The fall of Bush's popularity and the Republican majority is directly attributable to this unforgiveable lack of will.
Posted on 04/07/2007 3:53:36 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAIRO, Egypt - A top U.S. Democratic congressman met a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed opposition group, during a recent visit to the country, the Islamic fundamentalist group and U.S. officials said Saturday.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record) met with the Muslim Brotherhood's parliament leader, Mohammed Saad el-Katatni, twice on Thursday — once at the parliament building and then at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said Brotherhood spokesman Hamdi Hassan.
U.S. Embassy spokesman John Berry would only confirm that Hoyer, who represents Maryland, met with el-Katatni at U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone's home at a reception with other politicians and parliament members.
Though officially banned since 1954, the Brotherhood is tolerated by the government and has become Egypt's largest opposition group and President Hosni Mubarak's most powerful rival.
Its members, who run as independents, make up the largest opposition bloc in parliament, holding about one-fifth of its 454 seats.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has refused in the past to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood.
But Berry said U.S. government policy does not bar meetings with Brotherhood members of parliament and Hoyer's talks with el-Katatni were not a change in U.S. policy toward the group.
"It's our diplomatic practice around the world to meet with parliamentarians, be they members of political parties or independents," Berry said. "We haven't changed our policy with regard to the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization."
The State Department had no comment Saturday on Hoyer's meetings with the group.
Berry stressed that Hoyer met with el-Katatni in his capacity as an independent member of Egyptian parliament. He would not say what the two discussed.
Hassan said the two lawmakers discussed developments in the Middle East, the "Brotherhood's vision" and opposition movements in Egypt. He said the two met privately at the ambassador's home and with other members of Hoyer's bipartisan delegation and Egyptian lawmakers at the parliament building.
Hoyer's meeting came just a day after Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration for meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.
Pelosi and other Democrats argue the administration needs to engage Syria to resolve some of the most intractable problems in the Middle East, such as Iraq and the Israeli-Arab conflict. But the Bush administration rejects that approach, accusing Syria of exacerbating the troubles in neighboring Iraq and Lebanon.
Jon Alterman, a Mideast specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Bush administration officials may have avoided meeting Muslim Brotherhood members because that could strain relations with the secular Egyptian government, one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East.
"The difficulty when it gets to Egypt is that the Brotherhood is not a legal group within Egypt and the U.S. government is wary of violating laws in countries in which it operates," he told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"The larger constraint on our willingness to meet the Brotherhood is the Egyptian government's unease with our government's meeting with the Brotherhood."
Hoyer, who also met with Mubarak during his visit, left Egypt on Friday. A telephone message left with his spokeswoman Saturday was not immediately returned. Calls to el-Katatni also went unanswered Saturday.
The Muslim Brotherhood's parliament bloc Web site said the meetings were not part of an effort to engage the United States.
"The Brotherhood not only has reservations on dialogue with the Americans but rejects the unfair American policy in the region," the Web site said.
Washington has been pressing Mubarak for years to enact reforms as part of a Bush administration campaign to spread democracy in the Mideast. And Rice expressed concern in March that "all voices" were not being heard in deliberations over amending the constitution as part of those reforms.
"There's been a growing sense in Washington over 20 years that Islamic politics are here to stay, and the U.S. interest in promoting democracy around the world means we should be engaging with a growing number of actors," Alterman said.
___
Associated Press writers Anna Johnson in Cairo and John Heilprin in Washington contributed to this report.
[Is Steny a Blue Dog rat??????]
No- he’s your basic scummy sewer rat
They should be in jail.
Muslim Brotherhood is the father off all terror groups, including Al Queda.
And replace him with Ayman al Zawahiri (Bin Laden's #2)
What they are doing is trying as hard as they can to sell you & me out to the Islamic fascist while doing what they can to retain position title & prestige. Next question please.
I have mentioned here before that I do not think Ms. Pelosi acted without the consent of Democrat leaders and that her action is part of a bigger Democrat plan, now I think we can see the pieces falling into place.
Also, need to give credit to the Democrats in Congress for their funding vote, just recently Al-Sadr ordered to step up attacks on US troops in Iraq. He knows that the Democrats do not have the stomach for war and wants to kill as many of our troops as he can to get them to pull out.
So the Democrats in Congress should get a “We helped kill our own troops in Iraq” award.
And why not, they also support killing the unborn.
You are very welcome.
If you are interested, all 4 parts can be found here:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27b/080.html (Part1)
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27b/081.html (Part2)
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27b/082.html (Part3)
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27b/083.html (Part4)
Wonderful...I am going to bookmark it all.
Thank you very much.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879273592&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Check this out...we are getting denials of a sort by Hoyer!
Hassan said the two lawmakers discussed developments in the Middle East, the "Brotherhood's vision" and opposition movements in Egypt. He said the two met privately at the ambassador's home and with other members of Hoyer's bipartisan delegation and Egyptian lawmakers at the parliament building.
------
A top US Democratic congressman said he did not have "personal meetings" with a member of Egypt's largest opposition group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, during a recent official trip, a spokeswoman for the American lawmaker said Sunday.
------
Well, he's "sort of" correct. From the articles it's obvious that the meeting was only "private", it wasn't "personal" because there were other members of delegation present... /s
Yeah...I guess it is one of those Dem “semantic” things.
Like it depends on what the meaning of the word “personal” is...LOL
Thanks, I guess it depends on what the definition of “personal” is as in personal meetings..
They were only with members of his group now?
Who to believe?
You got me...I know I wouldn’t trust Steny at all.
Whenever Nancy’s big adventure was brought up on any of the news shows..and the host would have a Dem operative on ...that person would SWEAR that he/she knew what Pelosi said and heard in Syria...and SWORE that Pelosi didn’t do what Olmert said she did...and that she wasn’t putting forth her own foreign policy agenda.
BUT, we have her/their words for it...and then Lantos comes out and says they told Assad of the “Democratic foreign policy.
There is no way that anyone that wasn’t in the room with Assad and Pelosi would know what was said by anyone.
But, I know they lie, cheat and steal...and so do the Syrians...so, I am betting on the worst.
Bush needs to call for a Justice Department investigation into what Pelosi did..and Steny Hoyer did...on the basis of we are at war..and the were consorting with the enemy.
The fall of Bush's popularity and the Republican majority is directly attributable to this unforgiveable lack of will.
Which is the fundamental problem with Islam. Anyone going back to the roots of Islam, to really follow the way of the prophet Mohammed, will become a murderous intolerant religious zealot thug.
As demonstrated by the history in your post.
If I remember right, he’s also associated with the “Vanguards of Conquest.”
Wasn’t his brother involved with the KLA leadership in the Balkans?
So he didn’t meet with a pro-Democracy opposition member, he met with a pro-Islamofascist opposition member.
Recall that Ayman Al Zawahiri (Al Qaeda #2) is a direct offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
So the Dems are meeting with AQ’s close associates.
Birds of a feather.
The Muslim brotherhood was part of Hitlers army. Their job was to hunt down the Jews for the Nazis.
Can the democrats get any lower? I'll bet they've all got posters of Adolf hanging in their offices.
The democrats were there asking for DNC donations. Any enemy of America is a friend of theirs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.