ABSTRACT
Sadat’s 1981 assassination made the former air force general, Husni Mubarak, Egypt’s fourth president in 30 years. Given the circumstances of Sadat’s murder, it is not surprising that Mubarak’s early days in the presidency were marked by conspiracy rumors, much uncertainty and secret police investigations into the loyalty of the armed forces. Mubarak tried to project an aura of calm leadership, but the maelstrom surrounding his early administration suggested otherwise. Mubarak did not make any major alterations to his predecessor’s foreign policy particularly with regard to Egypt’s relations with the West. The American-Egyptian intelligence alliance weathered several crises in the 1980s, including some espionage cases and Cairo’s involvement in the notorious Achille Lauro hijacking. In fact, the United States delivered advanced intelligence technologies to Egypt such as unmanned aerial vehicles and ELINT collection aircraft. While Mubarak downplayed Egypt’s public role in Afghanistan, his government continued to quietly sell arms and other supplies to the mujahedin. Its motives in doing so were not altruistic: in addition to the infusions of American and Saudi cash into the Egyptian arms industry, Mubarak’s security men viewed the Afghan jihad as a useful lure for the regime’s most vociferous Islamic opponents. Finally, Washington and Cairo cooperated closely on the diplomatic and security fronts in combating the threat posed by the Libyan leader, Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi.
