I sometimes seem insouciant about threats in Egypt, but I'm not. It's just that the atmosphere of threat is general here. It affects every corner of your personality, yet it's hard to take it personally, so wide is the danger spread. ... Yesterday, talking with a reporter in the usual seedy Cairo café — a place I've always considered safe — I saw a well-dressed man at the next table listening intently. Finally he interrupted. He gathered I was interested in human rights, he said. What did I do? Did I work for Freedom House? Freedom House is, of course, a banned organization, its local office raided and shuttered by the military regime back in 2011. I said no. He added, almost enticingly, that he himself had been tortured, and offered to show me his scars. I gave him my contact information and told him to call me. That was simple responsibility – you do not refuse a torture victim anything you can give; but afterwards I cringed inside. It's how things are in Egypt. Other people, foreign passport-holders among them, have been arrested for "political" conversations in public places. You don't know if the person who approaches you is victim or violator, survivor of torture or State Security agent; or both.