Sunday, February 26, 2012

Washington's NGO Firestorm



Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Al-Masry Al-Youm

".....The crackdown on civil society in Egypt is of grave concern but not new, having occurred in various forms under the Mubarak regime in the years leading up to the revolution.

Yet the firestorm in Washington does not appear to be out of any genuine concern for promoting political freedom and social justice in Egypt, rather, it seems to be a protective fury over the targeting of the American groups, two of which - the International Republican Institute and the Democratic National Institute - get the bulk of their funding from the U.S. government.

This disparity is evident when comparing the backlash over the NGO investigation with the reaction from the Obama administration and U.S. lawmakers to repeated human rights abuses committed against Egyptians over the past year, including the killing and jailing of protesters. In the past few months alone, U.S. officials have responded to some of the most violent episodes of the transitional period with tepid statements of "concern" and have, at times, reaffirmed U.S. ties with Egypt and a continued flow of aid....."

No comments: