Free Republic

A sudden new wave of anti-Americanism is thriving in Cairo. ... In Egypt today, all major political forces — the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF, the Muslim Brotherhood and the government — are embracing anti-American populism. The new atmosphere in Egypt leaves the Obama administration — and Congress — with some stark choices. Washington can employ the nuclear option — cut the assistance and test the durability of the U.S.-underwritten 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty — or continue to fund an increasingly hostile and unstable state in hopes that democracy will take root. In this environment, prospects...

Regimes come and go but the bribes remain the same. US aid to Egypt is guaranteed by the Camp David Accords and stopping it would be a violation of that treaty, a high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker said Sunday.Essam El-Erian, who also serves as chairman of the Egyptian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said that should aid from Washington be cut, the Brotherhood would consider changing the terms of Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel.El-Erian told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat that the US needs to understand that “what was acceptable before the revolution is no longer,� and that should the aid provisions...

Mideast: As the president sneaks more money in the budget for Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood thugs he helped install in Cairo show their gratitude by threatening to attack Israel. For three decades, the U.S. essentially paid Egypt not to attack our closest ally in the region. The policy worked to maintain peace. But Obama nullified that deal by backing Islamist revolutionaries against reliably pro-U.S. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Now the bribe has lost its effect. The new Egyptian leadership, led by the virulently anti-Jewish Muslim Brotherhood, this week issued a warning to Washington that it should understand that "what was...

Hamas announced the sole power plant in Gaza went dark after it ran out of diesel on Tuesday. "The Gaza power plant has completely stopped working because of the shortage of fuel entering the Gaza Strip, and the depletion of diesel it needs to work," said Ahmad Abu al-Amrin, an official from Gaza's energy authority. He called on Egypt "to assume its historical responsibility in supporting the resistance of the Palestinian people by ensuring they had all the necessary fuel to operate the plant". .....

A top Muslim Brotherhood official has warned that any cuts in U.S. aid to Egypt could affect Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel – the latest sign that Egypt’s emerging political forces intend to call Washington’s bluff over the diplomatic dispute triggered by a crackdown on non-governmental organizations. Egyptian judges have referred 16 Americans and 27 others linked to NGOs for trial, accusing them of using foreign funds to encourage disruptive protests. Among the targeted NGOs whose assets and funds have been seized are the U.S. government-funded International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute. On Capitol Hill, the chorus of senior...

CAIRO, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The Muslim Brotherhood is to unveil the names of a coalition government as soon as it's asked to form a new leadership, an official said. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party is dominating Egypt's post-revolution political environment alongside conservative Islamist group al-Nour. Mahmoud Hussein, secretary-general for the Muslim Brotherhood, said the organization was ready to form a government. "We will announce the names of nominees when we are asked to form a government," he was quoted by the Egyptian Independent news agency as saying. A source inside the Muslim Brotherhood told the news service...

Senior Muslim Brotherhood official tells 'Al Hayat' if the US cuts aid to Egypt, it would be violation of 1979 peace accords. US aid to Egypt is guaranteed by the Camp David Accords, and stopping it would be a violation of that treaty, a high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker said Sunday. Essam El-Erian, who also serves as chairman of the Egyptian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said that should aid from Washington be cut, the Brotherhood would consider changing the terms of Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel. El-Erian told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat the US needs to understand that “what was...

Cairo (CNN) -- The first anniversary of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's dramatic ouster from office arrived unceremoniously Saturday amid strained relations with citizens and its longtime ally, the United States. Activists kicked off a general strike. Scattered and lightly attended protests occurred at universities in Cairo with activists demanding the swift transfer of power from the Supreme Council of Armed Forces to a civilian government. The Egypt Revolutionaries' Alliance, comprised of democratic and secular political groups, wants the immediate dismantling of the interim government and the appointment of leaders picked by the People's Assembly, the parliament's lower house. It also...

Copts in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat (El-Ameriya), Alexandria, were attacked on January 27 by a mob of 3000 Muslims led by Salafi leaders, who looted and torched homes and shops belonging to Copts. The violence was prompted by allegations made by a Muslim barber named Toemah that a 34-year-old Coptic tailor, Mourad Samy Guirgis, had on his mobile phone illicit photos of a Muslim woman. Mourad denied the accusation and surrendered to the police for fear for his life.... Three "reconciliation meetings" were held at the El-Ameriya village police headquarters. They were attended by Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood representatives from...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt said on Wednesday it would not be swayed by threats to aid when investigating foreign-funded pro-democracy groups and NGOs, a case that has prompted Washington to warn that U.S. military support worth $1.3 billion a year may be in jeopardy. The United States wants Egypt to drop travel bans on at least 19 U.S. citizens involved in the case but Egypt's government says it cannot intervene in a judicial probe of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) over whether they violated laws such as receiving foreign cash without official approval. A total of 43 foreign and local activists are...

A trio of leading US senators on Tuesday warned Egypt that the risk of a "disastrous" rupture in ties had "rarely been greater" amid an escalating row over the planned trial of US pro-democracy activists. Republican senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte, joined by independent Joe Lieberman, also warned that US congressional "support for Egypt -- including continued financial assistance -- is in jeopardy." "The current crisis with the Egyptian government has escalated to such a level that it now threatens our long-standing partnership," the three senators wrote in a joint statement. "There are committed opponents of the United States...

Every Supreme Court justice is required, under Article VI of the United States Constitution, to be bound by his or her oath or affirmation “to support this Constitution.” Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has just broken this commitment by insulting, in front of a foreign audience, the very document she is sworn to support.In an interview during her visit to Cairo, which aired January 30, 2012 on Al-Hayat TV, Justice Ginsburg advised the Egyptian people to ignore the U.S. Constitution in preparing their own new constitution. It’s just too “old,” she said. Instead, Justice Ginsburg lavished praise on several...

More taxation for Islamization as we told you about here in 2010. Gadi Adelman writing at Family Security Matters has more disturbing waste of taxpayer money via U.S. Taxpayers Subsidize Overseas Mosques.The story of the U.S. State Department funding mosques overseas was uncovered in July 2010 when reporter Justin Farmer from ABC affiliate WSBTV Channel 2 in Atlanta Georgia did an investigative report. Farmers’ story focused on how the U.S. was spending its tax payer dollars while supposedly trying to cut the budget. The U.S. budget is so bad that we need to cut $487 billion in defense spending, but...

(Cairo, Egypt)  --  Egypt is set to try 19 Americans, including the son of former Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood. Egyptian officials announced yesterday that Sam LaHood is among the 43 people to be tried for what prosecutors called using funds from their non-profit organizations to foment unrest in their country.

The son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is among 19 Americans being referred to criminal trial for allegedly receiving foreign funds illegally and being involved in banned activity in Egypt, several news agencies reported Sunday. In all, Egyptian officials say 44 non-governmental organization workers will be put before the court after investigating judges claimed they had reason to try the democracy and rights workers. The move is likely to further sour relations between Egypt's military rulers and the United States, the Arab nation's chief western backer for more than 30 years. The decision came just after Secretary of State Hillary...

Ignoring a U.S. threat to cut off aid, Egypt on Sunday referred 19 Americans and 24 other employees of nonprofit groups to trial before a criminal court on accusations they illegally used foreign funds to foment unrest in the country.

The son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is among 19 Americans being referred to criminal trial for allegedly receiving foreign funds illegally and being involved in banned activity in Egypt, several news agencies reported Sunday.

Egyptian investigating judges on Sunday referred 43 NGO workers, including 19 Americans, to trial before a criminal court for allegedly being involved in banned activities and illegally receiving foreign funds. The decision is likely to further sour relations between Egypt's military rulers and the United States, the Arab nation's chief western backer for more than 30 years. The referral is the latest development in a long-running row between Washington and Cairo over an Egyptian crackdown on U.S.-funded groups promoting democracy and human rights.

CAIRO—An explosion hit a gas pipeline running from Egypt to Israel Sunday, witnesses and state television reported. The pipeline, which also supplies gas to Jordan, has come under attack at least 12 times since Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011. The latest blast took place in the Massaeed area west of the Mediterranean coastal town of al-Arish. Gas pumping was stopped after the explosion. … Egypt's 20-year gas deal with Israel, signed in the Mubarak era, is unpopular with some Egyptians, with critics accusing Israel of not paying enough for the gas. Previous explosions have sometimes led to...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's tax authority building in Cairo was set on fire as street protests against army rule raged into the early hours of Sunday, state TV footage showed. Parts of the building, close to the interior ministry, were set ablaze, state TV said. Anti-government protests, triggered by violence at a Port Said soccer match which killed 74 people, have killed a further 12 people in the last four days. This last week was one of Egypt's bloodiest since an uprising

Via MEMRI TV, skip ahead to 9:28. I’m actually sort of charmed that a left-wing jurist thinks it matters much what’s written in a nation’s constitution. Our Supreme Court managed to tease a right to abortion out of a clause governing legal procedure, didn’t it? Seventy years earlier, a right-wing Court teased a right of contract out of the same provision. If you can do that, there ain’t much you can’t do. In fact, we’re on the cusp right now of Congress being granted a new power to force Americans to buy certain products; the clause responsible for that, which...

Following are excerpts from an interview with US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on January 30, 2012. Ruth Bader Ginsburg: It is a very inspiring time - that you have overthrown a dictator, and that you are striving to achieve a genuine democracy. So I think people in the United States are hoping that this transition will work, and that there will genuinely be a government of, by, and for the people. [...] I met with the head of the elections commission. I think that the first step has gone well, and that elections...

Video at Link.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Two American women kidnapped by gunmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Friday were released into army custody hours after they were seized, security sources said.

Bedouin gunmen intercepted a tourist minivan and snatched two female American tourists and their Egyptian guide at gunpoint Friday near St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, the region's security chief said. The brazen daylight abduction along a busy highway was a new blow to Egypt's vital tourism industry, which has been heavily battered by the unrest following last year's uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.

Two security officials say gunmen have kidnapped two Americans and their Egyptian tour guide after stopping a minivan carrying the group near St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai. The military and police officials say the abductors sped away in a sedan and a pickup truck, leaving behind three other people who had been in the minivan. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, did not know the nationalities of those left behind. Authorities say a search is under way. Egypt has faced deteriorating security and a surge in crime since...

(Reuters) - Gunmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula kidnapped two American women on Friday in an apparent attempt to hold them for ransom, security sources said.

CAIRO (AP) -- Police shot and killed two protesters in Suez, Egypt, early Friday, a health official said, the first to die in clashes that erupted around the country after a riot at a soccer stadium killed 74, as sports violence spiraled into a new political crisis for Egypt. Protesters blame police for failing to control the riot after the soccer game in Port Said. In Cairo, thousands demonstrated Thursday in front of the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police. Demonstrators threw rocks, and police responded with clouds of tear gas. Hundreds were treated by medics. In Suez, witnesses said...

From the somewhat guilt filled comforts of Greece, I have been thinking about what I learned from the recent Cairo SHTF experience. I am not putting myself forth as an expert of any sort and, frankly, many or even most items on the list below might be flat out wrong….who the hell knows. We were in Cairo from Jan 25th until late Feb 3rd when the neighborhood gunfire became full-auto and regularly occurring. At that point, we decided that Friday prayers (the next day) might not yield a pleasant experience. We had no way of knowing that we had already...

No source yet. Several dead as egyptians storm soccer field after game. Police do nothing, stock market collapses.

The Supreme Court's midwinter break is often used by justices to fly off to sunny vacation spots or European capitals where they address an audience or two on someone else's tab. But this year, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is on a different sort of visit to two North African countries where popular uprisings helped topple longtime leaders. Ginsburg wrapped up a State Department-sponsored visit to Egypt on Wednesday with a public seminar at the Cairo University law school. The 78-year-old Ginsburg told students she was inspired by last year's protests that led to the end of Hosni Mubarak's regime. "This...

Arriving in Egypt last year, Julie Hughes had hoped to help write history by aiding the country's new generation of politicians and civil society groups to build a democratic future. Instead, the American director of the National Democratic Institute is under investigation by authorities for funding irregularities at her U.S.-based group and is banned from leaving Egypt, a measure that prompted other activists to seek refuge this week in the U.S. embassy in Cairo. Her hope for change, inspired by the fall of Hosni Mubarak at the hands of hundreds of thousands of protesting Egyptians, was punctured on December 29...

A retired U.S. lieutenant general who made comments some consider disparaging to Islam withdrew Monday from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast after a progressive veterans’ advocacy group — VoteVets.org — along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) asked the Army chief of staff to rescind the invitation.Last week The Blaze reported VoteVets.org told Gen. Raymond Odierno in a letter that allowing retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin to speak at West Point next week would be anathema to Army values and disrespectful to Muslim cadets. According to the Associate Press, late Monday afternoon, West Point issued a...

Egyptian state TV has raised the death toll to 73 after fans of rival soccer teams rushed the field, hurling stones and sticks at each other and sparking a stampede. State TV cited the Health Ministry and says 1,000 other people were injured in Wednesday's melee.

All hail the wondrous Arab Spring! It is one year ago today that the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square began, ending in the fall of the Mubarak regime. It was fitting that President Obama mentioned it at the State of the Union, since he had a major role in that "wave of change," calling for Mubarak's ouster and signaling to the Egyptian military who now control the country which way to turn. It's well worth examining how things are going. The parliamentary elections have been held, and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the hardcore Salafist al-Nour Party won -- surprise!...

The Egyptian justice minister returned a letter Tuesday from the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt asking him to re-examine the issue of Americans barred from leaving the country. The snub is the latest in a spat between the allies over a politically charged Egyptian investigation into foreign funded groups. Egyptian security forces raided 17 offices of 10 pro-democracy and human rights groups last month then barred at least 10 foreigners, including six Americans, from leaving the country.

... And nowhere is religious intolerance more present than in Iran. Baha'i's and Christians are consistently threatened with death and torture simply for believing. Simply for their beliefs. In September of this past year, a Christian Pastor was threatened with death if he refused to renounce his beliefs. And he is not alone in this. In Egypt, we have been witness to gruesome attacks against Coptic Christians. Attacks in the very places they hold to be sacred... Egyptians recognize that they will not have any freedoms, if they cannot be free to simply believe. Taken from the famous words of...

On the surface, it’s another attack on a Coptic Christian village by a Muslim mob, this time 3,000 of them, burning homes and shops to the ground and looting where they could on January 28th. The violence started after a rumor was spread that a Coptic man had an allegedly intimate photo of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. The Coptic man, Mourad Samy Guirgis, surrendered to the police for his protection. But, as Wendy Wright of Christian Freedom International (CFI), can explain, beneath the story is an even greater concern—a systemic case of Christian persecution that is growing...

Egyptian security officials reported a Bedouin man shot and killed a French tourist Saturday in the Sinai, in an apparent act of retribution after clashes with police. According to the online Egyptian Independent, Alexander Crister, 42, suffered multiple gunshot wounds after a man, distraught over the death of his relative in an anti-drugs raid, opened fire at random toward tourists. Yousef Abu Khashm died and three policemen sustained injuries in a series of raids on areas suspected to be linked with the narcotics trade in Hay Bader, Toshky and al-Tour, the police confirmed. The wounded police officers were identified as...

CAIRO — Egyptians cast ballots on Sunday for the upper house, with Islamists looking to build on their success in voting for the lower assembly as part of the first polls since a revolt ousted Hosni Mubarak. The powerful Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party won a crushing victory in the lower house of parliament elections, which were contested over three months, to clinch 47 percent of seats. The Al-Nur, representing the ultra-conservative Salafist current of political Islam, came second place, with liberal parties trailing far behind.

The prevailing optimism in media reports concerning the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist party's readiness to adhere to the peace treaty with Israel is based on general statements made by senior officials in both parties. These statements maintain that Egypt must honor the international treaties that it signed. Yet a more rigorous examination of the two parties' stances identifies a markedly different tendency. Both seek a way to cast off the Camp David agreement in a manner that will incur minimal diplomatic and economic damage to Egypt, and restore Egypt to its leading role in the circle of states...

A Egyptian military team plans to visit the United States next week as Cairo's crackdown on pro-democracy organizations has called into question the future of U.S. aid to Egypt, American officials said on Friday. … The Egyptian visit comes after Egypt's military-led authorities pounced on non-governmental organizations, including several funded by the U.S. government, and slapped travel bans on six American staffers including a son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former congressman. Political analysts say the crackdown, along with questions over Egypt's emergency law and security forces' treatment of women protesters, has clouded the outlook for Egypt's fledgling...

The Obama Adminstration is forging ahead with its plan to help train science, technology, and mathematics (STM) educators to heighten the nation's ability to compete globally -- not the nation he leads, that is, but the nation of Egypt. As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor reported last year, the U.S. Agency for International Devlopment (USAID) put out a call to contractors to carry out the training endeavor, which would bring dozens of Egyptian teachers and administrators to the U.S.. The goal of the training is to send the cadre back to Egypt, where ostensibly they would be better prepared to...

President Barack Obama plans to accelerate the pace of American aid to Egypt by redirecting non-urgent aid slated for other countries, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday. Speaking on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum, Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats said Washington wants to provide more immediate benefits to the most populous Arab nation, which earlier this month conducted its first democratic elections in decades. Besides redirecting some foreign aid, funding in the pipeline for long-term programs in Egypt would be shifted to quick-impact projects, Hormats said.

Unknown assailants shot dead two Coptic Christians in a village of southern Egypt prompting an angry protest by more than 1,500 of their co-religionists, police said. A police official on Friday said Muwad Hassaad and his son Hassaad Muwad Hassaad were gunned down as they were seated in front of their shop in the village of Bahgura, 600 km from Cairo. The assailants fled the scene. More than 1,500 Copts later gathered in the nearby town of Nagaa Hammadi to protest the killings. ... In October 2011, 25 people, most of them Copts, died in clashes with soldiers outside the...

CAIRO—The United States and Israel plotted the killing of Egyptian protesters during last year's 18-day uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, a lawyer for his former interior minister claimed Thursday. Lawyer Mohammed el-Gendi also accused security guards at the American University in Cairo of opening fire on protesters. The university's historical main building borders Tahrir Square, which was the focus of the anti-Mubarak revolt. El-Gendi is a lawyer for former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly. El-Adly, Mubarak, and four top security officers are being tried for complicity in the deaths of hundreds of protesters at the hands of security forces...

(Reuters) - Six Americans working for publicly funded U.S. organizations promoting democracy in Egypt have been barred from leaving the country, provoking angry demands in Washington that Cairo's new military rulers stop "endangering American lives".

Six Americans working for publicly funded U.S. organizations promoting democracy in Egypt have been barred from leaving the country, provoking angry demands in Washington that Cairo's new military rulers stop "endangering American lives". Among those hit by travel bans - one of those targeted called it "de facto detention" - is a son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, as well as other foreign staffers of the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, officials at the two organizations said.

Prominent American lobbyists are coming under fire for offering "talking points" smoothing over a recent raid by Egyptian security forces on the offices of 10 rights and democracy groups – including three American organizations. The late December raids were decried by the U.S. government as "harassment." Since then, the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that were hit have been locked in a battle with the Egyptian government. Workers have been dragged in for questioning. Despite repeated assurances, the Egyptian government has not returned the loads of equipment it confiscated in the raids. Most recently, several rights workers, including the son of U.S....

Egypt has banned the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and at least five other Americans from leaving the country, officials said Thursday, heightening tensions over an Egyptian investigation into groups that promote democracy and human rights.