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How many Americans realize that their government gives over a billion dollars of their tax money to Egypt every year? And, of course, it is not just Egypt. The United States also gives other countries billions of dollars in foreign aid every year.

By Laurence M. Vance

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife of “accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for the senator, with help from his wife, using his position from 2018 to 2022 to benefit the Egyptian government, including on foreign military financing and foreign military sales.”

All in a day’s work for a member of Congress.

Menendez was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, until he was pressured to resign from the committee. He is accused of “providing Egyptian officials sensitive information about U.S. embassy employees in Cairo; ghost-writing a letter for Egyptian officials to U.S. senators, asking them to support the release of $300 million in aid; and approving or removing holds on foreign military financing and exports of defense equipment to Egypt.”

Turns out that “Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate and House foreign affairs panels have the option to place holds on large foreign weapons sales and the transfer of Foreign Military Financing funds, which are grants the State Department provides to foreign governments to buy U.S. weapons.”

The real problem here is the foreign aid itself, not the shenanigans of Senator Menendez.

In 2022, the fiscal 2022 appropriations deal made $320 million in foreign aid to Egypt contingent upon Cairo meeting certain human rights benchmarks. However, it also allowed the Biden administration to use a waiver for up to $235 million. In the end, only $85 million in aid was withheld.

Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says “he supports blocking $235m in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns.” However, the largest chunk of aid, $980m, “was not subject to such restrictions and will go ahead.”

See the rest here

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