[By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

The Egyptian military, trained and funded by the U.S., staged a bloody military coup which deposed the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. The military now holds Morsi under house arrest and has also arrested many of his most prominent supporters. During the course of the coup, the military also shot dozens of peaceful sit-in demonstrators in cold blood. Some media figures have described the events as a "clash". It was, however, not a clash. It was a massacre which put on display the true colors of the Egyptian military.

But the United States does not only fund the Egyptian military. It is also lavishing taxpayer dollars on many opposition groups and individuals. Al Jazeera published a detailed report of the study by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, which shows that the United States channeled funding through a State Department program which supported activists and politicians who have fomented unrest in Egypt following the ousting of Mubarak.

According to government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are channeled through the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), USAID, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

These groups, in turn, reroute money to other organizations such as the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, and Freedom House.

It is interesting to note some of the individuals who benefit from this money.

The exiled policeman Colonel Omar Afifi Soliman, who served in Egypt's elite investigative police unit which is notorious for human rights abuses, began receiving money from NED in 2008 and continued to receive funding for at least four years. He was ruthless in his attempts to subvert Morsi's government. "Incapacitate them [Morsi's supporters] by smashing their knee bones first," he instructed his followers. "Make a road bump with a broken palm tree to stop the buses [carrying Morsi's supporters] from going into Cairo and drench the road around it with gas and diesel. When the bus slows down, set it on fire…."

In May, he instructed: "Behead those who control power, water and gas utilities."

Esraa Abdel-Fatah, a 34-year-old woman member of the Al-Dostor Party headed by Mohamed El-Baradei, is another grantee of NED and other U.S. groups. She sprang to notoriety during the pitched battle over the new constitution in December, 2012. She also lent her full support to the military takeover and urged the U.S. not to call it a "coup."

Speaking to the press several weeks before the coup, she made a confident prediction, stating: "June 30 will be the last day of Morsi's term."

Michael Meunier, a dual U.S.-Egyptian citizen, is a frequent guest on TV channels which opposed Morsi. Meunier is head of the Al-Haya Party, which collects U.S. funding through its NGO, the Hand in Hand for Egypt Association. He has helped rally Egypt's Christian Orthodox Coptic who oppose Morsi's Islamic program.

There are many more such examples, which are typical of the so-called color revolutions engineered by the United States.

But U.S. funding is a mere drop in the ocean compared to that offered by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, whose combined contribution amounted to $8 billion. Their motives are clear. Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, mortally scared by the Arab Spring, have sought to restore the old, authoritarian order, fearful that Islamist movements and calls for democracy would destabilize their monarchies.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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