...The recent establishment in Egypt of the National Commission for Human Rights marks a new phase on the long road to guaranteeing the protection of men and women from abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms.

It is worth noting the wide scope of the commission's competency, because its responsibilities range from providing recommendations to the relevant authorities for the protection of human rights to examining complaints made on this subject and cooperating with national and international nongovernmental organizations. In addition, the advantages of such a system may be increased by the new concept of human rights in relation to democracy and peace; the U.N. structure has been oriented toward this concept since the Global Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, which I chaired in 1993.

I am fully aware of the gap that exists between concept and action, and there is still much work to be done to consolidate the Egyptian human rights movement. But I also acknowledge that, in light of the fundamentalist terrorism that we are all now familiar with, security problems at times take precedence over the protection of civil liberties...

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's visit to the United States next week affords the administration an opportunity to correct the course for democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Egypt.

While Egypt has been a partner for Middle East peace and in the global war on terrorism, cooperation with the United States has come at high price to the American taxpayer. Since 1948 Egypt has received more than $59 billion in U.S. foreign assistance. For fiscal 2005, the foreign aid budget request for Egypt alone tops $1.8 billion.

Apart from cooperation on certain mutual security interests -- but not the liberation of Iraq -- what has U.S. foreign assistance secured in Egypt?[...]