Alicia Leonard
SoWal Insider
Guess there's enough blame to go around-
WASHINGTON ? A small, controversial effort launched under President George W. Bush to fund and train election monitors in Egypt played a key role in the movement to topple President Hosni Mubarak?s regime.
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The program, which provided millions in direct funding to prodemocracy groups, helped dispatch 13,000 volunteers to observe Egypt?s parliamentary elections in December. Thousands of those monitors, angered by what they said was blatant election rigging, joined the protests. Some became outspoken leaders; others used the networking and communication skills they learned to help coordinate 18 days of rallies.
?The very fact that they saw the fraud firsthand has contributed to them turning from monitors into activists,?? said Saad Eddin Ibrahim, founder of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, which has used a share of the US funds to train volunteers. ?They became very disillusioned with the regime.??
The evolving role of the monitors provides a measure of vindication for Bush administration officials and allies, including Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, who fought for permission to funnel money to the monitors, bucking a longstanding US policy of giving Egypt a veto over US funds.
?I certainly feel vindicated,?? said Charles King Mallory IV, a former aide to Elizabeth Cheney, who could not be reached for comment.
But it also raises questions about whether some Egyptians will see a grain of truth in Mubarak?s allegations that ?foreign intervention?? fomented the uprising.
Stephen McInerney, executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, a Washington-based advocacy and research group, said the protesters would probably still have been active without US support, but they wouldn?t be as well-organized.
?We didn?t fund them to start protests, but we did help support their development of skills and networking,?? he said.
Bush program helped lay the groundwork in Egypt - The Boston Globe
WASHINGTON ? A small, controversial effort launched under President George W. Bush to fund and train election monitors in Egypt played a key role in the movement to topple President Hosni Mubarak?s regime.
Related
The program, which provided millions in direct funding to prodemocracy groups, helped dispatch 13,000 volunteers to observe Egypt?s parliamentary elections in December. Thousands of those monitors, angered by what they said was blatant election rigging, joined the protests. Some became outspoken leaders; others used the networking and communication skills they learned to help coordinate 18 days of rallies.
?The very fact that they saw the fraud firsthand has contributed to them turning from monitors into activists,?? said Saad Eddin Ibrahim, founder of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, which has used a share of the US funds to train volunteers. ?They became very disillusioned with the regime.??
The evolving role of the monitors provides a measure of vindication for Bush administration officials and allies, including Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, who fought for permission to funnel money to the monitors, bucking a longstanding US policy of giving Egypt a veto over US funds.
?I certainly feel vindicated,?? said Charles King Mallory IV, a former aide to Elizabeth Cheney, who could not be reached for comment.
But it also raises questions about whether some Egyptians will see a grain of truth in Mubarak?s allegations that ?foreign intervention?? fomented the uprising.
Stephen McInerney, executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, a Washington-based advocacy and research group, said the protesters would probably still have been active without US support, but they wouldn?t be as well-organized.
?We didn?t fund them to start protests, but we did help support their development of skills and networking,?? he said.
Bush program helped lay the groundwork in Egypt - The Boston Globe
