When Egypt’s intel chief makes it clear

Mohamed Farid Tohamy, Egyptian Intelligence chief, has spoken recently to the media revealing different aspects of the mentality of his position, unlike his main predecessor Omar Soliman who rarely spoke to the media.

In an interview with the Washington Post this week, Tohamy said that relations between his authority and the US Central Intelligence Agency have not been affected by the ongoing political friction between the two countries since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi by the military in July following mass protests.

Tohamy told the American newspaper that despite the fact that the US suspended the delivery of some military weaponry to Egypt and the fact that Egypt-Russia talks are taking off, Egypt’s relations with the CIA remain unaffected. He insinuated that Egypt accords the CIA a certain respect that it does not accord to other intelligence services.

Tohamy, who worked with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the field of military intelligence, is known to be Sisi’s mentor. On July 5, a presidential decree issued by interim President Adly Mansour, removed Anwar Shehata from the position of intelligence chief, replacing him with Tohamy. The move was read by several observers as a direct intervention on the part of Sisi reflecting his desire for military personnel to head this sensitive state body. Shehata had been the first to occupy the post who did not come from the ranks of the military.

In this context, Tohamy praised the military’s efforts in the past few months and repeated the claim that during the one-year period of Muslim Brotherhood rule, an increased number of terrorist groups were able to enter the Sinai Peninsula as well as towns in Upper Egypt and the Delta.

“Those groups will try to attack the Suez Canal, tourist sites and foreign investments, but the military and interior ministry are in the process trying to identify and apprehend them, but this will take some time,” he said.

Egypt and the US have long had strong ties and cooperated on plans in terms of fighting terrorism in the region, but recently there has been concern that tensions could impede this cooperation.

For Joshua Stacher, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, intelligence calculations are different.

“The basis of the US-Egypt relationship has always been and continues to be military-to-miltary and GIS would count as miltary since intelligence services are in the same sectors and overlap with the military, “he told Mada Masr.

“Tohamy claims he talks with the CIA more than any other intelligence service in the world. I don't think intel services think in terms of politics (that they like or don't like allies). They see cooperative partnerships or not. If not, they move on to the next intel service. The fact remains that Tohamy and Sisi work close with the US and Israel. And that's good enough for Washington,” he explained.