Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate

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The Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID) (Arabic:المخابرات العامة المصرية-هيئة الأمن القومي - مجلس الدفاع الوطني ) is an intelligence agency in Egypt. It is part of the Egyptian Intelligence Agencies Apparatus.

Contents 1 History 2 Achievements 3 Current Status 4 Declared EGID directors in chronological order 5 References

[edit] History

the political decision to establish an advanced intelligence service in Egypt was taken by the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser ( 1918-1970), in 1955 Nasser assigned to his brother in Arm Zakareia Mohy El Dien [1](1918 - ) the task of establishing an intelligence aparatus to be responsible for the Egyptian National security.

However the real start of this aparatus took place in 1957 when Nasser assigned to this task a fellow officer who was Salah Nasr[2]. Salah Nasr was the director of Egyptian General intelligence directorate form 1957 to 1967 in that period he made the foundation of this vital department which all his successors used , Salah Nasr was the first to establish a seprate building for the EGID, he was the first to establish seprate divisions for Radio, Computer, Forgery and Dirty tricks. In order to cover high expences of intelligence work, Nasr established Al Nasr company of export & import to be a EGID secret front in addition to use its income in financing the aparatus, the company business flourished and eventually it was seprated from EGID and had an independent management. However it is almost certain that EGID owns many companies in Egypt especially in the fields of tourism, aviation and constructions.

For several years the name of EGID director was a secret only known to high officials and government Newspepers chief editors, However General Omar Soliman[3] who became the DEGID since 1993 till taday (2007) was the first one the beak this tabo , his name was released many times in the press before he himself became a Known face in media after being envoyed by the Egyptian president Mubarak to Israel, USA and Ghaza in many occasions.

[edit] Achievements

In spite of the rule which says " success in intellignce world is a barried secret while failure is a world wide scandal" EGID did achieve many successes a few of which were released and dramatized in Egyptian TV and Cinema

1- EGID managed to plant Egyptian Agent among Jewish imigrants to Israel, that Agent " Refaat Al Gammal" [4]manged to live 18 years in Israel without being discovered in those years he established a network of Spies in Various fields of Israeli community.

2- in 1970 EGID managed to hunt an Israeli Oil Rig while being shipped from Canada to Sinai, Clandestine EGID agents and frogmen succeeded in tracing the Oil Rig to Abedgan, Ghana and planeted sets of explosives, had them detonated and crippled the rig. this operation was published in 1985 under the name of ( Al -Haffar) it was supervised at that time by EGID director " Ameen Heweedy" (1921- )

3- between 1968 and 1972 EGID managed to infiltrate residence of American diplomatic delegation in Cairo and plant tape recodres (refer to referece 1)

4- perhaps the major success of EGID was handling the Egyptian strategic deception plan that was carried out from 01/1970 to 10/1973 and aimed to conceal the Egyptian plans to launch massive military attack against Israel on 06/10/1973 starting the Yom Kippur war- the plan included planting falce information and hidden implied data in Egyptian president Sadat's speeches and newspapers Articles - For example the EGID prepared to the militay operations and evacutaed complete sections of Cairo hospitals to be ready for receiving war casualties, this evacuation that took place few days before the war started, was done after declaring falce informaiton that those hospitals were infected with Titanus .

The plan included a majour operation which its details still not published till today, this operation aimed to getting detailed information of American Spy satellites covering middle east, by knowing exact trajectories and timing of those Satellites EGID prepared complicated logestic movement schedules for all Egyptian Army units to avoid moving mass troops in timings where they could be spotted by satellites.

[edit] Current Status

Despite declared peace between Egypt and Israel , every few years EGID declares arrest of Israeli espionage networks, yet till Israel has not declared arrest of any Egyptian spies on its soil.

[edit] Declared EGID directors in chronological order

1. Zakareia Mohy El Dien
2. Salah Nasr Al Nogomy
3. Ameen Heweedy
4. Hafez Ismail
5. Ahmad Kamel
6. Ahmad Ismail Ali
7. Foad Nassar
8. Mohammad Al Mahy
9. Kamal Hassan Aly
10. Omar Negm
11. Nour El Dien Afeefy
12. Omar Soliman

[edit] References

• 1973- Weopons and Diplomacy- Heikal, Mohammd Hassanien - Printed 1993 - Al Ahram- Egypt
• Auto biography of Salah Nasr- Printed 1998- Dar Al Khayal - Egypt