
Information Minister Anas al-Fiqqi was there at the studio alongside Gamal Mubarak, according to two of the insiders. State TV quoted him in the hours before the broadcast saying that Mubarak would not resign. On Saturday, al-Fiqqi announced his own resignation.
Mubarak said in the address that he was handing over most of his powers to Suleiman but again rejected calls for his resignation. He vowed to introduce genuine reforms, prosecute those behind the violence that left scores of protesters dead and offered his condolences to the victims' families. He said he was hurting over calls for his removal and, in his defence, recounted his record in public service. He was not going anywhere until his term ended in September, he said.
He had hoped that putting Suleiman in charge would end the protests and allow him to remain in office as a symbolic figure, a scenario that would have seen him make a dignified exit.
The address betrayed what many Egyptians suspected for years - Mubarak was out of touch with the people.
The real question here is whether Mubarak was the only one who was 'out of touch.' Did those around him think they could impose his rule on Egyptians for another several months to allow him a dignified exit? Did they still think there was a chance that his son Gamal would succeed him? Someday, we will find out.
A senior adviser from Israel's Ministry of Defense told U.S. diplomats in Tel Aviv in August 2008 that Suleiman was viewed as the most likely interim president if Mubarak died or was incapacitated.
U.S. diplomat Luis Moreno wrote that "there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of" Suleiman, according to the cable released Monday night by WikiLeaks and published by the Daily Telegraph on its website.
In 2008, Mubarak's son Gamal was seen as his father's likely successor. Suleiman, who was head of the foreign intelligence service, at the time was Israel's main contact in the Egyptian government. The cable notes that a hot-line set up between Israel's Defense Ministry and the Suleiman-led Egyptian General Intelligence Service was in "daily use."
The leaked cable reveals that Suleiman, angry at Israeli criticism of Egypt's ineffectiveness in stopping arms smuggling to Gaza, suggested that Israel send troops to Egypt's Philadelphi Corridor and stop the smuggling by itself.
The cables also quote Suleiman as saying that Hamas should be isolated and that Gaza could "go hungry but not starve."
I wonder if the average Egyptian would agree with those statements by Suleiman. If so, we are in good shape. Take that, Erdogan.
For those of you who have been having a hard time keeping score at home, ABC News' Jake Tapper walks us through the evolving White House positions on Egypt over the past two weeks.
Christiane Amanpour interviews Hosni Mubarak; Son Gamal is in Egypt
ABC News' Christiane Amanpour interviewed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday. Here's a brief summary of the interview with Amanpour and Diane Sawyer discussing it.
Let's go to the videotape.
The full interview will air as part of a one-hour special at 11:35 pm US Eastern time on Thursday night (that's 6:35 am Friday morning here in Israel). And you will note that Amanpour says that Gamal Mubarak is in the palace.
Here's another video with Amanpour. Let's go to the videotape.
Here's Amanpour on the streets of Cairo earlier in the day. Let's go to the videotape.
Finally, here's Wednesday night's report, which some of you may have missed.
Israel Radio reports that things are relatively 'quiet' in Egypt, that there is a curfew in Egypt, so there are very few cars and people in the streets, and that Foreign Minister Omar Suleiman has been appointed Vice President. That is apparently not enough for the demonstrators.
The BBC reported that Gamal and his wife were both in London, but al-Jazeera is reporting that both of Hosni Mubarak's sons are in Cairo, although both have left their homes.
The pictures in this post are of vandalism in the Cairo Museum - those broken artifacts that you see are priceless. They were posted originally by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, a columnist for The National (an Emirati newspaper) and posted to YFrog by Blake Hounshell (one of the editors of Foreign Policy Magazine).
Unfortunately, looters have destroyed many of these priceless artifacts.
Looters broke into the Egyptian Museum during anti-government protests late on Friday and destroyed two Pharaonic mummies, Egypt's top archaeologist told state television.
The museum in central Cairo, which has the world's biggest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party that protesters had earlier set ablaze. Flames were seen still pouring out of the party headquarters early on Saturday.
"I felt deeply sorry today when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night," Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Saturday.
"Egyptian citizens tried to prevent them and were joined by the tourism police, but some [looters] managed to enter from above and they destroyed two of the mummies," he said.
He added looters had also ransacked the ticket office.
The two-storey museum, built in 1902, houses tens of thousands of objects in its galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen collection.
Meantime, Egyptian intelligence chief Gen. Omar Suleiman was named vice president Saturday -- the first to hold that post in Egypt since 1981, Egypt state television reported.
The appointment of the veteran Egyptian security official who has dealt extensively with Washington on the peace process, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation talks, counter-terrorism, and other security matters, came hours after embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced overnight that he would dissolve his cabinet and implement political and economic reforms.
President Barack Obama said he called Mubarak after his speech last night and pressed him to make good on his pledges for reform, and said violence is not the way to deal with the grievances that have built up in Egyptian society.
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The appointment of Suleiman, a more technocratic figure (and non Mubarak relative) who has developed a strong working rapport with Washington and other Middle Eastern capitals, to the Vice Presidential post, suggests a potential transition figure and bulwark against instability as Mubarak's exit is envisioned, from Washington's perspective.
"The message [of Suleiman's appointment] is intended to be, even if Mubarak goes, the system remains," Jon Alterman, an Egypt expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Saturday.
"I don't think Suleiman seeks the presidency," Alterman continued. "That being said, it's hard to imagine Mubarak is president in a year."
Foreign policy scholar Robert Kagan, who co-chairs a bipartisan Egypt working group that has been urging the Obama administration to prepare for the post-Mubarak era and press for reforms, writes that he thinks Obama's statement last night after his conversation with the Egyptian ruler was pretty good.
"They're not as on the fence as people think," Kagan, of the Brookings Institution, said by e-mail Saturday, referring to the U.S. administration. "I think the administration knows there has to be some kind of transition soon."
Kagan envisions a possible transition scenario under which Mubarak would agree to move now to allow free and fair, internationally monitored presidential elections in September, open up the press, etc. that would make way for Mubarak's peaceful departure in the next six months.
"The only way out for Mubarak is to allow free and fair, competitive elections, including inviting international monitors to come in," Kagain said. "And right away, because they have to monitor months of campaigning leading up to the elections." It also requires, he said, "changes to constitution to allow candidates not currently approved to run ... [a] completely free press, etc."
"If Mubarak announced this right away, it could prevent him from being toppled," Kagan said. "It is possible that Egyptians would still want Mubarak out even if he made these concessions, but I think it could work."
From Washington's perspective, CSIS's Alterman said, "peaceful change is most likely to lead to a more inclusive government, and violence is likely to lead to an extended period of tension and instability and radicalize both sides. The clear U.S. interest is in avoiding a bloodbath in the streets."
Gamal Mubarak, the son and putative successor of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, fled to London on Wednesday morning.
The plane with Gamal Mubarak, his wife and daughter on board left for London Tuesday from an airport in western Cairo, the website Akhbar al-Arab said.
The report came as violent unrest broke out in Cairo and other Egyptian cities and hundreds of thousands of people reportedly took to the streets in a Tunisia-inspired day of revolt.
The protesters want Egyptian government to end its 30-year state of emergency and pass a law preventing a president from serving more than two terms, and want the Interior Minister Habib al-Adly to resign.
Protests in Egypt broke out after opposition groups waged an internet campaign inspired by the Tunisian uprising. Weeks of unrest in Tunisia eventually toppled president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month.
A police officer was killed in clashes Tuesday in central Cairo, Egyptian daily al-Wafd reported.
Over 30,000 protesters gathered in Cairo's Maidan al-Tahrir square to take part in the "day of anger", said the spokesman for Egypt's '6 April' opposition movement, Mohammed Adel.
"Police used tear gas and water canon to break up our protest and they arrested 40 of us, but we don't have official figures on the numbers of arrests across Egypt," said Adel.
Supporters of the '6 April' movement, the opposition al-Ghad party, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the al-Wafd party and supporters of former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohammed El Baradei took part in the protest.
Hmmm. It seems to me that Gamal fled a little more quickly than was necessary, and he may yet pay a price for that. I doubt he will return.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
After Egyptians stormed the state security offices at Amn Dawla over last weekend, Egyptians have started publishing some of the papers and photographs that they removed with them. This one is a doozer. It accuses Gamal Mubarak - Hosni's son - of ordering a terror attack to avenge having his commissions cut back on a natural gas deal with Israel (yes, we're always there somewhere, aren't we?).
