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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4409-2004Apr11.html
Our Man in Cairo
(Washington Post) Editorial - The largest obstacle to President Bush's democracy initiative in the greater Middle East may be Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt. Mubarak, 75, is an unrepentant autocrat who has ruled his country under emergency law for 23 years; his repressive policies have helped fuel al-Qaeda, whose top leadership has included a number of Egyptians. "Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe," Mr. Bush said in November. Egypt has been at the center of that flawed policy. Since 1979, the U.S. has showered the regime with some $50 billion in aid while asking for little outside a cooperative foreign policy.