Egyptian X-files :The fall of Babel

Really I don’t know how to start this chapter because this is a minefield and the part that causes all the controversy that may turn Ashraf Marwan into a hero and at the same time it may turn him to a traitor and this is the simplest way to describe it. 
Seriously I don’t know how to start writing in this area of that man’s life as it seems to me to be more complicated than any other cold war literature novel I read “I love so much this literature, the serious realistic one”

To understand the story well I will start from the end
London, 45 Carlton house trace.

1:40 PM London local time on the 27^th of June 2007
Suddenly the fancy high-class street's silence was broken by the fall of man from the 5^th floor to the ground causing his death, a man in his sixties, for sure the people in the street didn’t recognize that man at the first instance.

Surely the police knew him later when they identified that dead man and surely they knew they were dealing with another special Egyptian case, in fact, the most dangerous Egyptian death case.

 Soad Hosni, Lathy Nasaf and Ali Shafik could be nothing compared with it, they can be considered as more domestic cases compared to Marwan’s case, after all the man knew many secrets , many dirty secrets then the actress, the head of the Presidential Guards and the secretary of Abd El Hakim Amer, all those didn’t play or have the access to information he had had , they played one role in one king's time

 Hosni and Shafik roles were in the Nasserite era and Nasaf role was in the early Sadaat era, yet Marwan played different roles in different eras, he was there in the Nasserite era , he was there is in the Sadaat era and he left Egypt in Mubarak’s era to play another role in not less dangerous arena than the decision-making arena aka arms dealings.

The third Egyptian with an enigmatic history to die in London from a fall off the balcony, there must be a question mark, sorry question marks in the case of Marwan.

From the initial reports, we knew that the multi-billionaire was alone in his luxury apartment, only the housekeeper and the cook were in the kitchen, strange loneliness for a man that was said to be very sick.

His wife  was in a visit to Lebanon , his son was in Egypt and is said that he couldn’t leave it before the shocking news arrived in Cairo as there was a Prosecutor general's order to restrict him from leaving the country and the second son seemed to be somewhere, well maybe he was in work.

I don’t know if he had bodyguards or not but even if he had had, they were useless as they were not there either.

The housekeeper herself didn’t know that her master fell off the balcony and was on the ground cold and dead for three hours till she found the police knocking on the door to inform her the sad news at 4 pm London Local time. 

The woman didn’t hear anything and I think that even if she heard and she saw by her own eyes anything she would not say it that simple otherwise she would join her master in the other life, this is, of course, an assumption no more no less

A strange loneliness for sure for a sick man, it is strange that there was only three person including him at that time.
What the man was doing on the balcony in the first place !? This is not Cairo, people don’t stand in balconies to smell breeze there hell no, there was not even breeze on that day in London, a day with rains and winds that make anyone think twice before going to the balcony but anyhow there was an eyewitness who saw him on the balcony talking in his mobile phone standing on his stick losing his balance and thus fall off the balcony, an interesting testimony


For an eyewitness who turned to be Egyptian saw him across the street on the fifth floor. Surely this Egyptian has a good sight to identify the man on the fifth floor.
First here is the balcony and as you can see there are tree branches around it

I don’t know if that was the correct floor or what, but you see it is surrounded with tree branches as I said, of course I don’t know in reality how it looks but from this photo I will assume that the man in order to have a clear view to see Marwan falling down and in his hand a mobile phone then he should be standing in front of the flat directly not walking in the street, already here is the street image from Google earth and the building itself

 

I don’t know how to explain it but this is what first came to my mind when I saw the photos and read the first part of the testimony.
Already this Egyptian eyewitness whose name was not mentioned in the daily Wafad or Al-Ahram newspapers which were the only newspapers to publish his testimony said that he was a friend of late Marwan. 
He didn’t mention why he was walking in that street at that time, you know the strange coincidence system and so according to that eyewitness the man was alone and fall off accidentally.

The Wafad newspaper published another controversial testimony even more bizarre than the above testimony. 
Some close friend of the family said that the man was preparing to head for Heathrow airport before the accident by 15 minutes as he was planning for a short visit to Cairo.
In normal days the only thing I will stop at in this testimony is wondering what happened in those 15 minutes, the last 15 minutes in his life, as according to that testimony he was on his way but something came up and delayed him in those 15 minutes to miss that presumed flight to Cairo alive forever.

As these are not normal days or incident I will stop at the part of going to Cairo in the first place on that day the 27^th of June 2007 , already this is anonymous source that claimed to a be friend of the family , no family member mentioned this incident including his own sister who spoke on air on the Egyptian National TV on air about his brother.
Maybe he didn’t inform her ,still this is not my issue here because according to another witness, a very important one the man was not going to Cairo on that day at all.

He had a meeting with him on that day in the evening according to an appointment Marwan made by himself in the previous day the 26^th of June 2007 , already Marwan left to that person on that night about 3 messages on his answer machine and this is according to the Israeli daily newspapers Yediot Ahronot and Haaretz so how on earth he would be leaving to Cairo for a short visit in the afternoon while he had an appointment in the evening ??
That ‘s London we are speaking about not Beirut-two-hours-flight only and who was that man he wanted to meet so much that he left three messages on his answer machine in the first place ??

And why did he want to meet so much?? Believe me the answer will make you wonder and think over and over

That man whom he talked and had an appointment with is Ahron Bregman, the Israeli Ahron Bregman and I think now the story will take a new turn when we know that Mr. Bregman is the author of the controversial book “A history of Israel” that was published in year 2002 and it seemed the history of the Hebrew state became so interesting when the name of Marwan appearing directly with no aliases like Babel or the in law or the groom revealing the personality of the top Mossad spy or even double agent as Bregman hinted .

Let’s see first what was mentioned in the book because it would make us understand why Bregman considered Marwan a personality that should be mentioned in the history of Israel in the chapter concerning the Yom Kipper war 1973

straight thus representative of Mossad in the Embassy didn’t accept his request yet the young man persisted to leave his personal information and promised that he would return again. Then the officials in Mossad took this information in order to check it and they were shocked and surprised when they found that this volunteer guy was an important official who was related to President Gamal Abd El-Nasser himself. The Israelis recruited him immediately and he was consider after that from the most important Egyptian Spies in Israel that he used to be paid in every meeting with his supervisor Mossad officer 100,000 £.In Year 1973 the Mossad discovered that he had given them wrong information regarding the date of the war that made them suspect in his loyalty and the possibility to be a double agent for the sake of the Egyptian intelligence to keep the personality of that important spy anonymous for protection they gave him the alias “The Doctor” or “The son in law” and that operation was given the name “Operation Babel” , the real name of that spy was Ashraf Marwan!!

Ahron may be the first one to expose his name internationally with more shocking details about information and incidents you would surprise to hear about if you are familiar with our History between 1969 and 1973 in the English version of his book but he was not the first time to speak about this anonymous powerful spy in the Egyptian regime between 1969 and 1973.

From 14 years ago that was in the year 1993 Major General “Res.”Eli Zeira” who headed the military intelligence during the Yom kipper war published a book in Hebrew under the title "Myth versus Reality: The Yom Kippur War - Failures and Lessons."

To defend himself as in his book, Zeira countered the findings of the Agranat Commission, which the government had appointed to investigate its performance and that of the defense establishment before and during the war.
The committee found that Zeira was responsible for the MI's failure to give an advance warning of the war, already this commission accused Zeira for negligence and thus he had to resign from his position.
In that book, Zeira accused an Egyptian spy who was working for the Mossad at that time to withhold information about the Egyptians’ Preparation taking an advantage from his position as a trustworthy and reliable source!!
Still, the name was unknown but from time to time Zeira forgot himself and said the name of Marwan to journalists whether foreigners or local like Mr. Bregman and Haaretz newspaper in 2003 after  Mr. Bregman published his book.

Matters got more complicated whether in Egypt or Israel as I remember the independent and opposition newspapers began to speak about this spy whether in a direct or in an indirect way here in Egypt where in Israel “Zeira” began telling the story everywhere even in TV.

Late 2003 he appeared in an interview for the Israeli TV channel 1 where he again said the name of Marwan but this time he accused him of being a double agent who worked for the Egyptian side!!
And since then the same question was repeated in Tel Aviv and Cairo “which side he was on??”

Back to Marwan whom till the day of his death didn’t confirm or deny any of these allegations despite the claims of Bregman that he was a double agent who framed the Mossad and despite the wishes of the Nasserites that the son in law of their beloved hero is a national hero who framed their enemy , the problem as I said was the silence not only Marwan but the silence of the Egyptian intelligence which didn’t comment in anyway about the subject from day one despite all the requests of the people for an investigation.

 Those people included Nasser head of intelligence after 1967 Amin El-Howdy himself who once said on TV that Nasser children were working for the intelligence !!

No one understood why Marwan was silent all that time but surely the pressure on him in the last couple of weeks in Egypt and also Israel as the return of his case again played an important role in his last hours in life.

I forgot to say that after the TV interview of “Zeira” General “Zvi Zamir”, the head of the Mossad during the 1973 war accused the first of betraying Marwan's identity.

“Zamir” already was the officer who met with Marwan in London on the eve of the 1973 war ; the thing which made Zeira mad to the degree that he filed a libel lawsuit against Zamir since 2004, only from two weeks ago a court ruled that he indeed exposed and leaked the name of Marwan, putting the latter's life in danger.

According to that court's order, the danger was the Egyptians who would kill their agent even if that agent doesn’t work anymore with them and even if that agent can be double and thus it can affect the future of recruiting spies an agents.

The court rule reached to Egypt and suddenly from few days we found in Al-Ahram newspaper, in Salah Montasr’s daily column a huge attack on Marwan demanding an immediate investigation, of course with no direct name

Then only from three days ago without mentioning names in his daily TV show “Cairo today” Amr Adeeb attacked him again calling him Babel and demanding an investigation.

According to some friends of Marwan he felt his life was in danger that he had feared assassination, the good question, was the danger from whom the Egyptians or Israelis or someone else?

Anyhow it is very interesting as I see it for a double agent who was spying for Israel yet, in fact, he was misleading them to have good or even excellent friendly relations with them.

After all, in the infamous Iran-Contra his name was mentioned to be a middle-man between Iran and Israel, this is from one side and from the other side the excellent friendly relationship with the Israeli author Bregman. 

According to Bregman he wanted to talk to him very urgent so much in the last 48 hours that he phoned him several times and made an appointment with him, we could check the truth of this talk by checking the appointments journal in the fancy Carlton house terrace building in the entrance as no one goes in this building except without an informed appointment to the security downstairs .

Bregman told Al-Arabiya that when he talked the day before Marwan on the phone he seemed fine but he was complaining from what was published in the Israeli newspapers especially Haaretz newspaper during its coverage to Zeira trial that he had sent to him a copy of two articles from the same newspaper that caused to him a headache !!

I wonder and you will wonder what Marwan had wanted to say to Bregman in that meeting which never took place, the relation between them already makes you ask several questions especially it turned out that Bregman met Marwan several times.

According to Bergman and also to other sources the man was going to publish his memories which will answer lots of questions mainly about whether he was a traitor or a hero, but to be honest such man memories if they were true , they would reveal more than that and it would make some upset other than the two countries' intelligence.
Bregman claims in his statements to Al-Arabiya.net that Marwan told him that he started writing his memories in the year 1971 before working with the Mossad.

Strangely I thought that Bregman himself had said in his book that late Marwan started his work with the Mossad in the year 1969 after two years from the six days war !!

Bregman as I said believed that the man was a double agent yet on the other hand the Israeli Mossad believed that he is still their man and he should be protected, strange is not it??

Did this presumed meeting have to do with the death?? Maybe who knows??
Did Marwan pay the price of cheating?? And who forced him to pay his life??

I don’t know about you but I don’t believe that Mossad killed this man, seriously it is no use after all those years. 
If that was true why they didn’t hunt down Gomah El-Shawl, the famous Egyptian double agent who framed them and got that device, the state of Art in the 1960s which America produced from only three, one in the state, one in Israel and the other one reached to Egypt, El-Shawl is living and kicking without guards in Cairo.

I mean this talk about his treason to them in the 1973 was there for14 years why they would now decide to hunt him down !?
 Already I don’t believe that they wanted to expose him intentionally like some secret service experts in Egypt suggested , maybe they did it for another purposes but it seems to me that a fool with an ego like Zeira wanted to clear his name plus it would be very obvious that the Mossad was behind it.

Zamir, the ex-head of Mossad said that he believed the man was either killed or committed suicide because of the exposure of his work with the Mossad. 

He believes that he may have committed suicide for fear which I don’t think so, Marwan is a kind of man that was not sensitive, but being killed well he was an arms dealer and this is a possible end for arms dealers. 
If we take the exact words of Zamir and understand them as he wants you to think then the Egyptian intelligence may be involved but this will be on the assumption that he was not a double agent but rather working for the Israelis.

Strangely El-Dostor today said that the ex-head of Mossad accused the Military intelligence of Israel "MII" of killing him !!

I read most of that man’s interviews and he didn’t accuse the MII of killing Marwan, he only accused Zeira the ex-head of MII of causing the death of Marwan, logically I don’t know why the MII would go after a spy that framed them from more than 25 years and leave those who really framed them in Lebanon !!??

Assumptions, Assumptions, Assumption that all that we have

We are still with the mysterious crime of summer 2007 this is just another episode, wait for another one, already every day there are new facts and questions but no answers and according to the British Court rule there will be an investigation as it is no regular death for sure

Sources:

• Al-Arabiya
• Ha’artez
• Times newspaper
• Dr.Yasser Thabat blog
• El-Wafad Newspaper
• Elaph
• Photos from different international photo and news agencies and Google earth