A few weeks into Cairo’s Tahrir Square protests, President Obama, under pressure, decided to send an envoy to Egypt to talk Hosni Mubarak into stepping down gracefully and handing over power to a transitional government. The person he chose for this mission was Frank Wisner, a businessman and former seasoned diplomat, who was ambassador to Egypt from the mid- 1980s until the end of the 1990/91 Gulf War. Wisner, who has served during a critical time for American interests in the Middle East, became quite chummy with Mubarak during his posting and, according to rumor, often played squash with the President.
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