Gates: Egyptian Military Aid Not Conditional on Democracy, Human Rights

After meeting with Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared that U.S. military assistance to Egypt would not be tied to Egypt’s record on democracy or human rights, according to a report (in Arabic) by al-Jazeera mentioned  by Marc Lynch. As Lynch notes, “There’s been much debate and discussion of how the Obama administration would deal with democracy concerns;  this reported statement by Gates would be one of the most direct and disheartening public statements yet of its downgrading.”