Growing Egyptian-U.S. Tensions: Egyptian Press Attacks President Bush

(MEMRI) - The Arabic-language London daily Al-Hayat reported that Egypt used diplomatic channels to express its dissatisfaction with the "negative atmosphere" created by leaks to the American media from various circles within the U.S. administration, the latest of which quoted American intelligence sources suggesting Egypt had been a partner in the development of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons programs. Another Arabic-language London daily, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, reported that Egyptian President Mubarak would not hold his annual visit to the U.S. this year. The Egyptian government daily Al-Akhbar published a cartoon on March 14 in which Bush looks in a mirror and sees the image of Adolph Hitler. On March 16 it published a cartoon showing President Bush as a gun-toting cowboy standing on top of a pile of bodies. Columnist 'Adli Barsoum wrote in the government daily Al-Gumhuriyya on Feb. 22: "Egypt staunchly rejected American attempts to interfere in the MP Ayman Nour affair. America does not have any right to impose upon us its false role of defense of human rights, democracy, and free speech, when it has [both] an early and recent history of human rights violations in forms unknown to [even] Hitler's Nazis."


2005-03-18 00:00:00

Full Article

BACK

Visit the Daily Alert Archive