Measures of Freedom
Egypt | Freedom House,
Freedom in the World 2024
2016: Status: Not Free, Aggregate Score: 27, Political Rights: 6, Civil Liberties: 5
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi continued to wield both executive and legislative powers in 2015, with no elected legislature in place since the July 2013 coup against then president Mohamed Morsi, which also dissolved the parliament. Legislative elections were finally held in late 2015 following a brief and tightly managed campaign period. The new, overwhelmingly progovernment parliament was scheduled to hold its first session in early 2016.
Human Freedom Index [PDF],
The Human Freedom Index 2023: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom
2019: 4.49, Rank: 161, Personal Freedom: 3.63, Economic Freedom: 5.68
Level of Economic Freedom,
Economic Freedom of the World
2014: 6.05, Rank: 129
Articles
Trump’s Support and Praise of Despots Is Central to the U.S. Tradition, Not a Deviation From It, by Glenn Greenwald, 2 May 2017
Discusses recent criticism of Donald Trump that claims that his foreign policy towards known dictators and tyrants constitutes a major shift, when in fact that has been standard U.S. policy since at least the end of World War II
In 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton actually said of the murderous Egyptian dictator supported by the U.S.: "I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family." When Egypt's defense minister, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, overthrew that country's first elected government, Clinton's successor, John Kerry, hailed him for "restoring democracy," and as Sisi became more brutal and repressive, the Obama administration lavished him with more weapons and money.
U.S.-Egyptian "Historic Partnership" Reeks with Hypocrisy, by
Sheldon Richman, 25 Jun 2014
Examines events in Egypt from the 2011 revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak to the 2013 coup d'état that removed Mohamed Morsi and the 2014 announcement by the Obama administration of continued military support for General el-Sisi
[In] 2011, ... Egyptians took to the streets to demand an end to the decades-long dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak ... Mubarak's despicable human-rights record, ... was documented in State Department reports ... The Egyptian people's uprising led to their first elections and a victory for candidates associated with the Muslim Brotherhood ... The administration of President Mohammed Morsi (June 2012 – July 2013) was marred by repression ... All this was topped off this past spring by the election of former general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as president, with a suspicious 95 percent of the vote.
U.S. Foreign Policy Is a Shambles, by
Sheldon Richman, 7 Jan 2014
Examines the 2014 status of United States foreign policy in various Middle East countries
The Obama administration ... stuck with hated military dictator and ally Hosni Mubarak until the bitter end and even then tried to have his second-in-command and torturer in chief, Omar Suleiman, take over when Mubarak was finished ... a fledgling democracy (whatever its imperfections) began to sprout wings. The Obama administration praised Egyptian democratic aspirations, but when the military deposed President Muhammad Morsi last year, the administration sided with the coup makers — although it could not use the word coup, for that would require stopping the annual $1.5 billion payment to the Egyptian military.
Cartoons and Comic Strips
