Omar Suleiman (politician)

Omar Mahmoud Suleiman (عمر محمود سليمان, ; 2 July 1936 – 19 July 2012) was an Egyptian army general, politician, diplomat, and intelligence officer.

In the mid-1980s, Suleiman earned additional degrees, including a bachelor's degree from Ain Shams University and a master's degree from Cairo University, both in political science.

A fluent English speaker, Suleiman was transferred to military intelligence, where he worked on Egypt-United States relations.

Suleiman became deputy head of military intelligence in 1986, and its director in 1988.

In 1993, he became the chief of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service (EGIS).

In 1995, he insisted that President Mubarak ride in an armored car during a visit to Ethiopia.

A would-be assassin fired on the vehicle, but Mubarak escaped without injury due to the added precautions.

His name only became known in later years, breaking the tradition of keeping the name of the Egyptian head of Intelligence a secret known only to senior government officials.

Journalist Stephen Grey in his work, Ghost Plane, states that after taking over as intelligence director, Suleiman oversaw an agreement with the US in 1995 that allowed for suspected militants to be secretly transferred to Egypt for questioning.

Although Suleiman's Egyptian Intelligence was required to provide "assurances" that prisoners handed over through this program would not be subjected to torture, at least one CIA officer testified that such assurances from them were unofficially regarded as being as worthless as "a bucket of warm spit".

Suleiman was accused of complicity in the torture of Al-Qaeda suspects in Egypt, particularly the case of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who was captured and handed over to Suleiman.

It was released in the media around 2000.

In his role as Director of EGIS, the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph called him "one of the world's most powerful spy chiefs".

The information al-Libi gave under torture was cited by US officials in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq as evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

Al-Libi later retracted his confession.

Suleiman was seen as a very close and trusted ally of former President Hosni Mubarak, sharing many of his views on key issues such as Iran, Egypt–Israel relations and the United States, and treatment of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Although he was a military man who by law is not a member of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, he preferred suits to military uniforms (head of the EGIS is a civilian and accordingly does not wear a uniform) and was seen as a major link between Egyptian political and military elites.

Suleiman promised Israel in 2005 that he would prevent Hamas from gaining control over Gaza in the 2006 Palestinian elections, according to a US diplomatic cable.

Amos Gilad, head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, and Suleiman discussed their common fear of Hamas winning the Palestinian elections set for January 2006.

Suleiman asserted to Gilad that there "will be no elections in January. We will take care of it."

Suleiman did not elaborate as to how Egypt would stop the Palestinian elections from taking place.

Suleiman was separately quoted as saying Gaza could "go hungry, but not starve."

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv wrote that Suleiman feared Hamas rule in Gaza would bolster the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Gilad requested that the U.S. closely hold this information and said he did not know how the Egyptians could prevent the elections from taking place but that the "only people the Palestinians can trust now are the Egyptians."

Suleiman was directly implicated in the controversial CIA "rendition" program.

According to diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks, Suleiman pledged in 2007 to Yuval Diskin of the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) to "cleanse" Sinai of Palestinian arms smugglers.

In 2009, Foreign Policy magazine ranked him as the Middle East's most powerful intelligence chief, ahead of Mossad chief at the time Meir Dagan.

A leading figure in Egypt's intelligence system beginning in 1986, Suleiman was appointed to the long-vacant vice presidency by President Hosni Mubarak on 29 January 2011.

On 11 February 2011, Suleiman announced Mubarak's resignation and ceased being vice president; governing power was transferred to the Armed Forces Supreme Council, of which Suleiman was not a member.

A new head of intelligence services was appointed by the ruling Supreme Council.

Suleiman withdrew from the political scene and did not appear in public after announcing Mubarak's resignation.

Millions of Egyptian citizens involved in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 opposed Suleiman or Mubarak remaining in power without elections taking place.

Human rights groups tied Suleiman's career to a regime marked by widespread human rights abuses, and asserted that many Egyptian revolutionaries "see Suleiman as Mubarak II. However many Egyptians also saw Suleiman as a pillar of the old order who might have served as a buffer between military rule on the one hand and dominance by Islamist groups on the other."

Tortured victims and human rights groups charged that Suleiman oversaw the systematic use of torture on detainees and that in at least one instance he was accused of personally torturing a detainee.

In response to the 2011 protests, Suleiman blamed foreign influence and appealed to protestors to go home.

Suleiman had died at on 19 July 2012 at the Cleveland Clinic at the age of 76 of complications related to amyloidosis.

Suleiman was born in Qena in Upper Egypt.

he lived in cairo during his childhood, he moved to Cairo to enroll in Egypt's prestigious Military Academy.

He received additional military training in the Soviet Union at Moscow's Frunze Military Academy.

He participated in both the Six-Day and October wars, he also survived in Sinai under the International Police of the UN.