An Interrupted Lunch

In 1953, Cairo Publisher Mustafa Amin reported exuberantly that his nation's new revolutionary regime was the first "honest, democracy-loving government in 5,000 years of Egyptian his tory." Nasser soon proved him wrong, but for years the personable, pro-Western Amin remained close to Egypt's strongman. He was sent to Beirut on a top-secret mission to seek an end to the Suez war, served as Nasser's adviser on a trip to the U.N. In 1962, long after all Cairo papers had been nationalized, Nasser signed a decree restoring him as publisher of his Al Akhbar (The News). Last week Amin, 51, was in prison, accused of spying for the U.S.

Bugged Buick. The Egyptians say that Amin collaborated with Bruce Taylor Odell, a political attache in the U.S. embassy in Cairo. Nasser's security police say that a year ago they tailed Odell to a small apartment in suburban Heliopolis, where he met Amin. They installed hidden microphones throughout the apartment, then, for good measure, bugged Amin's home on the other side of Cairo and a midtown apartment he allegedly used for love affairs. They even bugged his black Buick limousine.

As the Egyptians tell it, Amin met Odeli at least once a week, and was well paid for his work. A man with expensive appetites, he was living far beyond his $14,000 newspaper salary, and in addition had transferred thousands of dollars to his twin brother Ali in London. The end came when Amin rented a summer villa overlooking the Mediterranean at Alexandria. Police planted intelligence agents among his servants, closed in when Odell, who had rented a villa nearby, showed up for lunch fortnight ago. Amin was jailed, and Odell was questioned for an hour, forced to turn over what police claim was Amin's last report--20 pages of handwritten notes. Finally, he was released because of his diplomatic immunity.

Whisked Away. In Washington, the State Department denied the story. It said that Odell, 36, a onetime Defense Department "analyst," was definitely not a spy. Neither was Amin. As for the confiscated notes, they had been written by Odell, not Amin, and reflected "conversations with several people on general matters of interest." So saying, State whisked Odell back to Washington "for reassignment" so fast that he had to leave his wife and three children in Cairo.

Whatever was behind the affair, Nasser seemed intent on using it to start a new hate campaign against the U.S. And just as things were looking up in relations between the two countries: in the wake of new aid negotiations, Nasser's minions had recently become chummy with Americans in Cairo. No longer. Last week the government-owned newspaper Al Gumhuria accused the CIA of plotting to overthrow Nasser "by any means, even assassination." Suddenly the heat was on again, and even the friendliest Egyptians found it inconvenient to join their old American friends for a quiet meal.

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