Our Egyptian police raid in the office of three US spaces, pro-democracy human rights organization's (seizing) competitors and document. It's a part of massive sweep against these non-governmental organizations. One of the American groups is cheered by a former secretary state and another by a (powerful) US senator.
And Mohammed Jar, Mr. Jamaju is joining in us now. From Cairo, it's outrageous, what's it going on in Cairo right now? Tell our viewers what happened on this day?
Well, Woolf. We spoke to spokesperson form general prosecutor office here, they confirm us that the (security forces) conduct seventeen rage on non-governmental organizations in Cairo today, targeting at least ten groups across the country. Ah, at targeted group included US space freedom house, the national democratic against institute and international republican institute, and I spoke (a short while) ago to Julia huge, she is a country director for NDI, she said it was very (surprising) at about 12:30 p.m., local time here today, and it was a simultaneous raids three offices in the country here, that laptops were taken, lots of papers, electronic devices, some financial records. And she says that they were heard before, they were under (investigation) but they didn't get any more really information on that. This is something that caused a lot of outrages here, a lot of (right attacks) in Egypt saying that this is something that wouldn't even happen during the repressive Monbara days during that regime and a lot of people calling into question just what the ruling military council here is intending to send, uh, what kind of message during their send with these actions. A lot of people here believe, this is (clear indication) that the supreme council of armed forces are not going to allow a true democratic civil society to flourish in Egypt.
These are organizations that promote democracy that monitor elections. I don't know if the military rulers of Egypt know that now Morton Lambright, the former Secretary of State, is the head of the National Democratic Institute, Republican Senator John McCain is the head of International Republican Institute. Do they have a (clue) what's going on here, how outrageous this is?
Well, if they didn't know before, they certainly are getting an indication now. This is a very, very (big deal). It's bewildering why the Supreme Council of the armed forces, or the general prosecutors of this, why they would do this kind of action, especially targeting these American, US organizations. It just doesn't make any sense. It's sure to (strain) US-Egypt relations at a time when there's already a lot of tension and volatility here, you know. Even in these post-revolutionary times when things should be calming, when elections are happening, in the past couple of weeks we've seen an increase in crackdowns that are going on against protesters, and we've seen a lot of outrage being expressed because military tribunals are still going on, and this is really only something that's going to add more (tension) not just within Egypt but especially between the US-Egypt relationship, which is such a crucial alliance in this region.
Yeah, they are gonna have to reverse this pretty quickly and start returning those laptops and all those documents they those offices in Cairo. Our Mohammed, we'll stay in close touch with you. Thanks, very much, for that update.