Posted on 04/07/2007 3:53:36 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAIRO, Egypt - A top U.S. Democratic congressman met a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed opposition group, during a recent visit to the country, the Islamic fundamentalist group and U.S. officials said Saturday.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record) met with the Muslim Brotherhood's parliament leader, Mohammed Saad el-Katatni, twice on Thursday — once at the parliament building and then at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said Brotherhood spokesman Hamdi Hassan.
U.S. Embassy spokesman John Berry would only confirm that Hoyer, who represents Maryland, met with el-Katatni at U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone's home at a reception with other politicians and parliament members.
Though officially banned since 1954, the Brotherhood is tolerated by the government and has become Egypt's largest opposition group and President Hosni Mubarak's most powerful rival.
Its members, who run as independents, make up the largest opposition bloc in parliament, holding about one-fifth of its 454 seats.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has refused in the past to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood.
But Berry said U.S. government policy does not bar meetings with Brotherhood members of parliament and Hoyer's talks with el-Katatni were not a change in U.S. policy toward the group.
"It's our diplomatic practice around the world to meet with parliamentarians, be they members of political parties or independents," Berry said. "We haven't changed our policy with regard to the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization."
The State Department had no comment Saturday on Hoyer's meetings with the group.
Berry stressed that Hoyer met with el-Katatni in his capacity as an independent member of Egyptian parliament. He would not say what the two discussed.
Hassan said the two lawmakers discussed developments in the Middle East, the "Brotherhood's vision" and opposition movements in Egypt. He said the two met privately at the ambassador's home and with other members of Hoyer's bipartisan delegation and Egyptian lawmakers at the parliament building.
Hoyer's meeting came just a day after Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration for meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.
Pelosi and other Democrats argue the administration needs to engage Syria to resolve some of the most intractable problems in the Middle East, such as Iraq and the Israeli-Arab conflict. But the Bush administration rejects that approach, accusing Syria of exacerbating the troubles in neighboring Iraq and Lebanon.
Jon Alterman, a Mideast specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Bush administration officials may have avoided meeting Muslim Brotherhood members because that could strain relations with the secular Egyptian government, one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East.
"The difficulty when it gets to Egypt is that the Brotherhood is not a legal group within Egypt and the U.S. government is wary of violating laws in countries in which it operates," he told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"The larger constraint on our willingness to meet the Brotherhood is the Egyptian government's unease with our government's meeting with the Brotherhood."
Hoyer, who also met with Mubarak during his visit, left Egypt on Friday. A telephone message left with his spokeswoman Saturday was not immediately returned. Calls to el-Katatni also went unanswered Saturday.
The Muslim Brotherhood's parliament bloc Web site said the meetings were not part of an effort to engage the United States.
"The Brotherhood not only has reservations on dialogue with the Americans but rejects the unfair American policy in the region," the Web site said.
Washington has been pressing Mubarak for years to enact reforms as part of a Bush administration campaign to spread democracy in the Mideast. And Rice expressed concern in March that "all voices" were not being heard in deliberations over amending the constitution as part of those reforms.
"There's been a growing sense in Washington over 20 years that Islamic politics are here to stay, and the U.S. interest in promoting democracy around the world means we should be engaging with a growing number of actors," Alterman said.
___
Associated Press writers Anna Johnson in Cairo and John Heilprin in Washington contributed to this report.
I recently read “The Looming Tower.” I have no illusions about the Muslim Brotherhood. I would have thought that these elected representatives have this information to them on request. I’m pretty sure they do. So they treat with these folks with full knowledge of who and what they are. Not a good or hopeful sign.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Sadat
(snip)
The assassination was carried out by army members who were part of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization. They opposed Sadat’s negotiations with Israel, as well as his use of force in the September crackdown.
A fatwa approving the assassination had been obtained from Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the U.S. for his role in the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
That is absolutely chilling Txsleuth. Thanks for posting it.
VirginiaMom
Great catch Txie,,,their another moozzi “street-gang” that needs to be taken out...
This whole business could bring an entirely different meaning to ‘Congressional Investigation’.
- David Horowitz, from his book Unholy Alliance.
In other words, the Islamic radicals have aligned themselves with the lowlife Commies, so it's no wonder the lowlife Leftists in this country have aligned with them.
These complete and utter IDIOTS will be slaughtered by the radicals with which they have aligned themselves. They will never get it.
Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.
Oh, you did read the Looming Tower...I have it on my list (which is getting longer, not shorter).
I thought our tax dollars partly went to advisors and aides for these idiot Congresscritters....shouldn’t they inform them???
ah heck...they know exactly who they are associating themselves with..and they not only don’t care, they are proud of it....and worse yet, they don’t have to fear repercussions.
BTW..We know that before they voted on the stupid War Supplemental Bill...that they were asked to sit in on a long distance conference call with Gen. Petraeus, in order to ask any questions they might have.
NO Dems showed up for that teleconference.
BUT, now I hear that they want Gen. Petraeus to COME to Washington for a HEARING about what is going on in Iraq!!!
I think...if they have the time to be romping all over the Middle East meeting with Terrorists...they should get their BUTTS to Iraq, and talk to Petraeau there!
Guess it’s a toss-up whether the dems are more dangerous in Washington or abroad.
FoxNews just mentioned this meeting on their Fox News Update....
“BUT, now I hear that they want Gen. Petraeus to COME to Washington for a HEARING about what is going on in Iraq!!!”
They want to interrupt momentum in the progress he is making.
WHOA! FOX IS REPORTING THE MEETING BETWEEN HOYER and MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD NOW. It was in the 11:00 update. Brief, but it was there.
Who-hoooooooo
I just heard the news babe on Fox News tell about Hoyer’s visits BOTH to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday...and she even said that “we don’t know what they discussed”....sinister sounding..GREAT!
Oh...but bad news...she also said that the Iranian diplomat that was released the day the Brit hostages were released..is claiming he was TORTURED by the USA..CIA, I think...
You guys don’t think he has been listening to OUR politicians complain about Bush’s “torture policy” do you??? /s
LOL...we ALL heard that!!
NOW...lets see if any other MEDIA pick it up.
This is coming out just in time for the Sunday Talk shows tomorrow...I wonder if anyone will mention it then??
Good, that means that is out there. The torture claim is in the terrorist manual. Leahy and Levin may try to make something about it, but everyone knows they are told to say that. I think that will die on the vine.
It will be interesting to see if anyone does. I can’t stomach the Sunday shows, so just follow along...lurking on the Sunday thread. I KNOW you will watch Txsleuth. You have an “iron” stomach...lol!
VirginiaMom
yes, stomp out the democrats!
We know the panel on Fox will discuss Pelosi, so I’m betting they’ll cover Hoyer, too.
The Journal Editorial Report is covering Pelosi’s trip to Damascus right now. Gigot said it sounds like the dems are trying to run foreign policy.
This is one of the best discussion programs on television, IMO.
That's right. The voters will continue to vote for Democrat congressmen.
Wasn’t that a GREAT discussion about what the Dems are doing??
That show is so great...because it is all adults..now shouting over each other...and they have all done their homework.
I guess when this was taped, they hadn’t heard about the Hoyer trip, or I am sure they would have mentioned it.
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