Soccer Dad

Promoting Egypt over President Bush

Daniel Williams of the Washington Post profiled Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday. What's shocking about the profile - it appeared in the news, not style, section of the paper - is that it gives Aboul Gheit a megaphone without criticism. The point of the article is to show how a moderate friend of the US is at odds with the American President. (This is also odd because the Post, editorially, has not been shy about criticizing the president for failing to push Egypt enough; now it presents an unfiltered defense of Egypt's authorotarian government.) Some excerpts and comments:

As for Lebanon, Aboul Gheit noted something that Bush did not: Tuesday's huge pro-Syrian demonstration mounted by Hezbollah, the Lebanese group that the State Department labels a terrorist organization. The rally showed that "there are other trends in society," Aboul Gheit said, warning that U.S. pressure might lead ethnically and religiously divided Lebanon into chaos.

I guess he's a "realist."

"I think Egypt is a lighthouse for the Middle East. The need for Egypt to be a friend of the United States is something I'm sure people in Washington value very much. We are not subject to any kind of pressure."

And that $2 billion a year is something that Egypt values very much. Helps pay the salary of a well compensated diplomat when millions are living in squalor.

Aboul Gheit expressed irritation at reports that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled a trip to Egypt because of its slow pace of reform. She called off a trip to the region, not just to Egypt, he insisted.

At the conclusion of the interview, he took issue with notions that Egypt is a police state. He did a pantomime of a pedestrian looking over his shoulder in fear, then led a reporter by the hand to his office window.

It may be that he's right but according to CNN her change of mind was quite a surprise to his government. And no Egypt isn't a police state. Just tell that to Ayman Nour:

Rice had registered her "very strong concerns" about the detention of Ayman Nour, the leader of an opposition party, when she met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Tuesday in Washington.

What chutzpah and shame on the Washington Post for letting this guy go on without challenging him.

Posted by SoccerDad at March 11, 2005 6:12 AM