Exposed: Egypt's spies dragged from shadows

By Dina Zayed and Sarah Mikhail

CAIRO (Reuters) - New evidence of spying and torture by an Egyptian security agency has piled pressure on military rulers to abolish a hated and feared symbol of Hosni Mubarak's era.

Reformists at the heart of the mass uprising that toppled Mubarak have turned their attention to the agency known as state security, a body with a reputation for carrying out abuses that helped galvanise opposition to his 30-year rule.

After breaking into its premises and ransacking archives, activists posted videos and documents online which they say are proof the security agency must be dissolved by the military council that took over from Mubarak.

The posts include what was described as a torture chamber with a blood-stained floor and equipped with chains, and security files showing the extent of the agency's intrusion into citizens' lives.

The protests against state security culminated on Sunday in an attempt to storm its Cairo headquarters. Outside, activists were set upon by men in plain clothes armed with knives, swords, petrol bombs and bricks.

"I can't think of anyone who has an interest in that (organising the attack) other than state security officers who are linked to the former ruling party and were serving it," said Gamal Eid, a human rights activist.

For Egyptians, the documents that have surfaced confirm what many already believed: that for years they have been watched, listened to and monitored in detail by agents.

With a licence to do almost whatever they wanted under emergency laws, state security officers abused their position for personal reasons. One had his girlfriend followed by agents and her phone tapped.