Alwaght- Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi has sacked the country’s Intelligence Service’s after the leaking of a covert government attempt to convince the public to back Donald Trump's al-Quds (Jerusalem) decision.
El-Sisi's chief of staff Abbas Kamel will serve as interim head of the General Intelligence Directorate, the non-military state branch of the Egyptian intelligence services, replacing Khalid Fawzy, who has served since 2014.
The Kamel appointment comes a week after a series of damaging leaks to the New York Times and other media outlets, which indicated that the Egyptian government was trying to shift public opinion in favor of US President Donald Trump's recognition of al-Quds as Israeli regime's capital.
The NYT article, published on 6 January, "undermines Egypt's security and public peace, and harms the country's public interest", general prosecutor Nabil Sadek said in a statement.
Parliamentary speaker Ali Abdel Aal said the report proved that the newspaper was allied with Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood, local media reported.
Cairo said it had launched an investigation after a wave of commentary from MPs and pro-government media denounced the Times article as part of an international conspiracy against Egypt.
In four phone conversations, a man named by the Times as Captain Ashraf al-Kholi told talk-show hosts Mofid Fawzy, Saeed Hassaseen and Azmi Megahed and actress Yousra that the Egyptian state wanted highly influential people such as themselves to convince Egyptians that Trump's plan was in their country's interests.
Initially Megahed, the other TV host, confirmed the authenticity of the recording, describing the intelligence officer as a long-time acquaintance. But Megahed later retracted that statement, and in an Egyptian TV interview claimed that the Times had misquoted him.
Responding to the claims, the Times's international editor, Michael Slackman, said: "Our story was a deeply reported, consequential piece of journalism, and we stand fully behind it.”
