Reforming Egyptian Intelligence: Precedents and Prospects

Abstract

In 2011 intelligence reform became a timely and pertinent topic in Egypt with the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak by mass demonstrations. Yet two outstanding questions persist: can Egyptian intelligence be reformed? What would intelligence reform entail in the Egyptian context? An examination of historical Egyptian intelligence reforms suggests that ‘reform’ in the Egyptian context usually means greater efficiency and centralization at the expense of public oversight and accountability. Prospects for fundamental intelligence reform are further hampered by Egypt's authoritarian traditions, its relatively weak legislature and judiciary, lack of an empowered civil society, censorship and an apparent official addiction to secrecy.

Notes

¹L. Stack, ‘Among Egypt's Missing, Tales of Torture and Prison’, New York Times, 17 February 2001, <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/world/middleeast/18missing.html?ref=world> (accessed 24 February 2011).

²‘Egypt Dissolves Notorious Internal Security Agency’, BBC News, 15 March 2011, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12751234> (accessed 7 March 2011).

³G. Carlstrom, ‘A First Step Towards Prosecutions?’ Al-Jazeera, 6 March 2011, <http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/anger-in-egypt/2011/03/2011368410372200.html> (accessed 5 November 2011).

⁴G.W. Harvey, ‘Note on the Special Political Office of the Cairo City Police’, 25 October 1915, British National Archives (hereafter BNA), FO 141/474/1; Correspondence from Thomas Russell, Commandant, Cairo City Police, to Director General, European Department, Ministry of the Interior, 10 June 1925, BNA, FO 141/474/1.

⁵Harvey, ‘Note on the Special Political Office’; Correspondence from Thomas Russell to the Director General, European Department, Ministry of the Interior.

⁶Harvey, ‘Note on the Special Political Office’; Jamal Salim, Al-B[ubar]l[ibar]s Al-Siy[abar]s[ibar] Ya[hdot]kum Mi[sdot]r, 1910–1952 (Cairo: al-Q[abar]hirah lil-Thaq[abar]fah al-Arab[ibar]yah 1975) p.27.

⁷Barry Carman and John McPherson (eds.), Bimbashi McPherson: A Life in Egypt (London: BBC 1983) pp.207–8.

⁸Gilbert Clayton, An Arabian Diary, ed. Robert Collins (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press 1969) pp.71–3; Correspondence from Allenby to Curzon, 13 May 1922, BNA, FO 141/474/1; Correspondence from Clayton to Thomas Russell & Two Other Addressees, 20 November 1919, BNA, FO 141/474/1; Correspondence from Ryder to Selby, 4 April 1921, BNA, FO 141/793/7; Correspondence from Ryder to the British Residency in Cairo, 8 June 1922, BNA, FO 141/793/7.

⁹Salim, Al-B[ubar]l[ibar]s, pp.161–2; Abd al-Wahhab Bakr Muhammad, Al-B[ubar]l[ibar]s al-Mi[sdot]r[ibar], 1922–1952 (Cairo: Maktabat Madb[ubar]l[ibar] 1988) p.292.

¹⁰Telegram from Creswell (Alexandria) to FO, No. 1094, 25 July 1952, BNA, FO 371/102703; Jean Lacouture, Nasser, trans. Daniel Hofstadter (New York: Knopf 1973) p.153; Telegram from Caffery (Cairo) to Department of State (hereafter DOS), 2 August 1952, No. 248, National Archives and Records Administration (hereafter NARA), 874.501/8-252; Yaacov Caroz, The Arab Secret Services (London: Corgi 1978) p.44; Keith Wheelock, Nasser's New Egypt (New York: Praeger 1960) p.2; Telegram from Caffery (Cairo) to DOS, ‘Chief of the General Investigations Department, Ministry of the Interior, Explains Functions of His Department at Press Conference’, 4 June 1954, No. 2829, NARA, 774.13/6-454; ‘Abd al-Fatt[abar][hdot] Ab[ubar] al-Fa[ddot]l, Kuntu n[abar]'iban li-ra'[ibar]s al-mukh[abar]bar[abar]t (Cairo: D[abar]r al-[Hdot]urr[ibar]yah 1986) p.108.

¹¹Telegram from Jones (Port Said) to DOS, ‘Biographic Directory, Port Said Consular District’, 7 January 1955, No. 35, NARA, 774.521/1-755; Airgram from Clark (Alexandria) to DOS, ‘Arrests in Alexandria of Greeks and Other Foreigners; a British subject and a Cypriot also involved’, 6 September 1961, No. 46, NARA, 786B.00/9-661.

¹²Joel Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement (New York: Oxford University Press 1992) p.168; Keith Kyle, Suez (New York: St. Martin's 1992) p.52; Miles Copeland, Game Player (London: Aurum 1989) p.165; Shlomo Shpiro, ‘Intelligence Services and Political Transformation in the Middle East’, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 17/4 (2004–5) p.577; Ab[ubar] al-Fa[ddot]l, Kuntu n[abar]'iban, pp.213–14; Telegram from Caffery (Cairo) to DOS, ‘Transmitting Memorandum of Conversation Concerning Moslem Brotherhood’, 6 December 1954, No. 1102, NARA, 774.00/12-654.

¹³Gamal Abdul Nasser, Egypt's Liberation: The Philosophy of the Revolution (Washington, DC: Public Affairs 1956).

¹⁴Salah Nasr and ‘Abd Allah Imam, Al-Thawrah, Al-Naksah, Al-Mukhabarat (Cairo: Dar al-Khayyal 1999) p.57; Ab[ubar] al-Fal, Kuntu n[abar]'iban, p.216.

¹⁵Anthony Nutting, Nasser (New York: Dutton 1972) p.304; Khaled Muhi al-Din, Memories of a Revolution (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press 1995) p.45; Kyle, Suez, p.106.

¹⁶Wolfgang Lotz, The Champagne Spy (New York: St. Martin's 1972) pp.24–5.

¹⁷Salah Nasr, Muddakirat Al-Juz' al-Thani (Cairo: Dar al-Khayyal 1999) p.107; Miles Copeland, Beyond Cloak and Dagger (New York: Pinnacle 1975) pp.227–8; Ernst Volkman, Spies: The Secret Agents Who Changed the Course of History (New York: John Wiley 1994) p.146.

¹⁸For examples of pre-1952 coercive practices, see A.W. Sansom, I Spied Spies (London: Harrap 1965) p.224 and Airgram from Ernst (Port Said) to DOS, A-111, 22 July 1948, NARA, 883.00/7-2248.

¹⁹Gilles Perrault, A Man Apart: The Life of Henri Curiel, trans. Bob Cumming (London: Zed 1994) p.201.

²⁰Nasr, Muddakirat al-Juz' al-Thani, pp.146, 171–3.

²¹Memorandum from William J. Handley (State/NEA) to Acting SecState, ‘Arrests of UAR Army Officers’, 19 April 1966, NARA, Box 2766, POL 29 UAR; Airgram from Battle (Cairo) to DOS, ‘Another Plot Against Nasser’, 10 May 1966, No. A-940, NARA, Box 2765, POL 15-1 UAR.

²²For an Arabic transcript of this speech see <www.nasser.org/speeches/html.aspx?SID=1224&lang=ar> (accessed 12 March 2011).

²³Mohamed Jawad, Muddakirat Qada al-‘Askariya al-Misriya 67-72: Fi ’Aqab Al-Naksa (Cairo: Dar al-Khayyal 2001) pp.273–4; Markus Wolf and A. McElvoy, Man Without a Face (New York: Times 1997) pp.257–8; Memorandum of Conversation, DOS, ‘Herman Nickel's Interest in Bergus-Riad Meeting’, 20 May 1971, NARA, Box 2642, POL UAR-US; Saad El-Shazly, The Crossing of the Suez (San Francisco, CA: American Mideast Research 1980) p.16; Lon Nordeen and David Nicolle, Phoenix Over the Nile (Washington, DC: Smithsonian 1996) p.262; J. Hughes-Wilson, Military Intelligence Blunders and Cover-Ups (New York: Carroll & Graf 2004) pp.257–8; R. Hotz, ‘Battlefield Equation Changes Seen’, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 14 July 1975, pp.14–15.

²⁴Robert Stephens, Nasser (New York: Simon & Shuster 1971) pp.533–4; Geneive Abdo, No God But God (New York: Oxford University Press 2000) p.116; Telegram from Bergus (Cairo) to SecState, 3 December 1968, No. 4037, NARA, Box 2554, POL 12 UAR; Telegram from Bergus (Cairo) to SecState, 4 December 1968, No. 4052, NARA, Box 2554, POL 12 UAR.

²⁵Caroz, Arab Secret Services, p.211; Telegram from Bergus (Cairo) to DOS, ‘Egypt: End of the Interregnum’, 17 May 1971, No. 1190, NARA, Box 2642, POL 23-9 UAR ; Raymond Baker, Egypt's Uncertain Revolution Under Nasser and Sadat (Cambridge: Harvard 1978) pp.151–2; Airgram from Bergus (Cairo) to DOS, ‘Abolition of University Police’, 30 August 1971, No. A-69, NARA, Box 2641, EDU 9-3 UAR.

²⁶For example, Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz's novel Karnak Cafe was a condemnation of the Nasser state; later it was made into a movie by the same name. Novelist Gamal Ghitani's Zayni Barakat is a blistering condemnation of the Nasser police state through historical allegory.

²⁷Amnesty International, Egypt: Ten Years of Torture (New York: Amnesty International 1991) p.1; Human Rights Watch, ‘Work on Him Until He Confesses’, 30 January 2011, <http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/01/30/work-him-until-he-confesses> (accessed 28 February 2011).

²⁸Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Autumn of Fury (London: Corgi 1986) p.185.

²⁹Baker, Egypt's Uncertain Revolution, p.166; David Hirst and Irene Beeson, Sadat (London: Faber 1981) p.249.

³⁰Robert Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt: Fragmentation of the Political Order (Boulder, CO: Westview 1989) pp.149–50.

³¹‘Weekly Raps State Security Investigation Service’, Akhbar Al-Yawm, 15 March 1986, pp.1, 8, Foreign Broadcast Information Service (hereafter FBIS), V/57 (25 March 1986).

³²Caryle Murphy, A Passion for Islam (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002) pp.92–3.

³³Human Rights Watch, ‘Work on Him Until He Confesses’, p.72.

³⁴Human Rights Watch, Behind Closed Doors: Torture and Detention in Egypt (New York: Human Rights Watch 1992) pp.69–113.

³⁵U.S. Department of State, 2009 Human Rights Report: Egypt, <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/nea/136067.htm> (accessed 8 March 2011).

³⁶Ibid.

³⁷Ibid.

³⁸Stephen Grey, Ghost Plane (New York: St Martin's 2006) p.38; J. Mayer, ‘Outsourcing Torture’, The New Yorker, 14 February 2005, <http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/050214fa_fact6> (accessed 2 May 2006).

³⁹Mayer, ‘Outsourcing Torture’; Human Rights Watch, Black Hole: The Fate of Islamists Rendered to Egypt 17/5 (May 2005) p.17.

⁴⁰In 1971 Anwar al-Sadat faced down a powerful conspiracy with deep roots in the intelligence apparatus.

⁴¹N. MacFarquhar and L. Stack, ‘Ex-Security Chief Hauled to Court as Egyptians Storm His Compound’, New York Times, 5 March 2011, <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/world/middleeast/06egypt.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast> (accessed 8 March 2011).

⁴²For an English language translation of the Egyptian constitution see <http://www.cabinet.gov.eg/AboutEgypt/ConstitutionalDeclaration_e.pdf> (accessed 20 June 2012).

⁴³Human Rights Watch, ‘Work on Him Until He Confesses’, p.8.

⁴⁴Steven Cook, Ruling but Not Governing (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins 2007) pp.69–75.

⁴⁵Some authors point out a countervailing tradition in Egyptian history where an independent judiciary has been able to face down government challenges to its authority: see Bruce K. Rutherford, Egypt after Mubarak (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 2008).

⁴⁶Quoted in Human Rights Watch, ‘Work on Him Until He Confesses’, p.37.

⁴⁷‘Intelligence Service Law Modifications Approved’, MENA, Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS), JPRS-NEA-89-002, 5 January 1989.