US bankrolled anti-Morsi activists?

[OzmO]

News from another news source in the world....   
(there is more to article.  I only pasted part of it)

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/07/2013710113522489801.html

Berkeley, United States - President Barack Obama recently stated the United States was not taking sides as Egypt's crisis came to a head with the military overthrow of the democratically elected president.

But a review of dozens of US federal government documents shows Washington has quietly funded senior Egyptian opposition figures who called for toppling of the country's now-deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

Documents obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley show the US channeled funding through a State Department programme to promote democracy in the Middle East region. This programme vigorously supported activists and politicians who have fomented unrest in Egypt, after autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February 2011.

The State Department's programme, dubbed by US officials as a "democracy assistance" initiative, is part of a wider Obama administration effort to try to stop the retreat of pro-Washington secularists, and to win back influence in Arab Spring countries that saw the rise of Islamists, who largely oppose US interests in the Middle East.


Activists bankrolled by the programme include an exiled Egyptian police officer who plotted the violent overthrow of the Morsi government, an anti-Islamist politician who advocated closing mosques and dragging preachers out by force, as well as a coterie of opposition politicians who pushed for the ouster of the country's first democratically elected leader, government documents show.

Make a road bump with a broken palm tree to stop the buses going into Cairo, and drench the road around it with gas and diesel. When the bus slows down for the bump, set it all ablaze so it will burn down with all the passengers inside … God bless.

Omar Afifi Soliman, US-funded anti-Morsi activist

Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, interviews, and public records reveal Washington's "democracy assistance" may have violated Egyptian law, which prohibits foreign political funding.

It may also have broken US government regulations that ban the use of taxpayers' money to fund foreign politicians, or finance subversive activities that target democratically elected governments.

'Bureau for Democracy'

Washington's democracy assistance programme for the Middle East is filtered through a pyramid of agencies within the State Department. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars is channeled through the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), USAID, as well as the Washington-based, quasi-governmental organisation the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

In turn, those groups re-route money to other organisations such as the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and Freedom House, among others. Federal documents show these groups have sent funds to certain organisations in Egypt, mostly run by senior members of anti-Morsi political parties who double as NGO activists.

The Middle East Partnership Initiative - launched by the George W Bush administration in 2002 in a bid to influence politics in the Middle East in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks - has spent close to $900m on democracy projects across the region, a federal grants database shows.

USAID manages about $1.4bn annually in the Middle East, with nearly $390m designated for democracy promotion, according to the Washington-based Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED).

The US government doesn't issue figures on democracy spending per country, but Stephen McInerney, POMED's executive director, estimated that Washington spent some $65m in 2011 and $25m in 2012. He said he expects a similar amount paid out this year.


A main conduit for channeling the State Department's democracy funds to Egypt has been the National Endowment for Democracy. Federal documents show NED, which in 2011 was authorised an annual budget of $118m by Congress, funneled at least $120,000 over several years to an exiled Egyptian police officer who has for years incited violence in his native country.

This appears to be in direct contradiction to its Congressional mandate, which clearly states NED is to engage only in "peaceful" political change overseas.

[Soul Crusher]

This article is widely disputed since our Ambassador there is very very close w the MB, a huge point of the hatred directed at us over there right now by the protestors. 

[Fury]

You should forward this article to the Egyptian opposition. They must have missed the memo considering they blame Obama and the US for backing the MB.

[a_ahmed]

Duh, the US supported mubarak in torturing, imprisoning, opressing and supressing Muslims/Muslim brotherhood.

The US has been funding the egyptian army for decades.

The muslim brother hood's interests are that of Muslims not of israel or the west. So the US tried to implant that egyptian liberal dude elbaradei fool who no one wanted, so now they tried again. The military coup and uprising fueling was by the help of the united states of course. We muslims know this.

When has the US ever supported Muslims in ruling themselves? Never. Only temporarily when with a specific mindset agenda

The whole plot was to erase the hated secular dictatorship of mubarak, make it seem like muslims got some freedom then overthrow then reinstate the SAME GARBAGE ironically via the same means and call it 'democracy in the making' and all that other jibber jabber politcal garbage.

However here's your problem. Muslims won't give up in Egypt now that they've had their freedom from decades of tyranny. You're just making new enemies every day and brewing up problems. The sad part is you'll make a civil war happen in Egypt just as its happening in Syria, except in Syria you're siding with Muslims who want to rule themselves by Islam (yes later theyll be called terrorists just like in libya). Why? Because the minority ruling government has been a secular ditatorships where the US and other western allies have been sending people to be tortured.... and that minority government has been allied with Iran which Israel and the US want to attack.

Same ol bullshit story, but americans are too deaf, dumb, blind and preocupied with big brother/american idol crap to know whats going on.

Muslims dont want liberal sevcular democracies, we want islam. Imposing governments via proxy means or military coups or funding and persuation is changing nothing but creating more problems in that part of the world.

If only the US would work WITH rather than AGAINST muslims by letting Muslims live their lives in the middle-east/africa and be friends by not interfering, cooperating through trade/etc... rather than exploitation.

Bottom line is the US is just digging itself further in the ground by screwing with the rest of the world. The 17 trillion dollar debt tells it all.

[Skeletor]

The muslim brother hood's interests are that of Muslims not of israel or the west.

Muslims dont want liberal sevcular democracies, we want islam.

What about the Egyptians that are not muslim? You don't seem to care about them...
This is not the caliphate of islam we're talking about (regardless of how you or other muslims might see it), it is Egypt and a government should serve the interests of all its people, not the ramblings of a certain sect of zealots.

[Emmortal]

The US' involvement in Egypt doesn't have anything to do with Islam, it has to do with oil and the control of the Suez Canal and the Sumed Pipeline.  If a US controlled puppet isn't installed as President of Egypt then the US loses control over a major chokepoint for oil delivery to Europe.

If  a US friendly puppet isn't leading Egypt then the US loses control over the above which is a direct threat to the value of the dollar.

[a_ahmed]

What about the Egyptians that are not muslim? You don't seem to care about them...
This is not the caliphate of islam we're talking about (regardless of how you or other muslims might see it), it is Egypt and a government should serve the interests of all its people, not the ramblings of a certain sect of zealots.

It's a Muslim country and if Muslims want to rule their country the way they want, the US has no business in it.

Aside from deionizing Muslims and Islam, the reality of an 'oppressed' christian populance is decades old bs. Yes there are incidents but there are also incidents on the other end. A person who burned a bible was jailed in Egypt under Morsi's rule for instance. But this is 'insignificant news'. Mobs that attacked Christians were also jailed.

The US wants a civil war, wants minorities to cause problems and to be displayed as inferior, etc...

The Chrsitians are a minority just as Muslims are a minority in the west. Yet the west wants the minority to implements its liberal secular christian rule.

The irony of that logic. Imagine someone does a military coup in the US and implements Islamic law because "The US is not a christian country, there are muslims too". If it doesn't work THAT WAY, it doesn't work the other way around in a Muslim country too.

All the time westerners keep talking about muslims trying to make the west 'islamic' when we aren't we're going about our business living our lives, but in fact it i the west that is trying through media, by military force and politics to always subvert these countries into being dictatorships, puppets, so called democracies, under liberal and secular pretenses.

Muslims who are indeed the majority of Muslim countries (duuuh!) don't want that crap. And yes the media will always find a bafoon who will go on tv and say what the US wants.

Hell it happened just a few days ago. All muslim channels have been shut down. Now pro-US junk channels are running about their propganda crap:

OOOOOOOOOPS

[Skeletor]

It's a Muslim country and if Muslims want to rule their country the way they want, the US has no business in it.

The whole point you buffoon is to not let religion (any religion) run the state. But in your tiny mind there are no nations or countries, just "islam" vs the "decadent west/infidels" and the delusion of a huge muslim caliphate that controls all aspects of life.

Because of course "Muslims dont want liberal sevcular democracies, we want islam."

And we see how that works out in any place there are "peaceful" muslim immigrants (legal or illegal), look at Sweden, France, Greece, UK.

[Fury]

Egypt a Muslim country? Only after the imperialist, mass-murdering, pedophile Mohammedans took it by the sword. They did a great job destroying a great civilization.

All the Arab Mohammedans should fuck off back to the hole in Medina that they crawled out of and give back all the land their imperialist ancestors took.