What I love in this affair is that it was exposed by the Americans themselves through their democratic transparent system !!
Al Masry Al Youm from two days exposed a very big surprise. Through America in Arabic agency Al Masry Al Youm revealed to the Egyptian reader that the Pentagon contracted the American University in Cairo to provide it with confidential information about Egypt !! In other words the American University in Cairo was spying on the Egyptians.
Through the transparency principle the White House released its budgets in USA Spending. Gov where you can find in details the federal contracts of each department in USA “I hope one day we will have a similar website” , among these contracts in year 2006 a contract signed by the Pentagon and the AUC to provide the department of Navy exploratory researches through the NAMRU-3 Lab for $600,000
You do not need to think , we are speaking about confidential information based on exploratory researches about health issues in Egypt, our health issues , the NAMRU-3 Lab is very sophisticated, may be it gathers information about the Egyptians genetics , may be it tests some kind of viruses on Egyptians, the biological warfare does exist and this is a facility that follows the American army.
Knowing how difficult and embarrassing the situation is ,the AUC hurried in less than 24 hours to deny the dangerous accusation saying that since year 2006 the university had a contract with the NAMRU unit in Cairo to provide help in H5N1 researches. Yes the H5N1,this is just came after the accusations of MP Laben in the assembly.The NAMRU contract was worth to $ 1,964,035 since each year which means $600,000 each year.
The American Navy did not deny the news either ,its spokesperson confirmed the news, yes they contracted the AUC but not for bad stuff , there is nothing to hide whether from the AUC or the NAMRU or the U.S Navy after all that document is official and is available online.
On last Monday Popular TV Show 10 PM on Dream TV discussed the report of Al Masry Al Youm , one telephone call from a former Egyptian researcher who used to work in the lab for years was very interesting, he spoke about that 6th floor in the building who no Egyptians are allowed to enter. This was more than enough to create some buzz which could be very alarming to the Americans.
The NAMRU lab at first did not want to comment or open its doors to the media but on Tuesday the lab after more than 50s years in Egypt has opened the doors for the media allowing the cameras to enter the closed doors labs. The lab invited both Mona El-Shazely and Al Masry Al Youm , they are so popular and credible in the eyes of many Egyptians plus they broke the news to the public.It was a smart PR move from the lab side, a tour in the lab with veiled Egyptian ladies and young Egyptian researchers speaking about how great the lab is.
On Tuesday night Mona Al-Shazely aired her visit and next Al Masry Al Youm published another report about their visit.
By the way it is scoop for Mona Al-Shazely and Al Masry Al Youm.I envy them.
I do not need to say that the AUC and NAMRU or rather the American embassy knew how dangerous the accusation was , it may not affect the official relations , but the unofficial relations and the image of America would be affected badly very much. The image of America in Egypt was enhanced a lot after Obama’s elections. The American Embassy won’t jeopardize this opportunity to enhance their image in Egypt.
Now this affair with my all respect is very alarming and dangerous. I do not have doubt that the Namru-3 Lab is not that bad or dangerous or working 24 hours since 1942 in order to harm the Egyptians ,on the contrary the most sophisticated scientific lab in Egypt helped and is still helping us a lot. Yet it is a foreign lab following a foreign army , may be from time to time there were specific researches we know nothing about about our genetics map or our genetic diseases , may be there are certain native viruses that were transferred to the US Navy labs to be developed to become dangerous viruses in the biological warfare , everything is possible.
There is an Egyptian proverb that says : be cautious but do not lose trust “this is the nearest translation I could reach to” . Do not attack the NAMRU lab and accuse them of plotting a biological warfare against the Egyptian people but be cautious. In a democratic system that lab should be monitored well enough by the State through its intelligence services , I do not know the GIE does this or not but I believe if you consider this is a national security matter then it must have the treatment of national security matter.
Needless to say you can have a similar sophisticated scientific research lab and you can actually have it in Egypt more than you can imagine , if you spend really on scientific research half what you spend on football and what you spend on the ministers’ expenses ,you can have it. Of course you have enough human resources more you can ever imagine. We can’t have that lab now unfortunately with all the corruption we have.
In the end we should be careful because this is not an innocent world with innocent intentions, if it is not for ourselves , then for our children.
By the way Insh Allah I will post the NAMRU-3 Lab episodes as soon as they are uploaded :)
you know, American people is civilized, that's why they have a transparent system.
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