Egypt Tiptoes Into Renewal of National Emergency Law

GlobeTracker| The Guardian reports that Barack Obama has told Egypt that he meant what he said about human rights. Egypt is America’s biggest recipient of aid after Israel (????)

Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic party has again renewed the emergency law in effect since the assissination in 1981 of Anwar Sadat.

Nervousness about blanket renewal of the law – and the US response – was apparent in official insistence that henceforth it would be restricted to terrorism and drug-trafficking and would no longer allow censorship or closure of newspapers or other media or monitoring private correspondence and phone calls. “The emergency law will not be used to undermine freedoms or infringe upon rights if these two threats are not involved,” pledged the prime minister, Ahmed Nazif. via The Guardian

Most Egyptians aren’t persuaded, according to The Guardian.