Hosni Mubarak: He became president after the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat and promptly imposed the emergency rule that the regime has used ever since to justify arbitrary arrests, infinite detentions and other harsh measures against opponents. He participated in two major wars -- 1967 and 1973 -- with Israel. He became a close U.S. ally, preserving Sadat's 1978 peace treaty with Israel and ruthlessly pursuing Islamic extremists.
Omar Suleiman: The vice president -- the first in Mubarak's 30-year rule -- is a former army general and chief of intelligence. He served in two wars against Israel and became close to Mubarak, a former head of the air force. He sealed his position of trust by insisting on having an armored car flown into Ethiopia for a 1995 visit there. The vehicle saved the pair from an ambush by Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. As the former head of Egypt's powerful and feared national intelligence agency for over a decade, he is closely identified with the abuses meted out to Mubarak's opponents. He is credited with having broken up Islamist terrorist cells in Egypt.
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi: The field marshal and defense minster leads the military's powerful supreme council. All four Egyptian presidents since the 1950s have come from the military. He has a loyal following within the military, but many members privately said they thought he should have acted earlier to force out Mubarak. As defense minister, he commands the armed forces; the interior minister runs the police.
Hossam Badrawi: He was named head of the ruling National Democratic Party on Saturday, replacing Mubarak's son Gamal. He is a physician and his family owns one of Cairo's exclusive hospitals. He is said to have good relations with opposition figures and is known as a reformer. He has attended several U.S. universities, including receiving a master's at Boston University School of Medicine.
Mohamed ElBaradei: He gained prominence as the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, winning the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for the agency's work. While some opposition activists consider ElBaradei, 69, a unifying figure who could win the presidency, others regard him as too pro-Western and an opportunist who remained outside the country for years while they took on the regime.
IRAQ REACHES OUT TO EXPATRIATES
As unrest shakes Egypt, Iraq is seizing the moment to make an audacious pitch to thousands of its citizens living abroad: Come back -- we're stable by comparison.
The government is offering free plane tickets and about $250 in cash to smooth the return home for Iraqis in Egypt and Yemen in what a State Department official called "an impressive effort."
The official, who asked to be quoted anonymously, said the only comparable effort was a smaller stipend that the government distributed to refugees in Syria and Jordan last year.
