US embassy cable - 05CAIRO2990

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 002990 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
LONDON FOR ARABIC MEDIA UNIT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, PROP, OIIP, KPAO, EG, Media 
SUBJECT:  BOGUS USG MEMO 'EXPLAINED' BY AL-SHARQ AL-AWSAT 
CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for Internet distribution. 
Please protect accordingly. 
 
REF:  CAIRO 2877 
 
1.  (SBU)  Summary:  PA officer visited Abdel Latif Al 
Manawy, Cairo bureau chief of pan-Arab Al Sharq Al Awsat 
newspaper, to discuss an April 3 article appearing on page 
9 of that paper referring to an alleged State Department 
memo "urging the White House to begin direct talks" with 
the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt.  During the meeting, 
Al Manawy admitted not to have seen the memo and stated he 
had made two mistakes:  1) not contacting the Embassy for 
confirmation of the memo's veracity; and 2) reporting that 
"Western," rather than "Arab," sources had alerted the 
bureau to the memo.  Al Manawy also admitted that he only 
used a single source for the story -- a "trusted Arab 
ambassador," who had reported to him the purported memo's 
contents.  PA officer requested that, in the future, Al 
Manawy's office contact the Embassy for comment on issues 
relating to USG policies and relations with Egypt.  Al 
Manawy promised to provide the Embassy with a copy of the 
purported memo and other source materials for the article, 
but we doubt he will do so.  End summary. 
 
2.  (SBU)  PA officer and senior PA LES visited Abdel Latif 
Al Manawy, Cairo bureau chief of London-based Al Sharq Al 
Awsat newspaper, on April 18 to discuss an April 3 article 
that sourced an alleged State Department memo that 
recommended the White House begin "direct talks" with the 
MB in Egypt.  The article, entitled  "Sources:  U.S. State 
Department Calls for the White House to Begin Direct Talks 
with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt," reported that 
"Western diplomatic sources" had discussed the memo's 
contents with the bureau.  The report itself neither quoted 
from the alleged memo nor provided details about its date 
or author.  The article also reported that Embassy Cairo 
had begun talks with the MB.  No USG officials were quoted 
or referenced in the article.  Mohammad Habib, Deputy 
Supreme Guide of the MB, was quoted denying that the MB was 
in dialogue with the USG and stating that any such talks 
would take place "under the control" of Egypt's MFA. 
 
3.  (SBU)  In the meeting, PA officer told Al Manawy that 
the Embassy would like to review the memo in question and 
asked why the Embassy, or the State Department in 
Washington, was not contacted to confirm the memo's 
veracity and invited to provide a response.  Al Manawy 
immediately admitted that it was "a mistake" not to have 
contacted the Embassy.  He then admitted another mistake: 
Rather than referring to "Western" (in Arabic, "western" is 
"gharbiya"), the article should have read "Arabic" (in 
Arabic, "arabiya") diplomatic sources.  The "mistyping" of 
the word, Al Manawy claimed, had led readers to 
misunderstand the article.  When PA officer asked about the 
article's sources, Al Manawy admitted there was only one 
source:  a "trusted Arab ambassador," whom he could not 
name.  The source had briefed Al Manawy on the memo, which 
Al Manawy said he himself had not seen.  PA officer pointed 
out that the April 3 article had led other Arab media 
outlets, trusting Al Sharq Al Awsat's reputation, to report 
the "memo," thereby spreading incorrect information.  PA 
officer requested that Al Manawy's office contact the 
Embassy about future articles pertaining to the State 
Department and USG-Egypt relations. 
 
4.  (SBU)  In response, Al Manawy suggested that the real 
issue was not the memo itself, but rather whether the USG 
really would open talks with the MB.  "Many people are 
talking about how talks between the U.S. and the 
Brotherhood are inevitable," he said.  Al Manawy stated 
that, by publishing the article, he was just trying to push 
forward the discussion on whether USG-MB talks should take 
place.  PA officer declined to follow that line of argument 
and returned the discussion to the article itself and its 
questionable sources.  The meeting ended with Al Manawy 
promising to provide the Embassy with a copy of the memo 
and other information his bureau sourced for the article, 
by close of business on April 18.  (Note:  Al Manawy had 
not emailed or faxed the Embassy any information, nor 
called, as of close of business on April 19.  End note.) 
 
5.  (SBU)  Comment:  Al Manawy is known to be ardently pro- 
government.  It is unlikely that the April 3 article had 
the USG as its primary target.  Instead, the article was 
very possibly a part of an ongoing smear campaign targeting 
the MB (reftel).  Al Manawy undoubtedly realized that an 
article appearing in Al Sharq Al Awsat about USG-MB talks 
would resonate in other Arab media outlets, but especially 
in Egypt.  The article, and rumors circulating among 
Egyptian journalists that the MB is to receive USG funds, 
succeeded in putting the MB on the defensive.  Attesting to 
the article's impact on journalists in Cairo, the Embassy's 
press office has received a dozen calls since April 3 
asking about the alleged USG-MB talks.  The Embassy has 
forwarded a copy of the April 3 article to Embassy London's 
Arabic Media Unit for follow-up with the paper's chief 
editor.  End comment. 
 
GRAY