EGYPT: GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED PRESS SLAMS DOHA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 001690

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SIPDIS

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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).

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Summary
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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.

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SEI and Doha
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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.)

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Al-Gomhoriya's "Official" Critique
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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).

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Al-Akhbar's Cartoon
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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

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or Israeli shekels.

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Rose Al-Yousef Emphasizes SEI's Disloyalty
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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.

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Views of Conference Participants: SEI and Ghada Shahbender
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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.)

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SEI Crosses a Redline?
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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."


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Where does SEI's funding really come from?
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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.

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Comment
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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