Abd Al-Halim Abu-Ghazala

Muhammad Abd Al-Halim Abu-Ghazala
Abu Ghazala on 29 March 1982
Minister of Defence of Egypt
In office 4 March 1981 – 15 April 1989
President	Anwar Sadat Hosni Mubarak
Prime Minister	Ahmad Fuad Mohieddin Kamal Hassan Ali Ali Mahmoud Lutfi Atef Sedki
Preceded by	Ahmed Badawi
Succeeded by	Youssef Sabri Abu Taleb
Personal details
Born	(1930-01-15)15 January 1930 Zuhur Al Omara, El Delengat, Beheira, Egypt
Died	6 September 2008(2008-09-06) (aged 78) Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt
Political party	Independent
Military service
Allegiance	Egypt
Branch/service	Army
Years of service	1949–1989
Rank	Field Marshal
Unit	Artillery
Commands	Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
Battles/wars	Suez Crisis Six-Day War Yom Kippur War

Muhammad Abd Al-Halim Abu-Ghazala (Arabic: محمد عبد الحليم أبو غزالة‎; 15 January 1930 – 6 July 2008) was Defense Minister of Egypt from 1981 to 1989. Abu Ghazala was seated next to Anwar Sadat when the president was assassinated.

Early life and education[]

He was born in Zuhur Al Omara village, El Delengat, Beheira Governorate, in january 15th 1930.^[1] His family descended from "Awlad Aly" tribe. After completing his secondary education, he joined the Egyptian Royal Military Academy, then he received the battalion command diploma from Stalin Academy in the Soviet Union in 1949. He also graduated from Nasser Academy for higher military education (Cairo 1961). On the civilian studies side, he received a bachelor's degree from the faculty of commerce, Cairo University. Abu Ghazala received the diploma of honor from the National War College in the U.S., thus being the first non-American to receive such an award.^[2]

Besides his native Arabic, Abu Ghazala was also fluent in fluent in English, French and Russian.^[3]

Career[]

Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala did not participate in the Six-Day War of 1967 as he was serving in the Western Desert.^{[citation needed]}

He was the Second Army's artillery commander during the October War of 1973.^[4] After the war he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Artillery Corps. Two years after the October War of 1975, Sadat appointed him as a military attache in Washington on June 27, 1976. There he was the first non-American military to receive a diploma of honor from the Command and General Staff College at Carlisle Barracks. Abu Ghazaleh returned to Cairo three years later as Director of Military Intelligence on May 15, 1979. He was appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces on May 15, 1980, and he was promoted two days later.

When the Minister of Defense and military production, Ahmad Badawi, died along with 12 senior officers in a helicopter crash on 2 March 1981, Anwar Sadat appointed Abu Ghazala minister of defense and military production.^[5]

Shortly after Anwar Sadat was killed, he obtained the rank of Field Marshal in 1982.

He was also involved with Gust Avrakotos and Charlie Wilson in supplying weapons to the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet Afghan war. The CIA bought the weapons and passed them through Pakistan's ISI to the Afghan rebel groups. Items included .303 ammo for Lee–Enfield rifles, limpet mines, and urban terrorist devices like bicycle bombs. There were also a number of rockets that some believe was the Katyusha.^[6]

Project T and removal[]

The project T is part of the tri-national program with Argentina, and Iraq to develop a two-stage solid and liquid propellant missile with a range of 900 kilometres (560 mi). This program was referred to in Argentina as the Condor 2, and in Iraq as the Badr 2000.

The Project T missile is a Scud-B variant, whose payload was probably reduced in order to extend its range.^[7]

In 1989, Egyptian president Mubarak removed him from office due to claims that he was involved in a missile-parts illegal import scandal from the United States, by violating U.S. export laws.^[8] The USA did not allow exporting certain materials used for making missile heads to the Egyptian military. So the Egyptian intelligence under Abu Ghazala's commands managed to import those materials indirectly though Germany in a highly complicated undercover intelligence mission, until the FBI found out about the mission and issued arrest warrants for the involved Egyptian Intelligence officers and an involved Egyptian missile scientist.

2005 elections[]

In 2005, Abu Ghazala was briefly rumored to be a presidential candidate for the powerful but illegal Muslim Brotherhood.^[9] He finally did not run, and the Muslim Brotherhood did not field a candidate in the first contested Egyptian presidential elections. The Muslim Brotherhood offered him to run as their presidential candidate, but he refused due to their different ideological backgrounds.

Field Marshal Abu Ghazaleh wrote his first book under the name “The cannons were launched at noon .. the Egyptian artillery through the Ramadan War”, in which he explained the role of the Egyptian artillery in the October War and revealed his views and his military doctrine towards Israel.^[4]

Death[]

Abu Ghazala died on 6 September 2008 at El-Galla Military Hospital in Heliopolis, Cairo at the age of 78, from throat cancer.^[10]

References[]