The murder of Giulio Regeni has some very important, even global ramifications. The
New York Times is neither an objective, nor a reliable source of information. It has engaged in very selective coverage, suppressed crucial information, and fabricated false claims. An instance of the latter is its claim that two unidentified "witnesses" stated that Regeni had been arrested by two plainclothes security officers at 6:00 pm on the day of his disappearance. Italian and Egyptian investigators have issued statements discrediting the
New York Times' claim, citing the phone messages sent by Regeni to his fiancee and to the professor with whom he had an appointment that evening, as well as his continuing Facebook posts until 7:30 pm. Also, it's hard to believe that these two mysterious "witnesses" failed to contact the investigators and instead chose to talk to the
New York Times or any other media. The Egyptian authorities strongly deny that Regeni was ever arrested or in government custody.
There's also the fact, uncovered by the Italian press, that Regeni worked for a private intelligence firm, Oxford Analytica. This original article, in Italian, is
here. I translated it using a combination of Google Translate and Babylon:
Regeni Worked for an Intelligence Firm in London
It was founded by a former US official involved in Watergate
16/02/2016
ALESSANDRA RIZZO
LONDON
The story of Giulio Regeni door curiously leads to the door of an old scandal, that of Nixon. While living in Britain, the Friulian student had worked for a year at an intelligence firm founded by a former US official implicated in the Watergate scandal. Today, his former colleagues and friends at the company, Oxford Analytica, are among the promoters of a petition calling on the UK government to put pressure on the Egyptian authorities investigating the affair.
"Giulio was a great colleague, sociable, fun. We miss him very much," recalls Ram Mashru, another young talent with whom Giulio shared a room at Oxford Analytica. "He was extremely cautious in conducting his work," he adds, "Sure, there's always the chance that he attracted the attention of some dangerous group, but from what we know Giulio did not act recklessly or negligently."
Oxford Analytica is a further step in the history of Giulio, another piece of the ten years since the researcher (moved to) Cambridge UK, and could, perhaps, provide some detail to explain his death. The group analyzes political and economic trends on a global scale for private entities, agencies and some fifty governments, a kind of privatization of the highest level of intelligence gathering.
It has offices, as well as in Oxford, in New York, Washington and Paris, and has a network of 1,400 employees. It promises "actionable intelligence", information on which we can act, not ideologies or political inclinations.
From September 2013 to September 2014, Giulio worked in the production of the "Daily Brief", a dozen articles published daily on main events and sent to a list of elite clients. It is "one of the leading products of the group", modeled on the briefing that Kissinger prepared for Nixon. Yes, because the history of the founder of Oxford Analytica, David Young, also involves one of the most sinister chapters in US history. Young was in the Nixon White House, among the leaders of the so-called "plumbers", the group that was to "plug" the leaks and which also included G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt, both of whom ended up behind bars for Watergate. After the scandal, Young left America to complete a PhD in international relations at Oxford (legend has it that his thesis was locked away because it contained confidential information), and in 1975 he founded Oxford Analytica., whose board also includes John Negroponte, former director of the United States Intelligence Community and Sir Colin McColl, former head of MI6, the British secret service.
Mashru explains that special contracts of the group, which typically involve between one and six months of work, remain confidential. Certainly the company is keeping a low profile. It sent a message privately to Giulio's family, and the rest is "no comment".
From Cambridge emerges the professor Glen Rangwala, with whom Regeni would have had to work for a course after his return from Egypt. Rangwala denies the hypothesis that someone at the University someone may have passed the boy's reports to state intelligence services: "For no reason in the world would the academicians of Cambridge transfer a student's research to secret services."
His former colleagues and friends are attempting a public action, with a petition calling for the UK government to ensure a "credible" investigation into the death of Giulio. The petition has so far collected about 4,500 signatures, but it takes ten thousand to force a government response. Which for now is silent. "The investigation is in the hands of the Egyptian authorities," they say.
This information may or may not be relevant to Regeni's murder. If he was gathering intelligence and/or frequenting unionists, this would have definitely put him into close contact with a range of people, including many Muslim Brothers and Islamists, who are heavily involved in union and anti-government "activism". Some media have pointed out that this may have put him on the police's radar, but neglect to mention that it also placed him in circles that include some very unsavory characters. Both his laptop and his cell-phone are missing (his phone and internet records, however, are in the hands of investigators).
What we do know is that Regeni was not just murdered, but was badly tortured and deliberately disfigured. His ears were cut off, his fingernails and toenails were torn out, and he was repeatedly burned with cigarettes all over his body. He was shocked with electric cables. His body was dumped, naked from the waist down, on a road on the outskirts of Cairo, within a few kilometers from the Pyramids, that is very busy during the day but much quieter at night.
In other words, his murder and disfigured body were designed to create the maximum amount of public shock and outrage. It was intended as a message, but to whom?
He disappeared on January 25th, and was discovered 8 days later, on February 3rd.
In the weeks leading up to January 25th, all of Egypt was on high alert, due to an avalanche of threats emanating from the Muslim Brotherhood, Daesh/"ISIS", and related terrorist and self-styled "revolutionary" groups via their satellite TV stations based in Turkey, Qatar and elsewhere, and social media, proclaiming January 25th as the launch date of a new, and violent "revolution". The Egyptian security forces raided a number of terrorist dens, some of which contained massive quantities of weapons and explosives. The sheer amount and power of the explosives indicated that something very big had been planned. In one neighborhood in Giza, not far from where Regeni's body was later found, an apartment had been booby-trapped. When police entered it, it exploded, destroying the top four stories of the building and killing six policemen, as well as several civilians. Besides several bombings and IED attacks in northern Sinai near the Gaza border, all the terrorist hideouts uncovered by police were in areas surrounding Cairo. In the heart of Cairo itself, surrounding Tahrir Square, the demand for short-term leases on empty apartments suddenly surged. As news spread that police were investigating this intriguing phenomenon, and seeking to question those who were offering well above market prices, the interest dried up.
January 25th dawned, an unusually cold and rainy day. Most private and public workers had been given a day off, ostensibly to commemorate the date, which is a national holiday not only because of the events of 2011, but because historically it has been celebrated as "National Police Day"; this year, the fear that the police had not managed to thwart all the terrorist plots kept people home. Instead of the crowds proclaimed by
Al-Jazeera and all the other Muslim Brotherhood-linked media, the streets were deserted. People stayed at home and watched scene after scene of empty streets until they got bored and switched to some other pastime. Some, like me, entertained themselves by watching
Al-Jazeera broadcast old footage of Brotherhood marches and claiming that it was live. The films showed people trying to shade themselves from the burning sun, wearing short sleeves and summer clothes, while our windows showed us a slate-gray sky and we huddled in our thick sweaters and blankets, trying to keep warm. That was the only day this winter I kept the fireplace burning all day. Oh yeah, and they also showed images of Tahrir Square with hundreds of protesters, which was very funny, because the Square has changed a lot, and at its center there's a large granite platform with a very tall flag pole waving the Egyptian flag. The photos were of Tahrir Square as it looked four years ago, with the original landscaping and no flag pole. By mid-morning, even
Al-Jazeera gave up, and turned to other "news". We had a field-day on social media, with much hilarity.
So, it's safe to say that the much-hyped "revolution" was a fizzle. This was more than embarrassing, it was enraging. It's also safe to say that those who had been dreaming of this day and working themselves up, and promising their followers a glorious day of revenge, of fire and bombs and terror and bloody body parts flying, needed to do something terrible against Egypt. But why an Italian?
The first non-Arab country to embrace Egypt after the election of President Sisi, was Italy. The oil company that had discovered the gargantuan natural gas fields in Egypt,
the ones that destroyed in one fell swoop Israel's own grandiose, gas-fueled ambitions, is an Italian one. Italy is in the process of negotiating huge joint projects with Egypt, and a delegation of 60 top Italian business leaders had just arrived on February 3, headed by the Italian Economic Cooperation Minister Federica Guidi. The delegation was scheduled to sign major Italian-Egyptian contracts in a wide range of industries, including aerospace and defense and renewable energy, worth billions of Euros. When Giulio's body was found, the Minister and most of the delegates were forced to cut their visit short and return home, with many of the contracts left unsigned.
The international media, implacably hostile to Egypt since Morsi's overthrow, did everything possible to pin the murder on Egyptian police. Where no evidence existed, they made it up. The US' usual team of Egyptian "activists" and "revolutionaries" did the same. Obama personally telephoned the Italian prime minister to offer America's assistance in investigating this crime. Beyond the savagery of the crime itself, the economic cost to Egypt has been devastating. Egypt is already suffering badly from the absence of tourists since the Russian plane crash in November, and such a terrible murder has only made things worse. The planned economic partnership with Italy is on hold until the murder is solved and the criminals are brought to justice.
All of which point to a number of answers to the question: cui bono?
But in any criminal investigation, there are other questions that must be answered as well: Who had the means to hold this man for 8 days without being discovered, even though he was being horribly tortured and presumably not quiet at all? Who had a motive to torture, disfigure and display his body in such a spectacular way? Who had the opportunity to kidnap him, keep him out of sight and hearing for over a week, and to transport his body without being stopped at one of the innumerable police check-points that dotted all the roads and streets surrounding Cairo during the days before and after January 25th?
I don't know, and the investigation is ongoing. My own suspicions are that the crime was committed by a group of individuals and a relatively large number of accomplices, probably based quite close to where the body was left and very familiar with the area. That area borders the desert, but is also very close to some shanty-towns illegally built on former farmlands that have a long and dirty history of being hotbeds of criminal and especially armed and violent Islamist activity. I hear that the police are focusing their investigation there, and questioning hundreds of people. The Italian investigators are working with the Egyptian police. The stakes are incredibly high for both countries, and I'm confident that the investigation will yield positive results soon, and the criminals will be identified and captured.
