The National Security Agency (, , also Homeland Security) is an Egyptian security service, the main domestic security agency of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and the successor of the

State Security Investigations Service The State Security Investigations Service ( ) was the highest national internal security authority in Egypt. Estimated to employ 100,000 personnel, the SSI was the main security and intelligence apparatus of Egypt's Ministry of Interior (Egypt), ...

( ). Two other security agencies are the

Military Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

and the General Intelligence Service which traditionally specializes in foreign intelligence gathering. Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance. The agency is under the jurisdiction of the

Interior Ministry An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

and is headquartered in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. It "remains the most visible" of Egypt's security agencies and according to one estimate has about "100,000 employees and at least as many informants". The old Security Service has been described as "detested" and "widely hated", and following

2011 Egyptian revolution The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution (;), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against ...

its headquarters was stormed by protesters who made off with records. The National Security Agency was "established" (according to at least one source it is simply the old

with a new name) after the 2013 revolution that ousted Morsi and installed General

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 been serving as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. After the 2011 Egyptian revolution and 201 ...

. Nearly a hundred of the sacked senior officers of

were rehired. Due to the wave of pro-military nationalism in Egypt and the agency's efforts to improve security during the Islamist unrest, the agency has gained much of the old Security Service's lost respect in

according to Sarah El Deeb of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

. After announcing the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

as a terrorist group due to the

December 2013 Mansoura bombing The December 2013 Mansoura bombing occurred on the morning of Tuesday, 24 December 2013 in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura in Egypt. The target was the city's security directorate building that was partially collapsed after the attack. At least ...

, the agency assigned hotlines for the public to report suspected Muslim Brotherhood members, and was reportedly "reclaiming a major role" and rebuilding its network of informants that had been weakened during the Arab Spring On the other hand, Declan Walsh of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' states that after the agency was established, torture chambers were reopened.

Opposition leaders, fearing arrest, fled the country. Human rights monitors started to count the numbers of the ‘‘disappeared’’ — critics who vanished into state custody without arrest or trial — until the monitors, too, began to disappear.

El Deeb quotes a campaigner for reform of the security agencies, former police officer Mohammed Mahfouz, who complains that "no specific law regulates the agency's workings, making it largely unaccountable"; and another activist,

Wael Abbas Wael Abbas Bilal (, ) (born 14 November 1974 in Egypt) is an internationally renowned Egyptian journalist, blogger, and human rights activist, who blogs at Misr Digital (Egyptian Awareness). He reported an incident of mob harassment of women, and ...

, who calls the NSA "a corrupt agency" that "has only changed names" and "is now more vicious than before."

References

{{authority control Law enforcement agencies of Egypt Organizations established in 2011 2011 establishments in Egypt Egyptian intelligence agencies