Egyptian Salafist Considers Sinai
The 'Next Frontier'
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/egyptsalafistsanaiusconsulatebenghazi.html
By: Mohamed Fadel Fahmy for Al-Monitor. Posted on March 29.
The Egyptian revolution came as a "gift from god," as one of the hundreds of
jihadists released from prison after the uprising that toppled former
President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 called it. Stockpiles of weapons have made
their way into Egypt through the neighboring porous Libyan and Sudanese
borders since the region has fallen into a state of lawlessness, which came
with the shake-up of the security apparatuses in scarred nations searching
for their new identities.
About This Article
Summary :
The lawyer for veteran jihadist Jamal, who has been linked to the US
consulate attack in Benghazi, told Al-Monitor's Mohamed Fadel Fahmy that his
client called the Sinai the next frontier in the "conflict with the Zionists
and Americans."
Author: Mohamed Fadel Fahmy
Posted on : March 29 2013
Categories : Originals Egypt
Al-Qaeda inspired groups in the Sinai Peninsula have puzzled the
international community with their bold statements and videos posted on the
net, but the various Egyptian security branches have not been able to
pinpoint their direct involvement in any of the many military operations and
kidnappings, or the weapons smuggling to Gaza through an intricate web of
tunnels located in North Sinai, close to the Israeli border. The audacity of
such militant groups has left Egypt and its neighboring countries with a
national security threat that is brewing by the day, as the wave of violence
and killing is broadcast on a daily basis on Egypt's dozens of television
channels and talk-shows.
Obtaining transparent information, specifically in national security cases,
in Egypt has become a challenge, and the terrorism case known in the press
as the "Nasr City Cell" is no exception.
The 26 Egyptians and one Tunisian officially accused of plotting attacks
against the Egyptian government, leading opposition figures and media
personalities have all denied these accusations. A security raid on their
safe house in the upper-class neighborhood of Nasr City in Cairo on Oct. 24,
2012, left their financier ringleader Karim El Bedewi, a veteran jihadist,
dead after a fierce gun battle. Footage broadcast on local TV channels
portrayed security forces confiscating machine guns, rockets and explosives
from the charred, damaged apartment and its rooftop, where members of the
cell took refuge.
Local press announced that El Bedewi blew himself up during the attack. A
forensic report presented to the prosecutor by Magdi Salem, the Islamist
lawyer handling the case, proved that the corpse was intact and that he was
shot dead. More importantly, National Security leaked news to the press that
investigations led to the arrest of Mohamed Jamal al-Kashef (aka, Abu
Ahmed), another veteran jihadist who had fought alongside the Egyptian
Islamic Jihad and Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda's chief in Afghanistan in the
early 1990s.
The international press took serious interest in the case after news emerged
that the terror cell had connections to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the US
consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The Wall Street Journal was the first to quote
unidentified US officials accusing Jamal of establishing training camps in
the Libyan Desert for a group of fighters known as the "Jamal Network,"
which allegedly took part in the attack that left the US ambassador and
three of his diplomats dead.
Magdi Salem, the lawyer representing the terror cell and a founding member
of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad detained in the 80s for 20 years under the
Mubarak regime, was recently released after the revolution alongside
hundreds of jihadists _ including Jamal _ who were pardoned by the Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces and more recently by President Mohammed Morsi.
"Jamal traveled to Libya alone, and his name was on the blacklist but [he]
was eventually allowed to enter and fought alongside the rebels in the city
of Ajdabya until Gadhafi was killed. He indeed established training camps
for the rebels wishing to fight Gadhafi's forces and depended on local
funding from different groups but had no intentions of killing Americans or
exporting attacks onto Egyptian soil," said Salem, sifting through the
case's thick file, sitting in the modest office of his recently established
Islamic Party in Cairo.
According to Salem, Jamal stated in the interrogation sessions he attended
with his client that he had "plans to assist in any place where jihad is
applicable, such as Iraq, Palestine, Libya and Syria." Salem also confirmed
that a presidential decision prevented US officials from attending the
interrogations or having access to the file, which was never an obstacle for
US authorities during the Mubarak era.
Salem stated that the official charges brought against the cell by the State
Security prosecutor are "forming a terrorist organization and plans to
conduct military operations in Egypt."
"No official charges are related to Libya, but the interrogator asked him
once if he knew anything about the US consulate attack. We proved he was
present in Egypt during the bombing of the embassy, completing his master's
degree in Islamic Sharia," Salem added.
When the prosecutor pressed Jamal on whether he had intentions to conduct
military operations in the Sinai and if he has any connection to the Salafi
jihadi groups there, he said, "Yes, we consider Sinai the next frontier of
conflict with the Zionists and Americans, and we will be the first line of
defense should it be attacked by the invaders," Salem explained, reading the
confessions of his client.
Salem reinstated Jamal's dedication to the Palestinian cause and read out
loud more of his client's confessions, including, "We have smuggled advanced
weapons to Gaza, using the Sinai tunnels, as its our duty to assist our
Palestinian brothers."
Jamal was arrested in a train station in the city of Sharqia, where he had
moved with his Yemeni wife and his only son, Ahmed, to look for a job and
continue his studies, according to his lawyer.
Nine members of the cell are currently at large and the rest of the
defendants are imprisoned in Tora Prison in Cairo, awaiting their next court
hearing on April 20 at the North Cairo Court. Salem confirmed that they are
being treated well and have not been subjected to any torture and that he
has identified what he called "embarrassing loops in the case" that he is
using as part of his defense.
"I proved to the prosecutor that one defendant has been crippled in bed for
a year and a half, the fifth defendant is a military officer and the police
only found out when they arrested him briefly before they let him go, and
the 13th man was heading to jihad in Syria when he was arrested at the
airport. The prosecutor had no photos, evidence, or real investigations,
it's sheer nonsense if you ask me," Salem concluded, insisting there is no
organization or any plans for attacks in Egypt, according to Jamal's
official confessions.
During the January 25th uprising, Jamal was detained in State Security and
being tortured to confess that he blew up the Coptic Church in Alexandria on
New Year's Eve, according to Salem and Mohamed al-Zawahri (the brother of
al-Qaeda's chief), who was imprisoned with Jamal and released last March and
who is currently the head of the Salafi jihadi movement in Egypt.
"Jamal had been detained for 10 years upon his return from Afghanistan with
no charges and Mubarak's oppressive regime wanted to frame him for the
church bombing, but he never confessed. He was innocent and has nothing to
do with the US consulate or the church," commented al-Zawahri in defense of
his comrade.
The case took a new turn after two Egyptian newspapers (Al Ahram and Al Youm
Al Sabi) published two letters reportedly found on a computer confiscated
during the raid, written by Jamal to his "teacher," Ayman al-Zawahri. They
contain no mention of the US consulate Benghazi attack. In excerpts of the
first letter, published in Al Youm Al Sabi, Jamal says he wanted to see
Zawahri after his release from prison in Egypt, "so that I can be by your
side, which is an honor for me." He says he failed because he was "banned
from travel and his name was on a list of international terror in more than
one Arab country."
Jamal states he could not reach Zawahri even when he tried to use fake
travel documents. Jamal mentions that he sent Zawahri a trusted messenger
who was an inmate with him in prison. Jamal then boasts about his
accomplishments including establishing solid forces in Egypt and Libya and
groups in Sinai where jihadists have openly announced their allegiance to
al-Qaeda. Jamal adds that he received funding from "our brothers in Yemen,
but it was much less that what is required to purchase arms, set up training
camps, move vehicles into the Sinai Peninsula, and provide for the brothers
who work with us."
"Smuggling small arms and missiles from Libya into Egypt is costly," Jamal
writes, concluding his letter with a request that Zawahri reply to his plea
for further assistance and funding.
In the second letter, published by Al Ahram, a state-owned paper, reportedly
dated Aug. 18, 2012, Jamal says that he was a member of Zawahri's personal
guard and that he was the "teacher" in 1996 "for the brothers in Yemen,"
including the leader of the al-Qaeda emir there at the time.
Jamal's lawyer claims he only learned about the contents of the letters when
they were published in the press and considers them irrelevant to the
incrimination of his client.
"Jamal has not been confronted with those letters by the prosecutor. If they
are authentic, then they still clearly indicate that he has not communicated
or met al-Qaeda's chief, al-Zawahri, but only aspired to do so," said Salem.
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