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, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objective ...

responsible for providing

national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...

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 b ...

, 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, collecti ...

( 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 Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. The General Intelligence Directorate was formally established by then Prime Minister, and future President,

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

, 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 Intelligence D ...

. The agency's importance rose when Nasser assigned its command to

Salah Nasr Salah Nasr (, ) (8 October 1920 – 5 March 1982) served as head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate from 1957 to 1967. He retired citing health reasons following Egypt's defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. He was succeeded by Amin Ho ...

, 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 A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...

. He played a very important role helping

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

Southern Yemen South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...

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 Mourad Mouwafi or Muwafi ( ar, مراد موافي; born 2 February 1950) is an Egyptian politician and major-general. Mouwafi was also the governor of Northern Sinai during a 2011 uprising in the region. He was appointed the Director of the E ...

was declared the director of GID, after Omar Suleiman was appointed as a

Vice President of Egypt The vice-president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is a senior official within the Egyptian government. History of the office Before 1971 In 1962, President Gamal Abdel Nasser instituted collective leadership in Egypt, separating the post of Pr ...

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 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

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 (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Mohamed Ahmed Fareed al-Tohami.

Achievements

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 spen ...

, 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 world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

.The Spies: Israel's Counter-Espionage Wars,

Yossi Melman Yossi Melman (Hebrew: יוסי מלמן, born December 27, 1950) is an Israeli writer and journalist. He was an intelligence and strategic affairs correspondent for the ''Haaretz'' newspaper, and in 2013 he joined ''The Jerusalem Post'' and its ...

Eitan Haber Eitan Haber ( he, איתן הבר; 12 March 1940 – 7 October 2020) was an Israeli journalist and publicist, known for his writing on military and security issues, and for his longtime association with the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabi ...

* 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 Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

agents protecting the oil rig, but also while it was full of

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

agents who were guarding the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

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 Amin Howeidi (22 September 1921–31 October 2009) was an Egyptian military leader, author and defense minister under Nasser's rule. Early life and education Howeidi was born in Munufiya on 22 September 1921. He attended the Egyptian Military A ...

(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 world, Arab state ...

. 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 Gumaa Al-Shawan (né Ahmed Al-Hawan; 1 July 1937 – 1 November 2011) was an Egyptian spy who worked for the Israeli Mossad from 1967 until 1973. He provided the Israelis with false military information with the help of the Egyptian General Intel ...

who used to provide the

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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

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 ful ...

. , 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

(1954–1956) *

Ali Sabri Ali Sabri ( ar, على صبرى, ) (30 August 1920 – 3 August 1991) was an Egyptian politician of Turkish origin. Family background His parents, Dewlet Shamsi (mother) and Abbas-Baligh Sabri (father) were of Turkish- Circassian descent and ...

(1956–1957) *

(1957–1967) *

(1967–1970) *

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 ...

(1970) * Ahmad Kamel (1970) * Karim Abdelrahman El-Leithy (1970–1973) *

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 across ...

(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 ...

(1975–1978) * Mohamed Saeed El Mahy (1978–1981) * Mohamed Fuaad Nassar (1981–1983) * Mohamed Refat Gibreel (1983–1986) * Amin Nummur (1986–1989) * Omar Negm (1989–1991) * Nour Eddien Afifi (1991–1993) * Omar Suleiman (1993–2011) *

(2011–2012) *

(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. He ...

(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) *

(2018–present)

History

Achievements

Director of the General Intelligence

List of directors

See also

References

Further reading