Egypt's former spy chief Omar Suleiman joins presidential race
From Haaretz:
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Egypt's former spy chief Omar Suleiman joins presidential race[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Intelligence chief during days of deposed leader Mubarak announces his last-minute entrance into contest, pitting former regime figures against Islamists.
The intelligence chief of Egypt's deposed leader Hosni Mubarak formally joined the race for the presidency on Sunday, a last-minute entrance that raises the heat in a contest pitting former regime figures against newly-assertive Islamists.
Omar Suleiman, 74, announced he planned to run on Friday, saying overwhelming public pressure had aroused his sense of soldierly duty. He had needed to collect the signatures of 30,000 eligible voters by Sunday's deadline in order to take part.
Vice President under dictator Hosni Mubarak, Omar Suleiman has been a long-time ally of the United States and instrumental in the U.S. "extraordinary rendition" program. WikiLeaks cables indicate that Israeli officials had long-hoped that Suleiman would eventually succeed Hosni Mubarak.
More from Democracy Now on Sulieman, the CIA's man in Cairo and Egypt's "Torturer in Chief":
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