(CNN) – CNN Cairo went to the beach Monday. It was not, alas, a day of rest. We assembled at 2 a.m. at the headquarters of the Egyptian Army's "Morale Guidance" Bureau, from where we were bussed, an hour later, to the northern coast to cover the 2009 Brightstar Exercises.

This year 17,000 troops from Egypt, the United States, Jordan, Pakistan, Germany, Italy, and Kuwait - to name a few - are taking part.

These military exercises have been conducted every two years since 1981.

There is a certain predictability about these affairs. The officers, whatever the country, are all upbeat, talking about cooperation, partnership and mutual respect.

But in the end, these are war games: A rehearsal for something to which other, far less lofty terms come to mind. The officers we interviewed - Americans and Egyptians - speak in glowing adjectives, but dodge questions about what or whom the exercises are preparing for.

I covered Brightstar 10 years ago. Back then it was also all about partnership and cooperation. But in the combat operations room of the USS John F. Kennedy, I had a premonition of what was to come. On a map of clear plastic, written in magic marker over Baghdad were the words: "Target: Saddam."

Ten years later Saddam is gone; U.S. forces are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, while targets have been hit in Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan.

Voices have been raised in the U.S. – though more loudly and insistently in Israel - calling for military action against Iran, which is accused by some of pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

Back in 1999 it was fairly clear that sooner or later the U.S. and its allies would, somehow or other, bring down Saddam Hussein. After September 11, 2001, regardless of Iraq's non-involvement in those attacks, Saddam's days were running out.

I don't think, at this moment, an attack against Iran (by Israel, by the U.S., or both) is as inevitable as Saddam Hussein's demise. But the possibility is there.

As the sun rose over the desert, I watched three C17 "Globemasters," which had flown straight from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, drop hundreds of paratroopers - mostly Americans along with a few Egyptians and Pakistanis. Later, a pair of American Cobra gunships provided air support as three huge U.S. Navy hovercraft disgorged a dozen armored humvees on a beautiful Mediterranean beach, already "secured" by U.S., Egyptian, Pakistani and Jordanian troops.

It was an impressive display of force and hardware, as well as cooperation and partnership. However it's easy to see from the weapons on display who is the senior "partner."

Sitting in the press bus on my way back to Cairo typing this with my thumbs on a blackberry, I wonder if, as the American and Egyptian officers told us, the Brightstar exercises aren't designed for a specific threat then what is the point?

DRESDEN, Germany –Egyptian Magdi Khalil is an educated man. He lived in Japan for seven years, teaching architecture and designing environmentally-friendly houses. Now he lives in Dresden and teaches at the local university. He says he likes the town - but that the Egyptian community has suffered what he calls "a disaster."

A protester at Cairo airport awaits the body of Marwa El-Sherbini, who was killed in Germany.

He's referring to the killing of Marwa El-Sherbini - an Egyptian woman, mother and wife - in a German courtroom by a man who appears to have acted upon hatred for Muslims.

That man, a German man of Russian descent identified only as Alex W. by German authorities, had already been fined for calling his victim, who wore a headscarf, a "terrorist," after she asked him to let her son use a swing in a playground. She had taken him to court; he had been fined and was now going into revision when the incident happened.

By all accounts, almost everything that happened in the court room was a disaster. Khalil recounts the details of what has been reported –- and believes many questions remain unanswered

He wants to know why Alex W was not searched when he went into the court. No one seems to have noticed that he was carrying a knife. "How can something like this happen in a court where people are supposed to be safe?" Khalil asks me.

Khalil also wants to know why, when El-Sherbini's husband went to her aid (and was himself attacked and stabbed by Alex W), a policeman shot him in the leg in the mistaken belief he was the assailant. "Why did the cop think the Muslim-looking man must be the killer?" asks Magdi.

The public response after the incident has been muted. It took days for German politicians to react and publicly condemn the act. Khalil asks: "What would happen if an Egyptian man would stab a German woman to death in court?"

Khalil is asking questions – and so are many other people. there latent anti-Muslim sentiment in Germany, perhaps in many western European countries? Where were the candlelight vigils for the victims? Where was the public outrage? Why is there no debate about possible political reactions?

The German government has since condemned the attack but maintains that its response was adequate. "We cannot tolerate right-wing extremism, hatred of foreigners or Islamophobia in our country," Thomas Steg, a spokesman for Chancellor Merkel, said at a press conference Wednesday. Meanwhile outrage at the killing has continued to grow in Egypt, to where Marwa El-Sherbini’s body has now returned.

Khalil is clear: "I believe this was an isolated incident that this has nothing to do with Germany as a whole." But he says the German government needs to answer the questions being asked - not least for its reputation in the Islamic world, for its reputation among Muslims in Germany and to ensure that Marwa El-Sherbini did not die in vain.

CAIRO, Egypt - "Pop singer brutally murdered by a paid assassin."
 
A headline that can cause a media frenzy - and that's exactly what happened in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.

Egyptians have been captivated with the murder of singer Suzanne Tamim, pictured here in a photoshoot.

 
Egyptians are captivated with the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim. And the fascination grew when Egyptian billionaire businessman Hisham Talaat Mustafa was accused of paying a former police officer, Mohsen Al-Sukkary, to kill her.  
 
In our own Cairo offices we would dissect the details with CNN's office manager, Housam Ahmed, who could read the Arabic papers and share the sordid details.  
 
The rumors were flying from publication to publication: "She dumped him;"  "He paid for her plastic surgery;"  "He was angry she fell in love with another."
 
And it was hard not to speculate over the various theories of what really may have happened.
 
Housam told us that his wife and her friends can't get enough of the story and that it is the topic of conversation among many housewives and dinner tables throughout the country.  
 
But now, they are cut off from their media fix.
 
The head judge in the trial has placed a gag order on any reporting of the trial, stating that the sensationalism of some media organizations were affecting the proceedings, but yet he still considers the trial "open"?
 
Mohammed Radwan, the managing editor of the Independent newspaper Al-Masri Al-Youm told us that his reporters are still allowed to attend the trial but can't report anything until a verdict is reached.
 
"We're not allowed to publish any of the testimonies of the witnesses," Radwan said, "I think this is something very negative for the reader in general."
 
But what really concerns some is the belief that the order was placed to help Mustafa's case and his friendship with the son of President Hosni Mubarak played a role.  
 
"He is considered one of the most prominent businessmen in the country.  So we believe that the gag order was to protect him and not for the trial itself," Rawda Ahmed, a lawyer who is appealing the media blackout, told us.
 
Others in the country say that it is impossible that cronyism will factor into the case and that the ruling family can't save him now.
 
"What we have on hand here is someone who murdered a woman because she dumped him.  It's as simple as that.  So this is not something that the regime can easily defend," media analyst Hisham Kassem told CNN.
 
The trial will resume later this month with journalists forced to bite their tongue or risk jail time - another step back for the media in a country where press freedom often depends on the government's mood.