Recall that in late December, Egyptian authorities raided the
offices of numerous nongovernmental organizations, including the
International Republican Institute and the National Democratic
Institute, which are funded mostly by US taxpayers through the
National Endowment for Democracy. At the time, I
wrote that allowing this to stand without tangible consequences
for military aid to Egypt would be asking for trouble, and when
Egyptian authorities had not fulfilled promises to return material
seized in the raids a week later, I (along with some more prominent
commentators) called
for aid to be cut.
That didn’t happen, and, having asked for trouble, the Obama
administration has indeed gotten trouble. Eric Trager of the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy notes
that the mistreatment of democracy-promotion groups has continued
and gotten worse, with American citizens’ targeted and banned from
traveling:
The Egyptian government’s recent travel ban on American
democracy workers is the latest — and most grievous — attack on
U.S.-funded NGOs operating in the country. Six employees are not
allowed to travel, including Sam LaHood, the son of U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Four other non-U.S. citizens
are also affected. All ten are employed by either the International
Republican Institute (IRI) or the National Democratic Institute
(NDI)…
The travel ban represents an escalation in the Egyptian
military’s crackdown on civil society. Since assuming control last
February, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has used
state-run media to foster a hostile political environment for
pro-democracy NGOs, accusing them of catalyzing instability and
portraying as traitors the Egyptian citizens who work for them.
Trager adds that the government still hasn’t backed off from the
December raids; the organizations’ Egyptian employees remain under
investigation, and their offices remain closed. The administration
just keeps asking nicely, to no effect:
Indeed, the Obama administration’s current approach toward the
SCAF — dealing with bad behavior through communication rather than
consequences — is failing. For example, the president spoke with
Defense Minister Muhammad Hussein Tantawi on Friday night and,
according to the White House, “underscored that nongovernmental
organizations should be able to operate freely.” Yet on Saturday,
Sam LaHood, IRI’s director in Egypt, was prevented from leaving the
country.
It’s worth pausing to reflect on this: The President of the
United States asks the defense minister of a client state to do
something perfectly reasonable, and the next day the regime does
the exact opposite. How can we keep sending massive piles of
no-strings-attached cash to these people? Trager points out that
aid money has proven useful in the past for changing the Egyptian
military regime’s behavior:
Previous experience suggests that a stronger U.S. response, such
as threatening to withhold at least part of the $1.3 billion in
annual military aid to Egypt, could convince the SCAF to lift the
ban. This is precisely what the Bush administration did in 2002,
when it successfully pressured the Mubarak regime to release
Egyptian American democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim from prison
by threatening to withhold $130 million. Given the SCAF’s recent
escalation against NGOs, it is time once again to enact this
strategy.
Trager concludes that that admininstration has been hesitant to
withhold aid because “policymakers view such aid as vital to
maintaining U.S. leverage, given the longstanding relationship
between the American and Egyptian militaries, not to mention the
recent election of an Islamist-dominated parliament that will be
hostile to American interests.” This is an all-too-easy trap for an
American administration to fall into: The military presents itself
as a check on the Islamists, while meanwhile following the Mubarak
playbook of suppressing the development of any non-Islamist
opposition — and plays Washington like fiddle. Letting them get
away with it is unacceptable. As Trager puts it, “maintaining
leverage requires demonstrating a willingness to use it.” It’s past
time to demonstrate such willingness.
