‘Egypt the Prize’

‘Egypt the Prize’

The American campaign to hijack the Arab Spring backfires
by Justin Raimondo, January 02, 2012

Imagine the following scenario: a wealthy foreign country decides that the United States is insufficiently democratic. They launch a program to “teach” us the ABCs of “democracy” via a plethora of organizations devoted to “human rights” and “election monitoring,” directly funded by themselves, shipping millions of taxpayer dollars to thousands of well-compensated “activists.” As election time draws near, this foreign money is poured into the coffers of “activist” groups whose main purpose is to instigate street protests that often end in violence, as well as finance political parties whose platforms are conducive to the foreign policy objectives of their generous patron.

How long would such an operation be allowed to exist? The answer is: not long.

The US has laws against foreign funding of political parties and other groups: such an operation would be


shut down

before it even had a chance to get off the ground.

Egypt – and virtually every other country on earth – has similar laws on the books. Which is why the manufactured “outrage” over the Egyptian government’s recent crackdown on foreign-funded “human rights” groups is so baffling. In a coordinated series of raids, Egyptian police accompanied by investigative judges entered the headquarters of several such groups throughout the country, seizing computers, sealing offices, and confiscating bundles of cash. According to the Associated Press, an Egyptian Interior Ministry official “said the military on Thursday found 70,000 Egyptian pounds ($11,600) in the office of one unidentified group, and seized half a million Egyptian pounds ($83,000) from the National Democratic Institute.”

The National Democratic Institute is the international arm of the US Democratic party: it receives its funding directly from Uncle Sam and a number of “private” contributors whose identities are kept under wraps. NDI chief honcho is a former legislative director of the America-Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the [url=http://www.antiwar.com/orig/mearwalt.php?articleid=9573]powerful pro-Israel lobby in the US.

Given the historical enmity between Egypt and Israel, do you think the Egyptians might be justifiably wary of such a group spreading cash around? Yet Wollack pretends there is something highly unusual about the Egyptian government’s actions: “Cracking down on organizations whose sole purpose is to support the democratic process during Egypt’s historic transition sends a disturbing signal,” he said in a statement.”

Make no mistake about the “sole purpose” of US-funded groups: it is about serving the interests of those who pay their bills and their salaries.

Also raided: the International Republican Institute – the foreign arm of the GOP – Freedom House – the historic home of right-wing Social Democrats and international busybodies – as well as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (funded by the German government) and fourteen other foreign-funded groups.

Washington’s reaction to the raid was immediate and virulent: while an official US State Department spokeswoman gave out the usual we’re-“deeply-concerned” boilerplate, the New York Times reported:

Read more here: http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/01/01/egypt-the-prize/