In late September, retired senior U.S. military officials were part of a delegation that went to Egypt on a visit organized by Virginia-based think tank the Westminster Institute (WI), returning to D.C. to hail the Egyptian militarys intervention and deny there had been a coup. Delegates, many linked to conservative think tanks and Christian organisations, spent two days conducting various meetings, including a two hour-long audience with Al-Sisi, as well as Amr Moussa, Tamarod leaders, Coptic Church head Pope Tawadros II, and local businessmen. The post-trip press conference was held at the Press Club in D.C., where delegates expressed excitement and enthusiasm about the military takeover, with one participant hailing Al-Sisi as almost Washingtonian. The WI delegation urged the U.S. administration to fully support the Egyptian military so as not to lose a crucial American ally in the region. The WI delegation was co-led by retired Major General Paul Vallely and Patrick Sookhdeo, Chairman of the Board of the WI and International Director of UK-based Christian charity Barnabas Fund (for whom he wrote an article about the trip titled Rejecting Islamic Extremism Abroad - And At Home). Vallely is the founder of Stand Up America US (which also publicised the delegations findings) and is involved with a number of right-wing initiatives. He has defended force-feeding at Guantanamo Bay, questioned if President Obama is a natural-born citizen, and spoke at the Jerusalem Summit which sees Israel at the centre of a war for Judeo-Christian civilization. Other delegates included retired Col. Ken Allard, contributing editor at Family Security Matters, Intelligence Support Activity- veteran Lt. Col. Bill Cowan and Sebastian Gorka of Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). middleeastmonitor/articles/debate/7979-reagan-revived-as-us-delegation-defends-al-sisi
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 20:35:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015