So what do

the controversial documents contain?

Mohamed Abdel-Baky reviews the paperwork so far

State Security Intelligence documents are suddenly everywhere. Many have yet to be verified and it is likely that a great deal of photo-shopping has taken place before the documents appear on Facebook and other web-pages. Nor is it entirely clear why so much material should be appearing now. The SSI, after all, has had since 25 January to destroy anything really incriminating. Tellingly, nothing of significance has emerged on prominent figures within the Mubarak regime, and there has been no mention of involvement with other intelligence agencies, most notable the CIA, though it is well known that Egypt was a favoured destination for the US's notorious "extraordinary renditions".

That much of the material remains of questionable authenticity has not stopped what has appeared being perused in detail. That said, for any future archivists what is left out of the first tranche of documents to be made public could well be as incriminating as what is included. Are old scores being settled? Who decided what should be destroyed and what shouldn't? The documents so far beg far more questions than they answer.

Student politics

"We have taken all necessary action to ensure our candidates win the student union elections. There is no chance for leftists or Muslim Brotherhood members," read one of the State Security Intelligence (SSI) reports that emerged this week.

The memo was part of a document, "Plan 10", detailing SSI manoeuvres to control student union elections in state universities across Egypt in 2010.

The document includes direct orders to the university officials not to allow Brotherhood and opposition members to register as candidates and to ban access to university rooms for any group criticising the regime.

Plan 10 was among thousands of secret documents reportedly seized from the SSI's headquarters in Nasr City over the weekend when protesters stormed the building.

Documents already posted on the Internet record the daily monitoring of political parties, movements, the Muslim Brotherhood, trade unions, NGOs, universities and state owned companies. There are even some reports on SSI officers.

Violent controversy

The most controversial document shows SSI involvement in the New Year Eve church bombing in Alexandria, which left 23 people dead and more than 90 wounded. The file includes three memos, the first dated 2 December 2010, from a junior SSI officer, proposing an attack on a Coptic church and suggesting that a jailed Islamist, Ahmed Khaled, be used to organise the plot aided by elements from the Gaza Strip belonging to the Army of Islam.

Other memos included a list of churches across Egypt and details of congregation members recruited by the SSI as informers.

Keeping an eye on judges

One published memo lists judges who allowed SSI officers to interfere in cases, including that of 2005 presidential candidate Ayman Nour who was subsequently jailed on charges of fraud.

Another memo claims to show that the SSI interfered in prosecutions to cover up for 24 judges who had accepted bribes in criminal cases.

"We have coordinated with the minister of justice and prosecutor-general's office to ensure the case does not become public," said the memo.

SSI officers lumped judges into three categories, independent, pro-Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition forces, and loyal. Only those in the last category were allowed to participate in the partial judicial supervision of the 2010 parliamentary elections. A memo from September asked local offices to forward the names of judges loyal to the regime and with a history of cooperation with the SSI.

Controlling elections

The number of documents relating to elections suggests that controlling political life in Egypt was the SSI's top priority. Memos reveal SSI officers clearly interfering in every kind of election, from parliament to syndicates and opposition political parties.

The 2005 parliamentary election is described in one memo as "extremely important to the regime and the National Democratic Party" (NDP). The memo includes detailed strategies, including forging voter lists to include hundreds of thousands of names of the recently deceased or of young people who had reached voting age but had failed to register and collect their voting cards from police stations.

It cited the number of public sector employees that could be bussed to polling stations on election day to vote for pro- government candidates and requests to company directors to coordinate with the SSI.

Another memo, also dating from 2005, records a meeting between Khairat El-Shater, deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a senior SSI officer, agreeing on a number of seats the Muslim Brotherhood would be "allowed to win" without any security interference.

At the meeting El-Shater agreed that the group will not field candidates in 10 constituencies to allow the NDP's candidates to win. In return, he was promised that there would be no security violations against the group's candidates in 51 constituencies.

NGOs seeking to monitor the 2005 poll were also subject to SSI manipulation. In one memo an SSI officer in Menoufiya governorate suggests that some local NGOs be allowed to enter poll stations and monitor the vote in order to lend the result credibility, adding that the NGOs' final report could be doctored.

"We have assigned personnel to make calls to the operation room of the NGOs to report violations in some poll stations," said the memo.

Identifying dissidents

Monitoring public figures critical of the regime appears to have increased in the last two years.

Mohamed El-Baradei, ex director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was of particular interest to the SSI. A document from SSI headquarters in Cairo appears to show El-Baradei and his family was kept under 24-hour surveillance. Phones and e-mails were tapped.

One memo includes a transcript of a personal e-mail from Ali El-Baradei, El Baradei's brother alongside a second e-mail from Wael Ghoneim, Google marketing executive, offering his services to El-Baradei to help set up an interactive website to reach more people in Egypt and convince them of the necessity of reform.

Torture

Little evidence of the routine use of torture has come to light though in one memo from 2008, a senior officer wrote that detainees who had suffered "injuries" in SSI detention have their interrogation delayed until their injuries had healed.

Controlling the media

Several memos relate to SSI control of the media. They detail the ways in which independent TV channels were "dissuaded" from hosting prominent opposition figures like Ayman Nour, and a 2006 campaign to discredit Noaman Gomaa, former chairman of the Wafd Party.

The campaign included editorials from well-known writers and talk show programmes with guests critical of Gomaa selected by the SSI.

An SSI file on Dream Satellite included details of its statues and the travel record of its owner, Ahmed Bahgat.