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UP FRONTTuesday 12 April 2016
Officials: Egypt’s surrender of islands
Attacks network a ‘supercell’ of extremism to Saudis deepens its woes
LORI HINNANT — including the bomber, people were. And they still HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press a logistics handler, and a managed to pull off the Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — The number hideout scout — went on first Paris attack, which was CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s declared intention to hand
of people linked to the Is- to plot the attack March 22 the worst attack in France over control of two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi
lamic State network that in Brussels. But unlike Paris, since WWII, and then under Arabia has kicked off a storm of vociferous opposi-
attacked Paris and Brussels at least two people who incredible scrutiny, they still tion, laced with stinging satire, and dealt a blow to
reaches easily into the doz- survived the attack have pulled off the worst attack the pride of many Egyptians at a time when they feel
ens, with a series of new ar- been taken into custody in Belgium since WWII. So their country is vulnerable and under attack from all
rests over the weekend that alive, including Mohamed this is a highly functioning sides.
confirmed the cell’s toxic Abrini, the Molenbeek na- cell.” The announcement that a team of Egyptian experts
reach and ability to move tive who walked away from Normally, Skinner said, an has concluded that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir
at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba were inside Saudi
Police stand guard at a justice building in Brussels. From Belgium’s Molenbeek to Sweden’s Mal- territorial waters has taken Egyptians by surprise, rais-
mo, new names are added nearly daily to the cell that killed 130 people in Paris and 32 in Brussels. ing criticism by some that the move amounted to a
territorial sell-off to the oil-rich Saudis at a time when
(AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) Egypt’s battered economy needs all the help it can
get. Others charged that President Abdel-Fattah el-
around unnoticed in Eu- the Brussels international extremist cell has six to 10 Sissi was running the country without transparency or
rope’s criminal underworld. airport after his explosives people linked by pre-exist- accountability.
From Belgium’s Molenbeek failed to detonate. ing ties. The agreement must be ratified by parliament, a 596-
to Sweden’s Malmo, new But investigators fear it may “It makes it very difficult seat chamber packed with the president’s support-
names are added nearly not be enough to stave to crack. You’re not send- ers whose adulation for Saudi Arabia went on display
daily to the list of hardened off another attack. Abdel- ing an informant into this Sunday when King Salman addressed the legislature.
attackers, hangers-on, and hamid Abaaoud, another group, because they know He was received with a standing ovation and his six-
tacit supporters of the cell Molenbeek native whose each other. So no one new minute address was repeatedly interrupted by ap-
that killed 130 people in charisma made him a nat- is just walking into this,” he plause. Lawmakers also recited poetry praising the
Paris and 32 in Brussels. A ural draw to many in the said. “It’s so big, look at Saudi monarch.
computer abandoned by Brussels neighborhood af- the people on the periph- “The government surprised 90 million Egyptians with
one of the Brussels suicide ter he joined IS extremists in ery, logistics, the people a decision that we grew up accustomed to its oppo-
bombers in a trash can Syria, said before his death that are suspected. You’re site. That’s what made it worrisome and horrifying,”
contained not only his will, that he returned to Europe looking at 50 people. That’s author and analyst Ibrahim Eissa said on his TV show
but is beginning to give up among a group of 90 fight- not a cell; that’s a terrorist about the declaration that the islands were Saudi.
other information as well, ers from Europe and the group.” Tiran is the larger of the two islands and is closer to
including an audio file indi- Mideast, according to tes- It was a group already in- Egypt’s southern Sinai coast. It is associated in the
cating the cell was getting timony from a woman who timately familiar with Eu- mind of many Egyptians with their country’s four wars
its orders directly from a tipped police to his loca- ropean law enforcement. against Israel between 1948 and 1973, a time of na-
French-speaking extremist tion. Patrick Skinner, a for- Abrini was a petty criminal tionalistic fervor and patriotism. More recently, Tiran
in Syria, according to a po- mer CIA case officer who is long before his younger has become a popular destination for tourists.
lice official with knowledge now with the Soufan Group brother was killed in Syria Hardly anyone in Egypt had thought of Tiran, the
of the investigation. The of- security consultancy, de- in 2014. Both Abdeslam better known of the two islands, as anything but
ficial spoke on condition scribed the Brussels-Paris brothers had brushes with Egyptian territory for generations. But the govern-
of anonymity because he network as a “supercell.” the law, and Brahim spent ment now says that Saudi Arabia in 1950 merely
wasn’t authorized to speak “The hope was that they time in prison for stealing placed the islands in Egypt’s custody to defend
publicly about the investi- had died out in the Paris at- Belgian ID cards — back- them against possible attack by Israel. Now, accord-
gation. tacks, and obviously that’s ground that took on new ing to that narrative, Riyadh is able to defend the
Ten men are known to be not true,” Skinner said in an importance amid revela- island and is simply taking its own territory back.
directly involved in the Nov. earlier interview with The As- tions that many people News of the expected loss of the islands broke at a
13 attacks in Paris; others sociated Press. “They (au- in the IS cell had forged particularly vulnerable time, as the country is reeling
with key logistical roles then thorities) knew who these passports.q from a string of public blunders and a host of seem-
ingly intractable problems.
Egypt’s economy is ailing after five years of turmoil,
an insurgency by Islamic militants has proved resilient
and the vital tourism industry has been battered. The
crash last October over the Sinai Peninsula of a Rus-
sian airliner, killing all 224 people on board, in a sus-
pected terror attack has cut off the flow of Russian
tourists who normally frequent the Red Sea resort of
Sharm el-Sheikh. Mostly desert Egypt is also gripped
by fear over the likely reduction of its vital share of
the Nile waters as a result of the construction by Ethi-
opia of a large dam on the river.
More recently, the country’s image abroad has tak-
en a beating over the case of an Italian doctoral stu-
dent whose torture and killing drew attention to the
widespread culture of abuse of Egypt’s police. Giulio
Regeni’s body, bearing torture marks, was found on
a suburban Cairo road Feb. 3, nine days after he dis-
appeared. Italian media and Regeni’s family have
cast suspicion on the Egyptian police, but the Interior
Ministry has consistently denied involvement.q
