"Hand in Hand, the Army and the People Are One"

The following page for Robert Fisk's article also provides links for related articles and for a slideshow of 22 quality pictures from the protests in Egypt.

"Robert Fisk: A people defies its dictator, and a nation's future is in the balance

A brutal regime is fighting, bloodily, for its life. Robert Fisk reports from the streets of Cairo"

Jan. 29, 2011

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/a-people-defies-its-dictator-and...

I got the above link from a copy of the piece at www.informationclearinghouse.info, where the home page has links for more related articles. And I got the following article's link from antiwar.com.

"Egypt's Mubarak picks likely successor as first vice-president"
by Patrick Martin, Jan. 29, 2011

www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/crisis-in-egypt/egypts-mubarak-picks-...

In a remarkable development, it has just been announced that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has appointed his chief of security, Omar Suleiman, as vice-president.

In his nearly 30 years in office, Mr. Mubarak has declined to name a vice-president, not wanting anyone to get ideas as to who would succeed him. Mr. Mubarak himself, a former air force chief, was vice-president to Anwar Sadat and succeeded him in office when Mr. Sadat was assassinated in September, 1981.

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More related to this story

* Who is Omar Suleiman, new Egyptian vice-president?
* In-depthCrisis in Egypt: Read The Globe's full coverage of the Middle East protests
* Thousands gather peacefully in Cairo, calling for Mubarak to leave
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The move Saturday likely means one of two things: Either the 82-year-old Mr. Mubarak will leave office in the next few days and Mr. Suleiman will become president, at least until elections in September, or Mr. Mubarak will remain in office until September but Mr. Suleiman will be the public face.

The security chief, in his seventies, is not a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, but has held extensive negotiations with the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, and with the secular Fatah party, in an effort to forge a reconciliation between the two groups.

The United States, in particular, as well as Israel, will be pleased. Mr. Suleiman enjoys excellent relations with the international community.

Mr. Mubarak also appointed Ahmad Shafiq as prime minister - who, like Mr. Mubarak himself, is a former commander of the air force.

Mr. Suleiman, chief of Egyptian intelligence, is the man most often pointed to succeed Mr. Mubarak.

(snip)

Re. Suleiman, the following article seems like it is a fair one for resource; not for analysis, but for bio.

"Egypt's Next Strongman"
by Issandr Amrani, Foreign Policy, Jan. 29, 2011, originally Aug. 17, 2009

www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27374.htm

January 29, 2011 "Foreign Policy" -- AUGUST 17, 2009 -- The prolonged fin de régime mood has unnerved many Egyptians, who worry that a Syrian-style inheritance-of-power scenario would usher in an era of instability. Many consider the prospect of such father-to-son nepotism humiliating for a country that has long claimed the mantle of Arab leadership. In this political environment -- in which democratic alternatives are locked out, but the population wants change -- Suleiman appears the only viable alternative to Gamal Mubarak. But who is this once-mysterious power player? And would he really mean a new era for Egypt?

Like the elder Mubarak, Suleiman rose to national prominence through the armed forces. The arc of his career followed the arc of Egypt's political history. He attended the Soviet Union's Frunze Military Academy in the 1960s -- as Mubarak did a few years earlier -- and became an infantryman. He then took part in the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, likely as a staff officer. When Cairo switched its strategic alliance from Moscow to Washington, he received training at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., in the 1980s. Suleiman continues to have privileged contacts with U.S. intelligence and military officials, with whom he has now been dealing for at least a quarter-century.

As the head of the Mukhabarat, Suleiman's political and military portfolio is vast. The GIS combines the intelligence-gathering elements of the CIA, the counterterrorism role of the FBI, the protection duties of the Secret Service, and the high-level diplomacy of the State Department. It also includes some functions unique to authoritarian regimes, such as monitoring Egypt's security apparatus for signs of internal coups. It is an elite institution, with a long reach inside government as well as abroad. It also crosses over the civilian and military worlds: Suleiman is one of a rare group of Egyptian officials who hold both a military rank (lieutenant general) and a civilian office (he is a cabinet minister, though he rarely attends meetings).

Traditionally, the identity of the head of the GIS is kept secret. But after 2001, when Suleiman began to take over key dossiers from the Foreign Ministry, his name and photograph began appearing in Al-Ahram, the staid government-owned daily. He even appeared on the top half of the front page, a space usually reserved for Mubarak. Since then, his high-profile assignments have garnered high-profile coverage. He has intervened in civil wars in Sudan, patched up the tiff between Saudi King Abdullah and Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi over the latter's alleged attempt to assassinate the former, and put pressure on Syria to stop meddling in Lebanon and to dissociate itself from Iran.

Most importantly, Suleiman has mediated in the Israel-Palestine conflict, Egypt's most pressing national security priority. Since the June 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza, Cairo has acted as an interlocutor and mediator between Hamas and Fatah. Although its attempts to reconcile the two groups have led to few clear victories -- in part, perhaps, because Egypt is clearly hostile to the Islamists -- its foreign policy has won the approval of the United States and the European Union.

"Suleiman selection reassures Western allies"
by Clayton Swisher, Jan. 29, 2011

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/29/suleiman-selection-rea...

Omar Suleiman is many things to Egypt: spy chief, eminence grise to President Hosni Mubarak, point man for Egypt's secret relations with Israel, and the bulwark between the Muslim Brotherhood and all the security services that stand in its way.

Now he is Egypt's unelected vice president.

Here I am in a photo next to General Suleiman circa spring 2005 when I was director of programs at the DC-based Middle East Institute. Standing with us are Egyptian ambassador to the US Nabil Fahmy and my boss at the time (and former US ambassador to Egypt) Ned Walker.

(snip)

For me, President Mubarak's appointment of Suleiman is a way of messaging assurances to a wary state of Israel and US congress. But it also speaks the unspoken to Egypt's Islamic parties: don't even think about it.

For anyone who wants to see where Suleiman came down in his envoy efforts between Fatah and Hamas on behalf of the Egyptian Government, have a look at the Palestine Papers (linked) between 2005-2007.

In reading the security minutes of the Palestinian Authority from this period, there is little doubt in my mind why Hamas viewed Suleiman a dishonest broker and an obstacle to real reconciliation. Of course, that is probably what Egypt intended by sending him.

"WikiLeaks Cables Detail Egyptian Repression, Torture
Obama Administration Fully Aware, Reluctant to Press Mubarak"

by Jason Ditz, January 28, 2011

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/01/28/wikileaks-cables-detail-egyptian-repr...

"Protests Swell as Obama, Mubarak Trade Lip-Service, Platitudes
Obama Lauds Mubarak's Crackdown as 'Moment of Promise'"

by Jason Ditz, January 28, 2011

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/01/28/protests-swell-as-obama-mubarak-trade...