In With the Allies -- and Out of Debt

To ensure unlimited U.S. access to the Suez Canal, overflights of Egyptian airspace, access to the region's oil resources, and maintain Egypt's "moderating influence in the region," the U.S. gives Egypt about $1.3 billion a year in military aid. And that's just the start: The U.S. forgave $7.1 billion in military debt in "return for Egypt's support of Operation Desert Shield," according to the Federation of American Scientists' Arm Sales Monitoring Project.

These fundamentalists allegedly bombed a German tour bus	Don't like your current weapon? Try an American M-16

Since the 1978 Camp David peace accord, the U.S. has tried to secure Egypt's friendship and work toward a "just, lasting, and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace." The U.S. pursues this goal by conducting joint military training exercises, supporting ideals of democracy and human rights in Egypt, and arming the country to the teeth with aircraft, helicopters, self-propelled guns, and missiles.

Since Clinton took office, Egypt has received a total of $7.7 billion in weapons, mostly aircraft and helicopters, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). A single 1995 sale of Boeing's AH-64A Apache combat helicopters was worth $518 million, including armament.

Unfortunately, while we continue boosting Egypt's military, our influence on Egypt's democracy and human rights is at a low ebb. Since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat, Egypt has been governed by an Emergency Law which strips away fundamental liberties and nullifies much of the constitution. Judged necessary to fight internal "enemies" like fundamentalist militants, the law permits detaining citizens without charge; obtaining arrest warrants from the Interior Ministry rather than a judge; allowing civilian cases to be handled by military or Emergency State Security courts rather than regular courts; and allowing the government to wiretap, open mail, and search without warrants.

U.S. arms sales in the Clinton years Direct government sales Government-approved sales (scale in millions of dollars)

Often, these alleged terrorists -- commonly anyone who protests, or even photocopies a pamphlet the government disapproves of -- wind up being detained, and often tortured, for months on end.

Two Egyptian human-rights groups have focused on the country's human-rights violations, but since the mid-'80s they have been denied legal standing with the government, the State Department says. But the press regularly cites officials from one of the groups, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), in cases such as last year's protests against the Agrarian Reform Law, which allows landowners to raise rents and evict tenant farmers. Clashes between the farmers, security forces, and landowners resulted in hundreds of arrests and 21 deaths.

Egypt's religious and press freedoms are also taking a beating. The government censors (and, in many cases, runs) the media with a heavy hand, resulting in the arrests of several journalists. In addition, there is no separation of church and state; even though 10 percent of the population belongs to the Coptic Orthodox Church, Islam is Egypt's sole official religion. Last year more than "100 leading Egyptians acknowledged discrimination against the Christians," according to the State Department. Further, more than 1,200 Christians were sought by police for questioning in the past few months, and many were tortured. One Coptic bishop faces the death penalty for speaking out against anti-Christian human-rights violations by police and Egyptian Muslims. The EOHR states "this is a dramatic case of random arrest, torture, and degradation of hundreds of people."

-- Suzie Larsen

Flags courtesy of World Flag Database
Photos by Mohamed El-Dakhakhny/Sipa (left), AP/Wide World Photos (right)