A close confidante of Hosni Mubarak, he saved the president’s life (and also his own for he was traveling with him) when he insisted that the latter ride in an armored car while on a visit to Addis Ababa in 1995, thereby foiling an assassination attempt…
As head of intelligence, Suleiman was closely involved in nurturing relations with Israel. His duties also included waging a ruthless war against Islamic extremist groups within Egypt, which he succeeded in eradicating.
Recent WikiLeaks cables reveal that the Vice President has only contempt for the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization he invited for talks last Sunday, which consists of, in his words, liars who only understand force.
He has cunningly manipulated the threat the Islamic movement supposedly represents to deflect Western pressure to democratize Egypt’s authoritarian regime.
Suleiman claimed that the MB (Muslim Brotherhood) had spawned different Islamic extremist organizations, most notably the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Gama’a Islamiya (Islamic Group), according to a cable written in February 2006 by the US ambassador, Francis Ricciardone.
In a previous cable, the ambassador wrote that the regime has a long history of threatening us with the Muslim Brotherhood bogeyman.
Suleiman was also an active and effective participant in the Bush/Cheney extraordinary renditions program.
The CIA seized alleged Al Qaeda operatives abroad and would then transfer them to Egypt so that Mr. Suleiman’s services could interrogate them. Torture was standard operating procedure. As another former ambassador recalled, he was not (a) squeamish man by any means…
Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, an Al Qaeda militant, was captured by the Pakistanis in November 2001 and handed over to the US at Bagram base, in Afghanistan.
He was then sent to Egypt, where Suleiman’s task was to convince him to confirm the Bush contention that Saddam Hussein was assisting Al Qaeda, and that the Iraqi dictator intended to provide biological and chemical weapons to the terrorist organization…
Libi confessed and the information extracted formed the basis of Colin Powell’s presentation to the United Nations in 2003, justifying the Bush/Cheney claim that Iraq presented a dire and imminent threat to the security of the United States…
The information provided by Libi turned out to be nonsense, but was the direct by- product of Suleiman’s interrogation techniques.
They were killing me, Liby declared later. I had to tell them something…
Not surprisingly, the Israelis trust Mr. Suleiman. There is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Suleiman succeeding Mubarak, a 2008 US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks indicated.
Suleiman is an imposing man. He’s pretty wily, very polished and extremely intelligent. People are scared of him, for obvious reasons, a former British ambassador, David Blatherwick, told The Guardian.
He is not known to be a progressive thinker. Nobody would consider him to be a democrat, Steve Cook, of the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Guardian.
This is the man Washington believes is best suited to manage the transition process designed to lead to the establishment of a functioning democratic regime…
We hear that they are committed to this and when we press on concrete steps and timelines, we are given assurance that that will happen, Hillary Clinton told NPR.
A clear road map has been put in place with a set timetable to realize the peaceful and organized transfer of power, the Vice President declared Tuesday morning.
The US fully supports this process therefore, and now believes it is counterproductive to demand Mubarak’s resignation for that would lead to snap presidential elections, which could prove detrimental to the establishment of a genuinely democratic regime in the country. That risk could be avoided however, if a Mubarak resignation was followed by the suspension of the constitution, such that an interim government would have sufficient time to prepare fair and free elections. This is one of the opposition ‘s demands…
Free and fair elections demand preparation we are told, for the constitution must be amended. It is important to kind of look over the horizon. You don’t want to get to September and have a failed election and then people feel: What did we do, what was the point of all this, Hillary Clinton declared on Sunday.
The process must not be rushed!
Washington and Mr. Suleiman jointly believe that what must be averted at all cost is instability. Mubarak’s departure would have adverse consequences on the transition process. Other people who have their own agenda will make instability in our country, the Vice President suggested…
Yet, the man now custodian of the democratization process does not believe the country is ready for democracy and will not be until the people here have the culture of democracy, he insisted.
In addition, he accused the demonstrators of being manipulated by foreigners and Islamic groups. It’s not their idea, he said referring to the demands of the protesters. It comes from abroad…
The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs,condemned the Vice President’s remarks.
The notion that Egypt isn’t ready for democracy I think runs quite counter to what we see happening in Tahrir Square and on the streets in cities throughout the country. It’s clear that statements like that are not going to be met with any agreement by the people of Egypt because they don’t address the very legitimate grievances that we’ve seen expressed as a result of these protests, he said.
Should we be entrusting Egypt’s future to this man?
Yes, since our paramount objective here is not allowing the emergence of a democratic regime per se, but preserving the stability of the country, even if that entails it should remain an authoritarian one.
This sort of « orderly transition » in post-Mubarak Egypt is more likely to usher in a return to the repressive status quo than an era of widening popular participation, Joshua Stracher, an academic, wrote in Foreign Affairs.
It plays right into the hands of the regime. The longer this goes, the better it is for Mubarak, Suleiman and the rest of the military-dominated leadership, said Steve Cook.
I fear the administration is heading toward acceptance of the perpetuation of the Egyptian dictatorship in all but name, Robert Kagan, of the Brooking Institution, told Politico.
What do Egyptians make of the US position?
Don’t gamble on a leader-put your money on the people, a doctor, Lotfy Abdul-Mageed, told the Washington Post.
Others however, were not surprised, yet neither need nor want Western support.
If the United States supports the revolution, it is good for the United States. If they do not, it is an Egyptian issue, Islam Lofty, a lawyer, told the NYT.
In the end, does it matter what Washington says or does?
The administration is being hammered but it has no leverage to influence events, Steve Cook told The Guardian.
Hillary Clinton did concede as much.
Now the Egyptians are the ones who are having to grapple with the reality of what they must do, she said.
Indeed, and all the opposition groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood, have demanded the immediate resignation of President Mubarak.
Today, hundreds of thousands, according to Aljazeera, protested in Cairo demanding, once again, Mubarak’s immediate departure.
If, ultimately, the warnings and proclamations of Western leaders matter little on the ground, why are they not wholeheartedly supporting the brave Egyptian people who are demanding not only that Mubarak step down, but also those rights we already possess and take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom to choose one’s leaders and to earn a decent living…
The Obama administration obviously wants to support democracy. But the US has been backing the military regime in Egypt for 30 years, Andrew McGregor, of the Jamestown Foundation, told the NYT.
It is high time that we ceased supporting a sclerotic, authoritarian regime that is morally bankrupt and that has been preying on the population for much too long.
It is the regime itself that has become a source of instability, precisely that which we wish to avert at all cost…
We should be insisting on its downfall, therefore, so Egypt can transform itself, with our help if it wants it, into a functioning and vibrant democracy.
Supporting the people of Egypt instead of its current rulers is the only sensible thing to do. It is also the only ethical thing to do.
Who would we be if we did not say we stand on the side of the people, asked Chancellor Angela Merkel?
Saying that we are on their side is grossly insufficient.
The time has come for Western democracies to withdraw all support for the Mubarak regime, and help the Egyptians create their own future, on their terms, not ours…
(the photograph above can be found here)
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