REQUESTING DEPARTMENT ASSISTANCE TO RESTORE

UNCLAS CAIRO 002371 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DRL/NESCA FOR BERGLUND E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM KDEM EG SUBJECT: REQUESTING DEPARTMENT ASSISTANCE TO RESTORE EGYPTIAN BLOGGER'S YOUTUBE ACCESS REF: A. CAIRO 2370 ¶B. DECEMBER 2007 CASTEEL-LEMPERT E-MAILS ¶C. 07 CAIRO 3214 ¶1. (U) This is an action request; please see para 4. ¶2. (SBU) Prominent Egyptian blogger, human rights activist and winner of the 2007 Knight-Ridder International Journalism Award, Wael Abbas, contacted us November 17 to report that YouTube removed from his website two videos exposing police abuses -- one of Sinai bedouin allegedly shot by police and thrown in a garbage dump during the past week's violence (ref A),and the other of a woman being tortured in a police station. Abbas told us that YouTube is also preventing him from posting new videos, and he asked us for assistance in urging YouTube to re-post his removed videos and reinstate his access to uploading new material. Abbas said he has tried to contact Google, but has not received a response. ¶3. (SBU) In December 2007, DRL and Embassy Cairo worked to convince Google to restore Abbas' YouTube access after a similar incident. We believe that a similar Department intervention with Google representatives could help in restoring Abbas' access again. Abbas is an influential blogger and human rights activist, and we want to do everything we can to assist him in exposing police abuse. Abbas' post of a video showing two policemen sodomizing a bus driver was used as the main evidence to convict the officers in November 2007 (ref C). ¶4. (SBU) Action Request: We request that the Department please contact Pablo Chavez of Google to try to resolve this matter. We have e-mailed Google contact information and the e-mail chain from the Department's December 2007 intervention to DRL/NESCA and NEA/ELA (ref B). SCOBEY