EGYPT: ‘Al-Qaeda Plot’ Raises Required Fear

By Adam Morrow Reprint | | Print |

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO, Jul 31 2007 (IPS) - Earlier this month, scattered reports of an al-Qaeda plot to stage terrorist attacks in Cairo was followed by a series of security clampdowns countrywide. While the government has subsequently downplayed the threat, some local observers have come to question al-Qaeda’s very existence as a cohesive entity.

“Over the last five years, al-Qaeda has gone from being an organisation to being a mere idea,” Diaa Rashwan, analyst at the official al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies and expert on Islamist groups told IPS. “I doubt al-Qaeda has retained the capacity to dispatch anyone to carry out attacks anywhere.”

The terror scare began in mid-June, when the local press reported that dozens of members of a “terrorist cell” with alleged links to al-Qaeda had been arrested in April. Although the arrests were made some three months earlier, however, the group was not handed over to state security prosecutors until early July.

“State security prosecutors are questioning a group of 35 people accused of having affiliations with al-Qaeda and for plotting terrorist activity in Egypt,” reported the Jul. 14 edition of independent daily al-Masry al-Youm. Members of the group were reportedly charged with “affiliating with a secret organisation seeking to overthrow the government” and “planning terrorist activity via the Internet” in coordination with al-Qaeda elements in Afghanistan, Germany, Austria and the Gulf.

Subsequent press reports, however, were conflicting. While some local newspapers reported that the group’s alleged leader, said to be one Khaled Mahmoud Ahmed, escaped to Libya, others claimed he had fled to the nearby Gaza Strip.

Most detained members of the group strenuously denied the charges. Montasser al-Zayat, prominent Islamist lawyer and head of the group’s defence team, quoted in the Jul. 15 edition of opposition daily al-Dustour, went so far as to call the case against his clients a “work of fiction.”

Nevertheless, the reports coincided with a noticeable intensification of the state security presence countrywide. Airports and maritime ports – as well as passengers transiting through them – were subject to close police inspection, while checkpoints were set up on major thoroughfares in and out of the capital.

In the Jul. 19 edition of state daily al-Akhbar, Cairo’s head of security, Ismail el-Shaar, attributed the state of high alert to information obtained by authorities suggesting “possible terrorist attacks targeting the subway system.”

No link between the detained group of alleged al-Qaeda members and potential bomb plots in the capital was ever confirmed. Nevertheless, sensationalist reports in the local press contributed to popular fears of a looming al-Qaeda attack on the Cairo underground.

‘Al-Qaeda plots terrorist bombings in Egypt’, read the Jul. 18 headline of independent weekly al-Tareeq.

Further heightening popular anxiety, Cairo’s mass transit networks were subject to especially heavy scrutiny by the authorities. At the entrances of Cairo’s underground metro system, passengers were forced to wait in long queues while they and their bags were closely searched by police.

“People were late to work because of all the security,” public employee and Cairo resident Sameh Ridda, who takes the metro to work daily, told IPS. “But for the most part, passengers – frightened by reports about al-Qaeda – submitted to the inspections.”

After maintaining unusually high levels of vigilance for more than a week, however, the government suddenly ruled out an al-Qaeda connection. Contradicting earlier reports in the independent press, the Jul. 28 edition of flagship government daily al-Ahram stated explicitly that the group of alleged terrorists “has no relationship with Al-Qaeda.”

“Investigations by state security prosecutors refuted what was written in the private newspapers,” the broadsheet reported. “The accused never travelled outside the country or received military training of any kind.”

Earlier reports alleging the group’s affiliations with al-Qaeda, the paper added, “were inaccurate and have no basis in reality.” Without elaborating further, al-Ahram attributed the high state of alert to “rumours regarding the possibility of terror attacks in vital areas of the country.”

According to Rashwan, however, Egypt’s first “al-Qaeda” scare lacked credibility from the outset. Despite its fearsome reputation, he said, the group associated with Osama Bin Laden simply lacks the organisational capacity to carry out terrorist acts outside its traditional stomping grounds in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“You might find some small local groups or individuals who would like to emulate al-Qaeda,” he said. “But al-Qaeda itself has become an idea rather than an organisation, which can be exploited to rally domestic opinion.”

Rashwan went on to suggest that the stepped-up security measures, along with the alarmist news reports, could represent an effort to prepare public opinion for the introduction of draconian new laws aimed at combating terrorism.

“The government is expecting major opposition to proposed anti-terror legislation,” he said, “so it could be preparing a kind of justification for the move.”