Sisi securing funding on the wishes of the West

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/africa/16851-the-many-faces-of-abdel-fatah-al-sisi

Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi is an actor of some talent. To the revolutionary leaders in Tahrir Square, and to the youth leaders he met, he was the general who told them the army was on their side. To Egypt's first democratically elected president, he was the religiously observant officer, whose hands shook when told he would replace Mohammed Tantawi as commander-in-chief. To liberals like Mohammed elBaradei, Sisi was the man who would get rid of Morsi and hand over power to a civilian government. To America, Europe and Israel, he was a westerner. To Nasserites, an Arab nationalist.

But sometime, somewhere, Sisi would be caught without a script, off-mic, revealing his real thoughts and personality. This has now happened in a series of leaks of recorded conversations of his senior officials. In earlier leaks, they were allegedly recorded giving instructions on what Egyptian TV anchors should say about Sisi's candidacy for the presidency. They appeared to be tampering with a high profile court case of four police officers involved in the killing of 37 detainees en route to prison.

On Saturday night the most significant of the leaks was broadcast, as they concerned conversations about Egypt's Gulf donors. When the Turkey-based Egyptian satellite TV channel Mekameleen broadcast the audio recordings, the satellite link was jammed. The contents came out on YouTube.

In one excerpt allegedly recorded about a year ago, Sisi, Mahmoud Higazi, who was then head of military intelligence and now head of the army, and Brigadier General Abbas Kamil, the manager of Sisi's office, were talking about asking Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait for $10 billion each. They discussed how the money was to be transferred -- not into the coffers of the state, or the central bank, but surreptitiously in small amounts to bank accounts used by the Egyptian Army.

The translated excerpt reads:

Sisi: Look, you tell him that we need 10 to be deposited in the army's account. 10 what?

Kamil: Into the army's account.

Sisi: These 10, when we succeed will be worked for what? For the state. We want another ten like them from the UAE and we want from Kuwait another ten like them. That is in addition to the two pennies [Egyptian expression for small amounts of money] to be deposited in the Central Bank and to complement the account of 2014.

Kamil: (Laughter)

Sisi: What are you laughing at?

Kamil: (Still laughing) He'll pass out.

Sisi: What?

Kamil: He'll pass out. (laughs)

Sisi: They have money like rice [meaning too much].

Kamil: I know, Sir.

Sisi: The Americans [tell them] this figure is this ... like this.

These recordings have not yet been independently verified and they were leaked to a satellite station in Turkey that is pro-Morsi. The satellite channel is so confident that these voices are genuine that they having them tested by international voice recognition experts. Coming on top of what has already been published from Saudi sources about the links between Sisi's office and Tuwaijri, the weight of evidence leads one to conclude they are genuine.

Coming just weeks before an international donors conference in which the same Gulf States are expected to cough up billions of dollars more, the leaks are timely. They allegedly show Sisi diverting money meant for the reconstruction of the state into the Egyptian Army's coffers. And they beg the question: Where has all this money gone?