Apply more pressure to Mubarak

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Peninsula readers' letters: Feb. 10

From Daily News Group readers
Posted: 02/09/2011 05:31:05 PM PST






Apply more pressure to Mubarak

Dear Editor: Despite its public criticism, the Obama administration has yet to publicly leverage billions of dollars in aid to Egypt to increase pressure on President Hosni Mubarak's regime. Obama is expected to continue seeking to give full aid to Egypt when he submits his 2012 budget to Congress next week. According to the Los Angeles Times, Egypt is due to receive a wide variety of U.S. military hardware over the next year, including F-16 fighter jets, naval vessels, air defense missiles and surveillance radar.

Mubarak and his wife and two sons own more than $40 billion in properties and assets in U.S. banks and investment companies, as well as in banks in Switzerland and Britain. In the name of what, exactly, has the United States been ready to back and fund an ally whose contempt for the law, fake democracy and gross theft flouts everything for which America stands? It has been no secret that under 30 years of Mubarak rule, traditional corruption in Egypt expanded at every level. Egypt's government has been thoroughly abused by a system of bribes and favors, backed up by intimidation and legal threats.

Of course, the U.S. and many other nations, including Canada, will say Mubarak's stability was vital to Mideast peace. But at what price?

Ted Rudow III, MA