CAIRO — A top U.S. official’s son who is working for a pro-democracy group in Egypt has been barred from leaving the country, along with at least five other Americans, escalating a crackdown on such groups by Egypt’s military government that has outraged the United States.
Sam LaHood, son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, said Thursday that he learned of the travel ban only when he was turned away from the Cairo airport Saturday. He is director of the Egyptian program of the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based civil-society organization.
IRI was one of three U.S.-based nonprofit groups in Cairo that were raided and shut down Dec. 29 by Egyptian authorities who accused the groups of using foreign funds to support unrest in Egypt.
After an outcry in Washington and in European capitals, the ruling generals appeared to retreat, promising President Barack Obama and other top officials that the computers and other property confiscated from the three U.S.-based groups and at least four other nongovernmental organizations would be returned and their offices reopened. But the offices remain closed, the equipment is still gone and, in an apparent escalation, a travel ban has been imposed on foreigners being investigated by the Egyptian government.
Up to 40 foreigners are now on a travel-ban list as a result of the Egyptian investigation, said Scott Mastic, IRI’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“It’s absolutely an escalation,” Mastic said of the bans, which were first reported Wednesday by Politico. “To have a strategic U.S. ally issue bans against American citizens is deeply troubling.”
Employees of IRI, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House have been called in several times for questioning focused on foreign funding and the legality of their presence in Egypt. IRI said it was told by Egyptian judicial officials that if the case goes to court, trials would begin next month.
U.S. officials say they have pressed Egypt on the issue repeatedly and forcefully in almost daily conversations between the U.S. Embassy and the Egyptian government.
In private, State Department officials have told Egypt that its actions are jeopardizing U.S. aid to Egypt’s military totaling more than $1.3 billion a year, said Charles Dunne, the director of Middle East and North Africa programming for Freedom House.
NDI and IRI are democracy-building groups backed by the U.S. government that operate globally. Both have been monitoring Egypt’s ongoing, multi-phase parliamentary elections. Freedom House advocates for democracy, political freedoms and human rights.
By investigating the groups, Egypt’s embattled military chiefs appear to be trying to prove that foreign organizations have been funding and orchestrating recent waves of anti-government demonstrations, in which scores have been killed and hundreds wounded.
The U.S. Congress has adopted a resolution that will not allow military aid to Egypt to continue without a certification that the government is carrying out a democratic transition.
