Egypt: Washington's Covert Intelligence Operation

A mysterious American Envoy, retired US diplomat Frank G. Wisner II was rushed to Cairo on January 31st at the height of the protest movement for top level meetings with Hosni Mubarak.

Frank G. and Hosni were close friends, going back to late 1980s, when Frank G. Wisner was ambassador to Egypt (1986-1991).

Wisner served as ambassador at the height of the Gulf War. He played a key role in the negotiation of the 1991 agreement which committed Egypt not only to participating in the Gulf War against Iraq but also to a package of devastating macro-economic reforms under the guidance of the IMF.

This 1991 agreement was directly dictated by Washington and instrumented through the US embassy in Cairo.

Frank G. Wisner was sent to Egypt on the explicit request of president Obama "to negotiate a resolution to the protest movement".

His discussions with Egypt's president were a prelude to Mubarak's speech on Tuesday February 1st in which he confirmed that he would not resign as president until the holding of new elections scheduled for the Fall of 2011. In a public statement, Wisner confirmed that Mubarak should be allowed to stay in office. The White House subsequently clarified that this was not a reflection of US policy and that Wisner statement was made in a personal capacity.

The meetings behind closed doors between Wisner and Mubarak were part of an intelligence agenda. Washington had no intention of pushing towards a resolution of the protest movement. Its priority was regime change. Wisner's mandate was to instruct Mubarak not to to resign, thereby contributing to triggering an atmosphere of social chaos and uncertainty, not to mention the deliberate destabilization of Egypt's monetary system resulting from billions of dollars of capital flight.

Frank. G. Wisner II is no run of the mill American diplomat. He is a member of a well known CIA family, son of one of America's most notorious spies, the late Frank Gardiner Wisner (1909- 1965).

Wisner Senior headed the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in Southeast Europe during the Second World War. In the wake of the war, he was put in charge of a number of intelligence operations which in many regards have established the CIA's modus operandi. His responsibilities included inter alia propaganda, sabotage and media disinformation, etc. He was the architect of Operation Mockingbird, a CIA program which consisted in infiltrating both the US and foreign media.

In 1952, Wisner became head of the CIA's Directorate of Plans, with Richard Helms as his chief of operations. (See Frank Wisner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) He was also the mastermind behind the CIA sponsored coup which toppled the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, paving the way for the installation of Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi as "Emperor" and puppet head of state.

Global Research Articles by Michel Chossudovsky

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