Freedom House
complained that it too had "shared extensive information about their
activities with Egyptian authorities and had attempted to undergo the
registration process. Backgrounder, p. 7
The report trotted out statements by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraging Egypt to allow the indicted NGO staffers to leave Egypt. Both officials mentioned the long standing positive relationship with the Egyptian military leaders in charge.
Clinton spokesperson Victoria Nuland's U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing of January 4 was mentioned. In it, she identified the villain of this effort, Egypt's International Cooperation Minister Fayza Abouelnaga. Nuland said, -- we also seem to have some Mubarak holdovers in the government who don't seem to understand how these organizations operate in a democratic society and are putting out lots of disinformation about them. Backgrounder, p. 16
Abouelnaga was clear in her assessment of the situation and will no doubt become a target for vilification, etc. in the coming days and weeks: (Image Egyptian government)
"The 25 January revolution events came as a surprise to the United States" and it lost control over it after it turned into a revolution of the entire Egyptian population," Abouelnaga said.
"That was when the United States decided to use all its resources and instruments to contain the situation and push it in a direction that promotes American and also Israeli interests," MENA quoted her as saying.
"All
evidence indicates a clear desire and determination to abort any
opportunity for Egypt to rise as a modern democratic nation with a
strong economy," she said. "This would represent the biggest threat to
Israeli and American interests, not only in Egypt, but in the region as a
whole." Egypt Independent, Feb 13
The Egyptian military leaders profit from their privileged position. A large portion of their profit comes through U.S. military aid and business investment. Their actions put that income at risk.
This leads to the following conclusions. Interference by the NGOs must have been egregious to stimulate such a rash action. In addition, the Egyptians may have an ace up their sleeve. The United States and China are in a pitched battle for both influence and oil in the Middle East and Africa. Maybe Egypt is ready to flip and give China its first big win in the great game.
Who knows? Foreign meddling through proxy agents for the ruling elite is counterproductive. This constitutes an effort that we can ill avoid as our country crumbles around us under the leadership of the not-so-great game players in charge.
END
This article may be reproduced with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
4
4
