posted 02 April 2003 08:46 AM            

Miles Copeland, former CIA operative specialising in the Middle East, writes in his autobiography entitled “The Game Player”, that in 1951 and 1952 the CIA worked on a project known in the secret annals of the CIA as “The Search for a Moslem Billy Graham.”

According to Copeland, who activated the project in 1953, the CIA needed a charismatic leader who would be able to divert the growing anti-American hostility that was building up in the area. The CIA task was to create 'something' more menacing than Israel, to be a substitute for the US and the Jewish state.

Copeland recollects that in the first secret meeting he had with three army officers one of whom was Major Abdel Moneim Ra’ouf (a member of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s inner circle). In March 1952, four months before the coup d’etat that ousted King Faruk, Kim Roosevelt (head of the CIA Near East Operations) and Nasser began a series of meetings that led to the coup. After much discussion it was agreed that no support from the Islamic groups was required, and that the army would take control and gain the support of the urban populace.

It was also agreed that future relations between the US and Egypt would publicly eschew phrases such as “re-establishing democratic processes”, but privately there would be an understanding that the pre-conditions for democratic government did not exist.

Both the CIA and Nasser were in agreement on Israel. For Nasser talk of war with Israel was irrelevant. Much more of a priority was British occupation of the Suez Canal Zone. Nasser’s enemy was Britain.

The US could assist Nasser by not opposing the coup. Right up to the day of the coup (23rd July 1952), the CIA station operatives stayed in very close contact with the members of the Free Officers. According to Copeland the coup took place without a hitch, with General Mohammed Naguib nominally at its head. For the next six months the only contacts with Nasser and the Revolutionary Command Council were maintained by the embassy, not the CIA.

After the coup in 1953, the CIA assisted in the reorganization of the Mukhabarat (intelligence service). Key courses were set up designed to acquaint members of the Revolutionary Command Council with what they could reasonably expect from the USA. Nasser agreed to all of this. In addition, Zakaria Mohieddin, head of the Mukharabat, agreed to send an English-speaking Free Officer, Captain Hassan Touhami, to Washington. There Touuhami was shown the whole range of services the CIA, FBI and police agencies could offer the government.

The CIA’s relationship with the Egyptian government was kept secret and to assist this Copeland’s employers, Booz-Allen & Hamilton, and the CIA joined forces advising on the organization of the Interior Ministry. This entailed making improvements in the immigration and customs services, tackling the system of identity cards and vehicle registrations. All this was a cover for the CIA’s real agenda.

The CIA helped him with his anti-American propaganda by sending an agent, Paul Linebarger, to Egypt to coach the Egyptian-American team that turned out the anti-American propaganda that poured out of Radio Cairo. Linebarger advised both the Minister of Information and Nasser on how the Egyptian press and Radio Cairo could issue stories and editorials which were seemingly pro-Soviet but did the Soviets and Communism more harm than good.

Despite differences, Secretary of State Dulles and the CIA fundamentally agreed that Nasser must be kept in power. Nasser’s response to the withdrawal of the loan to finance the Aswan Dam was to nationalise the Suez Canal Company. This brought the Anglo-French-Israeli attack on Egypt, resulting in the US government under Eisenhower to support Nasser and forcing the coalition forces to cease hostilities. Perhaps this incident was one of the more explicit examples of the true relationship between America and Egypt.

posted 04 April 2003 02:47 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by njsurfer:
Dude, I am not a dude.

Please stop calling it America, it is the United States of America, or USA for short.

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posted 05 April 2003 02:16 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by njsurfer:
Hmmmmmm, are you flirting with me? Some cultures view arguing as a form of foreplay.
Mebbe you want some of this lily white skin, before summer surfing browns me like a kebab.

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hehe.....