Betty
18th July 2015, 02:32
Obama Is Sending Military-Grade Spy Gear To Egypt. What Could Go Wrong?
Activists say the U.S. is giving an oppressive government a new way to crack down on freedom.
from the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-spy-gear-egypt_55a81aace4b0c5f0322cd32f?nsmoyldi
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's State Department has approved the sale to Egypt of a sophisticated, military-grade mobile surveillance system that experts and activists fear Cairo's authoritarian regime will use against the country's citizens.
The State Department says that Egypt will only use the system on the Egyptian border with war-torn Libya, where a branch of the Islamic State group is mushrooming. But the current Egyptian government sees domestic critics as existential threats at least on par with the extremist group.
With the world's largest Arab nation still reeling from the consequences of a 2013 military coup that removed Egypt's first democratically elected president, controversial Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi, the country's government is cracking down on dissent. And the Arab Spring showed that repressive regimes in the Middle East can and will use U.S.-provided equipment against their own citizens, argued Cole Bockenfeld, the advocacy director at the Project on Middle East Democracy.
"We may have an agreement that this kind of equipment is for external use only, but of course these security services did -- and can again -- turn it anywhere," Bockenfeld said.
The State Department won't say exactly what the surveillance system will do. The Egyptian Embassy and several defense contractors that make surveillance devices did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Egyptian citizens say that even without additional detail about what spying capabilities their government may gain, the news has them on edge.
"Surveillance equipment worries me in the hands of vindictive, irresponsible actors," said Wael Eskandar, an Egyptian journalist and blogger who spoke to The Huffington Post through an encrypted chat program. "When you give power to men of violence, you're encouraging them to be more violent. When you don't hold people accountable, they act with more impunity."
Such concerns are unlikely to scuttle the deal. Now that the State Department has approved the sale, the transfer of the surveillance system is a fait accompli unless Cairo changes its mind. The next step is a monthslong process that will involve discussions between officials in the two governments and the approval of a military contractor.
The surveillance equipment sale is the latest piece of the Obama administration's effort to mend ties with the Egyptian regime. On March 31, Obama lifted a hold on the transfers of big-ticket weapons systems, including F-16 fighter jets and Harpoon missiles, that Egypt had purchased but not received because of U.S. human rights concerns related to the aftermath of the 2013 coup. Days later, Egyptian officials began communicating to U.S. officials that they wanted the surveillance gear, a senior congressional aide told HuffPost.
Lifting the hold was widely interpreted as a sign that Obama now seeks to leave tensions over the coup in the past and develop a closer relationship with President Abdel Fattah El Sissi, the retired Egyptian general who won an internationally criticized election following the army takeover. Analysts see the approval of the new sale as a potent sign of that ongoing shift.
As the U.S. and the new regime grow closer, Egyptian civil society activists are nervous about what could happen to their already diminished freedoms.
Many had chosen, like the former computer engineer Eskandar, to leave their jobs and commit themselves to activism when Egypt's revolution erupted in 2011. Now, years after optimistic pro-democracy protests swept the country, Sissi rules with an iron fist. Egyptians from across the political spectrum who are considered dissenters have been targeted or locked up. That group includes suspected members of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, secular revolutionary activists and members of the press who print news the government deems unflattering.
Eskandar says the government already closely monitors his private conversations by phone, email and social media like Facebook. His personal life isn’t private anymore -- and he’s far from the only one. He says he knows of revolutionary activists who have been called into state security only to have their recorded, private phone conversations used as blackmail against them.
They don't want any leadership to emerge that would threaten them.
Wael Eskandar
for more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-spy-gear-egypt_55a81aace4b0c5f0322cd32f?nsmoyldi
Activists say the U.S. is giving an oppressive government a new way to crack down on freedom.
from the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-spy-gear-egypt_55a81aace4b0c5f0322cd32f?nsmoyldi
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's State Department has approved the sale to Egypt of a sophisticated, military-grade mobile surveillance system that experts and activists fear Cairo's authoritarian regime will use against the country's citizens.
The State Department says that Egypt will only use the system on the Egyptian border with war-torn Libya, where a branch of the Islamic State group is mushrooming. But the current Egyptian government sees domestic critics as existential threats at least on par with the extremist group.
With the world's largest Arab nation still reeling from the consequences of a 2013 military coup that removed Egypt's first democratically elected president, controversial Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi, the country's government is cracking down on dissent. And the Arab Spring showed that repressive regimes in the Middle East can and will use U.S.-provided equipment against their own citizens, argued Cole Bockenfeld, the advocacy director at the Project on Middle East Democracy.
"We may have an agreement that this kind of equipment is for external use only, but of course these security services did -- and can again -- turn it anywhere," Bockenfeld said.
The State Department won't say exactly what the surveillance system will do. The Egyptian Embassy and several defense contractors that make surveillance devices did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Egyptian citizens say that even without additional detail about what spying capabilities their government may gain, the news has them on edge.
"Surveillance equipment worries me in the hands of vindictive, irresponsible actors," said Wael Eskandar, an Egyptian journalist and blogger who spoke to The Huffington Post through an encrypted chat program. "When you give power to men of violence, you're encouraging them to be more violent. When you don't hold people accountable, they act with more impunity."
Such concerns are unlikely to scuttle the deal. Now that the State Department has approved the sale, the transfer of the surveillance system is a fait accompli unless Cairo changes its mind. The next step is a monthslong process that will involve discussions between officials in the two governments and the approval of a military contractor.
The surveillance equipment sale is the latest piece of the Obama administration's effort to mend ties with the Egyptian regime. On March 31, Obama lifted a hold on the transfers of big-ticket weapons systems, including F-16 fighter jets and Harpoon missiles, that Egypt had purchased but not received because of U.S. human rights concerns related to the aftermath of the 2013 coup. Days later, Egyptian officials began communicating to U.S. officials that they wanted the surveillance gear, a senior congressional aide told HuffPost.
Lifting the hold was widely interpreted as a sign that Obama now seeks to leave tensions over the coup in the past and develop a closer relationship with President Abdel Fattah El Sissi, the retired Egyptian general who won an internationally criticized election following the army takeover. Analysts see the approval of the new sale as a potent sign of that ongoing shift.
As the U.S. and the new regime grow closer, Egyptian civil society activists are nervous about what could happen to their already diminished freedoms.
Many had chosen, like the former computer engineer Eskandar, to leave their jobs and commit themselves to activism when Egypt's revolution erupted in 2011. Now, years after optimistic pro-democracy protests swept the country, Sissi rules with an iron fist. Egyptians from across the political spectrum who are considered dissenters have been targeted or locked up. That group includes suspected members of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, secular revolutionary activists and members of the press who print news the government deems unflattering.
Eskandar says the government already closely monitors his private conversations by phone, email and social media like Facebook. His personal life isn’t private anymore -- and he’s far from the only one. He says he knows of revolutionary activists who have been called into state security only to have their recorded, private phone conversations used as blackmail against them.
They don't want any leadership to emerge that would threaten them.
Wael Eskandar
for more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-spy-gear-egypt_55a81aace4b0c5f0322cd32f?nsmoyldi