Weekly Eye Part I

This Time Not Our Terrorist Our nation’s most famous bio-chemist is innocent: “Thirty-three-year-old Magdi El-Nashar has been cleared by Egyptian authorities of having any links with the 7 July London bombings that killed 56 people,” (my italics) are the opening words of the lead article in the home affairs section of Al-Ahram Weekly. Good for Egypt but the police in charge of bringing the perpetrators to court are actually in England. To what extent the UK police so far have been involved in hearing El-Nashar are unclear, also to the Weekly. But a quote by the prosecutor-general’s office saying that Egypt and the UK does not have an extradition treaty anyway, makes it obvious who is making the calls. (And with Gitmo and Gharib, the ‘coalition’ lost a large chunk of any moral imperative for putting Arabs in chains abroad). So what is the problem? Egyptian authorities have been spinning the ‘clear-Nashar’ position from day one but so far it has not been supported by any similar statements from the UK, who is largely quiet on the subject. To my eye, this means disagreement. With more bombs exploding in London, and Sharm El-Sheik, I hope that is not the case. The Weekly says it is not; the UK/Egypt security cooperation is described in terms of excellence. And now the final word is here: “Egypt clear chemist of terrorist links.” The official English language mouthpiece is driving home this point in bold print on lead space. To my eye, that means they have a message to convey. That message is either justified pride – 9/11 alright but this time we did not export the terrorist - or a cloud over something they want to hide.