A Spymaster And Political Fixer

Yasir Arafat has always liked dealing with spies or, better yet, spymasters, even when their governments were supposed to be his enemies. In the shadowy world of Middle Eastern politics, where formal statements and official contacts frequently have little to do with the facts on the ground, envoys deeply schooled in secrecy often are considered more trustworthy than politicians or diplomats. CIA contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization continued, for instance, throughout the 1970s and 1980s when official Washington refused to talk to Arafat or his cronies.

But lately spymasters have moved directly into the spotlight of the Middle East peace process. First, there was U.S. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet brokering Palestinian-Israeli ceasefires in the 1990s. Now it's the head of Egypt's intelligence service, Omar Suleiman, who's been knocking heads in Arafat's compound, getting a new Palestinian government in place as the first step toward adoption of Washington's Roadmap for peace.

Suleiman is more than just a friendly intelligence chief in an unfriendly neighborhood. He's long dealt with his counterparts in the Israeli Mossad and the CIA. For more than a decade he's played a vital role in America's covert war against Al Qaeda. More recently he's also come to be seen as the second most powerful figure in the Egyptian government after President Hosni Mubarak. (There has been no vice president in Egypt since Mubarak came to power in 1981.) He's now Egypt's Mr. Fixit, tackling problems in Yemen, Libya and Sudan that affect Cairo's interests.

Suleiman paved the way for Mubarak's first visit to Khartoum in 14 years. Earlier this year he stepped out from behind the scenes and appeared alongside Mubarak at several conferences, including an Arab summit at Egypt's resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh. Such public prominence has led to rumors that Suleiman might be in line to succeed the 75-year-old Mubarak, even though the president's son, Gamal, is apparently being groomed for the job. Top Egyptian officials dismiss such speculation as idle gossip.

Suleiman was handed the Palestinian dossier almost two years ago, and he has made it a major focus of his activities. Last week he played a key role in getting Arafat to accept another intelligence operative, Mohammed Dahlan, as new head of security for the Palestinian Authority. As head of the Preventive Security Organization in Gaza during the 1990s, Dahlan played a critical role repressing Islamic extremists at the height of Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement. The new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, wanted Dahlan to be his Interior minister (with responsibility for security) as a gesture to Sharon. Arafat thought Dahlan too close to the Israelis. Suleiman crafted a compromise in which Abu Mazen got the title, and Dahlan got the operational control of security matters.