| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| "The Mubarak era will be known in the history of Egypt as the era of thieves." |
American Jewish groups have raised a great stink in recent days about the ridiculous article that appeared in a small publication in Saudi Arabia last week claiming Jews use human blood to bake Passover matza - clearly false. But they have said nothing when a few days later a poet was arrested and the major newspaper editor fired for publishing a poem whose allusions were taken to refer to the terrible financial and political corruption so rampant in Saudi society - clearly true.
The Hashemite government in Jordan has recently arrested the only woman so far elected to the embryonic and mostly powerless Jordanian Parliament for her outspoken criticism of Jordanian corruption.
The Nazi-style arrest and imprisonment of an American University professor in Cairo, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, for his work to expose Egyptian electoral corruption, and the following letter censored this week from the English publication Middle East Times, are just the tip of the iceberg about how rotten and repressive the government of Hosni Mubarak really is, after decades of American funding and CIA help.
And with the goods on Mubarak, family, and cronies, that's of course how the Americans can so easily manipulate the affairs of the Arab League headquartered in downtown Cairo, headed by the former Egyptian Foreign Minister, and about to do America's bidding in Beirut next week in coordination with the Saudis.
The United States offers Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a huge amount of economic and financial aid each year. In January this year the United States offered additional aid, and on February 5 and 6 a donors' conference raised more money for Egypt from the United Sates and some European countries.
All this aid is to save the Egyptian regime and to avoid its complete economic collapse. There are many reasons for this collapse, but I believe that the most important reason is the corruption in high places. Corruption in Egypt has reached unprecedented heights under the government of Mubarak in the name of privatization and the change to a market economy.
The government has sold the great part of the public sector companies for less than a quarter of their value to businessmen working for Mubarak's sons, or to foreign companies in return for huge commissions for Mubarak and his sons or other top officials.
To get a high position in the Interior Ministry or Intelligence it is necessary to be involved in corruption, and being condemned by courts for corruption is an asset. Through corruption, Mubarak secures the loyalty of the heads of the security departments, making sure they will execute his policies and oppress his political adversaries.
Mubarak has encouraged the Interior Ministry and the Intelligence to loot public money through forming companies that offer construction services and, contrary to the law, are given deals by the state for huge sums, in some cases 20 times the amount offered to other companies. These funds are distributed among the top people at the ministry and in intelligence agencies.
The Mubarak era will be known in the history of Egypt as the era of thieves.
I condemn financial aid for the Mubarak regime, but if the United States and Europe insist - for selfish political reasons - to support this corrupt regime, then at least they should provide financial aid on condition that the regime accept international procedures to secure democracy, human rights and anti-corruption measures.
Such procedures should include forming an international committee to evaluate the fortune amassed by Mubarak, his sons and the heads of his regime, an international committee to supervise the elections, and a committee to promote human rights.
The absence of a connection between aid and these procedures means that American and European taxpayers are accomplices in the crimes of murder and torture committed by the Mubarak regime.
We implore you not to participate in the killing and torture of our people.
| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/3/713.htm |