The Obama administration may be compelled to block $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt if the Mideast nation prosecutes U.S. workers with non-governmental organizations, a State Department official said.
“We are looking at that very seriously,” Andrew Shapiro, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, said yesterday in an interview in Bloomberg’s Washington office. “No decisions have been made. Our hope is the NGO crisis is resolved. That’s the focus of our diplomacy.”
A criminal trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 26 for 43 workers, including a group of Americans, accused of illegally accepting payments from abroad. Among those charged are workers in Cairo for the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, organizations allied with the U.S. Democratic and Republican parties. Sam LaHood, the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, is among them.
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