Omar Suleiman, Egypt's Fix-It Man, Doesn't Appease Crowds

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak delegated some of his powers to his vice president, Omar Suleiman, tonight, but apparently that didn't appease the several hundred thousand protesters in Tahrir Square as the president continued to refuse to step down.

Immediately after Mubarak's speech, Suleiman called on the protesters to "go home" and asked Egyptians to "unite and look to the future."

And the protesters responded by shouting, "Leave, leave! leave!" The Associated Press reported.

Some had expected Mubarak to turn over total control to the country's longtime spy chief, who was recently appointed the No. 2 leader. But Suleiman, thrust into the spotlight, doesn't appear any more popular among the protesters in Egypt now than his boss.

In the West, Suleiman, 74, has been viewed as a reliable fix-it man in some of the Middle East's most sensitive disputes, negotiating cease-fires, mediating Arab-Israeli talks and even aiding the CIA when it needs a hand in interrogating terror suspects. Now Suleiman may face his toughest challenge: fixing Egypt's biggest domestic dispute in decades, with the protesting masses on one side and his longtime boss Mubarak on the other.

Suleiman was handpicked as Mubarak's vice president in late January, but only after Egypt's top leader was forced to do so. For 30 years, Mubarak flouted constitutional rules that require him to appoint a deputy. Such was Mubarak's hold on power, or unwillingness to plan for his possible demise or ouster, that he refused to name even a trusted ally such as Suleiman until Egyptians took to the streets to demand that he do so.

From 1993 until last week, Suleiman headed Egypt's much-feared intelligence agency. Foreign Policy magazine dubbed him the Middle East's most powerful spy chief, even more mighty than the head of Israel's Mossad. To win that title, some "dirty work" is usually involved.

"He has a long history of doing all the dirty work that needs to be done in Egypt. Both domestically, and we also know that he was involved with the infamous rendition affairs with the United States," Rime Allaf, a Middle East expert at London's Chatham House think tank, told AOL News recently.

Allaf was referring to an alleged CIA program under the George W. Bush administration in which terror suspects were secretly transported, imprisoned and tortured by U.S. allies like Egypt. The U.S. has publicly denied the existence of any such program, but President Barack Obama nevertheless signed an executive order outlawing rendition torture in the opening days of his presidency.

"We've heard a lot of stories where [Suleiman] would take a personal interest, either in the renditions or in anybody who was caught who he thought had links to Islamist groups. He was said to be personally involved in the interrogations and the torture," Allaf said. "He's not a civilian, and he's not a pleasant person."

Nevertheless, Suleiman is a close U.S. ally. Last week, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration was in talks with Egyptian and Arab diplomats about a plan to allow Suleiman, backed by Egypt's military, to take power and immediately begin a process of constitutional reform.

Suleiman has taken a hard line against Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, and is a close interlocutor with Israel, traveling there for talks several times a year. He's believed to have met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as recently as November.

A veteran of wars against Israel in the 1960s and '70s, Suleiman has more backing from the military than Mubarak's son Gamal, who has no military experience but is believed to have been groomed by his father to succeed him. Gamal Mubarak announced earlier that he would not stand in upcoming elections.

"Everybody knows he [Suleiman] has always been the strong man and the No. 2 in Egypt," Allaf said. "I wouldn't say he's been more feared than Mubarak, ... but people focused on Suleiman's role as somebody who made sure that high-profile prisoners, dissidents, prisoners of conscience and civil activists -- that they were in his domain."