dagblog - Comments for "2009 cable tells of Mubarak resisting U.S. calls for reform"

On the McCain Feingold Casey

artappraiser — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:26:37 +0000

In reply to 2009 cable tells of Mubarak resisting U.S. calls for reform

On the McCain Feingold Casey Durbin resolution on promotion of democracy in Egypt last July and what lobbyists for Egypt did:

Amid Protests, Egypt's D.C. Lobbyists Draw Scrutiny

by Peter Overby

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A trio of Washington's best-connected lobbyists makes more than $1 million a year helping the Mubarak government buy armaments and ward off criticism in Washington.

Lobbyists In Action

Last summer, Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold introduced a bipartisan resolution criticizing the Egyptian government. It called on Cairo to stop arbitrary detention and torture, and ensure free elections.

Advocates on both sides started contacting senators. Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker says he spoke with the Egyptian ambassador, a human-rights group and former GOP Rep. Bob Livingston.

Livingston called because the Egyptian government is one of his clients. Since 2007, the Mubarak government has employed Livingston and two other top lobbyists: former Democratic Rep. Toby Moffett and Tony Podesta, one of the most influential Democratic lobbyists in town these days. (Full disclosure: NPR is a client of Podesta's lobby firm.)...
[....]

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/07/133566260/amid-protests-egypts-d-c-lobbyis...

Here is info. on that resolution with link to the resolution page; it's basically asking for a lot of what the demonstrators want, beyond seeing Mubarak leave:

Senate Resolution Supports Democracy in Egypt
July 23rd, 2010 by Jennifer
On Tuesday, S.RES.586, “Supporting democracy, human rights, and civil liberties in Egypt,” sponsored by Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI), and co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA), Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), was referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. The resolution calls on Egypt to repeal the Emergency Law; ensure that upcoming elections are “free, fair, transparent, and credible”; “lift legislative restrictions on freedoms of assembly, association, and expression”; and end all arbitary detention, torture, and other forms of harassment.” The resolution also recognizes that “providing unconditional support for governments that do not respect those basic human rights undermines the credibility of the United States,” and calls on the administration to “make respect for basic human rights and democratic freedoms a priority” in bilateral relations with Egypt, while also engaging more extensively in “providing appropriate funding to international and domestic election observers, as well as to civil society organizations.” Furthermore, according to the resolution, organizations carrying out U.S. democracy promotion activities, as well as the nature of the assistance itself, “shall not be subject to the prior approval of the Government of Egypt.”

UK refuses to suspend Egypt

artappraiser — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:25:56 +0000

In reply to We could look worse:Egyptian

UK refuses to suspend Egypt arms sales

Britain sold £16.4m worth of arms to Egypt in 2009, according to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade

By Richard Norton Taylor, The Guardian, 8 February 2011

The British government refuses to say whether it would follow the example of Germany and France and suspend exports of arms and riot control equipment to Egypt. Instead, UK officials say decisions will be taken on a "case by case" basis in line with its own and EU guidelines....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/08/uk-arms-exports-egypt

We could look worse:Egyptian

artappraiser — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:03:40 +0000

In reply to 2009 cable tells of Mubarak resisting U.S. calls for reform

We could look worse:

Egyptian Government Paid For Visit, French Prime Minister Says
By STEVEN ERLANGER, New York Times February 8, 2011

PARIS — Prime Minister François Fillon admitted on Tuesday that he had accepted free lodging and transportation for his family from the Egyptian government during a Christmas vacation. His statement came as the foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, again refused to resign for accepting two free flights from a Tunisian businessman close to Tunisia’s former first family....

Ms. Alliot-Marie has been criticized for vacationing in Tunisia between Christmas and New Year’s with her partner, also a government minister, as demonstrators there were already in the streets of some cities and some had died. Mr. Fillon was visiting a quiet Egypt at the invitation of the Egyptian authorities, and he had an official meeting there with President Hosni Mubarak....

The Socialist Party has called for the resignation of Ms. Alliot-Marie — calls she has rejected — and on Tuesday she told Parliament that she would not resign and apologized for her “clumsiness” in accepting the flights. Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Fillon have supported her, with Mr. Fillon calling the contretemps “a very politicized polemic.”

Olivier Dartigolles, a Communist Party spokesman, said he now “better understood the enthusiasm of François Fillon to fly to the aid” of the foreign minister. Mr. Dartigolles said that after the scandal of “Air Ben Ali,” a reference to the ousted Tunisian president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, “here is ‘Air Mubarak.’ ” He added, “The spectacle of this government that believes everything is permitted has lasted too long....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/world/europe/09france.html