Egypt: New Intelligence Chief Helped to Broker Israeli’s Release

President Mohamed Morsi appointed as the country’s new intelligence chief on Wednesday a veteran official who was involved in the brokering of last year’s release of an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants, an official news agency said. The new intelligence chief, Mohammed Raafat Abdel-Wahed, was important in the Cairo-mediated deal between Hamas and Israel that led to the freeing of Gilad Shalit in 2011 in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Mr. Morsi fired the previous chief over the killings of 16 Egyptian soldiers on Aug. 5 in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt’s State Security prosecutor, meanwhile, said Wednesday that during protests last week outside the American Embassy in Cairo, police officers arrested a main suspect in the Aug. 5 attack. The suspect, Mahmoud Fawzi, was among more than 200 people arrested during demonstrations over a film ridiculing Islam.