The Marriott Cell, a critique
In light of recent developments where several countries including Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, Mohamed Fahmy, who had become a pundit on Qatari and Aljazeera issues, briefed television viewers on the outcomes of such serious moves. Immediately afterwards I went online to read Fahmy’s The Marriott Cell, an epic journey from Cairo’s Scorpion Prison to freedom.
Before we critique The Marriott Cell, let’s reminisce for a bit.
On February 2, 2011, less than two weeks into the January 25th Revolution, I wrote about my doubts of Aljazeera’s intentions. In an article posted in the Canadian online paper The Tyee, I asked if Aljazeera had a hidden agenda.
Later in 2014, when Fahmy was detained and charged for working for Aljazeera, I questioned how Fahmy, an award-winning journalist and correspondent, couldn’t see through Aljazeera’s ways and deliberate malice towards Egypt.
When Fahmy and the other Marriott Cell members were sentenced to seven years, the world went berserk. Mia Farrow tweeted “Considering a trip to #Egypt? Skip it. You could end up in prison for 7 years for spying – they don’t need ANY evidence to convict you.” Jon Stewart found the prosecution “shammy”; and BBC staff held a silent vigil in protest against the sentencing.
Then I wrote, “I’m not equipped to defend the sentencing or go against it, but neither are all those noisemakers. The sentences are harsh and maybe even unfounded, but my take is with those who cry foul. The uproar is threefold: one, it assumes the judicial system in Egypt was coerced into its verdict, that journalists are infallible, and that Egypt will listen to the uproar.”
One angst was with the assumption that the courts were colluding with the regime and complying to its beck and call. I found this first argument offensive. I regard the judiciary system in Egypt with respect and hope that its judges have the wisdom and clout to carry out sentences void of pressure from within Egypt, be it from authorities or Egyptians, or from the world, be it the journalists or the Mia Farrows.
Still, I could neither vouch for or against the journalists, but I knew that journalists are human. Journalists can, like anyone else, side with or against an issue or become tools in a propaganda scheme. Watch world-renowned CNN correspondent Charles Jaco put on his gas mask in fear as the sirens go off during a fake scud missile attack on Saudi Arabia, shot in a US studio; then, as the camera continues to roll, watch Jaco smugly laugh at viewers’ naïveté saying, “I love this country” and heads out to get himself a burger.
People from all walks of life are supposed to follow rigid codes of ethics, and yet policemen abuse and kick their fallen detainees, accountants forge and deceive, and politicians lie to their teeth despite solemnly swearing to follow these codes of ethics. Why would journalists be any different?
And with this mindset I began reading Mohamed Fahmy’s The Marriott Cell, and, much to my astonishment, I was pleasantly surprised. I started reading with a flippant, skeptic perspective, but the book, and Fahmy, soon won me over with a readable tone and genuine, revealing facts.
First and foremost, Fahmy in The Marriott Cell corroborated what I thought all along: he should never have worked for Aljazeera. I concluded that, to Fahmy, the position of bureau chief for Aljazeera, a “huge step up” as he says in his book, overrode all dubious factors.
Though Fahmy didn’t want to be associated with the “marred Aljazeera Arabic-language channels,” he accepted the job of English bureau chief in Egypt, despite having “just finished one of the strangest job interviews in my career,” Fahmy messages his parents.
Once on the job, Fahmy learned that the former chief bureau had fled to Doha “without telling the staff.” Fahmy then says that his hiring must have been a “convenient solution to the crisis.” Yet Fahmy forged on.
Doha’s office told Fahmy that the choice of topics was not left to him alone and that Aljazeera English had to report on Friday demonstrations against the government regularly. One reporter asked Fahmy, “Why are we covering the protests every time a gas canister is fired?”
He was also asked to run fake footage, and to interview illegal Muslim Brotherhood members. And yet he carried on.
But today Fahmy tweets: “We should always differentiate between the kind Qatari people and the terrorists running the government funding #ISIS #ALQaeda #MB #Hamas.
To which I must ask: where you not aware of this fact while you worked for Aljazeera, which remains incessantly obsessed with Egypt’s downfall? After all the foreboding facts you mention against the Aljazeera, Qatar’s mouthpiece, did you not see the writing on the wall?
Perhaps this is Fahmy’s only failing.
But there is more to The Marriott Cell than this revelation. It first depicts the horrendous conditions in Scorpion Prison very accurately; only someone imprisoned in that dungeon can highlight the agony these inmates suffered and how others still suffer.
It proves that prisons such as the Scorpion Prison are breeding grounds for terrorism. When many prone-to-terrorism individuals are clustered together or when juvenile delinquents share a shady crammed space, it is a recipe for disaster. The three students incriminated in the Marriott Cell will leave prison doctored even further into terrorism.
I’m elated that Fahmy had smuggled pen and paper into prison, so he could elaborate on what he called “Al Jazeera Live Scorpion Radio Show,” when inmates freely talked about Muslim Brotherhood beliefs and elaborated on their personal demise. It will take too long to recount these uncensored moments, but if anything, this is by far the most fascinating part of The Marriott Cell. A few eyeopeners stand out and must be mentioned.
Abdel Meguid Al Meshary, President Morsi’s media relations person, response to the question “What mistakes have you committed as the Brotherhood? What could you have done better?” is, “We could have communicated better to influence perception and to establish a more transparent system …”
When Essam Al-Haddad, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau is asked about his visit to the White House in 2012, he admits that President Obama was not opposed to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and considered the group moderate Islamists.
And when asked if Morsi's government was inclusive of all Egyptians, Amin Al-Serafi, Morsi's secretary, "I can say that wasn't a priority."
It is only after reading The Marriott Cell that I realized that Fahmy was given no choice but to renounce his Egyptian citizenship. He was told that the president could not implement the decree to pardon foreigners if Fahmy had dual citizenship.
Immediately Egyptians turned their backs on Fahmy considering him a traitor, but in all fairness, he had no option but to comply. As he wrote down, “I renounce my Egyptian citizenship of my own will and with no coercion exerted on me,” his hands shook and a deep loss engulfed him. I do hope that Fahmy manages to get his citizenship back.
While on bail, Fahmy was summoned to El-Ittihadeya Palace where he met the president’s secretary. Fahmy was told that “They” knew he was innocent, so Fahmy asked himself why “they’ wouldn’t let him go. But when he asked about the final verdict to be announced soon afterwards, the secretary says, “I don’t know. We have no contact with the judges,” corroborating the fact that the judicial system is in no way in cahoots with the government and remains free to do what it sees fit. Even if “they” knew he was innocent, it wasn’t up to them to interfere.
During that same meeting Fahmy was told outright that if he goes to prison, he will be taken care off, which is nothing short of the president’s way of telling Fahmy that he would be pardoned, and so he was, but only after the courts had their say since the president does not interfere with court decisions.
What seemed a negative matter earlier on I see today as confirming proof of Fahmy innocence. Those who sided with him were from all walks of life; they all believed that this man deserved their allegiance and support. Marwa, his fiancée, who later became his wife, Amal Clooney, Lamees El Hadidi, Naguib Sawiris, ex-Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, and ex-Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim all stood beside him.
These supporters though did not aim to shame the government as the Mia Farrows did; they literally worked hard to free Fahmy, and this vouches for Fahmy even further.
In essence Fahmy had very little criticism for the Egyptian government in The Marriott Cell, as most of his criticism was directed at Aljazeera.
In closing off, Fahmy says, “The dangerous marriage of politics and news is more important today in our media-driven world than ever before in history.” I agree.
He also says, “When I began this journey, I believed that if my team and I held fast to good, honest journalism, everything would be all right. And that is where I was wrong. Capital and politics are increasingly controlling the corporate media.” I agree again.
Interesting article
Posted by: lisa | 06/22/2017 at 05:29 AM