Outside Forces Undermine Egypt.

Advice, information and discussion about Egypt in general.

Moderators: DJKeefy, 4u Network

Post Reply
User avatar
Hafiz
V.I.P
V.I.P
Posts: 1284
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:23 pm
Has thanked: 614 times
Been thanked: 632 times
Gender:
Australia

Outside Forces Undermine Egypt.

Post by Hafiz »

Outside Forces Undermine Egypt.

A while ago the Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmed Abu Zeid, went public and said that a US Senate hearing was held: "with the aim of harming the positive ties between Egypt and the US administration." And that the people giving evidence were” known for their "absolute bias" against Egypt and their "siding with foreign powers aiming to destabilize" the country. (What foreign powers - the world knows, but no one in Egypt does, that Israel supported Sisi over Morsi and the two military's share intelligence and Israel does some bombing in Sinai because Egypt can't get around to doing it).

Here he is - a rather dead robotic look, fashionable in Egypt:

Image

The ‘absolutely’ biased witnesses were: Michele Dunne, Senior Fellow and Director at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and long-time Middle East expert at the State Department; Elliott Abrams, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies Council on Foreign Relations who served in the George W. Bush administration; and Tom Malinowski, former assistant secretary of state for democracy under president Barack Obama. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... view-.aspx

He has a track record because the same PR attack dog has also made these allegations:

The NY Times distorts the achievements of the army in Egypt in their fight against terrorism. (really, what achievements are distorted)
The (centrist) magazine Middle East Eye supports terrorism
The Economist magazine of London tells lies about Egypt.
The NY Times reporting of the torture in Egypt of a US national are biased and the newspaper lacks credibility.
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/tag/ahmed-abu-zeid/
CNN are biased on Egypt
Human Rights watch does more harm than good
The NY Times coverage of the army’s killing of the Mexican tourists was a “repeated and deliberate insistence on distorting events in Egypt reflects blatant disregard for the will of Egyptian people,” – which doesn’t make much sense.
After Egypt detained an associate of the UN he attacked the UN Secretary General’s defense of that detainee.
After the detention of an Irish minor he attacked the European Parliament which called for his release under the International Convention for the Child.
As regards the murder of the Italian researcher Regini he described Amnesty International as provoking Egypt - he also attacked Cambridge University.
http://www.madamasr.com/en/topic/ahmed-abu-zeid/
He has denied there are 40,000 political prisoners in Egypt because ” no one has provided a list of the names of these individuals” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles ... e-art-thou (possible paywall but some free access). (Nevertheless Egyptian media quoting government press releases states that the government has publically admitted to arresting 33,877 persons for political crimes to September 2015 http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 22368.html - so he needs to get on top of his brief). Most recent reports, including Reuters, say its 50-60,000.
Said that human rights are better than under Mubarak and that the contrary view is based on “rumors and inaccurate statistics” http://www.newsweek.com/2016/05/13/egyp ... 55753.html

Unsurprisingly he was a Cabinet Advisor to the previous Mubarak regime. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07CAIRO2035_a.html but has no relevant PR training, education or work experience. If he has skills its the capacity to do well in working with liars/crooks/killers.

Of course he’s just doing a job but there is attack-dog harshness and a lack of deflection that indicates he is not very good at his job at a time when Egypt needs a persuasive spokesperson. Even a Russian official defending the indefensible would show more skill and suavity. I think this Egyptian should take a famous nick name – Chuck.

His boss the Minister Shoukry was not much better and was defending Mubarak on US TV after the death certificate had been signed in Cairo. Not the prudent actions of a discreet professional diplomat. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... -great-st/. For 4 years to 1999 Shoukry worked personally for Mubarak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sameh_Shoukry

Lots more that could be said about Shoukry and much of it is served up in 5 star western newspapers. None of it is good – some is bad. He needs to hire a US PR firm fast. Even his own staff are leaking on him: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt ... 1093917354

Here is a sample of dirt on Shoukry, the world’s greatest foreign minister:

Wikileaks reveals US diplomatic cables referring to his truculence, prickliness, aggression, vengefulness, a general dislike of him by colleagues both within and outside Egypt, extreme arrogance and abusive treatment of junior staff. There were also specific allegations of personal corruption and support of corrupt non-Egyptian UN officials. Whilst pursuing his nations interest he seems to have been personally very active in anti-free-speech proposals. His personal preferences and general lack of self restraint have led him to go off Egypt’s agenda in the past. Even to friendly African countries he has behaved as a bully whilst purporting to represent their interests. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08GENEVA504_a.html

With idiots like that tossing animal droppings in all directions against the country that pays its bills its no wonder that diplomats and politicians whisper and giggle at Egypt, it gets no votes in the UN, its sub-Saharan ‘brothers’ ignore it or worse, that most of its neighbours hate it, that the western media thinks worse, that, almost alone in the world, it has no military treaties, that the overseas Egyptian community says poisonous things about it, that very few major companies will invest in it and fewer trust it.

I might follow this up with comments/opinions from, say, 20 overseas cities on what they think of Egyptian diplomats - its not good and there is little/almost nothing positive. Obviously Egypt is as good at international diplomacy as it is at internal diplomacy within Egypt with people it disagrees with.


User avatar
Who2
Egyptian God
Egyptian God
Posts: 7911
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:04 pm
Location: Laandaan
Has thanked: 1114 times
Been thanked: 3214 times
Gender:
United Kingdom

Re: Outside Forces Undermine Egypt.

Post by Who2 »

Probably more worried about ex-pat Australian bloggers on foreign controlled web-sites, similar to this.
Just a thought!!!!.... 8)
"The Salvation of Mankind lies in making everything the responsibility of All"
Sophocles.
User avatar
Major Thom
Royal V.I.P
Royal V.I.P
Posts: 2885
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:45 am
Has thanked: 187 times
Been thanked: 375 times
Gender:
Contact:
Cyprus

Re: Outside Forces Undermine Egypt.

Post by Major Thom »

All the do's and dont's I rather think the place undermines itself more than outside forces.
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post