News from Democracy Egypt: Egyptian Press translation: Al Usbu'a,January 14th, 2002 (fwd)

["Clement M. Henry" <chenry@mail.la.utexas.edu>]

Here are the state controlled media turning Egyptian civil society on its
head - accusing Saad eddine Ibrahim of all sorts of things.  It's a long
story but here is an effort to delegimate all sorts of do-gooding NGO as
being foreign spy operation - a typical way of appealing to the furstrated
and nationalistic public.  For the real story you can look at
www.amnesty-usa.org/action/special/ibrahim.html or his own website at
http://www.democracy-egypt.org/

*****************************
Clement M. Henry
Professor of Government
University of Texas at Austin
Austin TX 78712
tel 471-5121, fax 471-1061

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2002 20:23:21 -0000
From: democracy_egypt <democracy_egypt@mail.com>
To: free_saadeddin_ibrahim@yahoogroups.com
Subject: News from Democracy Egypt:   Egyptian Press translation: Al Usbu'a,
     January 14th, 2002

[What follows is the abridged text of a full page article that
appeared two days before the Court of Cassation was scheduled to rule
in the Ibn Khaldun Center case. Most of it is a rehash of allegations
this same newspaper published earlier in the trial, but the attacks
on family members -- and Playboy magazine reference --are new. Ed.]
_____________________________________________________________________

AFTER THE HYSTERIA OF RE-TRIAL & CLAIMS THAT THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
IS LYING

WHAT WAS NOT MENTIONED IN THE SAAD EL DIN IBRAHIM CASE

We hardly had time to relax from the provocations of Dr. Saad El Din
Ibrahim over the past 15 years, in which he was destroying the last
traces of confidence in the nation, dignity, transparency and Arab
cause, when his wife Barbara Olenay came up with another play known
in U.S.A. as the "dirty crimes". The new American scenario is trying
to polish and justify the imaginary hero, once more.

While Saad El Din is in jail away from the cameras, his wife assumes
the leading role and starts preaching about democracy and an imminent
breakthrough to be led by the absent, noble, strong, audacious,
honest hero Saad El Din Ibrahim. This is done with the help of
the "American Cowboy". On the other hand, his two children Amir &
Randa assume a more dramatic role, in order to complete the
fabricated picture.

American & European pressures are still being exerted to free
Ibrahim, in defiance of the Egyptian judiciary. Sharon expressed his
strong opposition to the sentence passed against Saad El Din, even
more than he did in the case of the Spy Azzam. Thus, the final
chapter of Ibrahim's trial could end next Wednesday, when the Court
of Cassation would announce its final verdict concerning the appeal
submitted by the lawyer of Ibn Khaldoun's Director.

In Ibrahim's case, the Court of Cassation accepted the cassation,
where it agreed with only 6 reasons out of 18 included in the defence
sheet that was submitted by Head of Defence Team, Dr. Ibrahim Saleh.
The Court of Cassation wrote a memo stating that the [lower] court
had not been accurate in checking the falsified documents of the
case, has not reviewed all documents submitted by the defendants, and
has not taken into consideration the testimony of 7 members of the
Board of Trustees of the Centre, namely Dr. Said El Naggar, Dr.
Mohamed El Sayed El Said, Dr. Ibrahim Shehata, Ambassador Mohamed
Shaker, Dr. Ahmed Kamel Abul Magd, Dr. Ahmed Abdel Halim and Dr.
Mohamed El Haway [sic]. Furthermore, the Court of Cassation agreed
with the Defence upon three points where the law was misinterpreted
concerning fraud.

What is noteworthy is that Barbara is always surrounded by a great
number of European embassy and human rights organization officials,
as well as Diana Kelly of the American Embassy. This only shows the
amount of pressure exerted by these countries to release the Director
of Ibn Khaldoun Centre. They want him back on the streets to lead the
Egyptian society into a comprehensive purging battle against fascists
and dictators. Later, the new era of American democracy would be
announced. Everybody was dumbfounded when the case was deferred to
the session of January 16th. However, Attorney Dr. Ibrahim Saleh
asserted that this was a positive step, in compliance with the
political solution that is being sought. It suffices that the Court
of Cassation agrees with the defence sheet in 6 points. At present,
everyone should check himself until the case is resolved.

Talks of a political solution and reversal of sentence are of course
nonsense and allegations made against our honest Egyptian judiciary
system. Those friends of ours, who talk of funds and normalization
have forgotten our President's statements about the integrity of the
Egyptian judiciary system and his refusal to interfere in any case
before Court, as well as his refusal of any interference in our
internal affairs.

The Party of fund-takers and normalization-seekers is exploiting
allegations made against the political leadership, to spread their
poison, same as Ibrahim. Last July, President Mubarak made a
statement in the graduation ceremony of the 29th batch of Air Defence
Academy students, right after the "Al Naba" newspaper incident. He
said that some dissenters are in contact with outside circles that
have an interest in raising dissention. However, he said: "let them
say what they may. Some of them are rational, while others do not
want to retreat from their stances". As for the case of Ibn Khaldoun,
he said: "I am not following the case of Saad El Din, because it is a
legal case. It is not a big problem and will not lead to chaos.

After the false heroic role assumed by Ibrahim, and later emphasized
by his wife Barbara, both are left without even a vine leave to
conceal them.

After the strong American, Israeli and European pressures exerted to
release Saad El Din Ibrahim, and after the provocative statements of
American, European & Israeli officials and the Egyptian response to
all that, and after the failure of the "American Passport" to do
anything and the declarations of Richard Boucher, Daniel Kertzer,
Ariel Sharon and George Bush, and after the verdict of the Supreme
State Security Criminal Court, and after the scandal of the book
entitled "An Intellectual under Siege", and after .. and after ..
etc. will Saad El Din Ibrahim pull another trick? He imagines that
his new book, which he is trying to finish these days, and which
includes his personal memoirs and autobiography over 24 years
of "national action & struggle!!!" will accomplish something.

He imagines that the Egyptian people might read this nonsense and
believe it, having played with words and tried to delude people.

In spite of the wide smile on his face throughout the trial,
attendants could notice the look of fear and anxiety in his eyes,
after being accused of what he has been practicing all these years.
His jokes and loud laughs were only to appear in the form of
someone "sure of his innocence", although all indications from the
start assure that he will not quit, except to go to jail. The final
verdict of the Supreme State Security Court, sentencing Ibrahim to 7
years imprisonment with hard labour, as well as sentences passed on
the other 27 defendants, came as a shock. It showed that the American
citizenship of the doctor and his close relations with EU States
could not stop his imprisonment.

Professor Saad issued a statement after his release [from detention],
before being referred to trial. In the famous statement
entitled "What is not mentioned in the Saad El Din Ibrahim case", he
turned himself into a martyr of democracy, freedom and civil society.
He said that his arrest was due to a political stance he adopted in
the Election Monitoring Committee and due to his political ideas. He
went as far as accusing Investigation Authorities as being "biased"
and fabricating facts. He even said that taxes paid by Ibn Khaldoun
Centre are the source of salaries for those investigators and judges.

Those who realize the dimensions of the case were very upset from all
this "playing on words" by Ibrahim. What is "not mentioned" is
completely different from what is being alleged by Ibn Khaldoun
Centre. Who does not remember their negotiations with U.S.A., NATO
and the Zionist State?

The first "not mentioned" item in Ibrahim's case is his students and
followers. He sold them, but they discovered that too late after the
trial started unfolding. In most cases, the Director of Ibn Khaldoun
was exploiting the feeling of frustration of these researchers for
not occupying prominent posts, although they are graduates of the
faculties of Economics, Political Sciences and Information. Thus, he
used to give them formal posts within the Centre. Furthermore, they
were receiving generous remuneration for ambiguous research assigned
to them by Donors.

Money and posts were the effective tool used by Saad to delude young
researchers. Some tried to refuse to meet with Zionist officials, who
were visiting the Centre. So, he used the power of money and made
them agree to do so. He even created strong ties between some of them
and intellectual Zionists, who were permanent guests of the Zionist
Academic Centre. His friends from the American University or other
universities, who boycotted him when he declared his inclinations
towards normalization, were greatly shocked when he appeared on the
Israeli TV during the 1996 elections that ran between Netanyahu &
Peres, calling for the election of Peres with the pretext that he is
an advocate of peace. He also called for the election of his
candidate friends among the Israeli Labour Party. The most
treacherous event was when Khalid Fayyad travelled with him to
Copenhagen in 1997 to attend the Peace Culture Conference, in which a
number of Zionists, who belong to the Copenhagen Alliance,
participated. He also escorted him in all his visits to Tel Aviv and
helped him develop relations with several Zionists and create
research cooperation ties to discuss matters that are closer to the
nation's security than one's artery.
among the culprits, he kept away from Ibrahim, out of fear of killing
him.

After his indictment, it was not difficult for the Professor to
announce to foreign and Arab broadcasting agencies that he was a
victim of democratic ideas and his belief in human rights and the
civil society with all its issues for which he had sacrificed
himself!!!!!!!

Then, vile reactions poured in from Richard Boucher, the spokesman of
the American Foreign Affairs, then Thomas Friedmann, American &
European human rights organizations and Playboy magazine. On the
other hand, Ibrahim did not forget to accuse the Egyptian Minister of
Interior and Chief of Police Academy of taking a percentage of the
money directed to these two authorities from the USAID. He also
accused some VIP's of obtaining a percentage, as well.

What was not mentioned in the Saad El Din Ibrahim case includes a
long list of indictments established by our national papers through
documents, work papers and research projects with suspicious
organizations. The Supreme State Security Prosecution investigations
mentioned some of these incidents, such as the joint projects with
the Israeli Academic Centre, Jaffa University and, lately,
the "fabricated" tapes on torturing Zionist prisoners of war in 1973
War by Egyptian soldiers. Ibrahim was related to NATO, where he
prepared researches, including questions and information on the
Egyptian Army. Furthermore, the Centre concluded a secret agreement
with "Ferdina" Institution to spy on the Egyptian society. Sums were
transferred from this institution to the Centre account at Misr
International Bank – Maadi Branch. There is also this dubious
questionnaire, requesting the Centre employees and students of Dr.
Saad to keep all data highly confidential, concerning factories at
Mehalla, 10th of Ramadan & 6th of October. In fact, this is the same
kind of information for which the Israeli Spy Azzam Azzam was
sentenced, because of harming Egypt's military, political and
economic situation. Confessions were made that this and other
companies were facades for an economic espionage on the spinning &
weaving factories in the new cities. Moreover, several suspicious
researches were selling military, political and economic information
to Donor authorities. Should one of these accusations come to light,
Ibrahim will live in darkness for the rest of his life!!

What is not mentioned in Ibrahim's case is the essence of the
ferocious press campaign against some human rights associations and
NGO's. The latter have turned into boutiques for selling Egypt's core
to foreign organizations under the pretext of pushing the society
towards democracy and mechanisms of the civil society. Hence, after
the indictment of the Director of Ibn Khaldoun Centre, they started
attacking our judiciary system, accusing it of injustice, and urging
the EU States and American organizations to exert their utmost
pressure in order to acquit Ibrahim.

What is also not mentioned in the case of the Director of Ibn
Khaldoun Centre is how foreign donor organizations are working
without control and are run by espionage networks. Donor
organizations are usually the following: ILO, World Academy for Peace
& European Protection in Bruxelles, Endowment for Democracy in
Washington, International Human Rights Group, Ford & Conrad Audenaur
Institution, Fredrich Ebert & Hans Zeidel, U.S. Peace Institute in
Washington, Italian Institute for International Affairs in Rome,
USAID, International Centre for Development Research in Ottawa,
Population Reference Bureau in Washington, International Association
for Political Economy in Paris, Harvard University, International
Development Organization of Canada & The Netherlands, International
Institute of Sweden, International Development Organization of
Denmark & Finland, Protestant Authority, Jaffa University, Zionist
Academic Centre & NATO Research Centre.

The treachery exercised by Ibrahim was revealed by the Investigation
Authorities, including his relation with donor authorities & NGO's,
when he defended himself concerning donations received without
permission by confessing that they were fees for field researches and
specific studies conducted for donor authorities!!!

The treachery exercised by Ibrahim was not our only concern. From the
beginning we traced the game, starting from Donor authorities and
ending with NGO's that implemented the required projects. This is why
these stood up to defend him when he was arrested. They went as far
as issuing papers and certificates from the European Commission or EU
States, denying any accusations of fraud or bribery against Ibn
Khaldoun Centre. In the certificate of the European Commission, it is
claimed that the contract with Ibn Khaldoun complies with the
Barcelona Convention of 1995, which has been ratified by Egypt upon
the ratification of the People's Assembly. The Commission denied that
it has been tricked at the hands of the Director of Ibn Khaldoun
Centre. Here, the honest Egyptian judiciary system stated that the
Martial Law prohibits raising funds, except with permission from the
Ministry of Social Affairs. As for fraud crimes, the Court stated
that this is not a complaint crime. The Prosecution here has full
competence to launch the criminal case, because such crimes affect
the entire society. The same thing happened in the testimony of the
Embassy of Finland, where the Director of Ibn Khaldoun Centre
swindled the sum of US$ 10,000 under the allegation of a so-called
project of rehabilitating Islamists.

On March 23, 1997, the Embassy of Finland declares that these grants
were paid to be offered as loans to repentant terrorists, with the
aim of preparing a research study on their socio-economic
circumstances, before and after the loan. 90% of the value was for
the loan and 10% for overheads at Ibn Khaldoun Centre. However, the
Centre tricked the repentant terrorists, who believed that Ibn
Khaldoun was going to give them these loans, democratically. Most of
them were astonished to find themselves sentenced to jail in "Imbaba"
district, and Ibn Khaldoun Centre asked for exorbitant interest rates.

What has not been mentioned in the Saad El Din Ibrahim case is what
was pronounced for the first and last time by "Al-Usbu'", in its
belief that the press is an honest national messenger that plays a
role in revealing corruption, anywhere.




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