On the Nuweiba bombings, which I mentioned earlier as being less analysed by media up to now, Debka seem to have a pretty amazing scoop that I have yet to see anyone else report. If this is true, then these attacks are an order of magnitude more significant than I said before:
"...exclusive sources reveal the bomb car was timed for the arrival of a group of 40 high-ranking Egyptian officials, most of them close friends of Gemal Mubarak, son and heir apparent of the Egyptian president. Twenty were hurt, some very seriously, and flown out by one of the two presidential planes sent over to remove them from danger without delay. Among them was the head of the ruling party’s economy committee, the director general of Egyptian airports and a son of a former deputy prime minister who is now a leading financial figure. That the terrorists had advance knowledge of this high-powered group’s private visit to the resort is a measure of their efficient and well-placed intelligence, not only in Sinai, but in Cairo too"
Jaysus. Oh, and the lockdown is beginning. Security has gone even tougher than normal, all over the place as far as I can see. Just as background here - Egypt, Cairo especially, is already a very "guarded" place - armed soldiers patrol everywhere, all day and night, and once you get near strategic or foreign interests, expect to see as many automatic weapons as you do cigarette stands and Coke vendors. So to actually step up security, from an already "stepped up" point of view, you can imagine, would be fairly difficult.
I live in one of the nicer, foreigner-heavy suburbs of Cairo, so we are used to seeing plenty of soldiers and checkpoints. But today, on my way back from the train station, my taxi, along with all other cars trying to enter the suburban area, was stopped at the roadblock - and the soldiers actually seemed to have a good look at the driver, me, and everything else in the car. Normally they are either half asleep, or smoking, or both, but never would they actually check the cars coming past. That would be way too much work.
Access to hotels, malls and other middle class and foreigner friendly places is , I hear from friends, really tightly controlled now, with checkpoints at all the entrances and exits, and big concrete barriers guarding against possible car bombings. I'd love to get some photos of this to show everyone but...umm...taking photos of Egyptian security arrangements the day after a massive terrorist attack might introduce me to a lump of lead at a far greater velocity than I usually prefer. No thank you.
A few friends who were traveling in Sinai over the weekend (nowhere near the attacks luckily) are stuck there - the military has completely locked down all entry and exit roads, and no-one can get out (although I'm sure a strategic phone call to an uncle who works in State Security or that father of your best friends fiancee who has connections in the military can probably help you out). But generally, unless the situation has changed in the last few hours, no-one can get into or out of Sinai without a long wait and a lot of scrutiny, and our friends have decided to stay for a couple more days (as good an excuse as any to explain to the boss why you are stuck in a dream like coastal paradise on Monday morning and won't be making it into work for a few days).
I haven't actually spent much time thinking about whether my perception of my own personal safety has changed because of this. I'm not too concerned as yet, for a few reasons:
1) Its one thing to bomb a resort town in the middle of the desert. Its another to even try to do this in a teeming, crowded, gridlocked, unpredictably complicated city like Cairo.
2) I don't tend to go anywhere near "tourist" places - most of my friends are Egyptian and its not like we dance the night away in the disco in the basement of the Cairo Sheraton
3) Strange as it sounds, I actually trust the Egyptian military presence in Cairo, at least their sheer numbers. I don't know what it is like in Taba, but here there is just too many soldiers (although how many of them are 1 dollar a week 18 year old conscripts who would most likely drop their guns and run at the sight of trouble is another thing)
4) Unless the terrorists are awesomely, jaw droppingly, penis-in-an-electrical-outlet stupid, they would know that bombing Cairo would be absolutely disastrous. The Taba bombing at least had the pretence of being tied in with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (which Egyptians are passionate about), a bombing in Cairo could offer no such cover. Then again, terrorists have bombed other working class areas of major Arab population centres before, so who knows?
Overall, it is no time to panic yet for foreigners in Cairo. But watch this space and I'll keep you informed if there is.
"...exclusive sources reveal the bomb car was timed for the arrival of a group of 40 high-ranking Egyptian officials, most of them close friends of Gemal Mubarak, son and heir apparent of the Egyptian president. Twenty were hurt, some very seriously, and flown out by one of the two presidential planes sent over to remove them from danger without delay. Among them was the head of the ruling party’s economy committee, the director general of Egyptian airports and a son of a former deputy prime minister who is now a leading financial figure. That the terrorists had advance knowledge of this high-powered group’s private visit to the resort is a measure of their efficient and well-placed intelligence, not only in Sinai, but in Cairo too"
Jaysus. Oh, and the lockdown is beginning. Security has gone even tougher than normal, all over the place as far as I can see. Just as background here - Egypt, Cairo especially, is already a very "guarded" place - armed soldiers patrol everywhere, all day and night, and once you get near strategic or foreign interests, expect to see as many automatic weapons as you do cigarette stands and Coke vendors. So to actually step up security, from an already "stepped up" point of view, you can imagine, would be fairly difficult.
I live in one of the nicer, foreigner-heavy suburbs of Cairo, so we are used to seeing plenty of soldiers and checkpoints. But today, on my way back from the train station, my taxi, along with all other cars trying to enter the suburban area, was stopped at the roadblock - and the soldiers actually seemed to have a good look at the driver, me, and everything else in the car. Normally they are either half asleep, or smoking, or both, but never would they actually check the cars coming past. That would be way too much work.
Access to hotels, malls and other middle class and foreigner friendly places is , I hear from friends, really tightly controlled now, with checkpoints at all the entrances and exits, and big concrete barriers guarding against possible car bombings. I'd love to get some photos of this to show everyone but...umm...taking photos of Egyptian security arrangements the day after a massive terrorist attack might introduce me to a lump of lead at a far greater velocity than I usually prefer. No thank you.
A few friends who were traveling in Sinai over the weekend (nowhere near the attacks luckily) are stuck there - the military has completely locked down all entry and exit roads, and no-one can get out (although I'm sure a strategic phone call to an uncle who works in State Security or that father of your best friends fiancee who has connections in the military can probably help you out). But generally, unless the situation has changed in the last few hours, no-one can get into or out of Sinai without a long wait and a lot of scrutiny, and our friends have decided to stay for a couple more days (as good an excuse as any to explain to the boss why you are stuck in a dream like coastal paradise on Monday morning and won't be making it into work for a few days).
I haven't actually spent much time thinking about whether my perception of my own personal safety has changed because of this. I'm not too concerned as yet, for a few reasons:
1) Its one thing to bomb a resort town in the middle of the desert. Its another to even try to do this in a teeming, crowded, gridlocked, unpredictably complicated city like Cairo.
2) I don't tend to go anywhere near "tourist" places - most of my friends are Egyptian and its not like we dance the night away in the disco in the basement of the Cairo Sheraton
3) Strange as it sounds, I actually trust the Egyptian military presence in Cairo, at least their sheer numbers. I don't know what it is like in Taba, but here there is just too many soldiers (although how many of them are 1 dollar a week 18 year old conscripts who would most likely drop their guns and run at the sight of trouble is another thing)
4) Unless the terrorists are awesomely, jaw droppingly, penis-in-an-electrical-outlet stupid, they would know that bombing Cairo would be absolutely disastrous. The Taba bombing at least had the pretence of being tied in with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (which Egyptians are passionate about), a bombing in Cairo could offer no such cover. Then again, terrorists have bombed other working class areas of major Arab population centres before, so who knows?
Overall, it is no time to panic yet for foreigners in Cairo. But watch this space and I'll keep you informed if there is.
You say - "Unless the terrorists are awesomely, jaw droppingly, penis-in-an-electrical-outlet stupid" -
They are terrorists, Tom! Everything in their little pea sized brains revolves around getting what they want - and they will stop at nothing to do it. They have some utterly f*cked up version of what is right in their mind. What they believe is so utterly foreign to us that there is no way of getting your mind around it.
Plus, they don't mind getting their hands bloody or even dying as a result of what they do. Can you imagine being so f*cked up in your mind that you think flying a plane into a building is a good idea? No, you can't - neither can I. Mainly because we have a respect for life. These people are worse than the very worst serial killer on the planet.
They will cook up the most horrible, most nasty things that can be done, and then they will go out there and do it. It isn't until it is in your backyard that you wake up and smell the coffee. Everyone says that the war on terror is bad - well is it? Is it really that bad? For those people in Afghanistan whose daily lives were somewhat like an exercise in daily terror - especially the women - maybe they think it is great. Maybe they are cheering.
Someone needs to be the cop who catches the serial killer. As much as I dislike George Bush the man, I'm glad that he's got the balls to at least *try* to be that cop.
I don't pretend to be educated, but I don't like terrorists killing people. I don't like it *wherever* in the world it is happening. Be it Iraq, Indonesia, the US, or Egypt. Until these people are removed from the planet like the cancer they truly are (and they infect others to think like them, too) then nobody is safe. Not me here in safe Australia, and not you in perhaps not so safe Cairo.