Brotherhood's secret files … Episode 10

Published on December 29, 2013 on the website of the Arab Center for Studies and Research

Brotherhood and terrorism

Al-Banna responds to the memo for disbanding the group and then lies three times.

Then, he denigrates everybody.

Blowing up of the Appeals Court and the mountain incident

Blowing up of King George Hotel

Imam al-Banna lies multiple times in responding to the decision to disband the group.

The decision included a number of the group's proven crimes.

His disciples uncover his lies years later.

The Brotherhood detonated bombs in all police departments in Cairo to terrorize the government.

An attempt to blow up the Court of Appeals aimed to get rid of evidence of the group's involvement.

The Brotherhood of Egypt and Palestine participated in deceiving Egyptian authorities.

When the decision to dissolve the group was issued on December 8, 1948, an explanatory memorandum was attached to it that lists some of the terrorist acts committed by the group. Its general guide at the time, Hassan al-Banna, responded with a counter-memorandum. It contained a war tactic, one aiming at misleading the enemies of his group. However, the general guide could not realize that some of his men would come later to mention the whole truth and put him on the spot.

The explanatory memorandum on the incidents of throwing bombs at a number of police stations in Cairo stated the following: 

"On December 24, 1946, incidents of throwing bombs that exploded in several places in Cairo took place. Two of their perpetrators were arrested. They were arraigned in felony case no. 767/1946 – Abdeen Division".

In response to this accusation, al-Banna said: "The person who was convicted in felony case no. 767/1946 – Abdeen Division, against the background of the events of December 24, 1946, was not proven to have been ordered by the Brotherhood. These incidents were common at that time among young people against the background of the national upheaval that accompanied the previous negotiations. More developments happened in Alexandria than in Cairo. A larger number of young people were arrested and appropriate sentences were passed against them. No one said that they were from the Muslim Brotherhood. So the commission bears the responsibility for the behavior that was pursued in it and there is no justification for it". 

Mahmud Abdel Halim 'The Muslim Brotherhood: Events that Made History' – Second part - Dar Al-Da`wah Brotherhood Edition – page 53.

Forty years later, one of al-Banna's disciples and a member of the Special Organization came to explicitly deny him. Mahmud al-Sabbagh, in his book 'The Truth of the Special Organization', tells the whole truth. He says: "The Special Organization had developed to this extent to show both the government and the British that their attempt to legalize the British occupation of Egypt would not pass without armed fighting. So it detonated bombs in all police departments in Cairo on December 3, 1946 AD, after 10:00 p.m. It was taken into account that these bombs were sound, with the intention of armed demonstration only, without resulting in loss of life as a result of their explosion. The accuracy of the operation was that it took place after 10:00 p.m. in all the police departments, including Moski, Jamaliya, Azbakeya, Misr al-Kadima, al-Salakhana. The perpetrator was not caught in any of these incidents. The government was terrified of the anger of the people, and thought a lot before concluding what it intended to do. Then bombs were thrown at the police departments of Abdeen, al-Khalifa and Imbaba".

Mahmud al-Sabbagh – 'The Reality of Special Organization' – Dr al-I’tisam – First edition 1989 – page 278.

Bombing of King George and al-Banna's elusiveness

The memo goes on to mention another incident, but in a different time and place. In 1947, the Muslim Brotherhood tried to blow up the King George hotel in Ismailia, according to the memo for dissolution of the group. It was proven in the investigation of crime mo. 4726/1947 that one of the members of a group threw a bomb at the King George hotel in that city. The bomb exploded, and its shrapnel injured several people. The thrower himself was seriously injured. 

Al-Banna reposts confidently by saying, "In felony no. 4726/1947, it was proven that the person accused in it was not responsible for his work, and the accusation against him was dropped. He is still in the hospital. What is the point of citing it in an official memo? Is the Brotherhood's body responsible for the work of a person who turns out to be not himself responsible for his work?"

Mahmud Abdel Halim – a previous source, page. 54

This time, we turn to another disciple of al-Banna, namely Salah Shadi, the head of the Units’ Apparatus, who mentions in his book, 'Life's Harvest', Page 89, that we agreed in the Units' Apparatus to carry out a terrorist operation inside King George hotel. We mandated brother Rifaat al-Naggar from the Air Force to carry out this operation by carrying an explosive material, igniting it, and then leaving it in the hotel lobby next to the wall behind a curtain hanging on the lobby wall. He would then get up and leave the hotel.

Shadi adds: The operation was executed in the best way. However, when he left the place, one of the intelligence officers from the English guards appeared to brother Rifaat, who raised his suspicions about this abandoned Dossier. The guard went to catch him, while brother Rifaat insisted on carrying out the bombing. He returned to the Dossier and held it in his hands, preventing anyone from approaching him until the detonation took place while holding it, and let it be.

Salah Shady – a previous source – Page 90.

It happened that the perpetrator was injured in the accident and arrested since he was proven guilty beyond doubt. 

Salah Shadi frankly admits "We brought him some lawyers, who were members of the group, who argued that his psychological and mental capabilities do not place him at the level of criminal responsibility."

This was what al-Banna mentioned in the memo at a time when he knew about the whole thing.

Mountain incident 

This is how he was known in the Brotherhood's literature, where the cadres of the Special Organization used to train in the use of weapons in the Moqqattam hills region. The memo for disbanding the group stated that "On January 19, 1948, 15 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested in the Moqqattam hills region as they trained in the use of weapons, fireworks, crackers and bombs. They were making large quantities of these types and other tools of destruction and killing."

Al-Banna replied thus: "These 15 who were arrested, some of them from the Brotherhood, and most of them had no connection with the group at all. They justified their work by saying that they were preparing to volunteer to save Palestine when the government slowed down in preparing the volunteers and mobilizing the masses. The government accepted this justification from them and the prosecution released them immediately. What is the reason for condemning the Brotherhood in the work of these individuals in particular? It was noted that it was stipulated in the prosecution's decision that preservation is for the nobility of the goal and the honor of the end". 

Mahmud Abdel Halim - a previous source, Page 54.

The year 1987 comes and the hidden is revealed. In his book, 'Dots over Letters', Ahmed Adel Kamal, one of the leaders of the Special Organization in the Muslim Brotherhood, explains the story of the mountain incident in detail. 

He says: "We were assigned to search for a suitable place in the Moqqattam hills for training in the use of weapons and explosives. This was the Moqqattam hills, as they did not need vacations or travel. The place needed to be located deep in the hills, easy to access by car, and to be suitable as a field for shooting fire. The place also needed to be hidden from all eyes and contain fit watchtowers for guarding. 

The training began in that location at a rate of two groups per day, one group goes with dawn until afternoon and another goes with afternoon and returns with dawn, and going and returning was done by station wagon. The arrangement was that each of the groups receiving the training not to see the other group. Somebody would also be there permanently watching the field around the site with binoculars from a high place. This guard could see any fast approaching car at least a third of an hour before it arrived. 

There were pits prepared in which to place all weapons and ammunition, and to fill them up at the first sign, so that the group would remain in a camp condition, and there would be no legal prohibitions with it." 

Kamal adds, "The groups went and returned twice a day for a long time, until the car made a clear and distinct path in the mountain, drawing the attention of the people working in the quarries of the mountain. This news reached the police and we did not feel it. The training official was training a group there, and from repeating the training in peace and security, he overlooked his caution and bypassed putting the guard in his place. He and the group with him only felt the mountain peaks around them. The police forces appeared above them with their weapons. They asked them to surrender while they were busy in their training. That was on 19/ 1/1948 and the newspapers published the news". 

We come to the important point in Kamal's testimony, where he asserts, "Even in this case, there was preparation to confront it. Our arrested brothers replied that they were volunteers for the Palestinian cause, which was an answer that was agreed upon. At the same time, there were forms with their names written at the Volunteer Center for the Palestinian cause. How many contacts were made with Hajj Mohamed Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Palestine and the head of the Arab Higher Committee. We explained to him the real situation. He was responsive with us completely and admitted that the arrested were volunteers for Palestine, and that the weapons belonged to his committee. Thus, the brothers were released and the weapons were handed over to the Arab Higher Committee. Thus, the Brotherhood of Egypt, led by al-Banna, and the Brotherhood of Palestine, led by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, participated in deceiving Egyptian authorities which released the young men for the nobility of the goal and the honor of the end.

Adel Kamal ends his testimony by saying: "However, the incident had a far-reaching impact. That is because a discovery was found with the person responsible for the group - may God have mercy on him. That discovery came later to be known as the 'Discovery of the mountain'. It was made of 100 names of the brothers of the Special Organization and their secret numbers arranged in groups. These were the groups that were to be trained successively from the south of Cairo.

None of the organization officials at the time knew anything about this discovery. The person with whom the names were found did not mention it to anybody. However, that disclosure appeared after that in the cases and constituted a strong evidence. 

Ahmed Adel Kamal – 'Dots over the Letters' – al-Zahraa edition for Arab media - First edition – 1987

Blowing up of Appeals Court

In this process, a number of cadres of the Special Organization made an attempt to blow up the Cairo Court of Appeals, where the papers of what was known as the 'Jeep Case' were kept. Mustafa Mashhour, one of the leaders of the Special Organization and the fifth guide of the group between 1996 and 2002, was on top of those accused in the case. The story of the jeep is well known, as a car loaded with weapons and bombs was seized, along with some papers containing the group's plans and strategies. 

Al-Banna denied in a statement distributed to journalists at the time that one of the Brotherhood members had carried out this heinous act. Nevertheless, time had passed, bringing what al-Banna did not desire. 

Mahmud al-Sabbagh talks about this incident in his book 'The Truth of the Special Organization.

“After the company succeeded in carrying out this commando operation, al-Sayed Fayez looked into all the false crimes that the government attributed to the Brotherhood, claiming that it relies on blatant facts in the documents seized in the jeep. What Abdel Maguid Ahmed Hassan said after he decided to confess about his colleagues, and the court relied on him in the innocence of the Special Organization. He had no doubts that the government had falsified documents and submitted them to the prosecution to condemn the Brotherhood for crimes and false accusations that they did not have anything to do with. So he decided to burn these papers and formed a company for that purpose, under the leadership of brother Shafiq Anas. The plan was drawn up as it appeared in the investigations of the case, which is falsely called the case of attempting to blow up the court. It was an attempt to burn the papers of the Jeep Case. Shafiq Anas managed to put a bag filled with incendiary materials prepared for the time explosion next to the cupboard of the Jeep Case papers, but God forbid one of the informants noticed Shafiq, leaving the bag and then going down the court staircase. So he ran quickly and carried the bag and ran behind it. Shafiq, who rushed to run so that the bag would not explode on the court staircase or among the crowds of entrants in the hall. When he got out of the court, he told the informant about what was inside the bag so the informant left it to go up in the square in the open, without causing any meaningful casualties. Shafiq was then arrested. 

Mahmud al-Sabbagh – a previous source – Page 451.

See you in the next episode, God willing.