Wednesday’s papers : Cabinet backs military privacy, NGO foreign funding probe reveals unexpected results

/515147

  • Subventionner la « démocratie » en Égypte. Une fois le vote terminé, tout le monde éditorialisera sur la place de ces islamistes, sur le fait qu’ils sont plus ou moins modérés, mais plus personne ne se demandera pourquoi ils avaient reçu autant d’argent étranger pour financer leur campagne.

    Wednesday’s papers : Cabinet backs military privacy, NGO foreign funding probe reveals unexpected results | Al-Masry Al-Youm : Today’s News from Egypt
    http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/515147

    In other news, state-owned Al-Akhbar publishes an “exclusive” spread on page six about the foreign funding of local NGOs with a subheading that says foreign donors wanted to interfere in Egypt’s affairs and empower one section of society over others. The findings the newspaper publishes are from a report by a Ministry of Justice fact-finding commission tasked with investigating the issue.

    The commission found that US$40 million of the $65 million the US has purportedly pumped into Egypt to promote democracy has actually only gone to two bodies, and American ones at that — the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the International Republican Institute, Al-Akhbar reports.

    But it’s not just American funding that’s under the spotlight, as Al-Akhbar’s report states that a Qatari institution donated more than LE180 million to the Ansar al-Sunnah al-Mohamadeya (Supporters of the path of Mohamed) group, while a Kuwaiti institution donated over LE114 million to the same group, making it the biggest recipient of foreign aid in the country. The newspaper contends that the donations have to do with promoting Salafism in Egypt.

    Additionally, the Mohamed Alaa Mubarak Institute, created after the deposed president’s grandson died last year, received more than LE86 million in funds in 2011 from the United Arab Emirates and Oman.