Meanwhile, In Egypt...

...we almost got away with it.  Except for a man named Robert Becker.

Two months before Egyptian police stormed the offices of U.S.-backed democracy organizations last year, seven Egyptian employees resigned from one of the American groups to protest what they called undemocratic practices. They complained that the U.S. group, described as nonpartisan, had excluded the country's most popular Islamist political organization from its programs, collected sensitive religious information about Egyptians when conducting polls to send to Washington, and ordered employees to erase all computer files and turn over all records for shipment abroad months before the raids.

[...]

Interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the workers' protest and the broader government crackdown with the raids helped expose what U.S. officials do not want to admit publicly: The U.S. government spent tens of millions of dollars financing and training liberal groups in Egypt, the backbone of the Egyptian uprising. This was done to build opposition to Islamic and pro-military parties in power, all in the name of developing democracy and all while U.S. diplomats were assuring Egyptian leaders that Washington was not taking sides.

[...]

The use of U.S. money to support some groups over others appears to conflict with U.S. Agency for International Development policy that requires "a good faith effort to assist all democratic parties, with equitable assistance."

[...]

Despite a U.S. commitment to make public the details of its democracy aid program in Egypt, USAID has refused to identify all the groups that received money and the grant amounts. The official said the agency disclosed the list to Egyptian leaders, but will not release information publicly about grant recipients that don't want to be identified.

[...]

The Egyptian government shut down U.S.-funded democracy programs. […] A hearing is scheduled Tuesday in the trial of 43 democracy workers, including 16 Americans, charged with illegally operating political, campaign and election training programs financed with U.S. and other foreign money. Most of the Americans are no longer in Egypt and not expected to appear at the trial.

[...]

[Frank] Wisner, the former ambassador, traveled to Egypt last year at President Barack Obama's request to meet with Mubarak as protesters demanded the leader's resignation.

The U.S. could have avoided many of its problems in Egypt after the uprising had officials paid more attention to just how poorly its push to expand democracy development in Egypt was received, he said.

"Our intrusions into the political scene were just going to catch hell," Wisner said. "It was the wrong time to be barging into the kitchen. It was full of Egyptian cooks and they didn't want anyone from the outside."

  Fox8Live-New Orleans

How dare they?

The trial of the NGO officials in Cairo has been postponed, perhaps in order to give the Obama administration a final opportunity to make a deal with the Egyptians. Meanwhile, Washington is whining that the trial is “politically motivated” – because nothing they do is ever motivated by political gain.

If a public trial ever takes place – which I doubt – it promises to be fascinating: testimony from the group of disillusioned ex-employees will give us valuable insights into the inner workings of America’s worldwide regime change project. While defenders of the NGO workers claim the trial is all part of a “crackdown” by the Egyptian military authorities, and the remnants of the Mubarak regime, I have my suspicions that it was the ex-employees who went to the authorities and reported “suspicious” (and illegal) activities on the part of their bosses.

  Justin Raimondo

Apparently, the Americans managed to be flown out of Egypt, so how serious is Egypt about this trial? But one stayed behind voluntarily to stand trial. Robert Becker. He professes innocence and a determination to be cleared at trial. A trial without Americans could easily be ignored, so I'll bet  Mr. Becker is personna non grata back in DC.