EGYPT: GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED PRESS SLAMS DOHA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 001690 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC STAFF FOR WATERS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM EG QA SUBJECT: EGYPT: GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED PRESS SLAMS DOHA DEMOCRACY MEETING REF: A. OSC SERIAL GMP20070604013004 ¶B. OSC SERIAL GMP20070530013003 ¶C. OSC SERIAL GMP20070529013004 ¶D. CAIRO 1603 ¶E. CAIRO 1499 Classified by DCM Stuart Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Editorials in the GOE-controlled press (Refs A-C) have strongly criticized the May 27-29 conference in Doha on "Democracy and Political Reform in the Arab World." The attacks have singled out the Doha meeting's most prominent Egyptian participant, Egyptian-American democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim (SEI),whose Ibn Khaldun Center is the recipient of MEPI and USAID funding. GOE irritation with SEI is long-standing, but a column that he published on May 9 that was sharply critical of President Mubarak may have rekindled GOE anger. With SEI now in Prague to attend the June 5-6 conference on "Democracy and Security: Core Values and Sound Policies," where President Bush is expected to deliver remarks on democracy, we anticipate that the GOE-controlled press will continue its offensive against both SEI and democracy promotion in Egypt. End summary. -------------- SEI and Doha -------------- ¶2. (C) SEI's activism, and in particular his leading role in the May 27-29 Doha conference on "Democracy and Political Reform in the Arab World," appears to have touched a nerve. Leading GOE-controlled newspapers, such as Al-Gomhoriya and Al-Akhbar, have slammed the Doha meeting and SEI's participation as evidence of "foreign interference" in Egyptian affairs. In addition, the "independent" daily Rose Al-Yousef, which is widely believed to be bankrolled by Gamal Mubarak associate Ahmed Ezz (a steel tycoon and member of Parliament who also serves as the NDP's Secretary for Membership),and to serve as a conduit for derogatory information channeled by the security services, has also strongly criticized the Doha meeting as well as the Egyptian activists who participated in it. (Septel reports a related Rose Al-Yousef article strongly criticizing USG democracy grants to Egyptian civil society.) -------------- Al-Gomhoriya's "Official" Critique -------------- ¶3. (SBU) In a flurry of columns (May 29, 30, and June 4, 
Refs A-C) Gomhoriya chief editor Mohamed Ali Ibrahim accused the USG of "choosing" Qatar to hold the conference because of the good relations between Qatar and Israel. Ibrahim described the Doha meeting as "a means to gather oppositionists ... and grant them U.S. protection," and noted that the conference did not discuss democracy in Qatar itself. Ibrahim dismissed the appeals by some activists in Qatar for additional donor funding as "a new kind of political begging..., which writes reports against Egypt... and which makes lies and gives false testimonies against us as long as it secures its resources." Ibrahim criticized the Egyptian participants as the same activists who appear on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeerah, and criticized the Qatari leadership for buying property in Israel and buying property in Arab states on behalf of Israel. Ibrahim also criticized SEI for "relinquishing" his Egyptian citizenship, and for "forgetting" Egypt's democratic history in a rush to take inspiration from the recent example of Mauritania's transition to democracy. The May 30 and June 4 columns followed the same lines, but also attacked Amcit Coptic Christian activist Michael Monier, who had the "false audacity" to offer testimony on religious freedom in Egypt before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (on May 23). -------------- Al-Akhbar's Cartoon -------------- ¶4. (SBU) A June 3 front-page cartoon by noted political cartoonist Mustafa Hussein in Al-Akhbar, another nationalist state-owned daily, depicted a nearly nude SEI, clad only in a mini-skirt and with horn-like tufts of hair rising from his temples, dancing with coins in his hands, while an onlooker observed that SEI was happy to be paid in either U.S. dollars CAIRO 00001690 002 OF 003 or Israeli shekels. -------------- Rose Al-Yousef Emphasizes SEI's Disloyalty -------------- ¶5. (SBU) A May 30 column by chief editor Abdullah Kamal in Rose Al-Yousef, the "independent" daily widely believed to be a mouthpiece for the NDP leadership and the security services, described SEI as a dual-citizen who is motivated by his desire "to get the largest sum of money." Kamal wrote that "respectable" Egyptians like Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa, NDP reformists Mohamed Kamal and Ali El-Din Hillal, and National Council for Human Rights chairman Kamal Aboul Magd, had all refused to participate in the Doha meeting. Kamal criticized the other Egyptians who "followed" SEI, such as former Prime Minister Aziz Sidqi, parliamentarian Anwar Esmat Al-Sadat, and Judges' Club activist Hisham Al-Bastawisi, as failures and sell-outs. -------------- -------------- Views of Conference Participants: SEI and Ghada Shahbender -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) In a telcon with poloff on June 3 as he transited Cairo en route to Prague, SEI expressed his satisfaction with the Doha meeting. He noted that the participants had been pleased to learn of the positive USG reaction to the establishment of the Arab Democracy Foundation, which SEI said would be able to support Arab civil society in the manner first envisioned for the Foundation for the Future. SEI brushed off the attacks in the GOE-controlled press as "totally expected." ¶7. (C) In a June 4 meeting, Ghada Shahbender, who also attended the Doha meeting, told poloff that the decision by the ruling party to forbid participation at the meeting by such "official" reformists as Mohamed Kamal, Ali Al-Din Hillal, and Kamal Aboul Magd, was evidence of an absence of will on the part of the Egyptian leadership to engage seriously on the issues of political reform in Egypt and the Arab world. Shahbender, who is the director of Shayfeen.com, a popular citizens' monitoring group, said that the GOE's rejectionist approach to the Doha meeting did not bode well for the future of political reform in Egypt. (Note: On May 29 (Ref D),Interior Minister Adly told the Ambassador that the Doha meeting "would not achieve anything" and suggested that it was a waste of time for Egyptians to participate in the meeting. End note.) -------------- SEI Crosses a Redline? -------------- ¶8. (C) As noted in Ref E, SEI has continued his outspoken criticism of the GOE--often personally directed at the Mubarak family. In a May 9 column in the leading opposition daily Al-Dustur, SEI invoked examples from Egyptian history to argue that the oppression of the Mubarak era may spark a violent backlash. SEI wrote that "when dictators exceed all limits in their tyranny, they create extremists who also know no limits." He asserted that "the Mubarak family's tyrannical excesses... may very well lead to a violent and bloody explosion, even if the dictator has fortified his position with security forces and constitutional amendments." (Note: SEI's office told us that he had initially submitted the article to the leading independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, where he publishes a weekly column, but Al-Masry's editors rejected the article, which SEI drafted on the occasion of Mubarak's 79th birthday, apparently because they saw it as too harsh a critique. End note.) ¶9. (SBU) Also in the May 9 column, SEI wrote that the Mubarak era had "witnessed an unprecedented amount of violence" by the state against its citizens, but that "Mubarak feels untouchable in his fortress of constitutional texts which were amended to ensure the longevity of his familiy's reign over Egypt." SEI argued, however, that Egyptian history is replete with instances where oppressive rulers have been assassinated or overthrown by the Egyptian people. "When oppression reaches this level," wrote SEI, "there is bound to be a reaction." He concludes: "This stifling, arbitrary atmosphere has pushed the sons of Egypt--Bedouins, workers, judges, teachers, and students--towards unconventional responses. Perhaps one of these men will provide the spark that accelerates the end of the Mubarak regime." CAIRO 00001690 003 OF 003 -------------- Where does SEI's funding really come from? -------------- ¶10. (C) Since mid-2005, SEI's Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies (IKC) has benefited from two USG grants. A MEPI grant for approximately $500,000, to support publications, conferences, election monitoring, and general operations and which was signed in 2005, should be exhausted during the next few weeks as IKC completes its monitoring of the Shura elections. The USAID grant, worth approximately $100,000 and aimed at supporting specific projects to promote tolerance and diversity, will continue through 2007. We note that IKC has not yet approached either USAID or MEPI with any other additional proposals for funding. Upon SEI's return from Prague, we will seek to determine if indeed he has secured future funding for IKC's future activities from the Arab Democracy FoundQion, which was launced in Doha with a $10 million Qatari contribution. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶11. (C) The GOE-controlled press is angry about SEI, and the "insult" of the Doha conference, in a manner reminiscent of previous episodes of manufactured outrage, such as the 2003-2004 debates about MEPI and BMENA, the 2005 controversy over USG direct funding to Egyptian democracy NGOs, and the June 2006 "freeze" on IRI, NDI, and IFES. We anticipate that President Bush's planned June 5 speech in Prague on democracy promotion may occasion additional outrage, possibly targeting SEI, in the GOE-controlled media. Based on the strong media attacks we are seeing, we cannot rule out that the GOE is preparing the ground for a further crackdown on Egyptian democracy activists. RICCIARDONE