ABSTRACT
When World War II broke out, Egypt was caught in an ambiguous position. Although many Egyptians were sympathetic to Germany, their government was bound by treaty to grant the British access to military bases and the Suez Canal. In the intelligence arena, the political police worked closely with the British by interning German nationals, seizing German property, intercepting mail and telegrams and tapping telephones.1 At war’s end, Egypt had achieved a dominant position in the Arab world, and its newfound regional confidence was reflected by its creation of a small external intelligence service and its growing ties with American intelligence. But the 1948 creation of Israel followed by Arab defeats in the ensuing Arab-Israeli war left the Egyptian government unpopular, divided, weak and discredited. Finding scapegoats for the humiliation in Israel became the order of the day and a new period of political violence shook the country as the security services cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood, the communists and a rapidly shrinking Jewish community. Ultimately, however, the real threat to the throne emerged from within the army, for on 23 July 1952 junior officers staged a coup and overthrew the monarchy. This was to be one of the biggest failures in the history of the Egyptian intelligence services.
