-Caveat Lector-
November 19 1999
Cairo angered by US 'whitewash' to save Boeing
FROM SAM KILEY, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT, IN CAIRO
THE suggestion that a pilot caused the deaths of 217 passengers on board
the EgyptAir flight has struck at the Egyptian establishment and at an
aristocratic dynasty.
The family of Gamil el-Batouty, who US investigators believe committed
suicide by plunging his Boeing 767 into the Atlantic, vowed that they would
take the fight to clear their name to the highest courts in Egypt and
America.
Kinsmen also issued a warning that, should the allegations prove baseless,
the relationship between Washington and its important Middle East ally
could be damaged.
Mr Batouty's family forms part of a key network that the Americans
cultivated to keep Cairo on side while they simultaneously backed Israel as
their most important strategic partner in the region. The dead co-pilot's
kinsmen included Alaa el-Batouty, the recently retired head of President
Mubarak's personal security service, now in charge of the Egyptian nuclear
programme, and Galal el-Batouty, the head of the Egyptian-American medical
aid programme.
Sources close to Mr Mubarak said yesterday that he had been "incensed" by
the suicide allegations. Although no longer close friends, Mr Mubarak
served as the late Mr Batouty's commanding officer during the 1973 war with
Israel and knew him as a popular air force instructor.
"The President is very angry," one of Mr Mubarak's intimates said. "He said
that this is racism and a whitewash which damages the reputation of the
airline and all Egyptians. Things are very tense with the Americans."
Mr Mubarak's inner circle was stunned that investigators had put forward
the suicide theory before they had got an accurate translation of the
cockpit voice recordings.
The US State Department has attacked what it called "wild" speculation and
far-fetched conspiracy theories about the EgyptAir crash, and has appealed
to government agencies and the media to stop spreading them.
Copyright 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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