Amira Howeidy examines interpretations of the Sharm El-Sheikh attacks Almost a week into the investigation of the triple terrorist attacks in Sharm El-Sheikh and little information has come to light on the motives or identity of most of the perpetrators, though one suspect has been identified following DNA tests. He is, according to conflicting news reports, Moussa Badran a Sinai resident and a suspect connected to last October's attacks on Taba. While four groups (Abdallah Azzam Brigades, Egypt's Mujahideen, Sinai Martyrs Group and Al-Tawheed Wal-Jihad) have claimed responsibility on the Internet, Western and some Arab pundits predictably detect the fingerprint of Al-Qaeda. Anonymous Egyptian police sources released information that they were seeking nine Pakistani suspects but this lead proved spurious. The report was quickly denied, this time by a named aide to the interior minister, leaving everyone back at square one. The magnitude of the attacks -- 64 dead according to official figures, 88 according to hospital sources, and 200 injured -- has led to different readings of their meaning. Officially, the incident is yet another example of blind terrorism. Experts, and the independent and opposition press, have opted for a more nuanced interpretation. On Sunday Al-Arabi newspaper went for the obvious headline: "Mubarak's political capital... Sharm El-Sheikh under attack." The Egyptian Movement for Change (Kifaya), meanwhile, pointed an accusing finger at Egypt's "US-driven" foreign policy regarding Iraq and Palestine "which increases the danger of terrorist threats as globalised terror moves to combat militarised American globalisation." Others, like Cairo University lecturer on political theory Heba Raouf Ezzat, drew links between the Saturday attacks and the mass incarcerations that followed last year's Taba bombings when, according to Human Rights Watch, between 2,400 and 3,000 people were held incommunicado for months. Many of them were allegedly tortured. In several cases, when police couldn't find the people they were seeking they took relatives hostage. "The security forces treated these people so badly I wouldn't be surprised if any one of them had decided to blow himself up," Ezzat told Al-Ahram Weekly. According to unconfirmed reports published in the opposition Al-Wafd newspaper on Wednesday, Badran was a friend of Mohamed Ahmed Salah Feleifel, allegedly one of the masterminds behind the Taba attacks. News reports last June claimed that after months of searching for Feleifel in Sinai's mountainous interior security forces had called off the manhunt. While the attacks on Taba -- a favourite destination for Israeli tourists -- were a clear rejection of Israeli presence on Egyptian soil, the Sharm El-Sheikh bombings, on the surface at least, might have a broader political message. Egypt's "city of peace" has evolved into an iconic political theatre, the venue for international and regional summits and conferences. Sharm El-Sheikh is the city in which many Palestinian-Israeli agreements were forged, though, according to ex-judge and historian Tariq El-Bishri, they "did not live up to the national aspirations of our people". Last February Sharm El-Sheikh hosted a summit that ended with the announcement of a cease- fire between Israel and the Palestinians in preparation for next month's Israeli pullout from Gaza. It was the first time Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had been invited to visit Egypt. The now severely damaged Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Neama Bay, the main target of the Sharm El-Sheikh attacks, was the official venue for journalists covering last November's Future of Iraq conference, held at the Jolie Ville Hotel opposite. The international conference, hosted entirely by Egypt, was the first Arab event of its kind and was severely criticised by independent Egyptian and Iraqi observers who claimed it legitimised an open-ended occupation of Iraq. The fact that it was held while the Iraqi city Falluja was being destroyed in a US military offensive made the event even less palatable for many. Because the attacks on Sharm El-Sheikh closely followed the London bombings some observers have made connections. While the majority of the British public accept there is a link between the occupation of Iraq and the attacks on London the British government's line is that the two are entirely unconnected. Similarly, in Egypt, the official line is that domestic and foreign policy have nothing to do with the Sharm El-Sheikh attacks. "Looking at the attacks in Madrid, London and now here, one wonders if Egypt is -- in the eyes of the perpetrators -- involved in the situation in Iraq," says El-Bishri. The head of Egypt's diplomatic mission to Iraq, Ehab El-Sherif, was kidnapped and assassinated three weeks ago after Iraq announced Cairo was upgrading its diplomatic representation in Baghdad. But such views, wrote Hala Mustafa, editor of the quarterly journal Al-Demoqrateya (Democracy) issued by Al-Ahram, betray a "reductionist approach". In an article published last Sunday she argued that to follow such arguments to their logical conclusion means that governments would be unable to pursue the foreign policies they think best preserve their interests without forever worrying about a terrorist riposte. But there are also warning signs on the domestic front. Hussein Abdel-Razek, secretary-general of the left-wing Tagammu Party, points to a politically "congested" environment that has been building up as "repressive" state policies "block all channels for democratic political change". Since last October, says Abdel-Razek, four terrorist attacks have taken place in Egypt, though two in central Cairo qualified as rookie "individual" operations. "They suggest that there is a mixture of motives behind these attacks. They are not, after all, mounted without reason." It is amid this explosive environment that the first ever multi-candidate presidential election campaigns kick off tomorrow. Abdel-Razek predicts more tension between the regime and the opposition, which is largely boycotting the elections. A Guardian editorial suggested the vote is "now likely to be even less free and fair than before this latest terrible bloodletting" while Baheyya, Egypt's distinguished political blogger, can only think of the "ominous signs ahead".
