Prepared by Nashat Marcos: President of  FREEDOM  NOW Organization

HRES 413 IH

Expressing the concern of the House of Representatives regarding the amount of United States foreign assistance provided to Egypt over the past 25 years without meaningful political reforms by the Government of Egypt, and for other purposes.

July 28, 2005

Mr. POE (for himself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. SAXTON, Mr. PENCE, Mr. WEINER, and Mr. FEENEY) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

Expressing the concern of the House of Representatives regarding the amount of United States foreign assistance provided to Egypt over the past 25 years without meaningful political reforms by the Government of Egypt, and for other purposes.

Whereas promoting freedom and democracy in Egypt is a foreign policy and national security priority of the United States;

Whereas, despite being the second largest recipient of United States foreign assistance, Egypt's democratic development has been extremely limited and its human rights record remains poor, according to the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004;

Whereas criminal charges by the Government of Egypt against democracy activist and presidential candidate Ayman Nour have been dismissed as baseless by independent Egyptian lawyers and Nour's trial is still pending until after the September 2005 Egyptian presidential elections;

Whereas Egyptian authorities continue to mistreat and torture prisoners, arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, hold detainees in prolonged pretrial detention, and occasionally engage in mass arrests without charge;

Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom's 2005 report on Egypt finds that discrimination, intolerance, and other human rights violations committed by Egyptian authorities affect a broad spectrum of Egyptian society, including Muslims, Coptic Christians, Jews, Baha'is and members of other religious communities;

Whereas tactics used by Egyptian state security services of interference, harassment, and surveillance against extremists and suspected terrorists are also employed against law-abiding members of all religious groups;

Whereas state of emergency laws permit Egyptian state security services to detain individuals, particularly dissident Muslims, on charges of `unorthodox' Islamic beliefs and state security courts to prosecute those individuals who have been charged with insulting the so-called `heavenly religions,' Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, or inciting sectarian strife;

Whereas violent attacks on religious minorities, particularly Coptic Christians, by militant groups are an ongoing concern and the Government of Egypt has failed in the past to provide adequate protection for Christians or their property;

Whereas permits required to build new non-Muslim places of worship require the approval of the President of Egypt, and repairs to existing non-Muslim places of worship require the approval of Egyptian governorates, causing such places of worship to languish for long periods of time under restrictive rules and practices;

Whereas anti-Semitism in the state-controlled and semi-official media of Egypt as well as in the education system is prevalent;

Whereas the Government of Egypt requires all citizens and residents to possess an identity card, listing an individual's religion with choices limited to Islam, Christianity, or Judaism;

Whereas converts from Islam to another religion have difficulty obtaining new identity cards when they attempt to register their change in religion with Egyptian authorities and often face harassment;

Whereas those converts who alter their own identification cards and other official documents to reflect their new religious affiliation risk being criminally charged with falsifying official documents;

Whereas all Baha'i institutions and community activities in Egypt are banned under a 1960 presidential decree, members of the Baha'i faith cannot obtain mandatory identity cards unless they list themselves as one of the three state-sanctioned religions, and Baha'is have been labeled as apostates by Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Center funded by the Government of Egypt;

Whereas the Government of Egypt can and should do more to protect the right to freedom of religion or belief, in accordance with international human rights instruments to which Egypt is a party, to punish those responsible for religiously-motivated violence, and to combat widespread and virulent anti-Semitism and other intolerance in the media and in the education system;

Whereas high level officials of the Government of Egypt have made public statements for years pledging political reforms, yet no discernible improvements are evident; and

Whereas there are a number of Egyptian policies in place that could be repealed immediately and thereby demonstrate the Government of Egypt's commitment to political reform: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) calls on the Government of Egypt to immediately--

(A) meet its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party;

(B) repeal the state of emergency and allow full access to the constitutional and international guarantees of the rule of law and due process for those individuals charged with violating section 98(f) of the Egyptian Penal Code, which `prohibits citizens from ridiculing or insulting heavenly religions or inciting sectarian strife,' instead of having those cases heard by the state security courts;

(C) repeal a 1960 presidential decree banning members of the Baha'i community from practicing their faith;

(D) take all appropriate steps to prevent and punish acts of anti-Semitism, including condemnation of anti-Semitic acts, and, while vigorously protecting freedom of expression, counteract anti-Semitic rhetoric in the government-controlled media and other organized anti-Semitic activities;

(E) investigate and prosecute acts of violence against any individuals or groups on the basis of their religion;

(F) implement procedures that would ensure that all places of worship are afforded equal treatment and protection; and

(G) reform the national educational curriculum to ensure that textbooks and other materials exclude any language or images that promote enmity, intolerance, hatred, or violence toward any individual or group of persons based on faith, gender, ethnicity, or nationality; and

(2) calls on the Government of the United States to--

(A) seek to negotiate an agreement with the Government of Egypt to establish a timetable, with a set of specific benchmarks for progress on political and human rights reforms, such that--

(i) if the benchmarks are met by the Government of Egypt, the United States should consider providing economic assistance in areas where significant progress on reform has been made; or

(ii) if the benchmarks are not met by the Government of Egypt, the United States should reconsider the dimensions and direction of economic assistance to Egypt; and

(B) offer direct assistance to eligible Egyptian human rights and other civil society groups, which seek to strengthen nonviolent, democratic principles and promote the rule of law, without prior approval of the Government of Egypt.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________________

Egyptian Counterterrorism and Political Reform Act (Introduced in House)

To prohibit United States military assistance for Egypt and to express the sense of Congress that the amount of military assistance that would have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year should be provided in the form of economic support fund assistance.

April 14, 2005

Mr. WEINER (for himself, Mr. CROWLEY, and Mr. BLUMENAUER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

To prohibit United States military assistance for Egypt and to express the sense of Congress that the amount of military assistance that would have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year should be provided in the form of economic support fund assistance.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Egyptian Counterterrorism and Political Reform Act'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

(1) According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, two weeks before the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Egyptian Government daily newspaper Al-Akhbar published a column that stated: `The Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, must be destroyed because of following the idiotic American policy that goes from disgrace to disgrace in the swamp of bias and blind fanaticism.'.

(2) Since forging a `cold peace' with Israel in 1978, the Government of Egypt has placed severe trade restrictions on Israeli goods and Egyptian Government officials have allowed anti-Semitic articles and cartoons to flood the semi-official Egyptian press.

(3) In violation of the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, Egypt continues to promote a boycott of Israeli products.

(4) The Israeli Defense Forces have repeatedly found arms smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. More than 40 tunnels were discovered in 2003. Some of these tunnels originate in Egyptian army and police outposts.

(5) Despite facing no major regional external threat, Egypt has used military assistance from the United States to purchase combat aircraft, advanced missile systems, tanks, and naval vessels that undermine Israel's security.

(6) The Coptic Christian minority of between 6 and 10 million in Egypt is victimized regularly, and remains without protection. The Government of Egypt has never taken responsibility for the arrest and torture of more than 1,200 Copts in late 1998 in the wake of sectarian violence.

(7) Egypt regularly tortures its citizens. According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights approximately 13,000 to 16,000 people are detained without charge on suspicion of security or political offenses in Egypt each year. Amnesty International published a report in 2003 stating that `everyone taken into detention in Egypt is at risk of torture'.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON UNITED STATES MILITARY ASSISTANCE FOR EGYPT.

(a) Prohibition- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for fiscal year 2006 and subsequent fiscal years, United States military assistance may not be provided for Egypt.

(b) Waiver- The President may waive the application of subsection (a) for a fiscal year if the President determines and certifies to Congress that it is in the national security interests of the United States to do so.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

It is the sense of Congress that--

(1) the amount of United States military assistance that would have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year but for the application of section 3(a) should be provided for Egypt for such fiscal year in the form of economic support fund assistance under chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and further that such assistance should be in addition to economic support fund assistance already proposed to be provided for Egypt for such fiscal year;

(2) funds for economic support fund assistance for Egypt should not be used by the armed forces of Egypt;

(3) 30 days prior to the initial obligation of funds for economic support fund assistance for Egypt for a fiscal year, the President should certify to Congress that procedures have been established to ensure that the Comptroller General will have access to appropriate United States financial information in order to review the uses of such funds; and

(4) the agreement among the United States, Egypt, and Israel to decrease the overall amount of United States foreign assistance for both countries should continue.

SEC. 5. DEFINITION.

In this Act, the term `United States military assistance' means--

(1) assistance for nonproliferation, anti-terrorism, demining and related programs and activities, including assistance under chapter 8 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (relating to anti-terrorism assistance) and assistance under chapter 9 of part II of such Act, section 504 of the FREEDOM Support Act, section 23 of the Arms Export Control Act, or the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 for demining activities, the clearance of unexploded ordnance, the destruction of small arms, and related activities;

(2) assistance under section 541 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (relating to international military education and training); and

(3) assistance under section 23 of the Arms Export Control Act (relating to the `Foreign Military Finance' program).

Nashaat Morcus, born in Samalut _Al Minia upper Egypt. Graduated from Assiout University in Chemist Department. Obtained his Master Degree in Bio-Chemistry from the National Science Research Center_ Cairo. Came to United States in 1986. Businessman  for the last 15 years. Joined the Coptic Movement in Jersey City in 1996 until now. Please use my above email to contact me. Thanks.