History
The decision to set up an Egyptian intelligence service was taken by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954, and placed under the command of Zakaria Mohieddin (ar:زكريا محيي الدين).
However, the agency's importance rose when Nasser assigned its command to Salah Nasr (ar:صلاح نصر), who held the post of director of the GIS from 1957 to 1967.
Under Nasr's supervision, the GIS 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.
For several years the name of GIS director was a secret only known to high officials and government Newspapers chief editors. However, Major-General Omar Suleiman ar:عمر سليمان who was the Chief of the GIS from 1993 to January 2011, was the first one the break this taboo. His name was published before he himself became a known face in media after being envoyed by the former Egyptian president Mubarak to Israel, USA and Ghaza in many occasions.
On January 31st 2011, Major-General Murad Muwafi was declared the current director of GIS, after Omar Suleiman was appointed as a Vice President of the Arab Republic of Egypt then resigned after the former president Mubarak had to step down during the Egyptian revolution.
Read more about this topic: Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate
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