The U.S. sends Egypt far more military aid than it needs

The United States gives Egypt about $1.3 billion in military aid each year. And, so far this year, the Obama administration has been unwilling to cut off those funds — even in the midst of a violent military crackdown that has left more than 525 dead.

Egyptian Army soldiers in Cairo. (Hassan Ammar/AP)

So here’s one question worth exploring: Just how important is all that aid to Egypt, anyway? NPR’s Julia Simon recently did some reporting on that exact question. It seems that in many cases, Egypt receives far more weaponry than it could possibly use:
The U.S. started sending M1A1 Abrams tanks to Egypt in the late ’80s. In all, the U.S. sent more than 1,000 tanks to Egypt since then — valued at some $3.9 billion — which Egypt maintains along with several thousand Soviet-era tanks.

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US Marines Put On Alert To Move Into Egypt Amid Violent Protests

Amid anti-government demonstrations planned for this weekend, roughly 200 combat-capable U.S. Marines in southern Europe have been put on an alert status should they need to protect the U.S. Embassy or American citizens in Egypt, CNN is reporting.

The Marines were told to be ready to deploy within an hour, and would be flown in via MV-22 Osprey, the Marine Corps’ rapid deployment aircraft.

A state department spokesman told CNN that the move is precautionary, and that the U.S. fully expects the Egyptian security forces to be able to protect the American diplomatic facilities.

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Egypt Is Prepared To Bomb All Of Ethiopia's Nile Dams

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The Nile begins in the mountains of eastern Africa and flows north into the Mediterranean Sea.

In 2010 Egypt discussed taking military action in cooperation with Sudan against Ethiopia to protect their stake in Nile River, according to internal emails from the U.S. private-security firm Stratfor.

Egypt and Sudan currently receive 90 percent of the river’s water under colonial-era accords while upstream countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia have been clamoring for a new deal during more than a decade of talks.

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Islamists and activists clash in Egypt's Tahrir Square

CAIRO -- Critics and supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi clashed in Tahrir Square on Friday in a small but potent rally that sharpened the nation’s tensions over its political direction and the failure to bring loyalists of the former government to justice.
Followers of the Muslim Brotherhood and others supporting Morsi, the country’s first Islamist president, chided liberals and ransacked a stage set up by activists. Stones, bottles and gasoline bombs were hurled and two buses caught fire in the most intense hostilities between Islamists and secular activists in months.
The Health Ministry said that at least 110 people had been injured. The fighting cast a spotlight on a divided Egypt and highlighted the frustrations Islamists and liberals harbor over how little the Arab world’s most populous nation has improved since last year’s uprising that overthrew longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.

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US, Egypt to begin joint naval war games

Talks are under way between senior Navy officials and their counterparts in Cairo to begin conducting joint war games for the first time since Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi took power earlier this year.
While bilateral discussions on the naval drills are still being discussed, the exercises would focus on improving Egypt's ability to deal with small boat attacks and general patrol operations of its coastal waters, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told reporters Thursday.

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4 Killed Including 3 Militant And One Israeli Solider

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Three armed militant killed when they try to slim into Israel from Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Clashed claimed life of one Israeli soldier and wounded another.
"A big terror attack was thwarted," Israeli army spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich said of Friday's violence.
It was at least the fourth cross-border attack in just over a year - violence that has persisted despite an Egyptian army and police crackdown on Sinai militants begun last month.
Israeli officials say one attacker's explosives detonated during the clash, which they described as a terrorist attack.  The incident took place in the Har Harif region.

Germen Reject Israeli Pressure Over Submarine Sale To Egypt

Berlin rejects Israeli pressure over subs sale to Egypt

A German-built Type 209 attack submarine (AFP/File, Rodger Bosch)

BERLIN — German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere dismissed Israeli pressure not to sell two submarines to Egypt, while acknowledging the country was "not as stable" as he would like in an interview published Saturday.
"No country in the world has the right of veto to decisions taken by the German government," the minister told the Frankfurter Rundschau when asked to comment on the probable sale of two Type 209 attack submarines.
Questioned specifically about Israeli pressure not to go through with the deal, he repeated: "Nobody has the right of veto."
However he admitted that Egypt "is not as stable as I would like", while stressing this was a "personal point of view" and had "nothing to do with any possible transaction over submarines."
German arms sales to foreign countries have to be approved by a federal security commission, whose discussions and decisions are not disclosed.
The Internet site of the weekly Der Spiegel on Tuesday revealed that the commission was due to discuss the proposed sale again even though it gave the green light in November 2011.

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Egyptian Forces Again Clash With Militants

Egyptian Forces Clash With Militants in Sinai Security Sweep

An Egyptian man points to a tunnel that was used to supply cars to Gaza, in Rafah city September 12, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih) 

 

 

Violent clashes erupted yesterday [September 16] between security forces and gunmen in the city of Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai as part of the Sinai campaign to hunt down criminals. The area witnessed street battles between militants and security forces. Ten people, including seven police personnel, were injured during the confrontations, and eight suspects were arrested. A helicopter was reportedly targeted as well.

According to eyewitnesses, the clashes began yesterday at dawn. A joint security campaign comprising of police and army forces raided four houses in the village of al-Muqataa near the city of Sheikh Zuweid, searching for those involved in the raiding of the Multinational Force and Observers’ (MFO) North Camp in the region of al-Gorah last Friday [September 14]. The raid led to an exchange of gunfire between security forces and militants, which resulted in the injury of seven soldiers, a child and an elderly woman who were later transported to Sheikh Zuweid hospital.

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Egypt Destroy 31 Tunnels Bording To Gaza

Egyptian army says it destroyed 31 tunnels during ‘Operation Sinai’

 

Egyptian forces destroyed 31 tunnels connecting Sinai with the Gaza Strip during an operation to battle Islamist militants after gunmen killed 16 soldiers at a border outpost on August 5, a spokesman for the country’s military command announced in a press conference on Saturday.

Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Ali said there were about 225 tunnels in Sinai. The tunnels are used to smuggle various kinds of products into the besieged Gaza Strip and the Egyptian authorities have often turned a blind eye to the cross border activity.

But the deterioration of security conditions that culminated in the deadly August ambush in Sinai raised concerns that the tunnels were likely used to smuggle weapons and to facilitate the movement of armed groups

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Major Crackdown By Egyptian Army

We’ve killed 32 ‘criminals’ and arrested 38 since Sinai terror attack, says Egyptian army

 

Egyptian armed forces have killed 32 “criminal elements” in the wake of the August 5 Gaza-Egypt-Israel border attack that killed 16 Egyptian border guards, military spokesman Ahmed Mohammed Ali said Saturday. They have also arrested another 38 people and destroyed 31 smuggling tunnels along the Gaza border in the ongoing operation.

Ali referred to the first portion of the Egypt’s military campaign in Sinai as “very successful,” and said it would continue until all the army’s goals are achieved.

The spokesman also hinted that the army has operated within the framework of the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, the 1979 Camp David Accords. He said Egypt has acted “alone” and according to “all international agreements” in its pursuit of terror operatives in the peninsula.

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