Lupus in fabula

By Mike Flugennock on Monday February 6, 2012 10:07 AM

One of my favorite stories percolating lately is the Egyptian government's action against a group of pro-US NGO's -- or, as the Washington Post referred to them, "democracy-building organizations" -- a phrase which set my bullshit alarm to clanging before I even read its December 30 report.

This is where my experience at "reading Pravda" came in handy. Here's a gaggle of US NGO's, including an outfit called the National Democratic Institute -- Chaired by Madeleine Albright, co-chaired by Tom Daschle, along with the notorious Freedom House, among others -- being referred to as "democracy-building organizations" by the Post, along with the Post having a hissy fit about this all over their front page.

The initial raid was reported by the Post on December 30, and the Moonie... uh, Washington Times just today reported on the upcoming trials and travel bans for the busted members of these "U.S.-funded groups promoting democracy and human rights".

The Washington Post and Washington Times getting all huffy over this, along with their beating the word "democracy" to death, pegged my bullshit detector so hard it almost broke the needle.

Needless to say, I slogged all the way through the Post article on Dec. 30, their frothingly indignant headline causing me to smell a big ripe rat, desiring to find out just who these "democracy-building organizations" were who those mean old Egyptians were shutting down, putting on trial and trying to drive out of the country.

Sure enough, I found the rat, and man, did it ever smell. Here's the URLs of some of these "democracy-building organizations":

National Democratic Institute; here's their Board Of Directors page, a virtual rogues' gallery. Read it and weep: http://www.ndi.org/board_of_directors

Freedom House: they seem innocuous enough, but check out their Leadership page. William Howard Taft IV? Wendell Willkie II? http://www.freedomhouse.org/content/our-leadership

International Republican Institute; their motto: "Advancing Democracy Worldwide". Their Board of Directors is also quite a rogues' gallery. Their board chairman: John McCain. Also on their board: Lindsey Graham. http://www.iri.org/learn-more-about-iri/board-directors-and-officers

Needless to say, once I had the pertinent info in hand on the "democracy-building organizations", the Post's initial report had just the opposite of its desired effect on me... namely, I was doing the Happy Schadenfreude Dance.

"Egyptian Security Forces Raid Offices of US, Other Democracy Groups" Washington Post 12.30.11 http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egyptian-security-forces-raid-offices-of-us-other-democracy-groups/2011/12/29/gIQA2jlbOP_story.html "Egypt To Try 43 NGO Workers, Including 19 Americans, Over Funds" Washington Times 02.05.12 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/5/egypt-sends-43-ngo-workers-including-19-americans-/

Comments (6)

IOZ:

Check out the STAFF LIST: Arch Puddington, Vice President, Research! Evelyn Waugh lives!

chomskyzinn:

Came across this very encouraging, related item on the interweb today:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/152471/Egyptians-Oppose-Economic-Aid.aspx

chomskyzinn:

Totally and utterly unrelated: I know you're a fan of the two-wheel mode of transport, MJS, but I still think you'll appreciate the class war aspects of this little nuggest from my home borough. Yours truly has the last comment in the thread:

http://brooklynpaper.com/stories/35/1/dtg_deathtrapfence_2012_01_6_bk.html

Op:

Excellent post fluger


These cut outs are everywhere
my favorite the one set up by jay Lovestone that still
Uses the AFL as it's marquee

The Solidarity center

MJS:

Granny Lou Proyect has his modest knickers in a Klein-bottle twist over this one. "Progressives" cannot possibly approve of the repressive acts of the Egyptian government! It's surreal, really surreal. I feel a post coming on, though making fun of Lou is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Op sez on 02.06.12 @16:00:
Excellent post fluger


These cut outs are everywhere...

Thanks. I'd almost forgotten about this little brouhaha until the Washington Times report on the upcoming trials appeared the other day. I'm normally not given to spasms of casual investigative blogging like this -- I prefer cartooning because I'm such a lazy sod -- but when I saw the article in the Post on the morning of 12.30, I just had to make myself read it owing to its position (shouting from above the fold on the front page) and its repeated use of the word "Democracy" both in the title and in the lead pegging the needle on my bullshit detector. I knew right away that an outfit like the Post flinging the word "Democracy" around like an ape flinging its own shit could only mean one thing, so I decided to slog through the whole article to find out who these noble freedom-fighters were. Sure enough, as is the style with the Post and others of its ilk, the names of the groups in question were buried deep in an unmarked grave several paragraphs after the jump.

It's also fitting that the last organization mentioned is Human Rights Watch -- a leading apologist for Clinton & Albright's bludgeoning of Yugoslavia -- offering up the concluding whine. Man, HRW is just friggin' precious in this one:

If the organizations under investigation are found at fault, they could be closed or fined and their members could face jail time, said Heba Morayef, an Egypt researcher for Human Rights Watch.

“We’ve never had such a broad-based investigation into the human rights and NGO community,” Morayef said. “The entire independent civil society could be shut down.”

Fadduh Smiff really has the Pwogs nailed down on this one, too. Sounds like they're having themselves a good round of pants-crapping over this -- without having bothered to take a chance and find out exactly which goddamn' groups are being busted here.

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