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Seen in Alexandria : Old Bahary Buildings "1"


Egypt's Internet trolls :The fake Twitter accounts syndrome

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This is the second post in a series I dedicate to Egypt's internet trolls mainly from Pro-regime trolls and their fake news machine.
This post is short compared to the first post in the series
In the past few weeks, there was a huge campaign against former vice-president Mohamed ElBaradei whether in the Pro-regime mainstream media or the social media.

It started days before the end of 2016 when London-based Al-Araby TV channel announced that it was going to air a 5-part interview with ElBaradei starting 7 January on a weekly basis.
This is his first TV interview ever since the resignation from his position as the Vice-president of Egypt in August 2013 over the forcible Pro-Morsi sits-in dispersal.

The interview is covering his life and his views starting from the 1960s until our current time.
As soon as the channel released the promo of the TV interview and the Pro-regime supporters as well mainstream media went mad.
It was madness especially it was only a promo but the Nobel peace prize winner said in it that the "a fortress commander" aka a military commander could be great as a military but would fail as education minister.

Since then and days before the interview, one would see on daily and weekly basis anti-ElBaradei hashtags reaching to Egypt's top trends sometimes.

At first, I did not pay attention but then I used to get engage especially when you see a stupid hashtag like "ElBaradei destroyed Iraq !!" and it was the start.

A hashtag launched on 1 January by the self-claimed "Twitter leader" Hamada caught my attention

Hamada claims to have the ability to launch top trending hashtags every day.
He launched "#ElBaradei_destroyed_Iraq" spreading the Pro-regime lie that the former head of the IAEA was the reason behind the invasion of Iraq which is untrue historically.
A tweep made me pay attention to those retweeting the tweet and how many of them were fake accounts.
Out of 106 retweets, you can see that there are fake accounts sharing the same bios with similar twitter handles if not the same retweeted that tweet spreading false information.
Those fake accounts were the start of an online trail to me specifically "abdo" aka "@3pr7man" and twin brothers as well the "V4Vendetta" twitter accounts sharing the same bio and the same second half of their handle "x1e".

The retweets and who made them
It is like they are generated by the same bot.
I traced "3pr7man" accounts and it turned out that they go back to 18-years old high school student called Abdel Rahman who just like 'Hamada" above is known allegedly for making top trends. He is also the founder of some hashtag called "#Cabinet_Team" where teenagers follow each other and increase their fellowship on twitter.

I have been so many years on twitter and I do not understand that follow back hashtag thing works.
Anyhow I confronted Abdel Rahman aka Debo in another anti-ElBaradei hashtag which he led proudly urging people to save Iraq from ElBaradei "Do not even ask"

He first replied in a silly way that those accounts are his "twin brothers' " but then he deleted the tweet.
Again I traced the "3pr7man" twitter accounts to find that there are about 21 twitter accounts with the same name and photo as well tweets. Just type in twitter search "@3pr7man2" up to "@3pr7man21" "Except 14" and you will find the same tweets and avatar with a different handle.
Abdo and his doppelgangers
The trace of Abdel Rahman goes on and on leading me to more fake twitter accounts with different names and eggs that mostly are not engaged in political trends as much "Can I have a follow back ?" teenage things.
Now the fake twitter accounts that really became a common factor in politically top trending hashtags especially the anti-ElBaradei hashtags are the "x1e" family recently.
If you just tried any random combination, you would find another twitter account jumping in your face. I tried randomly "@a1x1e" , "@a2x1e" , "@f1x1e". They have bee suspended later along with a huge number of similar Twitter accounts
Hamda's retweeters-Exhibit "1"
Hamda's tweet and a sample of those who retweeted it

The same thing I have seen in other Pro-regime and Pro-army hashtags, even those hashtags in solidarity with the victims of terrorism unfortunately in North Sinai.
Another example: This time a tweep from the so-called Pro-regime
 Egyptian women coalition attacking the former vice president
check the hn retweets. Those accounts have been suspended as well
It is sad because you do not need such way to push your hashtag to show support to our victims who do not need that disgraceful online behavior.
I had to ask and understand more what was in front of me. I know some cyber security geeks and experts who explained to me how those twitterbot operated. Just like anything they can be used for good or bad stuff.

Now it turned out in Egypt, we got companies that sell fake accounts whether on Twitter or Instagram with followers just like in the Gulf especially in the past 3 years. I have known more about those companies and I am planning to write more about them.

In nutshell, those companies do not create fake accounts as much as they create and stock real accounts and audience to be sold later to whoever wants. Those accounts can be later operated either by bots or by teams of human employees to influence the public opinion.


In the case of humans, we are speaking about political trolling but bots are automated after all.
The automated bots can be spotted so much easier than human online trolls teams as you can see above.

Now back to our friends above.

Ironically, the unofficial leader of twitter aka Hamada found himself in hot water and being accused of none other the Pro-regime/Pro-Sisi of launching "in solidarity hashtag with Mohamed Abu-Trika" !!!

Yes, they shared an alleged "DM conversation" between him and political activist Esraa Abdel Fattah offering him LE 700 to launch pro-Abu-Trika hashtag because the most popular footballer needs fake hashtags !!!!!!!!!!!

Abdel Fattah denied those accusations saying that the DM was "photoshoped" and that Abu-Trika did not need that already. I totally agree with her.
Esraa Abdel Fattah is used to that sort of attack when it comes to Pro-regime supporters as well Pro-regime media that still airs her personal alleged phone calls.

Shutting Down El-Nadeem Center : The end of one hell of a week

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Earlier Thursday, Egyptian security forces shut down by force El-Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of victims of torture in Downtown Cairo.
El-Nadeem Center
The door of the center sealed with red wax
"El-Nadeem Center"

According to its co-founder Aida Seif El-Dawla, the security forces went and shut down the center with red wax on the staff's off-day.
It is worth to mention that Seif El-Dawla who is a renowned human rights activist has been barred from travel in November.
The Egyptian authorities tried to close the center before last year at the same time !!
Since 1993, El-Nadeem provided help to victims of torture and abuse. I do not know what to say for real.

The EU commented on the closure of El-Nadeem Center later Thursday stating that "It is a development of particular concern".
I do not expect the US Department of State or White House to comment as they used to do before for an obvious well-known reason.

Amnesty international slammed the decision of the Egyptian security.
Needless to say Egyptian political activists are supporting El-Nadeem center.

The news of El-Nadeem came in the end of a week that witnessed frustrating developments when it comes to torture cases.

Do you remember the case of poor fish seller Magdy Makeen and how his family accused policemen tortured him till death at Al-Amiriyah police station in November !?

Ten policemen were officially accused by the prosecution of torturing Magdy Makin till death in December. Four policemen were kept in custody while the six others were released on an LE 3,000 bail each in the same month.
Among those who were detained, police officer Karim Magdy who is considered the main defendant in the case.
Magdy was released from detention on an LE 5,000 bail on Tuesday by a court order.

Then on Wednesday, news came from Gharbia governorate that hundreds of people protested in the city of Kafr El-Zayat over the death of a young man from torture in a police station there.
Later Ehab Mohamed
Late Ehab Mohamed 
The people accused policemen of torturing 24-years old Ehab Mohamed Abdel Gaber till death. Gaber's family say that he was arrested and two other men earlier over security concerns without real charges. The two men say the 24-years old young was tortured and electrocuted to death for no reason. He was not accused of anything.
The police denied that Ehab Gaber died because of torture.
On Thursday, Kafr El-Zayat prosecution decided to summon the policemen of the police station where Gaber was detained.

I think that tells you much about how much El-Nadeem Center and some similar NGOs are needed currently.

A full moon in a cold night [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

A full moon in a cold night

24 hours after the Ice Moon , here is how the normal moon looked like in a cold night in Egypt

A Full moon in a cold night

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Many parts of the world saw an ice/cold/snow Moon on Friday. I missed taking a photo of that cold/snow/ice moon on Friday due to technical reasons but I did not miss taking a photo of another full bright moon on Saturday in Egypt.

A full moon in a cold night

I do not know if it is still considered cold moon or not but it was really cold when I took the photo and actually hours later we had thunder and rains reportedly in Cairo and Northern Delta !!

It is a matter of time to see MP Sadat outside the Parliament for real

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It is only matter of time to see MP Mohamed Anwar El- Sadat expelled from Egypt's House of Representatives "HOR".
On Sunday, the Egyptian House of Representatives' Ethic committee recommended that MP Anwar El-Sadat should be stripped of his parliamentary membership in what can be the latest escalation between the Parliament and the veteran MP.
The leader of the Development and reform party is officially found guilty by the Ethics committee of allegedly sending secret state information to the Inter-parliamentary union , leaking the draft NGO law to foreign embassies and faking the signature of 15 MPs.
This saga started last August and you can see this coming following the decision of Sadat to resign as head of the Parliament's human rights committee.
Things escalated between him and parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal.
MP Anwar El-Sadat and Parliament speaker Abdel Aal 
In January, MP El-Sadat questioned the parliament speaker on why the parliament spent LE 18 million from the House of Representatives' budget to buy three cars for three members including Abdel Aal himself.
El-Sadat revealed that those three cars were not included in the original HOR's annual budget for the year 2015/2016 but they were added later as a 'loan' from the National investment bank.
The outspoken MP stated that the three cars were bought in February 2016 slamming the decision to purchase those cars when the Parliament owns too many cars in a time of an economic crisis.
It turned out that the parliament purchased one of the most expensive armored cars for its speaker.

This was the last straw when it comes to the confrontation between the two men in January.
Some say that El-Sadat intended to expose this matter publicly knowing that he may get expelled eventually.

Angry like hell, Abdel Aal vowed to hold those who leaked the parliament's budget to the media "!!!" accountable and that leaking that budget was a "national security" matter.
Sooner photos of Ali Abdel Aal's parliamentary cars found their ways to the media and the speaker warned us that those who took photos of his cars were actually making it easier for terrorists to assassinate him !!
According to Bitawqit Masr TV show on Al-Araby TV, the Parliament allocates six Mercedes-Bens cars to Ali Abdel Aal alone !!

Still,El-Sadat is not giving the fight easily.
He stated that he was in Prague when the committee reached to its recommendation and that he got a call from some unnamed MP in the committee warning that "things may get beyond stripping his membership".

He also told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the committee ignored his defense or request that the General prosecution would investigate those allegations but still he was not amazed from what happened.
Sadly,  El-Sadat said that he may quit politics altogether if his parliamentary membership is stripped.
He already filed a complaint against him at the Prosecutor General demanding him to investigate the accusations and claims of the parliamentary committee that he leaked the draft law to foreign embassies.
It is worth to mention that Sadat was replaced by  Free Egyptians Party MP Alaa Abed as the head of the human rights committee who is ironically chased by allegations of torture during Mubarak's rule.
The former police officer as well NDPian Abed is denying those charges but the internet got an archive of that infamous case he is involved in it along with other questionable accusations.
This tells you much about parliament we have got.

What I see in the House of Representatives that any kind of opposition is not welcomed.
The very few opposition MPs who dare to speak for the public or to question the government are living hell despite they are not more than 10 MPs.
Leftist MP Haitham El-Hariri is under constant attack in the Pro-regime media that does not stop spreading rumors about him.

I won't be surprised to find him refer to the ethics committee eventually.
I said it before and  I will say it again.
This House of Representatives needed late Talaat El-Sadat and not his polite brother Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat.

The Palace's entrance [Flickr]

Becoming a Museum [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

Becoming a Museum

In 1986 , Ousted President Mubarak issued a decree designating the Royal Palace to a Museum in Alexandria hosting a collection of Mohamed Ali Royal Family's Jewelry


An European style statue outside the palace [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

An European style statue outside the palace

The Palace covers about 4185 sq.m including the gardens in once an Upper Class area in Alexandria

Fatima Haider's Palace' exterior [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

Fatima Haider's Palace' exterior

The Palace was originally commissioned by socialite Zeinab Hanem Fahmy in 1919 but she died and her daughter Noble Fatima Haider completed the task of building that palace

Fatima Haider's Palace's exterior [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

Fatima Haider's Palace's exterior

Constructed in 1923 , the Fatima Haider's Palace is made of two wings connected by a corridor.

Sinai and that easy alternative for Israelis

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On Thursday, the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu-Zaid said in a media statement that Sinai peninsula was an Egyptian territory and that no foreign official spoke with his Egyptian counterparts about establishing a Palestinian state there ever.
The statements of Abu-Zaid came two days after Israeli minister Ayoob Kara stunned the Egyptian social media with his tweet on Tuesday.

The first Druze-Israeli minister in the Israeli cabinet history said that Trump and Netanyahu should adopt El-Sisi's Plan to have a "Palestinian State in Sinai and Gaza instead of Judea and Samaria {West Bank} and that clears the way for peace with the Sunni coalition".

I know that it would be a matter of time after that the tweet that Egypt official deny that El-Sisi
Gaza and Sinai
The suggested so-called Palestinian state in Gaza and
part of Sinai from some Israeli website 
proposed such plan but instead two days later we find the MOFA spokesperson saying that Sinai is an Egyptian territory and that no foreign official spoke with his Egyptian counterparts about Sinai as substitute land for the West Bank.

First, it is untrue that no foreign official spoke with his or her Egyptian counterparts even historically.

In 1953 during the Eisenhower's administration, US ambassador Eric Johnston was sent to Egypt and to Jordan to discuss the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in Jordan valley and in Sinai and it seems the plan failed as the Arab League rejected it along with the Palestinians.

Since then this easy alternative to solve the Palestinian refugees has been on the table for foreign diplomats as well Israelis who did not give up bringing it up in the 1960s and 1970s

In 2004, Israeli National security council chief major general Giora Eiland proposed a plan where Egypt to give 600 square kilometers to the Palestinians in Sinai whereas Israel to give Egypt 200 square kilometer in Negev desert. Needless to say, it was rejected.

In 2009, US envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross reportedly suggested this suggestion and was rejected as well.
In 2010, Israeli PM Netanyahu proposed that plan on Mubarak and the ousted president rejected it according to Mubarak's own audio leaks in 2011.

So it is untrue that resettling Palestinians was not discussed between Egyptian and foreign officials.

 Second, I wished that the denial of such outrageous claim would come from the Egyptian presidency and not from the Egyptian foreign ministry because in the end El-Sisi is involved and it is not the first time.


In September 2014, Israeli media claimed that Egypt or rather President El-Sisi promised to offer Palestinians land in Sinai Peninsula but the head of PA Mahmoud Abbas rejected the idea.
Sisi denied personally in a speech days later that he presented such offer.
In 2016, after Tiran and Sanafir scandal the Israeli journalists began to speak about Sinai as a homeland to the Palestinian state along with Gaza.

Locally in Egypt, the fact that that the buffer zone along the borders of Gaza in Egyptian Rafah "One kilometres wide and 14 long" which was made by the army in its war against terrorism has raised concerns among locals and activists that North Sinai "the most populated part of peninsula" was being emptied from its original locals for a sinister plan in the future aka a replacement for the West Bank . This conspiracy theory is popular.

There is no smoke with fire and I think what I have mentioned here simply using quick online search show you that Egyptian Sinai has been in the spot of the world as well Israeli officials as an easy alternative to solve the conflict in the Middle East.

I am afraid the world owes it to the Palestinians to solve their problem in a hard way.
Neither us, the people of Egypt nor the Palestinians will accept Sinai to be a replacement for the West bank regardless of what the governments do.

Also whether foreign officials suggested solving the Palestinian conflict by allocating Sinai to the Palestinians instead of the Western bank or some insane Egyptian official lost his mind and proposed that unacceptable suggestion even in some informal way, the world should know that the Egyptian people won't accept this.

Someone has not got the Tiran and Sanafir memo as it seems.

Speaking about Tiran and Sanafir isles, lawyer Khaled Ali filed a lawsuit against the President, PM, the ministers of interior and defense as well the Parliament's speaker demanding them to issue a presidential decree that bans the resettlement of foreign nationals in Sinai.

Ali and his team from lawyers also are demanding the President in lawsuit to suspend Mubarak's presidential decrees in 2002 and 2004 implementing the Euro-Mediterranean agreement between Egypt and EU specifically article no.69
Article No.69 of the agreement stipulates the following:
"After the entry into force of the Agreement, the Parties, at the request of any of them, shall negotiate and conclude bilateral agreements with each other, regulating specific obligations for the readmission of their nationals. These agreements shall also cover, if deemed necessary by any of the Parties, arrangements for the readmission of third country nationals. Such agreements will lay down the details about the categories of persons covered by these arrangements as well as the modalities of their readmission.
Adequate financial and technical assistance to implement these agreements will be provided to Egypt. "
Ali and his team "plus other experts in Egypt" say the underlined part speak about the resettlement of foreign nationals in our country.
I am not a legal expert but I do not see the word resettlement explicitly here and I understand "Readmission" in English means "re-entering" but again I am not a legal expert when it comes to such terms whether in English or Arabic and I have not read its Arabic version.

Nevertheless, it seems in Egypt that article means resettling foreign nationals in Egypt. It is worth to mention that it is in the part related to illegal immigration.
Also, I am not comfortable at that part speaking about adequate financial and technical assistance to Egypt.
I have too many questions about this article and that agreement now as it seems more troubling in other articles involving the privatization of public service sector.
Do not ask me how this agreement passed like that because we have not got a true parliament to review such agreement and to say its opinion for real since 1952.
Back to Sinai, again I believe the world and Israelis should forget about it as Egyptians and Palestinians won't accept any comprises.

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace

The amazing fresco in the middle gallery hall

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace

The small details are also wonderful in that palace

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace

A fresco showing two celestial being and one of them is depicted while making a statue while the other one is carrying a small musical instrutment


The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace

And here in that hall , you must look while walking to the magnificent ceiling

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

The amazing ceilings of Fatima Haider's Palace

The magnificent gallery hall connecting between the Eastern and Western wings of the Palace

Little angels wall boiserie painting [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

Little angels wall boiserie painting

A painting on wall boiserie showing two little angels

Painted Wall boiserie panels every [Flickr]

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

Painted Wall boiserie panels every

You will find painted wall boiserie panels in the hall everywhere

A western wing hall in the Palace [Flickr]

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