Egyptian intelligence has hired two U.S. public relations firms in Washington to lobby on the country’s behalf and boost its image, the first such engagements by the country’s powerful security apparatus to be made public and a rare move by a foreign intelligence body. Filings dated Jan. 28 and seen by The Associated Press on the Department of Justice website Sunday showed that the General Intelligence Service has hired public relations firms Weber Shandwick and Cassidy & Associates Inc. The registrations by one of Egypt’s feared, competing intelligence agencies, known as the Mukhabarat, were released publicly to comply with the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938.