Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Congress has again warned Egypt’s military regime of a
cutoff in U.S. military aid.

Officials said Congress has relayed messages to the military regime in
Cairo that raised the prospect of a U.S. defense aid suspension for fiscal
2013, which begins in October. They said leading House and Senate members
were concerned over the military’s dissolution of an elected parliament and
the return to martial law.

“Parliament has been dissolved and the military has reaffirmed martial law and has assumed whatever authority the parliament had,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, said. “There also is the question of whether the victor of the presidential runoff will be allowed to actually assume the authority of the office.”

[On late June 17, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces seized additional power in an amendment to the constitution. The council said the Egyptian military rather than the civilian government would be responsible for all appointments as well as ratify any decision for war.]

Leahy authored legislation for new conditions on the annual $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid to Egypt. In February, the administration of President Barack Obama, lobbied by the military and defense contractors, waived the
aid cutoff and sent the entire allocation to Cairo.

“I am closely following developments in Egypt. I have made clear to the
State Department that, despite the earlier waiver of the conditions I
authored, I would not want to see the U.S. government write checks for
contracts with Egypt’s military under the present uncertain circumstances,”
Leahy said on June 15.

The legislation on Egypt demanded that the White House certify that the
military regime was moving toward democratic transition toward a civilian
government. Other conditions included human rights guarantees and security
cooperation with neighboring Israel.

On June 15, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta telephoned his Egyptian
counterpart, Hussein Tantawi to discuss the dissolution of the Muslim
Brotherhood-dominated parliament. A Pentagon statement said Tantawi, who
also heads the ruling military council, pledged to transfer power to an
elected government by July 1.

“[Panetta] highlighted the need to move forward expeditiously with
Egypt’s political transition, including conducting new legislative elections
as soon as possible,” the Pentagon statement said.

  Hussein Tantawi, Leon Panetta, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator warns against ‘writing checks’ to Egypt’s military, Supreme Council of the Armed Forces