US envoy in Egypt blasts state newspaper Al-Ahram

[Bombay]

The United States’ ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, has sent a strongly-worded letter to the editor of Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram criticising a front page article that suggested Patterson was engaging in conspiracies with the Muslim Brotherhood.


Editor-in-chief Abdel Nasser Salama, who wrote the article published on Tuesday, accused Patterson in the article of conspiring with leading Brotherhood figure Khairat El-Shater to “spread chaos” in Egypt through smuggling fighters from Gaza to “hit the country’s stability.”

In her letter, Patterson attacked Al-Ahram for spreading what she said was false and misleading information.

“I am writing to adamantly deny the outrageous, fictitious, and thoroughly unprofessional headline article that appeared in your paper on August 27,” she wrote in a letter published by the US embassy in Cairo’s website.

Addressing Salama, Patterson said: “Your article’s claim that I personally am involved in a conspiracy to divide and destabilise Egypt is absolutely absurd and dangerous.”

She added saying that the “irresponsibility of this article only serves to further misinform and misguide your readership, and to further raise tensions in an already perilously tense environment.”

Egypt has been undergoing a long period of instability after the removal Muslim Brotherhood figure Mohamed Morsi from the presidency in July by the military after mass protests against his rule.

The Al-Ahram article also accused the United States and other unspecified European countries of being complicit in a plan by Islamists to declare Upper Egypt independent from the government in Cairo.

It said both plans – the secession of the south and that of spreading chaos – were thwarted by security forces. In the article, Salama quoted unnamed security sources as the source of the information.

Patterson warned Salama that such “fiction” threatens the prospects of Egypt’s democratisation. “Make no mistake – false articles such as this one are a real threat to Egypt and to prospects for Egypt’s democratic transition,” she wrote.

Patterson also said that she will discuss the issue with Egyptian government officials.

“I am particularly disturbed to think that Al-Ahram, as the flagship state-run paper in Egypt, is regarded as a representative of the government’s viewpoint. We will, therefore, raise this article at the highest levels of the government,” she asserted.

Ambassador Anne Patterson's assignment in Egypt ended this week. She is expected to leave the country on Friday.

Patterson was appointed as US ambassador to Egypt in June 2011. In recent months she has faced regular accusations by opponents of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi of being biased towards the Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-Ahram daily is published by the state-owned Al-Ahram publishing house, which also produces the Ahram Online website.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/Index.aspx

[Stevepj]

I see al Wafd has claimed that Barak Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I presume they must be getting their information from the Tea Party.

[Brian Yare]

I see al Wafd has claimed that Barak Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I presume they must be getting their information from the Tea Party.

That would be the one in Boston, Lincs? :cuppa: :cuppa:

(It takes two to party!

[Hafiz]

No one should need to be convinced that al Ahram is a rag that lost its sense of truth and un-truth a long while ago.

Egyptian's must be stupid (I don't think so) or have very short memories (maybe) or both. They also seem to like conspires and conspiracies involving the US seem to find fertile ground

Over the past 2 years the US has been blamed by large sections of Egyptian society, including varying elements the press, of the following: The groups making the accusations may change but the conspiracy stays the same:

1. Supporting Mubarak.
2. Supporting the protestors against Mubarak
3. Supporting Shatfiq against Morsi.
4. Supporting the brotherhood whilst they were in government and ignoring the secularists and liberals.
5. Supporting the removal of Morsi.
6. Supporting the army and the secularists over Morsi

I may have forgotten some. I exaggerate only slightly.

Conspiracy theories, which are in plague proportions in the middle east and north Africa are a great way to avoid responsibility for domestic problems, Anything which goes wrong can be blamed on the US or Israel. Internal terrorist groups and the brotherhood are also useful scapegoats. Only in Egypt would al Ahram be believed or read.

[Dusak]

The sad part of all this tosh is that so many Egyptian people believe what they read/told/hear about the Americans. I remember loosing my rag with two Egyptian friends, which is a very rare occurrence for me, as they firmly believed that the Americans had introduced the bird flue into Egypt. They refused to budge on this fact as everybody on the street thought the same. This was done, they said, so Egypt would have to buy more of their grain to replace the loss of all the chickens. Then they were given the vote...

[Stevepj]

The sad part of all this tosh is that so many Egyptian people believe what they read/told/hear about the Americans. I remember loosing my rag with two Egyptian friends, which is a very rare occurrence for me, as they firmly believed that the Americans had introduced the bird flue into Egypt. They refused to budge on this fact as everybody on the street thought the same. This was done, they said, so Egypt would have to buy more of their grain to replace the loss of all the chickens. Then they were given the vote...

There are some non Egyptians on this site who are all too willing to believe all sorts of conspiracy theories and blame America and the west for the regions problems.

Jonesy.

[Hafiz]

Another anti-US conspiracy, although in this case prevalent in East and Central Africa, is that the CIA has created/spread the Aids virus to keep Africans backward/to steal their resources etc.

The thing about conspiracy theories is that no amount evidence will disprove them. A smarter approach is to quiz the fool on the evidence for his conspiracy. Its usually just here-say.

[Remus]

Yes the conspiracy theories expressed in the AlAhram article
were ridiculous.

But this Patterson woman had only herself to blame. The comments
she made post-30th June were not diplomatic and she made herself
very unpopular. She failed to realise the very ambivalent attitude
that the Egyptians have to the USA, not without reason. Thank God
she has left her Garden City post. She was not a diplomat.

However, there's a rather good article on this ambivalence in AlAhram
at the moment. It has not totally lost its 'sense of truth and non-truth'.
And I recommend the Hani Shukrallah articles they are posting this week, a man
who has constantly had his finger on the Egyptian revolutionary pulse since 2011.
Compulsory reading!