CAIRO - In his era, many books were banned or confiscated. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his now-defunct State Security Agency confiscated any book, which threatened him or his regime. Of these books was Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, by Bob Woodward. This is an excellent read, with Woodward, with his astonishing access to sources deep inside the White House and the CIA, revealing the secret wars conducted by the CIA led by William Casey (1981-1987) during the Regan years. From Nicaragua to Afghanistan to the Iran-Contra scandal, Casey was involved in and controlled it all. The repercussions of his feverishly misguided policies and the secrets he kept from US Congress would have a drastic effect on future generations of Americans and the world. The book mentions Egyptian business tycoon Hussein Salem, who served in the Air Force and Egyptian Intelligence, and is considered to be one of the world's biggest arms dealers Heis one of Mubarak's closest friend. Salem's name was unknown publicly in Egypt until 1987, when Woodward published his book and claimed in it that, in the 1970s, Hosni Mubarak, Mounir Thabet (Mubarak's brother-in-law), Abdel-Halim Abu Ghazla, the then Minister of Defence, and Hussein Salem founded a company in Paris called ‘The White Wings'. The mission of this company with the silly name was to import arms to Egypt. The public in Egypt heard about the book when opposition MP Olwi Hafez raised the topic in Parliament in 1987. Needless to say, Hafez did not remain a parliamentarian for long after that. General Abu Ghazla denied what was mentioned in the Woodward's book, describing it as total fiction. Publishers tried to buy this confiscated book through the website Amazon, but couldn't. Another banned work was Decision Points, penned by former US President George W. Bush. In his book, Bush said that Mubarak informed the US that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He also spoke of other people who influenced his decision to invade Iraq. “President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt had told [General] Tommy Franks that Iraq had biological weapons and was certain to use them on our troops,” Bush revealed. The former US President said Mubarak “refused to make the allegation in public, for fear of inciting the Arab street”. The spokesman for Egyptian presidency, Suleiman Awad, denied Bush's claims, insisting that Mubarak had cautioned the US President and many other US officials whom he met against an invasion of Iraq, warning it would constitute a flagrant violation of international law. A series of Islamic books penned by Al- Jihad Islamic group and al-Qaeda were also banned. Of them was The Black Book: The Story of Torture in Mubarak's Era, written by Ayman el-Zawahri, the prominent al-Qaeda leader. In this book, Zawahri tells of Al-Jihad Islamic group members who were tortured to death in prison. His book, which was published in other Arab countries, highlights Mubarak's human rights violations. Mubarak also banned books about the October 1973 War, which was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. During his 30-year rule, Mubarak attributed the victory to himself as Air Chief Marshal. He banned two books by Saad Eddin el-Shazli, who was Egypt's Chief of Staff during the October War. Following his public criticism of the 1978 Camp David Accords with Israel, el-Shazli was dismissed from his post as Ambassador to Britain and Portugal, then sent into exile in Algeria. He was the unsung hero of the October War, masterminding the successful Egyptian attack on the Israeli Bar Lev Line and the crossing of the Suez Canal. El-Shazli's books, which were published in Algeria and banned in Egypt, were entitled Memories of the October War and The Eighth Crusade War. The first book tells the story of the October War and the mistakes made by President Anwar el-Sadat that led to a successful Israeli commando raid on October 14 against an Egyptian signals-intercept site at Jebel Ataqah, which seriously disrupted Egyptian command and control and contributed to its breakdown during the engagement. The Egyptian attack was decisively repelled. El-Shazli's book was banned during el-Sadat and then Mubarak's era, especially as it revealed the limited role of Mubarak in this war. The second book tackles the Second Gulf War, waged by a UN-authorised coalition force from 34 nations, led by the United States, against Iraq. El-Shazli, who died earlier this year on February 10, a day before Mubarak's removal, wrote in this two-part book about the subordination of Mubarak's regime to the US administration. The book mentions that, in 1990, Mubarak sent a secret message to the US President George Bush to rush him into waging war against Iraq. “I published many political and opposition books, using printers that were not subject to State Security,” Mohamed Hashem, the director of Meret Publishing House, told the opposition daily Al-Wafd. “I have succeeded in publishing Against the President by Abdel-Haleem Qandeel, and The Economic Collapse in Mubarak's Era, by Ahmed el-Sayed el-Naggar,” he adds. Yasser Ramadan, the director of the Kenouz Publishing House, said that many books were confiscated after being published, like a book about Aisha Gaddai, the daughter of the Libyan leader. “State Security seized every copy of this book from the presses, to appease the Libyan Embassy in Cairo,” he says.
