Egypt’s New Vice President a Key Ally in U.S. Outsourcing of Torture

New Egyptian vice president Omar Suleiman, appointed days ago by embattled President/dictator Hosni Mubarak as a means to quell the protests that have riveted the world and rocked the country, is well known to the United States and to those documenting American abuses in the ongoing “war on terror.”

Before being tapped as the first vice president during Mubarak’s three-decades-long reign, Suleiman was the head of Egypt’s powerful “general intelligence service.” As one of the U.S. government’s top allies in the Middle East, Egypt and Suleiman’s intel forces have been used repeatedly by both the Bush and Obama administrations to track “terror” groups and key individuals — and to provide more physical assistance to U.S. intelligence.

Before the current crisis in Egypt, Suleiman was best known as a key player in the U.S. program of “rendition”; sending terrorism suspects to allied countries with more lenient policies towards human rights than the United States. Egypt’s intelligence service under Suleiman became a reliable destination for rendered suspects handed to them by the CIA.

Suleiman’s willingness to take on these suspects and to interrogate them in ways that we now know was torture endeared him to his American allies, who called him “bright” and “not squeamish” about what American intelligence asked him to do.

In response to the mass protests of recent days, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has appointed his first Vice President in his over 30 years rule, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. When Suleiman was first announced, Aljazeera commentators were describing him as a “distinguished” and “respected ” man. It turns out, however, that he is distinguished for, among other things, his central role in Egyptian torture and in the US rendition to torture program. Further, he is “respected” by US officials for his cooperation with their torture plans, among other initiatives.

Katherine Hawkins, an expert on the US’s rendition to torture program, in an email, has sent some critical texts where Suleiman pops up. Thus, Jane Mayer, in The Dark Side, pointed to Suleiman’s role in the rendition program:

Each rendition was authorized at the very top levels of both governments….The long-serving chief of the Egyptian central intelligence agency, Omar Suleiman, negotiated directly with top Agency officials. [Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt] Walker described the Egyptian counterpart, Suleiman, as “very bright, very realistic,” adding that he was cognizant that there was a downside to “some of the negative things that the Egyptians engaged in, of torture and so on. But he was not squeamish, by the way” (pp. 113).

With this background of close cooperation and strong support from the United States, there was speculation that Mubarak’s decision to essentially name the intelligence chief as his successor could win the support of the Obama administration and lead it to join the crackdown on the mass protests wracking Egypt.

Initially, however, the naming of Suleiman as vice president has not led to an immediate shit in the Obama administration’s public comments on the unrest. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton said that the changes initiated by Mubarak that included naming Suleiman as was a “bare beginning” and that “of course” these steps were not enough to satisfy the U.S.

With the Egyptian crisis still fluid and the American government keen to protect its interests in a region where it depended on Mubarak’s strong-armed “stability” it remains unclear whether the Obama administration would consider accepting Omar Suleiman as even a temporary  ”fix” to the protests.

With the scope and ferocity of the public uprising growing stronger every day, it’s unlikely that any attempts by the U.S. to exert influence on the situation could lead to an outcome deemed “favorable” by Washington, such as working with a former torture ally.

“It’s pretty clear he’s not the one the people are calling for,” one U.S. diplomat said about Suleiman.  But will the specter of Suleiman as Egypt’s new authoritarian figure be “intriguing” enough to the U.S. to win the administration’s support as Mubarak teeters on the brink?

Egypt’s first vice president in three decades, and a possible successor to President Hosni Mubarak, has for years been a key interlocutor for U.S. diplomats, military officials and congressional delegations, diplomatic cables suggest. His elevation Saturday raises intriguing possibilities.

Diplomats have long considered Omar Suleiman, the head of Egyptian intelligence services, a possible vice president—he had been promised the job years ago—and indeed the likeliest successor to the president if Mr. Mubarak failed in his bid to create a family dynasty. He is considered both a loyalist to Mr. Mubarak and a serious rival to the president’s son, Gamal Mubarak.

His candidacy to lead the country should Mr. Mubarak fall also suggests how a transition of power might be accomplished. Mr. Suleiman enjoys the support of army, intelligence and security leaders, in addition to that of the U.S.

Yet in his mid-70s he is considered too old to contemplate a multi-year presidency himself. And despite Washington’s respect for Mr. Suleiman, U.S. officials are increasingly coming to believe that this military man isn’t the long-term fix Cairo needs. They say his closeness to Mr. Mubarak is probably too high a hurdle for him to clear, and that he is, at best, a transitional figure.

“It’s pretty clear he’s not the one the people are calling for,” a U.S. official working on the Mideast said.

According to dozens of diplomatic cables sent over the past five years and released by the WikiLeaks website, most high-level U.S. delegations in recent years to Cairo have included a visit with Mr. Suleiman. That includes visits by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Gen. David Petraeus and FBI Director Robert Mueller, numerous congressional delegations and regular contacts with the ambassador and political officers, according to the cables.

In the view of U.S. diplomats in Cairo, Mr. Suleiman is a key figure in the Mubarak regime, responsible primarily for the Arab-Israeli peace talks; management of the Gaza strip tinderbox, Hamas and associated arms-smuggling in Sinai; relations with regional troublemakers, especially Iran and Syria; and broad counterterrorism cooperation with the U.S.