Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yasser Arafat have now been joined by Egypt. All have been the target of bills introduced by US Congress members, reports Khaled Dawoud from Washington Member of the US House of Representatives Anthony Weiner (Democrat, New York) introduced a bill late last month seeking "to prohibit United States military assistance to Egypt". Military assistance that "would have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year should be provided in the form of economic support fund assistance", the bill continued. The Egyptian Counterterrorism and Political Reform Act was presented quietly on 21 January. There was none of the fanfare that usually surrounds such proposals, introduced, more often than not, by fervent, pro-Israeli members of Congress. Nor did the bill find a co-sponsor from either the Democrats or Republicans. Weiner, according to Congress insiders, has tried before to introduce bills targeting the Egyptian government and accusing it of failing to take proper measures in the fight against terrorism and in the pursuit of reform. His earlier attempts failed because of resistance from the administration and from other members of Congress. However, on 21 January, Weiner managed to introduce the bill, and it was duly referred to the Committee on International Relations. "There is no way the administration, or members of Congress, will support such a bill. It has no chance," said one Congress source. The bill contains scores of allegations against the Egyptian government. It cites editorials and opinion pieces from Al-Akhbar and Al-Ahram to back up its allegations, assuming the two dailies to be government mouthpieces. All the articles quoted in the bill were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an organisation many Arabs have criticised for selectively quoting Arab publications to reinforce claims that the Arab media -- including that portion owned by governments which have signed peace treaties with Israel -- spread anti-American and anti- Israeli propaganda. MEMRI is run by a former Israeli intelligence officer and maintains a network of relations with members of the US administration, members of Congress and the US media. Among statements listed in the bill is a remark by Egypt's senior cleric, former Mufti Ahmed Al- Tayeb, in which he declared his support for "martyrdom attacks" carried out by Palestinians against Israel. The popular song "I hate Israel", by Shaaban Abdel-Rehim, the television series Knight Without a Horse, aired last year, and the long running play Mama America were also cited in Weiner's bill as evidence that Egypt was reneging on obligations contained in the 1979 Camp David agreement. Wiener also criticised Egypt's decision to withdraw its ambassador from Israel and targeted remarks by President Hosni Mubarak supporting operations by Hizbullah to liberate Israeli occupied south Lebanon. On the domestic front, the bill claims that "Egypt is a dictatorship" and that "the due process and separation of powers key to any functioning democracy have been stifled in Egypt" over the past 22 years. It criticises the repeated renewal of the Emergency Law since 1981, and reports as fact rumours that President Mubarak was grooming his son to take over the presidency. It alleges that torture is spreading in Egyptian prisons and that Egypt's Coptic Christian minority is systematically mistreated. The draft bill states that any cuts in military assistance be replaced by economic support, but also makes reference to "the agreement among the United States, Egypt and Israel to decrease the overall amount of United States foreign assistance to both countries", a ploy to cut the overall amount of US aid to Egypt over time. There was no reaction by the US administration to the bill though a source at the State Department told Al-Ahram Weekly that such bills "are not helpful." "I don't think it will get anywhere," he added. When the Syria Accountability Act was introduced more than two years ago it remained on the shelves until the Bush administration gave the green light to its passage in response to White House dissatisfaction with Damascus's Positions on Iraq and the Middle East peace process. The Syria Act was then quickly approved in both the House and the Senate, and was signed late last year by President Bush. The bill on Syria, however, granted the president a waiver to postpone implementing the act if that was deemed in the national interests. The Saudi Accountability Act, introduced by 20 Congressmen in November, reflected the growing anti-Saudi mood in the US since 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks were Saudi nationals. But the Bush administration quickly distanced itself from the Saudi Act, praising Riyadh for its growing cooperation on terrorism. A third bill seeking to boycott Palestinian President Yasser Arafat remains in the Congress pipeline. Anthony Cordesman, a veteran Middle East expert, warned against the effect of such bills introduced in Congress "mainly by some people who are using the terrorism issue to boost their popularity in an election year." Most of these attempts, he said, are successful only in deepening misunderstandings between the US and the Arab world.
