[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3725 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3725

To prohibit United States military assistance for Egypt and to express 
the sense of Congress that the amount of military assistance that would 
 have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year should be provided in 
             the form of economic support fund assistance.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 21, 2004

  Mr. Weiner introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit United States military assistance for Egypt and to express 
the sense of Congress that the amount of military assistance that would 
 have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year should be provided in 
             the form of economic support fund assistance.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Egyptian Counterterrorism and 
Political Reform Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Egypt is not a reliable ally in the war on terrorism.
            (2) The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) 
        reports that only two weeks before the September 11, 2001, 
        attacks, the Egyptian Government daily newspaper Al-Akhbar 
        published a column that stated: ``The Statue of Liberty, in New 
        York Harbor, must be destroyed because of following the idiotic 
        American policy that goes from disgrace to disgrace in the 
        swamp of bias and blind fanaticism.''.
            (3) According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, 
        the Egyptian Government weekly newspaper Al-Ahram Al-Arabi 
        published on September 22, 2001, an op-ed article that stated: 
        ``For many long years, America made many peoples in the world 
        cry. It was always [America] that carried out the acts; now, 
        acts are being carried out [against] it. A cook who concocts 
        poison must one day also taste that poison!''.
            (4) In the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, 
        signed after the Camp David Accords, each party agreed ``to 
        ensure that acts or threats of belligerency, hostility or 
        violence do not originate from and are not committed from 
        within its territory . . . against the population, citizens, or 
        property of the other party.''.
            (5) The Israeli Defense Forces have repeatedly found arms 
        smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. More than 
        40 tunnels were discovered in 2003. Some of these tunnels 
        originate in Egyptian army and police outposts.
            (6) Egyptian President Mubarak publicly stated that 
        Hezbollah had a ``right'' to attack Israelis in Southern 
        Lebanon.
            (7) The Middle East Media Research Institute reports that 
        Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, recently appointed by the Egyptian 
        Government to be the Mufti of Egypt, told a conference at the 
        University of Cairo in March 2003 that ``martyrdom operations, 
        in which the Palestinians blow up targets of the Israeli 
        occupation, are actions that are 100 percent permitted 
        according to Islamic religious law, and it is forbidden to 
        facilitate attack of a Muslim country . . . Any attempt to 
        invade Iraq is forbidden by Islamic religious law and by 
        morality, and Islam forbids it, and even commands its believers 
        to resist attempts at invasion and occupation.''.
            (8) According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, 
        on August 17, 2001, the Egyptian Government daily newspaper Al-
        Akhbar contained an editorial that stated: ``All that we have 
        left to say to the sons of Palestine . . . Kill your enemies 
        wherever you may find them. This is a life and death conflict 
        between you and them and it will not be over through calming 
        attempts. The only thing that will force your enemy to 
        surrender and to accept your demands is force, whatever the 
        sacrifices may be.''.
            (9) On May 9, 2003, President Bush stated: ``Over time, the 
        expansion of liberty throughout the world is the best guarantee 
        of security throughout the world. Freedom is the way to peace. 
        . . . We're determined to help build a Middle East that grows 
        in hope, instead of resentment. Because of the ideals and 
        resolve of this Nation, you and I will not live in an age of 
        terror. We will live in an age of liberty.''.
            (10) In November 2003 President Bush stated: ``The great 
        and proud nation Egypt . . . should show the way toward 
        democracy in the Middle East.''.
            (11) The United States Government's Middle East Partnership 
        Initiative (MEPI) ``champions an expanded public space where 
        democratic voices can be heard in the political process, and 
        the people have a choice in governance''.
            (12) Egypt is a dictatorship. The due process and 
        separation of powers key to any functioning democracy have been 
        stifled in Egypt since Hosni Mubarak assumed the presidency 
        more than 22 years ago. The so-called emergency powers he 
        renews every three years allow him to arrest political 
        opponents, their family and friends. Some experts believe that 
        President Mubarak's refusal to name a successor or vice 
        president suggests his intention to have his son, Gamal 
        Mubarak, succeed him.
            (13) Egypt regularly tortures its citizens. According to 
        the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights approximately 13,000 
        to 16,000 people are detained without charge on suspicion of 
        security or political offenses in Egypt each year. Amnesty 
        International published a report last year stating that 
        ``everyone taken into detention in Egypt is at risk of 
        torture''.
            (14) The Washington Post reported on January 6, 2004, that 
        14 people have been allegedly tortured and killed in Egyptian 
        jails over the course of the past 2 years.
            (15) The Coptic Christian minority of between 6 and 10 
        million in Egypt is victimized regularly, and remains without 
        protection. The Government of Egypt has never taken 
        responsibility for the arrest and torture of more than 1,200 
        Copts in late 1998 in the wake of sectarian violence.
            (16) In the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, 
        each party agreed ``that the normal relationship between them 
        will include full recognition, diplomatic, economic and 
        cultural relations, termination of economic boycotts, and 
        discriminatory barriers to the free movement of people and 
        good, and will guarantee the mutual enjoyment by citizens of 
        the due process of law''.
            (17) As a member of the Arab League, which maintains a 
        boycott against Israel, Egypt recalled its ambassador to Israel 
        in November of 2000, putting immense strain on the diplomatic 
        relations established between the two countries 25 years ago at 
        Camp David.
            (18) In the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, 
        each party agreed that ``the Parties shall seek to foster 
        mutual understanding and tolerance and will, accordingly, 
        abstain from hostile propaganda against each other''.
            (19) The American Jewish Committee reported that the 
        government controlled newspaper, Al-Ahkbar, published two 
        award-winning columns entitled, ``Thanks to Hitler''. The 
        Middle East Media Research Institute reported that another 
        government controlled paper, Al-Ahram, suggested that 
        ``responsibility for [the August bombing in the Iraqi city of 
        Najaf] is Western responsibility--and more specifically, 
        American''.
            (20) The television series ``Knight Without a Horse'' was 
        broadcast on Egypt's state-run television during Ramadan 2002. 
        The television program was based on the Protocols of the Elders 
        of Zion, an anti-Semitic document that suggests that Jews are 
        planning to take over the world.
            (21) On March 23, 2003, The Washington Post reported: ``The 
        most popular singer in Egypt is Shaaban Abdel-Rahim, an 
        illiterate man whose tape `I hate Israel' has sold more than 5 
        million copies. One of the most successful plays, `Mama 
        America', a virulently anti-American piece by well-known artist 
        Mohammed Sobhi, has been running for months.''.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON UNITED STATES MILITARY ASSISTANCE FOR EGYPT.

    (a) Prohibition.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for 
fiscal year 2005 and subsequent fiscal years, United States military 
assistance may not be provided for Egypt.
    (b) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of subsection 
(a) for a fiscal year if the President determines and certifies to 
Congress that it is in the national security interests of the United 
States to do so.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the amount of United States military assistance that 
        would have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year but for 
        the application of section 3(a) should be provided for Egypt 
        for such fiscal year in the form of economic support fund 
        assistance under chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance 
        Act of 1961 and further that such assistance should be in 
        addition to economic support fund assistance already proposed 
        to be provided for Egypt for such fiscal year;
            (2) funds for economic support fund assistance for Egypt 
        should not be used by the armed forces of Egypt;
            (3) 30 days prior to the initial obligation of funds for 
        economic support fund assistance for Egypt for a fiscal year, 
        the President should certify to Congress that procedures have 
        been established to ensure that the Comptroller General will 
        have access to appropriate United States financial information 
        in order to review the uses of such funds; and
            (4) the agreement among the United States, Egypt, and 
        Israel to decrease the overall amount of United States foreign 
        assistance for both countries should continue.

SEC. 5. DEFINITION.

    In this Act, the term ``United States military assistance'' means--
            (1) assistance for nonproliferation, anti-terrorism, 
        demining and related programs and activities, including 
        assistance under chapter 8 of part II of the Foreign Assistance 
        Act of 1961 (relating to anti-terrorism assistance) and 
        assistance under chapter 9 of part II of such Act, section 504 
        of the FREEDOM Support Act, section 23 of the Arms Export 
        Control Act, or the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 for demining 
        activities, the clearance of unexploded ordnance, the dest