CIA Rendition Program: U.S.-Egypt relationship

The ‘Italian Job’ and other highlights from U.S.’s rendition program with Egypt

4 February 2011 - Among the many aspects of the U.S.-Egypt relationship, few have been as controversial as the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, where the agency frequently handed over suspected terrorists to foreign governments with histories of torture and illegal detention.

According to Human Rights Watch, Egypt welcomed more CIA detainees than any other country from the 1990's through 2005. And while renditions happen only with the assurance that a foreign partner will not torture the prisoner, as one CIA officer once told Congress, the assurances "weren’t worth a bucket of warm spit."

In the case of Egypt, the assurances were given by Omar Suleiman, former head of the country’s intelligence service, and the man President Hosni Mubarak picked as his vice president a few days ago. {continued}

Will Mubarak be Replaced by Egypt’s “Mr. Torture”?

February 05, 2011 - In one of his first moves during the ongoing political crisis, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt appointed Omar Suleiman as his vice president, hoping the change, along with the dismissal of the rest of his cabinet, would placate the hundreds of thousands of protestors threatening to topple his regime. Now that Mubarak has said he will step down later this year, many experts believe Suleiman could become Egypt’s next president—a change that would not really amount to change at all.

“Mubarak and Suleiman are the same person,” Emile Nakhleh, a former top Middle East analyst for the CIA, told ABC News. “They are not two different people in terms of ideology and reform.”

Described as friendly, suave and sophisticated, Suleiman has another, darker side to his reputation. {continued}