Tag Archives: Egypt

Now Showing: Brutal Dictator Launches National Plan For Human Rights as USG Withholds a Fraction of $1.3B Military Aid

September 17, 2021 By in 71st Secretary of State, Biden, Blinken, Defense Department, Follow the Money, Foreign Assistance, Foreign Policy, Hotspots Tags: , , , , ,

 

From Egypt and Turkey: Generous Medical Supplies For the United States

May 1, 2020 By in Ambassadors, Coronavirus, Foreign Assistance, Realities of the FS, State Department, Trends, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , , ,

 

 

Also medical supplies from South Korea reportedly purchased by FEMA, and medical supplies from Russia initially purported to be aid but the State Department insisted this was a commercial transaction. (see Putin Sends Medical Supplies in “Largest Cargo Aircraft” to “World’s Largest Humanitarian Provider” – Wait, Wat?

US Embassy Cairo and NYT Reporters Declan Walsh and David Kirkpatrick

September 24, 2019 By in Americans Abroad, Foreign Service, Huh? News, Media, Realities of the FS, State Department, Trends, Trump, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , ,

 

 

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Ex-CIA Sabrina de Sousa Granted Partial Pardon by Italian President Mattarella

March 1, 2017 By in Americans Abroad, CIA, EUR|Europe, Federal Agencies, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Service, FSOs, Realities of the FS, Spectacular, State Department, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted: 2:19 am  ET
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We’ve followed the case of Sabrina de Sousa in this blog since 2009. She previously worked as an FSO for the State Department from 1998 to 2009. In a July 2013 interview with McClatchyDC, Ms. De Sousa confirmed that she worked under cover for the CIA in Milan, Italy.

 

According to the Guardian, the office of Italian President Sergio Mattarella issued a statement late Tuesday saying that De Sousa had been granted a partial pardon. It means a reduction of her four-year sentence of detention by one year.  The statement cited by media reports indicate that De Sousa “would be able to serve her sentence with “alternative measures” to detention, meaning that she could avoid spending any time in jail.”

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@StateDept v. @USAID: Reconciling Interagency Priorities Remains a Top Management Challenge

January 17, 2017 By in Foreign Assistance, Foreign Policy, Foreign Service, Govt Documents, Interagency Cooperation, Oversight, Realities of the FS, State Department, U.S. Missions, USAID Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Posted: 2:14 am ET
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USAID/OIG reported on its Top Management Challenges for FY2017.  The following is an excerpt on one of its challenges, reconciling interagency priorities with examples from the Arab Spring and operations in Pakistan:

Contingency operations and other efforts require coordination with multiple U.S. Government agencies, yet USAID’s development priorities do not always align with other agencies’ priorities, making it difficult for USAID to achieve its core development mission. In particular, coordination with the State Department, which leads multiagency operations that respond to political and security crises, has presented challenges to USAID’s project planning and execution. Despite broad interagency guidance on State’s role in politically sensitive environments, USAID employees are sometimes unclear as to how to manage additional layers of review, respond to changing priorities, and balance short-term and long-term priorities. Lack of knowledge about other agencies’ processes exacerbates these challenges.

Arab Spring

To identify the challenges USAID faced during the early part of the protest movement that came to be known as the Arab Spring (December 2010-June 2014), we surveyed 70 USAID employees working on programs for Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen.1 According to USAID staff, the State Department’s influence over USAID programs increased after the Arab Spring began, creating additional challenges. For example, a USAID employee in Egypt noted that State’s control “severely constrains USAID’s ability to design and execute technically sound development projects,” stating that agreed-upon steps to design activities and select implementation mechanisms abruptly change. USAID staff pointed out that State’s added layer of review slowed operations, and USAID employees had to dedicate additional time to building consensus and gaining external parties’ approval. USAID employees also said State officials, unfamiliar with the Agency and its different types of procurement, made requests that were difficult to accommodate under USAID procedures.

In a more recent audit in Pakistan, we also found challenges in reconciling short-term political goals with long-term development goals.

Pakistan

Our audit of the $7.5 billion aid package authorized under the Enhanced Partnership for Pakistan Act (EPPA) found that USAID’s programs there have not achieved intended development objectives, in part because of competing priorities between State and USAID. The State Department has the lead role for assistance activities in Pakistan, making it responsible for budget and project decisions.2 At the outset, USAID/Pakistan followed State’s initial strategy, which lacked long-term development outcomes and goals. In 2013, USAID/Pakistan implemented a formal strategy that linked activities to a long-term development goal but lacked indicators to measure progress. The strategy also focused on repairing and upgrading Pakistan’s energy infrastructure—mirroring State’s focus on energy as key to long-term growth—but not on other priority areas, such as health, education, and economic growth. According to USAID staff, implementing a development strategy under State Department control was challenging.

As a result of our EPPA audit, we made recommendations to improve USAID’s development implementation in an interagency environment, including that USAID revise its policies to (1) clearly define USAID’s roles and responsibilities for designing and implementing development when it is subject to State Department control and (2) provide alternate development strategies when a country development cooperation strategy3 or a transitional country strategy is not an option. We also recommended that the Agency institute an interagency forum where USAID can better present its development per- spective in countries where the State Department takes the lead. In response, USAID’s Administrator has engaged the State Department leadership to discuss solutions, including better reconciling interests at the beginning of planning and programming, so that USAID and State leadership can help staff pursue both agencies’ objectives simultaneously.

USAID/OIG notes that USAID has begun actions to address OIG’s recommendations to address this challenge. However, until corrective actions are fully implemented and realized, reconciling interagency priorities to advance inter- national development will remain a top management challenge.

USAID/OIG indicates that it interviewed 31 USAID officials who worked on activities in these countries, and administered a questionnaire. In all, 70 employees from USAID either had interviews or responded to the questionnaire.

 

Related OIG items:

  • “Competing Priorities Have Complicated USAID/Pakistan’s Efforts to Achieve Long-Term Development Under EPPA” (G-391-16-003-P), September 8, 2016
  • “Most Serious Management and Performance Challenges for the U.S. Agency for International Development,” October 15, 2015
  • “Survey of USAID’s Arab Spring Challenges in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen” (8-000-15-001-S), April 30, 2015

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US Embassy Kuwait: Construction Vehicle as Weapon Targets U.S. Military Personnel

October 12, 2016 By in Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Defense Department, Diplomatic Attacks, Diplomatic Security, NEA|Near East Asia, Security, Terrorism, Trends, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , ,

Posted: 4:12 am ET
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On October 9, the US Embassy in Kuwait issued a Security Message to US Citizens in Kuwait about a failed terrorist attack against deployed U.S. troops:

U.S. Embassy Kuwait confirms that what at first appeared to be a routine traffic accident involving three deployed U.S. military personnel on a Kuwaiti highway on Thursday, October 6, was in fact an attempted terrorist attack.  An Egyptian national deliberately rammed a construction vehicle into a passenger vehicle containing the three U.S. personnel.  The Egyptian driver was incapacitated by the impact.  The three U.S. military personnel, who were uninjured, pulled the driver from his vehicle, which had caught fire.  The perpetrator was subsequently hospitalized and is in Kuwaiti custody.

We are not aware of specific, credible threats against private U.S. citizens in Kuwait at this time.  Nonetheless, this attack serves as a reminder to maintain a high level of vigilance, and the Embassy advises U.S. citizens to review their personal security plans and remain alert to their surroundings at all times.

Read in full here.

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Security Assistance to Egypt: End-Use Monitoring and Leahy Vetting

August 29, 2016 By in Defense Department, Federal Agencies, Foreign Assistance, NEA|Near East Asia, Oversight, Security, Snapshots, State Department, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , ,

Posted: 12:03 am ET
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Via gao.gov:

U.S. agencies allocated approximately $6.5 billion for security-related assistance to Egypt in fiscal years 2011 through 2015. As of September 30, 2015, over $6.4 billion of the $6.5 billion total had been committed or disbursed. The majority of the funding (99.5 percent) was provided to Egypt through the Department of State’s (State) Foreign Military Financing (FMF) account. The funds from this account were used to purchase and sustain a wide variety of military systems, including F-16 aircraft, Apache helicopters, and M1A1 tanks.

Screen Shot

via goa.gov

via gao.gov

The Departments of Defense (DOD) and State implemented end-use monitoring for equipment transferred to Egyptian security forces, but challenges including obtaining Egyptian government cooperation hindered some efforts. DOD completed all required end-use monitoring inventories and physical security inspections of storage sites for missiles and night vision devices (NVD) in fiscal year 2015, but DOD lacked documentation showing that it completed physical security inspections for these sensitive items in prior years. Despite agreeing to give access, the Egyptian government prevented DOD officials from accessing a storage site to verify the physical security of some NVDs prior to 2015, according to DOD officials and documents. State conducted 12 end-use checks of U.S. equipment exported to Egypt in fiscal years 2011 to 2015, but State data indicate that the Egyptian government’s incomplete and slow responses to some inquiries limited U.S. efforts to verify the use and security of certain equipment, including NVDs and riot-control items. Despite this lack of cooperation, since 2008, State has not used outreach programs in Egypt that are intended to facilitate host country cooperation and compliance with State’s monitoring program. According to State officials, this was due to the small number of end-use checks conducted in Egypt and the lower priority assigned to Egypt than to other countries.

The U.S. government completed some, but not all, human rights vetting required by State policy before providing training or equipment to Egyptian security forces. State deemed GAO’s estimate of the percentage of Egyptian security forces that were not vetted to be sensitive but unclassified information, which is excluded from this public report. Moreover, State has not established specific policies and procedures for vetting Egyptian security forces receiving equipment. Although State concurred with a 2011 GAO recommendation to implement equipment vetting, it has not established a time frame for such action. State currently attests in memos that it is in compliance with the Leahy law. However, without vetting policies and procedures, the U.S. government risks providing U.S. equipment to recipients in Egypt in violation of the Leahy laws.

Read in full here.

 

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Snapshot: U.S. Security- Related Assistance for Egypt, FY2011-2015, as of 9/30/15

May 18, 2016 By in Foreign Assistance, Govt Documents, NEA|Near East Asia, Real Post of the Month, Security, Snapshots, State Department, U.S. Missions, Uncategorized, US Embassy Egypt Tags: , , , ,

Posted: 12:05  am ET
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Via gao.gov (PDF):

 

Screen Shot 2016-05-15

Via gao.gov

 

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#EgyptAir Plane Hijacked in Alexandria Lands in Cyprus, Crew and 4 Foreigners Still With Hijacker

March 29, 2016 By in Media, Security, Social Media Tags: , , , ,

Posted: 4:03 am ET
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An EgyptAir flight going from Alexandria to Cairo in Egypt was hijacked and has landed in Cyprus. According to EgyptAir, the flight has 56 passengers on board, plus a crew of seven and one EgyptAir security.  The passengers have been released after negotiations except for the cabin crew and four foreigners.  There are media outlets reporting that the alleged hijacker, reported as Libyan in some reports and Egyptian in others, is asking for political asylum. There are also unconfirmed reports that among the passengers are U.K. and U.S. nationals. A video footage below shows the released passengers disembarking in an orderly manner from the plane and into a waiting bus at the Larnaca Airport in Cyprus.

 

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US Embassy Cairo’s Security Message Baffles Egyptian Foreign Ministry

November 5, 2015 By in Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Foreign Service, Huh? News, Realities of the FS, Security, Social Media, State Department, U.S. Missions, UK-FCO Tags: , , ,

Posted: 12:39 pm EDT
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On November 2, the US Embassy in Cairo issued a security message to U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Egypt:

As a precautionary measure, the United States Embassy has instructed its employees not to travel anywhere in the Sinai Peninsula pending the outcome of the investigation into the tragic crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt on October 31. The Embassy will issue another message when this measure is lifted.

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US Embassy Cairo, like all posts and bureaus, is required to adhere to the State Department’s  ‘no double standard policy (pdf).  So thumbs up for them for doing this.  The security message is part of the agency’s consular information program and is not/not an internal memo.  What this means is if the Department shares information about potentially dangerous situations with the official U.S. community, it should also make the same or similar information available to the non-official U.S. community if the underlying threat applies to both official and non-official U.S. citizens/nationals.

The decision to issue a Travel Alert, Travel Warning, or a Security or Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens for an individual country is based on the overall assessment of the safety/security situation there. By necessity, this analysis must be undertaken without regard to bilateral political or economic considerations. Accordingly, posts must not allow extraneous concerns to color the decision of whether to issue information regarding safety or security conditions in a country, nor how that information is to be presented.

In related news, various media is now reporting that hundreds of British tourists are stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh: .

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