Posted by Charleston Voice
Several of these US-financed groups identified have also been active in activities to de-stabilize Venezuela.
[More collateral links at bottom - search our site for additional]
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Several of these US-financed groups identified have also been active in activities to de-stabilize Venezuela.
[More collateral links at bottom - search our site for additional]
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Sam LaHood (photo: IRI)
Egypt’s military-controlled government is quickly losing support in Washington after it announced that 19 Americans working for pro-democracy groups would stand trial on licensing and financial charges.
The Americans are among 43 people, including 14 Egyptians, 5 Serbs and 2 Germans, accused of violating foreign funding laws for nongovernmental organizations. According to the Egyptian government, the 43 are accused of operating without proper licenses, “conducting research to send to the United States” and supporting candidates and parties that “serve foreign interests.”
One of those charged is Sam LaHood, the Egypt director of the Washington-based International Republican Institute (IRI), and son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Among the other Americans being charged are Patrick Butler and Natasha Tynes of the International Center for Journalists, Julie Hughes, head of the National Democratic Institute Egypt (NDI), and Charles Dunne of Freedom House. The NDI and the IRI were created in 1983 and receive funding from the U.S. government through the National Endowment for Democracy.
Five or six of the 19 charged Americans are thought to be still in Egypt, including Sam LaHood, and at least three of them have sought shelter in the U.S. embassy in Cairo.
The legal move comes at a time when the Obama administration was already discussing the suspension of $1.3 billion in annual aid to Egypt’s military, which has been the life’s blood of the Washington-Cairo relationship.
-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Charges Against U.S.-Aided Groups Come With History of Distrust in Egypt (by Scott Shane and Ron Nixon, New York Times)
Egypt Says 19 Americans Will Be Ordered To Stand Trial (by Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times)
Egypt Defies U.S. by Setting Trial for 19 Americans on Criminal Charges (by David Kirkpatrick, New York Times)
Egyptian Security Forces Raid Offices of U.S.-Funded NGOs (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov) 
