Biden-Harris and Blinken give Egypt $320,000,000 in military aid on the down-low

Mo, Larry, and Curly

Everyone seems to still be caught up in the Trump-Harris debate and the 9-11 anniversary commemoration. Nobody paid attention to the story of the administration giving Egypt $320 million in military aid, in spite of the fact that the country has not met the majority of human rights we required they meet, among other little things like their rabid anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic stance in the Middle East. This clearly demonstrates the incredible weakness of this administration.

[H/T New York Times.]

This is the first time in nearly four years that the U.S. has given Egypt the full $1.3 billion in aid, with some of it having "no conditions." Here's how the numbers break down, according to a State Department spokesman talking to the New York Times:

The first, totaling $980 million, is subject to no conditions and granted automatically.

An additional $225 million is subject to a variety of human rights conditions — the ones that Mr. Blinken would not certify had been met but that he had waived on national security grounds.

A third, $95 million pot of money can be released only if the secretary of state finds that Egypt has made progress in the specific areas of releasing political prisoners, providing detainees with due process and “preventing the harassment and abuse of American citizens.” Mr. Blinken certified progress in these areas, the spokesman said.

The Times report goes on:

For the first time under the Biden administration, the United States will send Egypt its full allotment of $1.3 billion in annual military aid, waiving human rights requirements on the spending mainly in recognition of Cairo’s efforts to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, U.S. officials said.

The decision, which the State Department notified Congress of on Wednesday, marks a striking shift for the administration. President Biden came into office promising “no blank checks” that would enable Egypt’s rights abuses, and in each of the past three years, his administration had withheld at least some of the congressionally mandated aid to Cairo, a close American ally.

. . . In response to longtime concerns about human rights abuses in Egypt, U.S. law places conditions on about a quarter of the military aid to Egypt each year. To release it, the secretary of state must certify that Cairo has complied with a range of human rights requirements. 

They're admitting that African nation did not comply. And what did the State spokesman say Secretary of State Antony Blinken's excuse was for waving away the requirements this time: They are helping with the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal:

A State Department spokesman said the secretary, Antony J. Blinken, had found that Egypt had only partly met the human rights requirements but had overridden them, employing a legally permitted waiver “in the U.S. national security interest.”

Mr. Blinken’s decision was based on Egypt’s monthslong role as an intermediary between Hamas and Israel as the two sides try to negotiate a cease-fire deal that would free Israeli hostages in Gaza and allow more humanitarian aid into the territory, which borders Egypt’s Sinai Desert, the spokesman said.

They added that Egypt is also brokering a "cease-fire in neighboring Sudan’s civil war and its large-scale provision of aid to the Sudanese people."

Mariam Wahba, an analyst for The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), shared a list of reasons why the U.S. government should have held the line on giving the full aid to Egypt--they simply have not reformed in any meaningful way:

This is a disappointing development, signaling to our allies that they can get away with anything. Egypt continues to exploit its relationship with the U.S. and gets rewarded with $320 million.

Here’s are some things Egypt has done recently to undermine American interests:

-… https://t.co/Dwzb2RmhvV— Mariam Wahba (@themariamwahba) September 11, 2024

The post reads:

- Bribed a U.S. Senator.

- Purchased Chinese fighter jets.

- Suppressed civil society and jailed political dissidents.

- Failed to protect religious and ethnic minorities.

- Allowed Hamas to rearm through the Philadelphi Corridor until the Israelis secured it in May.

When will there be consequences? 

Probably never and Egypt reaps rewards for actions that "undermine American interests." The Biden-Harris administration, along with that loser Antony Blinken, don't care as much about holding Egypt accountable for its lack of human decency as they care about posturing for the international community

The country is weaker by far with these incompetents in office.

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