STATE SECURITY'S SELECTIVE INTERFERENCE WITH CIVIL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001532

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ELA AND DRL/NESCA
NSC FOR KUMAR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/09/2029
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM EG
SUBJECT: STATE SECURITY'S SELECTIVE INTERFERENCE WITH CIVIL
SOCIETY

REF: A. CAIRO 1493

B. CAIRO 1467

C. CAIRO 1393

D. CAIRO 839

E. 06 CAIRO 6132

Classified By: Economic-Political Minister-Counselor
Donald A. Blome for reason 1.4 (d).


1. KEY POINTS

-- (C) Recent discussions with NGO contacts illustrate some
of the factors which shape Interior Ministry State Security
Investigative Services' (SSIS) decisions to interfere with
certain civil society activities.

-- (C) State Security seems to target certain NGO leaders
based on personal animus, while it allows other, sometimes
more controversial NGO activities to proceed.

-- (C) In mid-July, State Security cancelled an NGO-organized
conference in Cairo that was to feature Muslim Brotherhood
parliamentary leader Saad Katatni, although it allowed
Katatni to participate in a summer 2008 conference run by the
same NGO.

-- (C) State Security's interference with civil society
appears to be more pronounced outside Cairo, especially in
Upper Egypt.

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MOI State Security
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2. (C) The Interior Ministry uses its intelligence unit,
State Security Investigative Services, to monitor, harass and
sometimes infiltrate civil society and the political
opposition. SSIS is an elite unit that reports to the Deputy
Interior Minister. It suppresses opposition, civil society
and even some religious activities through arrests,
harassment and intimidation. SSIS also performs a
supervisory role for other MOI security bodies, including the
regular police which deals with common criminal activity, and
the Central Security Forces, responsible for crowd and riot
control, and responding to demonstrations.

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SSIS Harassment: The Personal Factor
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3. (C) SSIS seems to target certain civil society activists,
while it gives freer rein to others whose work is equally
sensitive, if not more so. For example, Afro-Egyptian Human
Rights Organization Director Engi Haddad has consistently
complained to us of SSIS interference, and told us August 2
that the harassment had increased markedly since July when
she began negotiations to buy the independent sensationalist
daily "Al-Badeel." While Haddad is interested in sensitive
issues such as corruption, much of her public work currently
focuses on the relatively innocuous topic of civic education
for children. Haddad told us that she felt compelled to
distribute invitations for her July civic education
conference in Cairo only a few days before the date, out of
fear that SSIS would shut it down with more lead time.


4. (C) In contrast, SSIS gives a wide berth to other
activists who publicly confront some of the most
controversial issues. United Group Director Negad Al-Borai
organized a late June USAID-funded conference on corruption
at the prominent Cairo Marriott, which was covered by local
television. At the conference, Al-Borai charged the public
tender process with delivering public funds into the pockets
of "tycoons," and a former minister criticized the GOE for
allowing foreign investors to profit from Egyptian factories
while Egyptians are left with "pollution and lung disease."
Both the former minister and a human rights lawyer called the
public tender process "a corrupt farce."


5. (C) Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR)
President Hisham Kassem told us August 4 that SSIS has only
called him twice in the past few years, and not since early

2009. It is noteworthy that even after EOHR's public
criticism of the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS) in May
when MOSS sent a letter noting it could dissolve the group
for receiving foreign funds without authorization (ref D),
SSIS did not respond to Kassem. He has also told us that
SSIS has not resisted his current efforts to establish a new,
independent newspaper. It is not entirely clear why SSIS

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targets Haddad while other activists pursue more public,
sensitive activities without interference. Al-Borai is
reputed to have established a collegial relationship with
SSIS (ref E). Haddad characterized the harassment as
personal and insulting, "a form of mental terrorism." She is
one of the only activists with roots in the NDP, where she
worked for Gamal Mubarak until 2004, and perhaps GOE
resentment of her change of allegiance factors into SSIS'
actions.

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Decreased SSIS Tolerance for NGO Work with the MB
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6. (C) One example of SSIS cancelling an NGO conference
because of the planned participation of a Muslim Brotherhood
(MB) leader is consistent with the GOE's ongoing pressure on
the MB (ref B). Maged Sorour, Executive Director of the One
World Foundation for Development and Civil Society, told us
August 3 that SSIS had cancelled at the last minute his
organization's Cairo conference on evaluating parliament
because of the scheduled participation of Saad Katatni,
leader of the MB bloc in parliament (ref A). Surour told us
that during the summer of 2008 he organized a Cairo
conference on the future of Islamic movements in Arab
parliaments, which Katatni attended. He said that SSIS made
no attempt to cancel that conference.


7. (C) Surour told us of his consequent surprise when SSIS
began calling him in early July 2009 to ask why he had
invited Katatni to his upcoming conference. Surour said that
on the morning of the planned conference, he received a call
from the downtown Cairo hotel that was to host the gathering.
The hotel told him it had cancelled the conference because
of "ceiling leaks." Surour described his anger at having to
call scores of speakers and guests, many of them
parliamentarians, to tell them of the cancellation.

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A Tighter Grip Outside Cairo
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8. (C) Emad Abdel Wahab of the Justice and Citizenship Center
in Minya (about 150 miles south of Cairo) told us August 4
that SSIS will not allow him to register his NGO with the
Ministry of Social Solidarity because of his membership in
the opposition Al-Ghad party and his previous election
monitoring work with the Ibn Khaldoun Center. He said SSIS
allows him to pursue his work, which focuses on legal aid for
victims of police torture, promoting sectarian harmony, and
women's rights. However, he noted that SSIS draws the line
at any overtly political public activities such as
demonstrations or rallies. Abdel Wahab said that SSIS has
permitted him to hold small conferences. He told us that at
a recent conference on Islam in public life, which he
organized with the Ibn Khaldoun Center, SSIS allowed about 80
people to attend, and planted agents in the audience.


9. (C) SSIS has sometimes inserted itself into our meetings
with NGOs outside Cairo, particularly in Upper Egypt. During
our mid-July visit to the Delta city of Mansoura (100 miles
north of Cairo),we learned that SSIS compelled one Mansoura
NGO leader to stop his human rights work, which Cairo
activists routinely practice (ref C). SSIS did not overtly
interfere with our Mansoura NGO meetings, but at the offices
of one NGO, which is participating in a USAID-funded NGO
coalition to combat torture, plain clothes SSIS officers
monitored our arrival and departure.
SCOBEY