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.
This should be huge news, because Pelosi's adventure could be discounted as simply being stupid, but this certainly shows an intent to meet and negotiate directly with the West's worst enemies.
They are going to start a world war .. so make sure you have lots of popcorn for this show
Qutb attended Havard. With those liberal college professors asking, “Why do the terrorists hate America”, they should reflect on question upon themselves.
Bay Area House reps. on the move
The meetings with the Brotherhood aren't even mentioned.
Qutb's writings would later become the theoretical basis for many radical Islamic groups of today -- including al Qaeda. Qutb increasingly saw the redemption of Egypt in the application of Islamic law.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1253796
Does Hoyer not have a clue who these people are????
Of course he knows that these people want to overthrow all Western governments and institute a single Islamic world government. What's the big deal with that?!
Pelosi and Hoyer would never meet with the Boyscouts because they don’t kiss up to the gay gestapo.
However, they are willing to meeting with people who want to kill all gays. Notice not a peep out the radical social liberal groups.
SYRIA: U.S. CONGRESS LEADER'S VISIT RILES MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Huh?
This story and another about how the Moslem Brotherhoon in Syria are mad at Pelosi is linked on the Long War thread...
You can’t use a cannon for a cold civil war!You need an ice bucket or something! LOL!
TANKS,,,them libs keep this “Under-Cut” up at every turn,,,
;0)
I'm sure they did.
Hoyer is not an idiot, he knows who they are.
From his website
Steny Hoyer also is a widely respected voice on foreign policy and international affairs. As the former Chair and Ranking Democrat on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission), he championed the cause of human rights, individual freedoms, democracy and religious liberties throughout the world. He called for decisive U.S. and NATO action to stop the carnage throughout the former Yugoslavia, and, more recently, condemned the repressive tactics of Afghanistan's former ruling regime, the Taliban; recognized the danger posed by that government before the terrorist attacks of September 11; and urged action against genocide in Sudan.
Meeting with them is not beyond ignorant, it's treasonous
jeeez louise...it sounds like the Dems huddled and decided to attack America’s foreign policy in ALL of the hot spots in the Middle East and Africa.
No telling what we HAVEN’T heard.
I posted on another thread..that I heard an interview with Lantos today...and the interviewer asked him about what they told Assad about not letting insurgents to enter Iraq from Iraq and cutting ties with Hamas and Hezbollah...
Lantos told her the discussions were PRIVATE..and he couldn’t disclose what Pelosi said...but he did say that she gave them a “detailed” list of the Dems foreign policy agenda.
New slogan:
The Democratic Party - After a while, you’ll hardly notice the stench
I am thinking he knows exactly who they are...and that is why he and Pelosi and Lantos and others are meeting with them...so they can tell them what WILL happen when they win the White House.
I am sure that MB and Assad and others understand what THEIR job is...in order to keep Bush and the GOP form having ANY positive news out of the Middle East and Africa.
Thanks...glad to know it is on the Long War thread...
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