"The CIA trained Odell and sent him to run its operations in Tehran, Iran. He is reluctant to describe in detail the incidents of these three years, but in 1965 he was removed from active duty after being interrogated and beaten by the Egyptian secret police." (In fact, he was removed from his post because his recruitment of Mustafa Amin became a fiasco: Amin rented an expensive villa just right next to that of Odell). Yet, at the time, the US government denied the Nasser's government story that Odell worked for the CIA. In 1997, the New York Times was still insisting that Odell was a "diplomat." Odell later admitted his work, and Legacy of Ashes later confirmed the allegation by Nasser's government against Amin: "Amin had been close to Nasser; the CIA paid him for information and for publishing pro-American news reports. The Cairo station chief had lied to the ambassador about the agency's rela- tionship with Amin. "He had been on the U.S. payroll," Battle said. "Bruce Odell [the CIA case officer] had been meeting regularly with Mustapha Amin. I had been assured that no funds had been exchanged in Egypt, but a photograph of such a transaction was made when Mustapha Amin was arrested." The case made headlines around the world, prominently featuring Odell, who had worked under diplomatic cover." The whole details were revealed in the interview with Asst. Sec. of State Battle: "That story concerned a Mustapha Amin. It was similar to the Birdsall affair and very embarrassing and extremely unfortunate in a number of ways. Amin was the twin brother of Ali Amin. Both were newspaper editors. At various times, they had worked together. In the early days of the revolution, they had been close to Nasser, particularly Mustapha. He had been on the US payroll. When I went to Cairo, I was assured that there were no such cases at the time, but in fact, there were. The Amin case was the devastating one. I knew that Bruce Odell, a CIA man—who now gives interviews to newspapers, causing considerable embarrassment—had been meeting regularly with Mustapha Amin. I had been assured that no funds had been exchanged in Egypt, but a photograph of such transaction was made when Mustapha Amin was arrested. I was at a diplomatic luncheon, completely unaware, when the story broke. I was called to go immediately to the Foreign Office to see the Acting Foreign Minister. I did so and was presented with photographs showing the money being given to Amin in a garden in Alexandria. Bruce Odell had denied any wrong doing. My standing instructions were never to admit that such events ever took place. I did that and returned to the Embassy, called the CIA chief, the DCM and the Political Counselor for a meeting to decide what we should do. It was obviously going to be a major story and it was. The next day, it was front page material in all the newspapers. Despite his earlier connection with Nasser, Mustapha Amin's relationship with the President had cooled off in more recent years. He was one of the people who had been close to the leaders of the revolution, but whose relationships did not last. There were a number of people whose relationships with Nasser and his cohorts went up and down. Gustafa Amin was sent to prison, where he was tortured badly, according to the rumors I heard later. He was eventually released when Sadat came to power. There are a number of aspects of this story that are disturbing. First of all were our activities which relied on old regime types who had supported the revolution, but didn't really have a lasting relationship with Nasser and his group—this unfortunately happened too often in Egypt. Cairo was a particularly bad place for conducting intelligence activities—there were too many restraints on such activities, it was unsafe and most of the operations didn't amount to anything. For the risks we took, very little was gained through these intelligence operations. I was always meeting people who wanted to give me messages; I ignored all of them. Behind every palm, there was someone waiting to tell me something “vitally important”. At times, it was ridiculous." Of course, for years and decades, Western and Israeli media and governments claimed that Nasser lied about the case and that Amin was innocent and a political prisoner. Amin later published many books alleging torture in Nasser's jail. I can tell you this: I read all those books, and can certifiably state that Amin's books' tales about his jail experiences were mostly made up: he was a movie buff and drew a lot in those books from Western movies. There was a lot about police dogs: he must have gotten that from movies (he went to school at Georgetown back in the 1930s (I think) and later lied a book full of lies and fabrications about the American people. (Read this funny item about him in Wikipedia). He was not an intellectual figure: he was a sensational journalist who brought Hearst American-style tabloids to Egyptian press. When Sadat took over power and moved toward prostration to Israel/US, he suddenly released Amin without any explanation except that he was unjustly prosecuted. He went on to write--you guessed it--not only in the Sadat-Mubarak press but also in the press of the House of Saud: he was a columnist in the mouthpiece of Prince Salman and his sons, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat.
PS One of the most informative accounts of the case has been written by Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, and it was based on long hand written confessions by the liar, Mustafa Amin.
PS One of the most informative accounts of the case has been written by Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, and it was based on long hand written confessions by the liar, Mustafa Amin.
