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Over the past year, political activists in Egypt remained optimistic about various democratic reforms that were being enacted there.

The Egyptian parliament amended a law to allow for limited multi-party, multi-candidate elections for the first time in recent history. Egypt witnessed milestone presidential elections when 9 candidates ran against President Hosni Mubarak, who has remained in power for nearly 25 years. Civil rights were expanded, permitting citizens to publicly debate, protest and criticize government policies.

But the democratic honeymoon appears to be ending.

Recent government actions taken against political reformers and dissidents have dashed their hopes of further advances in the democratic reform process in the country.

An Egyptian court recently dismissed an appeal for a retrial by Ayman Nur, the main challenger to President Mubarak in the last presidential elections. Nur was sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly forging signatures to establish the reformist "Ghad" party. Arab analysts view his conviction as a punishment handed down by the government for opposing the president.

Two reformist judges, Hisham Bastawisi and Mamhoud Mekki, dared to question the credibility of the presidential elections, making public statements alleging elections fraud and calling for a free judiciary. The government retaliated by charging them with tarnishing the reputation of the judiciary.

At their disciplinary hearing, hundreds of people, including members of the Egyptian Judges Syndicate, protested in solidarity with the two defendants, calling for an independent judiciary. Government security forces were seen beating demonstrators and more than 100 people were arrested.

Ultimately, the court acquitted one judge and reprimanded the other. Political observers say that the positive outcome of the hearing was a response to the public outrage aimed at preventing a further escalation of tensions.

Hani Amara, a correspondent for Abu Dhabi TV, says that "judges are now looked upon as a channel through which the dreams of Egyptians who want change may be fulfilled."

"The judges' demands represent the only tool, on a governmental level, that can bring about practical change," Amara reports.

In April, Egypt's parliament extended its Emergency Law for another two years. The law, which has been in place since 1981, permits the government to detain people indefinitely without charge and severely limits civil liberties, including the right to assemble as well the freedom of speech and protest.

The Egyptian government has also severely restricted the freedom of the press.

Egyptian authorities recently detained, Hussein Abdel Ghani, the Cairo bureau chief for Al Jazeera TV, the pan-Arab satellite news station, charging him with reporting false information that "can disturb national security and cause chaos." Abdel Ghani has since been released on bail.

Egypt's most popular political blogger (manalaa.net), Alaa Abdel-Fatah, was arrested while participating in the judges' protests. He now blogs from jail with the help of supporters, who smuggle out his statements to the public.

"I'm sitting here terrified they'll move me to a worse cell or cut off my visits," Abdel-Fatah wrote. "What should I tell you -- that the day will come for them (the regime)? I'm afraid our grandchildren won't see that day, much less us."

Although Washington has been paying attention to Cairo's recent transgressions, it has taken minimal action to encourage the Egyptian government to stop these egregious practices.

The White House expressed dissatisfaction, saying that it is "deeply troubled by the continued prosecution and imprisonment of Egyptian politician Ayman Nur," and concerned "by the harsh tactics employed by Egyptian authorities against citizens peacefully demonstrating on behalf of Mr. Nur and political reform."

In this year's Report on Human Rights Practices, the U.S. State Department stated that the Egyptian government's "respect for human rights remained poor, and serious abuses continued in many areas." The report documented the torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees; arbitrary, sometimes mass, arrest and detention, including prolonged pretrial detention; executive influence on the judiciary, and the lack of due process, among others.

But reports and statements do little to change U.S. policy towards Egypt. Washington continues to reward the Arab nation for its loyalty, especially in the global "war on terror."

According to the General Accounting Office, since 2003, Cairo has allowed 40,000 U.S. military flights through its airspace; granted quick transit for 861 U.S. naval ships through the Suez Canal; treated more than 100,000 patients at the Egyptian-run military hospital at a U.S. base in Afghanistan and trained 250 Iraqi police.

In May, Gamal Mubarak, the Egyptian President's son and member of the ruling National Democratic Party, visited the White House, receiving a warm welcome from President George Bush. In the same month, Congress passed an appropriations bill that will provide Egypt with $1.7 billion in military and economic aid.

In a speech three years ago, President Bush said that "sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe." He later formed the Greater Middle East Initiative, which was adopted by European nations, to reform the region politically, socially and economically.

During the World Economic Forum in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Shaikh last month, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said, in essence, that the West needs to be more accommodating in order to maintain regional stability and security. He stated that pursuing an expedited reform process could create "chaos and the demise of the process itself."

The policy of providing billion dollar aid packages to Egypt while turning a blind eye to Cairo's civil and human rights violations has failed to achieve major democratic reforms there. Rather, it sends the wrong message to repressive governments in the Middle East that Washington will continue to overlook such offenses as long as the region is stable.

If the West is serious about supporting democracy in the Middle East, then it must pressure Arab rulers to adopt genuine changes. It must offer strong incentives for reform and disincentives for failing to follow through with such reforms.

Otherwise, Egypt and other authoritarian regimes will continue to pay lip-service to the Arab public and the international community's calls for greater democracy and freedom in the Middle East.

Links�
Governments vs. Bloggers: The Battle Continues�
Revolt of the Egyptian Elite

By Jamal Dajani
New America Media, April 25, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO--Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert swept through the nation's capital this week and garnered President George Bush's approval for further unilateral actions against Palestinians.

Olmert victoriously addressed a joint session of Congress, which almost unanimously passed HR 4681, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, a resolution intended to criminalize all Palestinians, regardless of their political affiliations.

This new resolution bans direct assistance to the Palestinian population. Even desperately needed humanitarian aid being provided by NGOs will be affected. It forbids or severely restricts the movement of Palestinian diplomatic representatives within the United States. The nature and ramifications of this resolution are so severe that even the Bush administration found it excessively punitive.

In his Congress speech Olmert recounted the history of his parents. "My parents Bella and Mordechai Olmert were lucky...They escaped the persecution in Ukraine and Russia and found sanctuary in Harbin, China. They immigrated to Israel to fulfill their dream of building a Jewish state living in peace in the land of our ancestors."

What Olmert failed to tell Congress is the fact that several days earlier, on May 15, Palestinians throughout the world commemorated Al Nakba Day (The Catastrophe), 58 years since the day Israel was declared a state atop the ruins of Palestinian homes and hundreds of ethnically cleansed towns and villages.

In a speech partially drafted by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Weisel, Olmert spoke about Palestinian terrorism, the Iranian nuclear threat and introduced new words to the lexicon of the Israeli understanding of a peace agreement, such as "convergence" and "realignment." He completely ignored words such as "occupation," "oppression" and "apartheid."

The Wall, or as Israeli leaders call it, "the fence," was not on Olmert's agenda, or the fact that once completed, it will gobble up another 10 percent of the 22 percent remaining of historic Palestine. This land was intended to be the future home of the Palestinian people who, according to Israeli calculations, in less than five years will outnumber Jews living in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Read More

By Lawrence Pintak
USC Center on Public Diplomacy,April 28, 2006

�CAIRO - Those new monitors they're installing in Washington briefing rooms will remain dark for a little while longer: Al-Jazeera International (AJI), the English-language cousin to the Bush administration's Qatar-based nemesis, has once more delayed its launch plans.

The channel was originally expected to go live early this year. Then late winter. Then early spring. In March, senior staffers were pretty confident it would be on the air in May. But Nigel Parsons, AJI's British managing director, now says that doesn't look like that's going to happen, either. And the channel has yet to announce any distribution deals with U.S. cable networks.

Parsons, who points out that no firm launch date has ever been set, blames technology. "It is, after all, the most complex project technically ever attempted in TV terms, with the four high definition broadcast centers and fiber links," he told me.

But off-camera politics may also be playing a role. Read More

New America Media, Q&A;, Brian Shott, May 20, 2006

Editor's Note: Human rights champion Shirin Ebadi talks about censorship, women's rights and the dual role of her Tehran bodyguards. Ebadi was an accomplished female jurist in Iran in the 1970s; after the 1979 Islamic Revolution she was demoted to clerk in the courtroom she once presided over. Today she is a lawyer in Tehran and the author of "Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope" (Random House, 2006, with Azadeh Moaveni). In 2003, Ebadi became the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Recently, with six other female Nobel winners, she created the Women's Nobel Prize Initiative, a nonprofit based in Canada that works for women's rights internationally. Ebadi spoke with New America Media editor Brian Shott in San Francisco. Her translator was Banafsheh Keynoush.

In the year 2000, as you researched the murders of intellectuals in Iran, you found a government hit list with your name on it. Today you're a Nobel Prize winner living in Tehran with bodyguards supplied by the state. I don't understand your present relationship with the Iranian government.

You have to understand that bodyguards have two responsibilities. One may be protection, but the other is to follow my moves completely. They've told me themselves that every day they report to the police about me. The best way to control me in Iran is to give me bodyguards.

Do you have more freedom of speech than most Iranians, especially when you travel outside Iran?

There is very little freedom of speech in Iran. A number of our journalists and writers are currently in jail. So naturally, whoever leaves Iran immediately has more freedom of speech. I want to stress, however, that there are a lot of brave people in Iran. Although they know that the punishment for talking could be going to prison, they still speak their minds and go to prison. Read More

Dear Sir,

I'm of the opinion that American citizens and Mexican citizens will never see eye to eye on many things.
Our cultures are just too different.� Right now, Mexico is rife with corruption to the point where Mexican policeman and the Mexican "army" are actually in cahoots with drug dealers.

Sincerely,
Rosemary Longworth

Dear Sir,

Israel has nuclear weapons &�Iran now has nuclear weapons.�Question: why UN�& US�want to create sanctions on Iran not Israel ?..!!!
Best� Regards,� Sam� Twal

Hi -
�
Recently, President Carter again called upon the nation to rein in the expansionist impulses of some Israelis and to again become an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.� His remarks got very little coverage in the "regular" news media.� But, of course, President Carter was right about American national interest and how to promote peace.� What better way to cut the ground out from under jihadists and those disaffected in the Middle East than to use American pressure to reach an equitable settlement in Isreali-Palestine!!�
�
I saw no mention of his principled and patriotic position in mosiacnews.� Are you boycotting him too?
�Dr. Robert M. Fearn
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Dear Sir
I have read the paragraphs which talk about civil war in Iraq, and without any hesitation, the American government has the advantage in making civil war� between all the Iraqi' sects. This will make some parties ask the American to stay in Iraq to save them from the others. The Americans have the advantage in this way, but the question is will the Iraqi people be aware of all that?
Ashrf Abo Hassoun
Syria

Hello,

This is a great addition to the daily Mosaic programing which itself is a truly significant contribution to world peace.
Thank you
Barie McCurry
�

The Mosaic Intelligence Report (MIR) is a periodical newsletter which will bring you the most important news and views from the Middle East. Relying on Mosaic broadcasts and Middle Eastern press, MIR will highlight issues and events that you don't see in mainstream Western media.

Mosaic: World News from the Middle East features selections from daily TV news programs produced by national broadcasters throughout the Middle East. The news reports are presented unedited and translated, when necessary, into English.
�
Mosaic includes television news broadcasts from selected national and regional entities. Some of the broadcasters are state controlled and others are private networks, often affiliated with political factions. These news reports are regularly watched by 280 million people in 22 countries all over the Middle East.

Mosaic is supported by various grants, foundations and viewers like you. Mosaic is broadcast on Link TV. Link TV broadcasts programs that engage, educate and activate viewers to become involved in the world. These programs provide a unique perspective on international news, current events, and diverse cultures, presenting issues not often covered in the U.S. media. Link TV connects American viewers with people at the heart of breaking events, organizations in the forefront of social change and the cultures of an increasingly global community.

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