Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Tale of Two Leaks And How The Truth Is Lost Between Them !!

There is on going press leaks on going war between the Muslim brotherhood and the army and unfortunately the truth is the price Egyptians pay in this war between those two.
It began first in early April with the explosive leaks published by the Guardian about the human rights abused committed during SCAF rule. The leaks were from the alleged the revolution’s martyrs fact finding committee commissioned by President after his election.That report should say in details who was responsible for the murder of protesters from 25 January 2011 to 30 June 2012. No one knows how the Guardian got its leaks but we know that the fact finding members finished their report and presented it to the Egyptian presidency. The members deny leaking it to anyone. The Presidency then referred the report to Talaat Abdullah , the Prosecutor general. For months nothing happened.
Before the Guardian would publish these leaks , Egyptian Daily Al Shorouk Newspaper also published leaks from the report in a series of articles but nobody paid attention to our local press.
Of course 2 days after the Guardian’s report , we found President Morsi holding a meeting with SCAF members then promoting three army commanders to higher ranks. Morsi also said “Any insult to the armed forces is actually an insult to all of us”. After the meeting minister of defense El Sisi swore by God in front of the TV cameras that the armed forces did not kill anybody.
The Guardian is being accused of those who hate the MB and are taking the army’s side “not few” of being on the payroll of the MB. Already some disbelieve the Guardian and suspect its credibility because they believe that the famous British newspaper lied about Mubarak’s $ 70 Billion fortune.
Personally I believed that this is another episode in that not so secret troubling relation between the MB and the Egyptian army. In the past months El Sisi’s popularity increased in Egypt and after bringing down the Qatari ambitions in Sinai plus the constant reports in foreign media on how a military coup is in the horizon , the MB had to move. Concerning the violations and abuse during SCAF rule , it is not a secret what happened during those two years.
Like a friend once said “It is old news in new bottles”. The timing explains everything here .The MB was trying to remind the revolutionary powers with what happened during those two years just in case they want to seek an alliance with the military to remove the brotherhood from rule. This is how I read it.
FYI the members of the fact finding committee members are demanding the presidency to publish the report publicly. The members as well human rights activists in Egypt launched a campaign called “Warakom Bltaqrir” or “We demand the report”. Till this moment the presidency has not published the report.
Now after couple of weeks of Guardian’s leaks , we found another interesting leak in Egyptian Daily Al Masry Al Youm last Thursday : The secret 5  phone calls between Hamas and Muslim brotherhood before and during the 18 days of 25 January Revolution. Journalist Yousry El Badry in Al Masry Al Youm says that he got the transcripts of those supposedly secret calls from an unnamed informed source in the Homeland Security “formerly known as state security”. 
The 5 phone calls allegedly took place on 21 January 2011 , 22 January 2011, 2 February 2011 and 11 February 2011.It is worth to mention that the Muslim brotherhood members know that the State security recorded their phone calls. The source did not say if those were phone calls were made on satellite phones and whether state security can spy on satellite phone calls.
In the Phone call on 21 January 2011 we find an alleged  phone call between the two MB leading “M.M” and “M.B” { allegedly Mohamed Morsi and Mohamed El Beltagy} speaking about there were special preparations for upcoming “25 and 28 January 2011” with the help of the neighbors “Hamas”.
For the record the MB did not participate officially in #Jan25 and was against it only few members participated individually and no one in earth knew how things were going to happen on #Jan28 in Egypt. In fact the Day of wrath was only planned on 26 January 2011. I got testimonies actually the MB would not be so pleased to see about how the leading MB figures especially in guidance office were not that revolutionary.
FYI for those who are really documenting the #Jan25 Revolution , the testimonies of the MB defectors say that the MB leaderships did not believe in the revolution and actually took the decision to participate late.
In another phone call on 2 February 2011 “on the day of the Battle of the camel” we find an alleged phone called between a MB figure “M. A” and some Palestinian guy speaking about how the “Palestinians supposedly Hamas” were preparing to get in to the fight with slingshots behind the Egyptian museum “which was under the control of the Egyptian army”.
It is worth to mention that the former regime is marketing the theory that the MB and their Hamas partners were the ones who killed the protesters in Tahrir square on that day. It is also worth to mention that the only slingshot the protesters made in Tahrir square during the 18 days was extremely big “like the one you use in the Lord of the rings” and it did not work !!!!!!
The newspaper added that Khaled Tharwet ,the head of the Homeland security handed over the transcripts of those calls to Khairat El Shater.
Interestingly the State security HQs all over the country were handed over to the army. on April 16, 2013 General Al Sisi stood in front of the court and said that the army did not know the content of the State security documents and records and that it only protected the HQs !! The big irony former minister of interior Mansour El Eissawy “who denies having a snipers unit in the MOI yet believes that the slingshots of Hamas killed  the protesters” said in an interview with Al Masry Al Youm that the State security records were handed over to the army.
Last Sunday the ministry of interior issued an official statement denying the whole issue from transcripts to the claim that Khaled Tharwet handing over the records themselves to Khairat El Shater.
Al Masry Al Youm  “AMAY”  knows how critical its position and that’s why yesterday it reported the alleged transcripts of the prosecutor general so he would investigate those calls. Of course I do not expect any progress in that case. Of course some people are attacking AMAY and are accusing its CEO and editor in chief of standing behind this leak. The CEO of AMAY is none other Abdel Moneim Said , the former Ahram CEO and journalist who supported Gamal Mubarak’s presidency. The AMAY editor in Chief now is Yasser Razek , the former editor in chief of state owned Al Akhbar during SCAF time who was closed to military council.
The Mubarak regime supporters are flying over the moon with those transcripts as they believe that the transcripts proved the revolution of 25 January was an illusion and it was a foreign conspiracy without realizing that if that were true , it would be a true conviction of failure and weakness to Mubarak regime as well his defense and national security apparatuses.
If those calls were true then the Mubarak regime was completely weak and did not deserve to rule the country by all measures. If those calls were true then we were in front a rotten old regime that could not stand against a militant group currently besieged in small sector for nearly a decade !! That regime would not be trusted to a rule a country or to protect it for real. People who lived the whole thing are still alive for God sake. I do not know what I am debating here.
Another thing the fact that those alleged phone calls that the ministry of interior officially denies suddenly appear now , it means that SCAF and GIS are involved too and can not to be trusted on the National security of the country. I wonder why those phone calls did not appear in Mubarak’s trial, more than the hearsay testimonies and wild conspiracies. I am speaking about the audio records themselves.
A journalist friend whom I trust his opinion told me that he believes the whole leak is intended to hit back police general Khaled Tharwet , the current head of Homeland security who is tipped to become the next minster of interior. Rumors are spreading that Tharwet was responsible for the MB activity in Egypt in from 1986 to 1904 in the State security and that he is close to them now. 
Now my opinion :
I believe that the leak in Al Masry Al Youm is actually a payback for the leak in the Guardian.
Unlike The Guardian which got a written copy of an alleged report in Arabic “We do not know officially if it is authentic or not ” , I believe Al Masry Al Youm’s editor in chief should not allow the story to be published like that because in the end it is an alleged transcript without any proof with my all due respect. There is no evidence at all that these alleged phone calls took place professionally speaking. It had to be solidified with some facts , with proof because not all the people are blinded with MB hate and believe in the Hamas theory from old regime supporters.
I also believe in both the details leaks whether in Al Masry Al Youm or The Guardian details were altered in a way or another for political proposes from the source not by the journalists.
What I hate in this leaks war is that how the truth is being lost , how the rights of Egyptians are lost because of dirty politics. Egyptians demanded in this revolution is transparency and accountability.Transparency and accountability are the corner stone of civilized nation for God sake. They got none now.
By the way we are in 21st century, the Egyptian revolution of 25 January 2011 revolution is from the most documented huge political events recorded thanks to the huge advance in media. You can fool some Egyptians but you can not fool all of them , you can fool some Egyptians but you can not fool the whole world.

1 comment:

  1. FYI for those who are really documenting the #Jan25 Revolution , the testimonies of the MB defectors say that the MB leaderships did not believe in the revolution and actually took the decision to participate late.

    That was a talking point at the time. Now two years later, it seems more than a bit implausible. Egyptians and their western stooges told many lies about the revolution, and as far as I'm concerned nothing can be believed. The situation is self-evident, and a wise person will tune out all the claims and counter-claims being made, and just pay attention to what they can see happening with their own eyes.

    On that note, I admit having to choose who to believe between the alleged journalists at The Guardian and random Egyptians is a really tough call. I think both must be lying, as it is in their nature to lie, and the truth must be something entirely different.

    ReplyDelete

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