CAIRO — Egypt’s ruling generals are playing a risky game of brinksmanship by cracking down on American nonprofit groups that promote democracy, threatening a relationship with Washington that has brought the military billions of dollars in aid over the past three decades.
The generals may be betting that the U.S. cannot afford to cut relations with Egypt — a cornerstone of American Mideast policy. But the ruling military council may also fear it has much more than foreign aid to lose if it fully embraces a democratic transition that could bring civilian oversight of its substantial financial assets and curb its long-standing domination of politics.
Egypt on Sunday referred 19 Americans, including the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and 24 other employees of pro-democracy nonprofit groups to trial before a criminal court on accusations they illegally used foreign funds to foment unrest in the country. The referral came one day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Egypt that failure to resolve the dispute may lead to the loss of American aid.
“I think we have to have every aspect of our relationship with Egypt examined until these people are removed from any indictment and allowed to leave or do whatever they need to do,” Republican Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in Washington.
The depth of the tensions was evident when an Egyptian government delegation abruptly canceled meetings in Washington with U.S. lawmakers set for Monday and Tuesday.
“We understand that we have a real strategic interest in keeping good relations with the Egyptians. It’s the biggest country in the Arab world,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut. “But on the other hand, we can’t just sit back when Americans get charged and potentially incarcerated for what are trumped- up charges, ridiculous,” said Lieberman, who together with McCain spoke to reporters after a meeting with the Israeli foreign minister.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Lea-hy said Cairo ignores at its own peril a provision he authored about U.S. aid to Egypt. The provision requires the secretary of state to certify to Congress that Egypt is supporting the transition to civilian government by holding fair elections and establishing policies “to protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due process of law” before Cairo gets $1.3 billion in military aid this year.
