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EGYPT - AMERICAN SATELLITE STATE IN THE REGION
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6/28/00:
Mubarak's Egypt is an American satellite state at this time in history.
This twist of history began with the Camp David agreement back in 1978
at which Egypt essentially sold out the Palestinians and Arab unity.
Billions flowed as a result. The CIA has worked closely with
the
regime to keep it in power.
But Sadat was assassinated. The War in Lebanon resulted. There was
revolution in Iran followed by the American-instigated Iran-Iraq War.
The Intifada...the Gulf War...Algeria...Osama...Abdul-Rahman...
Ever since Camp David I, in return for the money and support for the
regime,
Egypt has worked ever more closely with the Americans to keep the U.S.
dominant in the region. And behind-the-scenes the Egyptian government
has
worked ever more closely with the Israelis as well, even while public
opinion in Egypt remains quite anti-Israeli.
Then, in a culminating moment of American-Israeli domination of the
region,
Egypt not only joined, but helped create, the military coalition that
destroyed
Iraq, just a few years ago a regional rival.
And now America's Egypt is being used to help manipulate the Palestinians
to Camp David II, something the Israelis are desperate to achieve while
Arafat remains alive.
The following article was published by MER two years ago this month:
CIA/FBI POWERFUL IN CAIRO
BOOK BANNING NOW FORCED ON AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
MER - Washington - 4 June 1998:
It was only a few months ago that the massacre at Luxor took place;
the
crucial Egyptian tourist industry taking a terrible hit from which
it has yet
to recover. In the wake of the ongoing attempts to cripple the corrupt
government of Hosni Mubarak -- essentially a disguised military regime
ruling under emergency decrees since the assassination of Anwar Sadat
-- Egypt has increasingly become a repressive police state. Terribly
sadistic forms of torture are practiced, freedom of the press has become
a joke, and only the minuscule capitalist class associated with the
regime and the Americans benefits, while the great majority of Egyptians
simply live in squalor and repression.
Meanwhile the political and cultural contradictions within Egypt continue
to escalate. How long a regime as confused and prostrate as the one
now
in Cairo can continue to rule in a country as important and historically
rich as Egypt is surely now in doubt. But as long as the Americans
continue to prop up Mubarak, and as long as the CIA and more recently
the FBI continue to provide the Egyptian regime the means and
techniques of surveillance and repression, the polarization that has
characterized Egypt for some years since the Camp David period is
certainly likely to expand toward the explosion point.
Meanwhile, two important Egyptian events in recent days:
AMERICANS ARREST PALESTINIAN IN EGYPT
Literally at the same time the Israeli government was publicly indicating
it will not arrest Abu Abbas, leader of the PLO faction that pulled
off the
"Achilles Lauro" hijacking during which Leon Klinghofer was murdered;
the Egyptian government quietly let the FBI and CIA whisk out of
Egyptian another former PLO official charged with having been involved
in
airplane hijackings in the same 1980s.
Abu Abbas is in Gaza, and the Israeli courts were asked to direct the
Israeli government which "controls all entry and exit points into territory
under the administration of the Palestinian Authority" to arrest him
should
he ever attempt to leave Gaza. The Israeli Attorney General indicated
this
would not be done and Israel would in effect look the other way regarding
Abu Abbas. Some former "terrorists" are on the Israeli good-guy list
these
days.
Not so the American-controlled Egyptians, however. Amazingly the
Egyptian government allowed the FBI and CIA to capture and secretly
kidnap another former PLO official, Mohammed Rashid, from Egypt. He
was brought to Washington a few days ago on board a secret U.S.
military transport, the Egyptian public never even aware of what was
happening right there in their own country.
There were no legal or court proceedings in Egypt; no deportation
procedure followed. And to make matters worse Rashid had already been
tried in Greece during the 1980s for the same offenses and imprisoned
there! The Greeks had refused American demands to extradite Rashid
to
the USA. Not so the Egyptians, however, who didn't even bother with
an
extradition hearing, nor contact their favorite Palestinians, Yasser
Arafat
and Nabil Shaath.
Meanwhile there are credible rumors in Washington that American
payoffs of more than a million dollars were paid to officials in Egypt
connected with the Mubarak government regarding Rashid.
MAXIME RODINSON BOOK BANNED ON ORDERS AT AUC
Maxime Rodinson is a brilliant French writer who during his career has
written passionately and eloquently about the Palestinian cause --
long
before it became popular to do so. In the 1970s he also wrote an
extremely interesting and insightful book about Mohamed.
After some second-rate Egyptian columnist finally managed to read this
long published book, writing about it in the government-controlled
paper,
Al-Ahram, the Mubarak government has now banned the book! Just like
that: government decree! And the once proud American University of
Cairo quickly took over from there, ordering its Professors to remove
the
book from their reading lists and from the university bookstore and
library!
The question needs to be asked here, for if a journalist were to try
to do
so in Egypt he would be arrested and imprisoned -- hasn't the time
come
for Mubarak and cronies to go the way of Marcos and Suharto? Or is
maybe the analogy of Benazir and her gallant "Mr. Ten Percent" husband
more fitting -- they are under arrest now in Pakistan in case anyone
is
wondering?
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