The renowned journalist and novelist Youssef el-Kaied published, on el-Fajr newspaper last week, an article on Mohamed Hussein Heykal's version of the construction of Cairo Tower as reported in his first book, 'Nasser and the world'. The title of the article was 'Mr. Heykal's version of Cairo Tower construction'. Heykal published that book in English in 1971 after Nasser's death, and its chapters were published in a number of international newspapers, including Al-Ahram, before its Arabic version was published by El-Nahar publishing house in Beirut.
In a nutshell, Heykal says that Nasser was discussing with members of the Revolutionary Command Council the construction of a tower for wireless international communications between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Egyptian embassies abroad. That tower would also be used by the Egyptian intelligence and other bodies. The project, though, was opposed due to the lack of financial resources and Nasser was told that the CIA had placed, at the disposal of Major General and then Egypt's Prime Minister Mohammed Naguib, the apparent leader of the July Revolution, three million dollars as a personal contribution. Nasser flew off the handle and drove to the Cabinet. When Nasser asked for an explanation, Naguib told him he had understood that amount had been sent by President Eisenhower as part of the appropriations allocated to prime ministers worldwide who were struggling with restricted budgetary allocations. This way, they could defend themselves and their country against Communism. Nasser asked that the money be deposited at the treasury of the General Intelligence Department, and ordered that nothing be spent of that money without permission from the Revolutionary Command Council. This version raised my colleague Ahmed El-Muslimani's interest, who talked about it on his television program 'First Edition'. He was surprised that Heykal unveiled that event in 1972, and that Mohamed Naguib, who was still alive at the time, did not deny it in the hope that his own family could clarify the matter. Heykal, though, was not the first one who unveiled the secret of the construction of Cairo tower. The first person was indeed Miles Copeland, one of Kim Roosevelt's aids and CIA official for the Middle East at the time, in his book 'Game of Nations'. The first edition of this book was published in August 1969, two years before Heykal published his book. He said that if he had not published that book, this issue would have continued to puzzle archaeologists for 5,000 years like the Pyramids of Egypt. In a nutshell, he suggested late in the summer 1953 that his government should back Nasser personally with three million dollars to protect him; the government agreed. When the money arrived in cash from Beirut, the US ambassador refused to hand it over to Nasser and asked Copeland to do so. This made him think that Nasser might refuse that money and he submitted the issue to Hassan El-Tuhami, the then liaison officer between the Egyptian and the US intelligences. When he ascertained that Nasser would accept that money, he handed it over to Al-Tuhami in the latest's house in Maadi, Cairo, and El-Tuhami drove to Nasser's house with the money. In his version, Hassan El-Tuhami agrees with Copeland on the fact that the amount was for Nasser and not Mohamed Naguib. In his book 'The story of the July 23 Revolution', Ahmed Hamroush notes that Mohamed Naguib was not prime minister when Copeland and Heykal said this story happened (November 1954). Indeed, Naguib was President of the Republic with no authority, after the crisis in March 1954 eventually ended up with him being stripped of his powers and with the Prime Minister (Nasser) taking them up in a new, although short-lived, Egyptian parliamentary republic. As Hamroush adds, it would have been illogical for the CIA to pay three million dollars to protect an isolated and powerless president. Heykal and Copeland agree that Nasser allocated that amount to build Cairo Tower. At first, the idea consisted in constructing a modest building in El-Zahriya Gardens, with a huge mast higher than the Great Pyramid. This way, it could pick up wireless signals and ensure rapid communications between the capital and the provinces, among state security organs and between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Egyptian embassies abroad. When the US bribery arrived, though, Nasser decided to turn the building into a huge tourist tower and to spend lavishly on this project so that US tourists and officials from any hotel in Cairo could see this example of the foolishness of US politics which had tried to bribe him. El-Tuhami, though, denies this, as he affirms that the US bride had already been spent on Nasser protection plan. Instead, he says that Cairo Tower, which started construction in 1955 and completed in 1961, was funded at least during the first year through an additional appropriation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs budget and then from the General Intelligence budget. He also said he was the one who supervised the construction and the introduction of state-of-the-art communication equipment. This version does not contradict with Heykal's and Copeland's. The latter agree that Nasser refused to deal with the US bribe as a personal grant and ordered that it be deposited in the General Intelligence Department Treasury and that nothing be spent out of it without permission from the Revolutionary Command Council. As admitted by El-Tuhami, the Intelligence contributed to financing the tower. For his part, Heykal – and no one else - involved Mohamed Naguib into this story although he had nothing to do with it. The late president then had no choice but to file a lawsuit for slander against Heykal at Giza Court and Heykal eventually had to apologize in Al-Ahram newspaper in 1972. The important thing, though, is that President Obama should remember this story while visiting Cairo Tower this week.
