US embassy cable - 05CAIRO8188

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 008188 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC STAFF FOR POUNDS 
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ELA AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2015 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, KDEM, EG, Democracy Reform, civil society 
SUBJECT: LEADING CIVIL SOCIETY GROUP COMPLAINS OF GOE 
HARASSMENT 
 
Classified by ECPO Minister Counselor Michael Corbin for 
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
This is a joint message from Embassy Cairo and APP Alexandria. 
 
1.  (C)  Summary:  An October 22-23 meeting in Alexandria of 
non-governmental democracy activists organized by the 
Cairo-based Ibn Khaldun Center (IKC) was disrupted by several 
audience members protesting the presence of foreigners, 
including U.S. and European NGO representatives.  The 
disruption included overturning tables and breaking water 
glasses in an apparently coordinated attempt to intimidate 
the participants and force a cancellation of the meeting. 
IKC chief Saad Eddin Ibrahim refused to suspend proceedings, 
and obtained a GOE pledge to protect and allow the meeting to 
continue.  American attendees at the event included 
representatives of the National Endowment for Democracy, the 
Carnegie Endowment, the National Democratic Institute, and 
the Congressional Research Service.  Some of the participants 
suggested that the GOE was behind the disruptions, but the 
evidence is far from conclusive.  End summary. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Shortly after the October 22 commencement of the 
proceedings to establish the "Egypt Democracy Support 
Network" (EDSN) at Alexandria's Metropole Hotel, two audience 
members objected to the presence of foreign participants and 
began overturning tables and throwing water glasses in an 
apparent attempt to scuttle the meeting.  The two men, 
identified as a member of the Alexandria local council (and 
former Tagammu party activist) and the Secretary General of 
the Alexandria branch of the "Misr Alfayn" (Egypt 2000) 
party, appeared to be acting in coordination across the room 
from one another.  At the time of the incident, a number of 
local reporters also burst into the room, as though on cue. 
GOE State Security officials posted at the hotel hosting the 
event acted with pronounced caution, first refusing to expel 
the protesters, and later advising the conference organizer 
to cancel the meeting to avoid further trouble.  A third 
protester, described by some attendees as a known NDP 
activist, attempted to rally a crowd outside the seaside 
Alexandria hotel to protest the proceedings inside, but his 
efforts met with little more than lackadaisical curiosity by 
passers-by, tourists, and young couples out for a stroll. 
 
3.  (C)  After a period of deliberation by conference 
participants and a conversation between IKC's Ibrahim and 
State Security officials, Ibrahim decided to continue the 
meeting.  Ibrahim told APP Alexandria Principal Officer (who 
attended portions of the first day's proceedings as an 
observer but was not present for the disruption itself) that 
while Alexandria State Security officials recommended he call 
off the meeting, their Cairo superiors agreed with Ibrahim 
that doing so could have troubling public relations 
consequences for the GOE and thus offered their support for 
the continuation of proceedings with a renewed pledge of 
cooperation.  (Ibrahim asserted that he had been in contact 
with State Security about the event for "months.") 
Nevertheless, Ibrahim and other Ibn Khaldun representatives 
were convinced that the protest was instigated by GOE 
elements, and that State Security's initial ambivalence 
indicated at the least a permissive posture toward the 
disruption, if not outright complicity. 
 
4.  (SBU)  The protesters' objections centered on the 
presence of international participants in the conference. 
One protester noted that he had not fought in the Sinai in 
the October 1973 war so that he could see foreigners debating 
Egypt's political future.  He added that if there was to be a 
meeting about Egypt then foreigners should be asked to leave, 
and if foreigners wanted to participate then the meeting 
should take place outside Egypt.  When thanked for his 
perspective, but told that the meeting had long been planned 
as an international support mechanism for the creation of the 
EDSN, he became irate and verbally abusive. 
 
5.  (C)  While many participants viewed the protesters as 
fringe figures who were merely annoying distractions, several 
of the international participants viewed the event similarly 
to Ibrahim.  National Endowment for Democracy President Carl 
Gershman told APP PO that he was convinced that the regime 
sought to disrupt a democratic proceeding, and vowed action 
to intensify support for the EDSN and denounce the GOE's 
actions.  Other U.S. participants included representatives of 
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; the 
Transatlantic Center of the German Marshall Fund; the 
National Democratic Institute; and the Congressional Research 
Service.  The meeting proceeded without major incident after 
the initial disruption and continued for a second day on 
October 23.  The three individuals who disrupted the October 
22 proceedings continued to lurk around the Hotel Metropole 
until the conclusion of the meeting, however, and the 
organizers chose to conduct portions of the second day's 
meetings in their private suite, instead of in the meeting 
room. 
6.  (C)  Comment:  Unsurprisingly, many of the Egyptian 
participants asserted that the circumstantial evidence 
suggested the work of the GOE security services, which may 
have been seeking to discredit the meeting and its 
objectives.  On the other hand, several participants also 
suggested that the Ibn Khaldun Center's less-than-transparent 
leadership of the conference may have led some of the other 
Egyptian groups in the meeting to engineer the protests, 
either from resentment or as a warning to perceived IKC 
dominance of reform initiatives in Egypt.  Negad El Borai 
(protect), who heads the United Group, which is a MEPI 
grantee, further noted that the GOE's previous character 
assassination of Ibrahim--over the course of a series of 
trials from 2000-2003 which eventually resulted in Ibrahim's 
vindication by Egypt's highest court--meant that all of his 
activities have become a lightning rod for the xenophobic, 
nationalist outbursts that are common in contemporary 
Egyptian debates about reform.  End comment. 
 
 
RICCIARDONE