Egypt pulls TV propaganda ad warning about foreigners

Associated Press
Egypt pulls TV spots warning about foreigners

Mon. June 11, 2012

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Egypt's Government has pulled TV public service announcements that warned against talking to foreigners because they might be spies after critics charged the spots fueled xenophobia and aimed to tarnish those behind last year's uprising.

The two spots ran on state and private television stations for a few days before minister of information Ahmed Anis ordered them off the air, a media official said yesterday.

One opens with a blond-haired young man scanning a cafe while a narrator says: "From the beginning, he knows why he is here and sets up his goal. He won't have to spend much time getting to know the people in the place." The foreigner then spots three young Egyptians and heads over to them, saying in broken Arabic: "I love you so much." 

The narrator says: "Our generosity has no limits," as one of the Egyptians stands up, shakes hands and invites the foreigner to sit with them.

It goes on to show the visitor smiling slyly and narrowing his eyes while listening intently to the Egyptians complaining about the economy and talking about overhearing a plot against the ruling military council in the subway. The narrator warns Egyptians not to share with outsiders their woes about the economy or political situation.

Both spots close with: "Every word comes with a price. A word can save a nation."

Claims of a "meddling foreign hand" found resonance among many Egyptians during and after the uprising. The revolt was driven by youthful activists who relied heavily on social networking sites.

But some among the wider public have mixed feelings about foreigners and suspect the United States, Israel and others are scheming against their nation and Islam, the faith of most Egyptians. At the same time, they worry about losing the country's main source of income, tourism.

It is not clear which state agency ordered production of the TV announcements. But some pointed the finger at Egypt's security agencies, including military intelligence, which have a long-standing xenophobic culture. The agencies have remained largely intact after Hosni Mubarak's ouster in the uprising, which left power in the hands of a military council led by Mubarak's defence minister of 20 years.

Ahmed Maher, co-founder of April 6, one of the youth groups that steered the uprising, described the spots as "deceptive to spread fear of conspiracies and tarnish the image of the revolutionaries by indicating that dealing with foreign journalists leads to leaking dangerous information about Egypt".

Last year, Maher's group was accused by the military rulers of having a "foreign agenda" and of receiving funding and training from abroad, claims that suggest plotting against the country with foreign help.

Egyptian army cracks down on protesters darkens outlook

TIME
No More Protests? Egypt's Army Cracks Down

Wednesday, Mar. 16, 2011

Rania Abouzeid


The bare-chested 20-year-old Egyptian turns slowly to reveal a broad back that resembles a work of sadistic abstract art — a bloody, bruised composition of pink, red and purple. Long, deep gashes had been sliced through his skin; welts, pinker and more superficial, crisscross his body. His upper left arm is a mix of purples, a cufflike bruise that wraps all the way around his bicep. His right hand is bandaged, one of his fingers sprained. He runs his good hand over his closely shorn hair. His wavy locks, he says, were shaved off with glass shards by the same people who beat him.

On Wednesday, March 9, Khalid, who does not want his last name published, went down to Cairo's Tahrir Square, concerned about reports that thugs were attacking protesters in the iconic site where he had previously joined hundreds of thousands of his compatriots in the protests that brought down President Hosni Mubarak. He wanted to check on several friends among the hundreds of activists still camped out in the square to press the military government to meet the revolution's demands.

That afternoon, without warning, soldiers surged into the square behind what several witnesses said were lines of plainclothes thugs armed with metal pipes, electric cables and long, thick wooden rods. The uniformed and non-uniformed men reportedly worked in tandem, just like in Mubarak's days, rounding up hundreds of young men and women in an attack that lasted several hours, according to multiple accounts.

Khalid had been standing off to the side of the square, he says, when "a young baltagi" — Egyptian slang for a thug — pointed him out to several soldiers, yelling, "He's one of them." Within minutes, Khalid says, soldiers started punching him and two of his friends, before forcing them into the National Museum along with others grabbed on the square.

Human Rights Watch, quoting local activists, says that 190 of those detained were transferred to military prisons that day. Some, like Khalid and another Tahrir veteran, 33-year-old advertising executive Mahmoud Youssef, were released later that night, after being subjected to what Youssef and rights organizations say was hours of torture at the hands of the army and their plainclothes colleagues. About 153 still remain in custody, including 19 women.

Youssef says he was blindfolded, had his hands tied behind his back and was told to lie on his stomach. He was pummeled and kicked for hours with cables, pipes and other implements, in an account that meshes with what several other detainees have claimed. He doesn't understand why he was detained, given that the soldiers did not interrogate him. "They didn't even check my ID," he says. "I knew that the army was capable of this and that this was one of their methods. What I didn't expect was to be let go."

While grateful for his freedom, Youssef hasn't forgotten those still in custody. On Saturday, he, along with dozens of other young men and women, stood outside the imposing headquarters of the Military Tribunal in Nasr City, where many of the detainees are reportedly being held. Youssef was one of five young Tahrir activists allowed to meet on Saturday with senior military personnel in the building to lobby for the release of their detained comrades. He says the officers who addressed them "talked to us the way they talk to dogs," not in the fatherly tones heard previously in Tahrir Square. "There's no more baba," he says wryly as he lights one cigarette after the other.

"They told us that the situation in the country is very bad, and that we were disturbing the peace. They said our friends will be tried in military courts and that they will face not less than one year's prison for terrorizing civilians, among other charges," he says, adding that the officers told him the women would be "pardoned."

Human Rights Watch has called on Egypt's ruling Supreme Military Council to investigate and prosecute allegations of torture by the army, and to stop prosecuting civilians in military tribunals. "There can be no break from the abuses of the past while security forces — including military personnel — abuse people with impunity," Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, recently said in a statement.

But in the new Egypt, some of the security forces don't appear to have changed their ways. One of the revolution's main demands had been for the dissolution of the dreaded state security network associated with the police force. Newly appointed Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy had initially said that was a nonstarter, but on Tuesday he acquiesced to the demand. Still, its unclear how much will really change, given that el-Essawy said that a new national security agency would be formed in its place.

State security was a force of some 170,000, el-Essawi said. The new agency's mandate will be restricted to combating terrorism and espionage rather than spying on citizens. But preventing domestic terrorism would possibly require spying on its citizens.

The new minister's comments came just days after several offices of the much feared state security agencies, including the internal spy agency's Cairo headquarters, had been stormed by civilians who unearthed thousands of documents purportedly containing detailed surveillance of activists, artists, Muslim Brotherhood members, politicians and regular citizens. Some reportedly detailed torture; others were said to be more salacious and included sex tapes. Although 47 state security officers were arrested this week for their involvement in shredding and burning documents, it's unclear if anybody will be held accountable for the human-rights abuses detailed in the files.

"Nothing will happen to the security agencies," General Fouad Allam, former deputy chief of state security, told TIME recently. This idea that everything is going to change — no, it's wrong. There can be a change in ideas, a different approach, but you don't eliminate a system."

Khalid, the 20-year-old Tahrir veteran, doesn't know what has happened to his two friends, but his experience hasn't shaken his support for the army. "When the army first went down to the square, we were very happy, saying the army and the people are one hand. I still say that. I think it was a one-off, an isolated incident, but there is something going on and I don't understand it," he says. Former Prime Minister "Ahmed Shafiq and Mubarak are not being tried and they want to try us in military courts for peacefully protesting?" he adds. "I don't know why they are acting like this."

Egypt dissolves hated State Security force

REUTERS
Egypt dissolves hated internal security force

Tue Mar 15, 2011

Tom Perry

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt on Tuesday dissolved an internal security and spying agency whose reputation for brutality helped ignite the uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power last month.

The dissolution of state security marks another achievement for the Egyptian protest movement that forced Mubarak from office after three decades as president in a show of people power that continues to reverberate across the region.

Tantamount to Egypt's Stasi, state security was a hated symbol of Mubarak's rule and used by his administration to crush political opposition. Reformists feared that its survival was a risk to their hopes of establishing accountable government.

The Interior Ministry replaced state security with a new National Security Force, which would serve "the nation without interfering in the lives of citizens or their right to exercise their political rights," the state news agency reported.

Pressure for action grew after protesters stormed state security's offices across Egypt earlier this month, finding piles of shredded files, evidence of torture and documents showing the full extent of the agency's internal espionage.

Its head has been arrested and is facing investigation for ordering the killing of demonstrators during the uprising against Mubarak. Another 47 of its personnel have been detained on suspicion of destroying documents.

Opposition groups and reformists said state security officers must now be held to account so that Egypt can turn the page on the past.

Two state security policemen are standing trial over the death of Khaled Said, an online activist killed last year. His death is seen as a milestone on the road to the uprising.

Tunisia, whose popular uprising helped ignite the Egypt revolt, dissolved similar security services earlier this month.

DEMANDS FOR DISCLOSURE, ACCOUNTABILITY

"What is needed now is the trial of the leadership of the apparatus for what happened in the January revolution, the killing of demonstrators," said Abou Elela Mady, a reformist politician. "Disclosure is important for appeasing and satisfying the people."

Ayman Nour, an opposition figure who himself came under close state security scrutiny, echoed those demands and said the Interior Ministry should make a formal apology.

He has said Egypt must follow the example set by Germany after unification, holding to account people who had spied on fellow citizens. The Muslim Brotherhood said the dissolution of state security was "a step in the right direction."

The new security agency will be tasked with guarding internal security and fighting terrorism in line with the constitution and the principles of human rights, the state news agency reported.

"The selection and appointment of the officers of the new force will take place in the coming few days," it said.

One analyst said that members of the dissolved security force who had the right skills and training were expected to be absorbed by the national intelligence agency.

Mustapha Kamal al-Sayyid, a political scientist, said the dissolution of state security would boost the popularity of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the new cabinet it installed earlier this month.

The military council had initially only committed itself to constitutional amendments and holding free and fair elections.

But it has appeared ever more responsive to the demands of the reform movement as it manages the transitional period at the end of which power will be handed to an elected government.

"This will increase the popularity of the government and dissipate feelings that the Supreme Council of Armed Forces was not responding to the revolution's demands," Sayyid said.

He added: "It is very difficult to judge now if this decision is the dismantling of the state security apparatus or reforming it under a different name. It should be clearer in a matter of weeks."

*(Additional reporting by Sarah Mikhail and Marwa Awad)