Back in November of 2014 I posted a couple of blogs on Egypt, starting with "Egypt-the Land of Antiquity," followed by "The Land of Antiquity and Terrorism." In those two blogs I talked of a different mind set, mentality, that exists in that part of the world, and how it clashes with our perspective and way of thinking. I recounted numerous terrorist activities that took place in Egypt during my tour of duty and I also attempted to explain or illustrate the difference in mentality and perspective of the Egyptians. All in all, I wanted to point out that it was a very different world, despite their long association with the West and superficial similarities with our society!
I recall numerous conversations that I had with members from the Russian Embassy as well as other former Soviet Union Republics such as Ukraine, and Islamic countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc., and how they all expressed their difficulty in dealing with and understanding Egyptian mentality. They all felt that the Egyptian officials that they had to deal with were very mistrustful of foreigners, even if they were Muslims like themselves, and very secretive. This I heard not only from Russians but Kazakhs and Uzbeks, who are Muslim! They all joked about the fact that the Egyptian State Security Investigation Service (SSIS) with whom all foreign embassies had to interact, was more "KGB" than the real KGB itself! Of course by that time (1990s) KGB, like the old Soviet Union, was no more. Instead it was now called the Federal Security Service and it no longer had the sweeping, unchecked powers that it used to enjoy before the fall of the Soviet Union! At any rate, the Egyptian SSIS, which received intensive training from the KGB back in the 1950s when Egypt allied itself with the Soviet Union, became even more notorious than its teacher! Like the Cubans and East Germans, the Egyptians not only eagerly took on all that they were taught, but added a few twists of their own!
It was a common practice of the SSIS to plant agents in foreign embassies. Most of the time they did this by simply recruiting already working embassy staff members through blackmail and threats of arrest. Although we were Egypt's biggest economic and military supporter, our embassy was heavily infiltrated with SSIS agents. Another method employed by SSIS was to recruit household servants to report to them. It was not uncommon to have a maid in a household who was an SSIS informer. We had a maid for a while who was on SSIS payroll. Fifi, our maid, no doubt was recruited early on, for she had worked for another U.S. Embassy household before she came to work for us. Our house in Mohandassin district of Cairo was guarded 24/7 by several Egyptian policemen. Two or three (depending on the day) uniformed policemen armed with AK-47s and one "detective," their supervisor, who was in "civies," galabeya, the Egyptian traditional robe. The "detective" openly wrote down in a notebook each time we came or left the house or if anyone came to our house! There was not even a pretense, it was obvious that they were there to watch us, not protect us!
At work, periodically I had to deal with the Interior Ministry and the head of the SSIS unit that was responsible for interacting with foreign embassies. Mohammed Youseff was a Colonel in the SSIS which was patterned after the Soviet KGB with its members given military ranks. He headed the unit that interacted with foreign missions in Egypt. He was openly anti American, very proud of the fact that he spent time in Moscow receiving specialized training from KGB. It obviously almost pained him to deal with Americans, you could see it by his facial expression, and he did everything possible to make things difficult for us, without making it seem obvious! In contrast, when dealing with Egypt's Foreign Ministry, I had to interact with their Minister for North America who was very much pro American, having spent over 10 years in the U.S. and received a Ph.D. from a prestigious American college. So, the Egyptian government itself, at least back in the 1990s, had somewhat of a split personality. There were as many pro Western, pro American officials as there were anti Western, anti American, like Mohammed Youseff of SSIS! Fortunately, the SSIS with its infamous and dark past was dismantled after the Arab Spring Revolution in 2011.
As I stated in the earlier blogs, Egypt is a fascinating land of antiquity. The Egyptians, those who were not affiliated with Islamic extremists or other anti Western or anti American factions are for the most part friendly and warm people. Hospitality is something in which Egyptian people, be they rich or poor, take tremendous pride. "Akhlan-wa-sakhlan" ("welcome") is the most common expression that one hears in that land of antiquity!
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