Obama Admin. Withholds Military Aid and Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Aid to Egypt

Those Egyptians dared to act in their own best interests rather than Obama's political needs. Now they must pay the penalty. I wonder if Obama will release the National Park Service on them to "make it hurt" even more.

From Fox News:

The Obama administration was criticized by an Egyptian government official Thursday in the wake of its decision to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and military aid in response to the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and the crackdown by the military-backed government on his supporters.  

"The decision was wrong. Egypt will not surrender to American pressure and is continuing its path towards democracy as set by the roadmap,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty told an Egyptian radio station, according to Reuters.
The State Department announced the decision late Wednesday afternoon, after press reports emerged that an aid cut-off was imminent.  

The U.S. provides $1.5 billion in aid each year to Egypt. While the State Department did not provide a dollar amount of what was being withheld, senior Senate leadership aides shared with Fox News some of the details of a conference call with staffers from the State Department and the office of the Secretary of Defense.  

The U.S. is "holding" -- as in not sending to Cairo -- a dozen F-16s; a similar number of AH-64 Apache helicopters; four M-1/A-1 tank kits (tanks that are shipped in pieces and assembled in the receiving country); and an unspecified number of Harpoon missiles (typically an anti-ship missile).  

Also, the U.S. is not proceeding with the planned transfer of $260 million in cash to the Egyptian government. However, these funds were already on hold pending the outcome of talks between the Egyptians and the International Monetary Fund.  

The U.S. is also not proceeding with a $300 million loan guarantee slated as part of our foreign military financing programs.   

[...]  

Importantly, officials did not invoke the "coup" clause -- which would be a determination that aid must be cut off because a "coup" was deemed to have taken place.  

Officials said they plan to revaluate this decision on a constant basis going forward, to see if the Egyptian interim government is moving rapidly towards a "sustainable, inclusive, non-violent transition to democracy."  

The U.S. decision to cut aid to Egypt, though, will create new friction in Washington's already uneasy relations with the government that ousted the first democratically elected Egyptian president. And the consequences won't end there. The move will anger Persian Gulf states, push Egypt to seek assistance from U.S. rivals and upend decades of close ties with the Egyptians that that have been a bulwark of stability in the Middle East.  

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. will withhold delivery of certain large-scale military systems as well as cash assistance to the Egyptian government until "credible progress" is made toward an inclusive government set up through free and fair elections.

Hmm. So Obama's State Department won't deliver military aid and money until the Egyptians vote in more Islamists? Okay, that's not exactly what they're saying, but it's pretty close. Ah, Obama's international relations is just so darn intelligent. It's good to see "smart diplomacy" in action.