The Cockburnization of the Egyptian Press

The government controlled Egyptian press has been operating a broadside assault against the United States and especially against President Bush.


The anti-Americanism has come in response to reports in the media based upon American intelligence sources suggesting Egypt had been a partner in the development of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program, and also complaints about human rights abuses by the Egyptian ruling clique.

The Egyptian press is so anti-American that it appears almost as if Alexander Cockburn runs it, and it is almost as anti-Semitic as Counterpunch. A sampling of the horrendous anti-Americanism can be see in this collection of cartoons that has been published, taken from the Egyptian government-controlled papers:

The daily Al-Akhbar published a cartoon on March 14, 2005, in which Bush looks in a mirror and sees the image of Adolph Hitler. On March 15, 2005, Al-Akhbar published a cartoon showing a tidal wave patterned like the American flag. The caption read: "This is a black day: the American tsunami". On March 16, 2005, Al-Akhbar published a cartoon showing President Bush as a gun-toting cowboy standing on top of a pile of bodies, with the caption: "Allah knows that I want to liberate human beings in this world from their errors, to reform the recesses of their souls and the stupidity of their minds and to give them eternal rest from their unruly thoughts...". The weekly Akhbar Al-Yawm published a cartoon on March 12, 2005, in which President Bush is portrayed as an angel, but with cloven hooves and a pointy tail.

U.S. Actions Worse than Hitler's Nazis, wrote columnist 'Adli Barsoum wrote in the government daily Al-Gumhuriyya, adding:

"Egypt staunchly rejected American attempts to interfere in the MP Ayman Nour affair (dissident jailed by the regime for speaking his ideas). America does not have any right to impose upon us its false role of defense of human rights, democracy, and free speech, when it has [both] an early and recent history of human rights violations in forms unknown to [even] Hitler's Nazis.

"The Ayman Nour affair is an internal Egyptian matter, whether a criminal affair, a political affair, or anything else. The Egyptian judiciary are the only ones who may express an opinion on this matter, and the Egyptian people are the only ones who may express criticism about it."