The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Time to Cut Aid to Egypt

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Egyptian government officials promised the US ambassador in Cairo that material seized in last week's raids on non-governmental organizations, including US democracy-building groups, would be returned. That hasn't happened:

Egyptian officials still have not returned property or cash seized in a December 29 police raid on the Cairo offices of U.S. non-governmental organizations, according to two U.S.-based NGOs.

The actions by the Egyptian police contradict assurances the State Department says were given to the U.S. ambassador by Egyptian authorities.

"We had been assured by leaders in the Egyptian government that this issue would be resolved, that harassment would end, that NGOs would be allowed to go back to business as usual and that their property would be returned. It is, frankly, unacceptable to us that that situation has not been returned to normal," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in her daily press briefing Tuesday.

Leslie Campbell, director of the National Democratic Institute's programs in the Middle East and North Africa, told CNN there has been "no change at all - nothing returned."

Campbell says there have been "mixed signals" from the Egyptian government about whether the group's offices can be used, "but we are being cautious until there is a definitive statement from the government."

[...]

Another U.S. NGO targeted in the raids, the International Republican Institute, told CNN that promises to the U.S. ambassador that the offices would be re-opened and possessions returned have not been kept.

Speaking by phone from Cairo, IRI President Lorne Craner said his group was promised on Friday that their material would be returned, but that hasn't happened.

"The agreement that we understood to have been made last Friday has not been undertaken and, in fact, we're being told there will be an investigation of us," he said. "Today (Wednesday) we had an Egyptian citizen and a U.S. citizen from our staff called in by the police, by the prosecutors, for questioning."

As I argued Thursday, it's asking for trouble to allow this to stand without some tangible affect on the $1.3 billion in military aid the US sends to Egypt annually. Elliot Abrams puts it more starkly: "[W]e must let the army know that if it is their policy to crush democracy activists, there is a price they will pay. It's $1.3 billion a year."

Virginia Republican Congressman Frank Wolf, who sits on the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, is pressing the administration of this issue.

View all comments (6) | Leave a comment

Occam's Tool| 1.5.12 @ 1:52PM

Time to eliminate aid to Egypt. The aid was in condition for the Camp David Treaty, which they are already abrogating (it all went into Mubarak's accounts anyway). They are Islamist scum. Delete.

Clint| 1.5.12 @ 3:01PM

Dr.Ron Paul,
“As the President prepares to send even more support to Egypt, we should
be reminded that it was our foreign aid that helped Mubarak retain power
to repress his people in the first place. Now we have to deal with the
consequences of those decisions, yet we keep repeating the same mistakes.

“I am not the only one who can see the absurdities of our foreign
policy. We give $3 billion to Israel and $12 billion to her enemies.
Most Americans know that makes no sense.

“We need to come to our senses, trade with our friends in the Middle
East (both Arab and Israeli), clean up our own economic mess so we set a
good example, and allow them to work out their own conflicts.”

The Tea Party Rebellion Heads To The East Coast.

Gerry| 1.5.12 @ 7:42PM

Whoops - need better editing - it should be "Time to Cut Aid to Israel"

Richard Baker| 1.5.12 @ 8:48PM

Gerry:
So you ARE advocating the slaughter of the Israelis? Sure seems like it. Sieg Heil, my man.

Occam:
Agree totally with your message.

Eddie Kovacs| 1.5.12 @ 9:32PM

See, if you go bashing Israel and snuggling up to Hamas and Iran the way that fool Ronnie and his Nazi buddies at Stormfront and Lew Rockwell's hateful website do, you don't get any breaks by insisting later when called on your bigotry against Israel that no, you just really wanted to cut all aid to the Middle East. The fanatics who worship Ronnie are always using that failed defense when we point out what a bigot their Messiah is, and never seem to realize how they're only digging themselves deeper into irrelevancy.

Ron could really learn a lesson from his son Rand, who handles such issues a whole lot better. Rand may or may not like Israel, but I see no sign that he particularly hates Israel. He never singles it out, or snuggles up to Iran and Hamas the way his Islamofascist terrorist-coddling father does. More immediately importantly, Rand also never obsesses over Israel the way his father does. He's always talked exclusively of cutting foreign aid to everyone and played no favorites, which is why he's so mercifully free of all but the most residual association with the racists and fascists who dog his father's campaign. The only time Israel ever came up with Rand at all was when some reporter was playing "Gotcha!" with him, and got him to admit that well, yes, cutting foreign aid to "everyone" includes Israel too. (In the end, she never "got" him on much of anything, and he won his election pretty handily.)

There's a case to be made for cutting foreign aid to everyone, especially if we start with all the nations that hate us (such as Egypt) instead of our true foul-weather ally Israel. Take away Israel's enemies' weapons funding first, and Israel probably wouldn't mind losing its weapons allowance from us, though the savings to our budget in both cases are really paltry in comparison to how much our government is wasting on entitlement spending and other stuff. It's just too bad it's Crazy Ronnie with his wretched reputation who's trying to make that case for cutting foreign funds; it surely deserves a more credible apologist.

For the umpteenth time, how I do wish it were Rand running instead! I'd vote for him over virtually anyone in a heartbeat, just as I would have for Fred Thompson back in 2008 if I could. Having only candidates to vote against in these elections is getting really tiresome.