Month: July 2006

More on top regime prosecutor appointed head of Supreme Constitutional Court

This follows from the previous post on the same issue.

A reader who follows judicial issues in Egypt writes:

Al-Misri al-Yom has reported that Maher ‘Abd al-Wahid has been appointed to replace Mamduh Mar‘i as the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court. This continues a pattern of political appointments to that position in a manner that has effectively subjugated what had been a very vigorous (if sometimes idiosyncratic) defender of constitutional rights during the 1990s.

Continue reading More on top regime prosecutor appointed head of Supreme Constitutional Court

Most foreign Jihadis in Iraq are Egyptians, US military says

A journalist friend of mine sent me an AFP report, including allegations by the US military that most foreign jihadis in Iraq come from Egypt.
I’ve been a bit interested in that issue since early 2003. In interviews prior and during the war, experts in Cairo were warning then of the prospects of Iraq breeding a new generation of Islamist militants, or “Iraqi Arabs� (a la Afghan Arabs).
President Mubarak himself expressed his concern over the war in 2003 saying it would produce “100 Bin Ladens.”
(Mubarak expressed privately more urging concerns. In the rather long and extremely boring memoirs of General Tommy Franks, the former head of US army CENTCOM recalls his visit to Cairo on January 23, 2003:

Hosni Mubarak was as friendly as always. But he was clearly concerned with our military buildup and the tension in Iraq.
He leaned close and spoke to me in an accented but readily comprehensible English. “General Franks,� he said, choosing his words carefully, as (Jordanian King) Abdullah had done. “You must be very, very careful. We have spoken with Saddam Hussein. He is a madman. He has WMD—biologicals, actually—and he will use them on your troops.�
An hour later, in the Embassy communications room, I passed this message to Don Rumsfeld.

This is mentioned in Tommy’s–again, rather long and extremely boring–memoirs, American Soldier, on pages 418-9)
Since the start of the war, the US has inflated the Arab volunteers’ importance and involvement in attacks. I myself admit I was guilty of the same mistake. I was following the Iraqi scene from my comfortable place in Cairo. Media reports and Islamist sources in Egypt and Europe were my sources of information. And I think it suited everybody in the beginning to blame the attacks on the “foreign terrorists.â€� The US then U-turned after the first all out assault on Fallouja, and I recall coming across reports saying it was “discoveredâ€� the foreign fighters constituted actually a minority of the Islamist jihadis caught.
The cycle of exaggerating or underestimating the contribution of foreign jihadis has been ebbing and flowing… and always the question of which country has the lion share of volunteers, comes up.
There have been conflicting reports. A former colleague of mine at the LA Times told me once she obtained some study claiming Algerians constituted the majority. And if I’m not mistaken, I recall coming across reports that talked about either the Saudis, Syrians, or Jordanians constituting the majority.
I don’t honestly buy the reports about “Zarqawi’s networks� in Europe and about how he was exporting fighters there. I think these reports are trumped up by the European security agencies. Still, the threat of “Iraqi Arabs� or “returnees from Iraq� is present. Up till now, the militancy has spilled over to Jordan, with the suicide bombings that targeted the tourist hotels, and the attacks on Eilat and US warships in 3aqaba Gulf.
(I am not monitoring the situation in Saudi, but if any of you dear readers are, please inform us if the recent spate of attacks in the kingdom involved an “Iraqi link.�)
This new report on Egyptian jihadis in Iraq, as well as the presence of an Egyptian on top of Iraq’s Al-Qa3da now, means there will be more “cooperation” between the US and our Egyptian Mukhabarrat… i.e., it’s an additional incentive to forget “democracy” issues when it comes to bilateral relations, since “counterterrorism” (a terrorism produced ironically by the lack of democracy in the first place) tops everybody’s agendas. Continue reading Most foreign Jihadis in Iraq are Egyptians, US military says

Activism Calendar (Updated… again)

MONDAY, JULY 3
Kefaya and socialists are meeting with labor activists to strategize for the August national labor union elections, 7pm, at the Center for Socialist Studies.
TUESDAY, JULY 4
Kefaya is holding a press conference, 12 noon, publicizing the findings of its report on Corruption in Egypt. The detailed report is the product of months of work by a group of the movement’s youth, academics and economists. The conference will be held at the Egyptian Center for Studies, building #15, 26th of July Street, behind Grand Hotel in Ramsis.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 5
The Press Syndicate’s Liberties’ Committee has called for a demonstration in front of the Arab League HQ, 12 noon, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
FRIDAY, JULY 7
A group of bloggers have called for a demo in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo, 3pm, following the Friday prayers, to protest the Israeli military operations in Gaza. The meeting point would be in front of Nahdet Masr’s statue. For more information click here.
SUNDAY, JULY 9
In protest of the new press law, expected to be endorsed by the NDP-controlled parliament, 12 opposition and independent newspapers are to suspend printing on Sunday. A national boycott of government-owned publications has been called for by the opposition. Journalists for Change have called for a demo in front of the Parliament at 11am.
MONDAY, JULY 10
A Memorial will be held for Egypt’s two “Communist Saints,” Ahmad Nabil el-Hilaly and Youssef Darwish, 7pm at the Press Syndicate.
FRIDAY, JULY 14
A memorial will be held for Ahmad 3abdallah Rozza, the 1970s legendary student activist, 7pm at the Press Syndicate.
TUESDAY, JULY 18
The Center for Socialist Studies is organizing a lecture, 7pm, titled, The Palestinian Divisions: New pressures on Hamas. Speakers include: Dr. Hassan Naf3a, Political Science prof at Cairo University, together with one of the center’s members.
THURSDAY, JULY 27
The Center for Socialist Studies is organizing a discussion on, The Ya3qoubian Building… An insight into Mubarak’s Egypt. Participants will include, Judge Noha el-Zeini, the novel’s author 3alaa el-Aswani, and Khaled el-Sawi, movie star and member of Artists for Change.

Solidarity demo for Gaza

Around 500 demonstrators gathered in front of the Press Syndicate today, to denounce the Israeli military operations in Gaza. The protestors, mostly nationalists and leftists, chanted against Israel’s assault on Gaza, the US support for Tel Aviv, and against the Egyptian Mukhabarrat whose agents are involved in mediations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

(UPDATE: See pictures of the demo by photographers Victoria Hazou and Nasser Nouri. You can also see one by Tara Todras-Whitehill after the jump.)
Continue reading Solidarity demo for Gaza

Egyptians in California charged with slavery

Unfortunately, this kind of treatment of domestic servants is all-too-common in Egypt and the region, particularly the Gulf. These sadists decided they could do it in California too:

Egyptian couple in California plead guilty to slavery charges

Fri Jun 30, 7:45 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – An Egyptian couple living in southern California have pleaded guilty to slavery charges involving a now-16 year old girl they forcibly kept working in their home for two years, according to US attorneys Friday.

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Abdelnasser Eid Youssef Ibrahim, 45 and his ex-wife, Amal Ahmed Ewis-abd Motelib, 43, are accused of harboring an illegal alien, obtaining labor by force, and conspiracy.

The girl worked as nanny and housekeeper for a family of seven up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

“She had to work all day long,” Assistant US Attorney Robert Keenan said. “They used unlawful forms of coercion such as hitting and slapping, and threats of arrest by the police if she ever went outside on her own.”

The girl began working for the couple as a domestic servant in Egypt in 1999, and the couple brought her into the United States in 2000 where her forced servitude continued for two years.

The couple kept the girl in an unfurnished, unventilated, and unlighted garage that building inspectors deemed “deplorable.”

The slaveholders, who pleaded guilty Thursday, are expected to be sentenced to three years in prison and required to pay the girl 101,516 dollars in restitution.


Ironically, they could have given her a decent place to live, decent salary and flight back home once a year for much, much less than that. One only wishes these types of people could face jail in Egypt!

A blog from Gaza

Excuse Dr. Mona El-Farra’s poor English, her neighborhood is being bombed:

my freind hoda , lives next to the ministry of interior building , in Gaza, that was hit last night with 2 rockets ,the attack occured 2am yesterday,please forgive me about the accuracy , l am starting to lose track of days and nights , and how many times we were attacked , hoda told me that the whole building was shaking ,she went out ,with her pyjamas , all the residents were out in their night wear ,children faces were too pale ,some of them were crying hystiricaly,the fume filled the place , the flat next door were largely damaged(it is the next to the building that was targeted),where a fmily with 6 children live ,there was large fire, the firee brigades used her flat , to put off the fire, the Ministry of interior building was empty during the attack !!!!,the aim was revenge and destroyingof the building ,i live 150 meters from Hoda place , no body is safe no one is immune .what happened with Hoda reminded me with the night when Late president ARafat headquarters in Gaza were attacked , 2 years ago, i live nearby , and too close , that night 37 shelling hit that building,

. . .

how can i let you know what is my personal feelings , during this raids,if iam sleeping my bed shakes tremendously,my dauhgter jumps to my bed,shivering with fear then both of us end up on the floor ,my heart beats go very fast , and i had to pacify my daughter , now she knows we need to pacify eachother , she feels my fear, if iam awake i flinch up and scream loudly , i cannot helpmyself , ok iam a doctor and mature middleaged woman with large experience and an activist too,but with this booming i go hystirical ,after all we are all humans and each have its own threshold ,hearing the sound of breaking windows is frightening too , many tin roofs in the refujee camps colapsed on the heads of families , as a result of this booming ,hospitals received large number of phsychologicaly traumatised children.

From Gaza, with love.

Update: Fikr Shaltoot of Medical Aid for Palestinians is also keeping a blog on what’s happening.

3alaa asks for your help to free his friends

3alaa Seif, the leftist blogger who has recently come out of prison, is appealing to you to help release his friends Mohamed Sharqawi and Kareem el-Sha3er.
Please check out the appeal on Human Rights First website.
3alaa, and other leftists, have been also campaigning for the release of Muslim Brothers detainees.
Mr. El-Sa3id Ramadan, one of the editors of Ikhwan Web, sent me a list of the MB detainees who were mostly picked up during pro-democracy demos. The number of detainees had exceeded 900 since last March, but it has gone down to less than 600 detainees at the moment, according to Ramadan, as there has been some recent releases.
The list is in Arabic, and there are missing names (for some reason the file was corrupt), which Ramadan has promised to send in soon. We’ll be updating the list as we receive more names.
(If you are a Muslim Brother activist, and know more names, please contact the website administrator, and we’ll add the names you know.)

UPDATE: The full list of detainees could be found here.