WASHINGTON —Two months before Egyptian police stormed the offices of U.S.-backed democracy organizations last year, seven Egyptian employees resigned from one of the American groups to protest what they called undemocratic practices.
They complained that the U.S. group, described as nonpartisan, had excluded the country’s most popular Islamist political organization from its programs, collected sensitive religious information about Egyptians when conducting polls to send to Washington and ordered employees to erase computer files and turn over all records for shipment abroad months before the raids.
“Our resignation is a result of many different practices we have been witnessing that seem suspicious and unprofessional,” the Egyptian employees wrote in their Oct. 17 resignation letter.
This wasn’t the democracy that Dawlat Soulam, one of those who quit, said she had hoped to deliver to Egypt when she went to work for the International Republican Institute.
Soulam, a New York City-born Egyptian with dual citizenship, and the others said they were troubled by work being done under programs run by Sam LaHood, the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
“Are we doing something we want to hide from the Egyptians?” Soulam, in a telephone interview from Cairo, said she asked her bosses. “Are you playing a political agenda and you don’t want to show that you want to take sides?”
IRI officials deny doing anything improper and dismiss the former employees as disgruntled. But the workers’ revolt, unknown to most, was significant because it reflected a growing sense in Egypt that U.S.-backed democracy programs were less about helping Egyptians and more about serving American interests.
Interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the workers’ protest and the broader government crackdown with the raids helped expose what U.S. officials do not want to admit publicly: The U.S. government spent tens of millions of dollars financing and training liberal groups in Egypt, the backbone of the Egyptian uprising.
This was done to build opposition to Islamic and pro-military parties in power, all in the name of developing democracy and all while U.S. diplomats were assuring Egyptian leaders that Washington was not taking sides.
“We were picking sides,” said a senior U.S. official involved in discussions with Egyptian leaders after last year’s revolution swept President Hosni Mubarak from power after three decades. The official requested anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.
Documents and interviews with U.S. and Egyptian officials show:
• U.S. diplomats knew as far back as March 2008 that Egyptian leaders might close democracy programs and arrest workers. Last year, some discussed the possibility of a stern Egyptian response to dumping $65 million into democracy training after the Arab Spring uprisings.
• Democracy training programs with strong ties to the U.S. political parties received the biggest share, $31.8 million, and spent it with few strings attached. IRI refused to work with members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. IRI’s Democratic counterpart, the National Democratic Institute, offered training and support to Brotherhood members.
• Nearly six years before the Egyptian government filed charges against the U.S. democracy workers, its leaders restricted the American democracy programs after a controversy over comments by IRI’s director.
A senior U.S. Agency for International Development official, who requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly, said she was not aware that IRI had excluded members of the Muslim Brotherhood from its programs. She denied that the agency picked sides when it distributed money.
Despite a U.S. commitment to make public the details of its democracy aid program in Egypt, USAID has refused to identify all the groups that received money and the grant amounts. The official said the agency disclosed the list to Egyptian leaders but will not release information publicly about grant recipients that don’t want to be identified. That has surprised some State Department officials.
“All I remember is, there were weekly meetings this time last year about how this all had to be posted publicly,” said a senior State Department official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive diplomatic matters.
More than a year after citizens rallied in Tahrir Square for new leadership, the U.S.-Egypt relationship remains fragile. The Egyptian government shut down U.S.-funded democracy programs. Islamic political groups that the U.S. feared would gain greater control in Egypt are becoming more popular, already holding most seats in parliament and competing in the runoff for the presidency.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in the trial of 43 democracy workers, including 16 Americans, charged with illegally operating political, campaign and election-training programs financed with U.S. and other foreign money. Most of the Americans are no longer in Egypt and are not expected at the trial.
