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发帖数: 8998 | 1 Sam LaHood, the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the head
of the International Republican Institute's (IRI) Cairo office, was blocked
from departing Egypt earlier this week. He, along with a dozen other
American NGO colleagues, have been placed on an Egyptian "no-fly" list,
officials with IRI told Yahoo News Thursday.
The younger LaHood was blocked at passport control when he went to the Cairo
airport Saturday, Lorne Craner, the head of the IRI, a Washington-based pro
-democracy non-government organization, told Yahoo News.
The organization is raising awareness of the situation now because, despite
calls from several high ranking American officials to Egyptian leaders to
discuss the case, the situation does not appear closer to being resolved.
President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, and Senator John McCain (R-
Arizona), the chairman of IRI, "have all been calling, they have all had
very honest conversations with Egyptian leaders," Craner said. "And not only
is nothing getting better, things are getting worse."
"We are all scratching our heads over here," Craner continued. "I did two
tours at State and one at the NSC. If the president called someone,
something gets worked out."
The White House and State Department acknowledged ongoing efforts to try to
resolve the matter.
"Yes, we have raised the issue of several U.S. citizens not being allowed to
depart [the country] with the Egyptian government, along with the broader
issue of NGOs," an administration official told Yahoo News Thursday.
"Several US citizens have been questioned by judges in connection with the
Egyptian government's investigation of NGOs and are currently restricted
from leaving Egypt," a State Department official told Yahoo News Thursday. "
We are working with the Government of Egypt to lift the travel restrictions
and allow these individuals to come home as quickly as possible."
Last month, Egyptian police raided the Cairo offices of IRI and several
other NGOs, including the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute and
Freedom House, confiscating records and computers. The raids were ordered by
the Egyptian prosecutors' office, which is purportedly investigating
alleged foreign funding of NGOs operating in the country.
Craner said the younger LaHood's name began appearing in Egyptian newspapers
a couple days after those raids--in reports that noted his familial
connection to the US transportation secretary. The reports prompted Craner
to start "nagging" the younger LaHood to leave the country.
Ray LaHood, a former Republican lawmaker from Illinois, is the only Arab-
American member of Obama's cabinet. But Craner believed LaHood is not being
targeted because of that, but because he makes a high profile "target of
opportunity."
"Suddenly Sam's name turned up in newspaper in Egypt,....a few days after
police show up armed" at their office, Craner said. "He was the first one on
the no-fly list who happened to go out to the airport. I had been nagging
him to leave."
LaHood is among the employees of the raided organizations who have been
asked to come in for long interrogation sessions with the Egyptian's
prosecutor office, Craner said. The employees on the no-fly list are a "
subset" of those who have been questioned.
Middle East analysts note the irony of Egyptian prosecutors investigating
whether the NGOs receive foreign funding, given the fact the U.S. government
gives billions of dollars in military aid to Egypt. Other NGO officials
suggested the problem is that the groups were not properly registered in
Egypt, though IRI had been officially invited to send international monitors
to observe Egypt's recent parliament elections.
"Egypt's military council accuses NGOs of foreign funding even though at
least 20% of its budget - $1.3 billion - is foreign funded," noted Shadi
Hamid, the director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, at the time of
those raids.
But even before the latest incident, Congress had imposed several additional
conditions before approving the next tranche of aid. |
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