Oct. 22: Where is Shawkan?

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Update, October 21/22, 2016: A source close to Mahmoud Abou Zeid, the Egyptian photographer known as “Shawkan,” reported to me today that there is less that is known with certainty about Shawkan’s whereabouts than what has been reported in the media in the last 48 hours, including in this website.

What is known this Friday night/Saturday morning is that when Shawkan’s brother, Mehmet, visited Tora Prison to see his brother earlier this week, he was informed that Shawkan was not at the prison. (Mehmet confirmed that himself to this website and to other publications.) This was the first time that anyone had learned of Shawkan’s transfer. To the best that I have been able to ascertain, even Shawkan’s lawyers had not been contacted in advance or advised about any changes in Shawkan’s status.

It is understood that about 300 prisoners were moved from Tora Prison recently (even the date is not yet known) and Shawkan is believed to be one of the prisoners. Because no one has been in contact with Shawkan himself, it is not known where he is tonight: he could be back in Tora Prison or still be at another location.
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Today in History: Oct. 21

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war—in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.—Aldous Huxley, a letter to George Orwell

Aldous Huxley and George Orwell not only wrote two of the twentieth century’s best-regarded dystopian novels—Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four—but they knew each other as well: Huxley, a decade older than Orwell, taught French at Eton when Orwell was a student there and Orwell was one of his pupils.
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Oct. 20: An Update About Shawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Update, October 20, 2016: Yesterday in this space I reported that Mehmet Abu Zeid, brother of Mahmoud Abou Zeid, the Egyptian photographer known as “Shawkan,” reported that when he visited the jail where his brother is being held, he was informed that his brother is not at the jail.

Mehmet told my source that Shawkan was taken to a facility outside or near Tora Prison for “investigations,” which is his word. He has since been returned to Tora Prison.
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