Today the American embassy held a small tweet up with a number of famous Egyptian tweeps and the U.S department of State’s Dubai media hub regional Arabic language Daniel Ernst and his assistant Ana Escrogima as well David Linfield , the assistant press attaché at the embassy in Cairo.
The tweet up comes after the visit of Hilary Clinton and the noise followed her visit.
I was among those tweeps who were invited to this tweep up that included very nice and interesting group of Egyptian tweeps like : Bassem Youssef “TV host” , Ramy Yaccoub “Free Egyptian Party” , Israa Abdel Fatah , Ahmed Maher and Mahmoud Afifi “ April 6th Youth” , journalists Abdel Moneim Mahmoud "Ex-MB" and Mohamed Maree and Anas Hassan "Ex-MB, the founder of Rassd networking along with two of his partners “Whom I apologize of not remembering their names” in a new social media network dedicated to knowledge and not news.
It was a great discussion which Unfortunately I can not cover it all here , I feel I am missing important things.
I asked some questions about Egypt and some questions about Syria.
I asked a specific question : Is the United States playing a brokerage role between SCAF and Muslim brotherhood as some Egyptians believe and think judging from the meetings between the U.S officials with MB officials and SCAF and what follows it from actions.
The answer was that the United States only have talks with everybody and listen to everybody , there is no brokerage deal.
I asked them if there was a secret deal between Muslim brotherhood and the US administration and the answer I got was : There is no do secret deals with anyone.
I asked them if they are concerned with how the liberals in Egypt turned in the other side of the table protesting against the States and they told me that that this democracy and it is good that people express themselves especially after long time of oppression.
I and Others asked about whether there is a certain deal between the States and MB concerning Hamas as it was spread in the past few days and the answer we got is that there is no secret deal between the US and the MB. According to the State department regional spokesperson , the States care only for democracy and not for specific groups.
Another thing important : Regarding John McCain's visit to Cairo and meeting with Khairat El Shater , McCain only represents himself and his state not the US administration.
Israa Abdel Fatah demanded that there will be a transparency from the American administration’s side when it comes to the meetings with any Egyptian coming to the D.C especially the MB. “I totally agree” She also told them that the United States should focus on helping Egypt economically than focusing on politics. " I do not think after the elections , the revolutionary powers will go for foreign powers to get support in opposing Morsi" Abdel Fatah said.
Bassem Youssef spoke about the NGOs tragedy and how the US actually betrayed the NGOs workers including the Egyptian workers and how the American’s reaction actually harmed the foreign NGOs and their work in Egypt. Also he wondered why the US did not attack back SCAF during the NGOs scandal and exposed SCAF’s corruption. “ Well I think NY Times published articles about the Egyptian army's economy during that fiasco".
Yossuef also asked the State department regional spokespersons very important question : Is Hazem Salah Abu Ismail’s mom An American citizen ??
There was also a discussion , mostly Egyptian/Egyptian debate about civil liberties and NGOs.
There were other questions regarding the civil liberties and guarantees they got from MB.
I asked about Syria , I am proud of opening a discussion in the last part of the tweet up. According to Daniel Ernst , the United States is sticking to the UN plan which was approved where Anan is the special envoy , it is working hard with regional powers as well international ones especially Russia to reach for a solution and that the States is having dialogue with all Syrian opposition political groups.
Interestingly he told us that the States wants to reach for a solution in Syria that would include opposition forces as well some of the former members of El Assad regime that do not have blood on their hand. “Manaf Tlass anyone !!?” I am not surprised because internationally we heard this scenario.
I told him that back in Syria people are angry because these opposition groups are not connected to the people on group and they are angry from Kofi Anan and Ernest agreed that the Syrian people have to be angry.
I asked about the military solution and how the people on the ground demanded it giving example on how quick the international community interfered militarily in Libya , the answer I got was the total refusal of the States to the military solution considering the complexity of Syria and that Libya was another issue , small population and vast space.
When I told the Americans about how Joseph Lieberman spoke about arming the Free Syrian army during his visit to the Syrian refugees camps in Turkey from several months ago and David Linfield told me that Lieberman was representing himself.
The meeting and the discussion between the Egyptian tweeps and the department of State officials was tweeted on the official twitter accounts of the US embassy in Cairo "@USembassyCairo" and the official "as US department Media Hub "@USAbilAraby"
The tweet up comes after the visit of Hilary Clinton and the noise followed her visit.
I was among those tweeps who were invited to this tweep up that included very nice and interesting group of Egyptian tweeps like : Bassem Youssef “TV host” , Ramy Yaccoub “Free Egyptian Party” , Israa Abdel Fatah , Ahmed Maher and Mahmoud Afifi “ April 6th Youth” , journalists Abdel Moneim Mahmoud "Ex-MB" and Mohamed Maree and Anas Hassan "Ex-MB, the founder of Rassd networking along with two of his partners “Whom I apologize of not remembering their names” in a new social media network dedicated to knowledge and not news.
It was a great discussion which Unfortunately I can not cover it all here , I feel I am missing important things.
I asked some questions about Egypt and some questions about Syria.
I asked a specific question : Is the United States playing a brokerage role between SCAF and Muslim brotherhood as some Egyptians believe and think judging from the meetings between the U.S officials with MB officials and SCAF and what follows it from actions.
The answer was that the United States only have talks with everybody and listen to everybody , there is no brokerage deal.
I asked them if there was a secret deal between Muslim brotherhood and the US administration and the answer I got was : There is no do secret deals with anyone.
I asked them if they are concerned with how the liberals in Egypt turned in the other side of the table protesting against the States and they told me that that this democracy and it is good that people express themselves especially after long time of oppression.
I and Others asked about whether there is a certain deal between the States and MB concerning Hamas as it was spread in the past few days and the answer we got is that there is no secret deal between the US and the MB. According to the State department regional spokesperson , the States care only for democracy and not for specific groups.
Another thing important : Regarding John McCain's visit to Cairo and meeting with Khairat El Shater , McCain only represents himself and his state not the US administration.
Israa Abdel Fatah demanded that there will be a transparency from the American administration’s side when it comes to the meetings with any Egyptian coming to the D.C especially the MB. “I totally agree” She also told them that the United States should focus on helping Egypt economically than focusing on politics. " I do not think after the elections , the revolutionary powers will go for foreign powers to get support in opposing Morsi" Abdel Fatah said.
Bassem Youssef spoke about the NGOs tragedy and how the US actually betrayed the NGOs workers including the Egyptian workers and how the American’s reaction actually harmed the foreign NGOs and their work in Egypt. Also he wondered why the US did not attack back SCAF during the NGOs scandal and exposed SCAF’s corruption. “ Well I think NY Times published articles about the Egyptian army's economy during that fiasco".
Yossuef also asked the State department regional spokespersons very important question : Is Hazem Salah Abu Ismail’s mom An American citizen ??
There was also a discussion , mostly Egyptian/Egyptian debate about civil liberties and NGOs.
There were other questions regarding the civil liberties and guarantees they got from MB.
I asked about Syria , I am proud of opening a discussion in the last part of the tweet up. According to Daniel Ernst , the United States is sticking to the UN plan which was approved where Anan is the special envoy , it is working hard with regional powers as well international ones especially Russia to reach for a solution and that the States is having dialogue with all Syrian opposition political groups.
Interestingly he told us that the States wants to reach for a solution in Syria that would include opposition forces as well some of the former members of El Assad regime that do not have blood on their hand. “Manaf Tlass anyone !!?” I am not surprised because internationally we heard this scenario.
I told him that back in Syria people are angry because these opposition groups are not connected to the people on group and they are angry from Kofi Anan and Ernest agreed that the Syrian people have to be angry.
I asked about the military solution and how the people on the ground demanded it giving example on how quick the international community interfered militarily in Libya , the answer I got was the total refusal of the States to the military solution considering the complexity of Syria and that Libya was another issue , small population and vast space.
When I told the Americans about how Joseph Lieberman spoke about arming the Free Syrian army during his visit to the Syrian refugees camps in Turkey from several months ago and David Linfield told me that Lieberman was representing himself.
The meeting and the discussion between the Egyptian tweeps and the department of State officials was tweeted on the official twitter accounts of the US embassy in Cairo "@USembassyCairo" and the official "as US department Media Hub "@USAbilAraby"
Good for you for asking :) Not that you will receive the God's honest truth, but at least you tried.
ReplyDeleteYou asked all the right questions.
ReplyDeleteSyria in particular.
Don't expect the truth.
It is very hard to get the truth, the rules of the game are that you can deny anything except specific questions, eg 'did you meet Mr.X on y date and discuss issue z?' President Bush used to deliberately break all the diplomatic code speak and just lie, before that i thought it was awful but after i got a taste of the alternative, i decided to forgive it! That whole code of saying eg 'this is an issue' means 'we are swearing furious with that country and will punish them' etc. But how to speak it if you haven't spent years inside it? I can't...
ReplyDeleteWhat i really want to know is, what did the Pentagon contacts visiting SCAF-to-be/the army in the last days of Mubarak talk about? What conditions? Who saw whom? And, will they raise the issue of immediate amnesty or release of #NoMilTrials prisoners?
Anyway, you are so brave, thanks.