" Instead of pushing for immediate regime change — as it did to varying degrees in Egypt and now Libya — the U.S. is urging protesters from Bahrain to Morocco to work with existing rulers toward what some officials and diplomats are now calling "regime alteration." "

" A president who himself is often torn between idealism and pragmatism was navigating the counsel of a traditional foreign policy establishment led by Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Biden and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, against that of a next-generation White House staff who worried that the American preoccupation with stability could put a historic president on the wrong side of history. "

" Obama never publicly called for Mubarak to resign. The White House feared that approach could backfire. Obama's advisors did not want to give the impression Washington had forced change in another country. And they worried that conservative elements in the Egyptian regime might prop up Mubarak in response to U.S. demands that he go. "

" The revolution in Egypt has reopened a long-simmering debate about the “freedom agenda” that animated George W. Bush’s presidency. Was he right after all, as his supporters have argued? Are they claiming credit he does not deserve? And has President Obama picked up the mantle of democracy and made it his own? "

" But analysts in Cairo, Washington and Tel Aviv say the situation remains too volatile to be sure that the military council will ultimately permit free elections, accede to civilian control and allow transparency. "

" But the Brotherhood, like everyone else, is evolving. It would be a serious error to believe that it has not sincerely wrestled with the seductive challenge of democracy, with the fact that the Egyptian faithful like the idea of voting for their leaders. "

" If the United States looks like it’s succoring Mubarak’s henchmen with military and economic aid, it risks having Egyptians blame it for siding with a dictatorship against their democratic aspirations. With the 2012 elections looming, Republicans could easily pile on. "

" No matter what was said in private, or how forcefully, the public message sent by the Obama administration over the past two years was that democracy and human rights in Egypt was not a top priority. When given the opportunity to use the biggest megaphone in the world--the voice of the president of the United States--the words were whispered, if said at all. "

see below: "secret backing" was anything but

" 5. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx described how he tried to convince his Washington interlocutors that the USG should pressure the GOE to implement significant reforms by threatening to reveal CAIRO 00002572 002 OF 002 information about GOE officials' alleged \"illegal\" off-shore bank accounts. He hoped that the U.S. and the international community would freeze these bank accounts, like the accounts of Zimbabwean President Mugabe's confidantes. xxxxxxxxxxxx said he wants to convince the USG that Mubarak is worse than Mugabe and that the GOE will never accept democratic reform. xxxxxxxxxxxx asserted that Mubarak derives his legitimacy from U.S. support, and therefore charged the U.S. with \"being responsible\" for Mubarak's \"crimes.\" He accused NGOs working on political and economic reform of living in a \"fantasy world,\" and not recognizing that Mubarak -- \"the head of the snake\" -- must step aside to enable democracy to take root.

" 6. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx claimed that several opposition forces -- including the Wafd, Nasserite, Karama and Tagammu parties, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kifaya, and Revolutionary Socialist movements -- have agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections (ref C). According to xxxxxxxxxxxx, the opposition is interested in receiving support from the army and the police for a transitional government prior to the 2011 elections. xxxxxxxxxxxx asserted that this plan is so sensitive it cannot be written down. (Comment: We have no information to corroborate that these parties and movements have agreed to the unrealistic plan xxxxxxxxxxxx has outlined. Per ref C, xxxxxxxxxxxx previously told us that this plan was publicly available on the internet. End comment.) "

@Net_News_Global @AnonNewsNet NED and USAID democracy promotion will also be worth watching in the months to come.

" The Obama administration’s “priority in dealing with Egypt is how can Egypt help us on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process or the Arab-Israeli peace process in general. That’s just sort of the prism through which the relationship is viewed.” "

"Cuban dissidents who were given millions of dollars by the US government to support democracy in their homeland instead blew money on computer games, cashmere sweaters, crabmeat and chocolates, which were then sent to the island."

"The Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL), ... is a key but under-appreciated actor in assisting Canada's foreign-policy interests for the region in the name of democracy, private enterprise and free markets."

"The money is being provided by the US Agency for International Development through its Office of Transition Initiatives... USAID released copies of 132 contracts but obscured the names and other identifying details of nearly half the organisations."

"the NED has revealed that Reporters Without Borders received grants over at least three years from the International Republican Institute. ... The discovery of the grants reveals a major deception by the group, which for years denied it was getting any..

" The Egyptian Foreign Ministry recently ordered two US non- governmental organisations -- the International Republican Institute (IRI) and its twin, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) -- to halt their activities in Egypt until they are licensed. "

"At the same time, the separate Iran Syria Operations Group was established
to plot a more aggressive democracy promotion strategy for those two "rogue"
states."

"The principal argument is that the main and direct causes of the colour revolutions were United States foreign-policy interests ..."