Why Egypt Doesn't Trust Us

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/07/opinion/la-oe-meisler-prodemocracy-20120306


      This article just points out more reasons as to why countries abroad may have a distaste for the Western supported push for democracy.  Going back to the 1950s'-60's, American has been known for covert operations that lose the trust of many people. During the Cold War the CIA had set up fake foundations to secretly give money to private organizations that were non-communist, most people had no idea what was going on and when these operations were exposed, naturally it caused a huge amount of embarrassment for America causing President Johnson to cut funding. Yet, somehow another similar group was created, the National Endowment for Democracy in place of the CIA program that went sour. Legally this group was set up to divide money between four major groups within the United States that were selected to promote equal participation of the major American ideologies and interests. These four groups included The Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO and the United States Chamber of Commerce. Although handling money abroad is in fact a sensitive subject, especially with a recent past of mishandling, the newly developed group should have been very careful, yet in American tradition, the endowment went awry.
     
        France was given $1.5 million, to the AFL-CIO for a program in France and due to the close relationship between France and the U.S. the endowment didn't feel the need to say where the funds were going. MISTAKE. Irving Brown, the man in charge of the money to fund anti-communist movements, even though the Communist Party only held a mere 10% of the electorate. Clearly embarrassed, the U.S. denied that it was a government program, but  interestingly enough, all of the money came from the government.

      So it is understandable that Egypt may not trust the United States when it comes to funding.  U.S organizations are under scrutiny for creating unrest with illegal means of foreign funding, and they are all connected to the endowment. The GOP's International Republican Institute and the Democratic Party's Nation Democratic Institute are two main players in the endowment. Under the Clinton Administration, as a way to clear America's public opinion after the incident in Somalia leaving 18 American soldiers dead, he would often toss the blame at Boutros-Ghali the U.N. Secretary Genera. The Secretary General also used as a scapegoat by Bob Dole, when oddly enough the U.N. was not the supplier of troops, America was. Overall there seems to constantly be finger pointing and mishandling of funds when dealing with democracy abroad, giving countries another reason to mistrust foreign intervention and "aid".