The General Intelligence Service ( ar, جهاز المخابرات العامة ; GIS), often referred to as the Mukhabarat ( ar, المخابرات ) is an Egyptian
intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives.
Means of informa ...
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be des ...
, both domestically and internationally.Sullivan and Jones (2008): 33 The GIS is part of the Egyptian intelligence community, together with the Office of Military Intelligence Services and Reconnaissance ( ar, إدارة المخابرات الحربية والاستطلاع ) and
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collect ...
( ar, قطاع الأمن الوطني ). The Egyptian Intelligence service is considered to be the 5th most active intelligence service globally.
History
The decision to set up an Egyptian intelligence service was taken following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, when Egypt was under increased threat from foreign adversaries, such as the United Kingdom, and the State of Israel. The General Intelligence Directorate was formally established by then Prime Minister, and future President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, in 1954, and placed under the command of
Zakaria Mohieddin
Zakaria Mohieddin (5 July 1918 – 15 May 2012) ( ar, زكريا محيي الدين, ) was an Egyptian military officer, politician, Prime Minister of Egypt and head of the first Intelligence body in Egypt, the Egyptian General Intelligenc ...
. The agency's importance rose when Nasser assigned its command to Salah Nasr, who held the post of director of the GID from 1957 to 1967 and thoroughly reorganized the agency. Under Nasr's supervision, the GID relocated to its own building and established separate divisions for ''Radio'', ''Computer'', ''Forgery'' and ''Black Operations''. To cover the agency's expenses, Nasr set up Al Nasr Company, ostensibly an import-export firm, as a front organization. He played a very important role helping
, Southern Yemen and many Arab and African states gain independence. Although the Egyptian foreign ministry was officially responsible for foreign affairs, GID initiated and aided many Arab and African movements for independence as a part of Gamal Abdel Nasser's anti-imperialist policies. Nasr established good relations with other intelligence agencies across the globe, which helped providing Egypt with wheat and establishing industries such as (Al Nasr Company for Motor Cars). One of his constructions is the Gezeera Tower in Cairo.
For several years the name of GID director was a secret only known to high officials and government newspapers chief editors. However, Major-General Omar Suleiman, who was the head of the GID from 1993 to January 2011, was the first one to break this taboo. His name was published before he himself became a known face in media after being envoyed by former Egyptian president Mubarak to Israel, USA and Gaza on several occasions.
On 31 January 2011, Major-General Murad Muwafi was declared the director of GID, after Omar Suleiman was appointed as a Vice President of Egypt and then resigned after former president Mubarak had to step down during the Egyptian revolution. He was replaced by Mohamed Raafat Shehata in August 2012 by Egypt's first freely elected president
Mohamed Morsi
Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012
In July 2013, as result of 2012–13 Egyptian protests,
Mohamed Raafat Shehata
Mohamed Raafat Shehata Abdel Wahed is an Egyptian major general, soldier, and intelligence officer.
At the beginning of his career in the Intelligence Service he worked for the Egyptian Strategic Research Center. He was said to have helped nego ...
was sacked by interim president
Adly Mansour
Adly Mahmoud Mansour ( ar, عدلى محمود منصور ; born 23 December 1945) is an Egyptian judge and politician who served as the president (or chief justice) of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt. He also served as interim ...
and was replaced by
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
In spite of the rule that says "success in the intelligence world is a buried secret while failure is a worldwide scandal," the GID did achieve many successes a few of which were released and dramatized in Egyptian TV and cinema.
* The GID states that it managed to plant an Egyptian agent among Jewish immigrants to Israel. That agent,
Refaat Al-Gammal
Refaat Ali Suleiman Al-Gammal ( ar, رفعت علي سليمان الجمال) (July 1, 1927 – January 30, 1982), better known as Raafat Al-Haggan ( ar, رأفت الهجّان) in Egypt and as Jack Bitton in Israel, was an Egyptian spy who spe ...
, managed to live 18 years in Israel without being discovered. In those years, he established a network of spies in various fields of the Israeli community, though this is contradicted by various Israeli sources, which claim that Refaat was a double agent and helped the IDF to win the
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
.The Spies: Israel's Counter-Espionage Wars, Yossi Melman, Eitan Haber
* In 1970 the GID managed to hunt an Israeli oil rig while being shipped from Canada to Sinai (occupied at that time). Clandestine GID agents and
frogmen
A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, comb ...
succeeded in tracing the oil rig to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and planted sets of explosives, had them detonated and crippled the rig. Ironically, this was done while the city was full, not only of Mossad agents protecting the oil rig, but also while it was full of CIA agents who were guarding the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
astronauts during their visit to Côte d'Ivoire. This operation was published in 1985 under the name "Al-Haffar Operation" it was supervised at that time by GID director Amin Howeidi (1921–2009).
* Perhaps a major success of the GID was handling the Egyptian " Strategic Deception Plan", which was carried out from January 1970 to October 1973 and aimed to conceal the Egyptian plans to launch a massive operation to free occupied Sinai on 6 October 1973 starting the
October war
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Eg ...
. The plan included planting false information and hidden implied data in Egyptian president Sadat's speeches and newspapers articles. For example, the GID prepared the military operations and evacuated complete sections of Cairo hospitals to be ready for receiving war casualties. This evacuation that took place a few days before the war started, was done after declaring false information that those hospitals were infected with
Tetanus
Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'', and is characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually ...
. The plan included a major operation whose details are still not published. This operation aimed at getting detailed information of American spy satellites covering the Middle East, by knowing the exact trajectories and timing of those satellites the GID prepared complicated logistic movement schedules for all Egyptian military units to avoid moving mass troops in timings where they could be spotted by satellites.
* Gumaa Al-Shawan who used to provide the Mossad with false information from 1967 to 1973, he also used to get the advanced transmission devices from the Mossad and give it to the GID.
* During the 1973 war with Israel, the GID spied on Mossad weeks prior to the surprise attack on the 6 October 1973. The information derived allowed the director and his associates to identify the weakest points on the Israeli front line. A suicide mission to divert the Israeli counter-attack was initiated to halt Israeli movements into mainland Egypt.
* An Egyptian spy, Amin K., who worked as a staffer in the German government's press office had passed information to the GIS between 2010 and 2019.
*Under the lead of Elhamy Aly Elsebaey, The Egyptian GID scored a major success in terms of strategic field between all armies around the world. In 2021, Elhamy Elsebaey leading the informatics of GID, defended against the largest cyberattack with his optimum system, which he supervised personally with the support of some leads in IT from all over the world. Not to mention his lead to the information cybersecurity system in the Egyptian army. Elhamy Aly Elsebaey is a very well-known name in GID, yet the public possesses limited information about him.
Director of the General Intelligence
The Director of the General Intelligence serves as the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, which is part of the Egyptian Intelligence Community. The Director reports to the President. The Director is a civilian or a general or flag officer of the armed forces appointed by the
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
.
, the current director is Major General
Abbas Kamel
Major General Abbas Kamel ( ar, عباس كامل; born 1957) is the current Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID). He was previously the Chief of Staff to the President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Education
Abbas Kamel g ...
, while Nasser Fahmi and Sisi's son,
Mahmoud el-Sisi
Mahmoud el-Sisi ( ar, محمود السيسي; born 1982) is the deputy head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate and the son of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Biography
Mahmoud is the oldest son of President Abdel Fattah E ...
, are deputy directors.
According to Mohamed Ali, the building contractor whose online videos criticising president
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...
sparked off the September 2019 Egyptian protests, Kamel's "main qualification ... was his close relationship with Sisi". Sisi's son Mahmoud el-Sisi, officially one of the deputy directors, was seen by Ali as the ''de facto'' real head of the GIS.
List of directors
*
Zakaria Mohieddin
Zakaria Mohieddin (5 July 1918 – 15 May 2012) ( ar, زكريا محيي الدين, ) was an Egyptian military officer, politician, Prime Minister of Egypt and head of the first Intelligence body in Egypt, the Egyptian General Intelligenc ...
Mohammed Hafez Ismail
Mohammed Hafez Ismail, sometimes spelt Muhammad Hafiz Ismail Arabic: محمد حافظ إسماعيل known as Hafez Ismail, (October 28, 1919 – January 1, 1997) was an Egyptian "statesman beyond rank", whose four decade career included milit ...
Ahmad Ismail Ali
Ahmad Ismail Ali ( ar, أحمد إسماعيل علي) (14 October 1917 – 26 December 1974) was the Commander-in-Chief of Egypt's army and minister of war during the October War of 1973, and is best known for his planning of the attack acros ...
(1973–1974)
* Ahmad Abdulsalam Tawfiq (1974–1975)
*
Kamal Hassan Ali
General Kamal Hassan Ali (; 18 September 1921 – 27 March 1993) was an Egyptian politician and military hero.
Biography
Aly was born in Cairo on 18 September 1921. He attended medical school, but did not finish it and joined military academy ...
Mohamed Raafat Shehata
Mohamed Raafat Shehata Abdel Wahed is an Egyptian major general, soldier, and intelligence officer.
At the beginning of his career in the Intelligence Service he worked for the Egyptian Strategic Research Center. He was said to have helped nego ...
(2012–2013)
*
Mohamed Fareed
Major general Mohamed Ahmed Fareed Al-Tuhami ( ar, محمد فريد التهامي; born 1947) is a former Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID). Fareed graduated from the Egyptian Military Academy in Cairo in 1967. ...
(2013–2014)
*
Khaled Fawzy
Major General Khaled Fawzy (In Arabic: خالد فوزي; b. 1957) is a former Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID). He was the head of the national security agency since 2013.
Biography
He was born in 1957, in 1978 ...
(2014–2018)
*
Abbas Kamel
Major General Abbas Kamel ( ar, عباس كامل; born 1957) is the current Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID). He was previously the Chief of Staff to the President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Education
Abbas Kamel g ...