The United States' top general is in Egypt for security talks with the country's military rulers, amid tensions between the two allies over charges filed against 16 American civil society workers accused of fomenting unrest, said Egypt's state news agency. MENA reported Saturday that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey met with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and several members of the country's ruling military council, including Dempsey's Egyptian counterpart Leiutenant General Sami Anan. MENA said they discussed "the depth of the strategic relationship between Washington and Cairo." Dempsey arrived in Egypt earlier on Saturday alongside a 19-member delegation, according to MENA. Dempsey's spokesman, Colonel Dave Lapan, said on Wednesday that the visit was long-planned and that Dempsey was not being dispatched specifically to press Cairo to drop the charges against the NGO workers, Egypt has put travel bans on six of the American workers, including a son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Lapan said that if the dispute was not resolved by time of Dempsey's visit, it would likely come up in his talks. Washington has threatened to cut aid to Egypt, and Egyptian generals who were in Washington last week for regular bilateral meetings came home early.
