Conspiracy theories

You may have heard that there was an explosion last week in the Khan el-Khalili, a market in central Cairo frequented by tourists and foreigners. Although NAMRU-3 checked in with all of us immediately after the incident to ensure everyone's safety, I've been surprised that I haven't received any official messages from the U.S. Embassy about the event. In other countries, I would have received an email from the Embassy within a day or two of such an event, so I keep expecting to see an email with a security update, but it still hasn't arrived in my inbox.

I was discussing this oddity with several of my friends tonight and they shared with me some interesting conspiracy theories that have been circulating within Cairo. This is going to require a bit of explanation, so please bear with me.

Since Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981, Egypt has been ruled under Emergency Law. That means that for 28 years, Egypt has been in a "state of emergency" and has kept in place a law that allows police to detain citizens indefinitely without charges, block demonstrations, censor media and eavesdrop on personal communications. It's unnecessary. Egypt is not in a state of emergency. In a few weeks, when the Emergency Law comes up for review, it finally will not be approved for continuation.

This, though, is not as promising as it might sound. Although the Emergency Law is being discontinued, the Egyptian government has developed another law that will take its place. This new law includes the word "anti-terrorism" in its name (fitting with global rhetoric) and will basically be the Egyptian equivalent of the American Patriot Act. It will continue to allow the government all the rights it held under the Emergency Law, plus even greater power to invade citizens' privacy.

But then you might wonder - is Egypt a likely target for terrorism? Most peoples' first response would probably be "no", or at least it would have been until last week. With the implementation of the new anti-terrorism law impending, some accuse the Egyptian government of manufacturing terrorist attacks, such as the recent bombing in the Khan el-Khalili, for political purposes.

The argument relating to the lack of email communication from the U.S. Embassy, then, is that the U.S. supports the implementation of this new anti-terrorism law and does not want to cause any harm to Egypt and its economy by posting a travel warning. So they have kept silent and tourists and investors have continued their work in Egypt while the Egyptian government continues to move to implement its new law.

There's no proof behind any of this. It's merely conspiracy theory. But I think what makes conspiracy theories so intriguing is how plausible they sometimes seem once you start putting all the pieces together...