Egypt says Israeli spy arrested
I don't claim to know what's happening here, but a few things are clear: The fact that the Egyptian government made this announcement, whether it was true or not, means that the military dictatorship derived some benefit from its dissemination. The report, if anything in it can be believed, claims that the alleged spy, if he exists, was posing as a journalist. This is common enough, but if so he should have been aware, as any good spook would, that he was being tailed by Egyptian intel'. And if he wasn't aware of it, he must have made at least some reports of his activities back to Mossad. If so, the Egyptian allegation could not be denied as it was, again according to this dubious article, by the Israeli government without there being some cooperation between the two nations.
Similarly this passport business is profoundly suspicious. Firstly, the article doesn't say that the spook in question had one when arrested. Presumably he did, but it is not confirmed in the report. The Israeli "analyst" feigns incredulity by saying that everyone knows you can't have somebody doing espionage with a legitimate passport in his possession. This is rendered nonsensical by the fact that he was allegedly pretending to be a reporter, which would require his carrying one even if a spy.
My guess is this entire affair is an attempt by the repressive reactionary military regime to cast itself as independent of, and defiantly hostile to, the West and Israel in particular, so as to ingratiate itself with the Egyptian people. The facts as they are presented are not credible, so this is pander or perhaps a trial balloon of some kind. In any case, this article has to be taken with a grain of kosher salt.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201161216150180337.html
