State Security Investigations Service

State Security Investigations Service (SSIS)
مباحث أمن الدولة
Agency overview
Formed1913
1954
Dissolved2011
Superseding agency
JurisdictionGovernment of Egypt
HeadquartersCairo, Egypt
Agency executive
  • Hisham Abdel Fattah Mahmoud Ghida, director
Parent agencyMinistry of Interior

The State Security Investigations Service (Egyptian Arabic: مباحث أمن الدولة Mabahith Amn El Dawla) was the highest national internal security authority in Egypt. Estimated to employ 100,000 personnel, the SSI was the main security and intelligence apparatus of Egypt's Ministry of Interior. The SSIS focused on monitoring underground networks of radical Islamists and probably planted agents in those organizations[1] and had the role of controlling opposition groups, both armed groups and those engaged in peaceful opposition to the government.[2][3] It has been described as "detested"[4] and "widely hated".[5]

Following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the head of the SSI was arrested under suspicion of ordering the killings of demonstrators. On March 15, 2011, the Ministry of the Interior announced the dissolution of the agency. The service was replaced by (or renamed) the Egyptian Homeland Security after the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.[4]

  1. ^ "Egypt - Intelligence".
  2. ^ Magnarella 1999, p. 108
  3. ^ Sifton 2007, p. 9
  4. ^ a b WALSH, DECLAN (15 August 2017). "Why Was an Italian Graduate Student Tortured and Murdered in Egypt?". New York Times. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  5. ^ El Deeb, Sarah (6 January 2014). "Hotline marks return of Egypt's security agency". Associated Press.