On the front page of the Sunday
New York Times was a story titled
"Testing Egypt, Mubarak Rival Is Sent to Jail":
An Egyptian court sentenced Ayman Nour, a leading opposition figure, to five years at hard labor on Saturday after convicting him in a forgery case widely seen as a political prosecution aimed at silencing a challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's monopoly on power. After he was sentenced, Mr. Nour chanted, "Down with Mubarak."
With diplomats from the United States, France, Norway and the European Union seated in a courtroom otherwise packed with uniformed police and state security men, a judge read out the verdict and sentence in a nearly inaudible whisper. Mr. Nour, 41, locked in a foul-smelling, filthy cage in the courtroom, began to chant, "Down with Mubarak."
Mr. Nour was convicted of having forged signatures on the petitions used in 2004 to create his own political party -
charges that political analysts, diplomats, academics and writers said appeared to be little more than a fig leaf for political persecution, especially after one of the prosecution's main witnesses said he testified only after state security forces threatened his nieces.
Egypt is one of the United States' closest allies in the Middle East, receiving about $2 billion a year in financial and military aid
, and the White House had hoped that it would serve as a showcase for promoting democracy as a means to halt the spread of extremism. But government-sponsored violence during recent parliamentary elections and now the jailing of Mr. Nour have clearly strained relations.
The White House released a statement within hours of the verdict calling for Mr. Nour's release and saying that his conviction "calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom and the rule of law."
Other than redistributing wealth to those already wealthy and investing him and Cheney with more power than any other President and Vice-President in our history, Bush has made the centerpiece of his administration the goal of spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. We give this country $2 billion in foreign aid (not that that matters to this administration - they love throwing our money around with no rhyme or reason) and all we do when they blatantly persecute political opponents right in front of diplomats from around the world is issue a lame-assed statement that might as well have been written on a report card by Mrs. McGillicutty, your third grade teacher.
This whole episode undercuts Bush's claim that the reason he is spending billions of our dollars and spilling the blood of our soldiers and the citizens of Iraq is to spread democracy throughout the Middle East. This oppressive regime in Egypt has helped generate thousands of terrorists. When the citizens of Egypt see us passively standby as the dictator of their country speaks out of the side of his mouth when it comes to democracy, they will lump our country together with their leaders and act out against us rather than their home-grown oppressors. If Bush really cared about spreading democracy and stemming terrorism, he would send some of his most important diplomats into that country to mediate this situation. But that won't happen. As a consequence, he's losing a golden opportuntiy to demostrate that the U.S. still believes that diplomacy and not just warfare can settle disputes. It's as if Bush can't waste his "beautiful mind" and energy on situations that require finesse, effort, and commitment.