Sudan’s former security adviser was sacked because of “presidential ambitions”

May 4, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s former presidential security adviser, Salah Gosh, was sacked from his position because of his “presidential ambitions”, an official said on Wednesday, stoking speculations of growing divisions within the country’s ruling party.

The senior member of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP), Qutbi al-Mahdi, told the Sudanese daily newspaper Al-Watan on Wednesday that Gosh’s attempts to overstep and expand his mandate as a security adviser had led to his removal.

Al-Mahdi, who occupies the position of the NCP’s head of organizations, went on to say that his party had reached the conclusion that Gosh, “among others”, was planning to succeed President Al-Bashir after the latter announced intention to step down when his current term expires in 2015.

Salah Gosh, once a powerful and longest-serving chief of the country’s intelligence apparatus, was abruptly dismissed from his position via a decree issued by President Al-Bashir on 26 April.

His removal came few days after he publicly fell out with the NCP’s strongman and presidential assistant, Nafi Ali Nafi, over the dialogue he was conducting with opposition parties under the umbrella of the Presidential Security Advisory (PSA), which Gosh chairs.

Gosh publicly contradicted Nafi’s statement that the dialogue was not sanctioned by the party’s leadership, stressing that it was enjoying approval by president Al-Bashir, and that Nafi had no right to interfere in his job.

Qutbi said that the issue of the PSA dialogue with opposition parties “represents only a small part” of the problem, saying that Nafi did not even attend the meeting in which the decision to sack Gosh was made.

He told the newspaper that Gosh’s activities were surrounded by many questions which led the party to re-evaluate his attitudes. He further added that Gosh was “grooming himself” to take over Sudan’s presidency.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior NCP official told Sudan Tribune that Gosh was removed for reasons that are completely different from what is swirling around the domestic arena. The official denied that Gosh would be sacked from the party.

This week Qutbi Al-Mahdi told local media that Gosh might soon see himself booted out of the NCP’s leadership altogether.

He said he was expecting a soon-to-be-made decision stripping Gosh of all his titles within the party which included presiding over the NCP’s workers’ secretariat. The former adviser also holds a parliamentary seat as a representative of the Merowe constituency.

However, Al-Mahdi fell short of saying whether Gosh’s membership would be revoked.

Apart from Al-Mahdi, NCP officials generally avoided giving details on the reasons for Gosh removal. The NCP’s prominent member Ghazi Salah al-Din last week said that Gosh’s dismissal was dictated by internal party considerations.

Some observers in Khartoum have speculated that Gosh was planning a coup against Bashir with the consent of the U.S. administration while others linked his removal to an Israeli strike carried out in East Sudan against suspects arms smugglers in early April. The government claimed that Israel had informants on the ground who provided the intelligence to carry out the operation.

Gosh is the poster boy of counterterrorism cooperation between the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services, over which he presided since 2002 until he was surprisingly demoted to the rank of a presidential adviser for security affairs in August 2009.

The subtly pro-government daily newspaper Al-Sudani on Tuesday reported that the U.S embassy in Khartoum showed great interest in Gosh’s removal.

The paper quoted unidentified sources as saying that the embassy had invited a number of writers and political leaders to watch a documentary film but the embassy staff was keen to hold sideline talks with the participants on the repercussions of Gosh’s dismissal and what was happening within the NCP.

The Islamist opposition leader Hassan Al-Turabi who was just released from a 4-month detention today, suggested that Gosh was involved in a power struggle.

“The tyrant does not allow anyone to share power with him but he forgives the mischief. He who was sacked aspired for power, economic and political power and was fired the first time [as a result]. The second [time] he tried to cling to power and money and reinforce his position so he was fired,” Turabi said.

(ST)