Egypt says it has ended US lobbyists' contract

[maddezmom]

Associated Press / January 29, 2012

CAIRO—Egypt's Foreign Ministry said Sunday it has ended a contract with three Washington lobbying firms to cut expenses, denying reports that the American companies were the ones to terminate the contract.


The rupture occurred as Cairo faces criticism from Washington for banning at least 10 Americans and Europeans from leaving the country as part of an investigation into foreign-funded civil society organizations. Among those barred was Sam LaHood of the U.S.-based International Republican Institute, who is the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.


The ban sparked anger in the United States, and Washington warned on Tuesday that the campaign raised concerns about Egypt's transition to democracy and could jeopardize American aid that Egypt's battered economy needs badly after a year of political and social unrest.


The travel ban was part of an Egyptian criminal investigation into foreign-funded democracy organizations after soldiers raided the offices of 10 such groups last month, including the IRI and its sister organization, the National Democratic Institute, as well as several Egyptian organizations.

more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2012/01/29/egypt_says_it_ended_us_lobbyists_contract/

[jwirr]

1. Oops - did the CIA get caught with its pants down?

[dipsydoodle]

2. aka foreign-funded democracy organizations

[jwirr]

3. Yes. They are our favorite means of disrupting foreign governments.

[MADem]

4. It's all about the money, money, money...the lede is buried here. Deeply.

Hostage taking by an ally--how charming!

Meanwhile, a delegation from Egypt's Defense Ministry has arrived in New York, Egypt's state news agency reported.

MENA quoted military attache Gen. Mohammed el-Kishki as saying that the visit was aimed at discussing "cooperation between the two countries in military affairs."

Egypt's army, which took power after the February 2011 ouster of Hosni Mubarak, receives 1.3 billion dollars a year in U.S. foreign assistance.

The country's aid package has come under pressure by members of Congress who want assurances that Egypt will abide by a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, and that the military rulers will respect democratic freedoms.

[izquierdista]

5. Less "aid" will help them out

You know that all that military bling-bling comes with strings attached and doesn't help the average Egyptian get clean water or public transportation or schooling or medical care. It's a good thing if some burly Egyptian bouncers are giving Uncle Sam the bum's rush out of their country.

[former9thward]

6. I don't see them throwing our money out.

We should withdraw all aid and let the military dictators provide the "clean water or public transportation or schooling or medical care."

[izquierdista]

7. Them? Be careful with your pronouns

Them, the Egyptian military, they get the lion's share of the "aid" and of course they won't look a gift horse in the mouth (or a gift tank in the barrel).

Them, the Egyptian people, get jackshit from Uncle Sam, maybe a big government project that improves the infrastructure for their 1%, while they get debt payments for the next 30 years. "Our money" doesn't come anywhere near their throwing range.

[FarCenter]

8. They can most likely replace the 1.3 billion with aid from other Middle East countries.

[former9thward]

10. Good luck with that.

[FarCenter]

11. There is no way that a democratic government can be seen as bribed

The current aid to Egypt is quite transparently a bribe of the old dictatorial regime in return for collaborating with the US and Israel. The military aid bought the cooperation of the military in supporting the Mubarak government.

A democratic Islamic government will not stand for this.

So the US -Egypt aid relationship is bound to change.

Their best bet is to get some aid from Middle East oil states, probably more on the civilian side than military.

$1.3B is just a drop in the bucket anyway. We spend more than that in a week in Afghanistan.

[MADem]

12. No they can't. First, those "Middle East countries" are all feeling the pain and cutting back, too,

and second, that military "money" isn't all (or even mostly) money, it's stuff. Foreign Military Sales.

It's planes, spare parts, training, things that are Made In USA by our defense industries. They can't easily change horses in midstream. It would put them back decades to even try. Their readiness would start to tank in fairly short order.

The Saudis aren't going to take on the major subsidization of Egypt on top of all the cash they're already shovelling at them (and it's massive amounts, already), to say nothing of the massive amounts they toss at other regional actors (Jordan lives off 'em, basically, Pakistan takes cash hand over fist--there are others as well who live and die by the grace and favour of the KSA, and none of them have any money to loan or give to Egypt). The Saudis aren't cheap by a long shot, but they're the only ones with any real money to throw around, and they aren't shy about doing that--but there's a limit.

[FarCenter]

13. KSA just signed a deal to buy $24B of US aircraft

The signing of the letter of offer and acceptance between the U.S. government and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the F-15 is the last official step toward completing an overall sale announced in late 2010 for 84 new and 70 upgraded F-15s. The U.S. government has also offered the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 70 new AH-64 Apache strike helicopters and 36 AH-6i helicopters, plus support and training. All the LOAs together will total approximately $24 billion in Boeing sales.

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=2088

Besides, Egypt is not particularly threatened and has minimal military needs. Mostly their military needs tear gas, anti-riot vehicles and other kinds of population control equipment.

[MADem]

14. We're not going to break our friendship with KSA any time soon.

But they are over-extended at this point in time. They're supporting everyone and their brother over that way, and I doubt they're looking to have to provide "special oversight" in addition to what they already do in Egypt. Often as not, we have a hand in that sort of thing, at their behest.

Egypt may not be particularly threatened now, but they live next door to America's 51st state and they've been at war with them before. All it takes is a nut taking over and things could go wobbly in a hurry. They aren't just buying police equipment either. They buy fighter jets, helos and training a/c from us. Much of their air inventory is of US manufacture, and what isn't is mostly French. F-16s (and they have purchased a bunch more that are in the delivery pipeline) aren't cheap.

This is a complex situation.

[MADem]

9. That's the tip of the iceberg in terms of US foreign aid.

And it won't help the ARMY out, I can assure you. Right now, like it or not, rightly or wrongly, they've got their hand on the tiller. It'll be interesting to see which way they tack.

They aren't giving Uncle Sam the "bum's rush." This is a frigging shakedown. It's not working out quite the way they hoped, though.