Egyptian authorities raid 17 NGOs in Cairo for alleged foreign funding

[News_Editor]

Egyptian authorities raid 17 NGOs in Cairo for alleged foreign funding

2011-12-30 12:44:13 GMT+7 (ICT)

CAIRO (BNO NEWS) -- Egyptian authorities on Thursday raided 17 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for allegedly receiving 'illegal foreign funding', the state-run Al-Ahram daily newspaper reported on Friday.

Public prosecutors backed up by police and military personnel raided the Cairo offices of, among others, the Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP), the Budgetary and Human Rights Observatory, the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House.

All five raided offices were sealed and locked, the newspaper reported. Other Egyptian non-governmental organizations were also raided after the public prosecutor issued injunctions against them.

The Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) described Thursday's raids as an attempt to "intimidate activists and rights advocates, gag their mouths and freeze their activities in support of human rights and against repression and torture." It emphasized that the Mubarak regime did not ‎dare to carry out such actions before the January uprising.

Would-be presidential contender Mohamed ElBaradie on Thursday stated on Twitter that human rights organizations represent "the guardians of nascent freedom." He added: "Efforts to suffocate them will be a major setback and will surely backfire."

The raids come after the Egyptian Justice Ministry said its inquiries have shown that several NGOs operating in Egypt have allegedly received illicit, unregistered funding from abroad. Local human rights activists fear the move may be part of a wider government crackdown targeting critics of violations committed by the ruling military council.

"We're still not sure of anything," said Emad Mubarak of the Cairo-based Freedom of Expression Center, according to Al-Ahram. "But the government's excuse might be that they're auditing the NGOs' files following charges that several of them had received illicit foreign funding."

A few weeks after the February ouster of former president Hosni ‎Mubarak, the United States Agency for International ‎Development (USAID) allocated some $65 million towards ‎‎"democratic development" programs in Egypt.‎ The Egyptian government warned that any ‎NGO or political party found to have requested financial ‎assistance from USAID would be blacklisted.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-12-30

[Steely Dan]

I'm amazed that anyone could for a moment have expected anything different. The left have been useful in getting the ball rolling with the demos in Tahrir square, but now they have served their usefulness.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/43555

All it takes to understand why the Arab Spring was doomed to turn into an Islamic Winter is that Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa were being asked to choose between a Socialist left and an Islamic right. The left has consistently lost open elections in Europe and America, it lost the battle of ideas in Russia and China, and unsurprisingly it also lost the Arab Spring.

So it's bye bye NGO's and thanks for the leg up.

[TAWP]

A few of those are involved in Thailand via secondary channels. I would disagree that those are specifically 'leftist' NGO's however, more Pro-'World Government' and Authoritarian, riding on the back of 'democracy to people' agenda.