Ferry Report Blames Owners, Corruption

W ith unprecedented bluntness Parliamentary report released last month blamed a “wicked collaboration” between the ship’s owners and corrupt safety inspectors for the sinking of the ferry Al-Salam Boccaccio 98, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people.

The Parliamentary Committee investigating the February 3 sinking, the worst maritime disaster in Egyptian history, also faulted maritime rescue officials for failing to promptly launch the rescue operation, which began 10 hours after the ship sank, although it noted that the ferry’s owners, Al-Salam Maritime Transportation, had concealed the sinking for several hours before calling authorities.

Investigators say Al-Salam 98 was overloaded by more than 25 percent and was sailing on forged documents that covered up a shortage of safety equipment, including lifeboats.

“The responsibility of the ship’s owner and his sons has been determined in this crime because the ferry was operating with major deficiencies that should have prevented it from sailing,” the report says, adding that negligence went further because Al-Salam company did not dispatch two other nearby vessels it owned that could have arrived at the site of the sinking within two hours to help rescue operations.

The 35-year-old ferry was carrying more than 1,400 passengers and crew; only 400 are believed to have survived the tragedy, which prompted national outrage when reported. Investigators said the ship was licensed to carry no more than 1168 passengers and crew.

Nasser Nouri A man tries to put out a fire in Al-Wafd party headquarters

Mamdouh Ismail, the ship’s owner, has since been stripped of his parliamentary immunity as a member of the Shura Council so he can be questioned on the sinking, but has yet to return to Egypt to face investigators.

The report demanded Parliamentarians, the government and courts “offer no mercy to those who caused the loss of Egyptian lives and corrupted the Maritime Safety Commission.”

Investigators said clogged drains on the automotive deck meant water, that the ship’s crew used to attack a fire that broke out soon after the ship sailed from Saudi Arabia, pooled in the hull, causing it to list and eventually sink.

Another ferry owned by Al-Salam Maritime, Al-Salam 90, caught fire and sank in 2002.

S ami Al-Arian, the man demonized in American media as “the Professor of Terror,” has entered into a plea agreement with the US Department of Justice that will see him serve time behind bars just four months after a jury acquitted him on eight counts of supporting groups including Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas.

Al-Arian entered the plea after the judge overturned his acquittal by declaring a mistrial, claiming the jury had “failed to render a complete verdict on all charges.”

A professor at the University of South Florida and one-time campaigner for President George W. Bush, Al-Arian was a prominent advocate of inter-faith dialogue when he was first arrested more than three years ago. His case won wide attention in the Arab world after Al-Arian was profiled in Egypt Today in December 2003. (See “Shattered Dream” by Yasmine Moll, page 72.)

Al-Arian could serve up to five years in prison. The 48-year-old father of three will be deported at the end of his sentence. He has pleaded guilty to one charge of supporting PIJ, illegal under US law because the State Department has deemed PIJ a terror group.

“This conviction is the result of years of exhaustive investigative and prosecutorial work during which the government utilized the many tools we have available to us in the ongoing war against terrorism,” the Orlando Sun-Sentinel quoted US District Attorney Paul Perez as saying. “Al-Arian has now confessed to helping terrorists do their work from his base here in the United States, a base he is no longer able to maintain.”

Nasser Nouri The sun’s loss was Egypt’s gain as tourists flocked to Salloum.

Under the plea agreement, the professor admitted he had supported PIJ in the 1980s and early 1990s, although Egypt Today has previously reported that Al-Arian had effectively cut all ties to armed resistance groups in Palestine before PIJ was classed as a “specially designated terrorist group” by the US government in 1995.

Although born in Kuwait, Al-Arian grew up in Cairo and maintains deep ties to Egypt.

At press time, Al-Arian was scheduled to be sentenced on May 1.

S ecurity officials announced late last month that they had rolled up a previously unheard-of Islamist terror cell that investigators allege was planning a series of bomb attacks and assassinations in the greater Cairo area.

The Victorious Group, the Interior Ministry said in a statement released April 19, included some 22 men allegedly led by a 27-year-old university student named Ahmed Mohamed Ali Gabr.

The group planned to assassinate both Muslim and Christian religious figures and bomb sensitive tourist sites as well as the gas pipeline that follows the Cairo Ring Road, the statement said.

The Interior Ministry added that the group had been found in possession of manuals downloaded from websites that outlined how to make explosives and poisons. Investigators allege the group had tried to buy a plot of land in El-Saff, some 60 kilometers south of Cairo, that they had planned to turn into a base.

The ringleader is alleged to have recruited young men living in his neighborhood and used books, audio cassettes and videotapes that preached militant jihad to indoctrinate them, according to local press reports.

Essam El-Erian, a senior leader of the banned-but-tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, was quick to denounce the arrests as “a trick” to justify the extension of the ongoing state of emergency, which is set to expire May 31. Activists and opposition parties have been calling for the abolition of the state of emergency for years.

The emergency has been in effect since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

The announcement of the arrest came just days after a man investigators say is mentally deranged attacked three Coptic Churches in Alexandria on the weekend before Coptic Easter, killing one elderly worshipper. Security officers reportedly thwarted a fourth attack.

Ahmed Thabet, a professor of political science at Cairo University and an expert on Islamist militant groups, said he had never before heard of the Victorious Group, adding that it was unlikely that so young and inexperienced a group could have successfully planned such ambitious attacks. (NH)

A lthough expected to hand down its final verdict on the fate of the would-be soft-Islamist Al-Wasat Party, a Cairo court ordered further hearings to allow the government to present evidence that the party would be illegal under the Constitution and the Political Parties Act.

According to Essam Sultan, a Muslim co-founder of the party, the court’s decision came after attorneys of the government presented a brief arguing that Al-Wasat has essentially become a religious party after its six Coptic co-founders withdrew their support.

The lead founder of the party, Abou El-Ela Madi, alleged that the Copts were pressured to withdraw.

Egyptian law forbids the formal recognition of parties with religious foundations. Madi, who broke ranks with the banned-but-tolerated Muslim Brotherhood in 1996, maintains that his party is a civil group, not a religious one.

Since it was first formed in 1996, Al-Wasat has been denied recognition by the Shura Council’s Political Parties Affairs Committee three times. Each time, the committee argued that the party’s platform did not provide anything new in political life, a requirement for recognition. Madi has appealed the latest ruling in the State Council’s PPAC Court.

Last summer, the court’s advisory committee issued a report saying that the party’s platform was unique, a move that raised hopes that Al-Wasat might be finally recognized as Egypt’s first licensed Islamic party.

The court is expected to convene again for hearings on June 3.

Al-Wasat’s founders claim their party platform is based on “the values of the old Islamic civilization that encompassed both Muslims and non-Muslims.” Al-wasat, the Arabic word for moderate, promises to adopt more liberal views on issues of democracy, gender and minority rights than the Muslim Brotherhood and has made attempts to include Copts among its senior leadership. (NH)

A fter almost 40 days of infighting that exploded in a bloody confrontation early last month, the crisis of Al-Wafd Party seemed resolved as the Shura Council’s Political Parties Affairs Committee (PPAC) recognized former justice Mostafa El-Taweel as the legitimate party president, replacing the deposed Noman Gomaa.

In January, Gomaa, the long-serving president of the nation’s oldest and most entrenched secular opposition party and the number-three finisher in last year’s presidential race, was overthrown by the party’s Supreme Committee for allegedly resisting internal reforms and abusing the powers of his office.

At the time, Al-Wafd Vice President Mahmoud Abaza, who led the dissident faction, was elected interim president. Gomaa had been denied access to the party’s headquarters in Dokki since Abaza’s election.

The conflict turned violent on April 1, when nearly 100 Gomaa supporters stormed the party’s headquarters to expel Abaza’s supporters after the Prosecutor General’s Office ruled that Gomaa should be allowed access to the offices. In the ensuing scuffle Gomaa’s supporters allegedly opened fire on their adversaries with handguns.

At least 23 people were wounded or injured and one was reportedly killed in the clash.

Gomaa and 13 others were arrested on charges of manslaughter, assault and possession of unlicensed firearms. Prosecutor General Maher Abdel Wahed later ordered the 72-year-old Gomaa released on LE 10,000 bail, citing Gomaa’s deteriorating heath. Sources close to the party earlier claimed Gomaa had suffered a heart attack while in detention.

His co-defendants were still in custody at press time.

Since the conflict erupted early this year, the PPAC had declined to interfere, maintaining that the conflict between the party’s factions was an internal matter.

El-Taweel was elected interim president in February after Abaza resigned the post. El-Taweel’s mandate ends in June, when the party’s general assembly is expected to convene to elect a new leader.

El-Taweel was previously the head of the party’s Alexandria apparatus.

M inister of Justice Mahmoud Abul Leil has referred two reformist judges to the Higher Judicial Disciplinary Committee, a move that could see jurists Hesham El-Bastawisi and Mahmoud Mekki sacked.

The two judges, deputy heads of Egypt’s Court of Cassation, the nation’s highest appellate court, have been vocal critics of what they say has been interference by the executive branch in the affairs of the judiciary and have leveled allegations of vote rigging during last fall’s parliamentary elections.

In February, the two judges were stripped of their judicial immunity and referred for questioning by the State Security Prosecutor’s Office (SSPO) after another judge filed a complaint with authorities objecting to their allegations of vote rigging.

Reformist judges dismissed the move as a sign of a crackdown on dissident jurists, likening it to “the massacre of the judges.”

In 1969, President Gamal Abdel Nasser cracked down on reformist judges who were calling for the independence of the judiciary. In a move then-branded “the massacre of the judges,” Nasser sacked more than a 100 members of the bench. (NH)

T he death in late March of 20-year-old Mohamed Hamdi has sparked new fears in the parents of teen children.

Mohamed, a final-year student at the Naval Academy, was found strangled in his friend’s apartment. Although his friends have kept their lips sealed, investigators announced he died of autostrangulation. With two similar cases reported in the local press last month involving younger boys, the issue of the ‘choking game’ has become a national hot-button topic in the press and on satellite television.

The game is played when the self-appointed victim attempts to strangle himself in the presence of others to achieve the altered mental state that comes when the player regains consciousness.

Dr. Ahmed Hamdi, Mohamed’s father, agreed to a rare interview with Egypt Today, saying he wanted “to raise awareness about this deadly, stupid game.”

According to Hamdi, Mohamed was the perfect son. “He was an A– / B+ student, he prayed and fasted, played sports and was a water-polo champion from the age of eight. He had won four championships with his team. He spent his time walking in the club track, to increase his fitness, as opposed to pumping up in the gym. He was my good friend, and hated all drugs and alcohol,” the father says.

Hamdi refutes the notion that the kids who practice choking do it for the high that accompanies oxygen deprivation. Instead, he believes they do it for the adrenalin rush found in risking their lives and taking things to the extreme.

“I have been doing a lot of reading on the topic and have discovered that the profile of the kids who practice this game is similar: They have too much self-confidence and believe themselves to be bulletproof. This was true of Mohamed, and it is what I blame myself for,” Hamdi says.

According to the father, Mohamed and many others his age were deprived of challenges. Their lives are too easy, they have everything they want.

“Even the exams are too easy, too expected. They miss the challenge, and most of them do not think they are candidates for death. They think only old people die, and see themselves as invincible. So what they do is go to the extreme, they experiment with death,” Hamdi says.

According to Mohamed’s father, his son’s dream was to dive in Australia with the sharks. “He liked the extremes. The day preceding the accident, I saw red marks on his neck. I asked him what they were, and he said something that did not convince me, but I let it go. I did not know that the choking game existed at the time,” he says.

Since then, Hamdi and many other parents have discovered, simply by talking to kids, that the game is more widespread than anyone would have thought, and is not a new one.

Hamdi is speaking to the press despite the pain he feels because he wants parents to be aware of their children.

“I want to tell parents to pay attention to their seemingly good kids, the ones who get good grades and never do drugs and who are good athletes. We do not understand them, and we should try to be closer to them. Most of the kids who play this game belong to the good crowd. They are not the rebels who constantly get Fs.”

Hamdi visits his son’s grave every week, and he often meets the young man’s friends there. “They have not spoken up. They are still scared. But I will know the particulars of the case one day,” he says. (MJ)

D r. Samir Farag, president of the Supreme Council of Luxor, has big plans for his city and the wealth of antiquities there. One plan is to restore the road connecting Luxor and Karnak. Stretching over three kilometers, the planned road would cut a 60- to 70-meter-wide swath right through a largely residential area of modern Luxor.

Luxor Temple is believed to be the oldest functioning house of worship in the world. Archaeologists estimate that people have been worshipping at the temple for more than 4,000 years. An early Christian church replaced the gods of the Pharaohs and the Romans. Later, when the local community converted to Islam, the church was bricked up and a mosque, which continues to function today, was built on top of it.

In ancient times, a road linked the Luxor temple with Karnak, the two holiest sites in the Pharaonic religion. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the sun god Ra was born in Luxor, but lived in Karnak. Once a year, Ra needed to travel back to the place of his birth to rejuvenate himself. A ceremonial procession, including the pharaoh, followed the sphinx-lined road to accompany Ra.

When the old religion was superseded by the new, the significance of the road was lost to the inhabitants of Luxor. Like many of the ancient monuments, the road was torn up for building materials. A number of more modern structures were built directly on top of the road.

The plan to turn the city of Luxor into what Farag refers to as “a living museum” is broken down into phases. He has declared phase one — which consisted largely of planning — complete and says they will commence work on phase two shortly. Phase two includes, among other things, starting to evacuate residents and businesses living and working on the old temple road.

Phase two is largely funded by the European Union, which has pledged LE 240 million for the road project, funds also intended to help build a new city for the displaced.

“Everyone who has to be moved will get a free apartment, even those who are only renting,” Farag says. The apartments will be in a new city which will be built right outside Luxor. “Not too far outside,” he assures.

While phase two is ready to move ahead, the plans to build the new city were only formally proposed a couple of weeks ago. It’s an open question when ground might break on the new city, a fact that has left many residents worried about where they may be living in the coming years. (CS)

T he end of March has never been high season for tourists in Marsa Matrouh. This year however, every hotel in town had been booked months in advance. Salloum, a tiny town on the Libyan border, is largely just a stopover for truckers crossing the frontier and didn’t even have a hotel to book. The militarized border area, covered with “No Photo” signs, was incongruous with the thousands of tourists and what was easily millions of dollars worth of photographic and telescopic equipment.

The unseasonal (or in, Salloum’s case, unheard of) boost in visitors came from an unlikely source: a total solar eclipse.

Beginning in Brazil and following an arc all the way to Mongolia, the eclipse reached its peak over the Libyan Desert, with over four minutes of totality, and was only slightly diminished by the time it crossed the Egyptian border directly over Salloum. The rare phenomenon brought around 8,000 astronomers, sun worshippers, and curious tourists from around the world. Even President Hosni Mubarak stopped by to witness the event.

For lack of available hotels or to ensure they weren’t late for the event, thousands camped overnight in the desert. Above the various campsites, banners and national flags were raised representing countries from all over the globe.

A total solar eclipse is easily the most amazing astronomical event that can be seen with the naked eye. Total eclipses are so rare because they are caused by the tilted orbits of the sun, moon and Earth lining up exactly so that the moon obscures the sun completely. Since time immemorial, eclipses have been the source of both awe and fear. One of the most potent religious symbols for the Ancient Egyptians, the Eye of Horus, is believed by most archaeologists to be a rendering of a total solar eclipse. The effect on people seems to have diminished little over the millennia.

A woman who came as part of a tour group from Los Angeles unabashedly described herself as an “eclipse chaser.”

“This is my sixth total soar eclipse,” she says. Her husband, who shares her unusual hobby, was also there. He’s “somewhere around here,” as she looked around the masses of people. “We were even married under a total eclipse,” she says. Already, they’re making plans to travel to Northern China in 2008 for the next full eclipse.

Even those who had not come for the experience were visibly moved. A local man who had been driving a work truck around the various campsites looked both amused and annoyed by the crowds demanding that he turn off his engine when totality was approaching. But as the sun went fully behind the moon and darkness descended on the high plateau over the Western Desert at 12:38 in the afternoon, he scrambled on top of his truck to stare at the sky with his mouth open. As the sun slowly reappeared and a brilliant sunrise crept up from all directions of the horizon, he stood transfixed as thousands of people cheered simultaneously.

The solar eclipse doesn’t seem to have lost its religious significance over the years either. The event is rigorously debated online on Islamic websites, with reactions ranging from a celebration of God’s power to abhorrence. Former Grand Mufti of Egypt Nasr Farid Wassel found them disturbing enough that he issued a fatwa against watching an eclipse.

Spiritual significance is in no way limited to any one religion or creed, though. In India, thousands of devout Hindu’s flocked to the river Ganges to wash themselves during the eclipse, believing that all of their sins would be washed away. Even in war-torn Baghdad, the growing sectarian violence was put away (at least for the afternoon) as Shi‘a and Sunni alike crowded mosques for a special prayer reserved for times of fear and natural disaster.

And in a sight undoubtedly never before seen in Salloum, Buddhists sat in meditation positions with their eyes closed as the sun reappeared.

All visitors to Salloum during the eclipse had to pass through checkpoints and pay an admission. Besides documenting and controlling the numbers of people, officials used the checkpoint to hand out protective eyewear and make sure people knew the dangers of looking at the partial eclipse. Every country under the path of the eclipse undertook some form of a public awareness campaign. Some of the warnings issued effectively proved how much superstition still surrounds such events.

The Hindustan Times newspaper ran warnings advising pregnant women not to go outside during the eclipse or their babies would be born blind or having a cleft lip. The ad continued to advise that any food prepared during the eclipse would be impure and should be thrown out. In conclusion, they noted that anyone holding either a knife or an axe during totality would inevitably cut themselves with the instrument.

Reassurance from the scientific community did little to mitigate the fears of many under the path of the eclipse. In 1999, in northwestern Turkey a massive earthquake struck less than a week after a solar eclipse, killing an estimated 17,000 people. In Turkey’s Tokat province, despite repeated efforts to convince local people that it was merely a coincidence; thousands left their homes and set up tents before the event.

The boost in tourism was not limited to the Western Desert. Few if any of the visitors had traveled so far just for the eclipse. The tour groups who arrived (most of which had sold out) were offering the eclipse in conjunction with a Nile cruise or other common tourist activities.

Nancy Cox, a self-described amateur astronomer, came from San Francisco to see her third eclipse and the monuments in one go. Referring to the fact that she’s getting along in years, she added, “I want to see the Pyramids and all the ancient monuments, because I have been on this kind of quest to see ancient antiquities — before I become an antiquity!” (CS) et

TITANIC LOSS

We cannot take the risk of not having a legislative environment that would allow us to fight terrorism and combat it effectively. You need to strike a balance between individual human rights and freedoms granted to citizens and, on the other hand, be able to do effective investigations into terrorist acts and combat terrorist networks.

We do believe that the assistance request is still appropriate, given the fact that it is a large relationship with a number of elements. We have made it very clear to the Egyptian government that the health of this relationship is in large due to what further progress they can make on the democracy front.

Newsreel is written by Noha El-Hannawy, Cache Seel, Manal el-Jesri and Karim Abdullah.