American man found dead in Egyptian prison cell

An American man was found dead in an Egyptian prison cell Sunday morning, in what Egyptian officials said appeared to be a suicide. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo identified the man as James Henry Lunn, who was found hanging from a door with a shoelace and leather belt around his neck. Egyptian media sources said Lunn was a retired U.S. Army officer, which the U.S. Embassy denied. Additionally, Egyptian reports said Lunn was 66 years old, though that has not been verified. Lunn was reportedly detained in August in North Sinai for violating a dusk-to-dawn curfew, which was part of an emergency law imposed by the Egyptian interim government after the July 3 ouster of Mohamed Morsi. There has been a surge in arrests since Morsi was deposed, and Lunn is the second foreigner to die in custody in the past month.

Syria

A car bomb in the northern Syrian town of Darkoush, near the Turkish border in Idlib province, has killed 20 people Monday according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Sunday, Syrian state news agency (SANA) reported two car bombs exploded outside the state television headquarters in Damascus. The building was damaged in the blast, however there have been no reports yet of casualties. Ahmet Uzumcu, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), has called for temporary cease-fires in Syria. Though Uzumcu said the team of chemical weapons experts has reached five out of 20 production sites, fighting is preventing their access to some sites in opposition held territory. On Sunday, gunmen abducted six workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and a Red Crescent volunteer, attacking their convoy in Idlib province as they were reportedly returning to Damascus. According to the ICRC, three of its workers and the Red Crescent volunteer were released Monday. After meeting with U.N. and Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for a peace conference on Syria "very soon" saying it is "urgent to set a date." He continued that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had lost legitimacy and that there must be "a transition government in Syria to permit the possibility of peace."

Headlines

• The Israeli military announced Sunday it had found a tunnel from Gaza to Israel and in response has suspended deliveries of building materials.
• Iran has rejected a Western demand to ship its enriched uranium out of the country ahead of nuclear talks set to begin Tuesday in Geneva.
• Yemen’s al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for an attack Sept. 30 in the eastern city of al-Mukalla on an army based that it said held a U.S. drone operations room.
• Bombings killed at least 34 people across Iraq Sunday in Baghdad and the predominantly Shiite provinces in the south.

Arguments and Analysis

‘Special Report – The real force behind Egypt’s "revolution of the state" (Asma Alsharif and Yasmine Saleh, Reuters)

"When army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appeared on television in July this year to announce the end of Mursi’s presidency and plans for elections, it was widely assumed that Egypt’s military leaders were the prime movers behind the country’s counter revolution. But dozens of interviews with officials from the army, state security and police, as well as diplomats and politicians, show the Interior Ministry was the key force behind removing Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

Senior officials in Egypt’s General Intelligence Service (GIS) identified young activists unhappy with Mursi’s rule, according to four Interior Ministry sources, who like most people interviewed for this story, asked to remain anonymous. The intelligence officials met with the activists, who told them they thought the army and Interior Ministry were ‘handing the country to the Brotherhood.’

The intelligence officials advised the activists to take to the streets and challenge Mursi, who many felt had given himself sweeping powers and was mismanaging the economy, allegations he has denied. Six weeks later, a youth movement called Tamarud — ‘rebellion’ in Arabic — began a petition calling for Mursi to step down."

‘You Can Still See Their Blood: Executions, Indiscriminate Shootings, and Hostage Taking by Opposition Forces in Latakia Countryside’ (Human Rights Watch)

"The evidence collected by Human Rights Watch strongly suggests that the serious abuses carried out by the opposition groups on August 4 were not the actions of a group of rogue fighters. The coordinated nature of the overall operation in which at least 20 distinct groups participated and the number of villages affected, in combination with the organized manner in which they carried out the crimes on August 4 — the simultaneous arrival of fighters that surrounded the villages, the systematic killing of entire families or killing of adult male relatives and holding women and children as hostages, and the statements from fighters and others who are holding these civilians hostage regarding their intentions to exchange them for detainees held by the government — suggests that the crimes were premeditated and organized.

The evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch strongly suggests that the killings, hostage taking, and other abuses committed by the opposition forces on August 4 rise to the level of crimes against humanity. The scale and organization of these crimes indicate that they were systematic as well as being planned as part of an attack on a civilian population."

‘Freezing Aid without a Strategy‘ (Jonathan Guyer, The Cairo Review of Global Affairs)

"The influential Washington think tank community focuses on the question of U.S. leverage over Egyptian domestic policy as the cause — and drawback — of cutting aid. News agencies generously quote these talking heads, mostly former officials themselves. Beltway analysts draw the same conclusion: U.S. aid has not bought leverage over Egypt. Their argument is that cutting aid is futile and actually detracts from U.S. interests. It’s quite a tautology. Since American assistance doesn’t buy leverage, Washington should keep the aid flowing. If we agree that American assistance doesn’t do much, then why continue it? The basis of this gargantuan military aid package is the 1979 peace accord between Egypt and Israel; that should be the topic under discussion rather than the idea of ‘leverage’ in the abstract.

By making grand caveats along with their grand pronouncements, U.S. officials have failed to deal with a more destructive problem at hand. In Egypt, the American brand has lost its cache. More often than not, Cairenes ask me why Obama supports ‘terrorists,’ derogatory shorthand used to describe the Muslim Brotherhood. Vitriol against Washington, and former Ambassador Anne Patterson in particular, has reached an all-time high. The attacks are personal. In signage and cartoons, Obama and Patterson have been cast as Osama Bin Laden."

–Mary Casey & Joshua Haber