Kerry Secretly Approved Huge Arms Shipments to Obama's new BFF Egypt.

Kerry Secretly Approved Huge Arms Shipments to Obama's new BFF Egypt.(TDB).

While employees of American NGOs sat in Egyptian prisons, Secretary of State John Kerry quietly waived the law that would prevent the U.S. from sending the Egyptian military $1.3 billion worth of weapons this year.

Congress erupted in anger June 4, when Egyptian courts sentenced 43 NGO workers, including 16 Americans, to jail terms of up to five years for working in NGOs not registered with the government. Only one of those Americans, the National Democratic Institute’s Robert Becker, actually stayed in Egypt to await the verdict. He was given two years in prison. The other American organizations targeted included the International Republican Institute and Freedom House. All of those organizations had been operating in the open in Egypt for several years before the government raided their offices and forced them to flee the country in December 2011.

But what most in Congress didn’t know was that on May 10, Kerry had waived the restrictions lawmakers had put in place to make sure that U.S. military aid to Egypt wouldn’t continue unless Egypt made progress on its path to democracy, rule of law, and human rights. 

The State Department’s notification of Kerry’s move, which was never released to the public, was obtained by The Daily Beast.

The law that allows the State Department to give Egypt $1.3 billion each year in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) specifies that to get the money, the secretary of State must certify that Egypt is honoring its peace treaty with Israel as well as “supporting the transition to civilian government including holding free and fair elections; implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due process of law.”

This year Kerry didn’t say anything publicly and didn’t even tell many of the congressional offices that care about the issue, said Stephen McInerney, executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy.

“It’s very alarming that no public statement was made by the secretary or the Department of State more broadly in conjunction with the waiving of these conditions,” he said. “The waiving of these conditions isn’t something that should be done lightly or quietly.”

Reps. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) are circulating a letter in the House this week to Morsi threatening a cutoff of U.S. aid and asking him to step in and reverse the policy of prosecuting foreign NGO workers.
The lawmakers said that there was no way the Obama administration would be able to certify that Egypt was progressing toward democracy, given the jail sentences. They didn’t know that Kerry had already waived the law only weeks prior. Experts following the issue were shocked that Kerry’s team kept the decision a secret, unlike last year, when then–secretary of State Hillary Clinton also waived the law, but made sure to explain her actions and include a strong statement condemning the Egyptian government’s treatment of foreign NGOs.Hmmmm........."I will stand with my Muslim brothers."Read the full story here.