Abdel Halim Abu Ghazala died
Posted by Ghareb on September 7, 2008
Abdel Halim Abu Ghazala, Egypt’s former defence minister touted in the late 1980s as a contender to succeed President Hosni Mubarak, died in hospital on Saturday after a long struggle with throat cancer, security sources said.
Abu Ghazala, who was 78, is to receive a military funeral on Sunday, the state news agency MENA said.
Abu Ghazala was one of the Free Officers who staged a coup that overthrew the Egyptian monarchy and fought in every major Egyptian action from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to the 1973 war against Israel.
After serving as Egypt’s military attache in Washington in the late 1970s, Abu Ghazala was appointed Minister of Defence in 1981 and promoted to Field Marshal in 1982.
He championed military reform and a strong alliance with Washington, and set to work during his tenure building up a defence manufacturing and industrial base.
In March 1986, after Mubarak was forced to call in the army to quell an uprising by central security forces, many analysts and diplomats said the crisis had eroded Mubarak’s legitimacy while simultaneously boosting Abu Ghazala’s standing.
But it was not to last. By late 1987, reports began to surface in the Western press of a collaboration between Egypt, Argentina and Iraq on the development of a long range missile, the Condor II — a collaboration that distressed Western powers.
Allegations began to surface that efforts to illegally acquire U.S. missile technology were linked to Abu Ghazala.
In April 1989, Mubarak moved Abu Ghazala from Minister of Defence to the ceremonial position of “presidential adviser”, a post with almost no executive power.
Less than six months later, U.S. officials said Egypt had ended its collaboration with Iraq and Argentina for the development of Condor II.
In February 1993, Abu Ghazala resigned his post and bowed out of the public eye. Reuters, Aljazeera
Goodbye Abu Ghazala
Update 7/9/08:
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Egypt’s ex-defense minister dies, Herald Tribune
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Abu Ghazala Funeral, Aljazeera
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Sadat Fellow, Alarabiya
