Egyptian Salafist Considers Sinai

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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