Egypt's president fires intelligence chief

Intelligence chief and governor of Northern Sinai sacked while defence minister replaces military police commander. Last Modified: 08 Aug 2012 16:37

President Mohamed Morsi ordered Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi (R), the defence minister, to replace the head of military police Hamdi Badee [AFP]

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has fired his spy chief Murad Muwafi in a major shake-up of military and intelligence ranks extending to the head of the Republican Guard and the governor of North Sinai. Wednesday's decision comes several days after a deadly ambush in Sinai killed 16 soldiers, prompting an unprecedented military crackdown in the peninsula, but Morsi's spokesman did not say whether the attack had prompted the changes. Morsi also ordered Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the defence minister, to replace the head of military police Hamdi Badeen, his spokesman Yassir Ali said in a televised statement on Wednesday. Morsi appointed Mohammed Rafaat Abdel Wahad Shehata as the interim head of General Intelligence. Earlier on Wednesday, Muwafi, himself a former governor of North Sinai, issued a rare public statement saying that his agency had forewarning of the weekend attack that killed the soldiers. But he said the intelligence did not specify where the attack would take place and he had passed it on to the "relevant authorities," adding that his powerful agency's role was only to collect information. The shuffle extended to Abdel Wahab Mabruk, the governor of North Sinai where the attack took place. Morsi is likely to have reached the decisions with the military, which ruled the country between president Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February 2011 and Morsi's inauguration as his successor in June. The head of the Presidential Guard, the director of Security in Cairo and the director of Central Security Forces were also fired. It is unclear if their dismissal was related to the incident in the Sinai.

Source: Agencies

Bahrain charges policemen over abuses

Charges against 15 officers follow investigation recommended by independent panel that studied last year's uprising. Last Modified: 07 Aug 2012 21:02

Salmaniya Medical Complex was thrust into the limelight after the crackdown on protests last year [EPA]

Bahrain's public prosecutor says authorities have charged 15 policemen with mistreating medics during last year's crackdown on opposition protesters. The charges on Tuesday follow an investigation into police abuses that was recommended last year by an independent commission that studied the Gulf state's Shia Muslim majority's uprising against the Sunni monarchy. Nawaf Abdullah Hamza did not identify the 15 officers involved and only said that the charges came out of claims "made by 15 medics working at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC), related to last year's unrest". The complaints filed by doctors and nurses were among the most sensitive for Bahrain's leadership as it confronts the grievances of the kingdom's majority Shias. The state-run Salmaniya complex was thrust into the limelight when the kingdom's Sunni monarchy cracked down on Shia-led protests that began in February 2011, and the injured were brought there for treatment. Authorities say the doctors sided with protesters last year and tried to topple the country's ruling system. Helping the wounded The doctors said they were only doing their jobs helping the wounded. Initially, 20 medical personnel were sentenced to prison terms of between five and 15 years by a now-disbanded security tribunal. A retrial in civilian court was ordered earlier this year following intense pressure from international rights and medical groups. The investigative commission's work has led to at least one other case. It found that three protesters were shot at close range and Bahrain said in June that three police officers would be charged with murder. Meanwhile, the information affairs authority said a policeman was severely burned Monday when he was attacked with a Molotov cocktail while on foot patrol in a Shia neighbourhood where clashes with anti-government protests routinely take place.

Source: Agencies

Egypt military hunts for Sinai attackers

Helicopter gunships arrive in border town of El-Arish to join search after raid that left 16 border guards dead.

 

Egypt's military has pledged to hunt down those behind the killing of its 16 soldiers at a checkpoint along the Sinai border with Israel. It described on Monday the attackers as "enemies of the nation" who must be dealt with by force and suggested they were Sinai-based Egyptian fighters who received Palestinian support from the Gaza Strip. Security and military officials said at least two helicopter gunships arrived in the border town of El-Arish on Monday to join the hunt. Israel, meanwhile, stepped up pressure on Egypt to clamp down on the lawless border region. Israel says its aircraft killed eight fighters who broke through the border after the killings. Egyptian officials have said six attackers were killed. Fighters blamed A statement by the Egyptian armed forces said 35 armed fighters took part in the attack, suggesting that close to 30 of them may be on the run. "There is increased security along the border area following the attack," Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh said. "The entire border area has been sealed with very heavy security on all the roads leading up to Sinai and not just the border area." No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Sinai attack. Morsi, centre, visited El-Arish on Monday after pledging to retake control of Sinai following Sunday's attack [Reuters] Egypt and Israel say both Islamist fighters from the Sinai and Palestinian allies from the Gaza Strip are active in northern Sinai, attacking both Egyptian security forces and staging raids across the border into Israel. The Egyptian armed forces' statement suggested that groups on both sides of the border may have been involved. "The armed forces have been careful in the past months and during the events of the [Egyptian] revolution [in 2011] not to shed Egyptian blood ... but the group that staged yesterday's attack is considered by the armed forces as enemies of the nation who must be dealt with by force," it said. In the first direct indication that the attackers may have had the help of Palestinian fighters, the military's statement said "elements from the Gaza Strip" aided the attackers by shelling the Egyptian-Israeli border crossing of Karam Abu Salem with mortars as the attack was taking place. Earlier on Monday, Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian president, pledged that he will retake control of the Sinai. "I have given clear orders to all of our security forces, the armed forces as well as the interior police, to move swiftly in capturing those behind this vicious attack," he said in a television address early on Monday. "This incident will not go lightly. The security forces will implement entire control over all of these areas within Sinai and will ensure they are controlling it. Those behind the attacks will pay a high price as well as those who have been co-operating with those attackers, be it those inside or anywhere in Egypt." A senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to reporters, said seven other guards were wounded in the attack. He said the attackers seized an armoured vehicle before driving away. Israeli reaction Israel said the attackers commandeered two Egyptian vehicles and tried to storm its border. One of the vehicles exploded and the second was targeted by Israeli aircraft, Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman, said. Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, said that eight of the attackers had been killed. He said the raid showed need for "determined Egyptian action" to impose security and "prevent terror in Sinai". Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, an Israeli military spokesperson, said on Monday that intelligence services had received reports of a planned attack beforehand and were "prepared for it". Akiva Eldar, the chief political correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz, told Al Jazeera "the Israelis are in a way quite happy that the Egyptians have learnt their lesson, that they have to listen to us, and have had to pay the price", with Morsi having to work with the Israeli authorities to ensure this does not happen again. "The message from the Israelis," Eldar said, "is that 'we cannot trust anyone ... we cannot afford to give away the responsibility of the security of our people to anyone'." In a statement, Hamas, the Palestinian group controlling Gaza, condemned the attack, calling it an "ugly crime" and extended "deep condolences to the families of the victims and to the leadership and the people of Egypt". Lucrative tourist income Taher al-Nono, a Hamas spokesperson, said that the group was temporarily closing all tunnels along the border with Egypt immediately. The Sinai is home to Egypt's Red Sea resorts, a source of lucrative tourist income, and is also where the country's Bedouin, who were long marginalised under the rule of fallen president Hosni Mubarak, are based. Before the July attack in Sheikh Zuwaid, a town roughly 15km west of the Gaza Strip, the fighters had distributed pamphlets calling on the army, brought in to restore security, to leave the lawless north of the peninsula. The military sent tanks and soldiers into the region last year to quell Islamist fighters, after receiving permission from Israel. Under a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, Egypt should have a limited military presence in the area.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

BUFF Featured on BBC Arabic

BUFF "Cooking on iPad Wrapped by BUFF" was featured on BBC Arabic's tech show "4 Tech" aired Saturday 14 July, 2012.

New TV channel run exclusively by fully veiled women

By Sarah El Sirgany, Special to CNN

July 31, 2012 -- Updated 1403 GMT (2203 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A new TV station is run by and features women wearing the niqab
• The niqab is a black fabric that covers a woman's entire face except eyes
• Some say the programming lets women's voices be heard; others say it's a U-turn for rights

(CNN) -- After graduating from the mass communication department of Cairo University, Heba Seraq-Eddin couldn't find a job. Potential employers turned her down, she says, because of her veil. Heba wears the niqab, the black fabric that covers her whole face, except for the eyes.

"I used to tell them I won't appear on camera, my niqab won't be visible," recalls Serag-Eddin, trained as a director and camera operator. But there were no job offers and she felt that the networks rejected the very concept of the niqab in the workplace.

Then she came across an ad for a new TV channel called Maria, run exclusively by niqab-clad women. She was hired right away.

Maria, the first channel of its kind anywhere, kicked off with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on July 20. Until it gets more funding and staff, it's a daily four-hour broadcast on its mother channel, Al-Omma, an independent channel seen in the Middle East.

In an apartment in the eastern Cairo district of Abasya, the female volunteers of Maria share two studios with Al-Omma's staff. Men occasionally help move the colored wooden panels on set and perform other technical chores. And Islam Abdallah, Al-Omma's executive director, steps in to offer advice on how to talk to the camera.

Critics say the programming is a "U-turn" on any Arab Spring advances.

While new hires are being trained, the station is using the skills of other women who favor the hijab -- the veil that's more like a head scarf -- to help. But the objective is to depend solely on niqab-clad women. So far, they all work as volunteers.

"I felt that we finally have a place in society after being marginalized. As women wearing niqab, we had no rights, and no one to talk about us. Through Maria, we'll find people like us talking about us, with no discrimination," Seraq-Eddin says.

The niqab has sparked many debates about discrimination over the years. Public universities' ban of them during exams or in dormitories were the subject of numerous court battles and were condemned by advocacy groups. Women often complain of an unwelcoming job market with an unwritten discrimination.

Maria director Alaa Abdallah says that being part of the TV project showed her and other team members that they did, indeed, have the skills for the job.

"We are trying to create a better society after the earthquake of freedom that was January 25," Alaa Abdallah explains. She says Egypt's intellectuals should support her right to speak up and her right to give a marginalized segment of society a voice.

One of those intellectuals is not convinced. The network taps into the rhetoric of women's empowerment, says Adel Iskandar, media scholar at Georgetown University, but there is a "very strong case to be made that it's a gimmick."

Others are worried that the rise of political Islam in Egypt will radicalize the society. They argue that a TV network that features only women with covered faces is a "U-turn" on the path of the so-called Arab uprising.

Poll: Religion not biggest enemy for Arab women

Alaa Abdallah says she avidly supports freedom of expression, but wouldn't grant her critics the same leeway she demands. "I stand by freedom of expression as long as it isn't hostile to Islam," she says, arguing that "secular and liberal" channels are "destructive" in the way they are promoting ideas that would reshape society.

Abu Islam Abdallah, Alaa's father and the owner of Al-Omma, believes he's restoring the balance. By stressing the niqab, he believes he evens out what he describes as the "racism" against these women.

He describes as heretic the type of democratic system that allows women "to dress immodestly, work as dancers and even be members of Parliament." That's "pandemonium," he says.

Al-Omma -- which means the nation -- is full of "anti-Christianization" rhetoric. There is less of that on Maria, named for the woman thought to have been the prophet Mohammed's Coptic wife. Its female-oriented, cultural programming "within a religious framework," as Alaa Abdallah describes it, might even have greater potential than Al-Omma and its donation-based funding model.

Maria caters to a niche market untapped even by ultraconservative channels, according to Iskandar. But normalizing the appearance of women covered from head to toe in black could be a double-edged sword. "It takes away from their mystique, their exoticism," he argues.

Others believe Maria might end up isolating the niqab "community" and only underline the controversy over the full veil.

Either way, the biggest challenge, according to Iskandar, will be to overcome what may be visually dull presentation with creative content.

Shura Council, press council argue over editor selection process

MENA

Thu, 19/07/2012 - 21:38

Photographed by other

The Supreme Press Council has no right to demand the dissolution of the Shura Council’s committee for choosing the editors-in-chief of state-owned newspapers, said Fathy Shehab Eddin, the head of that committee.

“It is the Supreme Press Council that should be dissolved as it no longer truly represents the journalists after the revolution,” Shehab Eddin, who is also the head of the Shura Council’s culture committee, said on Thursday.

Earlier in July, several prominent media figures and journalists protested against the Muslim Brotherhood-led Shura Council’s power to choose the editors that would lead state-run publications. They expressed fears that the Brotherhood would take control of state newspapers altogether.

Some suggested that the selection process be postponed until after the new constitution is drafted and approved. The constitution would define the Shura Council’s responsibilities and powers.

 “The Supreme Press Council is against the development of the media and rejects the new criteria for choosing chief editors that were accepted by all journalists,” Shehab Eddin added.

Edited translation from MENA

Journalists syndicate suspends ties with Sudanese counterpart

Egypt Independent

Thu, 19/07/2012 - 20:34

Photographed by Tahseen Bakr

The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate announced Thursday that it would suspend ties with the Sudanese Journalists Union due to “its chief Mohi Eddeen Titawi’s shameful and unprofessional handling of the detention of Egyptian journalist Shaimaa Adel, who was released from Sudan earlier this week.”

The syndicate also criticized the Federation of Arab Journalists' stance on the case. In a statement, the FAJ had supported Titawi's criticism of the Egyptian journalist.

Sudanese authorities detained Adel, a reporter for independent daily Al-Watan, on 3 July in a cyber cafe in Khartoum. She had travelled to Sudan to cover protests against government austerity measures and soaring prices.

Titawi said Adel did not follow proper procedure to declare herself as a journalist when she entered the country.

The Journalists Syndicate praised President Mohamed Morsy’s intervention for the release of Adel, who travelled back to Cairo with Morsy on the presidential plane out of Addis Ababa. The syndicate demanded that Egyptian authorities show more concern for international violations against Egyptian citizens.