Cablegate: Egypt: 2006 Country Reports On Terrorism

VZCZCXYZ0011
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #7200/01 3541301
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201301Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3006
INFO RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS CAIRO 007200

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

S/CT FOR RHONDA SHORE, NEA FOR NEA/ELA, AND NCTC

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER ASEC EG
SUBJECT: EGYPT: 2006 COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM

REF: SECSTATE 175925

Egypt

1. Egypt is an ally in the Global War on Terrorism. The
Egyptian and U.S. Governments maintained close cooperation on
a broad range of counter-terrorism and law enforcement issues
in 2006 and exchanged information on a variety of terrorism,
security, and law enforcement matters during the course of
the year. In February 2006, Egypt hosted the second session
of the US-Egypt Counter-Terrorism Joint Working Group, and
the next meeting of the group will likely be held in early
2007 in Washington.

2. Egypt was a victim of domestic terrorism in 2006. On
April 24, three suicide bombers detonated their explosive
charges in rapid succession at three popular tourist
locations in the Sinai resort town of Dahab. The bombers
killed 24 people, including six foreigners. At least 87 were
injured, among them four Americans and 25 other foreigners.
As with the 2005 triple bombing in Sharm el-Sheikh, the
attacks seemed to target the Egyptian tourist industry, not
Americans or foreigners specifically.

3. On April 26, two suicide bombers attacked a vehicle
belonging to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in
North Sinai, and an Egyptian police vehicle on the same day,
but did not kill or injure anyone other than themselves. In
the first attack, a suicide bomber wearing a belt bomb threw
himself on the hood of an unarmored MFO Chevy Blazer,
shattering the windshield. In the second attack, occurring
several kilometers away, another man with a belt bomb rode up
to an Egyptian police vehicle on a bicycle and blew himself
up. The police vehicle was responding to the attack on the
MFO vehicle. It is unclear if the primary target was the MFO
or local police forces.

4. Following these attacks, Egyptian police made major
security sweeps of the Sinai region. Police suspect that
the group responsible for the Sinai bombings is Al-Tawhid wa
al-Jihad ("Unity and Holy War"). The ATAJ is an indigenous
group comprised of young Bedouin men. The group has a pro
Al-Qa'ida, disaffected Salafist ideology. There are no
indications that the group is specifically targeting
Americans. Egyptian authorities believe they have arrested
or killed most of the ATAJ's leadership and operational
planners, but it is likely that there are still members at
large in the Sinai. Although ATAJ is the only terrorist
group to have committed attacks in Egypt in 2006, the
Egyptian government broke up two other alleged terrorist
groups in late 2006 - one group was reportedly planning
attacks in Egypt, while the other was reportedly planning to
send foreign fighters to Iraq. Members of both groups were
arrested before moving beyond the planning stages for their
operations.

5. The Egyptian government's active opposition to Islamist
terrorism and effective intelligence and security services
makes Egypt an unattractive safe haven for terror groups.
There is no evidence of active foreign terrorist groups in
the country. However, Egypt's northern Sinai region is a
haven for the smuggling of arms and explosives into Gaza, and
a transit point for Gazan Palestinians. Palestinian
officials from Hamas have also carried large amounts of cash
across the border. The smuggling of weapons and other
contraband through the Sinai into Israel and the Gaza Strip
have created criminal networks that may be associated with
terror groups in the region. The apparent recent
radicalization of some Sinai Bedouin may possibly be linked
in part to these smuggling networks and Egyptian efforts to
dismantle them.

6. In the past three years, Egypt has tightened its terror
finance regulations in keeping with relevant UN Security
Council Resolutions. Egypt passed strong anti-money
laundering legislation in 2002, established a financial
intelligence unit in 2003, and ratified the latest UN
Convention to Combat Terror Finance in 2005. The government
of Egypt also keeps up open, regular lines of communication
with U.S. Embassy officials concerning terrorist finance
information. Egypt maintained its strengthened airport
security measures and security for the Suez Canal, and
continued to institute more stringent port security measures.

7. The Egyptian judicial system does not allow plea
bargaining, and terrorists have historically been prosecuted
to the full extent of the law. Terrorism defendants may be
tried in military tribunals or emergency courts. In terms of
evidence for counter-terrorism cases in the U.S., the
judicial system is cooperative in the framework of the Mutual
Legal Assistance Treaty. A formal mechanism exists for the
United States to request from Egypt evidence which can be
used in American courts.

8. Many of the Egyptian President's far-reaching powers in
the realm of counter-terrorism come from a decades-old
Emergency Law, which was renewed by Parliament for two years
in 2006. President Mubarak and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif
have both called for new anti-terrorism legislation to
replace the Emergency Law, noting that Egypt should follow
the example of other countries that have recently passed
comprehensive laws to combat terrorism. Such legislation is
reportedly currently being drafted by a governmental
interagency committee.

9. Embassy Point of Contact: Embassy Officer Yael Lempert at
lemperty@state.gov.
JONES

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