http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2003Dec2.html
There's a lot more there, too, so I suggest you give this article a read.
Quote:
| By Glenn Kessler and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, December 3, 2003 In stark contrast to the president's four powerful speeches this year pledging to promote democracy in the Middle East, the Bush administration has settled on a combination of gentle nudging and modest funding to achieve its ambitious goals, U.S. officials say. Policy is constrained by the realities of the Middle East, they say, making it difficult to quickly switch tactics. The administration's closest Arab allies are still cited by the State Department as among the world's worst human rights abusers. U.S. aid is still dictated more often by the Arab-Israeli conflict than promoting democracy, officials acknowledge. And U.S. policy still gives greater priority to soliciting help with the war on terrorism than urging political and economic reforms. The policy dilemma is reflected again this week, as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell travels to Algeria and Tunisia, in part to thank them for supporting counterterrorism efforts. Both countries have secular governments backed by large security forces that have used torture, arbitrary arrest and extra-judicial killings to stave off popular pro-democracy groups. In a letter to Powell, Human Rights Watch said the trip will be a strong indication of how the administration follows up on its pledge to foster Arab democracy. "Powell should declare publicly in Algiers [and] Tunis that the fight against terror must not be waged at the expense of human rights," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. In Tunis yesterday, Powell urged new political openings, but also praised the "excellent partnership" between Tunisia and the United States, and said he was a "great admirer of Tunisia and the progress that it has seen under President [Zine Abidine] Ben Ali." Ben Ali has been in office for 16 years and won reelection in 1999 with 99.44 percent of the vote. Nowhere is the balancing act more apparent than in Egypt, which is the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid but is also ruled by one of the Arab world's most autocratic governments. Egypt's government has a veto over what Egyptian institutions can get U.S. aid, a provision that effectively blocks funding of human rights groups and government critics. For years, not one penny of U.S. aid to Egypt has gone to the Arab world's most outspoken democracy advocate, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, or his Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo. Funds labeled by Washington as promoting democracy ended up being used for projects such as sludge removal. In an attempt to change this situation, Washington is trying to negotiate an agreement with Egypt that would allow it to channel about $20 million directly to independent organizations to promote democracy, including Ibrahim's program, U.S. officials said. Yet the funds are still only a sliver of the nearly $2 billion in annual U.S. military and economic aid. And the largest single chunk, $1.3 billion, still goes to Egypt's security forces, which have been repeatedly cited by the State Department's human rights report for torture, prolonged detentions without charge and other abuses. |
