[PapaBear3625]

I'm thinking this is a ploy by the Egyptians to tell the US "Don't even THINK about trying to curtail your foreign aid payments to us". The Americans are essentially hostages.

We currently send Egypt a little under $2B/year. Egypt is essentially bankrupt, and the people who supported the Muslim Brotherhood's takeover will NOT be happy if Egypt is forced to undertake austerity measures.

[Qbert]

I thought the same thing at first, but (FWIW) Lahood's group is putting the blame on this, "in part by Mubarak-era holdovers." If so, I wonder if this could get really messy, really fast- another blunder by Obama.