CAIRO - Investigations made by two judges from the Ministry of Justice reveal that the US has illegally sent large sums of money to some Egyptian and foreign organisations working in Egypt in the wake of the January 25 revolt, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Monday. Investigations into more than 40 people, who have been referred to Cairo Criminal Court, including 19 US citizens, show that such funds have been cut unilaterally from the money allocated for development projects that were approved in advance by the US and Egypt, in areas such as education, health services and infrastructure, according to MENA. International Co-operation Minister Fayza Abul Naga said during her testimony before the Prosecution last October that the Egyptian revolution came as a surprise to the US, which couldn't control it. Thus the US tried to do everything it could to contain the situation in a way that would serve its own interests and those of Israel. “All the evidence shows that the US is trying its best to prevent Egypt becoming a democratic, modern state with a strong economy. If this happens, it will threaten the interests of Israeli and the US, not only in Egypt but also in the whole region. “Israel and the US can't foment chaos and unrest inside Egypt directly, so the US sought to use funds for the NGOs, especially American ones, to achieve this,” said Minister Abul Naga. According to the Minister, the US Administration said that it would fund Egyptian NGOs, working legally or illegally, in order to cause chaos and unrest inside Egypt. “The US gave Egyptian and US NGOs here about $175 million between 2005 and 2011, $105 million of it between February and September last year,” she added. Minister Abul Naga, widely seen as the driving force behind the trials of foreign pro-democracy activists, including Americans, told prosecutors that the United States tried to hijack the country's uprising. She pointed out that there was a big difference between legal foreign funding of Egyptian NGOs and the illegal funding or aid sent to other NGOs in Egypt. Minister Abul Naga confirmed that, in 2005, Egypt objected to the United States' illegal funding of NGOs, but the US didn't respond. Last December, Cairo prosecutors backed by police entered the offices of the US-funded International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House as part of a probe into the alleged illegal foreign funding of these organisations. The aid workers have been accused of "setting up branches of international organisations in Egypt without a licence from the Egyptian Government" and of "receiving illegal foreign funding".
