VZCZCXRO2533
OO RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #1499 1420945
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 220945Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5284
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHPG/AMEMBASSY PRAGUE PRIORITY 0025
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UNCLAS CAIRO 001499 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV ELAB KDEM KMPI EG
SUBJECT: IBN KHALDUN CENTER CONTINUES TO PUSH REFORM IN 
EGYPT 
 
REF: A. CAIRO 1487 (NOTAL) 
 
     ¶B. CAIRO 1362 (NOTAL) 
     ¶C. CAIRO 1283 (NOTAL) 
     ¶D. 2006 CAIRO 6600 (NOTAL) 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  (SBU)  Under the leadership of Egyptian-American 
sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim (SEI), the Ibn Khaldun Center 
for Development Studies (IKC) continues to play a central 
role in advocating political reform in Egypt.  Through weekly 
seminars in Cairo, conferences and workshops, and through 
SEI's op-eds in Egypt's independent press, as well as 
periodic forays into the western media, the IKC continues to 
play a leading role in shaping the debate about political 
reform in Egypt.  SEI also continues to advocate for 
political reform in Egypt through his participation in 
various international democracy fora, such as upcoming human 
rights and democracy conferences in Doha and Prague.  End 
summary. 
 
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Advocacy in Egypt Continues 
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¶2.  (SBU)  Despite concerns of many in the opposition 
community that the GOE is circumscribing the space for 
political debate, IKC continues to advocate strongly for 
political reform.  At a May 20 reception for a visiting 
delegation of U.S. academics from the Washington-based 
International Center for Nonviolent Conflict attended by 
poloff, SEI criticized the "Mubarak regime" on a range of 
issues including: the imprisonment of former president Anwar 
Sadat's nephew, Tala'at Sadat, for accusing the Egyptian 
military, and then-Vice President Mubarak, of involvement in 
his uncle's 1981 assassination (ref D); the April closure of 
an independent labor organization (ref C); and reported 
persecution of Egyptian bloggers (ref A).  Self-described 
"labor activist" Ali Al-Badry attended the event used it as a 
platform to make provocative criticisms of the GOE (ref B). 
IKC also recently held a workshop and media event for 
representatives of Sinai Bedouin tribes to voice their 
grievances that GOE security and development policies in the 
Sinai discriminate against the Bedouin.  (Note:  IKC is the 
beneficiary of democracy grants from both MEPI and USAID. 
The MEPI funds support general IKC operations, publishing, 
and workshops.  The USAID funding is for specific project on 
building tolerance within and among civic groups.  End note.) 
 
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SEI Continues to Criticize Egypt Abroad 
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¶3.  (SBU)  SEI continues to work for Egyptian democracy in 
various international fora.  In late May, he, along with 
leading independent judge Hisham Bastiwisi and intellectual 
Tarek Heggy, will travel to Doha for the "Second Forum on 
Democracy and Political Reforms in the Arab World."  SEI told 
us that the Forum will conclude with the announcement of an 
Arab Democracy Foundation, which he said will be funded by a 
ten-million-dollar grant from the government of Qatar, to 
support Arab civil society and democracy organizations.  SEI 
also confirmed that he plans to travel to Prague for the June 
5-6 Democracy and Security conference, hosted by the Prague 
Institute for Security Studies (and which will reportedly be 
the venue for a speech by President Bush). 
 
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Comment 
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¶4.  (SBU)  SEI's outspoken criticism of the GOE, and his 
domestic and international efforts to bolster the cause of 
political reform in Egypt, have continued to position him as 
one of Egypt's leading dissident voices.  Despite being 
tarnished by ad-hominem attacks in the nationalist press 
(e.g., as a "foreign agent"), and despite a growing consensus 
that political reform in Egypt has stalled, SEI's activism 
continues to play a leading role in the debate about 
political reform in Egypt. 
RICCIARDONE