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| Official photo for Khairallah |
I think I owe you an apology because I know about this newcomer to the presidential race but I was too lazy to blog about it, anyhow at least we got more news now than just friends chitchat.
A former Lt.General called Hossam Khairallah announced his presidential candidacy today in Cairo in Grand Hyatt hotel in a press conference attended by newspapers and TV channels. The presidential program of the former Lt. General that denies to be the candidate of the military is focusing mainly on education and civility of the state.
From the name or rather the military rank you will know immediately that we are speaking about military man , a big military man. Well for sure he is a big military man but there is a twist in our tale here.
1945 born Hossam Khairallah is a Yemen war and 1973 war veteran who joined the Egyptian intelligence aka GIS from 1977 till 2005. Lt. General Hossam Khairallah had served in the GIS in the information and estimation unit for year 26 years till he became the undersecretary of the GIS in 2005. This man participated in making the most important international economic and political agreements Egypt signed like
the COMESA agreement.
Ahmed Hossam Kamel Khairallah comes from a family with a long history in the Egyptian security history. His grandfather was the governor of Giza , general Hamed Khairallah who refused to participate in the Abbas bridge massacre and his father a police general was the governor of Aswan who fought drugs in 1970s.
Here is a part of his press conference.
Shorouk news : Hossam Khairallah announces his presidential candidacy
Now with a little research about Khairallah aside from the impressive military CV spread officially in all website mainly from
his Facebook page “very small number of admirers” I found out that Khairallah has been the CEO of some investment company called “Nile investments” since retirement from 2005 . All what I found online is
“Nile co. for investment” and 50% of its shares is owned by Saudi company, I do not know if it is the company he heads or not. Interestingly enough this company used to own
Tanta flex company , oh yes The Tanta flex company that was returned to the state ownership last year in a victory for the labor movement and in a big slap to the privatization police in Egypt after long struggle.
Khairallah also is the chairman of the New Cairo club. He also heads a
newly found association called “The Egyptian association for environmental quality”. This association was founded in last August 2011 and as you can guess from its name it is an environmental group.
Khairalla did not deny that he served with Omar Soliman in GIS , on the contrary he said it clearly that he worked with Omar Soliman for 14 years
I know about Lt. General Khairallah’s presidential candidacy since last week thanks to a dear friend that got a tip from a colleague in his work. That colleague is an ex-NDPian who used to be a member of the infamous electronic committee in the fallen party.
Khairallah is the third man from military background to declare his presidential candidacy official and is the second one now after the withdrawal of General Hatata from the race , whom I respect now so much after that decision. Officially it is him and former PM and Lt.General Ahmed Shafik when we speak about military candidate.
I do not think that Khairallah is the presidential candidate of SCAF but rather the intelligence if the intelligence is playing around as well , you know everybody is playing and has got a presidential candidate. If SCAF has a presidential candidate , it will be none other than Ahmed Shafik. Khairallah has also made it clear that he is not the presidential candidate
SCAF would be more stupider than I think if it has got than one presidential candidate , some people believe that Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafik are the presidential candidates of the SCAF but they do not understand that Moussa and Shafik are competing on the same segment of voters. Shafik and Moussa will spilt votes so you can imagine the how many votes are now lost from the two men because of Khairallah.
Interestingly enough Khairallah insists that Omar Soliman is not going to run for the presidential elections and that if he does , Khairallah will not withdraw.
Needless to say many Egyptians including the revolutionary youth are refusing any military candidate whoever he is , it is crystal clear. I will not waste your time and mine speaking about the reasons.
Now here is an interview I found for Khairallah on ONTV with Amr Khafga in last August where he spoke about the national security concept. I like to listen to everybody.
ONTV : Khairallah speaks about National security concept
He slammed Mubarak’s reactions policies. Ok I do not like how he considers Iran as an enemy from the start.
Khairallah appeared again on ONTV on October 14th,2011 to speak about the unknown third party involved in our clashes.
ONTV : Khairallah speaks about third party theory
He was introduced as the third man after Omar Soliman in GIS till 2005. Again he believes in the third party theory especially in Maspero clashes !!
“I am amazed that we had to abort the Helwan air fighter project in return of 242 thanks to the Soviets .”
To be honest he is more serious than Ahmed Shafik who charms many of the Cairene high middle and upper classes with his soft elegant sweet talk. As a strategic expert is more stable than Katu and his brothers.
FYI I am not against any Egyptian to run for presidential elections but I want all ex-military to wait for four years till to we enforce the civility of the state with a new constitution insh Allah if they have good intentions.
Anyhow days will tell if Khairallah is a big dreamer or if he is supported by the military or the intelligence or both.
The presidential elections from what I understood will be held next April 2012 !!
P.S you must that the Muslim brotherhood will support Non Islamist Civilian presidential candidate according to several leaks from the brotherhood.
